Rev A Brandram No. 23
Antigua, July 1, 1833.
My dear Friend,
A longer interval has taken place between my last sheet to you and this than has intervened in my correspondence with you since the commencement of the present mission. Perhaps you will be indulgent enough to suppose that I have not been neglectful in action, if I have been so in writing. The sequel of this letter will shew you how things stand, and whether your cause has been stationary or progressive during the interval above referred to.
My last letter bore date the 24th of April, and was written from the island of Guadaloupe. In taking up, therefore, the thread of my journal, I must, first of all, go back to that date and that island. In the afternoon of the 24th I sailed from Guadaloupe. The wind was light, and we coasted along rather slowly. This retardation, however, of our progress gave me an opportunity of more fully surveying with my eyes the island I was leaving, and of contemplating in my mind its forlorn state in moral and religious concerns. When I arrived there last year, I suppose it would have been no deviation from truth to have said that there was not one copy of the Holy Scriptures in the whole island. One French Bible I left there on that occasion, and now I have the pleasure of knowing that there are several copies in it; and though these may not yet have all come into use, yet we may expect they will in due time circulate abroad; and let us be assured, that God's word never returns to him void, but accomplishes his will and forwards his kingdom.
About midnight we passed close by the small islands, or rocks, called the Saints. I notice these because of an occurrence there connected with our concerns. Some time before I left Antigua last year, I forwarded four cases of Bibles and Testaments to the island of Dominica, to be ready for me there when I should arrive. On reaching that island I found the four cases I had sent, but learned that the vessel that had taken them had been wrecked on the islands or rocks now mentioned, and that scarcely any thing was saved from the wreck but the Bibles. This brings to my recollection the first shipment of Bibles you sent to South America. That first supply sent by you to that great Continent was quickly landed on its arrival in Buenos Ayres, and on the day following the vessel took fire, and was completely burned, with every thing she contained.
On the 26th April I arrived in Antigua. My first object was to see the Secretaries and the leading members of the Committee of our Auxiliary here, that I might learn from them what had been done during the year elapsed, and to see what further measures could be taken for a greater extension of our cause. A meeting of the Committee soon after took place, which was numerously attended. At this meeting, as well as previously, I was particularly requested to make some stay in the island, in order to visit the Associations that were formed last year, and also to make endeavours to form some new ones. I consented to the urgent request of our friends here, without, however, intending to protract my stay very long, as I kept in mind my long tour, and the advancing of the seasons. Having arranged our plan for visiting the Associations, we began our operations. Our meetings were well attended, and the interest in the object, which we were pleased last year to see, had not, we found, evaporated. In the course of visiting these, we now and then entered upon new ground, and formed new Associations.
Thus we went on from day to day, and then extended from week to week, until the present date. It is not without some reluctance that I have allowed myself to be detained here so long. I have frequently called myself to account, to see whether I were not staying here longer than I ought; but when I considered the objects of my mission, and the progress we were making in this island, at the close of each examination, I came to the conclusion to stay a little longer. I trust I have, during this stay, been employed in full accordance with the objects traced out to me in the commission I received on my coming out to this part of the world. Further I may state, that I consider our operations here in this island not to be confined in their effects to this spot, but as having also a beneficial influence on all the contiguous colonies.
I come now to state what has been done, and the manner in which our operations have been carried on. I informed you last year that twenty Associations had been formed. During the present time nearly all these have been visited, and an additional number has been added to them of the same amount; thus making the whole number of Bible Associations now formed in this island forty. Nearly all the subscribers and collectors in the country Associations are slaves. Our establishments are scattered all over the island, and embrace about one-fourth of all the estates here.
At some of our meetings collections were made; but we never, in calling a meeting, announced that there would be a collection at it; so that in those cases where it did take place, it was when there was some indication among the people present of a wish, on their part, to give something at the time, in addition to what otherwise they intended to do as subscribers. On one occasion, -we learned that the people would have felt considerable disappointment had they not been called on for a collection ; and after it was made, and the people had retired, a person brought in some money which he had collected outside the door; and further, a handful of halfpence and sixpences was brought to us the next day from the same place, for the same object.
It is with pleasure I notice that on this occasion, as well as formerly, the proprietors and others connected with the estates, where our Associations have been formed, have cheerfully permitted us to hold our meetings, and have themselves generally been present, and personally advocated our cause. In some instances, where the planters gave us liberty last year to form Associations, though then somewhat doubtful of their issue, they have this year extended the liberty given us, having found that no evil, but good, had followed our last year's operations. We have formed an Association on the estate of the president of the council, and also on the estate of the Speaker of the Assembly.
A great many of the slaves in this island can read, as schools are numerous all over the island. Nevertheless, the major part, as might be expected, are not able to read as yet. Whilst, in our discourses or speeches at these meetings, we urge those who can read to get the Scriptures forthwith and to read them, we also urge on those who cannot read the duty of learning to read without delay; and in the mean time we tell them to procure a Bible or a Testament, that it may be an inducement to them to learn quickly, and that their book may be ready for them as soon as they are able to use it. We have seen some pleasing; instances of a compliance on the part of the slaves with our advice in this matter. Of the meetings generally I may say, that we have felt greatly encouraged by the attention of the negroes, and by their readily entering into our plans.
In holding our meeting one evening, on one of the largest and finest estates of the island, we found ourselves assembled in a house belonging to one of the slaves on the same estate. This house he had built for his own use, and it was one of the largest and best-built negro houses I had seen in the island. After he had finished it, it was on different occasions used, by his permission, for preaching in, and for a Sunday school. This led him to reflect that his house might be used in a way that would prove more profitable than by his dwelling in it himself. He has, therefore, resolved not to occupy this house himself; and he has, in effect, given it up entirely for religious purposes. In those days when the Bible cause prospered in Russia, I understand that the Emperor Alexander gave a large stone-built house for the use of the Bible Society. But in the eyes of Him who sits over against the treasury, this gift of the emperor was much smaller than the gift of the slave Joe, who gave the house in question for these sacred purposes.
I must give you another anecdote of a slave in this island. Nancy Samuel, a young female slave on one of the estates here, having obtained a Bible, and being questioned as to what value she put upon it, said, with some warmth of feeling, that were her liberty offered to her on condition of parting with her Bible, she would not receive it, but would greatly prefer her Bible. This was a good choice, and reminds one of the election that Solomon made. And she was rewarded, too, somewhat in the manner in which Solomon was; for, before many months had elapsed, she obtained her freedom, although she had not the slightest idea of that when she expressed herself as above stated.
One of the new Associations we have formed is a Ladies' Association, premising to you that some of our ladies are slaves. It seems to be entered into with a good deal of spirit and interest. One of our speakers at the formation of the Society told us of a gentleman on your Island who paid his court for subscriptions at all the houses where he found a brass knocker on the door. Our lades took up the idea, and a note that passed the next day bearing upon this, will show with what zeal the ladies began their operations. "Have you," says the writer, "thought of the Miss H's in forming your list of collectors? I hear there is a brass knocker on their door, and that after the meeting yesterday Miss M went to practice upon it, but found that Mrs. H had been there before her. Truly they seem in earnest to try who can run the fastest in this heavenly race. The Angel seems to be flying with the Gospel."
The annual meeting of the Antigua Auxiliary took place in February last. The Report then presented has since been printed, and some copies have been forwarded to you. You will see that our Bible Associations have not proved unfruitful. By means of them about 200 copies of the Scriptures have been put into circulation, and about £75 sterling have been collected and remitted to you. Out of the twenty Associations formed last year, four have proved unproductive. But, from what has come before us in course of visiting them at the present time, we can perceive, that where nothing was done in any place, the fault did not so much lie with the slaves as with the persons who superintended the Associations. In visiting one of these four lately, we stated their inattention to the object for which their Association had been formed, and urged them to do better for the future. This had a very good effect; and the people of that Association, on the following and some subsequent days, showed their consciousness of former neglect, and procured for themselves twenty copies of the Scriptures, and paid for them the prices affixed. We expect also results somewhat of a similar nature from the others which proved deficient in the last year. From the whole of what has occurred during the year elapsed, and from what we have seen during our present visitation, we have every reason to be satisfied with our Slave Associations; and great encouragement is thus given to extend these over this island at some future period, and also to form Bible Associations among the same class of people in our various colonies.
Before I left Antigua last year I intimated to you that there were indications of a change in our favour among the clergy; these good symptoms increased, and have at length resulted in our present favourable position in this respect. And what greatly adds to our pleasure in this matter is, that those who have joined us have done so, not for form's sake, but from the full convictions of duty; and, as resulting from the same circumstance, they are not nominal but zealous promoters of our Bible cause. In going about to visit the former, and to establish new associations, during my present stay here, these gentlemen have contributed in every way within their power to aid me. The Rev. Mr. Warner, rector of St. George's, was the first to join us, and he is now become one of our secretaries, which office he fills diligently and cheerfully. Our other secretary, Mr. Bourne, continues to be, what he was, a most active secretary; and no where in the island could we have found an individual who could, from various circumstances, have rendered us so much real service.
I have now been fully two months in this island on the present occasion, and my expenses during that time for board, lodging, and repeated conveyances over and over the island, amount to nothing, owing to the kindness of friends. It is my duty to mention those gentlemen who have thus favoured your cause in the person of your Agent. My tent has been pitched in town with the Rev. Mr. Gilbert, the Rev. Mr. Holberton, Rector of St. John's, the Rev. Mr. Jones, Rector of St. Phillip's, and with Mr. Bourne and his brother. Conveyances have also been liberally furnished to me by these kind friends, and also by the Rev. Mr. Harvey, superintendent of the Moravian mission in this island.
Today we have had a meeting of the Committee, which was numerously attended. All present seemed to feel a new and deeper interest in the great objects of the circulation and reading and study of the Word of God; and all seemed desirous of pledging themselves to promote these objects more and more in this Island and everywhere. Today the New Governor has put down his name as an annual subscriber of Five Pounds currency.
To-morrow, if the Lord will, I leave this place; and in leaving it I feel myself parting, probably for ever here below, with many dear and esteemed friends and fellow-disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord keep them and us all through faith unto salvation, and present us at last before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy!
And now let us all join in the glorious ascription—To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now ever! Amen.
I remain, My Dear Friend,
Most Truly Yours,
James Thomson.