The Rev A Brandram No.19
Mexico, 24th March 1828
My Dear Sir,
Your letter of 16th January came into my hands on the 17th instant. I read over your former one of the 20th December anxiously looking for some notice of the shipment of the Bibles and Testaments, but nothing appeared upon the subject. In your letter just received I still more anxiously looked for information, but was equally disappointed. In short I have given up all expectation of the arrival of the supply for the present season, for I could not think how you could have omitted to notice the shipment of these in two succeeding letters written after the Bibles were shipped. I mentioned this the more particularly that you would be so good in future as notice as early as possible when shipments are made. On the 21st instant Mr. Jackson's letter and the invoice came to hand, the Stirling having safely arrived at Vera Cruz, after the passage I think of 97 days.
You say "I hope my last letter will not have discouraged you." I frankly confess that it did, but as you say "it was not at all intended so to do," I now take it on the favourable side. I had requested you in regard to the translation of the New Testament into the native languages spoken in this country, that you would encourage me all you could to go forward in procuring them, for I had observed a great hesitancy upon the subject when in London. This request you answered by curtailing the of the liberty you had formerly given. Recollecting therefore the story of the Sybilline books I had nearly decided not to ask you again for better terms. You refer me to my instructions, authorise me to procure a single gospel in the three languages mentioned, and then oblige me to report on the same before printing. What possible good can arise from this reporting, and when all is ready, waiting six months before beginning to print, I cannot tell. I shall however comply with your directions, unless you should think proper to relieve me from the obligation. I shall endeavour to proceed in this business with all possible caution and judgment. Perhaps it is a proof of this mode of acting that I have not yet been able to get a translator such as I consider suited to the object. I have now one in view for the Mexican language, who is well recommended, and who will I trust be the person honoured of God to accomplish this work. I am aware of the great care to be exercised in the procuring of new translations, and recollect also that there are watchers around you who are not indisposed to give all due publicity to any slips and imperfections that might occur in this matter. I shall endeavour them for to keep these things in view in whatever translations I may be able to procure.
You mentioned in your communication of December that you were requested to embody in your letter the substance of what passed in the Committee, upon the subject of these translations. The first thing that you notice is the desirableness of having the translations done from the original Greek. There are here only some two or three who understand anything of the Greek language, and therefore it is hardly to be expected that this qualification will be found in the individuals who will undertake a translations. The next thing you notice is, that you wished the translation to be made conformable to our Protestant versions. I have touched upon the subject in my letter from Querétaro now in your hands, and beg leave to refer you to it in reference to this matter. I particularly request you to read what I have there said about these alterations, and beg you to be exceedingly cautious as to what to do in this, for your here treading upon a very delicate ground. Your third observation, refers to the situation of those for whom the translations are intended. Certainly not a great many of them can read, but some can. In my letter from Zelaya I noticed an interview I had with three Indian shepherds. A desire for education you will see was manifested by then in sending their children to school. If these children could have read to their parents in the evening the New Testament in their native tongue, it would certainly have afforded them much pleasure in no little profit. Several individuals among the Indians understand in an imperfect way the Spanish language, yet they always listen with double attention when anything is said to them in their native tongue. Father Cuevas in Querétaro particularly mentioned to me in the conversations I had with him in the convent, that in preaching to the Indians in Spanish, no eloquence could arrest that attention, but when anyone preached to them in their own language, their eyes and that hearers were riveted on the preacher. The other Friars mentioned instances that have come under their notice to the same effect. Were the translations in question accomplished, I have great reason to believe that many priests would read them publicly to their people in the churches. In the prospect of this being the case, there is surely every reason without asking more, for going on with the work. Further, there is a probability that schools will be established for teaching the natives in their own tongues, and in this case it is very likely that the New Testament would become the school book.
It is perhaps not a little to the present point to consider what was the state of those countries for which the early Christians made the first translations of the Scriptures. In all probability very few could read among those nations, yet I suppose these first translators did not put off their translations for a single day on that account. If they had waited till schools have been established, and reading had become somewhat general, it is doubtful if these translations would even yet have been accomplished. They made haste however with their translations, and thus no doubt became the means in the hand of God saving many souls which otherwise must have perished. This is a venerable precedent for us, and we cannot I think err far in following it.
Your fourth observation is respecting the actual state of the languages in question. Languages into which it is proposed to translate the Scriptures in this country, are all written languages, and also printed languages. Catechisms, parts of the church service and ceremonies, and outlines of the Christian religion have been printed in them, and also, grammars and dictionaries. I intend to make a collection of these books for your library as opportunities offer, but it is rather difficult to procure some of them as they are out of print. The Governor of the State of Mexico is about to get printed in the United States, a new edition of a dictionary of the Mexican language, at government expense.
You ask in the fifth place, if these languages are likely to become extinct. I think they are, and no person is more desirous of that than I am. But would you on that account let two, three or more generations of men perish without the chance of reading the Scriptures for themselves, or of having them read to them by others? I know some islands lying on the West of the continent of Europe where there are spoken besides the general language of the country four others. These are the Gaelic, the Manx, the Irish, and the Welsh. Will you tell me if these languages are likely to become extinct? No doubt they are, and the sooner the better. Yet you have given these people translations of the entire Scriptures, and editions upon editions of them, while you put a thousand questions to us about our languages here before you give us ungrudgingly even one of the Gospels. It is well at your charity begins and shines at home, but pray let it also extend to us, and cheerfully.
The last thing you notice about these versions, is respecting the character of the translators that may be employed. I have made it a prerequisite in my inquiries, that the persons who translate the natives of those places where the languages are spoken and that they themselves have spoken them from their earliest days. Also that the be persons of literature as far as that can be expected in this country; and that they be pious, exemplary men.
I have now noticed I think all the topics you mention, and hope that nearly all the difficulties will be removed by the observations made. I shall agreeable to your instructions proceed with the translation of the Gospel of Luke into the three languages into which you authorize me to do it, so soon as suitable translators can be procured. I shall notice to you from time to time how I get on; and may the Lord give to me, and to those who translate, that knowledge and wisdom which are so necessary in so great a work. Join with me your prayers, and the Lord will hear us.
You refer to my having entered into controversy here in regard to the Bibles, and make some very proper remarks upon the subject. In the article I wrote I kept in mind, that I was the agent of your Society, and that you avoid entering upon theological questions, leaving all persons in possession of their own sentiments. There was nothing Protestant in my paper, as a proof of which it was mistaken once by a friend and once by a foe, as having been the production of a well-known individual, a native of the country.
You have kindly extended my credit to £400. It is useful to have it so, though I may not perhaps have much occasion to avail myself of it, but if I had had it before it is likely that I would not have drawn on you as I did in October for £200. I shall always keep a little money on hand, and sales I hope will be constantly going on, keeping my hands full, and enabling me to remit to you from time to time.
The Latin Bibles do not sell nearly so well as I thought, but the Latin and Spanish version in one volume does better. There is a good number of the Latin Bibles on hand of the first supply of the Hambletonian, and it is augmented by those brought by Arethusa. I thought the Hambletonian had brought the whole supply voted to me before leaving you. There not being any French or German Bibles among these I thought none were coming, and in consequence I wrote to you for some. These you have been so good as to vote for me as mentioned in Mr. Jackson's letter of January. It will however be better not to forward these until I see how those come by the Arethusa will be disposed of. The invoice of the books by the Stirling is very satisfactory, having the quantity in each case mentioned. The only little oversight perhaps is the not mentioning what case reports and extracts are in. I could like very much were some plan adopted by which I could receive your sheet of extracts monthly, as this would enable me to see how you move along from month to month, and it would also be satisfactory to those here who take an interest in your great cause. If you could get one or two copies franked to Falmouth, to some friend there, they might from thence be forwarded to me as an open letter to the house of R P Staples Co., Vera Cruz. Do in this only what you find to be quite convenient.
You say you did not quite comprehend the meaning of the phrase I used in my letter of the 22nd September as to the "little heap of rubbish left behind." Will you allow me therefore to explain myself in this matter, with Christian candour and with the frankness of friendship. I am sure there is in the Committee a sincere desire to conduct all their affairs after a godly manner, and the hint from a friend will not be despised. What I referred to regards the annual meeting. Perhaps my observing the thing I am going to notice more than you seem to have done, is the remark made by a very judicious person in Buenos Aires, when I got from him reports I had lent him to read. He said that the Managers of the Society know well how to compliment each other. Now I think this remark too well founded, in what takes place at the annual meeting. The Secretaries or the Committee, it is well-known, frame the resolutions. On this account I think it is like praising oneself when there is brought forward a vote of thanks to the Secretaries or to the Committee. But you will say it is desirable to know that the conduct of these functionaries is approved of by the subscribers or the assembly present. I grant it is, and for that end I would propose to the multitude assembled the following question: "Does the conduct of the Secretaries, and of the Committee of this Society during the past year, meet with the approbation of the constituents here assembled?" The assembly standing up, or lifting their hands on this question being put, would I think answer all the ends of the thanks you get, and would avoid the awkward circumstances in which you are truly placed of asking a vote of thanks to yourselves. Again in regard to the President, it must I think be painful to have votes upon votes of thanks tribute it to him, first for his general attention to the objects of the Institution, and again for his conduct in the chair to the business of the day. Besides as the President is a member of the Committee and often present at their meetings, what the Secretaries or the Committee bring forward regarding him, must be considered partly as his own doing. I am sure Lord Teignmouth would willingly dispense with these useless ceremonies to call them by no other name; and am sure that you my dear Friend, and your brother Secretaries, will think you had made an escape from the public stare, by omitting the vote of thanks referred to. You will say that wanting these things, you will want subjects for resolutions. O no, this cannot be the case, when you have such a glorious subject in hand, when you experienced so much of the Lord's goodness from year to year in every quarter of the world, and when you cast your eye on the uncultivated fields, still including alas, the great, great majority of mankind.
When I went to Scotland in 1826, I passed through Knaresborough, and happened to be there that evening on which the annual meeting of the Society was held. Mr. Cheap requested me to draw up four or five resolutions for the business of the evening. I drew them up in the few minutes I had to do so, and found plenty of subjects for them without the use of what I call the objectionable articles. To conclude, the Bible Society is I consider at the head of all the religious societies in our favoured country. Its conduct therefore should be a pattern of wisdom and humility to all the rest. In all these societies, the mummery referred to is gone through annually, and if you would lay aside these things, others I believe would soon do the same. All this you may consider in me as over-fastidiousness, and if you should, you will please recollect that I said respecting "the little heap of rubbish" mentioned in my letter, "that I might perhaps have mistaken it for something else."
In some of my letters when on the late journey, I mentioned I think that I was not without fears, that the want of the Apocryphal books would bring on a discussion upon the subject in the ecclesiastical court, and perhaps something worse. This has actually taken place. It may perhaps end seriously, but I hope for the best. Some time ago the Bibles with all their faults were denounced to the ecclesiastical court of this diocese. I thought the matter would rest there, and that the petition praying judgment against them would lie on the table without being carried further. These few days past however, I have heard that the matter is not likely to lie quiet and that there is a great probability that the court will proceed as far as it can. The law I think is on our side, as the sale of no books can be prohibited until they are formally condemned, after hearing the party concerned. The ecclesiastical court cannot of itself issue an injunction, but the order must come through the civil court. If any attempts are made to stop the sale, a protest and an appeal will be made, I called today on the Secretary of State for Ecclesiastical Affairs, and told him what I feared. He desired me whenever any measure was taken to come to him upon the subject. I hope that he will befriend us in this conjuncture, should the violent proceedings be attempted. But let us have our eyes directed toward heaven from whence cometh our aid. He who has hitherto been with us, will not now forsake us, and the cause of God no doubt will triumph. Our friend and member of this Society Salazar has been very friendly to us on this occasion. This morning he called and informed me of all that was going on as far as he knew.
In my letter from Zacatecas, I mentioned that I had made representation to the High Court of Justice of that city and state, begging that the Alcalde of Aguas Calientes might be compelled to give me a copy of the law proceedings which took place when the Rector endeavoured to stop the sale of the Scriptures in that place. A few days ago I received a letter from Zacatecas, saying my petition had been attended to by the Court, and that the Alcalde had been compelled to grant me the copy requested. The said copy also came to me by the same post, under a government frank. The first lawsuit you ........... has ended favourably. I trust the process now forming against us will talk about equally successful.
I am getting letters of introduction, and other things ready for going to Jalapa to meet the Bibles there and begin the sale. In a week from this date, I leave this city, unless some measures are carried forward against us, which may require my presence here. I hope it will be otherwise, and that my next letter to you will be dated from Jalapa. Do, my dear friend, and all my dear friends, pray for me, and for the prosperity of your cause in this land.
Believe me, my dear Sir, Ever Yours, J. Thomson.
P.S. Mrs. Thomson as well, is thankful for your kind remembrances of her, and begs me to present her Christian regard to you. What has occurred to us of late Mr. Roberts will be able to tell you. We had endeavouring to turn this dispensation into a blessing, by more closely examining ourselves, that we may grow in grace, and in usefulness. The Lord I trust will bless us herein for his glory, and our welfare, and the welfare of this place.
The second of exchange for £500 is enclosed.
I learned today that what I said a month or two ago of Mr. Packenham's sending my letters to the Foreign Office was a mistake. He did so at first it seems, but afterwards upon finding them too many and too bulky he could not think of taking the liberty of sending them in that way, but franked them to Vera Cruz.
Please request Mr Jackson to get a card such as here noted, and to send 1000 of them with the first cases sent, charging my account with the expenses. The letters to be like the enclosed slip. There are four words. JOSÉ IGNACIO DE CÁRDENAS.