Rev A Brandram No. 28
Mexico 29th November 1828
My Dear Friend
Your letter from Carnarvon of 15th September came to hand a few days ago. I was once in that place, and feel therefore a greater interest in those incidents you mention, and which in themselves are very gratifying. I hope the Bible cause will in due time make its way through all classes of our countrymen, and will become the glory of them all, and also the glory of all lands. I have been very much struck with the speech of Lord Bexley at your last annual meeting in respect to the increasing population of Europe and of the world. Nothing has shown me so strongly help you me out efforts are, date as in our littleness we think them. The work of the Bible Society must be considered as only beginning, if we consider the immense field to be benefited by it, and how greatly that field is extending itself every day, by the increasing population of the world. I hope you all feel this from the one end of the kingdom to the other, and I see signs of this I think in the increasing number of your Societies and Associations. How cruel it is towards mankind, to check the operations of such a Society as yours, as has been done in certain quarters of late years. I hope I have rightly applied the word late, and that opposition is now no more.[1]
In my last I gave you a copy of a letter I received from the Bishop of Puebla on his receiving the letter from Lord Teignmouth. You will see that he promised to reply to Lord Teignmouth by the packet of this month. To keep him from forgetting, I sent him a few lines as soon as the packet letters reached the city. In due course of post I received from him the following note. "The first letter I have written with my own hand after this severe illness is the one I enclose you in reply to the letter I received from Lord Teignmouth and which I beg you to forward to him. The individuals of the commission appointed to translate the chapters proposed are at work separately, and as soon as the translation is ready I shall be faithful in remitting to you as before promised. Although I am not yet quite free from my illness, yet I shall have much pleasure in any service I can render you." I enclose the Bishop's letter for Lord Teignmouth. It came sealed, and I am ignorant of its contents; but to satisfy and natural curiosity perhaps Lord Teignmouth will allow Mr. Jackson to send me a copy of it.*
The sale of the Scriptures here has mentioned in my last begins to quicken, though still it moves on very heavily. I wish I may have better news for you soon, but I am not very sanguine of success for months to come. In the meantime let us rejoice that the Scriptures have already been circulated to the extent they have in this country, and though in future you should do but little more, or your work be much checked, yet your labours will be found not in vain. Dr. Mora mentioned to me the other day that, the edict out of question, one cause of the dullness of sale at present is that a considerable proportion of those who can buy and use the Scriptures have already purchased, and he assured me that no book had had in this country so extensive a sale as the Bibles and Testaments. This is a gratifying consideration amidst discouragements.
In Puebla nearly one hundred dollars worth of Bibles and Testaments have been sold since I left it in the end of June last. In Tampico one half of one of the two cases left for sale there had been sold my last advices from that place. Notwithstanding discouragements, you see that is something going on, and I hope the work of the Bible Society here will gradually revive and increase until it exceed what it formerly was.
Mr. Gual who was president of the Bible Society formed in Bogotá, has been here for upwards of two years. He leaves this in a few days on his return to Bogotá by way of Guayaquil. I went out to Tacubaya the other day to give him some letters to carry to my friends in Colombia. I have written by him to the Archbishop of Bogota, and to the Bishops of Santa Marta and Antioquia, and have recommended to them the fostering of the Bible Society of Colombia, and the general circulation of the Scriptures. The Archbishop of Bogotá was the Dean of the Cathedral of that place at the time the Society was formed, and he took an active part in its formation, as mentioned to you in my letters from Bogotá. The Bishop of Santa Marta was the first vice-president of the Society; and the Bishop of Antioquia was the Prior of the convent of St. Dominic in which the Society was formed, and with him the paper was deposited for receiving subscriptions. I hope it may not be altogether in vain to have written to these individuals upon the subject of the Bible Society, and of the circulation of the Scriptures. My best hopes however upon the subject arise from Mr. Gual's return to Colombia. I have begged him upon his return t look into the actual state of the Society and to do all he can to put it into an active state. He promises to interest himself in the matter, and he thinks he may be successful. It will not be amiss I think that you write to him yourself a few lines upon the same subject about a month after this comes to hand. Mr. Gual understands English, and will need no translator of your letter.
I have written by Mr. Gual and Mr. Boully of Guayaquil, desiring him to forward our concerns in that quarter as circumstances may direct after Mr. Matthews' leaving that place. Your monthly extracts No. 133 contains a letter from Mr. Matthews dated Panama May 12th. Does Mr. Matthews go to England from thence, or does he go to Carthagena, and from thence through part of Colombia? I supposed he would have gone from Guayaquil through Quito to Bogotá, which route would have given him an opportunity of visiting most of the populous towns in that part of Colombia.
I enclosed to Mr. Boully a letter to be forwarded to Mr. Cochran of Lima, requesting him to seek out the manuscript of the New Testament in the Quichua language, and to get 1000 copies printed of the Gospel by Luke, which is the only part revised. I have authorize Mr. Cochran to draw on you for the sum that may be required for the impression. I have direct that the Spanish be printed along with the Quichua in parallel columns.
In your 23rd annual report page 68 you have said the Convent of St. Lawrence instead of the Convent of St. Dominic. It is a wonder how the printer mistook the one of these words for the other as they are not very like each other. Col. Arauja's class name is spelt with an 'n' instead of the 'u', but this was a very natural mistake. If you can conveniently notice these errata in any future report perhaps you will do it, though it is of no great moment.
About what time of your edition of the Septuagint be ready? I want a copy for my own use, as the one I have is printed with a very small type and is inconvenient to read.
I remain My Dear Sir
Very Sincerely Yours
James Thomson.
P.S. My insurance will be again be due early in February, may I request you to give directions to Mr. Tarn respecting it? Please desire Mr. Cockle to add to the books mentioned in my last, Robertson's Modern Greek Grammar, in common binding.
* Puebla de los Angeles. Nov. 25 de 1828.
Muy Honorable Lord Presidente de la Sociedad Bíblica &c.
La carta de V. H. de 21 de Agosto último, que por conducto de Mr. Thompson me fue remitida, excitó en mí un sentimiento de pesar por no haber podido contestarla a causa de mi enfermedad, tan pronto como merecía y yo hubiera deseado.
Suscitó al mismo tiempo, otro sentimiento de gratitud, por el exceso de bondad con que V. H. ha querido honrarme, y por las muy encarecidas expresiones con que se ha dignado elevar a la clase de servicios considerables los que hasta ahora no han sido de mi parte sino buenos deseos, o quando más efícases conatos de cooperar al logro de las grandes tareas que tan digna y fructuosamente ocupan a la Sociedad.
En prueba de esta verdad, nombré tres Párrocos de éste Obispado,[2] bastante instruidos en el idioma mexicano, para que trabajando cada uno separadamente, se junten después, a colacionar sus traducciones, las que, si estuvieren conformes, haré que pasen a otra comisión revisora, y remitiré a Mr. Thompson el producto de ese primer ensayo.
Tiene contra sí la empresa la grave dificultad de que los idiotismos y ciertas frases de las Santas Escrituras, se resisten mucho a la versión en un idioma como el mexicano, en el que entraron tan tarde las ideas de los sublimes misterios del cristianismo. Pero, en fin, una aplicación constante, todo lo allanará.
Con el mismo esmero y particular complacencia que este encargo me merece, procuraré desempeñar qualquiera otros que V. H. se dignare confiarme, persuadido del alto respeto y de la más distinguida consideración con que tengo el honor cíe ser cíe V. H. su más atento, seguro servidor.
Antón. Obpo. de la Puebla (firma y rúbrica).
Al M. H. Lord Teignmouth,
Presidente de la Sociedad Bíblica Británica y Extranjera
[1] Possibly a reference to de Apocrypha furore, especially in Scotland (BM).
[2] Rector of San Sebastian of Puebla, the Rector of San Pablo del Monte, and the Rector of San Juan Epatlan. (BM)