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ing regular services, on shore. In 1835, Mr. Gutzlaff took the office of interpreter to the English commission on a salary of £800, and has since continued in the employ of that government, though he has not altogether given up his former labors.

In 1835, Mr. Medhurst visited China, and assisted by the house of Olyphant & Co., who gave him the use of the vessel, engaged the brig Huron at a cheap rate, in which he embarked in August, 1835, accompanied by Mr. Stevens of the American mission, and furnished with a supply of books. During the three months of the voyage, they "went through various parts of four provinces and many villages, giving away about eighteen thousand volumes, of which six thousand were portions of the Scriptures, amongst a cheerful and willing people, without meeting with the least aggression or injury; having been always received by the people with a cheerful smile, and most generally by the officers with politeness and respect." It is unnecessary to enter into details respecting this voyage, as the account of it in the work of Mr. Medhurst has already made it well known.

The most expensive enterprise for this object was set on foot in 1836, and few efforts to advance the cause of religion among the Chinese have been planned on a scale of greater liberality. The brig Himmaleh was purchased in New York by the firm of Talbot, Olyphant & Co., principally for the purpose of aiding missionaries in circulating religious books on the coasts of China and the neighboring countries, and arrived at Lintin in August, 1836. Mr. Gutzlaff, who was then engaged as interpreter to the English authorities, declined going in her, because in that case he must resign his commission, and there was no other missionary in China acquainted with the dialects spoken on the coast. The brig remained in the Chinese waters, therefore, unemployed, until December, when she was dispatched on a cruise among the islands of the Archipelago under the direction of Mr. Stevens, accompanied by Mr. Lay, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, recently arrived. This decision of Mr. Gutzlaff, who had again and again urged such a measure, and had himself ceased his voyages on the coast because of his implied connexion thereby with the opium trade, was quite unexpected; while, too, the death of Mr. Stevens in January, 1837, before the vessel had left Singapore, threw the chief responsibility and direction of the mission upon Capt. Frazer, who seems to have been poorly qualified for

any other than the maritime part. Rev. Messrs. Dickinson and Wolfe sailed in her from Singapore in Mr. Stevens' place, but none of these gentlemen understood the Malayan language, and consequently less direct intercourse was had with the people at the various places where she stopped than was anticipated. The Himmaleh returned to China in July, 1837, and as there was no one qualified to go in her, she was loaded and sent back to the United States. An account of the voyage was written by Mr. Lay, and published in New York, in connexion with that of the ship Morrison to Japan in August, 1837, by Mr. C. W. King of the firm of Olyphant & Co., under whose direction it was taken for the purpose of restoring seven shipwrecked Japanese to their native land. Mr. Gutzlaff accompanied this vessel as interpreter, for three of the men were under the orders of the English superintendent; the expedition failed in its object, and the men were brought back. This is the last special effort made to distribute books upon the coast, with the exception of a short trip to the westward of Macao in a small native vessel by Mr. Shuck, in 1837; no books were, however, distributed in this trip, nor did he land. In October, 1837, Mr. Gutzlaff was sent to the province of Fuhkien, by the British superintendent, to ascertain the fate of certain British subjects shipwrecked on that coast, and distributed several hundred volumes. It is almost impossible to make any calculation of the number of volumes distributed in all these voyages, and by persons engaged in the coast trade. Probably fifty thousand books were scattered on the coast, and more than double that number, about Canton, Macao, and their vicinity. Since the opening of the five ports, increased numbers have been put in circulation at those points; and with few exceptions, they have been eagerly received by the people, and by the officers of government when they could do so without observation or suspicion.

This promiscuous distribution of books has been criticized by some as injudicious, and little calculated to advance the objects of a Christian mission. The funds expended in printing and circulating books could have been, it is said, much better employed in establishing schools, than in scattering books broadcast among a people whose ability to read them was not ascertained, and under circumstances which prevented any explanation of the design in giving them, or inquiries as to the effects produced.

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Without entering into a discussion of the propriety of a course, whose good or bad effects at least could not be ascertained till it had been tried, it is enough to observe that prior to the treaty of Nanking, this was the only means of approaching the people of the country. The emperor forbade foreigners residing in his borders except at Canton, and consequently the good produced by the books, or whether the people understood them at all, could not be ascertained. No one, acquainted with the Chinese or any heathen people, supposes that their desire to receive books is to be taken as an index of their ability to understand them, or love of the doctrines contained in them. If the plan offered a reasonable probability of effecting some good, it certainly could do almost no harm, for the general respect for printed books assures us that they would not be wantonly destroyed, but rather in most cases carefully preserved. The business of tract distribution and colportage may, however, be carried too far in advance of other parts of missionary work. It is much easier to write, print, and give away religious treatises, than it is to sit down with the people and explain the leading truths of the Bible; but the two go well together among those who can read, and perhaps in no nation is it more desirable that they should be combined. If the books be given away without explanation, the people do not fully understand the object, and feel too little interest in them to take the trouble to find out; if the preacher deliver an intelligible discourse, his audience will probably remember its general purport; but on the one hand they will be likely to read the book with more attention, and on the other understand the sermon better, when the two are combined, and the voice explains the book, and the book recalls the ideas and teachings of the preacher.

So far as is known, hardly an instance has occurred of a Chinese coming to a missionary to have any passage explained, nor any person converted who has attributed his interest in religion to the unassisted reading of books. Their fate cannot be traced, but if, on the one hand, they have been seen on the counters of shops in Macao, cut in two for wrapping up medicines and fruit; which the shopman would not do with the worst of his own books; a few have also been met in situations which showed that they had found their way into the hands of high officers, and bore marks of careful perusal. A copy of a gospel containing remarks, was found on board the admiral's junk at

Tinghai, when that town was taken by the English in 1840, which seemed to have been lately written. We can hope that all the books have not been lost or contemptuously destroyed, though perhaps most of them have been like seed sown by the wayside. In missions, as in other things, it is impossible to predict the result of several courses of action, before trying them; and if it was believed that many of those who receive books can read them, there was a strong inducement to press this branch of labor, when too it was the only one which could be brought to bear upon large portions of the people.

In 1932, the publication of the Chinese Repository was commenced by Mr. Bridgman, at a press sent out by a church in New York, called the Bruen Press. The Repository was encouraged by Dr. Morrison, who, with his son, continued to enrich it by valuable papers and translations, as long as they lived. The object of this periodical was to diffuse correct information concerning China, while it formed a convenient repertory of the essays, travels, translations, and papers of contributors. It has drawn but little on the time of any individual since the third or fourth year of its existence, and the number of collaborators at present is such as to devolve still less labor upon its editor.

The mission was increased in 1833, by the arrival of two laborers, one of whom, Mr. Tracy, left the next spring by the advice of his brethren to commence a mission at Singapore, while the other remained in China to superintend the press. In 1834, Doct. Parker arrived, and soon after went to Singapore to study the Fuhkien dialect; he returned to Canton in about a year, and opened a hospital in one of the rear factories for the gratuitous relief and cure of such diseases among the Chinese as his time and means would allow, devoting his attention chiefly to ophthalmic cases and surgical operations. This branch of Christian benevolence was already not unknown in China. Dr. Morrison in 1820 had, in connexion with Doct. Livingstone of the E. I. Co.'s factory, opened a dispensary at Macao, in which medical relief was afforded to many persons. In 1827, Doct. T. R. Colledge, also connected with the Company, opened a dispensary at his own expense at Macao, but finding the number of patients rapidly increasing, he rented two small houses for their accommodation, where in four years more than four thousand patients were cured or relieved. The benevolent design was encouraged

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by the foreign community, and about $6500 were contributed, so that it was, after the first year, no other expense to the benevolent founder, than giving his time and strength. It was unavoidably closed in 1832, there being no physician so circumstanced that he could gratuitously attend to such a crowd of patients, few or none of whom could pay him in anything better than thanks, fruit, or fire-crackers, or written cards of gratitude. A philanthropic Swede living in Macao, Sir Andrew Ljungstedt, prepared a short account of this hospital in 1834, and inserted several letters written to Doct. Colledge by the patients, one of which is here quoted.

"To knock head and thank the great English doctor. Venerable gentleman.-May your groves of almond trees be abundant, and the orange trees make the water of your well fragrant; as heretofore, may you be made known to the world as illustrious and brilliant, and as a most profound and skilful doctor. I last year arrived in Macao, blind in both eyes; I have to thank you, venerable sir, for having, by your excellent methods, cured me perfectly. Your goodness is as lofty as a hill, your virtue deep as the sea; therefore all my family will express their gratitude for your new creating goodness. Now I am desirous of returning home; your profound kindness it is impossible for me to requite; I feel extremely ashamed of myself for it. I am grateful for your favors, and shall think of them without ceasing. Moreover, I am certain that since you have been a benefactor to the world, and your good government is spread abroad, heaven must surely grant you a long life, and you will enjoy every happiness. I return to my mean province. Your illustrious name, venerable Sir, will extend to all time; during a thousand ages it will not decay. I return thanks for your great kindness; impotent are my words to sound your fame, and to express my thanks. I wish you everlasting tranquillity. Presented to the great English doctor and noble gentleman in the 11th year of Taukwang, by Ho Shuh of the district of Chau-ngan in the department of Changchau in Fuhkien, who knocks head and presents thanks."

Another patient, in true Chinese style, returned thanks for the aid he had received in a poetical effusion.

"This I address to the English physician: condescend, Sir, to look upon it. Diseased in my eyes, I had almost lost my sight, when, happily, Sir, I met with you:-you gave me medicine, you applied the knife; and as when the clouds are swept away, now again I behold the azure heavens. My joys know no bounds. As a faint token of my feelings, 16*

VOL. II.