Mexico City, 8th January 1830

Rev A Brandram No.40

Mexico 8th January 1830

My Dear Friend,

I did not write to you by last packet, because it came immediately after the preceding one, and because I had little or nothing to say respecting the progress of our affairs in this place. This package has come late, and we are now every day looking for its successor bringing the Nov. mail from England.

In one of my late letters I ventured to predict that we should ere long in all probability have commotions and troublesome times in this country. It has so taken place. I forbear entering into any account of these as a public papers will give you sufficient notice of them. At this moment the general state of the country is exceedingly unsettled and disjointed, but in this quarter of the world we sometimes make up these matters sooner than would naturally be supposed, and I may therefore have the pleasure of informing you soon of tranquility and order being again established among us. Anything like great stability I hardly expect in this country for some years to come, but shall be gratified in being disappointed in regard to this expectation or fear. It is an interesting inquiry for us, who are honoured to be citizens of a country which cannot be moved, how far these commotions promote or hinder the extension of the kingdom to which we belong, and which sooner or later must prevail over all nations. Judging from actual circumstances one would be inclined to say that our present change (should it be fully verified) will be rather against the object of our wishes, but I have learned from some little experience of matters in these new countries not to be a rash in judging from omens and appearances. I cherish the hope (and perhaps it is a pardonable weakness if wrong) that the Lord is about to bestow favours on these lands by extending the knowledge of his name and salvation among them. I feel unwilling to quit a field of which I indulge such hopes, and recollect that the Lord stood by Paul in the night whilst he was in wicked hopeless Corinth and said to him, "I have much people in this city." I trust the Lord has many people in this country from which I now write you, and in others similarly situated. Now if so, what are the means of bringing them to know the Lord? What but the putting into their hands the word of God, and drawing their attention to it in all possible ways. In this work I am engaged, and hope to be so engaged till I die.

In my last I indicated to you my willingness to continue as your agent here, until an opportunity offers for carrying into effect a plan which I have for years indulged, and through which I conceive more extensive benefit could be done to these new countries than by any other that has yet occurred to me. When I see the extensive field to be operated upon and perceive the enemy sowing tares in it, I truly long to set in motion the machine, if I may so call it, to which I referred, the single object of which is the enlightenment and salvation of these new countries together with the well-being of those who so benefit it. The wheel of Providence will bring up I trust ere long something favourable to this plan, that it may be begun and carried more or less into effect. Till then I shall be your distributor in this country, and after that to, for the circulation of the holy Scriptures will ever form a part of the intended Missionary Colony.

In my next I hope to be able to give you a note of the number of copies of the Scriptures sold here during the past year, the number will no doubt be small, but we may consider the past year as representing the dark ages here in regard to the distribution of the Scriptures. I hope I may say, that the night with us is far spent and that the day is at hand. From some circumstances that have occurred, and from the opinion of an experience bookseller I am induced to think that the sale and circulation of the Scriptures may be quickened by lowering the price. Hitherto I have sold the books in general at a price about equal to the original cost and the expenses in bringing them here. I now feel inclined to change my mode of sale, and to lower the price from the circumstances above noticed. I hope I shall have your full approbation in doing this, as I know your object to be the useful distribution of the Scriptures in whatever way that can be best effected. For carrying your objects more extensively into effect I know you wish in general to have in return for your books somewhere about what they cost you, but that at the same time you wish them circulated if it can be done usefully at lower prices, at any price, or even at no price, so be it that the word of God may come into the hands of all and be read. Such is the understanding I have of your plans and objects, and I therefore consider myself as having the liberty above noticed of lowering the prices of your books and to any extent, if by so doing I can accelerate the useful circulation of the holy volumes which God has commanded us to publish everywhere and as quickly and cheaply as possible. If I am wrong in this, I beg you will set me to rights by your earliest communication.

Through the means above noticed I hope to be able during the present year to bring into circulation a much greater number of copies of the Scriptures than has been circulated during the year now elapsed. Further, as another means of promoting the same object, I think the time is now come for making a trial of the new version of the Scriptures in the Spanish language. The version I allude to is that of Torres Amat, which you have now had for a considerable time under your notice. You will recollect that in 1826 a special meeting of the Committee was held in Earl Street to consider the propriety of adopting this version. Several leading Spaniards attended this meeting to give their opinion of the translation in question, and all of them if I recollect right pronounced Torres Amat's version to be preferable to that of Scio, the one now published by the Society, notwithstanding in a subject of this kind which is of considerable delicacy the Committee thought it advisable to wait for some time to get further information upon the subject, and until the new version should have it established its credit, and it be found not only generally acceptable but generally preferable to the other. I was requested by the Committee to give my opinion on the subject from time to time as I might see occasion. Agreeably to this, some time after I arrived here, I wrote you saying that so far as this country was concerned you had done well enough adopting the new version as it was not at all known in this place. Since that time some copies have come, and these have now been in use for about a year. I have endeavoured to ascertain the general opinion here regarding this version, and it is decidedly favourable. The best proof of this opinion that I can give you is the circumstance that a very respectable bookseller here, a native of the country, proposes to get printed in the United States an edition of the whole Bible of this version at his own expense and risk. In regard to the supplementary words which are met with too frequently in this version, and which form an obstacle to the Committee in adopting it, I have ascertained that they are not acceptable. The omission of them therefore would not be injurious to the circulation. The hand that sinks them however must not only be a Catholic but Catholic of name. Dr. Villanueva is such a person, and you have in your hands a copy of the New Testament so prepared by this individual, who promised to me at the time he made the elisions to give his name in the title page as having made this alteration in the version. The giving his name in this way I consider an indispensable requisite should the Society print the new version, and the same individual should be the corrector of the press. Taking then all the circumstances together I would respectfully request you to put to press as early as you can an edition of the New Testament by Torres Amat, corrected as above by Villanueva, and having his name in the title page. You may venture I suppose on an edition of three thousand for a trial, one half of which you will please send here as soon as ready. The late Mr. Butterworth printed a small edition of the New Testament of this version with elisions made by Mr. Cheap. I allude to this edition as a good model of size and type. In regard to the paper, I think you might print the half of the edition on coarser paper then you generally give, as this would lessen the cost and would I believe not injure the circulation. Perhaps the whole of the edition might be printed on such paper as I referred to, suppose of the same quality as that on which the American Bible Society's Report (for 1828) is printed. I have shown this paper or this report to a bookseller here, who first gave me the hint of this, and he says it would do very well. Perhaps it is worthy of the attention of the Committee to adopt the printing of all their Bibles on an inferior paper, as this would in effect to be equivalent to a large addition of income to the Society. This subject may be leisurely considered, and in the meantime a trial of its effects may be made with one half of the edition now proposed.

I suppose you have seen through the public papers that things are somewhat tranquilized in Guatemala. The tranquility however I am sorry to say is by no means general. I have conversed with some people here who are connected with that country, and they represent the Eastern parts of the Republic to be still very unsettled and military operations going on in them. The same individuals also assure me that the comparative quietness enjoyed by the present ruling party at the seat of government is not likely to be of long continuance. I hope things will turn out better than are expected. In the meantime I have written to the Governor of the State of Guatemala, with whom I am well acquainted from having met with him at Bogota in 1825.[1] I have requested him to inform me whether the Scriptures will be allowed freely to circulate in that country. If his answer is favourable I shall order the books now lying at Belize to be forwarded to the city of Guatemala to be sold there in the best way that can be adopted. If this sale should be successful it will prepare the way for a visit to that country, and for your sending supplies to it through Belize or otherwise.

You mentioned some time ago in reply to an inquiry I made respecting Bibles that had come here but not to your agent, that you supposed they had come from Philadelphia. I believe you were right, for a fresh supply has come here from the same quarter and under similar circumstances. This way of sending and selling which our friends in the North occasionally practice does not forward but injures the object we all have in view, I think you would do well in putting no more books into their hands so long at least as you have an agent here. I intend to write to our friends there upon the subject.

I have nothing to communicate to you respecting the edicts and you will hardly expect anything from me upon the subject when you learn the distracted state in which the government and the country have been for some time and unfortunately still are.

I should have sent you the five subscriptions to the Society before now, but found some delay in collecting them. I now send you them, and you will be pleased to add a sixth which is from Don Francisco Olaguibel of Puebla.

I trust the Lord prospers your Society, and that on looking back on the year 1829 now closed, you see that your circulation of the sacred volume has been more extensive than in any former year. So may your work increase from year to year until your object is accomplished by the Holy Scriptures being in everyone's hands in his native tongue.

            I am ever Yours,

                        James Thomson.

P.S. Please say to Mr Tarn that I have drawn upon him of this date for sixty five pounds in favour of Mrs. Morrish of Bristol. J. Thomson.

[1] Dr Pedro Molina. He was in Bogota as the Central American representative  to sign the treaty between Colombia and the United Provinces of Central America--5 March 1825. (BM)

Mexico City, 25th March 1830

Rev A Brandram No.42

Mexico 25th March 1830

My Dear Friend

Ever since my writing you by last packet I have been revolving increasingly in my mind whether I should stay in this place or leave it. Under these circumstances, and whilst asking counsel of Him who has promised to direct our way if we acknowledge him in all our goings, it has afforded me no little comfort and encouragement to think that you and my other esteemed friends in the Committee are also addressing the throne of grace that my way may be made clear on to me. Well, the result of my meditations in this matter is, that I stay for some time longer. The business in hand of which I wrote you in my last is not yet decided, nor have I much hope that it will be decided favourably, yet still I intend to do everything I possibly can fairly and legally to bring this matter to a favourable issue.

One of the reasons which induces me to stay longer is this. I am in treaty with a bookseller in this city who has extensive connections in the interior, and am arranging with him for selling the Scriptures on commission in the different parts of the Republic, and as well as in the city. I intend to lower the prices as before mentioned to you, and hope by these arrangements a considerable number of copies of the Scriptures may be brought into circulation, and even in spite of the edicts. It would require some time to carry this plan into full execution, and there will likely be some difficulties to remove which may require me to be on the spot. Should this plan succeed, the circulation of the Scriptures here will be placed on such a footing as probably to make it unnecessary for you to retain an agent in this place. What time may be required for putting things on this permanent footing so as to be managed direct from Earl Street, it is of course difficult to say, and will necessarily depend on the circumstances that may occur, and especially considering the great extent of this country. Perhaps until the end of the current year may be sufficient, but most I think twelve months from this date.

You will observe that however rigidly the edicts already issued may be carried into effect, yet still they have no direct influence beyond the dioceses in which they are published. By the sale of the Scriptures in the quiet regular way of trade as above noticed, there is less likelihood that more edicts will be published than if I were to go from place to place selling the Scriptures as I did on the first journey. On the whole I am not without hopes that at the reduced prices, and in the manner proposed, something worthwhile may be done to spread the holy volume over this land. At all events it is our duty to try every means on every hand for the furtherance of the holy work committed to us. May the Lord direct us in all our arrangements, and may he be pleased to crown our feeble labours with abundant success.

            I remain as always,

                        Very Truly Yours,

                                    James Thomson.

P.S. Be so good as say to Mr. Jackson that I shall write him by next packet in answer to this letter, as I have not had time sufficient since it arrived to make the inquiries he refers to.

Mexico City, 5th June 1830

Rev A Brandram No.43

Mexico 5th June 1830

My Dear Friend

This is the last letter I shall write you from this city, and perhaps from this country. I leave Mexico for Veracruz today, and thence to England. The determination to leave this place was taken on the 11th of last month, and all my luggage was on the road to Veracruz when I received your letter intimating the propriety of retiring, or something to that effect. I had intended writing you more at length respecting the cause of my retirement from this place, but the time I have allotted for that purpose Providence disposed off otherwise laying me under indisposition. If I reach Veracruz in time for the packet I shall write you again. Mr. William Jones will call upon Mr. Tarn soon after the arrival of this letter and will give him two hundred pounds sterling, which you will be so good as place to account of Bibles and Testaments sold in this place. In great haste I remain

            My Dear Friend,

                        Very Truly Yours,

                        James Thomson.

Jalapa, 11th June 1830

Rev A Brandram  No.44

Jalapa, June 11th 1830

My Dear Friend,

 In the few lines I wrote you from Mexico, on the 5th instant, on the morning of my leaving that city, I promised to write you again by the same packet, should I arrive in Vera Cruz in time for that purpose. I now find that I shall not arrive there before the mail from Mexico reaches the coast; but being anxious that you should know, as early as possible, the immediate cause of my leaving this country, I write you from this city, and forward my letter by the express, which carries down the English mail to Vera Cruz.

In my last letter, I mentioned, that after very mature deliberation, in regard to whether I should stay in this country or leave it, I had resolved to stay for a while longer, that I might make a last endeavour to get the Holy Scriptures circulated here, and that I might make such ar­rangements, that their sale and distribution might go on to as great an extent as possible, under existing difficulties, after I should leave the country.

I have now resolved, as you see, on the contrary side, in regard to my staying; and the cause of it is this. In using my endeavours to get the eight cases out of the Custom House, which I mentioned to you as being detained there, I found I could not succeed; but, on the contrary, on applying to the judge appointed for such cases, he ordered that the books should be remitted to the coast, and sent out of the country. My recourse, in this case, was an appeal to another court; and I made arrangements for this. I then endeavoured to collect what I might expect in my favour by this appeal; and I was enabled to do this the better, as I was personally acquainted with the judge to whom I had appealed. I was given to understand, that the utmost I could expect in this case was, that the sentence might be altered to the sending the books out of the limits of the diocese where the edict had been issued, instead of their being sent out of the country altogether. It thus turns out, that the ecclesiastical authorities in the diocese of Mexico have, at length, completely succeeded in the object proposed by their edict. In the dioceses of Oajaca and Guadalajara there have been edicts issued of  a similar nature, as you are already informed. This success, therefore,  gained by the Dean and Chapter in Mexico, and, no doubt, be communicated to the rulers of the two dioceses now mentioned; and if the judges in these quarters be equally illiberal with those in Mexico, our books will be stopped in the custom-house, and condemned to be sent out of those dioceses in like manner. Nor is this all, for other dioceses will be informed of these matters, and will be stirred up to issue edicts after the example given; and in this manner would the books of the Society be excluded from this country altogether.

From the com­bination of circumstances now mentioned, I have thought that my retiring from this country would be the most effectual means of pre­venting the farther, or, perhaps, entire prohibition of your books. I, therefore, retire; and when it is known that I have left the country, it is likely that less zeal will be manifested in the prohibition of the books, from a belief that they will cease to be introduced into the country and circulated in it, when the Agent of the Society is no longer here to foment, as they would say, the evil.

Nevertheless, I have carried into effect the arrangements mentioned in my last letter, as far as the time I have had has permitted. The Bookseller I referred to has been intrusted with the sale of the Scriptures throughout this country. The prices of the books have been lowered, and I hope we shall learn something gratifying respecting their sale from half year to half year, that being the term agreed upon for periodical settlements. I have had a good deal of intercourse with this bookseller, and have much confidence in his uprightness and activity. Further, I have recommended the concerns of the Society generally to the care of our friend, Dr. Mora, who is very desirous of having the Scriptures circulated in his native country; and I think he will use every means in his power for this end. I have requested him to correspond with the Society, and to inform you of all that goes on here. He is also intrusted with the carrying into effect a translation of one of the Gospels into the Mexican and Tarasco lan­guages, which are at present in progress through his means, in conformity to the instructions I received from you upon the subject.

I have now been three years in this country; and, in reviewing all that has passed, I am not aware that any thing has been left undone that could have been done in the Society's concerns; and, on the other hand, I am not aware that I have prolonged my stay in this country beyond what should have been done by your Agent, in furtherance of your work. Had I left the country at any earlier period, I should not have been satisfied that all had been done that could have been done. I am now satisfied upon this point, and I retire under a full conviction that such is my duty as your Agent.

Many hindrances have been met with in circulating the Scriptures in this country. We should not, however, regret the efforts that have been made in this matter; but should rather rejoice that so much has been done. Some thousands of copies of the word of God have been circulated here, and over a very considerable proportion of the territory composing this nation. Now the word of God will not return unto him void, but will accomplish his will; and the people of this country will certainly be more or less illuminated by the rays from heaven, which have thus fallen upon them. Those who have got the word of God in their hands will necessarily enlighten those around them, as well as seek more light for themselves. The word of God, therefore, will be more and more sought for, and your volumes will, in spite of all opposition, circulate in this land, and will prove a blessing to its inhabitants in this present world, and in the world to come. Let us not, therefore, regret what has passed here, on account of the hindrances met with, but let us rejoice that we have been permitted to sow in this land some grains of the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever. At some future day will come the reaper, probably when the sowers are laid in the dust, and his arms shall be filled with sheaves and his heart with joy, as the result of your labours in this land.

I conclude my epistolary correspondence from this country by notifying to you a circumstance which I think will be agreeable to you all. A few individuals in the city of Mexico have, for some time past, regularly assembled on the first Monday of every month, to make supplications at the throne of grace, on behalf of all nations, that the light of the Gospel might shine upon them; and more especially, that the Lord would have mercy on this country, and make his name glorious in it. At these meetings, some mites were dropped, from month to month, into a box prepared for this purpose. On opening this box, a few days ago, it was found to contain fifty-five dollars; and this sum I am requested to present to the British and Foreign Bible Society, under the denomination of "The first emptying of the first Missionary Box in Mexico." You will please therefore place this sum to my private account.  Its amount at the present rate of exchange being  Ten pounds, five shillings and one farthing.--I add on the same head B.B.s subscription of one guinea, and Mr. John Stanley's of £1:17:3½ have been paid me within these few days, for the current year, and these sums you will please also to place to my account.

I know, My Dear Friend, that yourself, the Committee of the Society, and its Members generally, feel much interest in the spiritual welfare of this country. Let us all, therefore, join in unison with the little band of supplicators above mentioned, in praying that the will of God may be done here, as it is done in heaven.

I remain, My Dear Friend,

            Very Truly Yours,

                        James Thomson.

Veracruz, 30th June 1830

Rev. A. Brandram No. 45

Veracruz 18th of June 1830

My Dear Friend

On my arrival here on the 13th instant I learned that the packet sailed on the forenoon of the same day, and was happy to learn that my letter to you from Jalapa had been duly received and forwarded. I could have reached this city in time to sail by the packet by hurrying down from Jalapa, but it was not my intention to go by it on account of the great expense, the passage from Veracruz to Falmouth being nothing less than one hundred pounds sterling. I can go home cheaper by the United States. By that way therefore I intend to go, and this indeed is now become the most common way of passing from this country to England.

No vessel has left this port for that quarter since I arrived here, but one sails tomorrow for New Orleans. By information I have gained from those who are well acquainted with the inland and sea passages or routes to New York from this, I learned that the expense and time required in the two ways is very nearly the same, with a slight difference perhaps in favour of the river course. This being the case, I leave this for New Orleans tomorrow in the vessel referred to, and from New Orleans I shall proceed up the river Mississippi and Ohio, and the thence onward to New York, where it is I intend to embark for England.

I have never been in the United States, and there are so many attractions there of Christian friends and Christian objects that I intend to trespass on your goodness by spending a month there more than the time absolutely necessary for passing through that country as a route for England. I beg the forgiveness and indulgence of the Committee for so doing, and shall gladly make all necessary deductions from my salary from the time I take up in this private way.

I send you the account current of your agency in this country, which I had not time to make up and copy before leaving the city of Mexico, but which a few days leisure I have enjoyed here have enabled me to attend to. You will find that your sales are as follows, since the making up of the last account about a year ago: namely, 206 Bibles; 654 New Testaments; 252 Four Books; and 175 Luke and Acts, in all 1287 volumes. To which may be safely added 313 volumes more for what has been sold in Oajaca, Puebla and Zacatecas, but which accounts it has been impossible for me to close before leaving. The total number of volumes there therefore which have been circulated during the past year is sixteen hundred, and all of these have been sold except 30 copies of Luke and Acts given for distribution in one of the prisons in the city of Mexico, where they were most gladly received.

I have sent you, as noticed in a former letter, £200 pounds through Mr. William Jones, Paternoster Row, and the balance remaining in your favour will be settled on my arrival in London.

            I remain, My Dear Friend,

                        Very Truly Yours,

                                    James Thomson.

P.S. I have drawn today on Mr. Thornton for £50 in favour of our R.P.Staples & Co. which bill I beg may be duly honoured and the amount placed to my private account.

1830 - 1831: New York, Canada, England

1830

New York/Canada 31 August 1830

New York       23 September 1830    

London           6 December 1830       

1831

London           14 January 1831

London           23 March 1831           

Linfield           16 May 1831  

Linfield           15 June 1831  

Linfield           18 June 1831

London           4 July 1831     

Linfield           17 August 1831         

Linfield           29 August 1831         

Linfield           31 August 1831         

Aboard Ship    29 October 1831

Off Ryde        11 November 1831

New York / Canada, 31st August 1830

Rev A Brandram No. 46

New York, 31st August 1830

My Dear Friend

My last letter to you was written in Veracruz on the 18th June. I then informed you of my intention of passing through the United States on my way to England. I accordingly embarked for New Orleans accompanied by Mrs. Thomson on the 19th and in eleven days we reached that place. From that city we ascended to Louisville by the Mississippi and Ohio in other eleven days. Here we stopped one day and a half. Though our stay was short we had still a little time for conversing with the friends of the Bible cause, and were much gratified to find a warm and lively zeal manifested in this our great and common concern. One day's sail more on the Ohio brought us to Cincinnati, the largest city in all the Western Valley, New Orleans excepted. Here our stay was prolonged to six days. We had thus a fuller opportunity of seeing with our own eyes and hearing with our own ears what things God is doing in his kingdom in that new and extensive region.

Depositaries we found there for Bibles, the grand source of all, for religious tracts, for Sunday school books, etc. Population is increasing so rapidly in this quarter as to excite a lively feeling in the Christian as to the quantum of religious instruction administered to them. No little anxiety has been manifested by the Atlantic Christians of America on behalf of their countrymen in the West, and it is pleasing to see that their labours have not been in vain. Through these efforts the Bible finds its way to the new log house in every direction. The Bible is followed by religious tracts, and by the occasional visits of the missionary, and thus in due time the praises of God begin to be heard in the dense forest where nothing used to be heard but the unvaried chop, chop of the backwoodsman's axe. After all, there is much to be done here, and our friends are aware of it. Population increase increases so fast around them as to make it difficult to keep pace with its increase in doing them good. But the prayers offered up for this new ground will be heard, and the labours of the disciples of Christ will be blessed on behalf of their brethren after the flesh around them. We may therefore expect, that as the fruitless forest tree is falling down in every direction in that quarter it is giving place to ears of corn for the life of man, so this new population will be led to bring forth fruit unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I need hardly say that the parent of the Bible Societies is well-known and feelingly remembered in all this vast region.

From Cincinnati I went to Wheeling still sailing on the beautiful and useful Ohio. From that we crossed over by land to Ashtabula on Lake Erie, where we found the steamboat which took us to Buffalo at the eastern point of the lake. From this place it was my intention to proceed by the grand Erie  Canal to Albany and thence down the Hudson River to New York. But on arriving in this quarter I learned that there was a steamboat running across Lake Ontario from Niagara to York, the capital of Upper Canada, and that I could pass to the latter place in a short time and at little expense. Recollecting therefore the interest you feel for your auxiliaries in that quarter I resolved to pass over to York to salute our brethren there in your name and to inquire how they were doing in the great cause to which they had lent their hands. I therefore crossed the lake and came to

                                                York, Upper Canada.

Here I soon found myself among friends and brethren although I came to them personally unknown and unintroduced by a single letter. But the cause in which I had been engaged in the Southern portion of this New World was known to them and obtained for me a cordial welcome. My ease among them too was increased by recognizing a personal acquaintance which I had had some 12 years ago in Edinburgh with one of the Secretaries of your York Auxiliary. This of course made me quite at home.

The results of my inquiries regarding the state of the Bible Society have been I am happy to say very satisfactory. The old Society here had become extinct about a year and a half before the present existing and active Society was founded. The whole may therefore be considered as new. On Monday, 3rd November 1828 a public meeting was held, not for the reorganization of the old Society, but for the purpose of forming a new one. At this meeting the Society was incorporated, all its officers were nominated, and its rules formed and agreed to. His Excellency Sir John Colborne, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, became Patron of the Society, and the Hon. Mr. Dunn the President. Measures were immediately taken to procure subscribers and everything went on favourably. On Friday, 9th February of the present year the first annual meeting of the Society was held which was well attended and particularly interesting. Some copies of the report of this first year's operations have been put into my hands to be presented to you on my arrival in London. I had a good deal of conversation with the President and was happy to find him warmly alive to the prosperity of the Society in all its parts. I was introduced by Mr. Dunn to his Excellency the Governor whom I found very desirous of promoting the above cause and anxious for the religious instruction of the new population beginning to cover that province, and also of the indigenous population, so long and shamefully neglected. Sir John gave me two copies of the first seven chapters of the Gospel by Matthew in the Chippewa tongue, translated by a native missionary and printed at the Government expense.

But what chiefly gave me pleasure in my visit to York and my intercourse with this branch Bible Society was the desire manifested for forming associations in connexion with it all over the country, and the corresponding desire on the part of the people in the towns and hamlets in the interior to form themselves into such associations. Again and again have the secretaries and other officers of the Society been importuned to go out some miles into the country to assist in organizing such associations. At the time I was there arrangements had been made for going up the place about ten miles off for the installation of one of these institutions, and I was earnestly begged to delay my journey for two or three days to go out on the occasion referred to. Anxious as I was to move onward I thought it my duty to yield to these entreaties. On the day appointed we went out, the meeting was held accordingly and an association was regularly installed in all its parts. The time at which this meeting was held was as you will perceive in the very middle of harvest home occupations. It was pleasing to see the people leave their fields and hurry to the place appointed for the formation of the Society, and it was still more pleasing to see their lively and expressed interest in the object which brought them together. On concluding what I had to say about the cause of the Bible Society generally, I added that I hoped the operations of the day would be blessed to us all, and that we would be led to read the word of God individually for ourselves and to practice what it recommends that it might be well with us here and well with us hereafter. At these latter words, with a tone indicating a deep interest, one and all uttered, "Amen."

We returned in the evening through the dense forest from this meeting which had been so interesting to us all, and we rejoice at the prospect of this wilderness be coming in due time something like the garden of God. Truly the word of God is capable of forming such a transformation, and that word alone. The enlightening Spirit we may surely expect in all cases more or less sooner or later to accompany the circulation of the written word. Such is my own hope and confidence, after been engaged for twelve years in circulating the Holy Scriptures in a land of thick darkness and where in addition to other discouragements I have been disheartened by seeing little or no fruit follow. But I rest in full confidence that fruit will most certainly be produced, though I at a period later perhaps than to solace my own eyes with the sight. But the sower and the reaper shall rejoice together, and all in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before I leave York I cannot help noticing a letter contained in the appendix to the report purporting to be from a "penitent" and addressed to the Governor. I give you an extract from this letter. "In addressing your Excellency I cannot assume the title "dutiful subject" because within two or three years past I have detained duties upon goods to the amount as near as I can reckon of 50 or 55 dollars, and thus have transgressed. I now hand over to your Excellency 60 dollars, for in the word of God I read I have done wrong, that as in the 13th chapter of Romans. In Titus also 3rd chapter and 1st verse, and in 1st Peter 2nd chapter 13th and 14th verses, &c. Wherefore  I repent and restore what I have detained, beseeching the forgiveness of Almighty God through Jesus Christ his Son, only through whom is remission of sin. I would now take it upon me very submissively to request that as the word of God is so minutely the source of all real good among men in making them good subjects and lovers of God, your Excellency would transmit the amount I send you to the Bible Society, to which I am informed your Excellency is patron."

When I crossed over Lake Ontario to York it was my intention to return from New York to Niagara, and to pursue my formerly intended course by the Erie Canal to Albany. But conceiving that a good servant in the absence of instructions from his master in any particular case in which he is called to act, tries to ascertain what he thinks his master would have him do under these circumstances, and acts according to what his judgment dictates to him in the case. So I, the servant of the Bible Society thought, after reasoning in this way, that if you knew I were in the quarter in which I then was, you would wish me to visit some others of your auxiliaries there, and attend to any other concern of the Society to which I might be called. This was the judgment I came to after maturely considering the subject. Instead therefore of returning to Niagara I sailed eastward on Lake Ontario from York and, on my way to Kingston, came to Cobourg. From this place I went northward to

                                    the Indian village on the north of the Rice Lake.

The distance of this village from Cobourg is 12 miles by land, and 3 in crossing the lake. This is a spot of particular interest. Here are gathered into a town and civil life, and what is infinitely more important, into the fold of Christ, about 200 of the aboriginals of Upper Canada. Only three years ago these now happy and exemplary Christians were wallowing in all kinds of ungodliness but the labours of the Wesleyan missionaries were blessed unto them; and they were turned from darkness into light, and now live in such a manner as to put to shame many of more knowledge and long-standing in the knowledge of the Gospel. I conversed with the missionary resident on this spot, and with others who had been to visit the place at different times, and the result of my inquiries was very satisfactory, as to their adherence to Christ as their only Saviour, and as to their obedience to him as their only Lord and Master. I saw one of these people lie on her deathbed, or what would soon be to her such, and I could not help thinking to how much higher a place perhaps in heaven she was about to be raised than we alas! too formal, too little affected Christians, in the midst of our so-called improvements and extended knowledge. But, who could envy her such a place? And who would not be stirred up by the sight and the thought to strive to mount up to higher regions above through our Lord Jesus Christ?

As an agent of the Bible Society my desire was to see what prospects were among this people for the word of God being usefully employed by them were it translated into that language. From what I have said above you will see what was my impression upon the subject. It seems indeed very desirable to get the word of God prepared for this people, as there is a cheering hope that it would prove a great blessing to them. It would prove a like blessing to two or three other establishments similar to the one now mentioned, and it would also prove greatly useful in the converting of other Indians speaking the same language, by whom they are occasionally visited, and whom they occasionally visit to preach Christ unto them. For these reasons I urged upon the missionary in this spot the desirableness of getting the whole New Testament translated into that language as soon as possible and I ventured to add that the B. and F. Bible Society would gladly assist them in this good work, and that I would recommend the subject to your attention. The language spoken by these Indians is the Chippewa, that into which is translated the first seven chapters of Matthew which I mentioned to you above, two copies of which I received from Sir John Colborne.

These Indians live in houses built for them, and on land bought and cleared for them by the New England Society. These houses and lands were not the inducement which led to their conversion but were given them afterwards by hands who had no concern in their conversion. This is the only instance that has come under my own notice of the literal fulfillment of what our Lord says in the 10th chapter of Mark, 29th and 30th verses, I mean so far as houses and lands are concerned. After leaving this interesting village on the Rice Lake I returned to Cobourg, and from thence went on partly by land and partly by water to

Kingston.

I found in Kingston that the Society there was really a reanimation of the former Society, and not a new one as in York. Here at the place before noticed the Committee was called together that I might have some conversation with them, they seem to be going on well in their work, and have a considerable demand for copies of the Scriptures to supply the wants around them. The supply you had sent them had just arrived and afforded much gratification. Some associations have been formed in connexion with this auxiliary, and one or two of them are very promising. But I thought I did not perceive the same lively spirit for the formation of these useful institutions as at York, and I intend to state to our friends in Kingston what I had seen at the former place, and to recommend the same course to themselves. I recommend also that parcelling out of the whole of Upper Canada between these two auxiliaries in regard the forming of Bible associations throughout the province. At this meeting of the Committee the sum of £50 was voted for the B. and F. Bible Society.

In this place, as in the whole of Upper Canada, the population is increasing so fast by emigration from the Old Country as they call it, that much anxiety is naturally stirred up for the spiritual welfare of the newcomers. Our friends in Kingston seemed to be alive to these anxieties and desirous of benefiting their new countrymen. I urged the formation of Bible associations among them as the most effectual means of doing them immediate good, and of leading them early to see the necessity of providing spiritual instruction for themselves and to exert themselves to that effect. I am sorry to say that there is a great destitution of religious instruction among this new population, and it forms in truth a missionary field of and no little interest and extent, and having strong and direct claims for help on the benevolence of the disciples of Christ in the British Isles, which these people have left not for the kingdom of heaven's sake, but avowedly to better their worldly circumstances. I hope they will be so bettered, and think they will, but we should try to put them in possession of more substantial riches. From your stores, and through the efforts of your auxiliaries in these quarters I hope they will be supplied with the Holy Scriptures, and that they will be guided to that blessed salvation which they contain, and offered to all. From Kingston I went to Prescot on my way to Montreal. I stopped at Prescot but a few minutes, but having a letter to a person there, I seized the opportunity of recommending to him to use his endeavours to form a Bible Society in that place which contains a considerable population. On the evening of the day after leaving Prescott I came to

Montreal.

The Bible Society here published about a year ago their ninth annual report, which I believe has come into your hands. Their 10th anniversary was advertised for 1st September. I was urged to wait till that day, but did not think it right to stay so long. I conversed with several members of the Committee and gave on the Sunday evening an account of the Bible cause in the South, after which a meeting of the Committee was held. At this meeting I recommended as I had before done the formation of associations throughout the contiguous country. Several associations, I was happy to find had already been formed. And I was particularly gratified to find that one of their associations had some time previous compromised itself to supply every family within its own district with the Bible during the ensuing year, and learned that it had redeemed its pledge in the given time; and further that it was about to take charge of a second district in the same manner. This plan of acting, begun in the United States, I was glad to find had extended to Canada, and it is truly a pleasing feature of Bible Societies.

The issues from the depository of the Society have been considerable. During the past year there have been circulated 1230 Bibles in English, and 2542 New Testaments in the same language, besides a few copies in French and Gaelic, the whole number of Bibles and Testaments issued being 3923. This is an encouraging distribution, and I understand that many calls for supplies principally of school Bibles and Testaments are expected during the present years. I believe too the friends of the cause suggested to me their fears of not being able to meet these demands as they could wish. I of course urged them to increased exertion that they might be able to meet all demands that might be made upon them, and intimated that the parent Society would not stand by coolly and see them worsted in this case, but still that exertion on their part was naturally to be expected. My communications with our friends at Montreal as related above were not continuous as I have given them but were interrupted by a visit I made to

Quebec.

The Society in this place has had various vicissitudes, but the state into which it is now come will I hope prove the best. I had a very pleasing meeting with the Committee, and entered into the general and particular concerns of our common object as I had done on the other occasions already referred to. I urged as usual the forming of associations in the various districts of the country, and recommended the division of Lower Canada between the Quebec and Montreal Societies, in regard to associations, as I had formerly recommended the repartition of Upper Canada between the Societies of York and Kingston. I mentioned to the Committee the noble example of Stanstead, one of the Montreal Society auxiliaries in undertaking the supplying all their district in a given time, and of their redeeming their engagement. Before our meeting closed the agreeable notice was communicated that one of their associations had just entered this noble career, which proved a piece of most agreeable news to us all.

Schools are rapidly forming in Lower Canada through the judicious encouragement of the government. 500 I believe were more have sprung up in about a year, and 100 more at expected to follow in succession. Bibles and Testaments will be greatly wanted for the schools, and hence heavy demands will be made on your auxiliaries in Quebec and Montreal, and I would suggest the propriety of your meeting these demands by placing more than common supplies of this class of Bibles and Testaments within their reach. These two Societies may not perhaps be able to anticipate payment for what they need, nor may they be able to pay you on the delivery of the books, but it were a pity notwithstanding that members should return from the depository unsupplied and with heavy hearts, having no other place to look to. Such discouragements are feared, and I am sure you will readily interpose to prevent them. What I have said of Quebec and Montreal, applies also to Upper Canada of which your two auxiliaries are York and Kingston.

Having fulfilled my object in visiting these Societies I returned to Montreal, from which place I could travel more easily to the South than from Quebec. I hope my conduct in visiting the Societies in Upper and Lower Canada will be approved by the Society. I have already mentioned my reasons for acting as I did, and shall be glad to learn that the Committee sees the subject in the light in which their agent viewed it. I trust the time spent in this work has not been lost, and that the visits made will be conducive to the general prosperity of these Societies and to that country. Little stirrings up from time to time prove often very beneficial to us, both as individual disciples of Christ, and as bodies combined together to advance the kingdom of our Lord. May the blessing of God follow these visits, and may his Holy Spirit be poured out on our fellow labourers in that quarter, that they may prove a great blessing throughout all that new and extensive country in which they are placed, and may their light so shine as to lead many to glorify our Father in heaven to whom in all things be the glory.

I left Montreal on the morning of the 25th current and arrived safely in this city on the night of the 28th. I have now accomplished a journey through the United States and Canada of about 3000 miles. Mrs. Thomson and myself have enjoyed uninterrupted good health, and have been preserved from every accident, during our long journey. We are now taking a rest in this city, and are contemplating the great and tender mercies of our God to us in this journey, and also in all our ups and downs, of prosperities and difficulties in Mexico. I trust we feel grateful to the Father of mercies and God of our salvation in reviewing all these things; and singly and unitedly we lift up our voices and our hearts in sweet acknowledgment of his gracious protection, guidance, and blessings. And O that the rest of our lives, influenced by these things, may be what it ought, pure and holy.

I have a wish as expressed to you before from Veracruz to visit a few of the large cities in this quarter of the United States. I expect to accomplish this little tour during the ensuing months, and to be ready to embark for London on the 1st October.

Ever counting on your prayers, and ever praying for you, I remain Very Sincerely Yours,

James Thomson.

New York, 23rd September 1830

Rev A. Brandram. Private.

New York,  23rd Sep 1830

My Dear Friend

I wrote you at some length on the 31st ultimo giving you an account of my travels since leaving Mexico. I then mentioned that I intended to sail on 1st October, but since that I have altered my mind a little and have deferred my sailing till the 16th. The Sovereign,  Capt. Champlin will sail on that day, and in this vessel we intend to go. Capt. Champlin is a religious man and to persons engaged in any missionary enterprise he reduces the passage money 40 dollars. This then will be so far an advantage to the Society, and to myself as an individual (there being as you know two of us) the saving of an equal sum is a strong inducement as we are sufficiently poor.  This will lengthen my stay a fortnight, but this will occasion no inconvenience in my pecuniary arrangements with the Committee, as I consider the time occupied by this furlough in the United States as not to be charged to the Society.

Your letter of 18th May came into my hands six days ago, having been sent to me from Mexico. I am a good deal relieved by it, from an anxiety which your private communication preceding it gave me. I have touched upon the cause of that anxiety in my private letter to you from Veracruz and need not now return to it. I hope when we meet we shall most fully understand each other upon that subject.

I enclose you a Bill for £120 which I have received from Mexico, and beg you to put it into Mr. Tarn's hands to go through the regular course and be placed to my private account. I shall draw upon my private account about the time of my sailing for £100 or thereby. Please notify this to Mr. Tarn that this notice may serve for a letter of advice in the matter. The bill will be drawn in favour of  Maitland & Kennedy of this place.

Mr. Henderson and family have just arrived here from Bogotá. I have seen Mrs. Henderson (Mr. H. having gone to Washington) and on inquiry about Mr. Matthews she says he left Bogota for the coast, was heard of last at Honda but never at Carthagena. He is understood to have purchased a canoe in Honda to come down the river with, and it is supposed the men he hired to row him down made away with him to obtain the canoe. This I have no doubt is the real state of this unfortunate matter, and our brother and fellow labourer must have perished by the hands of these wicked men. Alas! How little are the salutary influences of the word of God known in that country! But this forms an additional motive for your doing everything you can to put the holy book into their hands, and into the hands of those whose similarly circumstanced.

I remain My Dear Friend

Very Truly Yours

James Thomson.

London, 6th December 1830 (Mexico report)

To the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society

London 6th December 1830

Gentlemen

In appearing before you on my return from Mexico, at present you with a report of my agency in that country in conformity with a wish that has been signified to me on your part.

My repeated and full correspondence from that country addressed to Mr. Brandram will have informed you of the whole of my transactions there. The present report therefore will merely contain a summary view of these transactions by way of refreshing your minds with them.

In January 1827 and received a commission from you to go to Mexico to promote there, as far as circumstances would permit, the circulation of that precious volume which forms the single object of the labours of the Society. In the following month I embarked at Falmouth in the English packet for Veracruz, and after a voyage of the nine weeks arrived safely in that place. After a few days stay on the coast I went to the city of Mexico that I arrived on 17th  May.

On my arrival there I found some hundreds of copies of the Scriptures lying unsold, on account of their not having the apocryphal books. I was so happy as to get over this serious difficulty and to get the whole of the copies on hand into circulation in a short period of time, and by sale. The liberal supply voted me by the Society on my leaving London arrived soon after those above-mentioned had been disposed of. Twenty four mules, as I stated to you, presenting a truly novel and interesting spectacle. The arrival of this supply enabled me to continue the sale of the Scriptures in the capital, and also to take a journey into the interior of the country. I set out for the parts of Mexico lying to the Northwest, and visited the large towns in that direction. My plan of posting up printed advertisements, adopted first in Guayaquil, I here pursued, and with very favourable results. The whole of this journey was exceedingly gratifying. The Scriptures were bought eagerly by old and young, rich and poor, by the priest and the people. The rich and populous mining districts in which I passed were by this visit supplied with a treasure far beyond what their mines produced, and it is truly gratifying to see the people there recognize, at least for a time, the superiority of the treasure I presented and, over what they so industriously were digging out of the earth. This preference was manifested by the giving me in one place (not to mention others) about seventy pounds weight of the precious metal they had dug up, in exchange for the copies of the holy volumes which I put into their hands. At a great fair, you will recollect, where many thousands were assembled from hundreds of miles distant to worship at the shrine of the Virgin Mary, your agent was allowed to hoist his white flag, the signal of Peace, and had the opportunity of putting into the hands of many that volume which speaks peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, through the one mediator Jesus Christ. These volumes, on the dispersing of the worshippers and traffickers who had flocked to that place, were carried to their homes far and wide, and thus obtained and extensiveness of circulation which from no other spot they could have had. Having finished my tour and expended the treasures I had carried with me I returned home, that is, to the city of Mexico. Previous to setting out on the journey now mentioned, I had, in anticipation of an extensive sale, written to you to send me a fresh supply of 1000 Bibles and 1000 New Testaments. These arrived soon after my return to the capital. As the season for traveling was far advanced, I set out without delay on a second journey through the Eastern parts of that country, and taking with me the 2000 copies of the Scriptures above noticed. This journey also was favourable, though from various circumstances not so animating as the preceding one had been. The these 2000 copies were however, partly then and partly afterwards, put into circulation by sale.

Having accomplished my object on this second journey, I returned again to the capital. Some time after my return, a storm that had been gathering for several months preceding now burst forth. The storm to which I refer was a formal and violent opposition, in the form of an edict, to the buying, selling, reading, and retaining of the Bibles published by your Society. The edict now referred to, issued by the Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitan diocese of Mexico greatly damped the circulation of the Scriptures. This edict was followed soon after by one issued in the diocese of Oajaca and another in the diocese of Guadalajara. These prohibitions not only affected the sales of the Scriptures in the individual diocese in which they were published, and in which only they had legal effects, but that influence extended also over the greater part of the country.

The edicts thus issued were considered illegal by persons who were natives of the country and conversant with its laws. By these I was advised to make an appeal against them to the civil authorities, and this accordingly I did. Delay seems to be the rule and the practice in that country, and this I fully experienced in the case in question.  Still, notwithstanding the troubles of delay, I was encouraged to hope for success in my petition. Once and again, and if I recollect well a third time, I was promised definitely, and was on the eve of receiving an answer of the redress, when just at these very conjunctures a change took place in the government or in the Ministry, and all my hopes were blasted, and I had my suit to recommence before a new judge. Thus did things go on from month to month and through revolution after revolution, and till a certain party gained the ascendancy, which to strengthen itself in power sided with the clergy in their edicts and sustained them.

In consequence of this our books were detained in the Custom house. This was a great triumph to the ecclesiastical party which had exerted himself to stop the circulation of your books. I foresaw that in the success of our opponents in the city and diocese of Mexico there was a fair way open to them of effectually excluding the Scriptures as published by the Society from that country in all its extent. They had only to advise the Dean and Chapter of each diocese of the success they had gained in the capital and desire them to follow that example, which in all cases I believe they were most willing to do. Under these circumstances the best thing I thought I could do to favour the circulation of the Scriptures or rather to hinder their entire exclusion from that populous country, was to retire forthwith from the scene of contest, in the expectation that our opponents would consider their triumph complete in the retreat of the fermenter of the evil they deprecated, and thus push their endeavours no further. I therefore made ready with all haste to leave the country, and left it accordingly in the month of June last.

In my way to England I took the route of the United States. Here I had the pleasure of seeing the praiseworthy exertions of our transatlantic fellow labourers, in putting the sacred volume into every house and family throughout the extensive country. Their plan with some modifications of supplying every family with the Record of Divine Revelation in a given district within a given time, is truly worthy of our imitation, and I trust ere long the Spirit of God will move some of your auxiliaries to commence this excellent work among us, and the flame I trust will spread from place to place until you yourself take up the subject, as the National Society of America has done, and shall bind yourselves and fulfill your engagement in supplying every cottage in our land with the blessed word of God. I beg leave earnestly to recommend the subject to the attention of your Secretaries and your domestic agents that they may point out and dwell upon the subject, as they make their rounds through our island. I recommend it also to you all the subject of prayer; and I leave in the full expectation of seeing this plan begun very soon among us, and I hope also to see the completion of this truly Christian and patriotic work.

Being on the northern borders of the United States, I thought I could not do less than visit your auxiliary in York, the capital of Upper Canada. I did so, and being much gratified by the interview I had with your friends there I thought it my duty to visit some others of your Societies in that quarter. I went accordingly to Kingston, Montreal, and Quebec for that purpose. I was glad that my steps had been directed to that country that I might see its state and recommend its wants to your attention. I have already done so in my letter to you from New York, and I here repeat what I was frequently desired to say to you, and to repeat to you as often as might be necessary, that you would be so kind as not to leave those parts at any time without ample supplies of the Scriptures, for the use of their schools, their population in general, and in a particular manner for their new settlers who like flocks of birds arrive every year perching down in the wild forests around. You will, I doubt not, lend and attention and attentive ear to their earnest applications.

I shall now refer you back again to Spanish America, that we may take a short view of it, in  respect to what has been done in it generally. You will recollect how much we were gratified in our first attempt to circulate the Scriptures on the Southern continent. You were anxious to attend to the advantageous openings providentially set before you in that quarter. In accordance with this wish you sent out an agent to go over the ground that had before been passed over, but unfortunately Mr. Matthews found a different state of things in many respects to what his predecessor had found. Serious difficulties stood in the way to his effecting an extensive circulation of the Scriptures. Notwithstanding however these difficulties, his letters show that a considerable number of copies were put into circulation by him. But all accounts from that quarter which have lately been received testify that the door is now shut, or nearly so, to the Scriptures in the form in which this Society can alone give them.

Mexico in its former and present state bears a close resemblance us to her sister nations in the south. Very hearty was the reception the sacred volume met with at first, and very cold is the reception it now meets with. Still, in the midst of the present gloom there is cause for rejoicing, rejoicing that there was at the first such openings, and that by these thousands were supplied with copies of the word of God, and which still in most cases remain in their hands. You have conferred much on that country by what you have done, and certainly have no cause to regret your exertions on their behalf, and especially considering that but for you the Word of God would have been almost entirely unknown throughout those extensive countries. True indeed the two witnesses which have been prophesying in those countries for some years past seem now by war waged against them to be overcome and killed. But let us not despair. The spirit of life from God shall again enter into them, and they shall stand upon their feet, testifying unto all, the ways of God, and the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us also believe that the thousands of copies of the Holy Scriptures you have circulated there, are not even now inactive, but are assuredly working their way as did the leaven which lay hid and forgotten for a time in the barrel of meal; and in the time the effects to, as in that case, will be made manifest unto all.

The seed you have sown in those quarters has I believe been watered by your prayers, for I suppose all who compose this Committee are in the habit of supplicating for a blessing on the labourers of this Society in every part of the world. I have often endeavoured to refresh their minds with this duty in respect to the countries here treated of. Let your prayers still continue for them, and without doubt He who is the hearer of prayer will in due time answer all your supplications for them, and even exceed your requests. But the times and the seasons, nevertheless, he reserves in his own hand.

I now present to the Society some books which I have brought from Mexico for your library. Most of them are in the dialects spoken in that country. Some of these books I received from priests friendly to our objects and subscribers to the Society, some of them I received from the Bishop of Puebla, and some of them I collected myself. The number is not so great as I could have wished, but books in the native language of Mexico are now become extremely scarce.

Endeavours were made to procure translations of a part of the New Testament into these tongues, but owing to the natural difficulties of the case, and the prejudices which exist, almost nothing has been done. The Bishop of Puebla lent his services to procure these translations, but in the midst of his endeavours he was taken ill and died. Something may yet perhaps be done in this matter, but we must wait till a change takes place. Before I close this account of those countries I beg leave to state for your encouragement, that you have many warm friends in these parts, and even among the priesthood. These persons will be glad to seize any opening that may seem in your favour. Two of these individuals are Dr. Mora and Mr. Salazar whom I have frequently spoken to you of. Your books to continue to be sold though slowly in the city of Mexico and in other places, in despite of the edicts issued against them. I may further state that the spirit of toleration is extending itself in those quarters among all ranks. In the legislature of Mexico there is I believe at the present time a majority friendly to this object, but who from various motives are disinclined to bring forward a measure which their sentiments would gladly second. No great length of time I think can elapse in these parts until religious liberty shall be enjoyed by all. Restrictions and prohibitions which now impede your work will then of course be taken off. The word of God will then have free course, and let us hope that it will be glorified. I pray God that this state of things now prognosticated may very soon take place, and I am sure to this all of you will respond, Amen.

I am not sure that my services can be of any further use to the Society, as the field which Providence seems to have assigned me in connection with you is at present shut or nearly so to your operations. Another field has been mentioned to me by one of your Secretaries, a field every way interesting, and where I think plentiful fruits might be gathered. But I feel unwilling to retire from that field where I have been labouring for so many years, and to turn away from a people standing much in need of Christian aid, a people from whom I have received much friendly attention, and from whom, though now at a distance, I often hear the cry, "Come over and help us." I wish if possible to try once more what can be done for the benefit of those countries by giving them instruction as they are able to bear it. I should therefore scarcely think myself justified in withdrawing my feeble efforts from them until I have tried every method that seems feasible for the conveying to them, knowledge in general, but especially the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In concluding, I beg leave to offer my sincere thanks to the members of this Committee individually for their occasional remembrance of me, and of those countries where I have been, at the throne of grace. I have experienced, during a period of about twelve years, many and great mercies in travelling through these countries amidst perils of various kinds, and I now desire, in the presence of you all, to give glory to God for my merciful preservation, and for my restoration in health and comfort to my native land. These mercies too are rendered more impressive by the recollection that our fellow labourer Mr. Matthews has not been restored to his home and his friends as I have been, but has perished by the hands of those whom he went to feed with the bread of life. Impressed by all these considerations, I do desire and fervently pray, that the Lord may enable me to cleave unto him self with purpose of heart through what remains to me of the journey of life.

Gentleman, I now beg leave to resign the office you have honoured me with as an agent of your Society. With great respect, I subscribe myself,

            Your Most Obedient Servant,

                        James Thomson.

Books presented to the British and Foreign Bible Society,

6th December 1830, by J. Thomson.

_______________________________________________________

1. History of the Ancient Mexican Empire, written in Spanish in the middle of the 16th century, in 2 vols. Ms. From Dr. Mora, Mexico.

2. Chronological and Mythological History of the Ancient Mexicans, together with the Rites established in the Mexican church after the conquest, written in the Mexican language. Ms. From Dr. Mora, Mexico.

3. A Dictionary of the Mexican language, rendered in Spanish. Printed in Mexico in 1571. Bishop of Puebla.

4. Grammar of the Mexican language.

5. Sermons in the Mexican language, by Don Juan Müangas. Mexico 1624. Bishop of Puebla.

6. Sermons in the Mexican language, by Don Martin de Leon. Mexico 1614. Bishop of Puebla.

7. Missionary's Manual in the Mexican language. Bishop of Puebla.

8. Lessons of the day, taken from the Gospels, in the Mexican language. A beautiful Ms. From Mr Salazar, Mexico.

9. Dictionary in Misteca and Spanish. Mexico 1593. Bishop of Puebla.

10. Compendium of the Christian Religion, in the Otomí language. Mexico 1785. Bishop of Puebla.

11. Grammar of the Tarasco language, by Basalengue.

12. The first seven chapters of the Gospel by Matthew in the Chippeway tongue.

London, 14th January 1831

Mr. Joseph Tarn

London 14th Jan. 1831

My Dear Sir

            I received your note of the 12th and the enclosures, and was a little taken by surprise to find myself charged with the four sets of versions sent out to me to Mexico. The truth is, I received these four sets of versions, and held them, in the same manner I did all the books I received from the Society, considering them as theirs and not mine. In consequence of this I placed them entire in the hands of Dr. Mora for sale as soon as they arrived, as he thought he could easily dispose of them. The Extract from the Minutes which you have sent reminds me however that I had requested one of these versions for myself to replace the one taken by Mr. Salazar, and on referring to the copy of the letter mentioned I find this to be the case.

            I know not how the knowledge of this has escaped me at the time I received these books; and indeed ever since that time until your note came into my hands I have been under the impression that these books like all the others were the Society's property. But in this understanding of the matter I find that I am wrong. If however the sub-committee can take off me this burden, if it can be done, I shall consider it a particular favour, under the consideration that they were left in Mexico believing them to be the Society's property, and that now it would be very inconvenient to me and expensive to have them sent to me in London. But if this can not be done, I must be answerable for the charge on this one set.

            Respecting the other three sets I do not exactly see why they should be charged to my private account more than all the other books sent me to dispose of for the Society.

            Be so good as lay this matter before the Sub-committee in question, and advise me of the result.

                        I remain Dear Sir

                                    Truly Yours

                                                James Thomson.

London, 23rd March 1831

Rev A Brandram

London, March 23 1831

My Dear Friend

As the subject we have been speaking about may probably come under consideration today, I have thought it might be useful to write down a few words upon it. Perhaps the best direction to take in a tour such as is in contemplation would be to go first to Gibraltar, and there to see what could be done for introducing the Scriptures into Spain. Cadiz and perhaps some other towns adjacent to Gibraltar should be visited for the same end. A tour should next be made to Madrid and Barcelona to learn somewhat of the real state of Spain as to the want of Scriptures. The knowledge of the actual state of that country as regards this subject would be of great use at the present time, as that is every probability that there will soon be a change here in public affairs, and which change will I dare say make openings for a pretty full circulation of the Scriptures.

From Barcelona one might go to the South of France. The French I believe feel a delicacy to have an English almoner for their country, but a tourist might delay some time there without giving offence, and much good might be done perhaps as France seems entirely open to the circulation of the Scriptures.

Corsica should next be visited, which island is of course open, being French, to the entrance of the Scriptures. Here your Italian Bibles and Testaments would find a circulation, and through Corsica the neighbouring island of Sardinia might be supplied directly or indirectly as there might be openings.

Italy would next come under notice. The free ports of Leghorn, Genoa, and Venice, should be visited to see what could be done in them and through them. Rome, Naples and Sicily might next be visited to learn their actual state and to find out any openings. Italy may perhaps be but very partially open to your labours at present, but the events of the passing hour are certainly preparing the way for the word of God in that region of darkness, and who should be first on the ground in the Lord's cause but the British and Foreign Bible Society.

In regard to the languages spoken in the countries that have been mentioned. It may not be unsuitable to say a few words. In the Spanish of course I feel myself quite at home. The Italian resembles the Spanish so much that I think I could in a short time be able to converse in it. As to the French, the most generally spoken language in the continent, I had during the last war very favourable opportunities of acquiring it as I was living in a town where there were quartered on parole about 70 French officers, to whom I was often interpreter as many of them could not speak a word of English. Since I went to Buenos Aires in 1818 I have not spoken any French and in consequence have very much forgotten it, but I apprehend not a long time would be required for recovering my former acquaintance with it.

The only other thing that strikes me in these hints, is, that perhaps it might be proper to go first to Lisbon, and from that to Cadiz and Gibraltar.

Excuse my going before in this when it is so evidently my duty not to direct but to follow and obey. But I thought you might like to have these things before you in the form of Agenda.

The early attention of yourself and the Committee to this object would be a particular favour and would facilitate my arrangements.

            I remain My Dear Friend

                        Very Truly Yours

                                    James Thomson.

Wednesday morning,

March 23, 1831.

Lindfield, 16th May 1831

Rev A Brandram

Lindfield, Sussex 16 May 1831

My Dear Friend

I send you a translation of a letter which I have just received from Dr. Mora of Mexico. You will see by it the favourable and unfavourable state of things in that quarter. On the unfavourable side is the increased domination of the clergy owing chiefly as you will see to the temporary existence of some political concerns. These are supposed to be coming to a close, and the temporary intolerant spirit will I trust terminate with them. Public opinion has meanwhile been getting more liberal, and a desire for a knowledge of the Scriptures has increased. The result of this desire is the getting up a version of the Bible in that place, so arranged as to preclude clerical objections. In this I think we have great cause to rejoice as the knowledge of the word of God will thereby be greatly extended. You labours in that quarter have prepared the way for this, and on the other hand the result of it will be an opening and a facility for your future operations. We see by this that the people will have the Scriptures, stimulated to it by your exertions, and the clergy knowing this out about to send forth an edition of the Bible, studded it is true in their own way, but still the word of God goes forth, and the printer will show by the different forms of types what parts are from God and what are the sayings of men. The clergy of course suppose that this edition will satisfy the people, but they will soon find out their mistake, and will learn in due time that they have been looking one way and the rowing another. Your Bibles and your  pressio can alone satisfy the many and the poor. Let us therefore take courage, for notwithstanding our disappointments, the work you see does not sleep.

In another point of view something is doing. The translation of one of the Gospels into the native Mexican tongue is finished, and the translation of the same portion of Scripture into two other native tongues extensively spoken is nearly accomplished. These native of versions will I think be very acceptable and useful.

Our friend Dr. Mora you will perceive stands alone and is the object of persecution from the superstitious and the profane. Let this be a hint to us to remember him individually in our prayers when we are commending unto God the great cause in which the Bible Society is engaged.

I am truly glad to hear of the great increase of your funds during the last year, and hope everything good will increase among you in equal  or greater proportions.

                        I remain, Very Sincerely Yours

                                                James Thomson.

P.S. I shall be glad to see what you have published or intend to publish respecting your annual meeting. That or any other paper or letter will come safely to me if left at Mr. Allen's Plough Court, Lombard Street on Thursdays or Fridays in the forenoon, as a box comes weekly from that to this place.

Extract of a letter from Dr. Mora of Mexico to Mr. James Thomson,

dated 14th February 1831.

_____________________________________________________

"Since I received your letter of 14 September last I have had no communication from you. In reply to that letter I mentioned to you that the Court where the matter was tried respecting the detention of the Bibles would not recognize me as sufficiently qualified to receive them and demanded of me a formal authorization which I requested you to send me, and which I am now looking for.

The translation of the Gospel of Luke into the Mexican language is finished, and to the person who translated it I have given by way of remuneration one of the sets of Bibles which you left in my hands for that purpose. A copy of this is being taken in a very fair letter, and I shall give it to Mr. Chabot is to send you by the next packet. The translation of the same Gospel is nearly concluded in Misteco and Tarasco languages likewise, and to the translators I intend to give the two sets of Bibles that yet remain in my hands.

The power of the Clergy and the support given to them by the Government has reached to a degree in this place that I could never have believed. Religious intolerance has in consequence very much increased, although public opinion is every day growing more averse to such a state of things. The political commotions that we have had during all the past year have been the chief causes of this, but they may be expected to be near an end now by the imprisonment of Guerrero. Notwithstanding however these drawbacks there is a considerable desire manifested for instruction in the Scriptures, and there is at present actually preparing a translation of the Bible into the Spanish from the French version of Vencé. The prospectus of this which I have drawn up I now send you, and I have subscribed for one copy for the Bible Society. I am doing all I can here to promote the reading of the Scriptures, knowing them to be the word of God and at all times profitable to the Christian. I beg you will help me all you can, as I stand here alone, and am persecuted by the Clergy on the one hand and by the scoffers at all religion on the other."

Lindfield, 15th June 1831

Lindfield 15th June 1831

My Dear Sir

Your letter of the 13th came into my hands yesterday. I have carefully considered its contents, as well as the contents of Mr. Henderson's letter, and accounts to which you refer. You wish me to give you my opinion regarding the items of expense in Mr. Henderson's note, and what I think maybe the obligations of the Society in regard to paying them, in order that you may lay my observations if necessary before the Finance Sub Committee. I give my opinion upon the subject without hesitation, and it is this, that the sums mentioned by Mr. Henderson are justly due to him, and should be frankly paid. Mr. H has laboured earnestly to promote the objects of the Society in Colombia, and it appears to me that he should not only be paid those expenses            he has incurred, but also that some formal notice should be made in the form say of a vote of thanks from the Committee or from Mr. Brandram as Secretary. Be so good as to mention this to Mr. B. that he may take it into his consideration whether it would be suitable so to act. I would only further say upon the subject that I believe all the items of expenditure are fairly given, as I know all the places mentioned, and the charges incurred in the carriage of goods through those parts of Colombia.

            I remain

                        My Dear Sir

                                    Sincerely Yours

                                                James Thomson.

Lindfield, 18th June 1831

Rev A Brandram

Lindfield 18th June 1831

My Dear Sir

Supposing you now to have got through with the pressure of business necessarily connected with your annual meeting, I address you a few lines respecting the field of formerly mentioned to me in connection with your Society. You will recollect that I declined entering on the consideration of that field on my return from Mexico from a desire to do something that might directly bear on Spanish America in a missionary point of view. I found however upon trial that I could not succeed in the object I had intended, and that therefore it would be my duty to turn my attention to something more within my reach. I mentioned this to you, you will recollect, in answer to your kind inquiries as to what I was doing and what I had in prospect.

About that time the attention of the Society was a good deal drawn by various circumstances to the South of Europe, and it was thought desirable that I should make a tour through that quarter. Upon further consideration however, and from some changes in the political circumstances of those parts it was thought better not to send an agent there at that time. It was providential that this latter conclusion was come to in this matter, as the partial openings that seemed to attract your attention to that field soon after closed up again. The Committee on postponing the sending of an agent to that quarter kindly intimated to me that if I could point out any other field where their labours would be useful they would take it into consideration in connection with my going into it. British America had formerly been proposed to me, and at a still prior period, the West Indies, but from the pressure of business consequent on the near approach of your annual meeting, it was thought better to postpone entering on the consideration of these places until afterwards. As now however the hurry of your anniversary may be considered over, you will not find it perhaps inconvenient to enter on this subject.

In regard to the British America, it is now too will late in the season I believe to go there it in order to travel over it with advantage before the arrival of winter, not to mention the objection of delicacy which I noticed to you as applying to myself. The West Indies then seems the openest field for operations, and to this field I have no objections to go, although there are some disadvantages of climate &c. connected with it, but I have always considered it the duty of a missionary to go to any field the Lord may point out to him. There will I apprehend be no difficulty on your part in regard to this field, as you have had in contemplation for a good while back to send an agent there. The best season of the year perhaps for leaving this country for that quarter would be about the beginning of October. I am not however scrupulous as to the season of my arriving there, and could have no objection to go out from this immediately. But whether I should go out now, or not till the beginning of October, I should still wish you to be so good as take the subject into consideration early, in order that I might have time for preparation, and for making myself acquainted with the field I am going to. You will therefore greatly oblige me by laying the matter before the Committee as early as you conveniently can.

I should think it would fully meet the wishes of the Committee that I should make a descent from the West Indies on the Spanish Main as opportunities might offer. The packets afford convenience for doing this, and we should I think make every attempt to benefit those parts with the word of God, notwithstanding the repulses you have met with in your endeavours to do them good. No fair trial has yet been made in the Caraccas. Now as the English packet goes direct to La Guayra, the port of Caraccas, after leaving the mail at Barbadoes, it would be easy to visit that place. Suppose then that I should go out in the beginning of August, and go to the place now mentioned, and after making proper attempts to circulate the Scriptures there, I might go on to Barcelona lying to the eastward, and from that again to Cumaná still further to the east. These three cities are populous containing 30,000-- 15,000-- and 20,000 inhabitants, not to say anything of the adjacent country. I have always understood that Venezuela, in which these places lie, is one of the most liberal places of Spanish America, and having some acquaintance with one of the best families there and which is connected with the government, I think some facilities might be obtained for our objects. From Cumaná I could easily pass on to Trinidad the southernmost of our West India islands, and the properest place to begin at, and from thence I could visit the other islands in succession. By the course now traced I should reach Trinidad I suppose in the month of November in the very best season to arrive in, and I should then have the whole of the winter before me for operations in that quarter. Be so good as notice to the Committee what I have here sketched, that they may take it into consideration and make such arrangements upon it as they may think best.

I do not know that it is here in the way to notice another field, but it has often occurred to me in the rambling of my thoughts over those parts, I shall mention it, -- I mean the Brazils. The population of that country is about four millions, nearly the same as Peru and Colombia taken together. There are six large cities in it, two of them containing 100,000 inhabitants each, and the other for containing respectively 32,000-- 30,000-- 20,000--  and12,000. There has also been religious liberty in that country for Protestants for some time past, and the intercourse of their with the English is very considerable. The events that have recently taken place there according to the accounts just received would not I conceive by any means hinder your cause, but would rather I should think promote it, as the new government is likely to be more liberal and active at the outset than perhaps afterwards. This was the case in Spanish America, and using that opportunity many copies of the Scriptures were circulated in more parts without the slightest opposition. Should you think it desirable to make some trials there, I am quite ready to go, and should rejoicing such an opportunity to complete my tour of that large continent, as I have already visited all the other states on it, dropping as I went along some copies of the word of Life readily furnished me from your precious stores. Whether or not the West Indies should be connected with the Brazils in that one agency, the Committee will judge of, and point out.

Allow me, My Dear Friend, to say in conclusion that I count upon your long experienced kindness to me to lay the substance of this letter before the Committee, and to forward the objects mentioned at your earliest convenience.

                        Believe me, Ever Sincerely Yours,

                                                James Thomson.

London, 4th July 1831

Rev A Brandram

London 4th July 1831

My Dear Friend

I beg leave to communicate to you the contents of a letter I have just received from Dr. Mora in Mexico. He says: –

"In my former letter I mentioned to you that the translation of the Gospel of Luke into the Mexican language was finished. I would have sent this to you before now but have delayed in order to have a copy of it taken to remain here lest any action should befall the original on its way to you. A translation of the same Gospel is also being made into the Huasteco and Tarasco languages.

"By the documents which I have received authorizing me to claim the books belonging to the Society, the pretext for withholding them has been removed, but as yet I cannot say anything certain upon this matter, as the Government increasingly labours to support the Clergy in their pretensions and religious prejudices. The public at large however are dissatisfied with these measures, and in consequence the Government has recently received a check of some consideration. This has come about by the circumstance of Mr. Rocafuerte having published an excellent pamphlet on religious toleration. The Government used every effort to procure the condemnation and prohibition of this work. But the Public generally took alarm at their doing so, and the whole city being stirred up, every means was used to prevent the condemnation of the pamphlet and its prohibition. On the day of the trial the court was crowded to excess. Twelve jurors were impaneled to judge the demerits of the tract in question, and out of the twelve eleven gave their judgment in its favour.

"Thus you see Public Opinion makes rapid progress, and it has done so more particularly since the cessation of the revolutionary measures in the South which have come to a favourable close.

"In the following month will commence the publication of Vence's version of the Bible, the prospectus of which I formerly sent you."

The above letter is dated the 3rd of May last. The circumstance that has occurred regarding Mr. Rocafuerte's  pamphlet as mentioned in Dr. Mora's letter is very encouraging. It will not indeed tell immediately on your operations there, but it promises before long to open the way anew for the circulation of the Scriptures in that quarter, and to place things on such a footing as to prevent the recurrence of future prohibitions of your books. You have two warm and powerful advocates in Dr. Mora and Mr. Rocafuerte, both of whom I am sure will do everything in their power to serve you, and to promote the circulation of the Scriptures among their countrymen. I would therefore advise that a friendly correspondence should be maintained with these two individuals.

            I remain My Dear Friend

                        Sincerely Yours

                                    James Thomson.

Lindfield, 17th August 1831

Rev A Brandram

Lindfield 17th August 1831

My Dear Friend

In sending you a letter for Dr. Mora last month to go by the Mexican packet I said I should probably send you one for Mr. Rocafuerte for the packet of this month. I now send this letter accordingly. I do not write officially in these letters, and therefore you are not compromised by them, whilst at the same time serve to keep up an intercourse with our friends there that may be of some use when that country shall then be opened to your operations. I have had a letter from Mr. Staples since Dr. Mora's letter was sent off. He has now arrived at the city of Mexico, and he will be ready to serve you there I am sure it every way he can. I purpose to write him by the packet the next month.

In a day or two after my last note to you, I received a few lines from Mr. Jackson with a copy of the recommendation of the sub-committee respecting my agency to the West Indies, and an approval of this by the General Committee.

I am glad that this matter is arranged, as it sets my mind at ease in regard to what is the Lord's will concerning me. I have, I trust, set the Lord before me in this matter. I have prayed that you and your associates might be directed respecting me to what was His will; and I have at the same time endeavoured to hold myself in readiness to go wherever you should be directed to send me. The field which the West Indies presents is an interesting one, and is geographically allied to the scene of my former labours: and should the Lord to spare me to go over that field, I see I am being permitted to revisit some of the former parts travelled over, and some new ground in Spanish America. I trust the Lord will graciously protect me on this mission, as he did on former occasions; and that he will make me instrumental in doing good by putting the word of God into the hands of many, for their salvation. I feel it a matter of no light kind to go out on a mission of this nature, as regards the sacred work in which I am to be engaged, and as regards my own safety.

It has often occurred to me that it would be a suitable and desirable thing that all those at home and abroad who are immediately engaged in the operations of the Bible Society, should have some fixed day and hour for remembering each other respectively at the throne of grace, that we might be enabled, wisely, diligently, and faithfully to discharge the duties entrusted to us; and whilst we are engaged in getting the Scriptures into the hands of others, we might never forget to read, study, and obey the word of God for ourselves. What do you think of such a thing? It is probable that something of the same kind has occurred your own mind. The trials and oppositions you meet with it at home seem naturally enough to lead us to this, and I am sure to those of us who go abroad it would be that pleasing recollection in the midst of our solitariness, and a great means of strengthening us in all our difficulties and dangers.

You have made no arrangements I suppose has to the time of my setting off. October I think is the time we talked of.

I am glad to hear that your friends and your strength are increasing, and that there is every probability that your Society will be more firmly established than ever on the old and broad plan.

            I remain,

                        Very Sincerely Yours,

                                    James Thomson.

Lindfield, 29th August 1831

Lindfield 29th August 1831

My Dear Friend

I duly received your note of the 26th. I calculated being here till about the middle of September, but as you will be absent from home at that time, it will be better that I go up earlier to see you to make our final arrangements so that I may take my leave of the Committee on the 3rd October as you notice. I intend therefore D.V. to see you on Friday next.

I shall be glad to furnish each member of the Committee, as desired, with a copy of what I said in my last note to you respecting our mutual applications at the throne of grace on behalf of the work in which we are engaged and of each other. I must however have recourse to you for a copy in the first place, as I have none here.

I have just received a letter from the Bookseller in Mexico, by which I find he has disposed of upwards of one thousand copies of the whole Scriptures or parts thereof. The particulars I shall send you soon or bring up with me.

            Believe me, Very Truly Yours,

                        James Thomson.

Lindfield, 31st August 1831

Rev A Brandram

Lindfield 31st August 1831

My Dear Friend

A few days ago I received a letter from the Bookseller in Mexico entrusted with the sale of Scriptures on account of the Society. The account comes down to 1st July last, making one complete year from the time he began his sales. During that time he has sold 275 Bibles, 800 New Testaments, 5 Four Books, and 16 Luke & Acts, making 1096 copies of the Scriptures entire or in parts. The sum received for these after deducting all expenses incurred is 430 dollars  4 ¼ rials. The money has been duly paid into the house of Robert P Staples & Co. Of that place, and by a note from that house I am informed that the bill for the amount may be expected by the next packet.

The Bookseller seems to have managed the concern entrusted to him with much propriety. He has had some difficulties to contend with and fears new ones. But let us hope that he will get safely through all, and that the Scriptures will continue to circulate in that extensive country. I still hope that the day is not far distant when Mexico will open its arms widely to receive the Scriptures from you, and in truth at the present time the inhabitants of the country generally are desirous of the Scriptures and are only hindered by a certain portion of the Priesthood; but the power of the opposing party is weakening every day, whilst our friends are on the increase.

I give you on the other side a statement of sales translated from the one I have received from Mexico.

            I remain Ever Sincerely Yours

                        James Thomson.

In the Downs, 29th October 1831

On board the ship Henry Wellesley

in the Downs 29th October 1831

My Dear Friend

I am sorry to say that we have been fast anchored here ever since Friday week with the wind right ahead and at times blowing very hard. There at about sixty sail here all under the same circumstances with ourselves. However that is now a prospect of our getting onwards. The wind is at this moment fair and our whole Fleet is under sail. May the Lord protect us all, and bring each of us in due time to our respective ports.

Most of my fellow passengers are West Indians or connected with those islands. I have got much information from them respecting the intercourse and means of conveyance from island to island, and find I shall have no difficulty in moving about among them.

I think it will be desirable that you should send me about Christmas direct to Barbadoes three cases of Scriptures in Spanish that I might be able to take them with me in the mail boat to La Guayra. Let to one of these cases contain Luke and Acts and the Four Books in equal proportions. In the other two cases put ten small Spanish Bibles, and 30 large ones, and the remainder fill up with foolscap Spanish Testaments.

The ship Jamaica will sail for Antigua I understand in a few days. I shall be glad to hear from you by her. Until you hear from me from the West Indies please to send all my letters to Mr. Garling.

As we are now moving on pretty quickly and the boat waiting I must conclude. May the Lord ever be with you.

            Truly Yours

                        James Thomson.

Off Ryde, 1st November 1831

Rev. A. Brandram

Ship Henry Wellesley

Off  Ryde, 1st Nov 1831

My Dear Friend

            We left the Downs on Saturday with the wind somewhat in our favour, but it soon turned against us, so that it was with some difficulty we got in here last night. The wind is now right ahead, and seems so settled, as experienced persons tell us, for some days. As long as the wind continues Westerly we remain at anchor. With a North wind we can sail or a wind any way from the East. In case there should be any letters for me from Mexico requiring an answer, I now write you, as there will in all probability be time for my hearing from you. Should you have any communications for me please address me "Ship Henry Wellesley, Ryde, Isle of Wight". For security it may be well to put on the back of your letter or letters - "to be returned to __________ should the ship have sailed."

                  Wishing you full health of body, mind and spirit, believe me My Dear Friend

                        Very Sincerely Yours,

                                                James Thomson.