Jalapa, 23rd April 1828

The Rev A Brandram  No.20

Jalapa 23rd April 1828

My Dear Sir,

I told you in my last that I hope my next letter would be written in this place, and I am glad that there occurred no hindrances of the kind alluded to in regard to my setting out on this second journey in Mexico in your service. I left the capital on the 2nd instant, and arrived in Puebla on the 4th.

I have two letters of introduction for the Bishop, one of which was from our friend Salazar. The other was from Don Miguel Santamaría the Colombian minister residing in this country. I mentioned this gentleman's name to you with pleasure, and add, that he has taken a greater interest in my concerns here, and has been more serviceable to me in them than any individual I have met with in Mexico. For my last journey he furnished me with letters of introduction, and for the present journey he has furnished me yet more amply, as he has more acquaintances in the course of the tour I am now taking than in the northwesterly directions in which I last traveled. One thing I have observed with a good deal of satisfaction so far as he is concerned, that he never minces with the objects in which I am engaged, but freely and openly introduces me as an agent of the Bible Society, engaged in the circulation of the Scriptures in this country. This gentleman is a native of Vera Cruz, has resided some time in Colombia, and is now as above-mentioned the resident minister in Mexico from Bogota.

To return to the Bishop. I went with my two letters of introduction to him, and was ready graciously received. He said he had heard of me and of my objects in this country, and on account of which and from the respect he had for the persons who had written the letters he had just read, he was glad of an opportunity of paying me what attention he could. This house, said he, is yours, and more than that, (added he laying his hand upon his breast,) this heart is at your service. I of course rendered him a thousand thanks for such kind offers. But as I had looked to this interview with so little interest in anxiety, I had another and a higher return to make. I lifted up my heart in thanksgiving and to him in whose hand are the hearts of all, and who disposeth them to whatsoever he will, and I bless his Holy Name for disposing the mind of this individual to befriend his cause in this land. The Bishop's interest is considerable. In his own diocese of course he has the entire sway, but as he is now the only Bishop in Mexico his influence is great throughout all the country. I trust the Lord will stir him up to befriend us not only in a negative way, but also in a more active manner. I had three other interviews with the Bishop whilst I remained in Puebla, my stay there having been prolonged several days beyond the period I expected. I made him a present in the name of the Society of a Spanish Bible in Morocco binding, and also one of Bagster's Hebrew and Greek Bibles interleaved. Three copies of the Brief View were also put into his hands. With this present he was well pleased, and I hope it will attach him the more to your great objects. During the second and third interviews with him I endeavoured to ascertain whether he would be disposed to give his name to encourage the circulation of your edition of the Bible, a specimen or copy of which I had given him. I did not wish to be to direct in my request, nor did I like on the other hand to let the occasion slip without knowing his mind upon the subject. I therefore went round him and round him, coming nearer each time, and upon coming close upon the subject he politely declined, stating at the Apocrypha as the obstacle.

Upon talking with him as to the extent to which the Mexican language was spoken in his diocese, he said three-fifths of the people spoke it. I mentioned my desire to procure a translation of a part of the New Testament into this tongue. I was glad to find that he entered into this, and that he was ready to lend his aid for the accomplishing of it. I trust the delays experienced in finding a translator for this language has been to throw the work into the hands of the Bishop. He spoke in a very proper manner of the precautions to be taken to procure a faithful and good translation. He has engaged to get an attempt made. His plan is to set some individual skilled in the language to translate two chapters, one in the Old and one in the New Testament, and when these are ready they are to be examined by two or three competent judges. If these pronounce the translation good, the translator will go on, but if otherwise not, and a new translator to our will be sought for. This I think is a good plan, and I hope we shall hear of favourable results before long. The Bishop promises to give his name to authorize the translation when accomplished. He desired me to write to you that he will be a co-operator with your society. It would I think greatly animate him, and would strengthen our party in this land, if Lord Teignmouth should address a few lines to him, upon the subject of this translation and upon the circulation of the Scriptures in general. Should this suggestion meet with his Lordship's approbation, it might be proper before writing to have some little conversation with Mr. Rocafuerte, the Mexican chargé d'affaires in London, a gentleman most friendly to the Bible Society. I was in a mistake when I said in a former letter that the Bishop is a native of Spain, he is a native of Puebla.

In conversing with the Professor of the Mexican language in the Ecclesiastical College of Puebla, as to the usefulness of a Mexican translation of the New Testament, and whether he thought the curates would read it to the people on Sundays and holidays, he said he thought such a translation would be very acceptable and useful to the people, and that he did not doubt but the priests would read it in the church, and he was sure that in doing so they would not only benefit the people, but themselves also. Many of the people understood Spanish he said, but when they made their confession to the priest they uniformly spoke in their own tongue.

From Puebla I went to Tlascala returning next day to the same place. My object was to ascertain the prevalence or otherwise of the Mexican language in that quarter. It prevails. I was told that of those who understand the Spanish, they spoke it with great unwillingness giving a decided preference to their own tongue. Upon my mentioning a translation of the New Testament into their native language and of establishing schools for teaching it, a decided approbation was given to such a plan, and much confidence was expressed as to the good results which might follow. In Tlascala, I saw the identical standard with which Cortés entered and conquered that place. It was stained with blood, such are the traces of conquerors, a race of men soon I hope to become extinct. There was to me a more interesting object in that city. I saw, and stood, in the first pulpit in which the gospel was preached in the New World. A Friar stood behind me, and if you can make anything emblematical of this circumstance, you may. Your letter of the 11th (and 18th) February came into my hands yesterday along with Mr. Jackson's note of the minutes of the Committee regarding my requests about editions of the Scriptures. I thank you for ordering a pica edition of the New Testament and for your other grants. I do note of course thank you for what you have not done is about the adding the two epistles of Peter to the volume containing the Gospel by Luke and the Acts. You give no reasons for your negative, because I suppose you had none to give.

I withdraw my motion for the present regarding a small pica Bible with marginal references. I shall probably say something about Torres Amat's version in my next. I gave you an order in January last for Bibles to be sent to Tampico. Please send the same quantity of each to Vera Cruz as soon after the receipt of this as you can. My object on this journey is not to hold sales in particular towns, but to establish permanent sales as extensively as I can in the districts I visit.

Mrs. Thomson, about whom you so kindly inquire, is well, with the exception of  her anxiety for the safety of her husband on this journey exposed to perils of various kinds. Pray for him, and be assured that he is sincerely desirous of approving himself as your servant, believing that your service, is the service of God.

            I am ever yours, James Thomson.

Mexico City, 7th September 1842

Rev A Brandram - No 124

Mexico 7th September 1842

My dear Friend,

I left Veracruz on the 22nd ultimo as I mentioned to you in my last which was written on that day. In Jalapa I stopped a day, and one day also in Puebla, in both of which places I made arrangements with Booksellers for the sale of our books when they arrive.

On the 29th of August I arrived in this large and fine city in the midst of many thoughts of things past and present. I feel thankful for my safe arrival here; and there is more than common-place in this expres­sion, for dangers of different kinds have been passed through. The city of Veracruz, never very healthy, is in the summer season very bad, owing to the disease called the Black Vomit,[1] which then prevails, and cuts off great numbers, and most frequently with very little warning. Those arriving there from the sea, or from the high lands here, are most subject to it. I was kept in safety there in the midst of the pestilence, as I had been on two former occasions in the summers of 1827 and 1830. Escaping Veracruz, on the way to this city, one gets immediately into another peril, of a different kind, but probably worse. The whole road is infested more or less with robbers and murderers. The evil to be encountered in this case may best be seen perhaps by stating that not less than 19 of these banditti have been caught, tried, and executed, within the last three months. Nor has this severity, though so recent, rendered the road safe, as we were obliged to have an escort of soldiers on several parts, where the danger is greatest. You see, then, that I have good reason to say that I feel thankful for my safe arrival in this city; and I mention these things the more, that any among you who feel an interest in your poor traveller, and pray for him, may give thanks likewise with me to the Great Preserver; and, further, that they may be reminded afresh of the need I have of their continual prayers, considering the nature of the country I am in, and of the other similar countries I have to travel through in your service.

In my letter to you of the 30th June last, when ordering Books for this place, I said that I would take some with me from New York, to meet immediate demands. These, however, were not brought, owing to an oversight that was made in their not being entered at the Customs House in time. This is of no great consequence perhaps, but it makes me look the more anxiously for the supply you are sending me from London. In Puebla I saw in a Bookseller's five of your Bibles of those printed in Barcelona, which came there in the normal course of business from that city along with other Spanish books. These were the first I have seen of your Barcelona edition. They look well, and the binding is good, but I could not help observing the blankness of the backs, they are so very plain.  If you could at least letter the backs, it would be a great improvement, and would give them an advantage here. A little more than lettering would be still better.

I can find no trace of the 250 copies of the Gospel by Luke in the Mexican dialect which you printed in London. The only thing I can learn is, that Dr Mora showed one of the books to a friend here. Pray, to whom, when, and by what conveyance did you send them? I write to Dr Mora in Paris by this mail, to inquire of him concerning this and other Bible concerns in which we laboured together. I do not wish however this to supercede the notice which I now request from you, nor from the one requested from Mr Jackson in my letter No 120.

You will recollect the edict that was issued in this metropolitan diocese, in 1829, against the buying, selling, reading, or retaining in possession any of your Bibles, and of the difficulties at the Custom House, which arose out of this. Our bookseller informs me, that in consequence of this edict, and some urgency in carrying it into effect, several of our Books were demanded and given up at the confessional. He also, however, gives me the pleasing information, that since the appointment of the present Arch­bishop no urgency has been used on the subject in the confessional; our Books, therefore, have now freer course than they had when I left, and for some time after. This is a gratifying change in advance. The Bibles and Testaments have been on open public sale uninterruptedly all along. How many have been sold since the last arrangement of accounts, I have not yet ascertained, but expect to do so soon. I am sorry to say that our Bookseller, who is a very worthy man, failed from misfortunes some months ago, a circumstance which will of course cause some loss.

The several thousands of copies of your Bibles and Testaments, which were brought into circulation here during your agency in 1827—1830, have produced, we may well say, both a direct good, and an indirect one. The direct one, of course, was these thousands of copies of the word of God coming into many hands, in a country destitute of it, and we may well suppose not without good effects, though we may not know them. The indirect one was a stir created about the Bible, both among those who were friendly to our books, and those who were not. Those against the circulation of the Scriptures without notes, were anxious to bring in a Bible containing the notes; and those friendly to us cheerfully joined them, glad thus to see the Scriptures come into more general use. The consequence was, that a Bookseller ordered an edition of Torres Amat's Bible, which was printed in 17 small volumes, in 18mo, and was sold here at 25 dollars. About 1000 copies of this have been sold. The work is still selling well, and the price is now somewhat reduced.

But this is not all of the effects of your former sales here; there is something better, something that manifests a considerable interest in the Scriptures, and does real honour to this country. A new and improved version of the entire Bible has been published here since I left in 1830. This is accompanied by the Latin of the Vulgate, together with a Harmony of the Four Gospels, prefaces to all the books, analyses, expositions, plates, maps, and dissertations. The whole amounts to 25 volumes in Spanish quarto, (which is about equal to our royal octavo), and a folio volume of maps and plates. This is altogether, as you see, an extensive work, and its publication certainly does great credit to Mexico. It is the first Bible printed here, or in any part of Spanish America, and therefore truly forms an era of a most important kind in regard to these countries. It was published by subscription in 1831, 32, and 33, at 132 dollars each copy, in boards, and there were upwards of 700 subscribers, thus involving a capital in this Bible work of about 100,000 dollars. This was certainly an unex­pected and great undertaking in this country, and under all its circum­stances. The enterprising publisher has much of the merit of the case, and his name deserves to be recorded, which is Mariano Galvan Ribera.

But there is another party which has also great merit in this work, namely, the priests of Mexico, by whom the translation was made: there were about eight of them engaged in it. This whole work is taken from the French of Vence, of which it is a translation. If you have not this French work of Vence in your library, it would be well to have it, and I hope some one of your Committee, or many friends, will present you with a copy of it.

Of this new Spanish version of the Scriptures, I have read through the Gospel  by St. Matthew, and consider it a greatly improved version, and much superior to Scio or Torres Amat. The text is in many parts interlarded with expositions, but they are printed so as to be quite distinct from the text, which is rendered with about the same freedom as our authorized version. The style of the Spanish in this work is modern, easy, and dignified, and more acceptable to general readers than the two versions above named.

One thing particularly distinguishes this translation over the other two, namely, that though it is, in one sense, formally a translation of the Vul­gate, yet there is a constant reference in it to the originals in Hebrew and Greek, and all the variations of these from the Vulgate are noticed, and also frequently adopted.

Among the many valuable dissertations contained in this work, amount­ing in all to upwards of 300, there are two on the Vulgate. In these its inferiority to the originals is distinctly set forth. The object of the Council of Trent, it is stated, was to declare its authenticity among Latin versions on the one hand, and as containing nothing contrary to the faith and sound morals on the other, and not to say that it was free from errors, or preferable to the Hebrew and Greek, with which it was not compared at all, in the decree on the subject. In these two dissertations, errors in the Vulgate are not only admitted, but shown forth freely.

I have thus dwelt at some length on this subject, because of the pre­sent and prospective bearings it has on the general circulation of the Scrip­tures, both in Mexico and Spanish America generally, and also in Spain itself. Already the Bible stands on vantage ground through it in the eyes of this people, and this same advantage will, I doubt not, increase. This Bible, from its size and price, can of course come into the hands of but a few, whilst a desire will be stirred up in many to possess it, and these will avail themselves of your cheaper book. It was your labours here, unquestionably, that led to the publication of this extensive, interesting, and useful work, and in return the greater circulation of your Bibles will be much increased by it. Had you not sent the Scriptures here, and dis­tributed them so fully, this work would not have appeared, and neither would Torres Amat's version have been so much circulated in this country; and as you have brought in these, so will they increase your circulation, and leave you in possession of the main field; just as with us in England, the Bibles without note or comment vastly surpass, in numbers, those with them; and all work together for the general knowledge of the word of God.

I am making inquiries whether it is possible to get an edition of the New Testament printed here, of this version; I mean, of course, the text only. If this could be done with ecclesiastical sanction, formal or tacit, it would at once authorize, I may say, the general circulation of the Scriptures in the country, without notes, which would be a step gained of very great importance. Such a book, from its better language than the other two, would probably become an acceptable school-book. If the govern­ment here should interest itself in the matter in favour of the schools, it would be of much consequence. Would you authorize me to make arrange­ments for such an edition? And would you give a reduction in price for the schools, should the government be friendly and anxious on the subject, in such a way as you favoured the French government and schools? And further, would you aid in putting this New Testament into the hands of the military of this country, should it be desired, as you aided the Prussians? Be kind enough to let me know your resolves on these points as early as convenient.

            I remain, Yours Truly,

                        James Thomson.

P.S.  Have the goodness to let me know what Books in Spanish American Indian languages I put in the Library in 1825, or what others beside you may have in it of these tongues, and otherwise obtained.

Also please say how many copies of the New Testament altogether were bought from your stock by the French Minister of Public Instruction, at what dates, and at what price. Likewise how many Bibles and Testaments were distributed among the Prussian soldiers, when, and how much of the cost you bore. I recollect something of these matters, but wish to have these exact before me, and official.

Address your letters for me: "Messrs Dickson, Gordon & Co., Mexico" - and put in the left hand corner, - "For the Rev. &c"

[1] Note--yellow fever. (BM)