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CHARACTER OF MORRISON'S MISSION.

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object of acquiring the language; when this is done, you may probably soon afterwards begin to turn this attainment into a direction which may be of extensive use to the world: perhaps you may have the honor of forming a Chinese dictionary, more comprehensive and correct than any preceding one; or the still greater honor of translating the sacred Scriptures into a language spoken by a third part of the human race." The enterprise thus committed to the hands of a single individual was only part of a system, which neither the projectors nor their collaborator supposed would end there. They knew that the great work of evangelizing and elevating a mass of mind like that using the Chinese language, required large preparatory labors, of which those here mentioned were among the most important. Moreover, China was a sealed country when Morrison landed on its shores, and he could not have forced his way into it if he had tried, with any prospect of ultimate success, even by adopting the same plans which Ricci did. It is doubtful if he could have lived there at all if it had not been for the protection of the East India Company. After all his toil, and faith, and prayer, he only saw three or four - converts, no churches, schools, or congregations publicly assembled; but his last letter breathes the same desires as when he first went out. "I wait patiently the events to be developed in the course of Divine Providence. The Lord reigneth. If the kingdom of God our Savior prosper in China, all will be well: other matters are comparatively of small importance." These events have begun to be rapidly developed since his death, and his labors and influence in the furtherance of this kingdom by no means ceased with his death.

Protestant missions among the Chinese migrants in Malacca, Penang, Singapore, Rhio, Borneo, and Batavia, have never taken. much hold upon them, and they are at present all suspended or abandoned. The first was established at Malacca, in 1815, by Mr. Milne, and was conducted with the most efficiency and for the longest period, though, the labors at the other points have been carried on with zeal and a degree of success, but the number of converts is not definitely known. The comparatively small results which have attended all these missions may be ascribed to two or three reasons, which have been found to operate with more or less effect in all of them. The Chinese residing in these settlements consist chiefly of emigrants who have fled or left their

native countries, in all cases without their families, to avoid the justice or oppression of their rulers, or to gain a livelihood they cannot find at home. Consequently they lead a roving life; few of them marry or settle down in the countries where they stop and become valuable citizens; and fewer still are sufficiently educated to relish or care for instruction or books. These communities are much troubled by branches of the Triad Society, and the unsettled habits of the Malays are congenial to most of the emigrants who come among them. The Chinese, coming as they do from different parts of their own land, speak different dialects, and soon learn the Malay language as a lingua franca; their children also learn it still more thoroughly from their mothers, notwithstanding the education their fathers give them in Chinese. The great want of fixedness in the Chinese population in these settlements, therefore, partly accounts for the little permanent impression made on it by missionary efforts.

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Great preparations were made at Malacca for printing books and teaching schools; the printing office was well supplied with type and block-cutters, and large editions of Bibles and tracts issued from it during most of the years it was in operation. school was commenced immediately on Mr. Milne's settlement, and every branch of labor rendered as efficient as his means enabled him. A higher institution, called the Anglo-Chinese College, was founded in 1818 by Dr. Morrison, assisted by other friends of religion, the objects of which were to afford Europeans the means of acquiring the Chinese language, and enable Chinese to become acquainted with the religion and science of the west. Dr. Morrison gave in all more than £2,000 to this en. terprise from his own resources, and the East India Company's factory in China assisted it with an annual grant of $1,000 for many years; the English authorities on the spot gave the land, and all those in the region who felt an interest in the progress of missions assisted. Dr. Milne was the first principal, and after his death was succeeded by Rev. David Collie, on whose death in 1827, Mr. Kidd took charge of the institution, until his return to England in 1832. Mr. Tomlin then conducted it until Mr. Evans arrived in 1833; and he dying of cholera in 1841, was succeeded by James Legge, D. D., under whose superintendence both it and the mission were removed to China in 1844, and the buildings sold. The Anglo-Chinese College was productive of

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good during its existence, and about seventy persons were baptized in Malacca while the mission remained there, most of whom gave good evidence of a change of heart; and about fifty students finished their education, part of whom were sincere Christians, and all of them respectable members of society. Three or four of the converts have become preachers. It may be questioned, however, whether the name and array of a college was not too far in advance of the people among whom it was situated, and whether the efforts made in it would not have been better expended in establishing common schools among the people, in which Christianity and knowledge went hand in hand. It is far better among an ignorant pagan people that a hundred persons should know one thing, than that one man should know a hundred; the widest diffusion of the first elements of religion and science is most desirable. The mission at Malacca was not, however, large enough at any one time for its members to superintend many common schools. Among the books issued from the press there, besides Bibles and tracts, were a periodical, called the Indo-Chinese Gleaner, edited by Dr. Milne, a translation of the Four Books by Mr. Collie, an edition of Prémare's Notitia Linguæ Sinicæ, a life of Milne, and a volume of sermons by Dr. Morrison. The number of volumes printed in Chinese was about half a million.

The mission at Georgetown in the island of Penang, like that at Malacca, was under the care of the London Missionary Society during the whole of its existence. It was established in 1819 by Mr. Medhurst, but he did little more than distribute tracts and preach for a short time, and make some arrangements for the establishment of schools, while Messrs. Beighton and Ince, who arrived in the same year to reinforce the Malay and Chinese missions, made a beginning. The mission continued from that time till 1843 to be supplied with missionaries, at which time it was suspended. Two or three Chinese, and six Malay schools were kept up during most of this period, some of which were assisted by the English government. In 1836, the number of baptized Malays and Chinese amounted to thirteen.

The mission among the Chinese at Singapore was commenced in 1819 by Mr. Milton; the colonial government granted a lot, and a chapel and other buildings were erected in the course of a few years. Messrs. Smith and Tomlin came to the settlement in

1827, but did not remain long, the former retiring to England on account of ill health, and Mr. Tomlin taking charge of the college at Malacca, left vacant by the departure of Mr. Kidd. Mr. Gutzlaff came over from the Dutch settlement at Rhio, but did not remain long enough to effect anything; nor did Mr. Abeel, who came from China in 1831, and left soon after for Siam. The German missionary at this station, Mr. Thomsen, when about to leave in 1834, sold his printing apparatus to the American mission newly established there by Mr. Tracy. The prospects in China appearing unpromising at this time, it was designed by the directors of the American society to establish a large mission, to consist of a well regulated school for both Chinese and Malays, which was by degrees to become a seminary, and as many primary schools as there were means to support; besides the usual labors in preaching and visiting, a type-foundry and printing-office for manufacturing books in Chinese, Malay, Bugís, and Siamese, were also contemplated. In December, 1834, Mr. Tracy was joined by the Rev. P. Parker, M. D., who opened a hospital in the Chinese part of the town for the gratuitous distribution of medicine and medical aid; books were also given to the patients, and explanations of their meaning as far as the time permitted. In 1835, Mr. Wolfe arrived from England, and two years afterward, Rev. Messrs. Dickinson, Hope, and Travelli, and Mr. North from the United States, to take charge of the schools and printing-office. The school established by the American mission was carried on with encouraging success by various members until 1844, when the mission was removed to China, and the Malay portion of it given up.

The English mission, after the death of Mr. Wolfe in 1837, was under the care of Messrs. Dyer and Stronach, the former of whom had removed there from Penang and Malacca. Mr. Dyer had been for many years engaged in preparing steel punches for a font of movable Chinese type, and his patient labors had already overcome the principal difficulties in the way, when the work was arrested by his death in 1843. He had, however, finished matrices for so many characters that the font has gone into partial operation, and the experiment has fully proved the cheapness and superiority of metallic type over blocks or lithography. Mr. Dyer labored nearly seventeen years in the cause of Christ among the Chinese with a consecration of energy and singleness of pur

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pose seldom exceeded, and won the affectionate respect of the natives wherever he lived. The mission was continued by Rev. A. Stronach in the Chinese department, and B. P. Keeseberry in the Malay, until 1845, when the former was suspended, and the printing and type-founding establishment removed to China.

The American mission among the Chinese in Borneo has been subject to so many opposing obstacles, both external and internal, that it can hardly be said to have been established at all so far as to exert any effects upon the people. The Chinese on Borneo are engaged for the most part in mining, and being superior in industry to the Malays and Dayaks around them, though by no means patterns of thrift and good order themselves, are the object of suspicion and dread, and live in small communities subject to their own rulers, scattered over the mining districts in the interior. Messrs. Doty and Pohlman went to Pontianak in 1838 to labor among the Chinese, accompanied by three or four fellowlaborers for the Dayaks, but in consequence of the greater demands of the field at Amoy, they gave up their part of the mission in 1844, and removed to China.

The mission to the Chinese in Java was commenced by Mr. Slater in 1819, and reinforced in 1822 by Mr Medhurst, who continued in charge of it, with some interruptions, while travelling in the Archipelago and on the coast of China, and a visit to England, until 1843, when he left the island and removed to China. The account of the various efforts made by him to diffuse a knowledge of the gospel among the Chinese and Malays, as given in his work on China, exhibits a series of endeavors to interest the heathen in the great truths of Christianity that leaves them without excuse. The mission was not confined to Batavia, and, during his residence in the island, he took several tours, for the purpose of distributing books, and teaching gospel truth as he had opportunity.

Mr. Medhurst mentions one village near Batavia, called Depok, inhabited by native Christians, whose origin deserves to be again mentioned, it is so praiseworthy and so rare. "More than a century ago, a Dutch gentleman, named Chasterling, having an estate about six miles long by two wide, cultivated entirely by slaves, proposed to liberate them and make them a present of the land, if they would consent to be instructed, and on a profession of their faith, baptized. In compliance with this part of the pro

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