Rev A Brandram No.40
Mexico 8th January 1830
My Dear Friend,
I did not write to you by last packet, because it came immediately after the preceding one, and because I had little or nothing to say respecting the progress of our affairs in this place. This package has come late, and we are now every day looking for its successor bringing the Nov. mail from England.
In one of my late letters I ventured to predict that we should ere long in all probability have commotions and troublesome times in this country. It has so taken place. I forbear entering into any account of these as a public papers will give you sufficient notice of them. At this moment the general state of the country is exceedingly unsettled and disjointed, but in this quarter of the world we sometimes make up these matters sooner than would naturally be supposed, and I may therefore have the pleasure of informing you soon of tranquility and order being again established among us. Anything like great stability I hardly expect in this country for some years to come, but shall be gratified in being disappointed in regard to this expectation or fear. It is an interesting inquiry for us, who are honoured to be citizens of a country which cannot be moved, how far these commotions promote or hinder the extension of the kingdom to which we belong, and which sooner or later must prevail over all nations. Judging from actual circumstances one would be inclined to say that our present change (should it be fully verified) will be rather against the object of our wishes, but I have learned from some little experience of matters in these new countries not to be a rash in judging from omens and appearances. I cherish the hope (and perhaps it is a pardonable weakness if wrong) that the Lord is about to bestow favours on these lands by extending the knowledge of his name and salvation among them. I feel unwilling to quit a field of which I indulge such hopes, and recollect that the Lord stood by Paul in the night whilst he was in wicked hopeless Corinth and said to him, "I have much people in this city." I trust the Lord has many people in this country from which I now write you, and in others similarly situated. Now if so, what are the means of bringing them to know the Lord? What but the putting into their hands the word of God, and drawing their attention to it in all possible ways. In this work I am engaged, and hope to be so engaged till I die.
In my last I indicated to you my willingness to continue as your agent here, until an opportunity offers for carrying into effect a plan which I have for years indulged, and through which I conceive more extensive benefit could be done to these new countries than by any other that has yet occurred to me. When I see the extensive field to be operated upon and perceive the enemy sowing tares in it, I truly long to set in motion the machine, if I may so call it, to which I referred, the single object of which is the enlightenment and salvation of these new countries together with the well-being of those who so benefit it. The wheel of Providence will bring up I trust ere long something favourable to this plan, that it may be begun and carried more or less into effect. Till then I shall be your distributor in this country, and after that to, for the circulation of the holy Scriptures will ever form a part of the intended Missionary Colony.
In my next I hope to be able to give you a note of the number of copies of the Scriptures sold here during the past year, the number will no doubt be small, but we may consider the past year as representing the dark ages here in regard to the distribution of the Scriptures. I hope I may say, that the night with us is far spent and that the day is at hand. From some circumstances that have occurred, and from the opinion of an experience bookseller I am induced to think that the sale and circulation of the Scriptures may be quickened by lowering the price. Hitherto I have sold the books in general at a price about equal to the original cost and the expenses in bringing them here. I now feel inclined to change my mode of sale, and to lower the price from the circumstances above noticed. I hope I shall have your full approbation in doing this, as I know your object to be the useful distribution of the Scriptures in whatever way that can be best effected. For carrying your objects more extensively into effect I know you wish in general to have in return for your books somewhere about what they cost you, but that at the same time you wish them circulated if it can be done usefully at lower prices, at any price, or even at no price, so be it that the word of God may come into the hands of all and be read. Such is the understanding I have of your plans and objects, and I therefore consider myself as having the liberty above noticed of lowering the prices of your books and to any extent, if by so doing I can accelerate the useful circulation of the holy volumes which God has commanded us to publish everywhere and as quickly and cheaply as possible. If I am wrong in this, I beg you will set me to rights by your earliest communication.
Through the means above noticed I hope to be able during the present year to bring into circulation a much greater number of copies of the Scriptures than has been circulated during the year now elapsed. Further, as another means of promoting the same object, I think the time is now come for making a trial of the new version of the Scriptures in the Spanish language. The version I allude to is that of Torres Amat, which you have now had for a considerable time under your notice. You will recollect that in 1826 a special meeting of the Committee was held in Earl Street to consider the propriety of adopting this version. Several leading Spaniards attended this meeting to give their opinion of the translation in question, and all of them if I recollect right pronounced Torres Amat's version to be preferable to that of Scio, the one now published by the Society, notwithstanding in a subject of this kind which is of considerable delicacy the Committee thought it advisable to wait for some time to get further information upon the subject, and until the new version should have it established its credit, and it be found not only generally acceptable but generally preferable to the other. I was requested by the Committee to give my opinion on the subject from time to time as I might see occasion. Agreeably to this, some time after I arrived here, I wrote you saying that so far as this country was concerned you had done well enough adopting the new version as it was not at all known in this place. Since that time some copies have come, and these have now been in use for about a year. I have endeavoured to ascertain the general opinion here regarding this version, and it is decidedly favourable. The best proof of this opinion that I can give you is the circumstance that a very respectable bookseller here, a native of the country, proposes to get printed in the United States an edition of the whole Bible of this version at his own expense and risk. In regard to the supplementary words which are met with too frequently in this version, and which form an obstacle to the Committee in adopting it, I have ascertained that they are not acceptable. The omission of them therefore would not be injurious to the circulation. The hand that sinks them however must not only be a Catholic but Catholic of name. Dr. Villanueva is such a person, and you have in your hands a copy of the New Testament so prepared by this individual, who promised to me at the time he made the elisions to give his name in the title page as having made this alteration in the version. The giving his name in this way I consider an indispensable requisite should the Society print the new version, and the same individual should be the corrector of the press. Taking then all the circumstances together I would respectfully request you to put to press as early as you can an edition of the New Testament by Torres Amat, corrected as above by Villanueva, and having his name in the title page. You may venture I suppose on an edition of three thousand for a trial, one half of which you will please send here as soon as ready. The late Mr. Butterworth printed a small edition of the New Testament of this version with elisions made by Mr. Cheap. I allude to this edition as a good model of size and type. In regard to the paper, I think you might print the half of the edition on coarser paper then you generally give, as this would lessen the cost and would I believe not injure the circulation. Perhaps the whole of the edition might be printed on such paper as I referred to, suppose of the same quality as that on which the American Bible Society's Report (for 1828) is printed. I have shown this paper or this report to a bookseller here, who first gave me the hint of this, and he says it would do very well. Perhaps it is worthy of the attention of the Committee to adopt the printing of all their Bibles on an inferior paper, as this would in effect to be equivalent to a large addition of income to the Society. This subject may be leisurely considered, and in the meantime a trial of its effects may be made with one half of the edition now proposed.
I suppose you have seen through the public papers that things are somewhat tranquilized in Guatemala. The tranquility however I am sorry to say is by no means general. I have conversed with some people here who are connected with that country, and they represent the Eastern parts of the Republic to be still very unsettled and military operations going on in them. The same individuals also assure me that the comparative quietness enjoyed by the present ruling party at the seat of government is not likely to be of long continuance. I hope things will turn out better than are expected. In the meantime I have written to the Governor of the State of Guatemala, with whom I am well acquainted from having met with him at Bogota in 1825.[1] I have requested him to inform me whether the Scriptures will be allowed freely to circulate in that country. If his answer is favourable I shall order the books now lying at Belize to be forwarded to the city of Guatemala to be sold there in the best way that can be adopted. If this sale should be successful it will prepare the way for a visit to that country, and for your sending supplies to it through Belize or otherwise.
You mentioned some time ago in reply to an inquiry I made respecting Bibles that had come here but not to your agent, that you supposed they had come from Philadelphia. I believe you were right, for a fresh supply has come here from the same quarter and under similar circumstances. This way of sending and selling which our friends in the North occasionally practice does not forward but injures the object we all have in view, I think you would do well in putting no more books into their hands so long at least as you have an agent here. I intend to write to our friends there upon the subject.
I have nothing to communicate to you respecting the edicts and you will hardly expect anything from me upon the subject when you learn the distracted state in which the government and the country have been for some time and unfortunately still are.
I should have sent you the five subscriptions to the Society before now, but found some delay in collecting them. I now send you them, and you will be pleased to add a sixth which is from Don Francisco Olaguibel of Puebla.
I trust the Lord prospers your Society, and that on looking back on the year 1829 now closed, you see that your circulation of the sacred volume has been more extensive than in any former year. So may your work increase from year to year until your object is accomplished by the Holy Scriptures being in everyone's hands in his native tongue.
I am ever Yours,
James Thomson.
P.S. Please say to Mr Tarn that I have drawn upon him of this date for sixty five pounds in favour of Mrs. Morrish of Bristol. J. Thomson.
[1] Dr Pedro Molina. He was in Bogota as the Central American representative to sign the treaty between Colombia and the United Provinces of Central America--5 March 1825. (BM)