24th. This afternoon I went to Whaw Puke, to bring home one of our girls who had been sick. A poor lad that had been burnt exhibited an affecting spectacle. He was lying down on his knees, being unable to lie comfortably in any other position. I did not examine the affected parts; but from the whiteness of Kia Roa's hand, I perceived he had been applying fresh clay. I told him, if I found this method cured the lad, I should write to Europe to tell the people there of a new method of treating burns. He expressed himself confident that it would succeed.

26th. After breakfast, I accompanied Brother Hobbs and five of our Natives, in the mission-boat, to go down the harbour to boil salt. We took provision for three days along with us. We landed in a small bay below where any of our Natives at present reside.

28th. We kept up our salt boiling till noon, aud then prepared to return home. A Native of the Negatepo tribe, came in a canoe at noon, and laid off shore for some time looking at us; no doubt surprised to see what we were doing. He was the only Native of that tribe who came near us, which was no small comfort to us.

Feb. 10th.-Kia Roa's son died yesterday. His death appears to have been from mortification occasioned by the burn he received. The Natives foolishly say that the burn got well, and that it was the Atua that killed him. In coming home this afternoon, I passed near the place where the unfortunate youth met the accident. Several of our boys, who were with me, expressed their fears, and ran one before another. Shortly afterwards I was shown some corn belonging to Potai, which had been damaged by violence, owing to a wawahi, or fight, which the friends of the deceased held with the place which burnt him.

I received a letter from the Bay of Islands, stating that Rev. William Williams may be expected in a month; that the Rev. H. Williams will positively sail in the Herald for New South Wales next week; and that a colony is on board the Prince of Denmark, just arrived from New South Wales, for Stewart's Island.

12th, (Sunday).-There were a few Bay of Islanders on the sandy beach, near Hudu's, to whom we went, but heard little else from them but what was disgraceful to our countrymen. A Native married female, who had returned home to her husband, is disconsolately sought after by the Captain of a British whaler; in consequence of

which her father is gone to bring her back, either willingly, or by force. This illicit commerce with these female savages often strengthens the Natives with arguments against our doctrine.

15th.-At Whaw Puke, to-day, I discoursed with Kia Roa. He appears concerned about his son, and said, if he had not thought we should have been angry, he would have asked us for a box to bury his remains in; that with the exception of a piece of calico, lately given to him by us, his body is put down into the earth with little covering. I asked him concerning the removing of the bones. He told me it is customary to take them up after they have been buried, some one, two, or three years; others four, five, or six years, to cry over them. I asked, if a person was poor, and had no food for the mourners, whether their friends' bones would share the honour of public lamentation. To this, Kia Roa said, the friends must work hard in order to produce plenty of food, and then they would take them up. So that, without paying, there appears to be no crying. I asked, if they cried for the slaves in this manner? "What," said Kia Roa, "the slaves taken in war?" "Yes;" I replied. "No, no," said he; "where, or near where a slave dies, he is buried. We don't take them to the Wahi tapu, or sacred place." "Why?" said I. "Because," said Kia Roa's friend, "New Zealand men would be angry." This specimen of human pride in these degraded creatures, (who appear to us to be all on a level,) above their fellow-worms, affected my heart. While speaking to Kia Roa, on the vast difference between England and New Zealand, in a temporal point of view, which I attributed to the Gospel; he asked, "If all the people there were righteous." This led me to discourse at large with him.

On my way home, two Native School children, who accompanied me, perceived a green lizard in the path, and seemed to be very much afraid of it. I could not but admire the beauty of the animal, and felt a great inclination to bring it home dead, and preserve it in spirits. But an unwillingness to put it to death, prevented me from doing so, for which I was afterwards somewhat sorry for the boy who accompanied me, said, "That if we had killed it we should be destroyed; that this was Tahahu's (the deceased priest's) god; the same who had killed Hiva, a relation of his; that if this lizard was killed to-day in a certain place,

and any persons came to the same place to-morrow, they would find him gone, for he would come to life again, and rise up in the sky; that it is from the sky the lizards descend. After 1 had experienced the mortification of hearing these remarks, I told the boy I had thought of killing it, and putting it in my room. He expressed surprise, mingled with secret horror. Just before we reached home we met an aged man, whose unsteady step and hoary head, bespoke his near approach to the "house appointed for all living." I endeavoured to talk to him, and asked him what he thought. "Why," said he, “I am continually thinking (as you say) that I am near death. But that is all I know, or can do." The feeling with which the old man spoke, was affecting. O Sun of righteousness, let thine enlightening rays speedily visit this region and valley of the shadow of death.

17th. I instructed a class of new be ginners by writing a single letter in three lines on their slates, and then making them stand up, and in succession repeat a letter, and rub it out after repeating it, till all were rubbed off. I am often puzzled to know what plan to pursue to keep their attention awake, particularly new scholars. This plan, in some measure, answers the purpose;

for when they see the more forward boys stand up in a class, they feel emulous to imitate them. It will serve

also to strengthen their memories; for their indolent minds are often too lazy to give themselves the trouble to try to retain the names of the characters they learn to write. This is often a source of trial; for after long practice at a letter, and the art of making it tole rably well is acquired, a boy is asked to stand up in a class, and write certain characters which he is known to have learned, and he is often found totally to have forgotten the name of the character, though he may still retain the method of writing it when shown the copy.

I heard with pleasure and delight this evening an account read from the Christian Guardian of 1824, which Brother Turner was favoured with by Mr. Richard Davies, of a discussion held at Carrick-on-Shannon, on the propriety of disseminating the Scriptures. If some of the defenders of ignorance of the Scriptures would exchange heretical England for those habitations of cruelty, where that heavenly word has never shed its healing balm, they would soon be glad to re-exchange their habitation, and return to that land of glorious Gospel-light and truth.

My first acquaintance with Mr. Threlfall took place on his arrival at Salem, in 1822; the Committee having in the early part of that year, sent him out to my help on the Albany Circuit. Being single, he lodged with my family (excepting when itinerating according to our plan) at Salem, all the time he remained on the Circuit, which was about a year; hence I had a good opportunity of forming an opinion of his character.

As a Christian, his piety was of a high order; he appeared to be deeply convinced of the importance of enjoying, at all times, a sense of the favour of God; he lived much in the spirit of prayer, and several long and close conversations that occurred between us, and which are still fresh in my recollection, evinced at once his relish for, and deep acquaintance with," the hidden

things of God." He was naturally of a warm temper; but he was deeply sensible of it, and if at any time he thought he had been betrayed by his feelings into any undue severity, or even trifling impropriety of language, he had enough of Christian humility to acknowledge the evil, and to lament the unnecessary pain which he might thereby have occasioned.

At our Love-Feasts I was several times much gratified and edified by the explicit manner in which he spoke of his Christian experience; he seemed continually to be able to say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

As a Christian Minister and Missionary his memory will always be cherished by those who knew him, and enjoyed the benefit of his ministerial instructions. His sermons were not characterized by, eloquence of speech, but

nevertheless his language was generally correct, and always grave, and suited to the capacities of his hearers. His sermons usually contained sound divinity, illustrated and proved in its various branches by the Holy Scrip

tures.

He faithfully reproved sinners, and assiduously sought to reclaim the wanderers from the fold of Christ in those important parts of the Christian Minister's duty, he was eminently successful; and there are now in Albany, and in other parts of the Colony, several who I trust will be "the crown of his rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus." He was very attentive to his appointments on the Circuit, and was withal an affectionate colleague; when he saw me oppressed with the cares of building the Graham's Town and Salem Chapels, and other affairs which at that time devolved upon me, he was always ready to propose relieving me of some part of the labour, whenever in his power. He seemed to have devoted himself entirely to the great work of preaching among the heathen the "un searchable riches of Christ," and was therefore anxious to make known the Gospel, in those "regions where Christ is not named."

Mr. Kay having come to the Albany Circuit, shortly after Mr. Threlfall's arrival amongst us, and our way, at that period, not being quite clear to commence a Mission in Caffreland, it was considered that we ought not to keep three Preachers on the Station; and therefore, at the request of Mr. B. Shaw, our late brother went to his assistance in Cape-Town; scarcely had he arrived there, when an offer having been made by Capt. Owen, R. N., to take a Missionary in his ship to Delagoa-Bay, Brother Threlfall readily offered to go thither, from a desire to open the way for the commencement of a Mission among the Pagan tribes in the vicinity of that Bay.

A short extract from a letter received from him, while he was at DelagoaBay, will show with what cheerfulness he submitted to the privations of a Missionary life; the letter is dated from the "Village of Slengally, in the Kingdom of Temby," and he says, "I feel myself very comfortable in mind; I live in a hut quite alone in this village, and never felt more at home in my life; I have no servant, I cook the food which I first provide myself, and wash my own linen: now and then I get a native boy to fetch me a little water, and boil my kettle." A most alarming sickness, with which he was attacked

shortly after his arrival, was the cause of his leaving Delagoa-Bay, whence he was brought to Table-Bay, in an apparently dying state, by the Master of a British trader. In answer to some inquiries of mine, on the subject of his return, he says, in one of his letters from Cape-Town, now before me,"My return from Delagoa was occasioned solely by my sickness, as you suppose, and not by the massacre of the Portuguese. I had no more fear of the Natives, than if they had been a flock of sheep; as, when we were blockaded in the Fort by them, I offered my personal services to obtain a treaty of peace with them, by being conveyed into the midst of them, as through weakness I was not able to walk so far, though not more than five hundred yards: on the whole, the Portuguese ought to be grateful to me, that their old Fort and every thing belonging to it, with themselves, were not destroyed altogether."

After Brother Threlfall's return to the Colony, and his continuing for some time, in a state of ill health, at CapeTown, he went to our station at Khamies-Berg, with the hope that the peculiar climate of that elevated situation would tend to the re-establishment of his health, and which it appears to have done, in a considerable degree; it is, however, unnecessary for me to pursue his Missionary history further, as of the remaining particulars, connected with his journey into Great Namacqualand, and the sad tragedy by which it appears to have been terminated, you have received as full accounts as myself.

How awfully inexplicable is the procedure of the God of wisdom, to shortsighted man! How profoundly mysterious do the attendant circumstances of our late Brother's death appear! Cut off by the hands of men, whose present and eternal good he was assiduously seeking! But for such a result, how unexpected soever it may have been, I know he was not unprepared. I believe he had fully "counted the cost," before he entered on the Missionary work; he seemed to me to be, continually dwelling on sentiments like those contained in the following beautiful lines of the "sweet singer" of our" Israel:

"The love of Christ doth me constrain
To seek the wand'ring souls of men ;
With cries, entreaties, tears, to save,
To snatch them from the yawning grave."
"My life, my blood, I here present,
If for thy truth they may be spent;
Fulfil thy sovereign counsel, Lord,
Thy will be done, thy name ador'd."

*

In the ancient history of the Church, there are many instances of Christian Missionaries being destroyed by the hands of those whom they were sent to convert, and in more modern times the history of the Moravian Missions, as also those of the London and Scottish Missionary Societies, respectively, contain painful recitals of a similar nature; and it now appears that a page of melancholy interest must be added to the history of the Wesleyan Missions, recording the tragical circumstances which have terminated the zealous labour of this faithful Missionary to the Gentiles.

Let us, however, not be cast down beyond measure, by this severe trial of our faith God has, indeed, been pleased to allow his servant to perish, while engaged in his service; but He will still carry on his own work, in a way, and by means, of which we can now form no conceptions. William Threlfall is, indeed, no longer our companion and fellow-labourer on earth; but he is gone to join the "noble army of martyrs," now before the throne of God, where the bloody hand of the pitiless assassin shall be never seen; where the inhabitants shall not say, "I am sick;" where "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat;" and, where "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Although I was never favoured with a sight of either of Mr. Threlfall's two Namacqua companions, who, like himself, appear to have fallen a sacrifice to the rapacity of bad men, yet I feel unwilling to close this letter without adverting to them. By the united

report of all the Brethren who knew them, they were both pious men, aud had been raised up under Mr. B. Shaw's ministry at Khamies-Berg; they left all their friends and enjoyments, (and let it be remembered that natives of Africa are even fonder of home and its enjoyments than the natives of Europe,) for the purpose of assisting Brother Threlfall in communicating the light of divine truth to the benighted Great Namacquas.-Jacob Links has long been known as the Native Assistant Missionary in Namacqualand, and he has been useful in his day and generation. The following description of his character and attainments you will read with interest, when I inform you that it is from the pen of Brother Threlfall himself, and was written in a letter to me, dated Khamies-Berg, April 11, 1825, within three months of the period when they commenced their journey to the interior. He says, "Jacob Links is the schoolmaster and interpreter; he is well acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, and is intelligent and pious; but he has still the peculiarities of a Namacqua, weak in his resolutions, and timid in all his proceedings: he appears, however, to have a keen sense of his defects, combined with a gracious simplicity, and deep humility; he is always cheerful, very affectionate, and I believe he is established with grace; he is about twenty-six years of age, has been married several years, but has no children: there are some valuable men in the same family." Such were the Christian Namacquas who fell with Brother Threlfall.

I SUPPOSE, my dear Brother, that you have had time to receive the answer of your Society to the proposition that I had made you to come and evangelize the Churches of our neighbourhood. Is the permission to do this granted? and may we hope to see you unite your efforts to ours for two years to bring some souls captive to the obe

dience of Christ? I believe that you might do as much good in these parts, at least, as in Languedoc. Larache is indeed only a small Protestant community, but it is placed between the churches of the Dordoyne, and those of Saint-Onge, and how much good there is to be done, particularly in these latter! There are Consistorial Churches

which have fifteen or sixteen sections, that cannot be visited by their respective Pastors oftener than every six or seven weeks, and sometimes even more rarely. Your appearance in the midst of these Churches will be, I hope, a real blessing. You know our necessities; they are great; and I shall be happy indeed to see a brother, a friend,

do that good in my Church which I have not been able to do myself. Ah, I shall not be jealous of your success. I shall bless God for it, and all my efforts will tend either to prepare the way for you, or to continue the work which you will have had the happiness of commencing.

Extract of a Letter from Mr. I WROTE to you from Cavan a few hasty lines, stating the turning away of so many from the Mass to the reformed Church, or, in other words, to the religion of Christ; the number was then ninety in Cavan church. I have returned from thence a few days since, and find that, on last Sabbath, forty-three more conformed to Protestantism; and it is considered that these are but a few drops before a great shower! I trust this beginning is the fruit of divine light just dawning on the long enslaved mind. O that it may be as the morning light, shining more and more to the perfect day! There appears to be a movement of men's minds, in some degree, all over our country. Thank God that, before my head has been laid down in the dust, my eyes already begin to see what my heart has been so many years longing after.

I have, in this last excursion, been out eighteen days. I rode upwards of forty miles (English) the day I left home, and the day I returned nearly the same; two days' travelling, besides, on which I did not preach; on the other fourteen days I preached twenty-seven times, of which eleven were in streets, and in markets chiefly, to great crowds indeed. In the first week I preached in the markets of Bally-James-Duff, Killesaudra, and Awagh. In this last, two men were shot by the peace-officers, in a dreadful riot in the fair a few days before, and in which the people, I have heard, greatly abused the police, forced a gun from one of them, and would have murdered them, had they not at length fired upon them! Yet I was heard with great attention indeed, while I opened to them Matt. xxiv. 24: "False Christs and false prophets shall come, and shall show signs, &c., to deceive even the elect, if possible," &c. On the next week I preached in Cavan streets on the Sabbath, Monday in the fair, and Tuesday in the market, besides every night to crowds in the chapel; on Wednesday, in Ballyhays street, and in the house; on Friday, in the market of Coothills;

Ouseley, dated Nov. 30th, 1826.

on Sunday, in Ballyhays street, and to a large congregation in a gentleman's parlour. On Sunday and Monday in Cavan streets, and to vast crowds in the chapel. Some Romanists followed me to have conversation with me. I trust fruit will abound. On Tuesday I preached in Ballyduff market.

1 breakfasted on two mornings at Lord Farnham's, within about two miles (English) from Cavan, and was much pleased with every thing I saw. I was at prayers each time at half-past eight in their neat chapel in Farnham-House. The established Clergy, both here and in Cavan, are amiable, pious, and zealous men, aud are very sedulous in instructing the new converts, and were quite kind and affectionate to me. They are all well pleased with my little exertious in the streets, &c., and also in my writings. Lady Farnham is a valuable person, truly so, and of great zeal for God. The converts generally come to her chapel, and are not only treated with kindness and hospitality, but are for some few days instructed by some of the pious Clergymen in the principles of pure Christianity, and then return home.

My first excursion, after Conference last, was principally through the counties of Westmeath, King and Queen's County, and I touched a little on Galway County also. The Circuits of Monteith, Tullamore, and the Banagher Mission, are situated in these. I touched on Meath and Kildare too. I was out twenty-seven days, and preached during twenty-four without intermission; rode about three hundred miles, and preached fifty-nine times, of which from twenty to thirty were in the open air and streets, to great numbers of Romanists and others, who heard gladly. I trust it will yet appear to the glory of God and good of many. The towns and villages I preached in were, Trim, Athboy, Mullingar, Tullamore, Kilbeggan, Tyrrell's Pass, Moat, Athlone, Ballinasloe, Banagher, Eyrecourt. Here, as I preached on horseback on the Sabbath to a streetful of Romanists and Protest