not to go. The friend returned with this information, and the things were all put into a room below, and the coolies dismissed. About five, Mr. Goodwin, the senior magistrate of police, called upon us to say, that our letter had been communicated to the Council; and that upon examination, it had been found, that no orders of any kind had been received from Bengal, of a later date than the 19th of November, and that the government would allow us to remain, until they should receive further orders from Bengal concerning us. This intelligence at this decisive moment has filled us with great joy; and given us great hopes, that we shall yet be allowed to remin at Bombay How wonderful and how merciful are God's dealings with us!"

The next morning, 22d Dec. they received the following official

note.

"To the Rev. Gordon Hall, and the Rev. Samuel Nott, American Missionaries.

"Gentlemen,

"I am directed by the Right Honorable, the Governor in Council, to acquaint you, that under the expectation of receiving some far ther instructions from the Supreme Government respecting you, he has determined to defer the carrying the directions he has received into execution, until such instructions shall arrive. "I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

W. NEWNHAM, Sec. to Government."

"Bombay Castle, Dec. 21, 1813.

Our last letters from these brethren appear to have been forwarded to England, by the same ship, in which they themselves expected to have been conveyed thither, and which sailed from Bombay on the 23d of December. Later than this date we have no intelligence from them. From the facts and circumstances now communicated, however, your Committee derive a pleasing confidence, that our mission may obtain an establishment at Bombay: and they are persuaded that this whole Board, and the Christian public extensively, will unite with them in adoring the goodness of the Lord, so remarkably displayed in the signal interpositions of his providence in behalf of our missionaries. Under Providence, grateful acknowledgments are due to the Right Honorable Sir Evan Nepean for the candor, magnanimity, and kindness, exhibited in his treatment of the missionaries, so creditable to his character, as a magistrate, and a Christian. Nor can the Committee forbear to express their high sense of the admirable spirit and conduct, shewn by the missionarics themselves, in the circumstances of severe trial in which they have been called to act. The evidence here exhibited of their firmness, their perseverance, their wisdom, and their devotedness to the great object of their mission, cannot fail to raise them in the estimation and affection of this Board, and to secure to them the confidence and favor of the Christian public.

On the 24th of Feb. 1813, Mr. Newell embarked at the Mauritius on board a Portuguese brig, bound to Bombay, but destined to

touch at Point de Galle in the Island of Ceylon. At the latter place he expected to meet one or both of the other brethren; but on his arrival he learned that they were both gone to Bombay. Supposing, however, that they would not be allowed to remain there, he thought it best for him to stay in Ceylon, where he was assured of the protection and favor of Governor Brownrigg, and other principal officers of the government. He immediately despatched a letter to the brethren at Bombay; and by the return of the mail he received an answer from them, from which he learned, that, though their situation at Bombay was quite precarious, yet they had considerable hope that they should be allowed to establish themselves there, and thought it advisable for him to direct his studies with a view to that place. Accordingly, as soon as he could make arrangements for the purpose, he commenced the study of the Sangskrit, Hindoostanee, and Persian languages; and quietly pursued this study until some time in November, when, from infor mation received from the brethren at Bombay, he felt himself com. pelled to give up all hope of the establishment of the mission at that place. From the time of his arrival in Ceylon, however, tiil the date of his last letter, he preached in English constantly once, twice, or three times a week, to English and half-cast people; of whom, he says, "there are thousands in and about Columbo. who stand in need of instruction, as much as the heathen," and among whom he hoped his labors would not be in vain. At the date of his last letter, Mr. Newell supposed that his brethren were actually on their passage to England, and that he was left alone. "Stript," says he, "of all my domestic enjoyments, by the death of my wife and child, and separated from all my dear missionary associates, I find myself a solitary pilgrim in the midst of a heathen land. My heart is sometimes quite overwhelmed with grief. But my prevailing desire is, and my determination, to try to do something for the wretched heathen around me. My conviction of the duty and practicability of evangelizing the heathen has not been diminished, but greatly increased, by all that I have witnessed'in this part of the world." Thus circumstanced, he was undetermined in regard to the field in which to fix his mission; whether to remain in Ceylon, or attempt an establishment at Bussora at the head of the Persian Gulf. The reasons which weighed in his mind for the one and for the other, he states at large, and in a manner which indicates much attention and reflection.* His trials, though different from those of his brethren, have been not less painful; and appear to have been sustained in a manner not less creditable to the character of a Christian missionary. He must have been greatly rejoiced to learn, as he doubtless did in a short time, that his brethren had not been sent to England, as he supposed; and if they have been permitted to remain at Bombay, he has probably joined them there, to the great joy of them ali.

Messrs. Richards and Warren, who, at the time of our last annual meeting, were, as then reported, in very eligible situations al

*See Appendix E.

Philadelphia, have just completed their respective periods of engagement there; and, so far as appears, very much to their own satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of those with whose patronage and friendly offices they have been favored.

Soon after our last annual meeting, Messrs. Benjamin C. Meigs, Burr Baldwin, Horatio Bardwell, and Daniel Poor, were admitted by the Prudential Committee, as Capdidates for our missionary service; and since, after such a period and measure of trial as the Committee judged suitable, they have all, excepting Mr. Baldwin, been formally received as Missionaries, to be under the patronage and direction of this Board. Mr. Baldwin has been prevented from being thus received, by feeble health, which the Committee greatly lament, and from which they devoutly hope he will ere long be recovered.

Messrs. Richards, Warren, Meigs, Bardwell, and Poor, will hold themselves in readiness to go forth to the heathen with the glad tidings of salvation, as soon as Providence shall open the door for their being sent. At present the door at every point seems to be closed by the war; but this Board and the friends of Christian missions will not cease to pray, that the war may soon be terminated; nor are the Committée without hope, that, should it continue, some way will nevertheless be found out for the conveyance of the waiting missionaries to their destined fields of labor.

From three other young gentlemen, one now a practising physi cian of distinguished promise, another a student at the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and the other a student at the Theological Seminary at Andover, the Committee have received very pleasing communications, expressing their desire to be engaged in the missionary service, under the direction of this Board. But upon these applications, as they are yet quite recent, no decisive act has been passed.

It will appear, by the statements which the Treasurer will fur nish, that the liberality of the Christian public toward this Board is continued and extended. New associations are formed for the purpose of contributing their aid. The number of pious persons. who are becoming acquainted with the wants and the miseries of the heathen world, and who are desirous of uniting their efforts to remove these wants and alleviate these miseries, is evidently on the increase. Your Committee have reason to believe, that should Providence soon prepare the way for the establishment of missionary stations in different pagan countries, an adequate number of pious, abie, devoted servants of Christ would offer themselves as heralds of the Gospel to the heathen, and the means would not be withheld of supporting them in their most laborious, as well as most benevolent, undertaking. It is a pleasing thought, and one. which may be indulged without presumption, that the Redeemer will graciously bestow upon Christians in America the honor of becoming joyful instruments in promoting his cause, and advancing the progress of the millennium, not only within our own borders, but extensively also in foreign lands. How noble will be the dis

tinction, should we be known as a people, to the inhabitants of diştant continents and islands, not as covetous of territory, not as ambitious of political dominion-not as engrossed by commerce and swallowed up by the cupidity of avarice;-but as the liberal dispensers of unsearchable riches, as cheerfully and zealously imparting to others God's unmerited bounty to ourselves.

While regarding the subject in this point of light, your Committee cannot refrain from expressing their joy, that this glorious work has been begun; that it has been formally and systematically entered upon by Christians in this country;-that missionaries, in the employment of this Board, have been engaged on the shores of Asia, in preparing to preach to the people in their own languages; that the Scriptures, in the common tongues of the countries, have been purchased and distributed, as a free-will offering to God, from our honorable women, our young men and maidens, our old men and children.

It ought to be thankfully noticed, that many enlightened persons in India;-men of enlarged views and great acquaintance with the world;-dignified magistrates and persons of professional emipence; have most unequivocally and earnestly expressed their conviction of the necessity of missionaries, and their sense of the deplorable condition of the people in a moral point of view. Persons of this description have joyfully hailed the co-operation of America, in the great work of evangelizing mankind, as a most desirable event. They have expressed an anxious wish, that our ef forts may be greatly and indefinitely increased. The limits of this Report, already too long perhaps, will not allow your Committee to specify all the facts on the authority of which these assertions are made. Many such facts have appeared, in the course of the preceding narration, and the accompanying documents.

It is evident also from every page of the correspondence of the missionaries, that notwithstanding all their discouragements and perplexities, they have been more and more convinced, by all that they have seen and heard, not only of the practicability and duty of supporting missions, but of its being their particular duty, as it is evidently their highest pleasure, to consider themselves as unalterably devoted to this work. They are also convinced, as their re peated discussions of this topic abundantly prove, that whatever may be the design of Providence in regard to themselves or their mission, it is the duty of Christians to take it for granted, that the cause of missions will prevail, and to resolve, that by the help of God, and with all reverential submission to his holy dispensations, it shall prevail.

The agents of this Board in London have remitted to Calcutta, by the earliest opportunities, the avails of our several remittances to them. We had calculated, that our missionaries would have received our first remittance at an earlier date than that of their last letter, as this remittance was sent from London by the earliest spring ships of 1813. It could not, we think, be much longer deJayed. But, through the kindness of friends whom Providence had faised up for them in every place they had visited, there was little

470

Appendix to the Report of the Prudential Committee. Ост. danger that our brethren would be put to serious inconvenience by any accidental delay of remittances.

At the conclusion of their Report, the Committee would direct their respectful attention to the Christian public. They need not solicit, what will be granted of course and without solicitation, a candid perusal of this their annual communication, and of the papers which will follow it. All who have contributed to send the blessings of the Gospel to the heathen;--all who love the prosperity of Zion, will feel a deep interest in the history of our infant mis. sion, and, we doubt not, will perceive the necessity of continued and persevering exertions. The object in view is so transcendantly important, as not to admit of any halting or hesitation in the pursuit, while any prospect of success remains. Such a prospect will remain, we are persuaded, without suffering eyen a temporary eclipse, till the Gospel shall shed its benign influence on every land. With thankful acknowledgment of the many favors shewn by the Christian public to this object, and of the many prayers offered in its behalf, the Committee would animate their fathers and brethren, as well as themselves, with the exhortation, Be not weary in welldoing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. New Haven, Sept. 15, 1814.

APPENDIX (A.)

[On the day after their arrival at Bombay, Messrs. Hall and Nott, after taking suitabie advice, put into the hands of Mr. Money, a gentleman of that place, the follow ing petition to his Excellency, the Governor.]

To the Right Honorable Sir Evan Nepean, Governor of Bombay, &c.

Right Honorable Sir,

The Undersigned, lately arrived from America by way of Bengal, beg leave to state to your Excellency, that having been ordained to the Gospel Ministry, they have come to this country with a desire of being useful, by translating the Scriptures, by aiding in the education of children, and ultimately by making known the Gospel to some who are now ignorant of it.

Humbly trusting that these objects will meet with your Excellency's approbation, they most earnestly beg, that they may be allowed to pursue them. At the same time, they cherish the hope, that should they be permitted to remain in the country, an orderly and prudent conduct will show, that your Excellency's indulgence has not been misplaced.

They are happy indeed, Right Honorable Sir, in thus presenting the advancement of our holy religion to a Christian Governor;—one, too, who has given so many proofs of a desire for the diffusion of the Scriptures, and the promotion of happiness among mankind. They have the honor to be, with the highest respect,

Bombay, Feb.

12, 1813.

Right Honorable Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servants,

GORDON HALL,
SAMUEL NOTT.