been carried on, more or less, with the exception of about three years, and is now prosecuted with greater vigor by the agents of two or three missionary societies.

The following extract exhibits the freedom with which the hospital is now used as a means of making known the Gospel at Canton, where ten years before it was deemed inexpedient to distribute books or hold religious services, lest the whole establishment should be shut up. "The average attendance of Chinese has been over a hundred, and none have been more respectful and cordial in their attention than those in whom aneurism has been cured or sight restored, from whom the tumor has been extirpated, or the stone extracted. These services must be witnessed to understand fully their interest. Deep emotions have been awakened when contrasting the restrictions of the first years of Protestant missions in China with the present freedom. Then, not permitted to avow our missionary character and object lest it might eject us from the country; nor could a Chinese receive a Christian book but at the peril of his safety, or embrace that religion without hazarding his life. Now, he may receive and practise the doctrines of Christ, and transgress no law of the empire. Our interest may be more easily conceived than expressed, as we have declared the truths of the Gospel; or when looking upon the evangelist Liang Afah, and thought of him fleeing for his life, and long banished from his native land, and now returned to declare boldly the truths of the Gospel in the city from which he had fled. Well did he call upon his audience to worship and give thanks to the God of heaven and earth for what he had done for them. With happy effect he dwelt upon the Savior's life and example, and pointing to the paintings suspended on the walls of the room, informed his auditors that these were performed by his blessing, and in conformity to his precepts and example. Portions of the Scriptures and religious tracts are given to all the hearers on the Sabbath, and likewise to all the patients during the week, so that thousands of volumes have been sent forth from the hospital to scores of villages and to distant provinces."

The island of Hongkong, about 40 miles east of Macao, was occupied as a missionary station very soon after it was taken possession of in 1841, by Rev. I. J. Roberts of the Baptist mission. His coadjutor, Mr. Shuck, removed thither from Macao in the same year, and with the aid of the foreign community, which

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has ever been ready to respond to calls of a benevolent character, erected a chapel and mission house in the settlement. The Morrison Education Society, and a hospital under the care of the Medical Missionary Society, with the school and mission of the London Missionary Society, are also at present located there. The latter has a fine chapel, where religious services are conducted in two languages. A native assistant, Tsin Shen, educated at Malacca, was recently licensed as a preacher. The population of Hongkong is still unsettled, and several dialects are spoken among them. A few converts have been baptized, and preaching is regularly conducted by both foreign and native preachers to orderly and attentive congregations of from fifty to a hundred and more people. Chinese audiences are usually decorous, and listen without interrupting the speaker, even when there is some reason to suppose they do not clearly understand what is said.

The mission at Amoy was commenced in 1842 by Rev. Messrs. Abeel and Boone under the most favorable auspices. The English expedition took that city in August, 1841, and on leaving it, stationed a small naval and military force on the island of Kulang su. The people of Amoy and its environs cared perhaps little for the merits of the war then raging, but they knew that they had suffered much from it, and no interpreters were available to carry on communication between the two parties. Both these gentlemen could converse in the local dialect, and were soon applied to by many desirous of learning something of the foreigners, or who had business with them. The Chinese authorities in Amoy were much pleased to obtain the aid of competent interpreters, and although these duties have long since devolved upon others, the good opinion of these dignitaries has continued, and exercised considerable influence in inducing the people to attend upon the ministrations of the missionaries and receive their books without fear. Both officers and private gentlemen invited them to their residences, where they had opportunity to answer their reasonable inquiries concerning foreign lands and customs, and convey an outline of the Christian faith. The number of books given away was not great, but part of every day was spent in talking with the people; and when the hospital was opened by Doct. Cumming in July, still greater facilities were afforded for doing good. Mr. McBryde joined them for a while in 1842, Doct.

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Hepburn in 1843, Rev. Messrs. Stronach, Young, Pohlman, and Doty in 1844; and several others since then. By all these brethren, part of whom have since left, the work of diffusing gospel truth has been carried on without interruption, both in the hospital and at the regular Sabbath services, and among the neighboring villages.

The mission at Amoy has been much afflicted with sickness and death among its members since its formation; Mrs. Boone died within three months after her arrival in 1842, and all the other members were sick more or less during that summer of the prevailing fever. Mr. and Mrs. McBryde left from ill health in January, 1843; and Dr. Abeel and Doct. and Mrs. Hepburn in 1845. Mrs. Pohlman and Mrs. Doty died at Amoy in that year, and Mrs. Stronach on her way to England, and Dr. Abeel in 1846. Still, laborers have been constantly on the spot, and the work so pleasantly begun in 1842 has been continued without interruption. Two persons were baptized in 1846; and the courtesy of the of ficers, and the general goodwill and attendance of the people, augur favorably. On a recent occasion, the governor-general of the provinces of Fuhkien and Chehkiang was at Amoy, and treated the missionaries with great attention in the presence of crowds of people assembled like them to see him.

Fuhchau fu has not been so much frequented by foreign shipping as the other ports, and consequently fewer opportunities have offered for visiting it. No Protestant missionary took up his residence there until 1846, but the Rev. George Smith spent several weeks in exploring the city in 1845; three societies have their agents there at present, whose knowledge of the language is still partial. Its position on the river Min, and its importance as the provincial capital, render it a desirable location for a missionary station. The Romanists have many converts in the part of the province lying between Fuhchau and Amoy, many of whom resorted to the hospitals and received religious books.

The first missionary efforts north of Canton of a permanent nature were made in 1840 by Doct. Lockhart, in the establishment of a hospital at Tinghai. They were resumed by Rev. Mr. Milne, in 1842, and while the island of Chusan was under the control of the British troops, efforts were made to instruct the people. Mr. Gutzlaff was appointed Chinese magistrate of Tinghai in 1842, and during the time he held that office endeavored

to hold meetings. Mr. Milne left Ningpo in June, 1843, and came to Hongkong overland through the provinces of Chehkiang, Kiangsí, and Kwangtung, dressed in a native costume. The journey was the first ever taken in this manner by a Protestant, and was performed without detection; it showed, however, that while short trips might be made without the aid of native converts and friends in the interior, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to establish a permanent mission. When missions at the five ports are fully supplied, and there are men to spare for these trips and experiments, it will be time to try whether a mission cannot be fixed among the people in the interior.

After Mr. Milne's departure from Ningpo, some time elapsed before his place was supplied. The journal of his residence indicates a great willingness on the part of people of all ranks to cultivate intercourse with such foreigners as could converse freely with them. Docts. Macgowan and McCarty went there in 1844 to open a hospital, and were followed during the next year by Rev. Messrs. Lowrie, Culbertson, and Loomis, and Mr. Cole with a printing-office of English and Chinese type, and a type-foundry. Mr. Loomis resided at Tinghai until it was re-occupied by the Chinese authorities, when he was compelled to remove to Ningpo. Religious services are held at the hospitals in that city, and Doct. Macgowan in his report says, "each patient is exhorted to renounce all idolatry and wickedness, and to embrace the religion of the Savior. They are admitted by tens into the prescribing room, and before being dismissed are addressed by the physician and the native Christian assistant on the subject of religion. Tracts are given to all who are able to read." The more such labors are carried on, the better will the prospect of peace and a profitable intercourse between China and western nations become; the more the people of that vast empire learn of the science and resources, the character and designs, and partake of the religion and benevolence, of western nations, the less chance will there be of collisions, and the more each party will respect the other. The fear is, however, that the disruptive and disorganizing influences will preponderate over the peaceful, and precipitate new outbreaks before these influences obtain much hold upon the Chinese.

The mission to Shanghai, like those at Amoy and Ningpo, was commenced favorably soon after the treaty of peace in 1842.

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Doct. Lockhart early opened a hospital, and in the second report of its operations, from May, 1844, to June, 1845, he states, that 10,978 patients had been attended to in fourteen months. One effect of the opening of the institution at this city was, to incite the inhabitants to open a dispensary during four summer months, for the gratuitous relief of the sick. It was called Shí Í Kungkiuh, or Public Establishment for Dispensing Healing. "It was attended by eight or nine native practitioners, who saw the patients once in five days; this attendance was gratuitous on the part of some of them, and was paid for in the case of others. The medicines are supplied from the different apothecary shops, one furnishing all that is wanted during one day, which is paid for by subscriptions to the dispensary. The patients vary from 300 to 500. The reason given for the recent establishment of this dispensary for relieving the sick is, that it has been done by a foreigner who came to reside at the place, and therefore some of the wealthy natives wished to show their benevolence in the same way." Such a spirit speaks well for the inhabitants of Shanghai, for nothing like competition in doing good has ever been started elsewhere, nor even a public acknowledgment made of the benefits conferred by the hospitals.

Rev. Dr. Medhurst joined Doct. Lockhart in 1844, bringing full inachinery with him for the manufacture of books. During the voyage made by Messrs. Medhurst and Stevens, in 1835, in the Huron, they visited Shanghai, and the account of their adventures is detailed in their journals. An abstract of Mr. Medhurst's interview with the officers of the place, on that occasion, is taken from his journal. He had already been invited by them to enter a temple hard by the landing-place, to the end that they might learn the object of the visit, and was conversing with them.

"The party was now joined by another officer named Chin, a hearty, rough-looking man, with a keen eye, and a voluble tongue. He immediately took the lead in the conversation, and asked whether we had not been in Shantung, and had communication with some great officers there? He inquired after Messrs. Lindsay and Gutzlaff, and wished to know whither we intended to proceed. I told him these gentlemen were well; but we could hardly tell where we should go, quoting a Chinese proverb, 'We know not to-day what will take place to-morrow.' But, I continued, as your native conjurors are reckoned very clever, they may perhaps be able to tell you. I am conjuror enough for that,' said Chin,' but what