Rev A Brandram No.4
Jalapa, 9th May 1827
My Dear Sir,
On the 2nd instant I wrote you a few lines from Vera Cruz, informing you of my safe arrival there, and that I was in the enjoyment of good health, a blessing we ought more highly to prize than we do in every climate; but to enjoy life and health in Veracruz calls one's attention more to the duty of thanksgiving for these blessings we have under common circumstances. On the 3rd I left that place, and not with much reluctance. On the 5th I arrived safely in the city, a place in reference to the climate of Veracruz, like the cities of refuge in Israel. Here the scourge of Veracruz never enters, the climate is excellent and the whole scene around beautiful.
Tomorrow at daybreak we set out for the city of Mexico, and hope to arrive there by the end of next week. You are aware of my meaning when I use the pronoun we instead of I, and that it is used in general not in the plural but in the dual number. Mrs. Thomson who makes one half of this number feels a very deep interest in the great cause of the Bible Society, and with our hands and in our supplications we unite to forward your cause in this quarter, so that you may consider that you have not one agent here but two. The Lord has been very gracious to us both thus far, in preserving us in safety on the ocean, in preserving our life and our health in the pestilential climate of Veracruz, and in our land journey to this city. We trust the same mercies will be extended to us in our course onward. We endeavour to set the Lord be for us in all our ways, and we humbly hope that we shall be directed in all our steps according to the faithful promise of the Lord to those who wait on him.
I have nothing particular to add at present respects the main object in view, but I thought you would be desirous of having a notification of my safe arrival in this place of refuge, as a letter dated in Veracruz is not very satisfactory to inquiring friends as to the welfare of those who write, because a couple of days after (that) date may witness the writer in the grave.
Give thanks, my dear brother for the goodness of God our heavenly Father towards us, and do not forget us at the throne of grace, at the hour of prayer. To all our dear friends in the Committee I would say the same. In our prayers we remember you, and may the Lord graciously remember us all, for the sake of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Savior.
Till the next opportunity, My Dear Sir, Farewell,
Most Truly Yours,
James Thomson.
P.S. I have ordered from Mr. Philp bookseller Falmouth, the Evangelical Magazine, the Missionary Register, the Congregational Magazine, the Baptist Magazine, the Christian Guardian, and the Methodist Magazine. These are to be paid half yearly, and I shall be greatly obliged by Mr. Tarn's attention to Mr. Philp's order when presented. J.T.