Rev A Brandram No. 12
Valencia 1st September 1832
My Dear Friend,
Agreeable to what I stated to you in my last, I embarked in La Guayra for Puerto Cabello on the 15th ultimo. Partly from want of wind, and partly from contrary winds and currents we did not reach our port till the 18th, although less than one third of the time would have been sufficient under more favourable circumstances. In Puerto Cabello I endeavoured as early as I could to get a suitable place in which I might expose the Scriptures for sale. When I had found such a place I posted up my advertisements, and waited the result.
I was enabled to gather more specific information in Puerto Cabello respecting the route I had marked out for myself in travelling through this country than I had been able to obtain either in Caracas or La Guayra. I found Puerto Cabello individuals who knew well all the different parts that lay in my way, and I obtained letters of introduction from these for the towns I had to pass through.
From Mr. Wall, the British consul in Puerto Cabello, I received much friendly attention, and had the pleasure of lodging a few days in his home. I found it quite a refreshment to be able again to call an English family my home, a pleasure which I had not enjoyed since I left the house and home of our good friend Mr. Garling in the island of Antigua.
On Saturday the 25th ultimo, after making some preparations for my inland journey, and exchanging the mattress which I bought at the London docks on embarking for a hammock, the traveling bed of this quarter, I ascended the mountain for Valencia. Mr. Wall was so very kind as accompany me all the way in order to introduce me personally to some of his friends in Valencia whose friendship he thought would be of service to me. This was a more than common act of kindness, as the distance from Mr. Wall's house to Valencia is 25 miles, and most of the way is over a high mountain. Mr. Wall has also indicated his goodwill to the British and Foreign Bible Society by becoming a subscriber. He has paid me the first annual subscription of one guinea, and which will be duly noticed in my next letter to Mr. Tarn.
The chief person to whom Mr. Wall introduced me was Dr. Peña who sometime was chief judge in the Supreme Court of Colombia held in Bogotá. Dr. Peña has paid all the attention to the introduction given me by Mr. Wall, and he has assisted me in various ways.
Valencia is the capital of the province of Carabobo. I had here therefore an opportunity of putting into the hands of the Governor the representation for the Provincial Deputation spoken of in my two last letters. There are five provinces lying westward of this, and which do not fall in my path in moving through the country. From this place I was anxious to forward my representation to these places. I was enabled to do this partly through the kindness of the Governor to whom Dr. Peña introduced me. The Governor franked my letters containing the representation to the respective governors of these five provinces. The postmaster also lent me his aid, for he sent the two little books accompanying that representation (the Four Books and Luke & Acts) by the post office free of all charge.
In Valencia I have had an opportunity, as I have had in other times and places, of speaking of the work in which you are engaged, and of the benefits which the Bible brings with it to those who get it and read it, and to all with whom these are connected. At a breakfast party in Dr. Peña's where several persons of note were present a conversation took place upon this subject. I told our friends that I considered that I was doing no mean service to their country in travelling through it for the purpose of making the Holy Scriptures, God's own word, better known in it. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, I said, and this the Scriptures teach in every page. On this volume, I added, all true religion, all sound morality, and all national security and greatness must be founded. I was happy to find that those present coincided in these sentiments, and expressed a wish that the word of God should be extensively circulated in the country. I always think that something is gained when the Bible is brought forward and acknowledged as a book we should read if we would be happy here and hereafter. And in a Catholic country this is still more important. These occasional words and hints I trust the God of the Bible will bless for preparing the way for greater, I hope the general, circulation of the Scriptures in this land.
In my last letter to you from Caracas I mentioned the route I intended to take through this country in passing towards Trinidad to resume my labours among the West India Islands. It is my wish to be in the island mentioned in the end of October. On making the calculation of the time required in taking the route of Barinas I have found that it is likely to detain me perhaps a good while beyond the time I stated for being in Trinidad. The distance is considerable, and this is the wet season. The rivers too in the course, which are many, are at this time of year often swelled so much as to detain the traveler some time before he can pass them. I have therefore now changed my intended course and instead of going to Barinas, I intend to go by Calaboso, lying toward the Southeast of this, and then from that to San Fernando de Apure which is one of the points of the route formerly mentioned. I take in my course the valleys of Aragua lying on the banks of the lake of Valencia, as this is one of the most populous parts of the country. By this change I expect sooner to arrive at Trinidad, and also to visit a larger population in the course I pass through than by the other tract.
Victoria 10th September 1832
On the third instant I left Valencia furnished with letters for my new course by Dr. Peña and by the Vicar of Valencia whose friendship I was happy to enjoy during my short stay in that place. I am furnished by him with letters to a priest in Calaboso, and to another priest in San Fernando.
In my way to this place I have stopped twice, namely, that the towns of Juacára, and Maracay. In both places I endeavoured to publish the word of God by hoisting my white flag with letters on it that might be read from a distance. I got this flag made in Valencia as I thought it would be more suitable for my purpose in my quick passing through the towns than the advertisements. I am sorry to say that my success was far from encouraging. In Juacára I sold – none: the Lord lay not this indifference to their charge. In Maracay I sold a few copies which was some encouragement after what take took place in Juacára. In these valleys surrounding the Lake of Valencia although the population is considerable, it is chiefly a slave population. The Estates or Plantations in this valley are cultivated almost entirely by slaves. But the slaves here are not favoured like the slaves in Antigua, and some other of the English islands. Alas! here there is no instruction for the poor slaves – no, none at all. There is no school for him to go to, as there is for the slaves in Antigua: there is no church nor chapel where he can hear the Scriptures read and expounded, and where he might here and learn the love of God to poor sinners in his Son Jesus Christ: there is no Sunday school where the Christian minister and his assistants bring the gospel as it were near home to the limited understandings of the poor slaves. Alas for it! All these things are yet to do here, and nothing is even begun. But your sending the Scriptures here may I trust in some measure be a kind of beginning, for if those who are free get and read the word of God it will in due time lead and induce them to teach the slave to read and to give him the holy Scriptures to peruse.
I am here, in this town of Victoria, through a letter of introduction brought with me, comfortably lodged and boarded in the house of the Alcalde, or chief magistrate of the place. Tomorrow I intend to leave this on my way direct to Calaboso, and thence on the River Apure. I have some Bibles and Testaments here for sale after I leave the place, as I did also in Puerto Cabello and Valencia.
The number of copies of the Scriptures already sold here is small, as has also been the case in every town I have stopped that in my present visit to this country. I wish I saw here something like what took place some years ago in Guayaquil, Quito, and other parts in that quarter. This little success here numerically should lead us the more earnestly to pray that God may gave of his Spirit more abundantly with this scanty circulation of his word, that so his name may be more known here than appearances indicate by the small quantity of seed sown. In this manner would his grace be made more manifest, and his name more glorified. May the Lord indeed grant that a double and a much greater proportion of his Spirit may be poured out in this quarter with his word now circulated to the glory of his most holy name; and to whom be the glory and all things, for ever and for ever.
I am, My Dear Friend,
Affectionately Yours,
James Thomson.