charge: 600 of them reside in town, and have opportunities of hearing the Word. About 400 of these attend; and about 50 of them have, I believe, some sense of religion. But there are 500 living astray, and in farms and hamlets, to whom I cannot attend. Wellington should have been under our care, had we a Missionary to place there: I attended to the people last year, till I found that this obliged me to neglect my own. You will hear from the Brethren Johnson and Düring how anxiously the people of York and the Bananas desire to hear the Word of God; and, when you read, in the Minutes of our last Meeting, what regulations we were obliged to make, in removing from place to place such persons as are in the service of the Society, your heart must be moved once more with compassion for Western Africa; especially when you consider that there are but seven of us now living in Africa, to attend to the spiritual demands of fourteen Stations.

In compliance with these pressing calls, the Committee are preparing a considerable number of Labourers, who will proceed to Sierra Leone at the close of the present Rains: but, in all parts of the Heathen World, and especially in the more ungenial climates, the increase of Native Labourers is an object of main importance to the extension of Christianity. The Committee have much pleasure, therefore, in reporting the addition of other Native Teachers to those which are already employed by the Society in Sierra Leone. Mr. Johnson writes on this subject, at the end of December

As William Davis has now the charge of Wilberforce, and Hastings is left vacant, I have spoken to one of our oldest Communicants, who has undertaken to officiate, for the present, at Hastings. He was baptised with Tamba, Davis, and Noahhas useful gifts in prayer and explaining the Scripture, and reads well. He is a tailor by trade, and independent of Government -has a wife and one child-and is of irreproachable conduct. As he will have to go on Saturday and come back on Monday, we shall be obliged to allow him something for loss of time.

We have another Communicant, a carpenter, who has offered his services to the Society: he is very promising. I have put him on trial: he receives extra instruction; and, should he prove worthy, I shall, at a future period, present him to the Society. He has an ardent desire to teach his countrymen.

I feel thankful that we are enabled to supply with Native Teachers those Settlements for which we cannot obtain Europeans. W. Tamba, I am happy to say, conducts himself with great propriety the people under his care at Bathurst do certainly

improve. The Schools are in good order. I am, on the other hand, sorry that he cannot now visit the Sherbro Country. Oh, that the Lord would send us more help!

As a number of Class Teachers are required on the National System of Education which is now established in the Colony, and these places are supplied by the more advanced Scholars, who receive a small stipend for their encouragement, it may be reasonably hoped that from this body a constant succession of Students may be obtained for the Christian Institution at Regent's Town, and that from the operation of this system the wants of the Colony and its vicinity will gradually be supplied.

This Native Assistance is the more important, as the health of Europeans is so precarious on these shores. The last rains were severe, and proved fatal in their effects, more particularly to persons who had recently arrived. Mr. Flood writes, in October, that upward of thirty, chiefly new-comers, had died. The deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, in the Gambia, in August, and of Mr. Renner, at Kent, in September, have been already stated. Mr. and Mrs. Düring, and Mr. and Mrs. Norman, with Mrs. Lisk, had suffered severely: Mr. Flood had been twice confined with fever; but the lives of all were mercifully spared.

The return of the First Chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Rock Garnsey, and of Mrs. Garnsey, was mentioned in the last Report. The Second Chaplain, the Rev. Samuel Flood, has succeeded him; and the Rev. Henry Palmer, admitted to Holy Orders by the Lord Bishop of London, has been appointed to the Second Chaplaincy.

Some changes have taken place in the Stations of the Missionaries, in the course of the year, which will be noticed in their proper places.

Very considerable accessions were made, at different times, to the Liberated Negroes under the Society's care. Several hundreds of these emancipated Slaves have been recently associated with their countrymen at Regent's Town and Gloucester, and are partaking with them in all the blessings of Christian Instruction.

The most affecting scenes were witnessed on these occasions.

Upward of 200 Slaves, just liberated from their cruel bondage, having been delivered to Mr. Johnson's care, to be conducted to Regent's Town, he says

As soon as we came in view, all the people ran out of their houses toward the road, to meet us, with loud acclamations. When they beheld the new people, weak and faint, they caught hold of them, carried them on their backs, and led them up toward my house. As they lay there exhausted on the ground, many of our people recognised their friends and relatives; and there was a general cry of "O Massa! my Sister!"-" My Brother!"-" My Sister!"-" My Countryman! he live in the same town!" I cannot do justice to the scene. None of us could refrain from shedding tears; and lifting up our hearts in prayer and praise to the wonder-working God, whose ways are in the deep.

A similar scene took place on the arrival, at Gloucester, of another company of newly-liberated Slaves. In Mr. Düring's account of their reception, the Members will notice with pleasure his testimony to the powerful influence of Christianity on his own people. Having received a considerable body of Slaves under his charge, he says

When I got them all out of Freetown, on their way to Gloucester, I reviewed them; and soon found that I had not brought men enough with me, to help these poor afflicted people up the hill. Happily, a man, while they were passing, after liberation, through the Court of the Mixed Commission, had run up to Gloucester to fetch more people to carry the sick home. Ignorant of what the man had done, I went on slowly with them, almost despairing of getting them up: but I had not gone far from the foot of the hill, before I was met by great numbers, who, as they came up, took upon their backs those who were unable to walk; and when I was half way up, I saw almost the whole of them carried by those whom we had met on the road.

It struck me very much, particularly when I compared this affecting scene with some which I had formerly beheld. Mr. Bickersteth can sufficiently judge, for he was a witness of the wretched state of the Captured Negroes when they arrive in the Colony; but he, then, could not have beheld such a pleasing scene. The Negroes, then in the Colony, would sometimes slip out to see if any of their respective countrymen were among the newly-arrived: if not, they would take little or no notice of the unhappy sufferers: but now, they sympathize with their distressed fellow-creatures, in a manner the most striking.

When we reached home, I ordered victuals to be prepared for the new people; but, before this could be done, food came in from every quarter. The Women, and part of our School Girls, who had cooked it, did not stop to ask, "Who is of my country?"-but the men and women who were nearest to them were refreshed.

The people were quite eager to receive them, and make them comfortable in their houses. Among the rest was a Woman,, one of the Communicants, who took one of the newly-arrived Women under her care. She was asked by Mrs. Düring what she wanted to do with the new Woman. She said, "Ma'am, that now almost two years since me come this country. My countrywoman take me: she do me good: she tell me of the Lord Jesus Christ-and that same they do to me that time, me want to do same to this Woman."

How severe is the reproach which this tenderness of Converted Africans casts on their oppressors, who are an opprobrium to the Christian Name! For such is the dreadful effect of familiarity with the Slave Trade in brutalizing the mind, that numbers of these people were so injured by the treatment which they met with on board the Slave Vessels, that no care or tenderness could recover them: they sunk into the grave in the midst of their countrymen, rescued too late from the hands of the barbarians, who must one day answer for their blood. Mr. Johnson writes on this painful subject, in October last

I regret to say, that we have lost many of our new people. The poor creatures were so much reduced, from being packed close on board the vessel, that the rains (which set in as soon as they arrived) were more than they could endure. We have lost nearly 50 out of 238; and I believe this mortality has been exceeded in other places.

There are some features of this cruelty, which are traced with horror by the Missionaries. Mr. Johnson mentions one, which will excite, the Committee are persuaded, the just indignation of all who hear it :

Among the number of victims received by us at Regent's Town, were two Women, who, becoming pregnant by two White Men, Slave Dealers, were sold by these men as soon as they discovered the situation of the Women. These Women suffered so much on board the Slave Vessel, that they were both delivered, soon after their arrival, of still-born Mulatto Children, and both the Women died!

The labours of Christians among this injured people have a peculiar claim on the support of all humane persons and it is increasingly evident, that these labours are well-pleasing in the eyes of the Father of Mercies, who condescends to crown them with success. Mr Nyländer writes, in September—

The Lord's work is prospering in every Settlement, more or less. We are going on with the extension of Christ's Kingdom: many have been added to the Church, in different Settlements. May the Lord prosper the work of his Servants!

In October, Mr. Johnson says

Your Mission in Africa, my Dear Sirs, is, I believe, more troubled than any other. I can compare it to nothing better than a vessel in a heavy gale of wind on the ocean; but the gale proves favourable, and pushes it onward to its destined haven!

He adds, in December, in reference more particularly to the growing regard of the Colonists to the Mission

The Gentlemen in Freetown are now so fully convinced of the success produced by the preaching of the Gospel, that they publicly confess, that, above all other Institutions, ours has proved the most beneficial to the children of Africa. They have inspected the Settlements in the mountains; and have been surprised on witnessing the order, industry, and piety of our people; and acknowledge that the Gospel is the only efficient means of civilizing the Heathen. Several have desired me to call on them for their contributions to the Society. At the head of these is His Excellency the Governor.

The Committee have great satisfaction in adducing the testimony of Sir Charles MacCarthy to the improved state in which he found the Settlements, on his return from this country. It is contained in a Letter, dated Sierra Leone, Jan. 14, 1822, addressed to Earl Bathurst, and printed among the Parliamentary Papers. His Excellency, after announcing his arrival at the Colony on the 28th of November, adds

I have employed as great a proportion of my time as I could spare from my other duties, in visiting the Towns and Villages on the Peninsula, inhabited by Liberated Negroes and Discharged Soldiers and it affords me the highest satisfaction to say, that I have found these people happy, contented, and industrious; more particularly the Liberated Negroes, who, at different periods, were landed here from the holds of Slave Ships,

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