AMERICA.

THIRTEENTH REPORT OF THE AMERICAN

HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE whole number of missionaries and agents in commission during the year, is 665.

The fields of labour which they have occupied, are to be found in twenty-three different states and territories, and in Canada.

Of the missionaries in commission, 531 have been employed as pastors, or stated supplies, in single congregations; 102 have extended their labours to two or three congregations each; and thirty-two have occupied larger fields.

The whole number of congregations and missionary districts which have thus been supplied, in whole or in part, during the year, is 794; and the aggregate of ministerial labour performed is equal to 473 years.

In making appointments, the committee have ever been deeply impressed with the conviction, that the providence of God, and the true interests of the church alike call for a high standard of character and qualifications in the missionary of the cross-that those, especially, who are to labour in our new settlements, in laying the foundations of gospel institutions, in guarding the interests of education, and in moulding the whole structure of society, should be men thoroughly furnished unto all good works. The number of new appointments, therefore, has been less than it would have been, if the committee had had different convictions of the nature and relations of the work to be done. Still, however, they have the pleasure to report 204 commissions issued, during the year, to missionaries who were not in the service of the society at its commencement; which exceeds by eighty-one the number of new appointments in the preceding year.

A more than usual number of congregations have, during the year, assumed the support of their own pastors; and the pledges of the society have thus been transferred from the older to the more recently settled, and more destitute states. So great has been the number of missionaries whose commissions we have have not had occasion to renew, that, notwithstanding the large increase of new appointments, the whole number in commission is less by nineteen than it was the last year, while the actual amount of service rendered is greater by thirty-five years; showing that the average term of missionary labour has been longer, and that the appropriations of the society have tended to establish the institutions of the gospel on a more permanent basis.

The number added to the churches during the year, on profession of their faith, is not far from 2,500; and by recommendation from other churches, 1,420.

The receipts of the year have amounted to 82,564 dollars, 63 cents; which, added to a balance of 2,558 dollars, 21 cents, in the treasury at the last anniversary, makes the resources of the year 85,122 dollars, 84 cents. The amount due at the beginning of the year, together with what has since become due, is 93,086 dollars, 35 cents. Of this sum, 82,655 dollars, 64 cents, has already been paid; and towards cancelling the remaining 10,430 dollars, 71 cents, there is a balance in the treasury of 2,467 dollars, 20 cents, leaving 7,963 dollars, 51 cents of present indebtedness to the missionaries, for the discharge of which our dependence is on the voluntary contributions of the benevolent. In addition to this, the pledges of the society for the coming year, portions of which are daily becoming due, amount to 16,005 dollars, 58 cents; and in consequence of the greater number of new appointments, exceed the amount pledged at the last anniversary 5,130 dollars, 78

cents.

BOARD OF DOMESTIC MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

The number of missionaries and agents employed or aided by the Board is 260; and the number of congregations and missionary districts which have received aid, about 600.

Of these missionaries and agents, 154 were in commission at the commencement of the year, and 106 are new appointments during the year.

Your missionaries have laboured in twenty-three of our States and Territories. We have also had during the year, or portions of the year, three missionaries in Texas, where the demand for missionaries is great and pressing, and the prospect of usefulness exceedingly promising. amount of labour performed, exceeds two hundred years, or the labours of more than two hundred pastors for one year.

The

From the reports of our missionaries, so far as received, we have collected the following results:

The number of members added to the churches under their charge, has been, on examination, about 1,400; on certificate 1,350. Total added, during the year, 2,750. The whole number in communion falls but little short of twenty thousand.

Sixty new churches have been organized, and nearly or quite one hundred houses for worship have been erected.

Of 125 congregations which have reported on the subject of the observance of the

Sabbath, from forty-four the report is, the Sabbath is well observed; in forty-six congregations only tolerable; in thirty-five awfully profaned.

Attendance on divine worship on this holy day, has been generally good. We take as a specimen, reports from 123 congregations; of these, 103 report good attendance; eighteen, indifferent; and two, bad.

During the year the receipts were 41,759 dollars, 77 cents; and the disbursements during the same period were 38,364 dollars, 56 cents; leaving a balance of 3,395 dollars, 21 cents.

SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Finances.

The receipts from the 1st of May, 1838, to the 1st of May, 1839, have been sixtytwo thousand nine hundred and seventynine dollars and sixty-two cents. The expenditures for the same time have been fiftythree thousand five hundred and seventy dollars and six cents: leaving a balance in hand, May 1, 1839, of nine thousand four hundred and nine dollars and fifty-six cents.

This balance is already appropriated, and will be immediately wanted for the reinforcement of the missions to Western Africa and North India.

In addition to the above, there have been received from the American Tract Society, for printing in North India, two thousand five hundred dollars; and thirty-three thousand and thirty pages tracts for the use of the mission in that country; and thirty-four thousand five hundred and thirty for the missionaries among the Western Indians.

And from the American Bible Society one thousand dollars; also fifty English Bibles, one hundred English Testaments, fifty French Bibles, and one hundred French Testaments.

From the Presbyterian Tract Society, fourteen thousand four hundred pages of tracts.

Missions under the direction of the Board. In India, the North-western Mission, embracing three stations, six missionaries, two male and eight female assistants, and two native assistants.

The Eastern Mission, connected with which are two stations, six missionaries and their wives, and two native assistants. Mission to the Iowas and Sacs, connected with which is one missionary, and two male and four female assistant-missionaries.

Mission to the Ojibwas and Ottawas, in which are labouring two missionaries, and one female assistant missionary.

Mission to Western Africa, consisting of one missionary and his wife.

Mission to China, consisting also of one missionary and his wife.

In all six missions, connected with which are nine stations, seventeen missionaries, four male and twenty-one female assistant missionaries, and four native teachers. The whole missionary force, say the board, male and female, under their direction in the foreign field and preparing to depart there is fifty-three, of whom twenty-one are ministers of the gospel.

New Missions.

The board contemplate establishing mis. sions in Assam, among the Malays, at Marseilles in France, Barcelona in Spain, and in Texas.

The schools under the care of the missions in India embrace about four hundred and fifty pupils. Connected with these missions are also two printing establishments. Of these missions the board remark

The general aspect of the missions in India is encouraging. But to meet the demand for missionary labourers in these large and populous regions, many more must be sent out by the churches. Twelve ministers of the gospel, one teacher, and one printer-the number now there are placed among a population of forty millions. What are these among so many! Still, a beginning has been made, and much preparatory work has been done, and the door is wide open to four or five times the present num. ber, who are even now required to occupy the prominent places among these perishing millions; to carry to them, as it were, the seed of the word of life; relying on the blessing of God upon their efforts to raise up a supply of labourers from among them. selves, to erect the standard of the cross in all their cities and villages, and to carry the gospel to the nations around them, who are now equally benighted with themselves.

I avail myself of this post to report briefly the observance and effect of our First of August Festival. I wish the Directors and some of our good friends could have been with us to witness the quiet joy of our sanctuaries, and the peaceful smiles of so many negro faces old and young. The morning was ushered in by multitudes with the voice of joy and praise, crowding while it was yet dark, into the house of God, and the day throughout was distinguished by sabbatic sanctity.

At eleven o'clock, a very interesting sight was witnessed in our school-house here. The children, about 100 in number, were examined in the presence of the parents, whom at my request they had invited to attend, to see and hear what their children were learning. A few white people of my congregation, and some teachers and probationers of the Mico Institution, added to the interest of the occasion. I was never

better pleased with a school examination, and do not think you would often see more evidence of intellect in a school of English children.

The examination was conducted by the children themselves; the whole school questioning extemporaneously some boy or girl on the several subjects of grammar, geography, arithmetic, &c., in succession; each standing till unable to answer, when another that could, took the place, and sustained the test of their hard questions, and so on through several changes. One of the most interesting parts of the examination was the spelling and meaning of words; a whole vocabulary of which was produced in a few minutes; but by far the most gratifying was the series of instructive interrogations and replies which were elicited on the

Old and New Testaments. It was really a good sermon to us all, and many present looked on with their eyes overflowing with delight. After an address by myself and W. W. Anderson, Esq., the children, having been regaled with buns and lemonade, watered the cocoa-nut tree which we planted last year, singing part of the verses I composed for that occasion, with a little alteration.

In the afternoon I preached at my outstation, in Liguanea, from 1 Chron. xxix. 5, "Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?" it having been arranged to make a collection toward enlarging our accommodations there, and my colleague, Mr. Ingraham, having addressed the people in the morning. The thank-offerings presented on the occasion amounted to about 207. And I will say, in spite of all the croaking about our ruined colony, we have all abundant cause for grateful joy in the effect of that righte ous act which has abolished for ever the tyrant Slavery from our shores. My own conviction is, from all I see and hear, that the grand experiment of abolition has succeeded well, notwithstanding the hinderances which have been created by the opposition of the adverse party; so that the problem is now settled for ever, and slavery proved to be impolitic as well as wicked wherever it exists, and this is a great step towards the world's freedom. I cannot be insensible, however, to many evils which exist among the people, as the consequence of their past slavery; but am convinced that as religious influence upon England brought about their freedom, so religious influence upon them has made their transition easy.

Impatient to enter upon the anticipated pleasures of the day, unwilling to await the morning smiles of the sun, at four o'clock, A.M., the people lighted up the chapel.

The morning was quiet, the rustling boughs of the neighbouring trees were at rest, nothing was heard from without, save “the murmuring surge" of the Caribbean sea.