a few copies of the New Testament with me; and have them they would, although there were other places yet before me. The next day we assembled early in the morning, upon which occasion I preached to them from John iii. 7, and at the close of the service baptized a hundred and twenty-nine persons.

The next day we weighed anchor, and made for the island of Vatulele, which we reached after five hours' good sailing. The people of this island are only just emerging from Heathenism: owing to inefficient Teachers, and the distance of sixty miles between them and our station, the lotu has not made the progress among them that we could have wished. I was, however, pleased with the congregations on the Sunday, who listened with attention and astonishment to the stranger. Before I left, nine were baptized and two couples married. On the following Monday morning we sailed to Nandrongah, a distance of twenty-eight miles further. This is a large district of Na Viti Levu, containing from 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants. Nearly the whole of these people are Heathen, and, in their wars, ferocious cannibals. This place had not been visited by a Missionary for six years, owing to the distance, and the dangerous reefs along the coast. I spent nearly four days among these people. I had several interviews with the Chiefs, who gave me to understand that they intended to lotu, and to lotu in a body; and that they wished it to be vakaturanga, that is, Chief-like. Before I left, they asked for a good Tonguese Teacher, in addition to those already with them; they also promised a piece of land for a Mission-station. The language of this people is very different to those of Bau, although most of them have a knowledge of the Bau dialect. When they spoke in the Nandrongah dialect, it was quite unintelligible to me, and also to the natives that I had with me. The services at this place were well attended; a large number of Heathen surrounded the doors, and listened attentively. We have a small church in this wilderness-place, with whom I was cheered. Thirty-eight were baptized, and two couples married.

On Thursday night we sailed up the coast with the land-breeze; but, owing to a heavy squall the next morning, we had to take refuge in the harbour of Levua, a small island close to the coast of Na Viti Levu. On going ashore, I found the island fortified with a warfence, and the people all Heathen with the exception of two. They were in a most pitiable position, reduced almost to

starvation, with a powerful enemy on the opposite coast. Some three months since, upon this island, one of the enemy was captured, clubbed, cooked, and, I believe, eaten. Not many days after this, twenty of the Serua people came in for the same fate; and thus the matter now stands. I had a long talk with the old Chief, who appeared to me, in more than one sense, in a state of dotage. The next morning, Saturday, we reached the island of Yanutha, where we had a most interesting service. Twenty-six were baptized, and five couples married. We then made again for Bengah, where we anchored about ten o'clock

P. M.

The following Sunday I preached to two large and attentive congregations, and we felt that the power of the Lord was in our midst. Some of the people, hearing that I was to sail for home the next day, earnestly applied for baptism. One man, anxious to be married before I left, found his way to my dormitory just as I had laid myself down for the night. I, however, felt no hesitation in dismissing, till the morning, this nocturnal intruder. The next morning I married those who had applied, and baptized fifty-four; after which we sailed for home, where we arrived in safety about six P.M., after an absence of thirteen days.

The work of God in Fiji still advances : the returns this year give a large increase. There are now in Fiji 54,000 professing Christians.

We hope that the Fijian Bible will soon be through the press, and on its way here: the people are confounded when we tell them that we have no more Testaments left.

Upon the whole, our health has been exceedingly good since we have been in Fiji: for which we offer up our praises to Him who is the Author of all good.— Rev. James S. H. Royce, Rewa, September 7th, 1857.

AUSTRALIA. VICTORIA.

IN Victoria we are quietly advancing, in so far as regards the opening of new places, and the establishment of the worship of God in townships, and especially on the still-increasing population of the Gold-Fields. Yet I would not wish you to receive a too glowing representation of our Wesleyan progress; for if we only put forth less of effort than is required in the ordinary English work, we cannot fail to obtain more apparent results from the mere influx of population from the home and other countries. When you

hear, therefore, of our extension and increase, and look over our statistics and tabular statements of advancement, you must not conclude that we are proportionately more able or active, or more abundantly blessed of God. While a population of ten thousand souls will group around the side of a mountain, or along the banks of a creek, in a single month, it does not redound much to our praise if we erect a wooden chapel free from debt, and gather a congregation of three hundred souls.

In Melbourne several buildings are in progress, which are much superior to those we had previously erected for the worship of God; but these are erected chiefly, not by voluntary contributions, but by the proceeds of the Collins-street chapel-property, which was sold for the sum of £40,000, the whole of which is to be expended in chapel and other buildings in Melbourne and its suburbs. St. Kilda is to receive £2,000; and £19,000 are to be expended in a large monumental church in Lonsdale-street, together with a Book-Room, Minister's residence, and other buildings. This church will be one of the finest in the Wesleyan Connexion throughout the world. will seat about two thousand persons, have a spire one hundred and fifty feet in height, and cost £14,000. Both these churches, and some other buildings, are now in progress. At Ballarat an effort is now being made to erect a large and handsome church in the midst of twenty thousand persons; and several thousand pounds will be raised for this object by our earnest people there. The foundationstone was laid by His Excellency Sir Henry Barkley, in the presence of five thousand persons.

It

In the educational department, we have, during the last two years, made but little progress. The mode in which

the Government-grant for education is distributed is restrictive and embarrassing to the promoters of Wesleyan schools. When the religious census is taken, great numbers of persons who are not really in communion with the Church of England give their names as members of that Church; and not a few who receive all their means of grace among the Wesleyans, and at their expense, notwithstanding, write themselves in the census members of the former Church. In our case, therefore, the numbers are few, and in theirs large. Now, the grant in aid of religion is distributed according to the number of each body or church in the census; and so it is with the grant in aid of education.......At this moment there

is a Bill before the Lower House of Parliament, proposing to establish a general system of education, which is altogether to exclude, and even prohibit, religion. Against this measure the various denominations are raising a vigorous opposition, which will probably result in the rejection of the Bill, and, I fear, the retention of the present effete and inequitable mode of distribution. Yet we cannot, we dare not, quietly allow a coercive system of atheistical education.

We have a monthly periodical of twenty pages, price sixpence, published in Melbourne, called "The Wesleyan Chronicle," which has reached its ninth number, and a circulation of sixteen hundred. The work is small, and in all respects, perhaps, to an English eye inconsiderable; but it is the commencement of that which, in other hands, and under the growing prosperity of the colony and of Methodism, may become a mature and able organ of an important branch of the church of Christ. It may also furnish data and suggestive indications to the other colonies to do something yet more worthy of the design and purpose which prompted this humble effort in Victoria.-Rev. Isaac Harding, Melbourne, February 15th, 1858.

WESTERN AFRICA.

GOLD-COAST.

FROM a hasty glance at the statistics, I find that I shall be in a position to report, at our approaching District-Meeting, a clear increase throughout this Circuit of 51 full and accredited churchmembers, and 21 on trial. The sacrament of baptism has been administered to 55 adults, and 12 infants; and 6 couples have been joined together in matrimony.

My chief object in now writing is, to furnish you with a striking instance of the gross and enslaving superstition in which the poor Heathen around us are held by "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."

On the 8th of last month, a steady Christian man, a member of the Basle Society, called on me in the morning, and expressed a desire to speak with me on a subject of importance. I desired him to be seated, and to proceed with what he had to say. He then informed me, in substance, that for some time past many people having died at the town of Teshi, where he resided, (Teshi

is about nine miles distant from JamesTown,) and there being at the same time a great scarcity of fish, the Chieftains of the town had arrived at the conclusion that some evil-disposed person or persons had not only made fetish in the sea, thereby preventing the fishermen from taking their usual draught of fishes, but that such person or persons were also practising witchcraft, thereby effecting the death of the people of the town.

To arrive at a clear understanding of matters, a fetishman of great celebrity, residing in a town fifty miles off, was sent for, expressly for the purpose of discovering the guilty party or parties.

Kometey, the fetishman, quickly made his appearance in Teshi, and forthwith commenced the exercise of his pernicious craft. In a day or two he announced to the Chiefs that his fetish had pointed out to him four men who were guilty of witchcraft. These men were immediately singled out, seized, and imprisoned. Being tried by Kometey himself, they were pronounced guilty. But in order to be further satisfied of the guilt of the four men, the Chiefs of the town decreed to send them, under a proper escort, three days' journey to another fetish establishment in the neighbourhood of the river Volta; where, also, after due ceremony, they were pronounced guilty.

My informant then stated, that the unfortunate men in question were that day (December 8th) at the town of Poni, eighteen miles distant from Teshi; that it was settled by the Chiefs that they should be brought into Teshi on the 10th, and destroyed by fire. Akron, my informant, further assured me, that the men would most certainly be burnt alive, unless measures were taken by the Local Government to prevent it.

As I had no reason to doubt the truthfulness of what was related to me, I felt it my duty to make the whole known to the Hon. E. B. Andrews, Colonial Secretary, who was then on a visit to James-Town on affairs of the Government; but, as that gentleman had some hours previously gone on a short journey into the interior, nothing could be done. I therefore directed Akron to return to Teshi and watch closely the movements of the Chiefs and Headmen of the town relative to the case in question, when the four prisoners should be brought into the town, and, as soon as the time was fixed for burning them, to hasten back to me with the intelligence.

Accordingly, two days afterwards, in the afternoon of the 10th, Akron again made his appearance at the Mission

house with further information, that the four men from Poni had reached Teshi that morning; that a meeting of the Chiefs and people was held on their arrival, and that they were sentenced to be burnt alive at midnight!

I again repaired to James-Fort, taking Akron with me; and, as Mr. Secretary Andrews had returned from his journey, I laid the whole matter before him. Not having at hand an armed force of sufficient strength to check so great an outrage, and to rescue the unfortunate victims of a debasing superstition, his only available course was to direct the interpreter of the Police-Court and the chief constable of James-Town to proceed forthwith to Teshi to avert, if possible, the awful doom of the wretched men referred to. Feeling powerfully impressed that, if I accompanied the deputation in my humble capacity as a Christian Missionary, a greater moral influence might thereby be given to the object contemplated, I resolved to go with them, taking with me my interpreter, Mr. France.

At six P. M. we started from JamesTown, and arrived at Teshi at nine. On entering the town, we found it exceedingly quiet, and but very few persons moving about the streets. Directing my steps to the residence of the King, and inquiring for him, I was informed that I could not see him in the absence of his linguist. That official was therefore sent for, who, when he came, said, with ready falsehood, and evidently assumed unconcern, "The King was not in the town, and therefore I could not see him. replied, I knew the King was in the town, and that I must see him, as I had some particular business with him. I was then interrogated as to the nature of my business, and desired to mention it to the linguist, in order that it might be communicated to the King. To this request I decidedly objected, saying,

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They" (I now saw by the flickering glare of several lighted lamps that the linguist was joined by three or four Chiefs, whilst, within the few minutes that had elapsed, several hundreds of the common people, many of whom came armed, stood on either side of me, entirely blocking up the street in which I sat quietly on horseback)" might be sure that the cause which led me to visit them at so late an hour was a very grave one, and therefore I should have no communication on the subject but with the King and his Chiefs." The linguist replied, that "when people had any palaver,' they usually attended to it in

all the circumstances of the case were well known to many besides myself.

I was pressed for nearly an hour to give the name of the person who had mentioned the subject to me; but I as steadily refused to do so. In turn I desired them to tell me "how it was that the King of James-Town knew of the case, as a messenger from him was then sitting by me, who was sent the day previous to plead for the lives of the men for whom I was also interceding. Did they think that tidings of the public trial of these men, first in their own town by the usual fetish-ordeal, and afterwards by a similar test at Awoonah, would not reach the ears of everyone? or did they suppose that the people of the villages through which the men had passed to and from Awoonah had not eyes to see or ears to hear of their doings?"

The whole assembly, with the exception of the Chiefs, now became exceedingly clamorous, saying, "I had insulted them; they had better, therefore, cast dirt upon us, and drive us out of the town."

Several Chiefs instantly rose and authoritatively restored order; at which many of the most boisterous walked away, evidently offended. After a brief conversation among the Chiefs, the linguist, again addressing me, said, "the information I had received was incorrect, -they had no intention to kill the men. They were the Chiefs of the town; and when anything went wrong, it was their duty to set it right by punishing offenders: they would, however, retire to hold a consultation, and return to let me know further respecting the affair."

Here nearly all the Chiefs rose, with about sixty men, and walked away some distance from us.

After ten minutes' absence, they returned, and resumed their stools; when the linguist, with much gravity, said to me through my interpreter, that "what I had heard and stated to them was correct, -the four men had been tried and found guilty of taking the lives of many persons by fetish-practices, and they had confessed their guilt. Had they not a right to judge their own people? Was not Adoom kept in James-Fort for the purpose of detecting criminals? Was not the late King of the Dutch town (contiguous to JamesTown) in the habit of killing people, and also causing them to kill themselves? They would not now kill the four men who had committed the crimes referred to, but would fine them heavily, and afterwards deliver them up to their .friends." Several men behind me in

stantly roared out that "they would not depart from their decision of yesterday!" In answer to what was spoken by the linguist, I expressed my thanks, and added, that I should feel better satisfied if they would allow the men to be brought, that I myself might hear them confess their crime; that if they were really guilty of having taken the lives of any of the people, they had done what was wrong; and, in order that they, the Chiefs, might save themselves from any future trouble with the Governor, I advised them, as their friend, to send the men to James-Fort, that they might be tried by the proper authority. Another uproar ensued, several voices inquiring "if the men had killed any of my friends; and if not, why did I wish them to be brought for the purpose of asking any questions? They would not allow it."

Failing to carry my point here, I desired to know what the probable amount of the fine would be which they intended to inflict. I asked the question because I thought I could arrange the amount, and remove the men to JamesTown, to avoid the possibility of any future unpleasantness. I further added, that "I was not aware of Adoom being kept in James-Fort for the purpose of trying criminals; nor did I know anything of the practices of the late King of Dutch Akrah."

Giving Adoom, or Odom, is one of the many fetish-processes by which the innocence or guilt of a person charged with crime is tested. The ordeal is simply this: A small portion of the bark of the odom-tree is given by the fetishman to the person arraigned, which he is required to chew, the juice of which he is made to swallow this is followed up with a copious draught of water administered in a calabash, which if the stomach retains, the accused individual is pronounced "guilty;" if otherwise, he is said to be innocent. A great deal of trickery is, of course, employed in this and other fetishtrials.

:

Failing here again, and finding I could do nothing further, I again put the question to the King and his Chiefs as to their real intention respecting the men. They confirmed what they had already stated; namely, that "they would not kill them, as they had never yet taken the life of any person in the town."

As a close to the interview, I solemnly assured the Chiefs that, "if they touched the lives of the men of whom we had been so long conversing, after the promise they had now publicly made, they would in