the heavy expenses," observes the Secretary, in a letter, dated October 31, 1820, "attendant on the double undertaking of printing at once editions of the Old and New Testaments, have literally exhausted our limited resources. We are, however, proceeding prosperously with the Cingalese translation of the Old Testament; and as that will now form the exclusive object of our attention, we may reasonably look to a diminution of our expenditure in the present year. At all events, the British and Foreign Bible Society may rest assured, that its Auxiliary in Ceylon will persevere with undiminished zeal, in advancing those great objects, which are the common aim of both Institufions."

SUMATRA.

The Sumatran Bible Society, under the active and zealous Presidency of His Excellency Sir Thomas Raffles, has published its First Report; and though it is too much in its infancy to have as yet any effects to detail, it manifests a spirit from which much good may in due time be anticipated.

After speaking of the institution of Schools for the instruction of native children, as tending to facilitate the reading and understanding of the Scriptures, and thus afford the most impor tant assistance to their Bible Society, the Report proceeds in the following animated strain :

"Thus, by mutually aiding each other, they may, in process of time, by the blessing of God, extend their benign effects throughout the whole island, an island, let it be remembered, not inferior in magnitude, perhaps, to Great Britain, and which may be as populous. How pleasing the idea to the philan thropist and the Christian, that they may become the honoured instruments of conferring such important benefits on their fellow creatures; that, by means of a trifling subscription to the Bible Society, they may aid in diffusing a light, which under the direction of Him

who is the fountain of light, may shine with increasing brightness and splendour, until every dark corner and recess of human ignorance, misery, and vice, shall be irradiated by its blessed beams; and thousands, who would otherwise have been sitting in the region and shadow of death, emerging from their obscurity, and participating in the heavenly radiance, shall themselves become the ornaments and the benefactors, the great, the wise, and the good, of future generations!"

ΑΜΒΟΥΝΑ.

The last intelligence from Amboyna announced the safe arrival of nearly 4,000 copies of the Malay New Testament, furnished from your depository, being the first portion of an edition of 10,000 printed by your Society. The Rev. Mr. Kam expressed his great joy, on thus being enabled to satisfy the more pressing demands of the native Christians throughout the Moluccas, whose number amounts to between 45 and 50 thousand.

CANTON AND MALACCA. From Canton and Malacca, the ac counts of the Rev. Drs. Morrison and Milne respecting the Chinese Scriptures are of a very gratifying nature. By the joint labours of these two indefatigable translators, a complete version of all the canonical books of Holy Scripture into the Chinese has been effected; and they are now very diligently occupied in the work of revision.

In the meanwhile the Rev. Dr. Marshman, at Serampore, has laboured with equal success on the same object. He too is employing himself in carefully revising both the parts in MS. and also those which have been printed. Referring to the length of time which it required to bring our English version to its present maturity, no less than seventy years, from Tindal to King James, Dr. Marshman very justly and candidly obe serves, that, "in a language, so extensive in its circulation as the Chinese,

two versions, perfectly independent of each other, do not appear to us a waste of labour, though each were to employ the whole of the life of many individuals."

Your Committee are so convinced of the truth of this remark, and so well satisfied with the abilities and fidelity of the conductors of the two translations, that they have granted them severally, from time to time, such assistance as their circumstances appeared respectively to require.

AFRICA.

In Africa, the prospects of your Society, though within a limited sphere compared with the extent of that mighty Peninsula, continue to improve. The journies of the Rev. Messrs. Burckhardt, Jowett, and Connor, have done much toward opening an entrance for the Scriptures into Egypt, and some of the contiguous countries; and there is reason to believe that when the Arabic Bible, now preparing by Professors Lee and Macbride, shall have been completed, followed, as it is intended to be, by some portions of the New Testament in the Amharic dialect of Abyssinia, the value of these hopeful beginnings will be more fully perceived, and the Scriptures will obtain a more extensive and effectual circulation.

In South Africa, the supplies of Bibles and Testaments which your Society has furnished, have been found very acceptable, and contributed materially to the good effect of the Missions in that quarter. Referring to this subject, a very diligent Missionary thus writes: "Here, in Africa, much good has been done. I remember, twenty years ago, when we commenced our labours, our attempts to convert the Hottentots and Boschemen were looked upon by most of the colonists with contempt, as they considered the Hottentots so very stupid that all attempts to communicate instruction to them would be in vain ; but the contrary has been fully evinced, and the labours of the Missionaries, both within

this colony and beyond its borders, have been crowned with great success. There are even at Griqua town more than three hundred who can read, and many among these have made a great prof. ciency in reading the Scriptures, and labour to treasure them up in their minds. I mention this, because it is through your instrumentality that they have become the possessors of those sacred books."

Your Committee have now the satisfaction to state, that on the 23d of August in the last year, a Society was formed at the Cape of Good Hope, under the designation of the "South African Auxiliary Bible Society." Of this institution His Excellency Sir Rufane Donkin, K. C. B. the Lieutenant Governor, is the President. Your Committee, anxious to afford substantial encouragement to a Society, in the establishment of which they very cordially rejoice, presented it with a grant of Bibles and Testaments to the amount of £200. A short extract from the official letter of the President, will be read with unqualified pleasure

"I took an opportunity," says His Excellency," of assuring the meeting, that, during the time I may administer the government, no effort shall be wanting, on my part, to promote the diffusion of Christianity throughout Southern Africa. I am persuaded that, independently of the paramount duty by which every Christian is bound to impart the light of the Gospel to those who are unacquainted with it, I shall be rendering an essential service to the colony, if I can lay the foundation of a system which shall introduce Christianity, and, consequently, civilization, among the surrounding tribes; and I hope the day is not far off, when those who are now Heathen savages shall be converted into civilized Christians."

Of their connexion with the Island of St. Helena, your Committee have nothing to add to the following statement from the Rev. W. D. Carter, Chaplain to Admiral Lambert, Commander in Chief on the St. Helena station

After acknowledging the receipt of a liberal supply of Bibles and Testaments, the Chaplain thus writes:-"I am happy to say, that the civil population of this island are by no means badly supplied with Bibles, owing to liberal distributions having been made by the resident Chaplains, and other well disposed per sons; the supplies sent me will, however, prove a valuable acquisition, both on shore and afloat, particularly the latter; and I have already received many applications on the subject, both from seamen and marines. Wherever I have given books, the parties have been very willing to pay whatever they could afford, and many indeed all that they had saved from their scanty pay and earnings as labourers on shore."

In a letter recently received from the Secretary of the Mauritius Auxiliary Society, it is stated that the operations of that Society have been unremitted and uniformly progressive; and that the last supply of Bibles had been highly acceptable.

The Auxiliary Society at Sierra Leone, under the zealous patronage of His Excellency Sir Charles Macarthy, the Governor of that Colony, continues its labours in the common cause; and has remitted, in this year, £175 to the funds of the Parent Institution.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

The New South Wales Auxiliary Society has shown, in its Fourth Report, that the circulation of the Holy Scriptures is making a very gratifying progress among the settlers in that distant Colony.

Three Bible Associations have been formed, in connexion with this Auxiliary, at Sidney, Paramatta, and Windsor; and the Branch Society at Van Diemen's Land continues to afford it a very liberal and effectual co-operation. The number of copies of the Scriptures received by the New South Wales Society from your depository is 6,328, and its contribution to your funds £840. "This indeed," observes the Report, ❝is a return vastly exceeding the most

sanguine hopes of the Society's warmest friends at its institution in 1817. Still the remittance falls far short of the cost price of the Scriptures furnished by the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the instruction and edification of the people in these settlements, before and since the establishment of your Auxiliary Society."

Your Committee have great pleasure in adding, that Major General Sir Thomas Brisbane, the new Governor of this Colony, previously to his departure from England, obligingly attended one of their meetings, and expressed, in the kindest and most explicit manner, his determination to co-operate with the views of your Society, by patronizing and promoting the dissemination of the Scriptures among the numerous and varied population over which his authority will extend.

MADEIRA.

In proceeding across the Atlantic, your Committee would notice the good reception which the Portuguese Scriptures have met with among the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the Island of Madeira. It reflects honour on the liberality of the Governor, that, on a representation being made to him by your agent, that he had received from a Society in London an annual supply of Testaments presented to the youths of this island, the Governor ordered they should pass free of duty.

A remittance has been annually received from an active friend of the Society in that island; but the circumstances of the labouring population are such, that the greater number of copies must necessarily be distributed gratis.

WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

From Jamaica, the Auxiliary Society of the people of colour sent a third remittance of 1001. sterling, requiring a return of Bibles and Testaments to one fourth of the amount.

The Barbadoes Auxiliary Society, of the people of colour, in its third Report,

announces a distribution of 53 Bibles and 122 Testaments. Its Committee observe, that," in endeavouring to circulate the Scriptures, they find much anxiety among the slaves to receive them; those who can read, delight in their Bibles; many have commenced learning to read, and Bibles have been promised them at reduced prices." A third remittance of 201. has just been received from this Society.

From Dominica a correspondent thus writes:-"The supplies with which I have been furnished from different sources are now almost totally exhausted, and, in the article of French copies, wholly so. I have lately been applied to from Martinique, a neighbouring French island, for copies. I think there is reason to believe, that the Bible will find an increasing number of readers, both in French and English. I believe I may say the Bible has real friends among the superior ranks in this colony, whose attention I hope will ere long be called to its circulation."

In the Island of Antigua, chiefly through the diligent exertions of the Moravian Missionaries, the Scriptures furnished by your Society, are read with attention and profit by not a few individuals among the native population of the island. In their application for further supplies, the Missionaries mention that those already bestowed upon them had been of most essential service; and one of their number, the Rev. Mr. Richter, of St. Johns, adds the following statement in support of this application:

"I was called to visit a young Mulatto who was ill of a decline; he had led a profligate life, but was in a state of great penitence, and told me that he read by day in the New Testament, and when at night kept awake by a severe cough, repeated to himself such particular passages as had made an impression on his mind, which afforded great comfort to his soul. Our people are in general too poor to purchase books: The bounty, therefore, of the Society would be very apceptable and well bestowed.

"The inhabitants of these islands generally respect the word of God, many prize it highly; and, since they have been blessed with it, their moral condition has been greatly improved. I am informed, there is no comparison between the moral state of this colony now, and twenty years ago, when they had few, if any, Bibles. The Sabbath was then totally disregarded; now, I believe, it is kept with as much decorum as in most parts of England."

The Auxiliary Society of the people of colour in the Bermuda Islands has published its first Report, from which it appears, that, within one year from its commencement, this Society had distributed 305 Bibles and Testaments. From the zeal manifested by its President, the Hon. J. C. Esten, Chief Justice of the Island, and the other conductors of the Society, much may be expected.

In Demerara the correspondent of your Society has found the circulation of the Scriptures proceed but slowly, on account of the difficulties opposed to the instruction of the slaves in reading. "Still," he observes, "a goodly number endeavour to learn one of another; and those who succeed in these pious efforts, think themselves peculiarly happy when once they can read. in the Gospel of St. John, which seems to be their favourite portion of the word of God. Many of the slaves highly prize the Scriptures. Some, who had not learned a letter of the alphabet,' have applied to me for Bibles. Several with whom I am acquainted, carry their Bibles or Testaments three or four

.miles, in order to have a few verses read."

SOUTH AMERICA.

In Spanish South America your Committee have ascertained that a desire to peruse the Holy Scriptures exists, and appears to be progressively awakened in proportion as copies are distributed through the comparatively few channels which as yet have been opened for their transmission. Those channels, however, are multiplying; advantage is taken of them by your Society's correspondents, as also by those of the American Bible Society. Through the latter, your Committee have received a statement, derived from very high authority, which corroborates what they have mentioned above. The statement is as follows:-" The Bible, in the Spanish language, may now be distributed with good effect in Buenos Ayres and Margaretta. The field of exertion is large in both those places; and, before they can be supplied, other places in Spanish South America will be open." It will be satisfactory to you to know,

taining their independence, yet the National Society appears to be travelling fast toward a comprehension of the friends of the Holy Scriptures within one well organized and effective Institution.

From the greatness of the scale on which the operations of the American -Bible Society are now conducted, it has become impracticable for your Committee to exhibit any such account of them, as would furnish the mind with a just idea of the variety of their details, and the vastness of their combination. For this, your Committee must refer to the Annual Reports of the American Society themselves, now scarcely (if at all) inferior in bulk to your own. It is, however, due to the members of both Institutions, that a summary statement should be given of what this great Ally has done in the way of printing, distribution, collection of funds, and acquisition of Auxiliary Societies.

To this summary statement, about a page and a half is devoted. It is unnecessary to

Divine Providence from both Spanish and Portuguese Catholics, copious editions of the Scriptures are preparing in these languages, agreeable to the versions accredited by the proper authorities in their respective churches.

UNITED STATES.

The following paragraphs will show the estimation in which the American Bible Soeiety is held by the Parent Institution in London.

In the United States of America, the national Establishment under the designation of the "American Bible Society," furnishes all the evidences of an active, judicious, and rapidly extending institution. From its centre, in NewYork, this society carries out its operations to the utmost limits of the American Union; and, although some few Societies of an earlier date have preferred, for local considerations, main

embraced in our abstract of the last Report of the American Bible Society, inserted in our number for June.