Rev A Brandram
16 Harpur Street
17th June 1850
My Dear Friend,
You may perhaps recollect that on my leaving Mexico in 1843 I entrusted our books and their circulation to Don Domingo Saviñon, and you may also recollect some communications from that gentleman respecting various difficulties he had met with in attending to our concerns.
By the last packet that gentleman arrived in this country, and he purposes to be present in your Committee to day.
In reference to his operations I have received the following letter from him.
"To the Committee of the Bible Society of London.
Gentlemen,
The Undersigned begs leave to state to the distinguished individuals who form this Society, that having been entrusted by Dr. Thomson with the management and circulation of various cases of Bibles sent to Veracruz at the end of 1843, he is sorry to inform the Society that their objects could not be carried out so fully as he had wished.
As soon as these cases arrived at Veracruz they were confiscated. Through much labour however, and the interposition of his friends they were liberated from the Custom House, and placed in the hands of those to whom they had been consigned. There they lay till 1847, when after surmounting various difficulties, and which were related to Dr. Thomson at the time, the books were sent on to the city of Mexico, where they again met with the same fate as in Veracruz in being detained in the Custom House. They lay there during all that in the following year, without its being possible to get them liberated. It was only last year that we succeeded in obtaining the possession of these books, and owing to occurring circumstances of a favourable kind.
After overcoming all these difficulties another was met with, as the Bookseller who formerly sold the Bibles for Dr. Thomson refused to receive the books on sale. Months of delay took place on this account, during which the cases were warehoused on the premises of the Undersigned.
At length through repeated applications the Bookseller consented to receive the Bibles on sale, and there was accordingly delivered to him the quantities and kinds mentioned in the accompanying note.
The various difficulties thus detailed being overcome, the Undersigned thinks he may venture to encourage the Society with the hope that the day is not far off when the reading and the instructions of the Sacred Volume will make that progress which is the object of your benevolent intentions. That this may be so is the sincere desire of
Your obedient Servant
(signed) Domingo Saviñon.
London 15th June 1850."
The communication of this our Bible friend and coadjutor will show some of the difficulties and labours he has had. He has, I know, laboured much and cheerfully to serve our holy cause, and is deserving of the kind regards of the Society. I am glad to be able to say of him, that he makes the Bible his own study, and I humbly trust he knows the great content of the Bible in the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is much attached to this country, its people, and our religion, and he is now come to spend a couple of years among us to learn all that is good in this country that he himself, and afterwards his country may profit by the same.
I remain,
My Dear Friend,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
P.S. Mr. Saviñon has £17 to deliver for sales of Bibles effected