lineations are omitted. There is one circumstance however which ought not to be passed over in total silence; it is a point which relates to their arts and manufactures.

The art of weaving, though in a rude state, was not wholly unknown to the inhabitants of the different islands which were visited by Columbus, both Windward and Leeward. Their materials were cotton, which they wove into strong and substantial cloth, and reserved for domestic uses. They had an art by which they dyed it of various colours, as caprice or national taste directed; though red or scarlet seemed to be the prevailing colour which delighted the Charaibees. Of this cloth they made their hammocks in which they slept, and the bandages which their females wore around their legs; and they applied it also to such purposes as the internal condition of their huts required.

In addition to this circumstance, they had established among them a species of pottery, which supplied their domestic conveniences. These kitchen utensils they formed from the native clay of the islands. They gave them their form while in a malleable state, and burnt them in kilns, not unlike the potters of more refined nations, where arts and manufactures are carried to such a degree of perfection as to raise such articles to a rank of national importance. Nor were these utensils of a rude and unseemly nature. Like the weapons of their warriors, they were finished with exactness and precision; and would have conferred no disgrace on the professed artists of England. Their materials, it is true, were adapted to these purposes; but still, nothing less than ingenuity, not often to be found among men who possessed hardly any thing human but the shape, could have brought to perfection such articles as required a tedious though simple process. We may therefore naturally conclude, that had their faculties been properly cultivated, had their minds been enlightened, and had proper methods been taken with them to train them gradually to discipline and order, they would not have appeared in such a despicable light, as the pride of those who view them with contempt would persuade us to believe.

The same observations which are thus made on the Charaibees, will undoubtedly apply, in a general sense, to most if not all the uncivilized parts of the human race. They may differ from one another by minute shades and imperceptible gradations, till, from the highest to the lowest, the contrast may be marked with strong and pointed colours. But the intellectual powers of man are without all doubt radically the same in every portion of the globe; and those differences which occasionally appear so striking, may be attributed to the influence of custom,

or some other extraneous cause, with which the essential properties of the human mind have little or no connexion. We observe the same distinctions among ourselves, between man and man. The mind frequently assimilates itself, in its condition, to that of the body; and were we to form our national estimate from the most uncultivated parts of the English peasantry, our scientific character would bear but an inferior rank, when placed in competition with its present unrivalled name. The Charaibees were all peasantry. Nay, they were very much beneath. They had no examples from any higher orders, either to prompt them to diligence in researches, or to instruct them by superior conduct, how to love truth, justice, and virtue. And what is still of infinitely greater importance, they had none to instruct them in the things which made for their everlasting peace. All these circumstances united together, will assuredly assign sufficient reasons, why the Charaibees continued in a savage state.

The influence of climate may, without doubt, be admitted to have in such cases some considerable share, in expediting or retarding the barbarism which we contemplate, The climates which men inhabit, may have a very great influence over the perceptive powers of the mind. They may choke in some measure the avenues of knowledge, and make the soul less susceptible of impressions than in other more favourable regions. But these are but temporary embarrassments, and will not operate against the theory for which I contend, namely, that men are men, and that they possess all the radical principles which are essential to the nature of man, in every climate, and in every country on the globe.

That some defective individuals will be found among a large and unwieldy mass of people, whose faculties no instruction can properly unfold, will admit of no doubt; but these can no more be brought forth to confront a general theory, than the anomalies which we behold in the productions of nature, can be adduced to contradict the regularity of her works. Neither can we justly infer a radical difference from such erratic circumstances, any more than from the astonishing exploits of those daring geniuses, whose actions have immortalized their names, and which history must transmit to nations which are yet unborn.

ages

Such men may be justly reckoned among the wonders of nature, and are only to be found scattered up and down through distant of the world. Greece existed many ages before it produced a Homer; and Rome before it produced either a Virgil or a Cæsar. England saw many centuries roll by, before it produced either a Shakspeare or a Milton, a Newton, a Marl

borough, a Bacon, or a Locke. And the world has produced but one Columbus from creation to the present hour.*

What the faculties of men are capable of bringing forth, when properly unfolded, perhaps we are incompetent to decide. We can only estimate from what has been, and this method seems to be our surest guide. But certain it is, that the faculties must be unfolded, before the individual can commence the man. This can only be done, by introducing civilization among those who are now in a savage state, or sunk in barbarism which is divided from it only by a few diminutive shades. Civilization always flourishes most where the gospel is preached in its purity; and therefore we may justly infer, that nothing can be so happily calculated, even in a national and commercial point of view, to effect the happy purpose, as the establishment of the gospel in the uncivilized and barbarous countries of the world. But when from the political motives we turn our views, as ministers of the gospel, or as Christians, to the eternal welfare of these benighted fragments of human nature, the subject bursts upon us in all its greatness. God has placed us in a situation superior in this view to any nation of the earth; and has given us the temporal power and spiritual ability, to carry the gospel into distant lands; he has impressed us with its importance, and therefore requires us on this awful point to make our own reflections.

Perhaps we may presume to add even to Columbus himself, though in an inferior point of view, our very great navigator Captain Cook.

CHAP. IV.

GENERAL SURVEY OF MISSIONS.

The necessity of sending the gospel into foreign parts-missionaries sent from Spain to the West Indies, to the East Indies, and to South America-the Danes send a Protestant mission to the East Indies-great French mission to China. Progress, zenith, decline, failure and sufferings of the missionaries-causes which conspired to defeat the designs of the mission.

A Protestant mission first sent from England by the Incorporated Society in London-origin of the society-the mission proves in general rather unsuccessful in its object, but ultimately beneficial-the Moravians send missions into every quarter of the globe. -Methodist missionaries first introduced into Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney, the United States of America, the West Indies, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland-success of the Baptist missionaries, and of the followers of Mr. Whitefield-happy effects resulting from the joint exertions of all.

FROM the preceding chapters, in which the reader may dis

cover human nature in its deplorable state of savage degradation, we proceed to state a few of the most important particulars, which relate to those methods which have been adopted, for the civilization and conversion of those outcasts of society that are scattered through different regions of the globe.

The means which have hitherto been deemed most available, and most likely to produce those salutary effects, have been to establish missions among those tribes who were sunk in heathenish darkness, and given up to the grossest kinds of idolatry. In some cases these efforts have failed; and in others they have been crowned with much success. If however these missionary endeavours have experienced defeats in distant portions of the world, they have generally carried with them the causes of their failure. They have sometimes been so incorporated in their establishment, with secular affairs and the pecuniary interests of designing men, that the primary designs have been forgotten. At other times, though undertaken from the purest motives, the welfare of the ignorant savage has been trampled under foot; and the religion of Jesus Christ has been used as an instrument of traffic, or a passport to robbery, instead of being made the medium of salvation.

That some of these cases have occurred in the eastern regions of the globe, the following pages of this chapter will fully prove: and that plunder and devastation engrossed the place of true religion in the early settlement of the West Indies, the massacre of the natives and the plunder of their territories will not permit us to entertain a moment's doubt. And that this degeneracy of spirit, to which the failure of missions. may justly be ascribed, has awfully prevailed over the continent of South America, let the history of that extensive but unhappy country decide.

That the good and gracious Being who governs the universe, is infinite both in his power and wisdom, will not admit of a moment's doubt. He can therefore accomplish his divine purposes either with means or without them, as that infinite power shall direct, and that infinite wisdom shall see meet. But the ordinary method which God adopts for the accomplishing of his designs, is through the instrumentality of means.

The selection of those means must be made by his power and wisdom; and in all his actions he adapts the methods which he chooses, to the great end which he has in view. On this ground he has been pleased to propagate the truths of Christianity, through the medium of those individuals to whom he had previously made known his will. He selects them to sustain a character that shall be suitable to their profession, and makes use of every method to convince them that all their sufficiency is of him. While they sustain that character, he engages to support them; and never abandons them, till they first abandon him. He crowns their endeavours with success, while they act with conscientious rectitude; and frustrates their designs, when they degenerate into base and sordid views.

Admitting, therefore, that God selects his instruments for the propagation of Christianity from those individuals and na tions to which he has previously revealed his will, how can the Christian nations of Europe acquit themselves to God, while they enjoy with ungrateful supineness the light of the gospel, and refuse to disseminate it through the idolatrous nations of the earth! Can they, as nations, justify their conduct, while they withhold the exercise of that power, which God, for compassionate purposes, has placed in their hands?

Nor will the duty appear less conspicuous, if, from the obligations which we feel ourselves under, we turn our views to the deplorable condition of the Indian and other savage tribes. From these views new considerations offer themselves before us, and claim an interest in our most serious thoughts. For though we grant, that, through the infinite compassion of God, the condition of these savage nations may not be so desperate, as to exclude them individually from that tender mercy which