ter. They exert themselves to spread | church-members, to guide, watch over, their principles throughout the islands by and instruct them, and less as evangeevery possible means, and the bishop left lists to gather into the churches from the here a few months ago for Europe, as is highways and hedges. The result of the reported, to obtain a large reinforcement high excitement in the islands is nothing to their numbers. more than we anticipated. In almost every case, where large accessions have been made to our numbers, proportionably large defections have occurred. It was to be expected that, where such vast numbers were gathered into the churches, much chaff would be found among the wheat. Yet the work stands confessedly a glorious work of God, and a bright era in the history of this nation. The spirit of benevolence, we think, advances among this people; but of course is very immature as yet. You will see in our minutes some notice of what the people have done the past year. The following table of statistics will inform you of the numbers added to our churches during the year, and will be some guide, though not a perfect one, in forming an opinion of their present state. There are now three of them on Hawaii, besides some seculars, and three on Oahu; but none on the other islands. They are erecting a spacious stone chapel in Honolulu, and have stipulated for a thatch building to be erected at Kailua. For the latter they are to pay $1,100. Their plans are deeply laid, and their resources probably large, besides the fact that at present they are backed up by the French consul in the name of his nation. The consequence is the king and chiefs are vacillating in their proceedings. What the result will be it is not easy now to predict; but our consolation is that all things are in the hands of God, and he can make the wrath of man to praise him. With reference to certain statements which the papists had published relative to the mission, a translation of which from the French language had been forwarded to them, the missionaries remark As no report is given of the station at Lahainaluna, the summing up of each column falls below what it would be, if that station were reckoned in. It is truly gratifying to us to receive In the following table no notice is taken of from you so full a translation of the slan- the number of those who have removed from ders of the papists, because it is of great one church to another; so that the whole numimportance for us to know the reports of ber admitted, after deducting the deaths and our enemies that we may state facts as exclusions, may be in some instances more, and they have occurred. A fair candid state-in others less, than the number now in regular ment of the truth is all the refutation standing in the several churches. such reports need, and that we can easily give. On the religious character and condition of the people, and the state of the churches, the letter contains the following remarks. Among this people, whose minds are scarce yet free from the mists of superstition in which they were educated, much stability of character is not to be expected. It is not, therefore, strange to us that many backslide from their profession so soon as they have lost their first excitement. Although our churches have not been so signally blessed the past year as in the two previous ones, still we have not been left without evidence of God's gracious presence among us, convincing and converting sinners. The novelty of our revival has passed away, and with it that peculiar excitement arising from novelty; and now more solid and arduous labors fill the hands of the pastor. Our labors are now demanded more as pastors among our In order to judge correctly concerning the great number of instances of church discipline at some of the stations, it is necessary to bear in mind that some of the missionaries, considering the character of the native converts, their habits and exposures, have thought it necessary to subject their members to censure for faults and practices which it might not be proper to treat so severely, in respect to a people differently situated, of different character, and less exposed to peculiar temptations. It is to be hoped that all who are now excluded from church-fellowship, are not irreclaimably apos tate; but that not a few of them, as the immediate cause of their fall ceases to operate, and they become more fully instructed in the duties of the christian life, will, by the recovering grace of God, be brought again into the visible fold of Christ. It should be ever borne in mind that mission churches among the heathen are not composed of those who from childhood had been thoroughly instructed in christian doctrines and morals, like those admitted to churches in christian lands. 915 175 7617 154 5366 * * 85% 85- Admitted last year. Total deceased. WON Deceased last year. 10 57 39 7 258 119 48 22 191 44 26 70 13 43 584316 670 553 20 6402 2474 103 144 1500 40 317140 697 600 1139 2790 2123 1977 795 35 103 300 873 15 69 28 375 403 677 356 14 103 746 649 134 71 1030 531 167 52 1800 97 1400 82 5 7 700 26 1031 511 71 80 2000 68 1094 253 33 130 1500 8ess 1995 % a 85 In regular standing. Total children bap | Baptized last year. * Marriages last year. Average congregation on the Sabbath. 500 15 300 88 11 37 700 38 1000 166 102 7 22806 1473 1485 654 2491 1892 1391|3327/2561|16893|7721 943|1314| Seminaries and Boarding Schools. We are happy in being able to say that our seminaries and boarding-schools are all in a prosperous state. In them all the pupils have evinced an attachment to their instructors, a desire to improve, a docility of temper, a cheerful submission to authority, and a consequent advancement in knowledge, not surpassed in any preceding year. Though we would by no means give our school-system the first place in our missionary labors, yet we are free to say that we see not how the state of this people could be greatly elevated without something of the kind. We do not speak from theory, imagination, nor even from analogy, merely, on this subject. Its influence on the social, moral, religious, and even the political condition of the community is very apparent. We know not how the men and money devoted to this object could have been employed to better account in any other manner. Were our seminary and boarding-school buildings all destroyed, we should still have no reason to say that the funds devoted to these institutions had proved an unprofitable investment. Valuable results would still remain. VOL. XXXVIII. The former graduates of the mission seminary are most of them employed as teachers, and, as a class, are much more efficient than they would have been, had they not been trained in that institution. A number of others hold important posts under the government, where they exert an extensive, and, on the whole, a very salutary influence upon the community. A few others are mere idlers, apparently effecting little or nothing for good or for evil. But not an individual of their number has ever taken a stand in opposition to the cause of education and religion. A new class of boys, fifty-six in number, was received early in the year, making the whole number of scholars eighty-four. Three have died, two have been dismissed, and twenty-nine have completed their course. It is proposed to increase the number of scholars to one hundred at the commencement of the next term. The female seminary at Wailuku has numbered seventy-eight pupils the past year. One has married, and two others are about to marry, graduates of the mission seminary. Two have been dismissed, one has been expelled, one has died, and several are absent on account of ill health. The article of health ex 13 cepted, the prospects of the school are bright. It is believed, also, that there is nothing in its locality necessarily unfavorable in this respect. We do not, therefore, despair of being able in this, as in our other boarding establishments, to unite mental cultivation with vigorous constitutions. The Lord still owns his own truth. Several of the pupils have been serious, and two or three at least hopefully converted during the year. Eighteen are members of the church in good standing. The docility and cheerful interest of the pupils reported in former years, whether employed at the spinning-wheel, in domestic affairs, with the needle, or in the exercises of the school-room, have been no less apparent the year past. In all our boarding-schools the scholars have enjoyed most excellent health. No death has occurred. Only one case of sickness is reported, and in that case the pupil recovered his health without leaving the institution. The converting influences of the Spirit have been in a great measure withheld from all these schools the past year. No marked, and decided cases of conversion are reported in any of them. In all other respects, their history for the year, now closed, is one on which we reflect with much satisfaction. The number of these schools is four. That for the young chiefs under the charge of Mr. and Mrs. Cooke, though one of those most recently established, is not the least important. The teachers of this school have succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations. The subordination of the pupils to their instructors, seems not less complete, than that of a well regulated family of children to their parents, and the obedience rendered evidently flows, not from slavish fear, but from affection and respect. The appearance of the school is honorable, in a high degree, to the instructors, to the pupils, and to their parents. Mr. Locke, at Waialua, has pursued his plan for a boarding-school, the scholars to be sustained by the avails of their own labor, with zeal and success. He has at present ten scholars. It is expected he will ere long increase the number to twenty. Mrs. Coan's school for girls at Hilo is still prospered. This school presents one of the germs of hope for the daughters of Hawaii. As formerly the scholars have been sustained principally by the church and people connected with that station. The Hilo boarding-school taught by Mr. and Mrs. Lyman, a principal object of which is to qualify boys on the island of Hawaii to enter the mission seminary, still enjoys the smiles of heaven. The number of pupils the past year has been fifty-seven. They are furnished from the several large divisions of the island, as nearly as convenient, in the ratio of the population. During the year seven have been dismissed for various reasons. Fifteen or eighteen will probably enter the seminary the present month. Twenty of the pupils are members of the church. The prospects of the school are, in some respects, more flattering than at any former period. Station and Common Schools. The station and common schools, as a general fact, were in a languishing condition the former part of the last year. While the rewards of their toil were becoming more and more sure to Hawaiians in almost every other department of useful industry; teachers, as a class, saw no corresponding increase of their resources. In fact, many of them found their means of support becoming precarious, just about in proportion as those of their employers increased. They could not be expected to regard this state of things with indifference. It was known that the government had, for more than a || year, had before them the project of a law for the encouragement of education. The better and more intelligent class of the people were ready to second the will of the government on the subject. The thing, however, moved slowly. The friends of education waited. for the chiefs to take the lead. The teachers feared that nothing would be done. Many of them became discouraged and left their work. At Honolulu, however, and at some other places, the stations schools have flourished through the year. Five months have now elapsed since laws to encourage schools for children went into operation. Though they have, as a general fact, been but very partially enforced, their effect has been considerable. The number of schools for children reported as now in operation, is over 350, embracing about 18,000 scholNot far from one third of these can read. A considerable number are able to write, and are learning something of geography, arithmetic, and other branches of a common school education. ars. The Romanists have complained of the school-laws as opposed to their opera Of the progress of the people in social improvement and the arts of life, the missionaries write We still continue to enjoy the inestimable blessing of peace in all our borders, and are allowed fearlessly to prosecute the great objects of our mission. The national council have adopted a liberal policy and are laboring amid many perplexities to secure the best interests of the people at large. This is sufficiently manifest from the constitution they have adopted, and from the laws they have already enacted. But compared with the nations of the earth, this is a feeble people and constantly liable to encroachments from their more powerful neighbors. They know they are too weak forcibly to resist foreign aggression, hence timidity and fickleness characterize many of their measures, which renders dubious the stability of the government. Still, however, when we reflect what great things God has already done for this people, we hope they are destined ere long to hold a respectable rank among the nations of the earth. tions, and consequently as a violation of, pect happy results. It indicates some the treaty made with captain Laplace. progress towards the people's sustaining It is understood that these laws have their own institutions. These institubeen recently revised and amended by tions cannot be considered as well estabthe chiefs in general council. In regard lished among them, so long as they deto the precise amount and nature of the pend on foreign patronage; and the modifications introduced we are not fully churches here cannot be expected to informed. We do not apprehend, how- shine in all the christian graces, nor atever, that the inducements to seek tain to manly vigor until their christian knowledge have been intentionally di- principles are thus called forth into active minished. exercise. It is, moreover, very important that the churches here sustain the gospel among themselves, in order that the funds from abroad, thus saved, may be employed in sending the gospel to those still in heathen darkness. In contemplating the number of hopeful converts who have been added to our churches, it is not strange that many have been led to think the time was near when the Board might be relieved from the burden of sustaining the mission. To us, however, it is evident, we shall need patronage from abroad for a long time to come. If sustained independently of foreign patronage, we must be supported either by the voluntary contributions of our churches and congregations, or by our own labor. As to the first method, the people are too poor and their piety too immature to allow us to expect any think like an adequate support from their contributions; and as to getting a support by our own labor, we would remark that this, at many of our stations, would be impossible; and that such stations, without foreign help, must be abandoned: and even at the posts most favorable to success, the time and energies of a selfsupporting missionary would be so fully employed in providing for his family, as to nullify his labors as pastor or teacher. This fact was deeply impressed on the minds of the delegation from this mission, who nine years ago visited the mission to the Society and Georgian Islands. It is also very strikingly illustrated at this time in the mission of the Board to Oregon; and in fact illustrations are not wholly wanting among ourselves. For as far as our skill and industry have been employed in secular pursuits, in order to relieve the funds of the Board, there has been a corresponding loss of effort for the spiritual welfare of the people. We are aware that it has been urged in favor of a missionary's engaging in secular pursuits, for the purpose of supporting himself and family, that by so doing he would teach the people industry, and aid them in developing the From the liberal provision made by resources of the country. But, however the government for the support of com- highly we may prize these results, obmon schools we are encouraged to ex-jects of far higher importance now de The developement of the natural resources of the country is in rapid progress through the influence of foreign capitalists and native energy. The fertile plains already reward the diligent with sugar, coffee, cotton, silk, and wheat, besides extensive flocks and herds; while the luxuriant forests abound in a great variety of valuable timbers for the cabinet-maker and joiner. The latent energies of the people are beginning to be aroused. Industry is taking the place of idleness, and enterprise the place of sloth; and under the benign influence of the gospel of peace, we trust they are advancing to that condition concerning which it will be said, "Happy is the nation that is in such a state, yea happy is the people whose God is the Lord." mand all our efforts. We have arrived at a crisis in our work. The wily agents of Romanism are in the field exerting all their energies and employing every stratagem to thwart our plans and hinder our cause; so that now we must leave to those who are devoted to commercial pursuits the work of developing the natural resources of the islands. They are numerous and ardently engaged in this very work; but let all our energies be employed in opposing error, by publishing the truths of the glorious gospel of our God and Savior. Education of the Children of the Mission. as their parents, on this nation, and on the world; and after the most mature examination we could bestow upon it, we have almost unanimously resolved to establish a central boarding-school for our children. We shall expect thus to secure not only the means of educating and fitting them for extensive usefulness, but secure also a greater amount of direct effort among the people, arising from the additional labor which many parents can perform when relieved of the necessity of conducting the education of their children. The establishment of our school will therefore be a most economical expenditure, if considered only in reference to the immediate wants of the Hawaiian nation. But we may suppose that many of our children will remain permanently in this their native land, and that their influence on its future desti At the late meeting of the missionaries their attention was turned, as it had been repeatedly before, to devise some plan for giving to their own children a suitable education without the expense and the trial to parental feeling. involv-nies will be great. Who then can tell ed in sending them to the United States. The subject is beset with many difficulties, and has been a topic of much anxious consideration both to the missionaries abroad and missionary societies at home. Some remarks and the result to which the meeting arrived are given below. how great and important results may yet flow from the school we have resolved to establish. The Lord has graciously sent us instructors to take charge of the school just at the time they were needed, and by the indications of his providence encourages us to go forward. located at Punahou, a verdant spot of We have resolved that the school be ground a few miles distant from HonoluDole, aided by Miss M. M. Smith, to lu; and we have appointed Mr. and Mrs. take charge of the institution. We hope during the present year to erect the necessary buildings, and get the school in full and successful operation. The board of trustees whom we have apthe school will draw out the plan in depointed to superintend the interests of tail and fully inform you of its nature, its importance, and its claims. China. We would magnify our office and just ly appreciate the greatness of our work. Yet while pressed on every hand and almost overwhelmed by the duties growing out of our relations to this people, as pastors and teachers, we cannot and ought not to forget our duties as parents. The education and future prospects of our children constitute a subject of increasing solicitude with us. Our children have become numerous, and they are rapidly advancing from childhood to youth. In regard to some of them, it is expected they will be sent to the care of friends in the United States; but in regard to the majority of them, we have come to no definite decision on the subject. Some of these have arrived to such an age that their parents can be no longer at ease while their education is neglected. But what shall we do? The AFTER adverting to some of the interruptions state of the churches, schools, and nation, among whom our lot is cast, presents at this time a call peculiar and pressing for more than all of our energies. Still our children must be instructed. But if every parent must himself educate his own children, how can the other great and pressing interests be sustained and advanced? No subject has come before the present general meeting of more intense interest than this. We have considered it in all its bearings, on our children, on ourselves LETTER FROM MR. BRIDGMAN, MACAO, JULY 1ST, 1841. and hindrances to which the labors of the mission have been subjected, Mr. Bridgman mentions that the school taught by Mr. Brown, under the patronage of the Morrison Education Society embraced six lads, and was prospering well, and promised to accomplish much good. Of the changes which the providence of God seems to be working in that part of the world and the labors that can now be performed, Mr. Bridgman remarks— Already great and important changes are in progress. And who can doubt |