LETTER VIII.

MY DEAR LUCY,

Ir has been observed by one, who has been several years in the country, and has had every opportunity of forming a correct judgment, that Southern India is "like a thirsty land longing for water at every pore, but with no man to water it."

Most fully is this corroborated by the frequent applications from various quarters to the Madras Corresponding Committee, for the establishment of a fresh Mission, or at least a school, in some new spot; and by their inability, from want of labourers, to comply with them. This has particularly been the case with the neighbourhood of Madras, where the Society established a Mission some years ago, but has been unable to keep it up effectively.

The chief station of this Mission was at Valaveram, one of several villages within a short distance of each other, and from twenty to thirty miles from Madras, the inhabitants of which, about 2,000 in number, are partly heathen, and partly Christian.

A few schools were opened-a native catechist was settled there, and the Mission was visited once a month by a Missionary from Madras, who administered the Lord's supper, baptized any who were prepared, and examined the schools and general state of the Mission. But the want of regular Missionaries at Madras has lately prevented the continuance even of this imperfect system; and, except a few occasional visits from Europeans, the whole has for the last four or five years been underthe sole care of the catechist.

While Mr. Blackman was at Madras, he had the superintendence of it, and very frequent were the applications for an increase in the number of schools, so that there might be one for each village; and sometimes a similar request would come from some more distant place, which had before been unknown to him. Even now, though they have been so continually disappointed, they have not lost the desire for instruction, for it is not long since an European catechist, who passed a few days among them, gave, in his letters home, the same account of the earnestness with which they pressed him on the subject.

Could he have held out to them any hope of their desires being fulfilled, it would have been very encouraging to him, as he passed from village to village, to see them gathering round him of an

evening after their day's work, that they might hear from him the Word of Life, eagerly requesting baptism for their children, and urging their request for a Missionary and schoolmasters.

On one occasion, the headman of a heathen village, with two others of the principal people, ran some way after his palanquin with a petition from all their neighbours, to beg for the establishment of a school, and you may suppose how painful it was to him to be obliged, time after time, still to return the same answer, "The Committee have no means

of helping you."

And yet, inadequate as one solitary native catechist, and four or five small schools, are to supply the spiritual wants of these poor people, they have been the means of spreading some rays of light through the surrounding darkness, and several instances of this have come to the knowledge of friends in Madras.

One of these was a heathen, who brought one of the usual requests to Mr. Blackman, and who interested and surprised him by asking many questions, which incidentally showed that he had by some means acquired a considerable knowledge of the Scriptures.

Another was that of a woman, whose son was in one of the schools, and was in the habit of repeating his lessons to her when he returned home in

the evening. By means of this simple teaching, her mind was gradually opened to Divine truth, the ten commandments especially struck her as condemning the idolatry in which her whole life had been passed and after some time, she and several other members of her family, altogether twenty in number, put themselves under instruction, preparatory to baptism.

Some time ago a Missionary from Madras, making the usual circuit of the villages, received an invitation from one which he had never before visited. On his arrival, the people collected around him, and begged of him to take some means to send them a Missionary and schoolmaster who might teach them "the sacred book." The Missionary asked them what they knew about his "sacred book;" upon which an old man, sitting near him, answered, “I know a little of it," and immediately began to repeat in Tamul, the first part of St. John's Gospel. He went through the first two or three chapters very correctly, to the astonishment, as you may suppose, of the Missionary; nor was his surprise lessened, when he found that the old man was totally blind.

He eagerly inquired how this could have been, and it appeared that a lad from some distance, who had been taught in one of the schools I have been speaking of, had been for some months employed in this village, and having brought with him a portion

of the New Testament, had read it aloud so often, that the poor old man, who was much interested in it, had learnt a good deal by heart. The lad had left the village some time before, but the memory of the attentive hearer still retained the precious truths.

No Missionary, however, nor schoolmaster, could be sent, for there were no labourers to go, nor any funds to support them; and if this old man ever fully received the Gospel to the saving of his soul, it was without any human instrumentality. pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, to send forth labourers into the harvest, for truly the fields are white already.*

Some of the inhabitants of these villages are Roman Catholics, of whom there are a great many in Madras and the neighbourhood, and, indeed, throughout all Southern India. They are descended 'from the converts of Francis Xavier, and other Portuguese Missionaries, who accompanied the early settlers on these shores.

Lately two Irish Roman Catholic bishops and eleven priests have been sent out to Madras, and a college of Irish students and East Indian and native boarders has been opened in Black Town, professing to be furnished with every requisite for a literary and scientific education.

* These villages have now been transferred to the Society for Propagating the Gospel.