Mexico City, 28th October 1842

Rev A Brandram - No 125

Mexico 28th October 1842

My dear Friend,

Your letter of 20 July, with a note of 1 August, reached me here on the 19th September. It gives me great pleasure to learn the prosperity which God is still vouchsafing to you as a Society, and in spite of prophecies uttered or muttered among you to the contrary. The case of Dr. Haeberlin's recovery from such imminent danger is a subject of gratitude and instruction to us all. Oh that all of us may ever be good and faithful servants while we live, and thus be ever ready to die, to die unto the Lord, and be forever with him.

As yet no ship, nor books from England, has arrived since I came here. But some vessels are looked for very soon, and with one of them I doubt not your books will be. I long to put them on their trial for acceptance, but fear of our sales will not be rapid, for besides what stands in the way of this from the nature of our books and the circumstances of this country, that is another hindrance, namely, the general dullness of all sales of all things, from the general scarcity of money, owing to the distracted state of things here for some years past, and which kind of things, I am sorry to say, still continue. I think it not at all improbable that we shall have another revolution before this letter reaches you.

What has most occupied my thoughts and my attention since I came here, is the new version of which I wrote you. I am most anxious to get this introduced into the schools, and have made a Representation to the government to that effect, stating your readiness to cooperate in providing the books for schools at a very cheap rate, besides making a present of some at the outset to encourage the object. I expected to be able by this packet to have given you some account of the reception and success or failure of this Representation. But all the government people have been so occupied with their own immediate affairs of late as to have been hindered, it should seem, from attending to this. The bustle has been owing to Santa Anna's delivering the reins of government to General Bravo during the winter, that he may retire for rest and a warm climate to his family residence near Veracruz. He left this city yesterday for that place.

I feel doubly anxious about this Representation. Could the word of God be got into the schools all over this country, it would soon also come into the hands of all classes of the community both indirectly and directly. But there is another reason also why I feel anxious for the success of this representation, which is, that if the New Testament could be got into all the schools here by public sanction and encouragement, the same would act as a powerful example and stimulus to all the other States over Spanish America. May the Lord prosper this object to the hastening of his kingdom in this, and over all these lands. I ever count on the prayers of you all for success in all my little efforts, and pray the Lord to answer these your prayers, and my own feeble but as earnest supplications for a blessing on all my poor doings. We are nothing. Perhaps our prayers are something, for God has made them so. But it is God himself who worketh all in all, and to his name be the glory.

The other object, or rather the third one, of my solicitude here is, that of getting some portion of God's holy word into the hands of the Indians in their native tongues. The great body of the people in this country arc Indians, and they are of different nations and tongues. There are many schools among them, and a goodly number, all things considered, can read. A considerable portion of them can speak Spanish, and do speak it in the market-places, where they are required to do so in their business. But they are strongly attached to their own languages, and ever speak them among themselves. I hear these tongues daily spoken in the streets of this city as I move along, and observe the Indians speaking with one another. The two chief tongues spoken within the diocese of Mexico are what are called the Mexican, and the Otomi. One of the Gospels, you know, is already in the former of these dialects, and I long to hear about it from you and from Dr. Mora. Regarding the other, the Otomi, I am making efforts to get a fit translator, and have one in view. The advan­tage of getting the Scriptures into the Indian tongues is, I conceive, considerable; for although many of them, as already stated, speak Spanish, they will feel a peculiar pleasure in having the word of God in their own tongues, as was and is the case in the Highlands of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. I request, therefore, your prayers for this object also. The Indians are all Christians nominally, and I fear most of them, as well as most here of all classes, nominally only. I look upon it that when the True Gospel begins to make way in this country, it will begin with the Indians, similar to the Gospel progress in the West Indies. The Slaves were first awakened; and through the black and slave population, the whites and other free people were at length led to a greater attention to religion. Thus does God choose the weak things of this world, and things that are despised, to bring to nought all the proud thoughts and gloryings of men. Let us not glory in our work, though most sacred and holy as it truly is, but let us glory only in the Lord.

Please to remember the poor solitary, you who live in the city of God.

            I am, My Brother, Ever Affectionately Yours,

                                    James Thomson.

Mexico City, 24th December 1842

Rev A Brandram -- No 127

Mexico 24th December 1842

My Dear Friend.

In my last I told you of the statu-quo in which we were here in regard to the Representation I made to the Government of your readiness to aid in preparing an edition and a supply of the Mexican version of Vence's New Testament for the general use of the public schools. I am sorry to say that this statu-quo still remains, and that up to this date I have no official reply to my Representation. But there is, in one sense, a better reason or cause for the delay this time than during the former months. In my letter of the 28th October I signified that it was not at all improbable but that we might have, another added to our many Revolutions before that letter should reach you. If that letter by this date, the 24th December, is not yet in your hands, my prophecy has turned out true, for our Revolution has taken place: it occurred on the 19th instant. It is pretty general over the country, and done by the Military, all of whom, fortunately for peace and safety, are on one side, so that we have had this time no fighting, nor, I suppose, are likely to have. A military government, we are now to be under for some time, with Santa Anna at its head. A sort of Assembly or Convention will be got up by the same parties who have wrought this change, and such as will make some sort of Constitution as will suit themselves; and so we shall be till some other Revolution shall follow. The Congress has been sitting for several months making the Constitution. But on the 19th the soldiers closed their doors, and sent all the members about their business, their Constitution and all. Thus then we are: and this is the cause, I may say, at present, of our statu-quo; for the members of government have had, as you may well suppose, other work to do than attend to the petition and representation of an individual, and a foreigner into the bargain, and upon the subject of schools and the New Testament, when they were so busily engaged in patriotic efforts for the good of the country; for the whole of this affair has, nobody doubts, being manoeuvred by the Government, through their more immediate subjects, the military.

But your question and mine is, How is this fresh revolution likely to affect our concerns in this country? I would say in reply, that the change bodes to be in our favour. All the parties in the government are friendly to education, and well disposed, I believe, to the substance of my Representation. Time will show results and we must have a little or a long patience, considering the materials and the country in question. Prayer will hasten our movements, and I hope prosper and succeed them. There are certain rules of etiquette and propriety that prevent me from calling at the Palace and on the Government here every day, or very frequently, in order to urge my object. But, blessed be God, the Palace of Heaven is ever open, and no rules and regulations bar or hinder our continued and incessant application to that Court, and the Throne of Grace within it, there to urge our object with every importunity and fervour. Whilst therefore we cannot always press our claims with earthly governments, we can press them always with the Heavenly Government, even with the King of Kings: and to Him then let us continually apply: and in due time, I trust, our urgings and importunities will be turned into thanksgiving and praise.

The next subject is that of the Indian languages in this country, and translations of the Scriptures into them. Here we have got beyond the statu-quo, and have made some advance. I wrote to the Bishop of Michoacán some weeks ago, availing myself of the introduction of a friend whom I have long known, and who when one of the Secretaries of State here in former years, had no small part in the election of this and some other of the Bishops. I represented to the Bishop of Michoacán my desire to procure a version of the Gospel by St. Luke into the Tarasco tongue, which is very extensively spoken over his diocese. I have had a very friendly letter from him in reply to mine, in which he shows his willingness to procure this version, and he says he has some Parish Priests under his care who could manage it, being well acquainted with that language. I have written to him, the second time, begging him at once to proceed and stating some rules necessary to be attended to in making the version. In my first letter I intimated to the Bishop, that in the event of his procuring for me this version, I wished to print it, along with the Spanish on parallel pages or columns; and I signified that I would count on his giving the due ecclesiastical license for this impression. His reply, and his entering on the work intimated his readiness to grant the license and this is no small matter, for the greatest fear and difficulty in the case was in regard to such a license. Dr. Mora could not obtain it for the Mexican Gospel and therefore he sent it to you to print; but still its open circulation is doubtful because of the want of this ecclesiastical license. By one Bishop acting favourably in this matter, the way will be opened for others to act in the same manner.

Further, on the same concern, regarding the Indian languages and versions. Availing myself of the same friend to introduce me by letter, I have written to the Bishop of Oaxaca regarding the two chief languages spoken in his diocese and a version into each of them of the same Gospel, that of St. Luke. I wait in prayer, with hope and fears, the result of this application.

Thirdly, and not least on the subject. Some steps had been taken in regard to the language spoken in Yucatán, called the Mayo. The late Governor of that place is now in this city, in consequence of the secession of that state from the general Mexican Republic. I have had a good deal of conversation with him in regard to the language, and a version of one of the Gospels into it. He has given me much interesting and useful information as to the language, and the extent to which it is spoken, as also regarding the character of the people, and the general circumstances of the place. The population of the Peninsula of Yucatán is, he says, about 600,000, and the whole of these speak this language, and no other with the single exception of the town of Campeche, containing some 7,000 inhabitants. To the great body in Yucatán speaking this language are to be added the principal portion also of the inhabitants of Tabasco: the whole number of people therefore in daily use of this, and of no other, approaches well on towards one million. This subject and people and tongue are rendered the more interesting on account of the independence declared in Yucatán, and the religious liberty which is provided for in the new Constitution. From the information I have had from the Governor, I have no doubt but the people will be able to maintain their independence against all the power of Mexico. The feelings and interests of the Indians themselves are all personally and deeply involved in the matter, and they have fully entered into the struggle on their own account and advantages, and not in obedience to a few military rulers. It was an army of Indians that first broke the Spanish power. The Bishop of Yucatán as a brother of this ex-governor of whom I speak, and I have availed myself of an introduction from him to the Bishop, together with the aid of my formerly mentioned friend, and have addressed myself to him after a similar manner as to the Bishops of  Michoacán and Oaxaca. But a longish time will be required for an answer, partly owing to the distance, but chiefly from the close warfare now waged from this place against Yucatán. In the meantime I am getting information and further notices regarding the language and people of that Peninsula, from the ex-governor and other natives of the place now residing in this city.

Lastly, as respects the Indian languages. I have at length found a person able and willing to translate one of the Gospels into the Otomí, a tongue very extensively spoken in the two large dioceses of Mexico and Puebla, and which is very peculiar in its structure, resembling, as some suppose, the Chinese.

These three languages especially named, the Otomí, Tarasco, and Mayo, together with the Mexican as chief, are the four languages most extensively spoken in this country. The next to them, I believe, are the two principal languages of Oaxaca, called the Zapoteco and Mizteco. In one of these we have a translation of one of the Gospels, namely the Mexican, and steps have been taken, you will observe, for accomplishing the same in regard to the other five. By the way, if you have an opportunity, and as soon as you can, I could wish you to send me one copy of the Mexican version at least, and more, if you have plenty. I notice this, lest I should not early hear from Dr. Mora in regard to those sent him. Fuller and more particular information of the Mexican languages I hope to give you on a future occasion, as I intend to inquire especially into the subject, and to make a language map of the whole country.

            I remain, My Dear Friend,

                        Very Truly Yours

                                    James Thomson.

P.S. A Mexican gentleman has requested me to inquire whether Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament can be got in London in Latin. Please inquire and inform me.

Please notify to Mr. Hitchin that I have drawn a Bill on my Private  Account for £50, in favour of Dickson, Gordon & Co. at 60 days, dated the 19th instant.

I said in my last that I had no letter by that packet: but afterwards I got one.

Mexico City, 23rd February 1843

Rev A Brandram  No.129

Mexico 23rd February 1843

My Dear Sir,

In my last I mentioned that our Packet brought no English letters, and consequently no letter from you. The mail however was afterwards forwarded from St. Thomas by a hired vessel, which reached of Veracruz on the 27th ultimo, and your letter of the 2nd December came into my hands on the 30th and also Mr. Jackson's dated the 30th November. The mail by last month's Packet reached the city on the 13th instant, and brought me the Bible Society Reporter, but no letters from any in your house where contained in the letter-packet received.

My business here in two of its important branches, namely, as respects the getting of the New Testament into the schools, and the providing the word of God for the poor Indians, is now brought to a point, and I am sorry to say the termination is unfavourable. The Lancasterian Society which received my Representation so favourably, has been obliged to decline the offer made of your assistance in an edition of the New Testament without notes for the use of their schools, and this owing to the Ecclesiastical opposition manifested in the case. This door then, about which I felt so anxious, is for the present shut. I have done everything I could think of to succeed in this important object, and am grieved at its failure. But there is One that openeth, and no man man shutteth; and may he soon and effectually open this country for his own word as it came from himself; and he will in due time open, and no man shall shut after him.

On the other hand, and previous to this discouragement, I received a letter from the Bishop of Michoacan declining to do what he had before tacitly at least consented to, namely, the giving his license to publish a portion of the Scripture in the Indian tongues. This refusal effectually shuts this door, as the Bishop in question is decidedly the most liberal of all the Bishops in this country, so that his refusal makes sure that all will refuse.

The third and only other branch of our business here is the circulation of the Scriptures you have forwarded. I am sorry to say these are not yet arrived in this city. In shipping the Books there should have been a document procured from the Mexican Consul, and forwarded with the bill of lading. This it seems was not done, for no such document reached Veracruz. The Books were therefore detained, and I had to make application to the Government here to overlook this omission, and to permit the Books to be taken out of the Customs House. This has been granted, and the Books are now about to leave Veracruz for this place. In regard to future shipments it would be well to apprise your agent at Liverpool of the necessity of procuring in forwarding this consular document.

By the above mentioned negatives and failures my way in Providence is made clear as to this country, namely, for my leaving it soon. I wish it had cleared up in the opposite direction, but the will of the Lord be done. There is a time for every purpose under the sun, and the time will undoubtedly come when the word of the Lord will have perfectly free course in this country as it is with you. May the Lord hasten that time: and surely our prayers for this country will not be all cast away and forgotten. But I had hoped also that we should have done something here in regard to getting the Scriptures into the schools, and getting translations for the Indians that would have had a powerful effect as an example on all the other countries of South America. But this hope you see is blasted with the other, and so I will proceed to these other countries downcast rather than animated in regard to our work.

Whither now shall I go, and what arrangements shall I make, in order that our labour in the Lord may be as little in vain as possible? I think of going first to the Havana, then afterwards to Yucatán, if it is not inaccessible through the present hot war there, and then onwards to Guatemala. After leaving Guatemala, if the Lord will I should I should live, I would be for making my way in the best manner to Panamá. And from Panamá I would visit the countries and towns lying on the Pacific Ocean. From Peru I have had thoughts of descending the Amazon River to Pará in Brazil, and then visiting the large Brazil towns on the Atlantic Ocean, and thence going on Southward to Monte Video and Buenos Ayres. I give you this sketch that you may reform or alter it as you please; or that you may cut short the course mentioned, and send me, if you will, to China, direct westward across the Pacific. Your way is my way, and may yours be the Lord's.

I go to the Havana in order to see how our work goes on there, and to try to forward it, and also I may say from necessity, because I cannot in the present state of the war get from Veracruz to Yucatán. I am aware that I run some risk of imprisonment in the Havana, according to the order issued against me in 1837. But from the change of the Governor and other circumstances I may probably not be troubled, and on the other hand, I know not any just charge they can bring against me. Nevertheless I should be glad that you would procure for me a letter from the Foreign Office to our Consul there, in case I should stand in need of special British protection. This letter which I now write will reach you most probably about or before the middle of April, and I beg you will write me by the first of May Packet to the care of the British Consul in the Havana, enclosing the letter referred to from the Foreign Office. I shall sail from Veracruz in the Packet, say on the 26th May, and so as to be in the Havana probably on the last day of the month, about which time, or a day or two later your letter referred to may be there: and I judge it prudent not to be there long before your letter arrive. Some little time will be lost here by this delay, but I do not see well how I could arrange better. A sort of compensation will be made for this retardation by my quicker movements afterwards. It will be some weeks yet before the Books arrive from Veracruz, and two or three weeks more will be required here to make full arrangements for continued sales, so that the real loss of time will be only about a month.

In order to meet the quicker movements referred to, and that the most may be done with the least loss of time, it would be desirable to have supplies of the Scriptures waiting me on my arrival in the several places I may touch at on the course pointed out. As to the quantities and kinds to be sent to each place you must form your best judgment, and the kinds and proportional numbers of each in the supply lately sent here may perhaps aid you in your apportionings. I think then you should send without delay to Panamá, Guayaquil, and Lima. You will do your best to find out proper consignees for these shipments, and will be so good as early to apprise me of the names of said persons, together with giving me copies of the Invoices. Places beyond Lima can be afterwards arranged for. There are some cases of Spanish Scriptures in Jamaica, I believe, sent there from Carthagena by Mr. Watts. I shall write to Kingston to have these forwarded to Belize. I know not whether I shall visit Carthagena, but when in the Havana I shall judge that, and I may perhaps cross Jamaica in order to sail from Kingston to that place.

Through means of Mr. Jackson's letter I have at length found out the Mexican Gospel of St. Luke which you printed and sent here. Some of these I have disposed off, and shall distribute the whole in the best way I can before I leave the country. I have had no letter as yet from Dr. Mora, and I am still ignorant as to who is the translator.

I cannot close this letter without joining in thanksgivings and congratulations with you for the grand opening which God has granted to Britain and to the Gospel into the Great and Populous Empire of China. May God give all of you....

(final part of letter missing in archives)

Mexico City, 29th July 1843

Rev A Brandram  No 134

Mexico 29th July 1843

My Dear Friend,

As my movements are greatly affected at this time by the state of things in Yucatán, I speak of that quarter first in the present letter. Since my last Yucatán has improved in its actual state and position. The war there, if not over, is completely lulled, and all the hostile troops have left it. Add to this Three Commissioners have already arrived in this city to treat with this government about peace, unity and future good understanding, based on certain privileges in favour of Yucatán distinctly acknowledged and clearly worded to prevent future misunderstandings and evils.

To these Three Commissioners I have been very formally introduced by one of my Yucatán friends who was partially residing here before their arrival. I have had with these gentlemen a very pleasing interview, and have received much encouragement from them to proceed to that place. One of them is the chief Secretary of the government, and father of the gentleman I accidentally met with in this Steam Boat from Albany to New York in May 1841. But these Three Commissioners, as well as my former Yucatán friends as noticed in my last letter, all advise me to delay going there until the unhealthy season is over.

Though the way therefore to that Peninsula is nearly open I scarcely feel that it would be right, or justice either to you or to myself, to hasten thither in the face of the united friendly advice which I have received. Had I not had this advice so fully stated and repeated, and by individuals my personal friends and favourable to my objects, I would have felt less difficulty in moving forward. But to act directly counter to all these friendly admonitions would seem to be a rash. I shall therefore make the delay they advise.

In my ruminations since my last letter was sent off, and in the prospect more or less of this delay, I was thinking of, or planning a journey of some length into the parts of this country to the West and North. But on taking everything into consideration I have given up my thoughts of that movement: first, because there would most probably be a considerable delay caused by it beyond the waiting for the proper season for going to Yucatán; and second, because, I have some fears that my active and open operations in the sale of the Scriptures through these parts at the present intolerant time would shut more Custom Houses against us, and thus more harm than good would accrue through the means of the movement in question.

I hope the 5000 copies of the Scriptures requested in my last for this country will be duly and early forwarded. If more convenient for you, they may be divided into two sendings, with an interval between, each kind being properly halved or nearly so. On the whole perhaps this would be the best arrangement. The cases say to be of 200 pounds weight. – To hasten matters, and to provide a supply for the N. West of this country I have ordered 1000 New Testaments from the American Bible Society, to be sent direct and immediately to Tampico. These will of course be charged to your account.

Your two very interesting New Zealand letters that appear in the Bible Society Reporter No19, I have got published in the same newspaper which has prated maliciously against us in an article inserted from a periodical published in Spain. I send you a copy.

I have not received by last packet any Reporter, nor letter from Earl Street, nor the fully expected, and usually sent, yearly newspaper, giving an account of your Annual Meeting.

I have lately met with two persons who interest themselves much in your Mexican version of St. Luke, and wish to see the whole New Testament translated into that ancient and modern tongue. There are some slips in the mode of printing your Mexican St. Luke, but whether the oversights are in the manuscript, or in the Editors I cannot say. It is now undergoing revision. I am paying some attention to the study of the Mexican or Nahuatl language, and as far as I have yet made progress I am inclined to receive Clavigero's high testimony of it as to its copiousness and admirable structure. I have been studying also the Otomi language, which is likewise rich, but entirely different from the Nahuatl which on every side surrounds it. I have looked at some others of the tongues of this land, and have no doubt of their fitness for expressing the sense and substance of the Scriptures.

In the prospect of going to Yucatán, I would call your attention anew to what I have said on Indian versions in my letter No 131, and I do humbly and earnestly beg that you would give me ample scope in regard to the rendering portions of the Scriptures into the tongue spoken all over that Peninsula, and also partly in Tabasco and Guatemala. The Yucatán Commissioners assured me of there being a very earnest desire in the government of giving education to the Indians. They are gratified with proposals I made here for the instruction of the natives generally in their own tongues, instead of Spanish as heretofore. As a member of the Lancasterian Society of this city I made these proposals, and a very friendly reception was given to them; and measures are now being taken for extending this plan over the whole country. I send you a newspaper in which you will see the notice of my proposal and its reception.

I remain, yours very truly,

James Thomson.

P.S. Please say to Mr. Farmer that I have sent him a copy of the newspaper containing the two New Zealand letters, that he may present it to the Wesleyan Missionary Society.

London, 16th February 1850

Rev A Brandram

16 Harpur Street

16th February 1850

My Dear Friend,

You will well recollect, I dare say, that while I was in Mexico in the service of the Society, I was greatly aided by Dr. Mora, one of the Professors in the University there, and a man of high standing in literature and as a public writer. On my leaving that country I left all the Bibles I had in his hands from the confidence I had in him grounded on previous experience. The greater quantity of these Bibles were under arrest in the Custom House. On a favourable change in the Government, Dr. Mora through his influence with the party in power, succeeded in liberating these Books; and through his arrangements also they were duly exposed to sale, and in due time were sold off. Remittances of money proceeding from these sales were made by Dr. Mora, and proper accounts were received. A debit to the Society however of nearly 800 dollars remained unsettled, and has remained so for several years.

Dr. Mora is at present Ambassador from Mexico resident at this Court. Some weeks ago, on his arrival from Paris, I saw him, and on that occasion he made special mention of the account outstanding with the Society, and showed great anxiety to have it settled. He gave me his explanations as to the delay that had occurred in the case. Through the political changes in Mexico he was obliged precipitately to leave the country. The person he had entrusted with his property and business, including the affairs of the Society, died, and his estate was found insolvent, and no satisfactory statement could be got. Again, another person, and a Bible friend, who had  taken a share in the distribution of the Scriptures, he also died, and so the business was left in a still more unsatisfactory state. These were the causes which prevented the settlement in question.

Dr. Mora, as before said, showed much desire to have the account settled, being unwilling, he said, that the Bible Society with its noble objects should suffer any loss. He desired me to get the account as it stood. I did so, and he has paid it off, amounting to the sum of £147:18:9, which last week I handed over to Mr. Hitchin.

Whatever doubts were in any degree entertained in regard to Dr. Mora on account of this delay should be considered as most satisfactorily met by this ready payment of the sum in question. He overlooked in the case a sum of 200 dollars, not improbably paid by his agent for the purpose of effecting a translation of a portion of the Scriptures into the Ancient Mexican tongue. On the whole, I believe he has suffered pecuniary loss through his transactions with the Society, in addition to his gratuitous and very efficient services. Some acknowledgment of these services would seem to be due to Dr. Mora by the Society at the conclusion of his help in our cause. A Spanish Bible bound like that given to Espartero would be acceptable to him.

Before I conclude I would state, that I believe Dr. Mora has himself profited by the Bible. Its contents were often in Mexico the subject of our conversation, and I consider him acquainted with its great leading doctrines on which our salvation hangs. He is at present in a poor state of health. When I first met with him the other week he said he believed he was approaching the grave. But, he added, I shall not die a Catholic. He then referred to his views on the doctrines of grace, as he had formerly stated them to me, and as feeling more than ever confirmed in them. On seeing me, he expressed himself greatly satisfied on two points, one was in regard to the settlement of the account with the Society, and the other was in the view of our conversing from time to time together upon the subjects of salvation.

If Dr. Mora's health permit, he purposes to pay a visit to the Committee, and I doubt not but his visit will be very kindly received.

I am glad of being able to present this satisfactory view of our friend's integrity, and services, and views. Let us pray together for his health and salvation.

            I remain,

                        My Dear Friend

                                    Yours Very Truly,                  

                                                James Thomson.