AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.

From the Christian Herald. Quarterly Extracts, published by the American Bible Society, in Aug. 1818.

ALREADY has the American Bible Society begun to occupy a station among the great Bible Establishments in Christendom, which are an ornament and a blessing to the nations which gave them birth. The increasing resources of this Institution, and the comparative importance of its operations, are already exciting an interest which it is essential to keep alive and to cherish. To communicate to the public more frequent and extensive information of its proceedings, of the patronage which it continues to receive, the contributions to its funds, and the good opinion entertained of it by those societies or individuals who are disposed to second its views and aid its efforts, appears to be a duty incumbent on those to whom the direction of its concerns has been intrusted. The Managers of this Society are also persuaded, that a more copious diffusion of intelligence relating to the progress of the Bible cause, derived from foreignas well as domestic sources, would tend to awaken and interest the public feeling in its favour, and stimulate to more active exertions in promoting it. American Christians, being more generally informed of the extensive, and successful operations of kindred Institutions in other parts of the world, will feel an additional encouragement to aid their own Na

tional Society, whose labours are di rected to the accomplishment of the same grand and beneficent designs.

Under these impressions, the Board have ordered, that a Publication be issued every three months, which is to contain

1st. An account of such measures adopted by the Board during the preceding quarter as it may be expedient to publish :

2d. An account of the contributions to the funds of the Society:

3d. Extracts from the Reports and Correspondence of Auxiliary Societies :

4th. Such parts of the publications of the British and Foreign, and other Bible Societies, as it may be deemed useful to insert therein.

The concentration under the same roof of the mechanical operations carried on for the Society, has greatly facilitated the systematic conducting of its business. But though the number of presses employed in printing the Bibles has been increased, the demand for the sacred volume has considerably exceeded the means of supplying it. Ten presses are now in operation for the Society, and one or two more will be added as soon as they can be procured.

The following copies of the Scriptures have been printed for the Soci ety during the last 4 months. 2,000 Octavo Bibles, 4,000 Duodecimo Brevier do. 2,000 do. Minion do. 2,200 Octavo New Testaments, 2,500 Brevier do.

The

The Eighth Anniversary of the New-Jersey Bible Society was held at Burlington on Tuesday last. venerable President, Dr. Elias Boudinot opened the business of the meeting with an Address. The Annual Report was then read; and interesting and impressive Addresses where delivered by the Rev. Dr. Wharton, of Burlington, and the Rev. Dr. Green and the Rev. Dr. Miller of Princeton. A resolution was unanimously adopted by the Society, recommending the establishment of Bible Associations in every city and town in the State.-N. Y. Spectator.

HILLSBORO' COUNTY N. H. BIBLE AND

CHARITABLE SOCIETY,

Held its annual meeting at Hopkinton, on the 2d inst. In the forenoon a public discourse was delivered at the meeting-house; after which the Report of the Directors was read to the Society, which exhibited its affairs as in a prosperous condition, and gave evidence of increasing attention to its interests. There ap

By the Report of the Treasurer, it appears there were upwards of 300 members, and that there have been received, from members and donors, above 600 dollars for the different objects of the Society. From 17 towns, from which only returns have been made, above 650 dollars have been paid in. There are 21 other towns in the county. If these towns had contributed in the same ratio with the others, the amount would have exceeded 1300 dollars.

Amherst Cabinet.

PHILANTHROPY TOWARDS THE IN

DIANS.

From the Am. D. Advertiser. THERE is nothing. more gratifying to the Philanthropist and the Christian, than to contemplate the march of civilization and the spread of pure and undefiled religion. Between the enjoyments and prospects of the savage, and those of man on whom the light of revelation has beamed its mild and benignant lustre, there is indeed an indescribable contrast.-The former is surrounded by a fearful gloom which nature can never penetrate, and enchained by destructive superstitions; while the path of the latter through life and his prospects of futurity are gilded by a ray of divinity. These are common place observations, but relate to things of unutterable importance.

We have on our frontiers and even within our own territories, many of the aborigines of this continent, who are still groping in worse than Egyptian darkness. It becomes the American people individually and nationally, instead of “exterminating

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them," to do them all the good they can, as a small atonement for the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of the whites.* It has pleased Divine Providence to accept the comparatively insignificant agency of his creatures in promoting the great cause of virtue and righteousness in the earth, and this agency can in nothing be more efficiently exerted than in the dissemination of truth. The contest among those engaged in this great work should be to convey simple and perspicuous views of the fundamental, easily comprehended principles of the Gospel, and not to gain converts to any particular sect. Several religious societies, with a zeal truly laudable, have exerted themselves to ameliorate their condition and some of these exertions have been crowned with great success. The introduction of schools among them is calculated most essentially to promote the diffusion of useful knowledge; it tends to remove the soURCE of ignorance and error. Let those who have been active in this great cause, take courage and continue their important labours. The cloud which for some time appeared no bigger than a man's hand," is increasing and will continue to augment, till it shall descend in copious and refreshing showers. Those who consider the attempts to civilize this race of men as hopeless, are invited to peruse the following short, unexaggerated description of one of their tribes, visited a few weeks since by the writer of this article.

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The village of Tuscarora tribe of Indians is situate about three miles to the eastward of Lewiston, in the neighbourhood of the falls of Niagara; the tribe consists of about 300. They

hold a considerable body of land in this place and cultivate it extremely well. Their fields of wheat and Indian corn are nearly as good as those of the whites, and they are surrounded with most of the comforts of civilization. There is a missionary residing here, the Rev. Mr CRANE, from New-York, who is much and deseryedly beloved by them.-They have a school conducted on the Lancasterian plan, and the proficiency of the children in the elementary branches of knowledge is alike creditable to their teacher and themselves. Public worship is regularly kept up and generally well attended.

The writer of this, can, with truth, acknowledge, that few incidents of his life will be recollected with more pleasure, than his visit to the church of the Tuscarora Indians. The respectability, neatness and comfort, of their appearance, and the solemnity of devotional feeling, the devotion of the heart, which apparently pervaded the audience, furnished, indeed, a most delightful spectacle. There was no symptom of indecorum of conduct in one of the natives present, but all their behaviour became the place and occasion. To behold those who had been accustomed to every idolatry, and the evils connected with it, worshipping the only true God, and partaking of the consolations of genuine religion, furnished to the mind, in an eminent degree, pure and unalloyed delight. The Throne

of Grace was addressed in humble, fervid terms, by the minister, and though the human heart is known only to Him who formed it; yet, if the poor Indians did not most devoutly join in the public prayer, appearances can in no instance be relied on. After which, a number of them rose & sung a hymn by note, in their native language, with great effect. It was a translation of an English hymn, set to the same music as the original. venerable Indian then took his stand by the side of the minister, and rendered his sermon into Indian,sentence by sentence. Their general charac ter in the neighbourhood is good, and their observance of the Sabbath, (in which the whites furnish them a bad example,) is truly commendable

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We took our leave of these interesting natives with feelings not easily described, and with wishes for their welfare at once ardent and sincere. In their journeyings through a world of sorrow, may they be protected and supported by Divine Providence, and solaced by the friendship of Christian friends; and when they bid adieu to terrestrial things, may they join the wise and good of all nations, in the eternal fruition of happiness beyond the grave.

From this conclusive evidence of the effects of culture on the savage mind, the friends of humanity may anticipate the fulfilment of the following prediction, made by a poet,† who, in point of original genius, is decidedly the first of the present age; "Ou Erie's banks, where tygers steal along,

And the dread Indian chants a dis

conditions they surrendered themselves prisoners.]

A 2d letter, dated Fort Claiborne, July 23d, says:

"It appears that Capt. Boyle, in his excursion to the Perdido a few days since, took several prisoners, five of whom were sent to this place, and put in the jail. The Sheriff conceiving that the civil authority had nothing to do with them, ordered them to be sent to Montgomery. Four men volunteered to guard them. The guard bound the prisoners, and set out from this place this morning. After being absent about three hours, the guard returned, and reported, that they had been attacked by a party in the woods, where they had stopped to get water :-That the party ordered them to retreat, and immediately after sixteen or eighteen guns were discharged at the prisoners, and that one of the guard had musket balls shot through his clothes.

"Some of our citizens this evening went to the fatal spot, where they found the five Indians lying dead, within eight yards of each other.This is a bloody transaction, and stained with so much inhumanity, that I blush to think it was an act perpetrated among a people who have justly boasted of their humanity, and their strict observance of the rules of

war."

HORRID COMMERCE IN A LAND OF

FREEDOM.

In the last Number was given a considerable part of an Oration delivered by Mr. Tyson before the "Protection Society of Maryland.” The need of such a society on a large scale will be evident from the following Articles :—

SLAVERY.

Notwithstanding all the fine phrased speeches which we have so often heard uttered against the abominable practice of enslaving the black population of the world; notwithstanding the laws which have been enacted in this land of freedom to abolish this wicked custom, still even here it exists in all its native deformity. Scarcely a mail arrives that does not furnish some new account of outrages com mitted against this proscribed part of

the human family. The ties of nature are broken; the parent, sundered from his offspring, has to Inger out his days in bondage. The moans of his wretchedness mingle with our shouts of LIBERTY, and together they are borne on the wings of the wind to distant nations, who do not fail of contrasting our professions of freedom with our works which produce slavery. Of late, the practice of kidnapping free Blacks for the purpose of transporting them to the south, to be sold as slaves, has become so frequent that the accounts of these outrages are passed over with all the sang froid imaginable. It is but rare that the perpetrators of this horrid crime are brought to punishment. The tempt

ations held out to the avaricious are so strong that an occasional exemplary sentence does not deter others "from pursuing the same course to amass wealth. The punishment for kidnapping ought to be DEATH, if any crime under Heaven ought to be thus punished.-Imprisonment for life certainly ought to be inflicted. As the law now stands, it is a mere dead letter. If it is enforced it does not destroy SLAVERY. It merely perverts the price of HUMAN BLOOD from the coffers of the speculator to those of the government. The law which authorises blacks to be sold for the benefit of the government, is a black page in our statute books that ought to be expunged. What! shall it be said that a nation, whose government is based on freedom, deals in human flesh with as little feeling as a jockey does in horses or horned cattle? Such is the fact, and a most disgraceful one it is too. Why not at once rather decapitate or imprison the wretches who have brought these forlorn beings into bondage, and send the miserable blacks hence to the homes from whence they were purloined.

Who

can read the following and not shudder at the depravity of human nature?

contains the names of no less than eight vessels from the Atlantic states, which have entered at that port within a short time, with three hundred and seventeen slaves. Now and then a seizure is made, and the slaves are sold for the benefit of the United States. But let me ask, how does this better their condition? They are slaves still; and it is an even chance that they fall into the hands of a more cruel task master than the one who first tore them from their friends and families, and landed them on our shores. One hundred and thirtynine of these poor, ill-fated human beings, some sick and some well, are advertised for sale to the highest bidder, in one lot. Read the following description of them, and thank the Almighty that he did not make the colour of your skin black.-Post. AFRICAN NEGROES FOR SALE." ***WILL be exposed for sale, for cash, at the Sheriff's office, on Monday, the 20th of July,at eleven o'clock in the morning, 139 Negroes-to wit, 27 men, 46 boys, 43 women, and 2 infants, and 21 girls, fifteen of whom are sick, delivered to me by B. Chew, E. Lorrain, and W. Emerson, Esq'rs, agreeable to the act entitled " an act respecting slaves; imported into this state in violation of the act of Congress of the United States, approved on the 2d of March, 1807," and adjudged by the district court of the United States for the Louisiana district, to have been illegally imported in the brig Josefa 2d.

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George W. Morgan, Shff. New Orleans, July 10.-Albany Register.

SLAVE TRADE.