and a distillery; the latter, as usual, layers of tinsel, that made a gingling sands. Feb. 19. My host and his wife declared their determination, this morning, to serve the Lord, whatever others might do, and as I have promised to make another visit next year, they will return with me, they say, to Matamyo. The villagers showed me the way to a few Karen houses on the Charawa, a considerable stream that comes in from the east, and down which the Siamese used to make inroads on the inhabitants below. Here I was glad to find two of our company, who had been separated from us about ten days, on a preaching excursion. They report favorably of the neighborhoods they have visited; in many of which, the people are anxious to have schools established among them. Here is an individual, who unites in himself the character of both prophet and necromancer. I found the whole neighborhood assembled in his zayat, and the great man himself reclining in a raised apartment between two rows of peacock's feathers. I was soon informed that this prophet, as a proof that he was sent of God, had received a book from heaven which they worshipped, and the people requested him to show it to me, as I might, perhaps, be able to read it. With some reluctance, he produced a small piece of wood about two inches long, and one and a half broad, with a short handle, and wrapped in several Wheelwright, Monk-house, Winter & Brooker, London. In fact, it was a card of a London Firm, which had by some unknown means found its way here. As the result of this day's labors, two men, out of a dozen, profess to believe the Gospel and request baptism. It is exceedingly discouraging to leave such persons without any opportunities for receiving instruction, yet leave them I must. To-morrow we move down the Tenasserim again, which for two or three days' journey below is without an inhabitant. 22. We did not reach inhabitants last evening as we expected; but rain coming on, I determined to keep on the raft, as it was impossible to find shelter on the shore; so we kept driving on amid the wind and rain, now in the dark washing over a sand bank, and anon among the rocks and snags and sawyers with which the river abounds. Finally, we found the remains of a raft near the shore, and then felt our way through the bushes to an old house, deserted of its inhabitants, in which we lay down to sleep. The morning showed us no signs of living beings, so we took breakfast and moved on; and about a mile further on, we found a boat, and then a path which led us to a house. The people listened with interest to the gospel, asked many pertinent questions, said they had no wish to make offerings to Nats, and finally volunteered their services, to go down and show me the next house which, they said, was a day's journey below. Accordingly I came down here towed by their boat. The people manifest much interest in the Gospel. After worship to-night the leading man said, on being ques-person that is injured, bear all that tioned, "I see no way to avoid be- is inflicted upon him without returnlieving it. No other law carries ing evil. Let no one envy another, with it the evidence of truth hat or covet another's goods." He says, this does." He said he was in the as might be anticipated, that they do habit of praying to both God and the not worship idols, although those Nats. I asked him what he said, that dwell in towns frequently con"I say to God," replied he, “ O God, form to the Boodhists and pay thou hast created all things, then homage to them. They all drink watch over and preserve what thou spirituous liquor, and their religion hast formed." To the Nats I say, does not forbid it. They kill and "O Thegya, preserve me from sick-eat animals of every description, exness and affliction of every description; suffer them not to come near 66 me." Religion of Laos. 66 cept the turtle; and have received permission, they say, so to do from God, as in the following tradition that he repeated. "In ancient time God pretended to die, when animals of every description, except the turtle, came and mourned for him. When God manifested himself again, he said, Eat not the turtle; of all other animals eat without sin, but it is sin to eat the turtle." There is a manifest coincidence between this and a Karen tradition, a fragment of which, in my Karen scrap book runs thus: "God about to die gave commands, gave commands, God about to go away gave commands, He commanded, sun go mourning, Here are one or two natives of Laos settled among the Karens. One was at worship to night, and as he can speak Karen, I have had a long conference with him, on the subject of the religion of that tribe. He says they worship the God that made the heavens and the earth, whom they call H'tein, the Chinese name for God. Once a year they sacrifice to him two buffaloes, a black one and a white one, with prayers and ceremonies. The persons that make the sacrifice are their teachers of religion-their priests. They observe the times of new and full moon, as we do the Sabbath. They 23. The appearance of the peorefrain from work and travelling, but ple here is quite encouraging. They not from eating as do the Boodhists. pretty universally promise to abanTheir ideas of the omnipresence of don Nat worship and drink. A woGod, may be gathered from the fol- man at worship this evening, who lowing tradition which he repeated. has a drunken husband, almost swore "In ancient times men ate the tur-after it closed, that she would never tle, and devoured them in such great make him any more drink.* numbers, that they (i. e. the turtles) ever I make any more," said she, went and besought God, who, (as a "from this time of hearing the teachpunishment to men for their gluttony) er, may I die." The folks say, that covered up men's eyes; so, that al- they hope I will visit them next year, though God is ever near us, no one and baptize them; and that they will can see him." The man has as build a zayat for me. good a system of mere morality in his head, as I can teach him. Isuspect, however, that he has got some of his morality from the Karens. He 24. After promising to visit them repeated a number of command-again next year, and administering ments, coinciding with scripture medicine as usual to the sick, I morality, among which were the pushed off; but not without an following: "Pray to God day and night continually." "Let men love each other unfeignedly; and let a "If Interesting Interview with a Karen Teacher. * The women make all the spirituous liquor among the Karens. escort of the people in a canoe. On the way, we met with a religious teacher and his wife, who live in the neighborhood. They begged us to stop; but after a little conversation they concluded to return, and started on before us. On reaching his house, where I now am, we found every thing prepared for us, in the very first of Karen style, with their garments spread on the floor, for me to walk upon from one room to another. While listening to the reading of the View in Karen, he occasionally exclaimed, "The Lord," "The Lord," "The Lord." He has built an addition to his house as a place of worship, and himself and such of his neighbors as are disposed, assemble every night to worship, where they pray and sing hymns. In his place of worship, I found a shrine surrounded with something resembling a Chinese pagoda, and many ridiculous ornaments. I told him these things were not proper. "Well, then," said he, "I will destroy them if you say they are wrong. I made them through ignorance, not knowing what was proper. I have been long living in hopes, that I should see a teacher among us, and now you have come, I am determined to do as you say." Accordingly I have seen his temple cleared, until it would do for a Quaker conventicle. The people around us appear determined to enrol themselves as Christians, but the old man says, he fears the men will drink, and the women scold, after all. A man that lives in an adjacent house has just been begging a book, and expressing his determination to live as its requirements demand. 25. I was awaked in the middle of the night, by the singing of some women in the next room. I caught a few verses. "If we know the Lord Jesus Christ Christ Is delivered from his sins; No other God should be worshipped; No other God shall be worshipped; We came to the house of the head man at Tsau-thrau. He says he saw br. Wade in Mergui, and that he believes, but he does not practise accordingly. After this, we moved down a few miles to a comfortable zayat, near which are two Karen houses. The head man has sent us down his boat, as he fears the alligators will take us off our little rafts, for they occasionally take people out of the boats. An instance of this kind occurred a few weeks ago, wherein a Burman man was devoured by one that came into his boat, while he was asleep, waiting for the turn of the tide. It deserves to be remarked, that the Burmans would see us all devoured by alligators before they would offer to lend us a boat, with men to take it back again free of expense, as this Karen has done. Tenasserim. 26. Noon found us in this ancient city, which is situated on a narrow peninsula, formed by the confluence of the "Little River," and the Tenasserim. Its dilapidated walls, several miles in circumference, still exist, to indicate something of its former importance. Little of its history however, is known, more than that it was built by the Siamese, and was a very populous and busy city many centuries before the existence of Mergui. The present population, consists of a few hundred inhabitants, who, like the city, appear to belong to a former generation; and the whole strikingly resembles an old French town in the valley of the Mississippi. It is the very empire of dulness, and we failed in our attempts to gain any attention to the Gospel. at made, as well as liquor; concerning which an intoxicating an old traveller, who was here in 1565, says, "The greatest merchandise Mirgrim, is Nyppa, which is an excellent wine, that is made of the flower of a tree called Nyppa, whose liquor they distil, and so make an excellent drink, clear as crystal, good to the mouth, and better to the stomach." The soldiers are constantly intoxicated by this "excellent wine," whenever by any means they can obtain it, to the ruin of both soul and body. One was drowned here, three or four days since, by the upsetting of a canoe, while in a state of intoxication. I was surprised, in the afternoon, by the arrival of Capt. Leslie, the Governor of the province, who, it appears, is going to visit a Siamese settlement up the Little River, forming by emigrants from Siam. He tells me that there is a Siamese town of nearly a thousand inhabitants, near the southern boundary of the province, on the sea-coast-would not this be an eligible situation for a Siamese missionary?) He gave me at parting a pressing invitation to make his house at Mergui my home, during my stay there, and has just sent me a note ordering the person Immediately on my arrival I sought in charge of his house to receive me, out Ko Ing, but he gives a discourand provide for me as for himself. aging view of the place, so far as reMissionaries have so often cause to ligion is concerned. He had incomplain of those in authority, that tended to return to Tavoy about a the uniform kindness those in Bur-month ago, but a woman here afmah have experienced, deserves to forded him some encouragement, which he interpreted as an indication that it was his duty to stay. The Karen settlement br. Wade visited, lies on the north side of the island; but the people have gone back to Nat worship, Ko Ing says, worse than ever; so I shall not turn aside to visit them at present, but return to Tavoy by land, on the west side of the mountains, among which several Karen settlements remain unvisited. be noted. Mergui. March 1. Between Tenasserim and this place, we visited one or two villages, that afford nothing worthy of particular remark. The Karens, however, pressingly requested me to come again. The tide serving in the night, we got down here about sunrise. The bamboo houses, scattered amid a grove of cocoa nut trees, give the place a most oriental ap- 2. Besides Ko Ing, his family, pearance, while good broad streets, and a Burman woman that br. Wade intersecting each other at right an- baptized, who adorns her profession, gles, seem to indicate more than we had two or three persons at wororiental civilization. The town ship to-day, who afford some enstands on the top and sides of a hill couragement, in having abandoned that rises from the water's edge, be-idol worship, and being favorably tween one and two hundred feet inclined to the truth. high, and is by far the pleasantest town I have seen in India. On the south and west side, it is shut in by a labyrinth of islands, on the north-clined to religion. west is the open sea, but still diversified by lofty mountainous islands, while the blue mountains on the north-east probably stretch up in one continuous range to the Himmalahs. The low swampy ground on the south-east, produces the Nipapalm, from which a coarse sugar is I dined with the military commandant and his lady, who are very pleasant people, and favorably in turned from a visit to Europe, and He lately resays the Directors of the East India Company are, in heart, as much opposed to the admission of missionaries into their territories as ever; arguing that when the people are enlightened, they will throw off the yoke of their English masters. The pay of the Governor of their provinces is three hundred and fifty times more than the wages of the best native carpenters, and that of the Governor General, is two thousand five hundred times more; while the pay of the President of the United States, is not fifty times more than the wages of a mechanic. They have certainly reason then for their apprehensions; for what enlightened people will pay such enormous salaries? It is to be lamented, however, that the Government of the most enlightened, most liberal, and most Christian people in Europe depends alone, for its stability, on ignorance, superstition and oppres sion. This gentleman imagines that the want of an established religion in America, must produce an immense number of sects; and I find this idea cherished in a religious periodical in India, which ought to know better. The Editor comes forth like "Katterfelta, with his hair on end with the astounding announcement, States." their religion, it being interwoven with their first thoughts and feelings, that the converts would often relapse into idolatry, while the fact is, that of more than one hundred and fifty Burmans that have been baptized in the mission, I believe not one has ever been excluded or suspended for idolatry. The few exclusions that have occurred, have been not for idolatrous, but for immoral practices. This fact shows, that man's attachment to idolatry is not so strong as his attachment to his passions; and as subduing the latter is a prerequisite to admission to the church every where, what fears have we to entertain for the conversion of the world? If the Spirit of God is constantly overcoming the greater, what insurmountable difficulty can be offered by the less! Tha Mok. 3. Mergui is situated in such a labyrinth of islands, it was with hard struggling all day, that we have at last reached the main land. An old man, on my asking him if he had ever heard of the Christian religion before, said he had heard his children speak of it, when they came from Mergui. And what did they say, I asked. "They said," he replied, "the person that enters commits a great sin." A few persons Boka, said to be half a day's journey 4. We started this morning for distant, and after walking from sun Now it is but a few years ago, since I saw the notice of a Catholic priest, somewhere in the United were at worship, but the old man Kingdom, enumerating more than shook his head and said, "The Burtwo hundred different sects of prot-mans, sir, will never believe." estants, as an argument against protestantism. This argument then is about twelve times stronger in favor of making that establishment popery. The fact, however, is most striking. Amid all the persecution to which heretics and dissenters have been subjected in Europe, more than two hundred sects have arisen while in America, where religion is without constraint, those interested ; rise till the stars looked us in the face, every man ready to drop down with fatigue, and one in a fever, we threw ourselves down here, we know not where, further than that it is the Karen jungle, having passed two old houses. The worst of the matter is, Three we have nothing to eat. in making them as numerous as pos-in search of a house, but though men pushed on, without their loads, sible, are able to enumerate nine- teen only. several hours ago, we have not heard from them. I had occasion to correct another error. My company thought that the Burmans were so attached to Plai Creek. 5. After sunrise, the three men |