4. Lord's-day. Had a very interesting inquirer at worship. He has been reading the scriptures and tracts for some time past. Though he has appeared well for a month past, yet I have not ventured a hope that the truth found a place in his heart till now. Many who read, appear only to receive a transient impression. They sit down to the work rather as curious than as earnest inquirers, and imagine that they are examining what is suited to the views and wants of a distant nation, and not truths embracing the best interests of mankind. The result is this; a good impression is left in favor of this new religion, but it is only an impression, and like the morning cloud soon passes away. It is true, Burmans are inquisitive, but it is more to gratify an ardent curiosity, than to enlarge the field of rational thought. They are certainly a talking, but not a thinking people. Their debates among themselves, never terminate, just because they never have an end in view, and their reasoning is more about the way of coming to a subject, than about the subject itself.

10. Among other visiters to-day, were three fine looking men from a town near the borders of Kathay. They came to Ava, to bring tribute, and inquired the way to our house, for the purpose of getting religious books, about which they said they had heard a great deal. We gave each two tracts and a copy of Luke and John, for which they expressed gratitude, a feeling not common to Burmans. To religious conversation they listened with fixed attention. They live about one hundred and fifty miles up the Cheen-dwen river, which discharges its waters into the Irrawaddy forty miles below Ava.

11. Lord's-day morning, at worship, Moung Bong, mentioned on the 4th, took his seat among the native brethren, and not only listened, but several times expressed his approbation aloud. After services were closed, he said he loved Christ and his gospel, took delight in prayer, and wished to be baptized. I gave him several chapters, and told him he should read them over with care, and seek earnestly for divine direction.

18. Lord's-day morning, Moung Bong made his appearance, gave all attention to the discourse, and after worship spoke feelingly of his hope in Christ. He appears really to be redeemed from the worship of idols to the service of the living God.

24. For several days past, we have had a good many comers and goers, inost of whom appeared to be actuated by motives of curiosity. Bread has been cast upon the water, and may we not hope to gather some fruit in time to come?

26. A multitude at the house, mostly people of the city. We gave away about one hundred books and tracts. Fatal Epidemic-Burmese Fortune-teller.

31. Sabbath morning. For three days I have been down with fever, and was only just able to gather strength enough to preach to my little flock. A sweeping intermittent is abroad, prostrating old and young. The Burmans have no knowledge of fevers, and of course many die. October and November are the months for fevers; the extreme of heat gives way, the nights become cold, the mornings damp and foggy, and the whole atmosphere is charged with miasma. In July and August, the whole country is inundated; in September and October the waters drain off, so that the damp marshy exhalations poison every particle of air, and being so far from the ocean we have no sea breezes to neutralize and disperse it.

November 1. Several at the house, some to get books, and others medicine.

4. Having procured a boat last evening, we set off for Ummerapoora before sunrise. Passed through several streets crowded with Burmans, and one inhabited by Chinese. In a Burman temple of great dimensions we found a multitude of worshippers, and in a conspicuous part of the building sat a fortuneteller, making his mystic figures, and reading off the destiny of his silly employers. Nothing could exceed the intense earnestness of these persons listening to the unrevealed page of their future history. The man was well instructed in the art of deceiving; his manner grave; his intonations sonorous; his eyes constantly rolling from side to side, and his hand occasionally describing mysterious figures in the air. I questioned him about his art, and he boldly asserted that he was revealing to people the events of their future life. I charged him with base deception, and that he was swindling ignorant, stupid people out of their money, and in the end of the world would reap the reward of a vile deceiver. He looked at me with a vacant stare, but made no reply. This class

my replies. The boys of the school were as impudent as he was stupid. In the village an intelligent man, and ten or fifteen others, gathered around, asked many interesting questions, and listened with apparent attention for an hour. After supplying the people with books, we dined at sunset, and commending ourselves, our families, and the benighted Burmans to God, we lay down in our boat, with unusual quiet, to rest. At one in the morning, the tide favoring, we rowed forward. Hastened, if possible, to reach Maulone, but it being back from the shore we missed it. At sunrise gave a few tracts at a small village, and at ten breakfasted on pork and eggs, bread and butter, and excellent Chinese honey. No house near. Here we lay till 3, P. M. Saw several monstrous alligators floating along the stream near, and several fine looking wild hogs on the bank. At three proceeded, supplied several boats with tracts. Rowed till an hour after sunset, and, for want of lamps which we had forgotten, ate dinner at seven by moon-light, and arriving at a small Taling village, six or eight miles from Pegu, lay down in our boat to rest under our clear sky, with a gentle air, neither too cold nor too hot, and slept as quietly as if we had been in the best house in Boston, and with less covering than you needed in Boston on the fifth of December. Saw, this afternoon, twenty-five or thirty alligators, and twice that number of monkies, along the banks.

6. Sabbath morning. Anxious to spend the day at Pegu, we rowed six or eight miles between banks which seem naturally more fertile and better cultivated than any we have before met with in this country. Rice, plantains, beans and corn look finely. Arrived at Pegu at eight in the morning; went directly ashore; passed through the principal street of the new town, which stands on the bank of the river, into the old town, lying half a mile back. We gave tracts, from the boat till we arrived at the pagoda, in the centre of the old town, about a mile and a half, as fast as we could hand them out, and were sometimes obliged to walk very fast to avoid the bustle of the crowd that would gather around and become boisterous for books. This old town of Pegu, was once the capital of the Peguese or Talings. The walls which still remain, overgrown with bushes, are of brick, fifteen or twenty feet high, and enclose a plat

two miles square. The whole is surrounded by a ditch fifteen or sixteen rods wide; the depth we did not definitely ascertain, but saw large buffaloes swimming in it.

Nearly in the centre of the old town stands the great pagoda, a lofty pile. I should judge, that if, as Col. Snodgrass says, the Rangoon pagoda is 365, this must be 300 feet high. The proportions of all the pagodas are much the same. It stands on a platform of brick, about 20 feet high, and wider than the pagoda by about 40 feet on each side. This platform consists of two gradations, upper and lower, on each of which stands an encircling row of small pagodas, the lower row 15 and the upper 20 feet high. Of these we counted 115. In the corners of the square plat on which the pagoda stands, are four more, considerable pagodas. On one side, in an open shed, are perhaps 100 images of Gaudama, of white marble, principally small and mostly gilded. The great pagoda was once gilded half way down, but the gold is now wholly washed away. All that now remains of what was that great and populous town, is one street, thinly peopled, running half way across the square on which the old town stood. We gave in Pegu about 500 tracts. Spent the day there.

7. Gave tracts in a row of villages, which line the banks on each side of the river for three miles above Pegu. At evening returned to Pegu, and at 11 o'clock at night, the tide favoring, we started for home. Gave tracts next day at several villages along the river. Found a few Karens, who exhibited their characteristic readiness to be taught the gospel. Rowed nearly all the night of the 8th, and arrived at Rangoon at 5 o'clock, Wednesday morning. Had the unhappiness to find sister Howard and my little boy very unwell. The child grew more ill till Sunday, when we had little hope of his recovery. We had no medical advice, a trying circumstance in a missionary's life. But, by the blessing of God, and we think we can say in truth, in answer to our prayers, he is again rising to his former strength. Thanks to God for this sparing mercy. I trust this mercy has awakened in our hearts some new sense of our obligations.

Interest of natives in Tracts attributable to curiosity-Opposition to be anticipated.

During this tour we have distributed about 1600 tracts and portions of Scrip

ture. (We had no assistant, and were able to preach but little.) Some reviled, some disputed, but generally they seized the books with great eagerness. We do not mean that the people were thus anxious to receive a knowledge of Christ's salvation. They knew nothing about it, and were prompted therefore by mere curiosity. Yet, unlaudable as such a motive is for the performance of religious duties, in a Christian community, it is less blameworthy here, and neither there nor here, like pride, is wholly without its use where better motives fail. It should be distinctly kept in mind, that although the people often receive our books with great avidity, no heathen nation ever did, and there is no reason to believe they ever will, change their religion without a struggle. Let it not be thought, because they receive books readily, that the contest is nearly over. In such cases it is scarcely begun. It is usual and we may say universal, so far as our observation has extended, both in regard to our own efforts and those of other missionaries, that before the natives know any thing of the nature of Christianity, they readily receive us and the books; but when they understand that it is all against them, that what they call holiness the Scriptures call sin, that what they say is the way to future happiness the Scriptures call the broad way to hell, that the object of their worship we call a man, a mere pretender, their worship an abomination, and their sacred book a falsehood,—their wrath is kindled, a violent opposition ensues, and continues, and often increases until, as sometimes happens, a familiar acquaintance convinces them, in spite of their prejudices, of the superiority of Christianity, or until the heart is subdued to God. Let not the Christians of America, therefore, be disheartened, nor think "that some strange thing has happened," if they hear of opposition and persecution. It certainly will come, before much can be effected for the renovation of this vile kingdom of darkness. Christians should know it, should anticipate it, and only increase their efforts as the opposition increases; for "The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." Amen.

31. Our families are now getting better, and we are preparing to go in a few days on a tour to Bassein, and possibly may go over to Arracan.

Karens.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. WADE,

DATED TAVOY, OCT. 16, 1835.

Karen Dictionary revised and enlarged. Three or four months have elapsed since I last wrote you, during which time I have employed my time almost entirely in the work of revising and enlarging the Karen Dictionary. Ko Chet-thing, with whose help the work was at first undertaken, was brought up among the Taling Karens, as they are sometimes called, on which account his pronunciation varies considerably from that of the tribe of Karens for which the written language has been made. These variations of course crept into the Dictionary, and made a revision necessary. I suppose you have been made acquainted with the fact that the Karens are divided into two great tribes, (called Phwos and Sgaus,) whose languages differ radically from each other. Almost all the Karen Christians at Maulmein, Tavoy, and Rangoon, are Sgaus, and it is the language of this tribe that has been reduced to writing. Ko Chet-thing's father belonged to one tribe and his mother to the other, but he had lived chiefly among the Phwos, so that in speaking the Sgau language he had many Phwo sounds. This circumstance, (of which I was not aware until my return from America,) led us to suppose that there was a material difference between the language of the Sgau Karens at Tavoy, and that of the Sgaus at Maulmein; but we are happy to find the difference is very slight indeed, not greater than exists in different vicinities of our country. I have therefore revised the Dictionary with the aid of a pure Sgau, and enlarged it more than one third. The Karen Dictionary is now just about as extensive as the Burman; though, no doubt, there are many words which still remain to be inserted. Br. Mason and br. Vinton have both taken copies. The insertion of new words had of course confused the alphabetical arrangement of the original copy: br. Vinton in taking a copy restored the arrangement and improved in parts where it was before incomplete: br. Mason and myself recopied from br. Vinton. I rejoice in the accomplishment of this work, not only because we are furnished thereby with a Karen Dictionary, but particularly because it has proved that the language of the