Rev A Brandram No 4
Antigua 30th March 1832
My Dear Friend
After reading in my last letter, that on my return to Antigua I should remain there but a few days, you will wonder at receiving a letter from me dated so late as the end of March, thus indicating not the stay of a few days but of a whole month. You will be disposed perhaps in the first instance to say – Is all well? – And to this I reply, yes, all is well and all is better than our anticipations. With this favourable hint as to the cause of my delay, you will perhaps not be disinclined to wait a few minutes before I give you a fuller explanation, to enable me to go back and take up the thread of my narrative where I last left off which was at the island of Montserrat.
I sailed from the island just named on the evening of 28th February, and on the 29th at a late hour of the night I landed in St. John's in this island after a rather boisterous passage of 26 hours.
My main and only object in returning to Antigua was to see our new Society installed by a public meeting. Immediately therefore on my arrival I made the necessary arrangements, and our meeting was held in the courthouse in St. John's on the 8th of the present month.
I have sent you a couple of newspapers which will already have informed you about what took place on that occasion. You will see that his Excellency Sir Patrick Ross our Governor honoured the meetings with his presence. I may add to this, that he helped forward our great cause in this public concourse by two short speeches very appropriate to the occasion, and delivered in that manner which indicated, what I believe was truly the case, that what he said came from the heart.
Several distinguished persons in the island where present, and took more or less part in the proceedings. Among them was the Chief Justice of the Island, the Honourable Paul Horsford the President of the Society, who occupied the chair. This gentleman was President also of the former Society, and it is a duty I owe to say of him, that he much regretted the desuetude into which your Antigua Auxiliary had fallen, and hailed with pleasure the prospect of its being again set on foot, and with a fair expectation that it would now continue to labour with you until your work is finished.
The Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert a clergyman of the established church and one of our vice presidents was with us on the occasion, and delivered the speech which is already before you in one of the papers I have sent. This speech produced a pleasing and I think a profitable effect. It directed the attention of the assembly to the word of God as the supreme dictator in the church of Christ, and showed that the propriety of all who believe this book to be God's to unite together as one man to send it forth to the ends of the earth, and in the language of every people, kindred and tribe.
Mr. Gilbert's speech refers also, as you will perceive, to the slave population of this island – to the numerous schools established for teaching them to read – and to the gratifying circumstances of the Holy Scriptures are put into their hands as their school book, and the book of their instruction as respects the life that now is as well as that which is to come.
I have been truly gratified to see what is going on in this island in this respect. Every facility is given by the Planters for the instruction of their slaves, and I believe that is not one Planter in this island who stands up to forbid the model and religious instruction of the people under his care. I have visited many of the schools. I have seen the holy Scriptures in the hands of a child of five and of a man of fifty, and have heard them read distinctly out of this blessed book the wonderful works of God. And in truth it was to me one of the wonderful works of God to see the operations of His hand in his mercy and in his grace to this Island, numbers have been taught to read, and numbers have been taught what flesh and blood cannot teach them.
I trust the work of God will go on here. I will pray that this might be the case, and I shall endeavour to promote according to the means and opportunities placed within my reach. Please join us with your prayers for this desirable land; and indeed it is the special duty of all whose daily labours are the circulating of God's holy word to pray ever and anon the Holy Spirit may direct and instruct every soul into whose hands we put this sacred life-giving volume. Pray then for Antigua, and for all among us who receive through your instrumentality the book that is able to make them wise unto salvation.
I have been led away from our public meeting by this subject; and should I be ashamed of being so led away? – No. The printing, the binding, the shipping, the sending, and the giving of the Bible is mechanical. But the study of the word of God, the hearing and receiving of that salvation which it contains is of another and more elevated nature, and it is not mechanical but spiritual.
I return however to our public meeting. Several gentlemen spoke profitably on the occasion, and one in particular in the course of his speech stated that he had made it the subject of his daily prayers for a long time past that the Society might again be restored. The feeling which his statement indicated reproduced the same I believe in others, and led many perhaps to pray for the stability and usefulness of the Society who had not been so intent on its re-establishment as the gentlemen I am now speaking of. Altogether I think I may say that the general impression made at our meeting was of a very pleasing nature.
This public meeting for the installation of our Society being over I was all ready to embark for Guadaloupe, but no vessel offered. In the meantime Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert kindly invited me to go out with them when the meeting closed to spend the night at their house in the interior of the island, and which accordingly I did. Next morning when I was preparing to return to town, and if no vessel offered very soon to hire one, Mrs. Gilbert with unusual earnestness begged me to stay the day with them, and that in the evening they would try what could be done towards forming a Bible Association among the slaves on their own estate. I felt very unwilling to stay as I had been long longer in Antigua by a good deal than I intended to be, I was anxious to move onwards in the long tour lying before me and to visit another island without delay. But Mrs. Gilbert would scarcely be said nay to, and Mr. Gilbert urged the same thing. I said I would think again upon it, and leading them I went out to take a walk. I then ruminated upon the subject anew. I saw the desirableness of forming Bible Associations, and indeed I think that in all cases Bible Society work is never carried to its proper and legitimate end until the district and the street and the lane are brought under the immediate influence of the Society, by these places becoming themselves the real and substantial parts of it. Doubts of success however came across my mind as to realizing Bible Associations here, and again I wished to be off and on my way to another island. At last however I made up my mind to stay and make one trial especially as the opportunity of making it in this case was so easy. When I returned from my walk I told my friends that I had resolved to stay and make a trial that evening for the object in question. This was about ten o'clock in the morning, and notice was forthwith given that there would be a meeting in the evening at eight o'clock, and a messenger was dispatched to two or three of the neighbouring estates to give notice of the same.
At the hour agreed on we found a pretty large number of people assembled, and they kept increasing until there were present I should think 500 persons, all slaves. We sang a hymn and prayed. I then stated some things respecting the Bible, its origin, its objects, and its contents. I further stated the nature of the Bible Society, and told the people what the good folks in Earl Street and in England were doing to get the Bible for themselves and to send it to all and everybody in every place. I told them that the work was great, what millions yet remain to be supplied, that the people of England invited all their fellow subjects throughout the British Empire to get the word of God for themselves, and to join them in sending it through the world and finally that you had sent me to them with this invitation.
Mr. Gilbert followed me and more or less in the same tract, with the pleasing interest and variety which he is capable of giving to what he had said. The next person who spoke with Mr. Garling you already know well and he was succeeded by Mr. Bourne one of the secretaries of the Society in St. John's. The meeting was altogether of a very agreeable nature. The people with their black faces and white eyes were all attention, they readily accepted of the invitation you sent them, and entered forth with into Society or association, several individuals enrolling themselves as collectors. Thus was established the first Bible Association of Antigua and perhaps of the West Indies. The Chapel in which our meeting was held gave also some peculiar interest to the commencement of Bible associations. In the same place about 70 years ago was the gospel first preached in this island by the Honourable Nathanael Gilbert, grandfather to the gentleman present with us on this occasion, and under whose auspices our Association was formed. Thus have been answered the prayers offered up in this place many years ago on behalf of this island, and prayers that have been continued by a person of the same name and surname from that time down to the night in which this infant institution was established.
At the close of the meeting we had some conversation with the gentleman from another estate who had been an ear and eye witness of what I have above described. He was a gentleman whom I have elsewhere referred to as having made the restoration of the Bible Society in this island the subject of his daily prayers. You may well suppose him therefore to be pleased with what he had seen. In a short time we made an arrangement with him for holding a meeting on his estate on the following evening. We met accordingly and conducted the meeting as before described. The place in which we assembled was full, everybody was attention, and here we formed a second Association.
This was on Saturday. On Monday evening we formed a third on another estate under the care of the same gentleman. On Tuesday we had an appointment for the same object, but did not form an Association, as the weather proved unfavourable and comparatively few people were present. We postponed therefore our object till another day. On Wednesday we formed our fourth Association; on Thursday our fifth; and on Saturday our sixth. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the following week we formed for more associations, making in all ten. In the present week so far as it has elapsed we have formed three so that the whole number of associations up to this date is thirteen.
You already see the cause of my delaying here so much beyond the time expected, and I think I may now say, as I said before, that all is well, and all is better than our anticipations. The truth is that I have been hurried along by the openings in Providence in this matter and have had it as a were no alternative. But I must say a few words more respecting these associations, and I must tell you to what arrangements and expectations we have for going forward in this matter.
In the first place, these associations are formed among slaves. Some of these are able to read and have already got the Bible. These we exhort to read the Bible they have got with all attention, and to join and give us their mites to enable us to send the Scriptures to those parts of the world where they are not. Most of the slaves on Mr. Gilbert's estate are under these circumstances, and although they need not the Scriptures for themselves being already supplied, yet have they most readily come forward to subscribed to the Association formed among them, and their contributions are of course for sending the Scriptures unto others, and in short they thus join and cooperate with you in your great and general object of supplying the world with the word of God.
Those who can read and have not the Scriptures among our associations we advise with all earnestness to get the Scriptures into their possession as soon as they possibly can; and we point out to them the facility of doing this by subscribing a small sum monthly to our Association. On the other hand we advise those who cannot read to learn without delay, showing them the facility of doing this as there are schools everywhere around them. In the meantime while you are learning to read, we further say to them, subscribe to our Association, and by the time you are able to read you will have a Bible ready. We have got promises from some of this class that they will begin forthwith to study their letters that they may be prepared to read the Bible which they hope in due time to obtain by means of their subscription. Thus you see we endeavour to turn the whole concern to usefulness as far as we can devise.
In the next place I observe that the slaves take a great interest in this matter. This is proved by the numbers that have assembled at our meetings. We have had from 200 to 500 present in the forming of the associations, and last night we had in the Moravian Chapel of St. John's not less than 900. A further proof is found in the close and deep attention they pay to all that is spoken, and the alacrity with which they seem to enter into the business. I would not dampen this pleasing view of the subject by anticipating of falling off in interest and in subscription, but would rather trust that He who has so visibly directed to the formation of these associations will provide the means for keeping them up, and increasing the numbers, and of quickening their zeal.
I would further observed respecting these associations that they are all formed with the approbation of the Planters, who not only give us their consent but in most cases attend at our meetings and advocate our object in person.
The sum we recommend to our subscribers as suitable to give is from one to four dogs monthly. I dare say you are not learnt had enough to know how much a dog is, but I shall tell you as I am now pretty familiar with this denomination of money. The value of a dog is about three farthings sterling money. In commencing these associations and in carrying them on I feel under particular obligation to Mr. Gilbert. I have said we in almost all I have said before on the subject, by which word I include Mr. Gilbert with myself as he has kindly attended most of these meetings and taken an active part in speaking and acting in them. I should add further that his house is my home whenever I am in his quarter of the island, and he has also furnished me with the means of conveyance to the place of our meetings. Both these circumstances have proved a considerable saving of expense.
I should also mention that Mr. Bourne one of our secretaries has attended and spoken at many of our meetings, and has greatly aided me with the means of conveyance and otherwise. Mr. Garling also contributes to the same end, and since my return to Antigua his house is my home.
Yesterday morning I came into St. John's from Mr. Gilbert's whither I went two days before to form to associations in that quarter. Upon inquiry of Mr. Gilbert as to the progress of our first Association formed on his estate and in his Chapel as before noticed, I learned that things are going on very well. The number of collectors is 11, and these have obtained no less than 390 subscribers. Some of these give more some less, but the average for each one is about two pence sterling per month. This you see is very encouraging. We can hardly expect the same success in the other associations, nor can we expect perhaps these same subscribers to be permanent. Still I trust much good will be done, and in more ways than one by these associations.
I have stated above that we have already formed 13 associations. To this I add that arrangements are made and making for several others. In respect to the time I ought to stay here Mr. Gilbert and others of our friends think that the openings in Providence for forming these institutions should not be neglected but duly improved. We do not force our way in this matter but merely follow-up those openings which seem to present themselves to us as it were of their own accord. I am acting in some respects contrary to my own wish as before noticed, in remaining here, and am not therefore likely to stay more than the time that duty demands. One reason, besides those already stated, for my staying as I am doing in this island, is the beneficial influence that anything done here is most likely to have upon the other islands which I am about to visit; for this island I understand to be in advance of most of the others in respect to instruction, morals, and religion.
I should not conclude this letter without noticing the friendly feeling manifested towards our Bible Society work by the Editors of all the newspapers of the island, all of whom insert our advertisements free of expense; and the little printing we have had done by one of these in the shape of a circular has been executed on the same terms.
I shall probably have an opportunity of writing you again before I leave the island by some private ship. In the meantime I remain,
Most Sincerely Yours,
James Thomson.