and a distillery; the latter, as usual, layers of tinsel, that made a gingling offering a strong resistance to the whenever it was handled. On reentrance of the truth. Before the moving the tinsel, in a hollow cut in Burmans conquered the country, the wood were several folds of cloth, several populous Siamese villages under which appeared the book were located in this neighborhood; spread out at full length, which, to of which the Jack and Dorian trees the great amusement of the people, that abound here, afford satisfactory I read as follows:evidence, as they are not indigenous. The valley of the Tenasserim is one of the finest in India, and although a few hundred wandering Karens is the aggregate of its present population, the remains of four walled towns, that still exist on the river north of where I now stand, indicate a former population of many thousands. Feb. 19. My host and his wife declared their determination, this morning, to serve the Lord, whatever others might do, and as I have promised to make another visit next year, they will return with me, they say, to Matamyo. The villagers showed me the way to a few Karen houses on the Charawa, a considerable stream that comes in from the east, and down which the Siamese used to make inroads on the inhabitants below. Here I was glad to find two of our company, who had been separated from us about ten days, on a preaching excursion. They report favorably of the neighborhoods they have visited; in many of which, the people are anxious to have schools established among them. Here is an individual, who unites in himself the character of both prophet and necromancer. I found the whole neighborhood assembled in his zayat, and the great man himself reclining in a raised apartment between two rows of peacock's feathers. I was soon informed that this prophet, as a proof that he was sent of God, had received a book from heaven which they worshipped, and the people requested him to show it to me, as I might, perhaps, be able to read it. With some reluctance, he produced a small piece of wood about two inches long, and one and a half broad, with a short handle, and wrapped in several Wheelwright, Monk-house, Winter & Brooker, London. In fact, it was a card of a London Firm, which had by some unknown means found its way here. As the result of this day's labors, two men, out of a dozen, profess to believe the Gospel and request baptism. It is exceedingly discouraging to leave such persons without any opportunities for receiving instruction, yet leave them I must. To-morrow we move down the Tenasserim again, which for two or three days' journey below is without an inhabitant. 22. We did not reach inhabitants last evening as we expected; but rain coming on, I determined to keep on the raft, as it was impossible to find shelter on the shore; so we kept driving on amid the wind and rain, now in the dark washing over a sand bank, and anon among the rocks and snags and sawyers with which the river abounds. Finally, we found the remains of a raft near the shore, and then felt our way through the bushes to an old house, deserted of its inhabitants, in which we lay down to sleep. The morning showed us no signs of living beings, so we took breakfast and moved on; and about a mile further on, we found a boat, and then a path which led us to a house. The people listened with interest to the gospel, asked many pertinent questions, said they had no wish to make offerings to Nats, and finally volunteered their services, to go down and show me the next house which, they said, was a day's journey below. Accordingly I came down here towed by their boat. The people manifest much interest in the Gospel. After worship to-night the leading man said, on being questioned, "I see no way to avoid believing it. No other law carries with it the evidence of truth hat this does." He said he was in the habit of praying to both God and the Nats. I asked him what he said, "I say to God," replied he, "O God, thou hast created all things, then watch over and preserve what thou hast formed." To the Nats I say, "O Thegya, preserve me from sickness and affliction of every description; suffer them not to come near me." Religion of Laos. person that is injured, bear all that is inflicted upon him without returning evil. Let no one envy another, or covet another's goods." He says, as might be anticipated, that they do not worship idols, although those that dwell in towns frequently conform to the Boodhists and pay homage to them. They all drink spirituous liquor, and their religion does not forbid it. They kill and eat animals of every description, except the turtle; and have received permission, they say, so to do from God, as in the following tradition that he repeated. "In ancient time of every description, except the turGod pretended to die, when animals tle, came and mourned for him. When God manifested himself again, he said, Eat not the turtle; of all other animals eat without sin, but it is sin to eat the turtle." There is a manifest coincidence between this and a Karen tradition, a fragment of which, in my Karen scrap book runs thus: "God about to die gave commands, gave He commanded, sun go mourning, Here are one or two natives of Laos settled among the Karens. One was at worship to night, and as he can speak Karen, I have had a long conference with him, on the subject of the religion of that tribe. He says they worship the God that made the heavens and the earth, whom they call H'tein, the Chinese name for God. Once a year they sacrifice to him two buffaloes, a black one and a white one, with prayers and ceremonies. The persons that make the sacrifice are their teachers of religion-their priests. They observe the times of new and full moon, as we do the Sabbath. They refrain froin work and travelling, but ple here is quite encouraging. They 23. The appearance of the peonot from eating as do the Boodhists. Their ideas of the omnipresence of don Nat worship and drink. A wopretty universally promise to abanGod, may be gathered from the fol- man at worship this evening, who lowing tradition which he repeated. has a drunken husband, almost swore "In ancient times men ate the tur-after it closed, that she would never tle, and devoured them in such great numbers, that they (i. e. the turtles) went and besought God, who, (as a punishment to men for their gluttony) covered up men's eyes; so, that although God is ever near us, no one can see him." The man has as good a system of mere morality in his head, as I can teach him. Isuspect, however, that he has got some of his morality from the Karens. He 24. After promising to visit them repeated a number of command-again next year, and administering ments, coinciding with scripture medicine as usual to the sick, I morality, among which were the pushed off; but not without an following: Pray to God day and night continually." "Let men love each other unfeignedly; and let a 66 "If make him any more drink. Interesting Interview with a Karen Teacher. liquor among the Karens. *The women make all the spirituous On Praise the law of God, It is pure as water, even as sand; It is pleasant as water, smooth as iron." The people all promised to abandon drink, and Nat worship, and the religious teacher and his wife accompanied us. We met with a boat full of people, to whom we preached the Gospel. They were going to offer to Nats, and promised, that after they had offered to them this once, they would abandon them forever. We came to the house of the head man at Tsau-thrau. He says he saw br. Wade in Mergui, and that he believes, but he does not practise accordingly. After this, we moved down a few miles to a comfortable escort of the people in a canoe. the way, we met with a religious teacher and his wife, who live in the neighborhood. They begged us to stop; but after a little conversation they concluded to return, and started on before us. On reaching his house, where I now am, we found every thing prepared for us, in the very first of Karen style, with their garments spread on the floor, for me to walk upon from one room to another. While listening to the reading of the View in Karen, he occasionally exclaimed, "The Lord," "The Lord," "The Lord." He has built an addition to his house as a place of worship, and himself and such of his neighbors as are disposed, assemble every night to worship, where they pray and sing hymns. zayat, near which are two Karen In his place of worship, I found a houses. The head man has sent us shrine surrounded with something down his boat, as he fears the alliresembling a Chinese pagoda, and gators will take us off our little rafts, many ridiculous ornaments. I told for they occasionally take people out him these things were not proper. of the boats. An instance of this “Well, then," said he, “I will de-kind occurred a few weeks ago, stroy them if you say they are wrong. wherein a Burman man was deI made them through ignorance, not voured by one that came into his knowing what was proper. I have boat, while he was asleep, waiting been long living in hopes, that I for the turn of the tide. It deserves should see a teacher among us, and to be remarked, that the Burmans now you have come, I am determined would see us all devoured by allito do as you say." Accordingly I gators before they would offer to have seen his temple cleared, until lend us a boat, with men to take it it would do for a Quaker conventi- back again free of expense, as this cle. The people around us appear Karen has done. determined to enrol themselves as Christians, but the old man says, he fears the men will drink, and the women scold, after all. A man that lives in an adjacent house has just been begging a book, and expressing his determination to live as its requirements demand. 25. I was awaked in the middle of the night, by the singing of some women in the next room. I caught a few verses. "If we know the Lord Jesus Christ Christ Is delivered from his sins; No other God should be worshipped; No other God shall be worshipped; Tenasserim. 26. Noon found us in this ancient city, which is situated on a narrow peninsula, formed by the confluence of the "Little River," and the Tenasserim. Its dilapidated walls, several miles in circumference, still exist, to indicate something of its former importance. Little of its history however, is known, more than that it was built by the Siamese, and was a very populous and busy city many centuries before the existence of Mergui. The present population, consists of a few hundred inhabitants, who, like the city, appear to belong to a former generation; and the whole strikingly resembles an old French town in the valley of the Mississippi. It is the very empire of dulness, and made, as well as an intoxicating we failed in our attempts to gain any attention to the Gospel. at liquor; concerning which an old I was surprised, in the afternoon, by the arrival of Capt. Leslie, the Governor of the province, who, it appears, is going to visit a Siamese settlement up the Little River, forming by emigrants from Siam. He tells me that there is a Siamese town of nearly a thousand inhabitants, near the southern boundary of the province, on the sea-coast-(would not this be an eligible situation for a Siamese missionary?) He gave me at parting a pressing invitation to make his house at Mergui my home, during my stay there, and has just sent me a note ordering the person Immediately on my arrival I sought in charge of his house to receive me, out Ko Ing, but he gives a discourand provide for me as for himself. aging view of the place, so far as reMissionaries have so often cause to ligion is concerned. He had incomplain of those in authority, that tended to return to Tavoy about a the uniform kindness those in Bur-month ago, but a woman here afmah have experienced, deserves to be noted. Mergui. forded him some encouragement, which he interpreted as an indication that it was his duty to stay. The Karen settlement br. Wade visited, lies on the north side of the island; but the people have gone back to Nat worship, Ko Ing says, worse than ever; so I shall not turn aside to visit them at present, but return to Tavoy by land, on the west side of the mountains, among which several Karen settlements remain unvisited. 2. Besides Ko Ing, his family, and a Burman woman that br. Wade baptized, who adorns her profession, we had two or three persons at worship to-day, who afford some encouragement, in having abandoned idol worship, and being favorably inclined to the truth. March 1. Between Tenasserim and this place, we visited one or two villages, that afford nothing worthy of particular remark. The Karens, however, pressingly requested me to come again. The tide serving in the night, we got down here about sunrise. The bamboo houses, scattered amid a grove of cocoa nut trees, give the place a most oriental appearance, while good broad streets, intersecting each other at right angles, seem to indicate more than oriental civilization. The town stands on the top and sides of a hill that rises from the water's edge, between one and two hundred feet high, and is by far the pleasantest I dined with the military comtown I have seen in India. On the mandant and his lady, who are very south and west side, it is shut in by pleasant people, and favorably ina labyrinth of islands, on the north-clined to religion. He lately rewest is the open sea, but still diver- turned from a visit to Europe, and sified by lofty mountainous islands, says the Directors of the East India while the blue mountains on the Company are, in heart, as much opnorth-east probably stretch up in posed to the admission of missionaone continuous range to the Him-ries into their territories as ever; malahs. The low swampy ground arguing that when the people are on the south-east, produces the Nipa- enlightened, they will throw off the palm, from which a coarse sugar is yoke of their English masters. The pay of the Governor of their provinces is three hundred and fifty times more than the wages of the best native carpenters, and that of the Governor General, is two thousand five hundred times more; while the pay of the President of the United States, is not fifty times more than the wages of a mechanic. They have certainly reason then for their apprehensions; for what enlightened people will pay such enormous salaries? It is to be lamented, however, that the Government of the most enlightened, most liberal, and most Christian people in Europe depends alone, for its stability, on ignorance, superstition and oppres sion. This gentleman imagines that the want of an established religion in America, must produce an immense number of sects; and I find this idea cherished in a religious periodical in India, which ought to know better. The Editor comes forth like "Katterfelta, with his hair on end At his own wonders," with the astounding announcement, "We think we can reckon nineteen denominations of Christians, more or less numerous in the United States." their religion, it being interwoven with their first thoughts and feelings, that the converts would often relapse into idolatry, while the fact is, that of more than one hundred and fifty Burmans that have been baptized in the mission, I believe not one has ever been excluded or suspended for idolatry. The few exclusions that have occurred, have been not for idolatrous, but for immoral practices. This fact shows, that man's attachment to idolatry is not so strong as his attachment to his passions; and as subduing the latter is a prerequisite to admission to the church every where, what fears have we to entertain for the conversion of the world? If the Spirit of God is constantly overcoming the greater, what insurmountable difficulty can be offered by the less! Tha Mok. 3. Mergui is situated in such a labyrinth of islands, it was with hard struggling all day, that we have at last reached the main land. An old man, on my asking him if he had ever heard of the Christian religion before, said he had heard his children speak of it, when they came from Mergui. And what did they say, I asked. "They said," he reNow it is but a few years ago, plied, "the person that enters comsince I saw the notice of a Catholic mits a great sin." A few persons priest, somewhere in the United were at worship, but the old man Kingdom, enumerating more than shook his head and said, "The Burtwo hundred different sects of protmans, sir, will never believe." estants, as an argument against protestantism. This argument then is about twelve times stronger in favor of making that establishment popery. The fact, however, is most striking. Amid all the persecution to which heretics and dissenters have been subjected in Europe, more than two hundred sects have arisen; while in America, where religion is without constraint, those interested in making them as numerous as possible, are able to enumerate nineteen only. I had occasion to correct another error. My company thought that the Burmans were so attached to 4. We started this morning for Boka, said to be half a day's journey distant, and after walking from sunrise till the stars looked us in the face, every man ready to drop down with fatigue, and one in a fever, we threw ourselves down here, we know not where, further than that it is the Karen jungle, having passed two old houses. The worst of the matter is, we have nothing to eat. men pushed on, without their loads, in search of a house, but though several hours ago, we have not heard from them. Plai Creek. Three 5. After sunrise, the three men |