There is much indifference and aver- With another of those who have been sion to the truth, and a general determi- baptized, he has remained here during nation not to attend public worship. our absence from the station, while the The people manifest, however, no un- other two accompanied us. I did not kind feelings towards us. In common deem it prudent to take the responsibilintercourse they are respectful and atten- ity of making him a teacher of the tive. But they seem to have a settled people in my absence. Yet I rejoiced hatred of the light. to hear that he preached among them Some time since, when a hundred or from Sabbath to Sabbath, as well as he more of them were assembled on a week knew how, and, by holding services at day to see four Christian marriages, and different places, he reached those who to partake of the refreshments, they were otherwise might not have heard the reminded of their neglect; and they gospel. I was the more glad, since he were informed that on the following Sab- was commissioned, if commissioned at bath several of their former number would all, by One who can perfect praise out of be propounded, and on the Sabbath fol- the mouth of babes and sucklings. And lowing be baptized and received into I knew that He who had given him the the church, at which time the sacrament heart to teach his benighted brethren, of the Lord's Supper would also be ob- could also give him words of wisdom. served. All were informed that they were called, not so much by us, as by their Maker, their heavenly King, to attend worship on that and on every other Lord's day. But neither the solemnity nor the novelty of the occasion was sufficient to bring out to meeting a fourth part of the number that came to the wedding and feast.

Among the causes of this state of things Mr. Grout mentions (1) the natural aversion of the carnal mind, partially enlightened, but utterly unsubdued, to the doctrines of the Bible; (2) the apprehension that the gospel will put an end to certain cherished and time-honored customs; (3) the belligerent thoughts which have recently been awakened in the native population; (4) an increasing jealousy of foreigners.

Itafamasi.

Mr. Marsh has suffered much from feeble health; and he was even obliged to leave his station for a season. About the first of June, however, he was enabled to return and resume his labors; and he now hopes to continue his work without any further interruption.

Mr. Marsh says the congregation at his station on the Sabbath is small. "The people are bidden; but all, with one consent, begin to make excuse." Hence it is becoming more and more important to seek them in their kraals. This kind of labor will require much time and some self-denial; but there appears to be a necessity

for it. Mrs. Marsh has established a prayer meeting, which is very regularly attended by eight or ten females.

Ifumi.

Mr. Ireland still has charge of the station which Mr. Bryant commenced. The substance of his report is given below.

Since the commencement of the year, nine persons have been admitted to the fellowship of our church. One of these was the young man referred to in my last report. He became a member of our family shortly after we were located at Ifumi; and, with the exception of three or four months, he has been in my employment till the present time. Seven of the nine are females, three of whom are widows, the mothers of pious young It is now about a year since I baptized men, and three are four natives, who constitute the nucleus young married of a church at this station. Whether women, whose husbands are also members of our church. Most of these perthey will prove themselves four corner sons were, as we have reason to believe, stones, time only can disclose. They the subjects of a work of grace which two or three years. The eldest of them was in progress at this station about a has recently married; and with his wife year ago. and two "mothers" (the wives of his father, neither being his own mother) has settled near us. It is now three years since this uncouth, superstitious heathen first gave heed to the word of God, a being of whom he had but just heard, and of whom he had never even thought during all the previous years of his life.

have been with me most of the time for

The case of the other female is described at

considerable length; but it must be omitted for want of room.

Within the past year our Sabbath school has assumed a new aspect. We have had a Bible class of about a dozen, who have committed to memory eleven

chapters of Matthew, often reviewing it, and sometimes repeating in concert a chapter or two at a time. The monthly concert has been sustained with much interest; and it has continued to be one of our most interesting and profitable meetings. The contributions for 1850 amounted to nearly fifteen dollars, and, at the earnest request of the donors, were appropriated towards purchasing a small bell, which we find very pleasant and very convenient.

During the first part of the year under review, Mr. Rood indulged the hope that the Lord was about to lead some of the natives to a cordial reception of the truth as it is in Jesus. But his anticipations have not been fully realized. After describing the case of a young man who at one time professed to be the disciple of Christ, and afterward, through the persuasion of his friends, returned to his evil ways, Mr. Rood proceeds as follows:

One young lad, who was at the station The female prayer meeting has been a year, and who, for most of that time, kept up with additional interest since my expressed the desire and_determination last report; and quite a number of the to walk in the way of the Lord, has gone women are able to take part in the to Ifumi station, that he may be near his exercises. When I call to mind that friends. I hope he is a chosen lamb of seven out of the nine who have joined Christ's flock. Another promising lad, our church during the past year, are fe- after being at the station a long time, males, I feel that I have reason to regard and having learned to read the Scripthis meeting as an important agency for tures intelligently, and obtained much advancing the cause of Christ among knowledge of the truth, and given much this benighted people, where women evidence that he was a child of the have so long been regarded as articles of kingdom, was suddenly called away from merchandise, and valued according to their ability to labor in the fields. There are now nine adult women, besides several girls, who are regular attendants upon the female prayer meeting, as also upon most of the other religious services held at the station.

Mr. Ireland has had a weekly prayer meeting on Thursday afternoon, a little before sunset,

which has been very well attended. Religious services have been sustained, every alternate Sabbath, at an out-station by a blind man and one of the younger members of the Ifumi church. And during a part of the year there has been preaching at another place by another member of the church.

Ifafa.

This station was commenced by Mr. Rood, who remained in charge of it till the death of Dr. Adams; when the mission transferred him to Umlazi, and requested Mr. Stone to take his place. It will be understood, of course, that this report was prepared by Mr. Rood.

earth, and admitted, I trust, to the services and enjoyments of God's upper sanctuary. His disease was so violent and rapid in its progress, that a few moments of pain only were allowed him in which to look death in the face. Yet he gave us some evidence that he was not deprived of the comforts of religion in I am thinking of the good news of salthe trying hour. His last words were:

vation."

Usigewu, who professed to love the truth more than two years since, made a the first Sabbath in December. Another public acknowledgment of his faith on person, for more than a year, has given us much reason to believe that he is truly converted. The opposition to which those who have chosen Christ are excalled posed, is They are "fools and madmen." Sometimes they are told that they are "dead men and cast out from among the people," which might remind one of the Jews casting the blind man out of the synagogue,

&c.

severe.

In consequence of the commencement of a station at Umtwalumi, to be mentioned more Only two or three weeks since the particularly hereafter, it has been deemed expe- relatives of Usigewu came to the station dient to remove the Ifafa station five or six miles in much excitement, and inquired of him to the north, so as to bring it within about for me. He asked them what they wanteighteen miles of Amahlongwa, while the dis-ed of me. They replied that they had tance from Mr. Wilder is only twelve or fourteen. "It was not without regret," Mr. Rood says, "that we left the lovely spot which has been our home for more than two years, and where by the grace of God, we trust, our labors have not been entirely in vain." But the obvious advantages of the new arrangement reconciled him to the change.

nothing to say to him, but that they wished to see me. He told them that I was absent, and again asked what they wished to say to me. They told him that they had become weary of talking to him, and they had come to talk to me, and to ask me what medicine I had given him, that made his heart so fixed and

stubborn, and to request me to remove from South Africa. As it was made out at the this medicine from his heart.

* A number of natives have been employed by Mr. A. Grout at different times as teachers and assistants, the aggregate of their labors having been equal to the assistance of about three, as reported in the table; and this is true to some extent at Inanda and Umlazi.

† Mr. Döhne makes it a rule to go from kraal to kraal daily, visiting and preaching to the people.

The People-First Labors.

The approach to my station is from the east; and for the last few miles one travels through a valley, two or three The people in my field are scattered miles in breadth, filled with innumerable over a large extent of territory. Within hills rising in the utmost confusion to a the sweep of a radius of eight miles are height of five hundred feet or less, whose perhaps from seventy-five to one hundred surfaces are covered with rich grass and kraals, containing on an average thirty trees of never fading foliage. Several souls each. Many are in almost inacstreams of the purest water commence cessible ravines; many are hid away in their journey among these hills, and flow the "bush ;" some are coming, and some through channels of granite and green are going. But few assemble to hear stone to the "gates" of the Umtwalumi, preaching on the Sabbath; indeed, hardly by which all the waters of this region twenty attend regularly, Sabbath after rush to the ocean. Sabbath. Since I have been here my The near approach to my house is over congregation has varied from fifty to a low ridge of hills, from which the view two hundred and fifty, making the averis singularly beautiful and grand. At age about eighty. our feet lies the valley or plain, a mile There are five places favorably situand a half long, covered with perpetual ated for becoming out-stations, which I verdure, and always smiling under the must occupy as I am able. But could I sun and under the clouds. Just beyond go to each of these places once a week, sparkle and sing the sweet waters of the I could not then proclaim the gospel in river; and beyond this rise dark and the ears of all. They must be followed lofty mountains, covered with heath for the most part; but here and there huge crags jut out over the deep ravines, where baboons, unmolested by man, find a home. At a distance of three miles we discover a mountain severed from its

from kraal to kraal, to their gardens and hunting grounds, their dances and revels, "in season and out of season," or very many will never hear the "joyful sound."

Mr. Wilder next describes the commencement

fellows, called by the natives Umsikazi, of his labors at Umtwalumi. He left Umbilo on rising far above all others, and termi- the 2d of April with two wagons, and arrived at nating in a horizontal table-land some Ahmalongwa at the end of four days. In crosstwo miles square. Its sides for a thou-ing the Umkomazi one of the wagons was "set" sand feet are as perpendicular and regu- in the stream; and it was extricated only at the lar as if they were chiseled by the stat- end of several hours, after "it had been nearly uary. Near it shoot up sharp pinnacles covered by the rising tide." Three days more of rock, vainly aspiring to reach its were spent in reaching Ifafa; and the journey height. was finished on the 11th of April.

Lest the reader should think too highly of the Umtwalumi River, Mr. Wilder says: "This stream is larger than any other between the

Umkomazi and the Umzimkulu; still in the dry season it would be called a brook in New England. In Africa every stream large enough to quench the thirst of a span of bullocks, even if in the dry season it is found only here and there in pools, is dignified with the name of 'river.' In the rainy season, however, the Umtwalumi swells to a torrent sixty yards

We took off our wagon box, and set it on poles; and this served the brickmaker who came with me and myself as a shelter for three weeks. I had previously engaged a man to build a hut for me in the native style; but he had neglected to do it. It was with no little difficulty that we could keep ourselves and our provisions dry during the frequent rains. All my timber for building must be drawn about eight miles; and all my native help knew much less about building than myself. Not a stick could they select or cut without my presence. Just north of my house a precipitous But with a favoring Providence, at the highland rises fourteen hundred feet end of three weeks, we finished a house above the plain, where all the thunder twenty feet by twenty-four, made in the clouds of this region cluster and spend usual style of wattles and mud. On their wrath. On its sides "the way of the lightning of thunder" is visible. We are thankful that these hills are the electrical conductors of our peaceful vale, around and over which the elemental wars rage harmlessly.

wide."

Saturday night we took possession of it, and truly glad and thankful we were the next day, when a storm came raging through the valley, such as the people of New England sometimes encounter in November.

Final Removal-Building.

Mr. Wilder spent the next three weeks in removing his furniture, &c., with Mrs. Wilder, to their new home.

In returning, the "dissil boom" of my wagon was so broken at the Umkomazi as to arrest my progress. Having sent back a boy fifty miles to get irons, I went to the sea shore in a boat to find timber suitable for a new one. This accident delayed us at Amahlongwa one week; and it caused me much severe labor and considerable vexation. My wagon stood two days in the river, while I was making a new "dissil boom." Of course, as the tide rises high at the ford twice a day, all our goods were of necessity taken on shore, and left in the care of natives. Mrs. Wilder was obliged to ride to Amahlongwa on a man's saddle after dark. You can hardly conceive of the difficulty there is in finding timber suitable to repair a wagon on a journey. Upright trees of good quality are as scarce as “upright men in Natal. After a day's fatiguing search with three Kaffirs in the jungle, I was obliged to take up with a miserable, crooked stick.

A journey of three days from Ahmalongwa brought Mr. and Mrs. Wilder to their station.

diverted by nothing from the one great object of my coming hither.

Greece.

LETTER FROM MR. KING, MARCH 6, 1852.

Mr. King's Trial ordered.

THE Herald for December contained the decision of the Council of the Criminal Court in

Athens, ordering the trial of Mr. King in the judgment-hall of the same court, in accordance with the proposition of the King's Attorney. From this decision an appeal was taken, first to the Court of Appeals, and then to the Areopagus, the latter being the highest tribunal in Greece. Both of these courts gave an opinion adverse to Mr. King, and directed that his trial should proceed, as the Council of the Criminal Court had ordered in the first instance. The Areopagus, however, declared that as the 18th Article of the Penal Law, which forbids any one to "attack the reverence due to the Creator of the Universe," or to "express such principles, opinions, or sentiments, as are contrary in general to the bases of religion and morals, or as are otherwise injurious to religion or to morals," did not apply to this case, the expenses of the trial before that tribunal should be placed to the account of the public.

It was hoped that the matter would end here. But Mr. King was notified a few weeks later, that his trial would take place on the 5th of March. On the last Sabbath in February he preached as usual. At the prayer meeting which was held the same day, it was proposed by a friendly Greek to observe March 4 as a day of fasting and prayer, with special reference to the approaching trial. This was done accordingly. Mr King speaks of the evening meeting as particularly interesting. "I felt," he says, "that I could go calm and tranquil to my trial."

For most of the time since our arrival, my hands have been employed in building. I have put up a wagon house and stable, in one veranda of which we have lived for four months past, as I was obliged to use the house I first erected for a chapel, school-room, store house, &c. Mr. Hargraves commenced making bricks; but when he had moulded about ten thousand, he did not agree with the natives, became discouraged, and left for a while. I immediately took five Kaffirs, and went into the brick-yard, and moulded with my own hands about seventeen thousand. Mr. Hargraves returned and burned them for me, and he has since built the walls of a house forty-four feet by twenty-three and a half. This house I hope to finish in about eight weeks; and then my building (except a chapel) I trust will be done for many years. am doing all the wood-work myself; and I have been obliged to draw most of my timber for it more than forty miles. I rejoice that I am so near the end of my manual labor, and that I may soon be When the hour came I read with my able to give myself wholly to the work family Psalm cxxi., offered a short prayer, of the ministry. The spiritual condition and took leave of my wife and infant of those around me calls for all my babe. Having my little boy William strength; and I pray God that I may be with me, and being accompanied by Mr.

I

In the afternoon of March 4, it was ascertained that certain persons were attempting to excite the people against our brother, by means of a placard, &c.; whereupon he communicated the facts to the Director General of the Police of Athens and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. A man called on him next morning from the police, and said that he had orders to give the necessary protection. He wished Mr. King to go to the court-house in a carriage, as there would be less danger of popular interference. The offer was

declined, however.