Rev A Brandram No.32
Mexico 4th April 1829
My Dear Friend
Your kind letter of the 20th January has just come to hand. You say, the present position in which I am placed here makes you all look with lively interest for my communications, and to feel a little disappointment that matters are not brought to a point more quickly. You add that this may perhaps be owing to a little national impatience but that so the fact is. I sensibly feel the kind and deep interest the Committee has all along felt for this country, and for the progress of their agent here, and it grieves me that for several months past instead of sending you good news from this far country to refresh you for your labours on our behalf, I have only been able to exercise your Christian patience by hope deferred, which we all know maketh the heart sad. Allow me however to supplicate you to have long patience with us, like the husbandman who waiteth both for the early and for the latter rain.
I still hope to have something cheering to send you from this country, but perhaps some months may elapse before that is the case. If during the present year nothing can be affected in removing the edicts, or in restoring the circulation of the Scriptures in spite of them, or in procuring new translations, then I suppose it will be better to withdraw your agent from this country. After the lapse of some time you can again send an agent here, for you must not lose sight of this place notwithstanding its ill reception of your kindness. Your agent whom you may send this second time they probably have more success than he who is now here. This country is making advances, and inquisitorial acts are less and less regarded from year to year. I shall be glad that you would take the mind of the Committee upon this subject and let me know the result. My intention was, as you are aware, when I left England to visit in the first place the large towns in the country lying at no great distance from the capital, and afterwards to revisit some of these and to extend my journey beyond them to the remote parts of Mexico, and also into Guatemala. The first part of my proposed plan I have executed, but have been prevented from commencing the second part of it. You know I had proposed to set out on one of my long tours in September last, but the edicts which were issued and the political state of the country made me desist. I have not had cause to regret the postponement of the journey, as all that has taken place since confirms me in the opinion that that I could have accomplished very little by journeying under the circumstances mentioned, whilst I would have been causing a considerable expense to the society.
In regard to Guatemala it unfortunately continues embroiled in civil war and cannot at present be traversed with much safety or advantage. I hope however there will be an opening for your benevolence there before your agent be finally withdrawn from this quarter.
With respect to the translations of the Scriptures into the native tongues, I have been saddened like yourselves with hope deferred. The Bishop of Puebla is the only organ through which this can at present be carried into effect, for although I had a translation ready for the press in the city I could not get it printed without a license from the ecclesiastical authorities of the diocese, and which I am sure I could not obtain. The Bishop moves but slowly, and I am afraid of overdriving him, lest perhaps I should overdo matters and thus at once lose all. At the close of Lent his translators are again to commence, and I expect soon after to receive from him the two promised chapters in the Mexican language to forward to you. As soon as I receive these or before I shall pay another visit to the Bishop and see what can be done to forward the work. I wish if possible to get the Gospel of Luke translated and printed with the Bishop's sanction, which would be a great deal gained in regard to the further prosecution of such translations. I have hopes that something may be done by the new government to promote education among the Indians who speak the Mexican language in the states of Mexico and Puebla. In that case the translation of the New Testament or part of it would come in very opportunely as a school book.
I have already informed you that the ecclesiastical edicts have no authority beyond the diocese in which they are issued. But indirectly the edict issued in this Metropolitan diocese has been extensively prejudicial to our work, because it seems to have been very generally circulated throughout the country. It has thus operated I believe on the minds of many priests who would otherwise have encouraged or at least allowed the circulation of the Scriptures in their parishes. And, existing as this edict does without opposition or contradiction from the civil authorities, it is an example to other dioceses to act in like manner whenever an occasion offers. It is on this account that I am afraid at present to visit those dioceses where no edicts have been issued, because the notice I should attract would almost with a certainty bring forth and edict against us.
When the edicts already issued are somewhat forgotten, or when a preventive to their effects is obtained from the civil authorities, then these parts may be visited with more advantage. Even in the diocese of Puebla, where the Bishop is not against us, and therefore is on our side, the sales have been greatly hindered by the edict issued in this city, both priests and people being frightened from buying by such a high ecclesiastical censure. By degrees however this impression will die away and I hope to be able on visiting that place as above mentioned to extend our operations in that quarter. The unfortunate impression made by the edict issued here is the reason for my not having revisited that place during the last six months, being convinced that little could be done whilst this impression was fresh in the minds of all. To which may be added that the province of Puebla has been in such an unsettled state for these some months past as to make it is very dangerous to travel in it, nor is it yet to be traveled with much safety without an escort of soldiers.
Since requesting you to send me the 2000 Luke and Acts, I have observed that 1000 copies of this volume have been voted for me by the Committee agreeably to what you have noticed in your last. It will be better I suppose not to vote me another 1000 under our present disadvantageous circumstances. But when you hear better news from Mexico please to keep in mind this additional quantity, as it is required to make the numbers of the different volumes you have sent here correspond with each other.
I have now described to you fully the posture of our affairs in this country. I regret my present inactive state and feel uneasy under it, but I am not conscious of anything more that can be done under existing circumstances. A little time and patience may be perhaps the best remedy for our present distress, and the Lord may answer our prayers sooner than we expect. Let me know all you think about our affairs, and what you suppose best for me to do under all circumstances. In what I have written above regarding the state of our concerns here, and the disappointment felt by the Committee as expressed in your letter, I have kept fully in mind, what you have so very kindly said, that I am not to understand the notice of your being somewhat disappointed as involving the slightest reflection with your agent here, but being expression only, as you say, of the tip-toe state of your minds to know what issue affairs will take, whether the old party shall prevail and arrest us in our career or whether Divine Providence will continue the door open to our operations.
I thank you all most sincerely for your kindly indulgent feelings towards me, and this I trust will be a notice in addition to others for inducing me to act a faithful part as your servant here, for the benefit of this country, and for the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Unto whom be glory for ever, Amen.
I remain, My dear Friend,
Truly and Affectly. Yours,
James Thomson.