Rev A Brandram. No.13
San Juan de los Lagos 11th December 1827
My Dear Sir,
You will have some difficulty perhaps in finding on the map the place in which I now am. It lies nearly W. by N. of Guanajuato at a distance of about 100 miles. It is a small town containing not more than 2,000 inhabitants. You will wonder at my making such a small town one of my principal stations, especially when I tell you that I passed through three places of considerable size without stopping, in order to get soon to this small town. The reason of my pushing on to this place is, that there is a great annual Fair held here, to which a very considerable number of people, from the remote parts of the country to the north and west. I thought therefore that such an occasion afforded an excellent opportunity of making a wide circulation of the Holy Scriptures, and of sending them into parts of it otherwise they might not reach for a considerable time.
On the morning of the 27th I left Guanajuato, and in the afternoon arrived at Leon where I stopped all night. This is a place of about 25,000 inhabitants, and I regretted that I could not stop a few days there, as a considerable circulation of the Scriptures might have been expected in such a place; but the Fair of San Juan was at hand, and the cases containing the Scriptures had passed onwards before me, having left Guanajuato the day before I set out. I sold there one New Testament, and that was to the keeper of the Inn where I passed the night. As soon as we were on the road next morning we saw a very great number of people going to the fair, some riding on horses, some on mules, some on asses, and not a few walking on foot. During the whole of the day we perceived the road crowded with people, of both sexes, of all ages, and of all conditions in life. The place we stopped that during the night was called La Mesa, that his The Table, and no place has a name better adapted to its appearance. This spot is close at the side of the hill of considerable size, and forming a round table so exactly that the hill and the name given to it must at once be associated together in the mind of everyone at the first sight of it. We got here among the first, and thus secured for ourselves a little room to lodge in of dimensions just sufficient to hold our beds, there being three of us. All the afternoon people kept arriving at this place to pass the night. There were several hundreds stopped there, arranging themselves alongside of the stone fences, and in groups here and there upon the open ground. The whole presented a most motley appearance. There were men, women, and children of all ages. There were whole families with all their property with them. This property is soon invoiced. If consisted in the best cases, of an ass, a blanket or two, and some half dozen small articles of scarcely any value. The ass is for carrying the wife and a young child if there is one, the husband's business being to walk, and to drive on the ass. I took a walk through this grotesque multitude in the evening. In one place there was a child swinging in a cradle suspended between the branch of a tree and a pole stuck in the stone fence. I perceived that the child's head at every other swing came very close to one of the stones of the fence. I advised the mother to give it more swinging room and she took my advice. In another part of this encampment there were women grinding indian corn, and making cakes, whilst onwards others were boiling in an earthen pot all they could collect to make their supper of. Gaming tables of various descriptions, there were not a few, as this is a vice deeply rooted, and widely extended among all ranks in this country. I trust your operations within due time lessen this great evil so productive of misery in many shapes. – Besides these motley groups of people, there were here and there groups of mules, just relieved from their heavy loads. These loads lay in long rows in various parts, and consisted of goods of various kinds. The best articles of this kind I saw were the goods you sent here from Earl Street. These are worthy of the name of goods, and it was gratifying to look upon them, and to let the eyes dwell on them as they lay undistinguished in the heap. Reflections on the past and present state of this country could not but arise to see so many cases filled with the Holy Scriptures in a place where formerly nothing of the kind durst be seen. These reflections were succeeded by others yet more pleasing as to the state this country may be brought to by the circulation of the Holy Scriptures in it. When one sees vice and misery stalking around in their various degrading and disagreeable forms, that is some alleviation of this grief in the thought that one is employed in using the most effectual means that can be used for bringing about a happy change, by the circulating of that volume, which is at once the enemy of all vice and misery, and the friend of all virtue and happiness.
I should not omit to mention that in passing through these defiles of travellers, I saw one as he was about to lie down, commend himself unto God. He was crossing himself, and uttering some words which I did not hear. I am always pleased to see these remnants of the fear of God, and of confidence in his power and protection. With all the evil that exists in this country, there is still to be found a good deal of the sentiment I have just mentioned. It is on this principle you have to build in the circulation of the Scriptures. It is this feeling which gives a desire to peruse them, and it is under this feeling that the best fruits are produced. Not so with infidelity, which already shows its head in this country. That principle is hard and cold, and I may say impressionless except under the harder colder hand of death, but as the poet says, "Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."[1] It was but the other day in this town that I saw an instant of this frozen hearted, frivolous infidelity in an individual a native of this country. This man has been corrupted like many others by the deistical books that have been sent here from France. The only use this person made of the Holy Scriptures was to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You will excuse my repeating here what I have more than once said to you before, that one feels it doubly impressed in witnessing what I have just mentioned. What I have more than once stated, and which I he repeat is, that the present is a very critical period for this country. The old principle is contending with two new ones; which are on the one hand infidelity, and on the other the true religion of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the latter is not promoted and judiciously, the former will carry off his victims in no inconsiderable numbers. The extensive circulation of the Scriptures is the most effectual means of doing what we could wish to be done under the present critical circumstances in which this new country is placed. At times I have fears coming across my mind regarding the circulation of the word of God. I fear less the want of the apocryphal books or the want of notes should stir up a premature opposition to the reading of the Scriptures on the part of the ecclesiastical rulers, and this opposition would be truly injurious to your benevolent objects in this country these fears are not mere imaginations of mine, for I see indications of what I dread in various quarters. Pray, my dear Friends, for this country, and may the Lord hear you, that the evil I fear may not come upon us.
On Thursday the 29th I arrived at San Juan de los Lagos. Most of the towns here are situated on the plains, and are seen for some miles off. Not so with this one for when we were within half a mile of it we could see nothing like a town though all was plain around us. It lies in a deep hollow on the side of a little river. As we approached nearer two lofty steeples presented themselves, and these are the signal posts of the magnificent temple erected to the Virgin Mary, who is here worshiped and served most devoutly. On Friday your goods arrived and on Saturday the Fair began. Little is done on the two or three first days. I did not wish to begin on Saturday, as the disagreeable interruptions of the next day would have been considerable. For I had no place to lodge in but the shop I have taken for the sale, and it was necessary to keep the door open as there was no light from any other quarter. The fair goes on on the Sunday the same as on other days without any interruption. On Monday I got my advertisement stuck up, and expected to be immediately thronged with purchasers. I was not a little disappointed however to find the sale go on very heavily. Next day it was but little better, and I knew not what to think of it. I thought perhaps the name of the street in which our shop was was not sufficiently known, as all the streets have been newly named after those persons who have most distinguished themselves in the revolution.
I bethought myself therefore of something additional to our advertisements in order to make our treasure better known and more sought after. I bought a yard of white cotton cloth, and got painted on it, "The Holy Scriptures, to be sold here, at very low prices." This had the desired effect so far, as our sale considerably quickened. Still however it is much inferior to my expectations, as I had been led to expect a very large and rapid sale here. I hoped that many from remote parts of the country would buy their 20, 30, or 50 copies to carry home with them for sale in their native towns and villages. There were however none were bought in this way, all that were sold being by single copies. The fair continues till the 12th of the month, but on Saturday the 8th all was thrown into confusion by a dispute between some dragoons sent from Guadalajara and the militia of the town. All was bustle and confusion, everyone seeking safety where he could, so that the crowded streets were very quickly thinned. There were two men killed in this affray, and one severely wounded. Order was soon restored, but the fair was greatly interrupted by it, and I might say nearly ended, as a very great number of people went off next day. I have continued till today selling a little. The amount of sales effected here is 133 Bibles, 100 New Testaments, 34 of Four Books, and 19 of Luke and Acts, making together 286 copies, and for these I have received 524 dollars 1 rial.
By this account of the number of copies sold you will perceive in part the cause of my disappointment. In such a concourse a greater sale might have been expected. But besides, I had formed a very high idea as to the great circulation I should make in this place, according to the accounts I had received from those who had been here on former years, and most of whom told me I should sell all my stock at the fair. In short in my way from Guanajuato here my thoughts were occupied very pleasantly as to my great success so near at hand, and these pleasing thoughts were only interrupted by the somewhat painful one as to how I should safely carry back to Guanajuato so much money as I should receive at the fair. Of this grief I have however been quite freed by having received only a small sum here, a sum also diminished by the heavy expenses of a shop and of living in this place, where everything is higher than in any other part I have been. I am comforted however in thinking that I came here expressly to procure a greater circulation of the Scriptures than I thought could be effected elsewhere, and if less has been done than was expected, still something has been done that I trust will tell on a future day. From no other spot could the number of copies I have mentioned have been made to extend so widely over the country. These copies thus carried to distant places all around will prepare the way for a more ready reception of the Scriptures when they had offered in the respective places. On the whole I do not regret having come here, although I think I could have sold a greater number of copies of the Scriptures in the same space of time in other places. But coming to this the greatest fair in Mexico, I have seen what is the nature of such a meeting as respects the circulation of the Scriptures, and I shall not be led out of my way in future to attend it, or any similar place. By moving on therefore geographically and taking the places which lie in my way one after another I hope to do more good than by going out of my regular course for objects such as that which brought me here.
Besides the regular supply of priests in San Juan several have come here on account of the fair, as the number of masses said on this occasion and good prices paid for them, form an attractive sufficiently powerful. Some three or four priests, not more I think, came to purchase the Scriptures and seemed very ready to receive them. A Friar who came to see the Bibles told me that he understood they were incomplete, and that the Governor or ordinary of the diocese of Guadalajara had sent for one of them from Mexico, and had disapproved of them from their being thus incomplete. The incompleteness referred to is the want of the apocryphal books. This Friar bought none. Another day a priest bought a Latin and Spanish Bible. We talked about the books that where awanting, and he seemed not to consider this want as any serious obstacle to the buying of his Bible. He then said that he had the question to ask me and a serious one, and he begged I would give him an honest and true answer. It was in confidence he said that he put it, and he wished it to be only between ourselves two. When we were apart together he said, pray tell me fairly what the Bibles have got of Lutheranism. He meant to inquire whether the catholic translation of the Bible of Scio had been altered by you Lutherans in London (for so you are all called,) in order to accommodate it to your own heresies. I assured him that the Bible had absolutely nothing of Lutheranism, and that they were most faithfully printed from the latest edition of Scio published in Spain. There is no change then, said he, in the words and phrases and nothing omitted or added. Nothing, said I, whatever, unless you class as such the books we were before speaking of, none of which are contained in the volume. He said he was aware that these books were wanting, but his question had reference not to them, but to the other books. He then begged me to excuse him for having such question, and said he was glad to find that the Bibles were fairly and correctly printed. This suspicion of the words and phrases being changed and the whole of the Bible dislocated, arises from the article published in the newspapers in Mexico some short time before I left it, and to which I considered it my duty to reply as formerly mentioned to you. I have just seen another article in the paper sent me from Mexico, in which the same insinuations are reiterated about the incorrectness of your editions. I hope our friend Dr Mora will make a proper reply to it, and I think it very likely he will do so, as this article is chiefly aimed at himself, or rather, I should say aimed at the article in favour of the Society contained in the periodical work called the Observer of which he is one of the editors, and which article I suppose is from his own pen.
I mention above that on Saturday the 1st current I did not open shop, and my reasons for thus acting. On Sunday the 9th several persons called to buy Bibles and Testaments, the door being open for the cause I noticed above, namely to give light to the shop which formed my dining room and bedroom. To those who came on that day I took occasion, after telling them that there was no sale, to point out to them that that day was a day of holy rest, rest from worldly labours, that we might attend more closely to spiritual and heavenly concerns. Some replied to this that there was no harm in selling on that day, for everybody was selling. To such I said that what was practised and what was the precept of God were two very different things, and that we should attend to the commandments of God, and not follow the ways of men. I generally succeeded I thought in the end in making them see and confess that I was right. Some were not a little surprised that a heretic such as I, should have any such ideas of conforming to the commandments of God. There came two together one part of the day, and after I had told them there was no sale until Monday, and why, I overhead the one to the other, "Well, what would you think, he keeps the Sabbath better than we do." With the interruptions of that day I was not dissatisfied, as I thought the Lord enabled me to speak a word in season at different times, and thought some good might thereby be done.
I have already noticed the bad effects produced in many instances by the infidel works sent here from France. In many cases these works are sought after and read with avidity. The very first question I was asked on commencing sale here was if I had the whole works of Voltaire. Works of a similar nature were also inquired for. At the same time the devotional spirit of the country was in others fully displayed in the various questions put to me as to whether I had this saint's life, and that and the other legend. A considerable number inquired for the work which I have never seen, and of this title is The Seraphica Margaret,[2] a precious volume no doubt! – We had very often inquiries for other things far less in the way. The shop I had was at the corner of two streets, in which situations groceries are generally sold. In consequence of this there was a pretty constant run of customers for these articles. One asked me for a farthing's worth of salt, another for twopence worth of sugar, a third for a quarter pound of soap, a forth for a half penny candle, and so on through all the catalogue of such little articles. These inquiries were fully as amusing as annoying. Annoyance of a more disagreeable kind was a constant run of beggars come from all quarters to make their fair here, and some of them I suppose will carry home a few dollars with them. But the worst annoyance of all was from pilferers of various kinds, and whose nimble fingers from long practice it was next to impossible to elude. They managed to carry off some two or three volumes before I was aware of their tricks, but being apprised I kept a better look out and suffered nothing further from them.
The Virgin Mary, I have said is devoutly worshipped in this place. This is truly the case. But a few of these who annually attend the fair here come expressly to pay some vow made to the Virgin in the time of their sickness or other distress. These vows consist of money, which they promised to pay the Virgin in case of restoring them to health, or of bringing them out of their difficulties. The vows of others consist in presenting candles to the Virgin and other things. Others again come to perform penance by going to the altar on their knees from a considerable distance. I went to the church several times, and always saw a number doing penance in this way by moving onwards on their knees until they came to the altar. Many of these individuals carry candles in their hands which they are about to present in fulfillment of their vows. When they get near to the altar they light these their offerings and continue on their knees with a lighted candle in their hands. Some very devout ones will perhaps a waste a candle at a sitting, but others when tired leave their candles till another occasion, and return again and again to their candlestick work. Not a few of these devotees, who are mostly women, come from a considerable distance. They beg their way here, they beg their candle or other offering when they arrive, and a beg their way home again. I have been often importuned for a small coin to eke out a candle for the Virgin, and now that the fair is concluding and many are going away several individuals have solicited me for a trifle to help them homewards. I sometimes comply with this latter request, as the individuals are really in need, the former petitioners I have referred to the Virgin herself for the sums they wanted, as her offerings' plate was more abundantly supplied than my purse.
On the afternoon of the 5th a woman called and begged me to give her a tlaco, a small coin about the value of a halfpenny. She had three of these coins in her hand, and said she only wanted one more to enable her to fulfill her vow to the Virgin Mary. I inquired of her from what place she had come, and what was the nature of her vow. She came she said from a place nine days journey to the West of this, and her object in coming was to fulfill a vow she made to the Virgin Mary when she was ill of a fever some time ago, and which he promised that if the Virgin would restore her to health she would make a pilgrimage to her sanctuary in this town, and would offer to her a candle to the value of twopence. She had accordingly come here in fulfillment of her vow, and she had already obtained three fourths of the sum she needed to buy the candle. I entered a little further into conversation with her respecting the intercession of the Virgin. I found her fully persuaded of her intercessory influence, and she seemed to be perfectly ignorant as to there being any other mediator. I endeavoured to show her that Jesus Christ was the only and the true mediator, and that through him we should come unto God. Who was it, I said, who died for us? Was it the Virgin Mary, or Jesus Christ? It was Jesus Christ, she replied. Then, I returned, through Jesus Christ it is that we ought to ask the forgiveness of our sins, and whatever other blessings we stand in need of. The New Testament was lying before me, and taking it up, I said this is the book to guide us I aright in these matters. Here it is we are told the true way of coming to God, and of obtaining blessing from him. I opened the book, and to give her confidence in what I was afterwards to read, I read to her in the first place what is said in the first chapter of Luke respecting the Virgin Mary. I then read the three last verses of the 11th chapter of Matthew, and drew attention to the words of Jesus, desiring all who were weary and heavy laden to come unto him, and that he would give them rest. She was at a loss what to say, and very likely never had such things brought forward before. There was a man present during this conversation who was also a worshipper of the Virgin. He likewise was at a loss what reply to make to the subject brought before him. This man stated what the Virgin said when she made her first appearance here. Her words were, "Happy are the just," and, "Love God," and she has never spoken since. These words furnished a very suitable text to speak from, and which I endeavoured to explain. This woman mentioned that the Virgin who inhabits the temple here called the Sanctuary, disappears at times during the night, and that at these times she is visiting and relieving those who devoutly applied to her. Of such nocturnal excursions she was fully persuaded, and also of the benevolent errands on which the Virgin went at such times.
Near the close of the conversation now related, a man came in with a plate in his hand and begged me to give something to help a young lady who stood at the door to enter a nunnery. I looked towards the door, and saw a young lady dressed in black, of a pleasing countenance, and modest appearance. Her age might be about 16, and she had with her an elderly woman whom I took to be her mother. I told the young lady and the man who was collecting for her, that I thought she had mistaken the manner of serving God, and that to please him it was not necessary to enter a nunnery, but that she might serve him in the condition of life in which she was placed. Farther I said the little money I had to spare I thought it my duty to give to the poor who had not bread to eat, and that I could not give anything to enable her to do what I considered was in itself wrong.
To return to the Virgin Mary. The celebrity of her temple here arises from a miracle working image of herself, of about a foot long, which was discovered in this formerly unknown and neglected spot. This happened about a century and a half ago, and the wondrous things that have been done by this image since that time to this, volumes would hardly do justice to. The first thing this image did, and by which it got a name to itself, was the restoring to life, a little girl, the daughter of a rope dancer who had been killed while learning her father's arts. At that time the image which is of wood, was in a pitiful condition, the moths (?) having made sad devastations on its face which had nearly disappeared. The rope dancer, full of gratitude, begged the priest of the then little chapel here to let him carry the image to Guadalajara to get it put to rights, as it was a pity he said that so powerful an image should be in such a forlorn condition. The priest gave him permission, and man carried with him. At the place where he stopped the first night on his way to Guadalajara, soon after he taken some refreshment, two men knocked at the door, and wished to know if the persons within had any images to mend, as image mending was their occupation. The man rejoiced in this early opportunity of doing what he so much wished to do, and thanked the Virgin for this favour. He gave the image to the men, and very early next morning they returned the said image, and put to rights you most beautiful manner. The man not yet being out of bed requested the image vendors to wait till he should get out to pay them for what they had done, and to thank them for having done it so well and so quickly. When he arose the men were gone, and on making inquiry he could learn nothing of them, and nobody had seen them. In short, they were angels. You may well suppose what additional celebrity this circumstance would give to the image of our Lady. It was forthwith brought back to this town, was suitably clothed, and erected in a proper place.
If you will not believe all I have told you on this subject, and can only refer you to a book which the priest of the Virgin's temple here put into my hands to instruct me fully in the matter, in answer to the inquiries I made as to when this image made its first appearance, and what it had done. Further, when you come here you will have proofs ocular as many as you wish, hung and strung in a proper place in the church as testimonies of all that has been done.
To be more serious upon the subject, the Virgin Mary is the Goddess of this country. What I have told you above of this wonder working image is firmly believed by a very great majority of the inhabitants of this quarter, and for more than 100 miles around. Besides this image of the Virgin, there are two or three other images in other parts of the country whose fame and power are perhaps yet more extensive in the eyes of this people. In viewing the devotion paid to the Virgin here, I was forcibly reminded of what is said in the 19th chapter of the Acts, how that the city of the Ephesians was a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter. The way to bring down idolatry of every kind, and to bring men to worship the true and living God, who sent his Son to save us, and who careth for us, is, to circulate the Holy Scriptures, and to lead men to the study of them. To be actually engaged in this work in such a place as this, is to be privileged to work the work of God; and the hope of what will follow the circulation of this holy volume, lightens one's grief, in seeing the place wholly given to idolatry. I could not but often reflect upon the novel circumstance of seeing advertisements for the circulation of the Scriptures stuck up on all the gates leading to this temple of idolatry; and as I walked over, I was yet more struck to see our standard unfurled so conspicuously and extending some yards into the street suspended on a long pole. It was, as I have said a white flag, a flag of truce. Its waving white in the air was seen from some distance, and on a nearer approach to it the book of peace and of life was announced. It formed to me I assure you, a constant source of meditation and of thanksgiving to see such a banner displayed in such a place, and to think on the revolution in this country which permits such a display. – May your merciful work in this country never be interrupted, and may the light you send us speedily dispel the darkness in which we are enveloped! The work is of God, the Lord will carry it forward.
I remain, Truly Yours,
James Thomson.
[1] Edward Young, Night Thoughts. (BM)
[2] José de los Reyes. Margarita serafica. Mexico: Imprenta de los herederos del Lic. D. Joseph de Jauregui, 1791. (BM)