MISSIONARY GAZETTEER; COMPRISING A GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS STATIONS OF THE CHURCH, LONDON, MORAVIAN, WESLEYAN, BAPTIST, AND AMERICAN, Missionary Societies, &c. &c. &c. WITH THEIR PROGRESS IN EVANGELIZATION AND CIVILIZATION. BY CHARLES WILLIAMS. LONDON: FREDERICK WESTLEY AND A. H. DAVIS, AND SOLD BY JOHN BOYD, EDINBURGH; AND WESTLEY AND PREFACE. THE character and design of this Volume are too apparent to render necessary more than a few prefatory words. Although it partially resembles one published some time since in America, its plan was laid several years before it was known that any similar work was extant; and a large part of it was prepared before that referred to was seen. The Editor, however, on making the discovery, availed himself of its aid, as well as of the assistance afforded by other Missionary records to which he had access; but his principal resources have been found in the Reports of the various Societies whose stations he has described. For the very prompt and obliging loan of those published by the Church, the London, the Moravian, and the Baptist Societies, he begs to offer to the Rev. Messrs. Bickersteth, Arundel, Latrobe, and Dyer, his best thanks. That he wished to compress much information into a comparatively small compass, will be evident on an inspection of the work; and its readers may be assured that still more had been given, but for one of two reasons-his not being able to obtain it, or the limits assigned him, on which he would gladly and frequently have trespassed. In all practicable cases, however, he has preferred giving the original statements of Directors and Missionaries to any which he might have abridged from them; lest, on the one hand, they should suffer from misapprehension, or, on the other, from misrepresentation. Deeply solicitous that any future Edition may be an improvement on this, he will be much obliged by any suggestions or information communicated to him at the Publishers': and he has only to add, that should it meet the kind approval of the religious world he has anxiously sought (by an amount of labour of which he leaves others to speak), and should life and health be afforded, he designs to issue a series of volumes, by way of continuation, as circumstances may require, affixing to each a succinct history of one of those important Institutions, whose proceedings will thus be comprehensively and periodically recorded. Newark, May 18, 1828. CURIOSITY may well be excited, when the energies of a multitude, widely differing on other points, are confederated for the accomplishment of an object; especially when, in the hope of success, they submit to intense toils and costly sacrifices, through a long succession of years. Perhaps this combination was never more striking than in the history of Christian Missions: in whatever light they are regarded, they afford much to stimulate the inquiries both of philosophers and philanthropists, while a candid examination of their claims and results is likely to exert a salutary influence on the mind and the heart. Of no trivial importance is it, therefore, to devise and employ all suitable means for the promotion of correct views and feelings on this subject, wherever entertained; as well as for the communication of them to those who, from various circumstances, have treated it with inattention or indifference. Under this conviction the present volume was prepared, to which it has been deemed desirable to prefix the following observations. It ought, however, to be premised that the genius of Missions is of no recent origin;-it is identical with the spirit of Christianity; it emanated from the heart of "the great Apostle. of our profession;" it kindled an inextinguishable zeal in the bosoms of his immediate followers; and, through the subsequent periods of the Christian era, it put forth its power,too often, indeed, to be opposed by the authority, prejudices, and passions of men,-but still to operate, until, towards the close of the eighteenth century, it appeared like the sun, after contending with the mists and vapours of the dawn, the harbinger of a state of transcendent glory. Whatever diversities have arisen, or do exist, among those it has inspired, and whatever considerations may sometimes have increased its energy, two important principles appear to be involved in all the efforts that have been made for the world's |