was a new arrival, they all arose, went to the house, looked upon the corpse, and then returned and sat on the ground, rending the air with their cries, beating themselves, and exclaiming, uninterruptedly, for some minutes, "Oh, my brother! oh, my brother! oh, my brother! oh, my sorrow! oh, my sorrow! my father! oh God! etc. When the noise gradually subsided, and they engaged in their usual conversation about piastres and paras. About noon they proceeded, amid groans and screams, to wash the corpse, which was extended on some boards in front of the house. A stranger to such scenes cannot easily imagine how shocking was the sight. A mingled mass of men, women, and children, shrieking, beating their breasts around the emaciated body of a man in a state of shameless nudity, while, as they scoured the corpse with rough palm leaves and almost boiling water, it rolled its glaring and sightless eyeballs on them in return. After this process of purification they rolled the body up in white linen, and left it for some time on the boards literally "bound hand and foot." They then renewed their embraces and shrieks, exclaiming with still more extravagant expressions of grief, "Oh, my brother! oh, my brother! oh, my friend! oh, my friend! etc., when suddenly two or three seized the body, placed it upon a rude kind of bier, and, followed by the frantic multitude, bore it off coffinless to the burial. After about two hours spent in wailing at the grave, they returned and renewed it at the house. First the men repeated, in a chanting style, a long service, each following an old man who read from one of their books. Then the women again united in the repetition of very brief exclamations set to a sort of mournful unison of sounds, which, to one who has never heard the like, cannot easily be described. Among the exclamations which I heard, are the following: "Oh son of my uncle! oh, my brother! oh, my friend! oh, son of my uncle! thou hast gone! return to us! far be evil from thee! oh, my father, my friend, my brother, my sorrow, return! We wait for thee, return oh son of my uncle! Oh my eyes, my two eyes, return. Thy wife is alone! she has put on mourning! she is dressed in blue! Oh my friend, there was joy. There is now mourning! Why hast thou gone! Oh son of my uncle, my friend, my two eyes!" HAVING learned the amount appropriated by the Committee for their mission for the ensuing year, and finding it far below what the extent of their operations, and the openings all around them call for, the brethren say that, to bring their expenditures within the limits prescribed, they must expend nothing on their mission seminary, nothing on the press, nothing on the three preparatory schools, take away $200 from common schools, $200 from what was devoted to female education, and $225 from the salaries of native assistants, and retire from the station at Bethlehem. The missionaries then proceed We write with much anxiety, to ask, Shall this be done? We beg an answer to this question from home. Pray, throw not upon us the responsibility. We have already, since our embarrassments commenced, spent many, many days of consultation, and suffered from anxiety more than we can express, in turning over our estimates in every possible way, to find an escape from the pinching necessities that have so long tied our hands; but all to no purpose. Unless our means are increased, we cannot go forward, we cannot hold the ground we are on. Shall we go backward ?-disband our seminary, shut up our press, scatter the children from our schools, send the little girls we have adopted back to their ignorant, superstitious, brutish mothers, and dismiss our native helpers? Pray tell us, Shall this be done? We need hardly add, that our operations among the Druzes, proposed in our communications of June last, and not included in the above calculations, must also be stopped, unless an extra appropriation be made for them. We know that this communication will give you pain, if you have not the means of returning a favorable answer. Think, then, what must be our feelings in view of the necessity that has obliged us to write it. But this necessity there was no evading. We have stood up against it as long as we can. Unless help comes we must now yield, and sit down with our hands tied, and our hopes blasted. We ask again, dear brethren, Shall this be done? Of the openings, especially among the Druzes, to take advantage of which the additional grant of money so importunately asked for above is wanted, the following brief statement from Mr. W. M. Thomson, dated 7th October, will give some information We have largely increased the number of our friends and personal acquaintances. We have commenced the education of some of the most promising lads in the Druze nation, and the parents are very anxious that we should continue it. We have established four new schools, and received numerous applications to open schools, which we have not the funds to undertake. Only two days ago four teachers applied for permission to commence schools, to only one of which we could give any encouragement. This morning I had a long visit from one of the emeers of the Ras-el-an family, who urged me to begin our seminary at B. Shamone this winter. Although a married man, he is extremely anxious to study, himself. Let it not be forgotten that all these requests have been made and this eagerness has been manifested by an ignorant people threatened constantly with a destructive civil war, and that they have persevered through every discouragement. If I am not greatly mistaken, we have a great work yet to do for the Druzes. serve has bors on this tour, but as yet have had no opportunity of forwarding it to you. I will here quote the concluding page of it-We have now arrived within ten miles of home, after an absence of sixtythree days. We feel that we are laden with the experiences of the goodness of the Lord our master and keeper. No evil has befallen us by the way. We have every where been treated with kindness. Jesus whom we made even our enemies to be at peace with us. He has not only disposed the people among whom we have been sojourning to treat us kindly, but he has inclined them to hear the word of life spoken to them, and to take into their possession, for future perusal, the Scriptures which reveal this word of life, and tracts which expound it. On this tour I have distributed Scriptures and tracts, as follows Mahrattas. LETTER FROM MR. MUNGER, JALNA, 20TH SEPT. 1841. Distribution of Books and Schools and Pupils. May the Spirit of the Highest cause this precious seed to spring up and produce a harvest of praise and glory to Him who gave the word, by righteousTracts-ness, and peace, and joy, in the hearts of those to whom the knowledge and the possession of it have come through our instrumentality. Unworthy though we are to be his co-workers in gathering in his elected ones, and in extending the reign of holiness, yet he makes it both our duty and privilege to be workers to Of his labors in distributing books and tracts at an idol festival and on a tour among the heathen villages, Mr. Munger writes In October, 1840, I attended, as my custom is, the festival of Balaje at De-gether with him in this noble employwalgaum, and acquired the enviable fame of being "The giver of Jesus Christ's books." We distributed only to those who could read, as follows ment. Poor though our service be, and feeble as is our best endeavor to win souls to Christ, yet he will cause all we attempt for his glory to be promotive of this end. With him we leave this work, and our prayer shall be, Lord glorify thyself by thine own truth, and by us, the publishers of it. Let the proclamation of thy word be unto thee a sweet savor of Christ in them that perish and in them who shall be saved, in the day of his coming to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe. 8 formerly distributed among the people of Jalna had been used for wrapping-paper, or otherwise intentionally destroyed, through the influence of the brahmins, Mr. Munger determined to distribute no more there, except to persons who assured him that they would read and preserve them. He then adds Street preaching, as might be expect ed, is becoming less popular. It is now more difficult to find people, who will listen to the messages of a Savior's love. The people even seem to avoid me, as one from whom they can expect little but admonition for sin, and exhortation to look away from themselves to Christ for spiritual cleansing. The idea of an unmerited salvation is a great offence to these deluded fellow mortals. Sin has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. Having mentioned that some of the books, schools. There are usually from seventy-five to one hundred present at our Sabbath morning exercises. The reading and exposition of God's word forms the chief part of these exercises, and we hope that impressions will be made upon their minds which will result in spiritual good to some of these young immortals. But we need more faith, more love, more of all the fruits of the Spirit. While we are endeavoring to sow the good seed upon soil often altogether unpromising, the enemy, with ten fold more hands than the fabled Briareus, is sowing tares. There are here no praying parents to second our efforts to bless their children, and to cherish the good seed which may chance to fall into any hearts. No one of these children ever heard his father or his mother pray that God would create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him. On the contrary, they I have two schools. More are requir- are taught, if taught at all, that the soul ed, but the want of suitable teachers is pure, altogether undefiled; that the prevents me from doing good to the ex- body only is defiled, and its uncleanness tent I desire, in this department of labor. may be washed away by their daily abThe children of these schools are mak-lutions. They are taught that the four ing very commendable progress in their grand objects of human pursuit are, studies, and give me much satisfaction first, moral merit, resulting from obein their readiness to gratify all my wish-dience to the Shasters: second, the es in respect to christian lessons. One of the teachers seems at times to be not far from the kingdom of God. He is the individual who, at the time of his leaving me last year, said "Pray for me." He seems fully convinced that Christianity is from God, and Hindooism from man, through the agency of Satan. pleasures conferred by fame, power, and riches: third, the pleasures of sense: fourth, deliverance of the soul from the body and exemption from farther transmigration. All they see and hear is adapted to impress these lessons upon their minds. How then can they be made to receive the truth as it is in Mrs. Munger has under her care five Jesus? All our hope of this must be girls, who have been with us for more in God. And the conversion of a child than three years. They are entirely thus taught, by precept and example, removed from the influence of their from the error of his ways, is no less a friends, and are dependent upon us for miracle than the raising of the dead to their support. The history of these life. But many such miracles have been children, as the representatives of thou-wrought in India. What we specially sands in this country, would awaken much sympathy in the minds of Christians; but this I cannot now give. One of these is a foundling, and has been with us from her infancy. We sometimes hope that one of them may be even now a lamb of the fold of the Good Shepherd. That she is a new creature in many respects, we feel assured; and if it be that she is really a new creature in Christ, then is she emphatically a brand plucked out of the burning. Mrs. Munger has also three boys whom she instructs. Sabbath Congregation-More extended Our Sabbath congregation is composed of the children and teachers of the need is to feel that the excellency of the power is of God, and not of us. Remarking on the importance of continuing and increasing the amount of missionary labor performed in Jalna and the vicinity, on the openings there are, and the interest taken in this work by some christian families in those parts, Mr. Munger writes There is at Nagpoor a godly family, who are anxiously desiring that a missionary may be located there. They have funds, which have been collected with a view to this object, more than sufficient for the expenses of education. The Lord hear their prayer and send them a faithful man for this good work. This gentleman, about one year ago, worse it is hard to tell. No Sioux are to be located this side of the Little Rapids, a place on the river St. Peter's, about thirty miles from its mouth. Of course the Sioux on the Mississippi and near the mouth of the St. Peter's are to remove. They will probably be located between the Little Rapids and Travers des Sioux. They are to remain where they are one year longer. The cession of land in the treaty above re sent to me 150 rupees with which he desired me to procure him Scriptures and tracts for distribution in that place and vicinity. I of course supplied him, and since then I have sent him two bullock loads, at the expense of the American Bible and Tract Societies. We are glad to find helpers in the distribution of Scriptures and tracts. A gentleman at Jabbalpoor, 120 miles northeast of Nagpoor, is getting out from Germany some young men for the purpose of commencing labors, after the manner of the Mo-ferred to embraces all the land on the St. Peravians, in behalf of the tribe inhabiting the Hills in that vicinity. He is about commencing such a station near the source of the Narbudda river. This kind of missionary labor is gaining some repute in this country. There is a company of Germans, eighteen or twenty in number, under the direction of a Mr. Start, by whom they are mainly supported, laboring at Hajee-poor, near Patna, and vicinity. Of course, a large proportion of these are artisans. These are tokens of good for India. Sioux. LETTER FROM MR. S. W. POND, ST. pe TER'S, 22D SEPT. 1841. Ox account of the unsettled condition of the Sioux bands residing near the Mississippi river, and it being doubtful what part of their country they would permanently occupy, the Messrs. Pond, who have directed their labors principally to those bands, have hitherto had much less free and uninterrupted access to the Indians than they could have desired. Of the prospect of their soon being more permanently located Mr. S. W. Pord writes In ter's and its branches from twenty or thirty qui Parle, embraces 100,000 acres. Of this ter- United States for a reservation to which the remnants of the more northern bands east of the Mississippi river may hereafter be removed. Large sums of money, goods, agricultural implements, stock, farmers, mills, schools, teachers, traders, etc., are to be given to the Indians in compensation for the lands ceded. There is a prospect now of the Sioux being permanently located in the course of a year or two, and we hope that we shall find the right place at last. The war between the Sioux and Ojibwas still continues. The Sioux have spent a great part of the past summer in searching for Ojibwas, but not many have been killed on either side. It is thought that if the late treaty is ratified, the war will be stopped. If military posts are established at the places where the commissioners who made the late treaty with the Sioux said they would be, it will be easy for government to prevent the Sioux from fighting. We are anxious to see an end of the hostilities between these two tribes, for nothing seems to exert so bad an influence on the minds of Indians as war. I hoped, when I wrote to you last, that we should have been settled down somewhere among the Indians before this time, but we are still where we were last spring. At that time it was thought best for us to build near our band on the St. Peter's, and we determined to do so. After some delay we commenced making Next to war, drunkenness is the preparation to build; but before we be greatest evil which we have to contend gan to put up our house, the Sioux sold with. The Indians have been more inail their land. You have probably heard temperate during the last summer, than of the treaty which has been made with ever before; and the evil has spread the Sioux lately, and that it is the inten- through the whole country. During the tion of the government to remove the two weeks which I spent at Lac qui remnant of several tribes of Indians, now Parle last summer, the Lac qui Parle residing east of the Mississippi, into this and Lac Travers Indians brought home part of the country. If this treaty is eight kegs of whiskey, for which they ratified and carried into effect, it will had exchanged as many horses at St. make a great change in the condition of Peter's. As the Indians up the St. Pethe Sioux; but whether for the better orter's have not the means of paying white two young girls to bring the canoe back. men for whiskey themselves, they are continually urging those in this neigh-At the point where they landed lay a borhood to procure it for them. This not only causes them to drink more than they otherwise would, but also to waste a great deal of their time and property in procuring ardent spirits. A part of our band do not drink as much as others in the neighborhood, but almost all the men are what would be called drunkards in New England. We have no opportunities of instructing the Indians, except by conversation with them. We are anxious to be more directly and exclusively engaged in making the gospel known to them, and hope that the time is coming when we shall be thus employed. In the mean time we try to do what our hands find to do, by teaching them as we have opportunity and striving to become thoroughly acquainted and familiar with their language. Ojibwas. LETTER FROM MR. BOUTWELL, POKEGUMA, 28TH SEPT., 1841. Attack of the Sioux on Pokeguma. Ar page 501 of the last volume a letter was inserted from Mr. Ayer, giving a brief account of an attack made on the Indians residing at Pokeguma by a war party of Sioux, and the consequent dispersion of all the Indian families settled there. Mr. Boutwell gives additional particulars below. Some of the dispersed families he met in their place of retreat. Here on the upper Lake St. Croix several families come to pass the summer. They came forward and showed me the wounds they had received in the battle. The circumstances were briefly these:-While our people were all quiet at home and busily engaged in planting and building, one hundred and eleven Sioux came upon them, and one would have naturally supposed that they would have cut off the whole settlement. But no, the Lord wrought for the Ojibwas a most signal deliverance. Not one of our praying Indians or a member of their families was cut off. The Sioux had divided their number into tens, and secretly posted them so as to strike upon the different parts of the village at the moment a preconcerted signal should be given. The Lord frustrated their counsel, and prevented a general slaughter. Three Ojibwa young men had embarked in a canoe to cross over the lake just opposite our house, taking with them party of Sioux in ambush. Though the signal had not been given, yet the Sioux could not resist the temptation and the whole party fired into the cance. The three young men jumped into the water, and gained the shore and escaped with only one wounded in the thumb. The little girls waded into the lake and were pursued by the Sioux and dispatched with spears and war-clubs. Their screams were distinctly heard by their parents, and their dying agonies in the hands of their enemies were all witnessed and within half a mile of the mission door. This gave the alarm to the whole village. The women and children betook themselves to their canoes and fled for a small island in the lake. The attack soon began upon every part of the settlement. The men and boys who could bear arms, about fifteen in all, gathered themselves in three houses, and defended themselves as well as they were able. Only a few days previous to the attack, Mr. Ayer sent Mr. Coe to assist the Indians in fortifying one of the houses. Here they did some execution, and damped the courage of their enemies. The fathers of the two little girls who were killed, after seeing their children murdered before their eyes, embarked in a canoe and came over from the island and killed one Sioux. They were so hard pushed they were obliged to return to their canoe. One of them plunged into the water, and swam with one hand and towed his friend in the canoe with the other, while the Sioux were on the shore with their rifles taking aim at his head. This man literally swam, and towed away his friend in a bark canoe, dodging the balls of his enemies falling on every side. This is no fiction, but a fact witnessed by Mr. Ely and others, who stood and saw the whole affair. The result of the whole matter was, the Sioux lost two warriors, and killed two little girls, besides having some six or eight wounded in all. After the engagement subsided, Messrs. Ely and Coe went for the bodies of the two children. They found the heads severed and a tomahawk sticking in each, one of which Mr. E. has and designs to send you, still besmeared with the blood of one of his scholars. The third day after the Sioux retreated, the Ojibwas followed their trail and found the bodies of the two men. They scalped them, cut off their heads, and brought home the flesh and a part of the limbs of one. The flesh they boiled and made a feast of it. |