in which he had embarked, which every one must commend. What Mr. Yates calls Mr. Chamberlain's "first Missionary Tour" was to Gunga Saugor in 1804. about a year after his arrival. Had we room, we should certainly extract that part of Mr. C's. journal, which describes Gunga Saugor, at the great religious festival, when he and Brother Carey visited it; and our readers would at once be put in possession of rather a spirited picture of the scene, and of the mode in which a Christian Missionary addresses a Hindoo multitude. The pious exultations of Mr. Chamberlain, in finding himself engaged in so great a work, on so grand a scale, need not excite much surprise. The most fervent of his anticipations, when studying at Olney and Bristol, must have been more than fulfilled, when he found himself addressing 200,000 heathen, engaged in one of the most solemn, and sacred of their religious rites. The attempt to decry their devotion, under such circumstances, may appear at least to be bold; but the honest and ingenuous confession of the good Missionary, that he doubted if any of them understood what he was saying, rather detracts from his couragewhich, after all, we, who know the Bengalees, know well enough, need not have been screwed to a very high sticking place, even had Mr. Chamberlain's denunciations against their faith been intelligible.

It will, however, be seen from the passage alluded to, that at this time the hopes of Mr. Chamberlain were not a little sanguine, that ultimate success would crown his Missionary labours; and as we may have occasion to contrast his future opinions, formed on a better acquaintance with the Natives of India, with those he now entertained, our readers may be enabled to judge for themselves, from seeing the reflexions, which close the Diary of Mr. Chamberlain's first Missionary Tour.

"By this journey I have seen something of the manners of the Natives, of their superstitious idolatry and delusion. True it is, that here are none, who seek after God; yet all are not alike devoted to idols. Many see the craft, avarice, and pride of the Brahmuns, and are disgust

ed with it; some see the folly of their worship, and pay little regard to it; but all are alike united in the pursuit of gain. Rupees and Cowries are the constant subjects of their conversation. In some places, people are enveloped in blindness and ignorance; in others, infatuated with superstition and pride. In trading towns, many people can read and write : here we find the people in general more enlightened, and more ready to hear; in villages few can read, and few know any thing more, than to till the ground, and relate a few silly poisonous stories. In some parts, the gospel appears more likely to succeed, than in others: they hear attentively, and are eager to receive books. In others they are stupid, prejudiced, careless, hear negligently, and refuse to take books. Their Gooroo is all. Every thing that he says, they swallow down without the least consideration or examination. The women are in the most deplorable situation: all are grossly ignorant, all profoundly superstitious, especially by the river. Here they are all the adorers of Seeb, and of their goddess Gunga. It is a most affecting sight, to see the poor creatures sitting performing their devotions. Many of the people are Mussulmans, who do not worship Hindoo idols, but they idolize their Peers and Mahommud. They are in general the most ignorant, have neither the mildness nor information of the Hindoos, but have a hardiness and haughtiness in their manners, far from agreeable: they seem the farthest from the kingdom of heaven. It evidently appears, that the Natives, who are in the neighbourhood of Europeans, are more intelligent and less prejudiced, than those who are not; and the dispersion of Europeans in this country, though their bad conduct does great mischief in some cases, will undoubtedly be for the general good of the people, and will I trust also be for the furtherance of the gospel.

"Upon the whole, much as there is in this country to damp the spirits, and to discourage the Missionary, yet is there much to encourage and invigorate him, in the glorious work. The work is Jehovah's, and verily he has begun to prepare the way for its accomplishment. His word is gone forth, and multitudes have heard the glorious tidings. Some rage, and are confident; some stagger, and are ready to fall; some seek for the good way; and others, finding it, resolve to walk therein, whatever troubles and sacrifices may be the consequence. Surely this is nothing less than the work of the Almighty."

The following view of the Serampore Mission at this period of the objects it had in view, and the principles, by which its property was regulated, is of too great importance to be overlooked. In a letter to Mr. Fuller, a distinguished Member of the Baptist Mission Society at home, Mr. Chamberlain thus writes ;

"The Mission is in many respects in a situation, which demands exceeding great thankfulness. We have been projecting a scheme for its enlargement, of which I will briefly give you the outlines. It is that of placing as many brethern, as the Lord gives us, for that purpose, in different stations round the country, with a small capital, about two or three hundred pounds, to trade in cloth, indigo, or whatever each station best affords; to receive money, and send the goods with monthly accounts to us; to keep one common stock, and table still; to have exactly the same allowance, and to meet once a year at Serampore.

"Our reasons are this. It will, by and by, be almost impossible, as well as improper, for every Hindoo, who receives the gospel, to reside at Serampore, or even to come there; and though much may be hoped for from Native brethren, yet a European brother, to oversee and gently conduct their concerns, infuse life into their efforts, and itinerate himself, may be necessary for some time to come. But to maintain a residence any where, he must have an employment; not to say, that the probable profits of about half his time employed in this small capital, may not be unnecessary towards supporting himself, family, a school, &c. in a country where the incidental expences of spreading the word of life have hitherto kept pace, with an income increasing beyond expectation. Besides, an employment furnishes work, and of course protection to the rejected Hindoo converts.

"The advantages we would hope for from this plan, are, the more effectual as well as wider dissemination of the gospel throughout this country, the training up of a number of Native brethren, as itinerant Missionaries, &c. the forming of a body of veteran European Missionaries, of whom the most experienced shall supply the place of the deceased father, and the ardent youth his place in constant succession, finally, the consolidating into one fund the profits of labour, experience, vivacity, steadiness, courage, and wisdom, with a proper distribution of them to their respective places; i. e. steadiness and wisdom to the council, and activity and. courage to the busy scenes. The printing, the translating, the school, and the management of business, will ever employ a sufficient number of brethren at Serampore, to act as a committee during the year; where an annual meeting would give union, direction, and vigour to all affairs; and being the principal seat of the Mission, the nursery of their children, the centre of their esteem and confidence, (no longer can the union exist,) it would attach each individual sufficiently, it is presumed, for every good purpose; while a union of soul, and a perpetual communication of intelligence, hopes, fears, conflicts, oppositions, mercies, and prospects, would, like the circulation of the blood, spread life & ad impulse throughout every part of the body.".

These views were soon found to be impossible in practice, however beautiful and primitive-like in theory; and Mr. Yates informs us, that the experience of twenty years has proved, that for the stations to be independent of each other, is most conducive to their happiness and usefulness. It would appear, therefore, that "the union" was soon broken up, and we are presented, at the very out-set of Missionary exertions, in this country, under the Baptist Society, with the spectacle of a few men, ignorant enough of the common failings, and common principles of our nature, to hasten to the adoption of what could not possibly endure many months, yet launching forth, to attempt the arduous task of bringing over millions of their fellow creatures from the faith of their forefathers! We confess, that

their entering into the "Form of Agreement," from which they so soon, it appears, departed, does not impress us with a high notion of their qualifications for a duty, so arduous as that, which they had undertaken; but it serves somewhat to lesson our surprise, at finding after twenty years experience, that they have accomplished little or nothing; and leaves us to hope, that under better management, and in better hands, the work of instruction in a better faith and morality, may still be prosecuted with success, among the Natives of this country.

Mr. Chamberlain fixed on Cutwa, one of the most populous villages on the banks of the Hooghly, as his head-quarters. He says he would have preferred Kalcaindra, a few miles inland; but it contained only a few inhabitants, and as his work was to aim at instructing the millions of Bengal, a large place, and a great thorough-fare, like Cutwa, was preferable. We are not disposed to agree in this opinion with the worthy Missionary we think his chance of doing good would have been much greater, if he had circumscribed the sphere of his labours, instead of seeking to enlarge it; and in proof of our opinion being the sounder, and more correct, we may instance the fact, that until the Missionaries betook themselves, to labour altogether within the walls of a School-room, their influence on the Native population of this country was nothing: It is now decidedly beneficial, so far as it extends.

The testimony of a Missionary, mixing necessarily with the common, or lower classes of Natives, in regard to the light, in which Europeans are regarded in the Mofussil of India, cannot be unimportant. Mr. Chamberlain says, that one day, when engaged in preaching to a number of them,

"One man said, that the Sahibs had come, and taken their country, and had not told them the news, concerning the world to come. Why was this? were not they sinners? I replied: All mankind are sinners; all need a Saviour, whether Hindoos, or Mussulmans, or Europeans. You seek riches, so do Europeans; nor are many of them concerned about your, or their own eternal good: and as I preach to you, that you

need a Saviour, so shall 1 preach to them, had I opportunity. But why do you speak ill of the Sahibs? Has not their coming into this country been for your good? Is it not better for you, than when the Nabob governed? All replied: true; Europeans do not take our money, and murder us.' I then said: If the coming of the Sahibs has been for your good, as you all know, you ought to be thankful."

Mr. Chamberlain appears to have in general proceeded unmolested by the Natives, in his attempts at converting them: on one occasion, about the period of his progress, at which we have arrived, he met with resistance, so far as to be obliged to remove the hut he was building for himself, to a little distance from the spot, on which he first intended to erect it. How far this might have tended to depress him, we cannot say, but at this time his Diary represents him, as unusually melancholy, yet hoping that "the Lord would begin his work," from which we may gather, that the worthy Missionary did not consider the work as begun, by his settling at Cutwa, preaching, singing hymns, and distributing tracts to the great numbers of Natives, that sometimes attended him. The seasons, at which he appears to have been most earnest, were the great Hindu Holydays, when thousands were collected on the banks of the river, when Mr. Chamberlain never failed, as he tells us, to proclaim to them the word of life' exhorting them, to forsake their folly, and fruitless deeds, and to turn to the Lord.' He tells us in his journals, as quoted by Mr. Yates, that great multitudes flocked around him, and listened often with apparent attention; but we are left to conjecture, whether with the exception of his own servants, and a few Native neighbours, any of his hearers returned to a second sermon. We cannot say, that we approve of Mr. Chamberlain's mode of reasoning, as shewn in the following paragraph; it is not in good taste, and it is putting the question on too perilous an issue, as had the invocation of the daibtas, and the state of the atmosphere happened to co-incide, the triumph would have been with the Brahmun.

"Aug. 2d-A few days ago, some Brahmuns and others came, and inquired with apparent anxiety, why there was no rain-why God did