which it had been subjected, together with the small degree of progress the inhabitants have made in the more useful arts, render travelling a matter of much difficulty and inconvenience. I was under the necessity of providing myself with a tent, horses, provisions, &c. as if I had intended to penetrate some of the vast deserts of Asia. Having resolved to strike in a direct line through the interiour to the northern shores, I set off on the 26th of July, in company with Capt. Von Scheel, one of the Danish officers. Our first station was a small farm on the southern margin of the Thingvalla Lake-the inhabitants poor and destitute of the Bible. A copy which I gave them the following morning, was received with every demonstration of gratitude and joy. The road, or rather track, now lay across the ruins of nature, a vast region of lava, cracked and rent in the most dreadful manner, and often presenting deep chasms, between which there was scarcely sufficient space for the horses to proceed. Into the largest of these we were obliged to descend with our horses, and were struck with wonder at the force which has disrupted the solid masses of calcined rock, so as to form a gap not less than one hundred and eighty feet deep, in many places nearly of the same width, and about three miles in length. Close to this stupendous fissure, is the spot where the Christian religion was publickly established by law, A. D. 1000, and where the General assembly of the nation continued to be held nearly nine hundred years.

"After dinner we proceeded across the plain which is completely filled with lava, trembling, at times, at the monstrous parallel fissures, which yawned upon us on every side; and after advancing with difficulty through another dismal volcanick tract, we came to the hot

springs of Laugarvatn, in which the greater number of the inhabitants were baptized in the abovementioned year, on their return from the Assembly. Both here and at the Geysers, the people discovered the most ardent desire to possess the divine oracles."

"At the Geysers, the most magnificent and astonishing hot spouting fountains in the world, we spent two days, chiefly to rest our horses and fit them for a desert and mountain journey, several days in length We were here surrounded by numerous orifices and craters, filled with hot water, from several of which columns, from three to ten feet in diameter, were darted at irregular intervals, some of them to the height of nearly an hundred feet in the atmosphere, enveloped in voluminous clouds of steam, and accompanied with subterranean reports, and a concussion of the ground beneath our feet. I doubt if a scene more grand and impressive be displayed within the limits of the visible creation.

"We arrived at the Factory of Akureyri on the 4th of August, and the following day I was happy in executing a commission I had received from Bishop Vidalin. Previously to my departure from Reykiavik, his Lordship jokingly said, that on my arrival in the north, it would be in my power to settle a serious dispute which had arisen between two of his clergy, and that he invested me with full powers to that end. The subject of the difference was a copy of the Bible, which had been lent from a church on the main land, but had so long been in possession of the church of Grimsey, that the clergyman of that place refused to give it up to the church to which it originally belonged. It was the only copy among twelve families residing on an island, thirty miles from the main land. As he was at the Fae

tory I had some eonversation with him, and not only gave him a copy for the use of the parish, till the proper supply should arrive, but gave him one for his own use, as I found his circumstances did not admit of his purchasing one.

"The same evening I sold a Bible and New Testament to a peasant, who had come from a neighbouring parish to buy them. His wife had been at the factory in the forenoon, and though she was desired to wait till the general distribution took place, the desire of obtaining copies which was excited in the family on her return was so great, that her husband was obliged to set off, and try if his application would not be more snccessful. Besides what I sold him, he wished to have six Testaments, that each of his children might be furnished with a copy.

"On inquiry I discovered that scarcely a copy of the scriptures was to be found in the valley in which Holum is situated. In the contiguous and populous district, there is one parish consisting of about two hundred souls, yet in possession of only four Bibles; another, in which there were only three copies among fifty families. On my return from Holum, the peasants all left their meadows and came running to the road to see me; they wished that a thousand blessings might descend on me, and the good Christians who had sent me among them.

"At Hals I was very affectionately received by the clergyman. The next day, being Lord's day, I attended divine service in the Church. Before dismissing the congregation, the clergyman_gave them intimation of the New Bible, and desired such as wished to furnish themselves with copies to give him their names. We had scarcely got into the house when it was crowded with people, calling out, "Put me down for a Bible-me for

a Bible and Testament-me for three New Testaments," &c.

"Early on Monday I prosecuted my journey, accompanied by the clergyman, his son, and one of his servants. We had not rode many steps, when we all took off our hats for about the space of five minutes, and implored Divine mercy and protection. This laudable and im pressive custom is universally prac tised in such parts of Iceland as remain uncontaminated by the influence of those foreigners, who "live without God in the world.” Before crossing, and after having crossed a river, the genuine Icelander also moves his hat, in token of the sense be entertains of his dependence on the Supreme Being; and the fishermen, when they put to sea, all take off their hats and send up a prayer.

"I now entered the dreary volcanick regions of Myvatn. To whatever side I turned, nothing presented itself to my view but the dismal effects of subterranean fires. At one time I had to pass over a track of lava between two parallel rents, the bottom of which I could not discover from the quantity of smoke they continued to send forth; and at some places the space between them was scarcely sufficient to allow the horses to pass. At another time I was separated from semi-liquid beds of burning sulphur only by a deceitful crust, which in some places, was so thin, that on the horse's foot sinking in the mould, a hole was made, from which a quantity of steam issued with a hissing noise. The road here lies across a mountain of brimstone, which sends up, without intermission, immense columns of smoke into the atmosphere.

his joy on learning the provision that had been made for Iceland, and broke out in expressions of gratitude to God.

Having spent too much of the 29th at the house of the excellent Mr. Paulson, I got benighted in a desert mountain tract, and after wading and leading the horses a considerable way down the channel of a river, out of which I had the utmost difficulty in extricating myself, I pitched my tent in a morass on the right bank of the river, not daring to proceed any farther in the dark. Next day I visited the Dean of South Mule Syssel, who received me with much kindness; assured me that his Deanry stood in great want of the Divine Oracles. The present supply he could view in no other light than the manna which came down from heaven.

"On the 3d of September I reached Stafafel. The Rev. Berg Magnussen had been endeavouring to procure an Icelandick Bible for his own use these seventeen years past, but had at last given up all hopes of ever obtaining the trea

sure.

His joy on receiving a copy

was very great.

"After an absence of about two months, during which time I had travelled upward of twelve hundred British miles, I arrived again at Reykiavik on the 20th of September, with a heart full of gratitude to the God of my life, for the rich

experience I had had of his providential mercy, and the facilities he had afforded me in the way of ascertaining and making provision for the scriptural wants of more than half the population of this extensive island."

Mr. Henderson wintered in Iceland, and renewed his labours the next year. His report is accordingly divided into two parts. The extracts which have now been given are from the first. In copying them Mr. Henderson's language has been used, yet liberty has been taken to abridge many sentences, by excluding the less important circumstances, and names of difficult pronunciation, which would embarrass and not instruct many readers. What has been extracted may be regarded as a specimen of the difficulties and dangers which Mr. Henderson had to encounter, his intrepidity and perseverence, and the manner in which he was received by the people of Iceland. Near the close of the first part of his narrative, he says, Wherever I came the people received me with open arms, and complained sadly of the dearth of the scriptures; and what is remarkable, in the parish where, about the middle of the thirteenth century, the first attempt was made to translate the scriptures into the vernacular language, not a single copy was found to exist at the present day!"

SINCE Our last anniversary, it has pleased the Parent of life, whose dispensations are inscrutable by man, to remove our venerable President, by death. The Trustees Vol. IV. No. 11

join in condolence with the Society under this afflictive event.

The Hon. Elijah Brigham was descended from a respectable family; he was educated in Christian

principles, and formed to the virtues of the gospel. Having completed a collegiate education, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and his diligent application to business was rewarded with success.

Possessed of a vigorous and independent mind, and of a sound judgment, he early attracted general notice, and was introduced into publick life. He was raised to office, as well by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, as by the appointment of the supreme Executive of the Commonwealth. None of these distinctions originated either in a mean compliance with the will of the ruling power, or an unmanly condescension to popular prejudice; but they resulted from a confidence which every class in the community -placed in his inflexible integrity, his unyielding justice and persevering rectitude. For many years, he sustained the office of a magistrate, through the Commonwealth, and of a Judge on the bench of the Common Pleas, in the County of Worcester. From 1796 to 1810, the period at which he was elected into Congress, with one exception, he was chosen into the Senate of Massachusetts. The character of a citizen, a legislator, and a judge, he sustained with personal dignity; he manifested a vigilant attention to the appropriate duties of these relations, and uncorrupted fidelity in their execution. To him may be applied the sentiment of the Roman Poet,

"Justum et tenacem propositi vivium
Non ardor civium prava jubentium,
Nec vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida."

Judge Brigham, while a young man, made a profession of religion, and through life, gave an exemplification of the piety and righteousness, the benevolence and charity, which become the Christian. Governour of a respectable literary

As a

Institution in his vicinity, he seduously promoted the interests of intellectual and moral education. This society can bear witness that he devoted himself to his duty, as their President. Pure in his manners, and social in his disposition, he no less adorned a private than á publick station.

In the honourable execution of his trust, as a member of the National Council, without having felt the infirmities of old age, or the distress of languishing sickness, and while in the full possession of every domestick endearment, of the affection of numerous friends, and of the respect and esteem of the wise and good of his countrymen, he was suddenly summoned to render his account to his God, to whose service he had devoted the talents committed to his management.

The memory of the just shall be blessed.

In the management of the concerns of the Society, the Trustees have, by all the means in their power, sought the promotion of its great objects.

Some inconvenience having arisen from the Rev. Messrs. Nurse and Warren's depending for that part of their support, which the people of their charge could not pay, upon two different Missionary Societies, a conference was holden by a Committee of your Board of Trustees, and a delegation of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. And it was agreed between them, that in future, Mr. Nurse should exclusively depend upon the last mentioned Society, and Mr. Warren depend solely on us.

The Trustees feel painful emotions at the separation from Mr. Nurse and the people of Ellsworth. Under the auspices of this Society, Mr. Nurse began his successful instructions in that place; their annual donations having greatly assisted to ripen measures, which