From Kingston, under the date of September 22nd, Mr. Tinson writes: “Our congregation in town is better by far than it has been, though not overflowing; for being composed chiefly of domestics and mechanics who reside in town, it is of course less affected by country people than some others. I spent yesterday at Yallahs, received five candidates, on examination, for baptism, preached in the morning, and administered the Lord’s supper to about a hundred members in the afternoon. The congregation was such as to make the heat almost insupportable. There were nearly as many outside the house as within, and many more would come, but they cannot hear without exposure to the sun all the time. This however will, I hope, be remedied in a few months, as we have now commenced the chapel, and paid the builder £100 towards it. I am begging from our people in Hanover-street, and the city generally; but they plead poverty, and I know many of them are poor indeed.”
Mr. Gardner thankfully acknowledges that he has been repaid for all his exertions in visiting Port Royal, by the success with which it has pleased God to crown his labours there. “Last Sabbath week,” says he, on the 23rd of September, “at daybreak, at that place, I baptized fifteen in the sea, on a profession of their faith in Christ, and repentance towards God. Many hundreds were present, who collected soon after four in the morning. After the administration of that ordinance we repaired to the chapel, which was well attended, and had a regular service. Then I left for Kingston, as there was no brother unemployed that could assist me. Last Lord’s day I visited those friends again, and administered the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, when those who had been baptized were received into the church. It was an unusually solemn and gratifying season; many were greatly affected, and wept nearly all the time. This was to us a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. May he often grant us such seasons!”
Mr. Phillippo is busily engaged in building the new school-rooms at Spanish Town, towards which he obtained some pecuniary aid while in this country. “There are to be two schools; one for boys, the other for girls. They are to hold three hundred scholars. The situation is on a range with our premises, and is in every respect eligible; between the rooms there is to be a Committee-room, so that the building will present a front of seventy-two feet in length. Several gentlemen in the town and neighbourhood have declared themselves friendly towards the object, and have promised to assist in its support. As an instance, His Honour the Custos, Member of Assembly and Island Secretary, and Price Watkis, Esq., the uncompromising advocate of negro emancipation in our Colonial Parliament, are to lay the foundation-stones on Thursday next. The Custos has moreover sent fourteen young women to the school to be educated as schoolmistresses, and to be completely under the charge of the resident schoolmistress, his intention being to employ them in the different estates for which he is attorney. This example I have reason to hope will be extensively followed.
“We have still between three and four hundred children in attendance at our Sabbath-school, and the library I brought out with me is in extensive circulation. Every thing in connexion with our work appears prospering to an unexampled degree. God is indeed doing great things for us, whereof we are glad. What a change has been effected, also, on the moral aspect of society! Sunday markets abolished, and all the etceteras of evil that followed in their train!”
Top Hill, near the junction of the two parishes of St. Ann’s and St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, has been the scene of one of those cruel outrages on the helpless and unoffending, which have too often stained the page of Colonial history. We give the account in the words of our Missionary brother, Mr. Clarke.
“On the evening of Lord’s-day, September 14th, as nine of my people were returning to their homes from worshipping God, they were stopped and turned back by a young coloured man, who has by the death of his father come to an estate before he knows how to act for his own interest, and is fast spending it in riotous living. These friends had no sooner quietly taken their way back to go home by a more distant road, than this man set his dog upon them, and with Dr. B., a companion of his, pursued them about a half a mile.
“Dr. B. threw off his coat to enable him to run with the greater speed; an aged female who is highly respected by all around, fell: and Dr. B. immediately fixed the dog upon her, which tore her leg severely in many places. Her husband ran to lift her up, and to drive off the dog, when Dr. B., seized him and attempted to throw him over a fearful precipice into a deep chasm, where he must have been dashed to pieces; but God enabled his servant to escape from the grasp of the persecutor, and all the party came back to the house where we had so recently joined together in the worship of God. I had travelled a considerable distance during the day, had got wet, preached twice, and performed various other duties; being fatigued, and having to journey home on the morrow, I had retired to rest. As soon as I heard what had taken place I arose, had the wounds of the poor female attended to, and bound up. I then conversed with the people, read to them the first twelve verses of the fifth of Matthew, and again from the forty-third verse to the end; spoke to them on the duty of forgiveness, love to enemies, and patient suffering for Christ’s sake; prayed with them, first for the persecutors, next for themselves and for the church of God. They left me between nine and ten o’clock, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for righteousness’ sake; before they left, they besought me not to carry the matter to a magistrate, but to leave it with God; promising that they would always afterward go and return by a road that did not lead them near the house of this man. I really admired their forgiving spirit, and their patient endurance of evil, especially that of the chief sufferer, and of her husband, who had suffered with her, and had narrowly escaped death in rescuing her. Two of the nine have long been free, the others were apprentices. Had the native feelings of the human heart been indulged, how easily could these people have resisted the assaults of their persecutors, and, as they were pursued about half a mile on the road that has been a common by-path for years, they might have turned upon their adversaries, and afterwards have argued that they had a right to pass without molestation, and when molested to act on the defensive, in forcing their way to their homes; but, except a few words at first, of calm entreaty, these quiet people did nothing, and gave no impertinent language, but turned to go back in peace, and were in the act of returning when they were thus assaulted.”
We mentioned, in our last number, that Mr. Coultart had encountered much annoyance in the neighbouring parish of St. Ann’s, the birth-place of the Colonial Church Union, and disgracefully conspicuous for the blind and furious determination shown by several of its leading men, to prevent the spread of religious instruction among the negroes. Humanly speaking, nothing but the wise, humane, and dignified conduct of the Custos, the Hon. S. M. Barrett, saved this parish from the horrors of martial law. He applied to Mr. Coultart, requesting him to use all his influence with the negroes to quell the spirit of insubordination which had begun to show itself among them; and in addition to this, met them in person at Ocho Rios, gave them an excellent and animated address, explaining to them the nature of the new law, and expostulating with them, in the warmest and kindest manner. All present were much pleased with his kindness, and promised to do all they could to allay the existing evil.
Mrs. Coultart, in a subsequent letter, adverting to the same subject, remarks, “The poor things were puzzled. They were told they were free on the first of August, had a general holiday, and rejoiced at the event; and then they were called to work again as before. ‘Free, no free at all; work like before-time.’ Many said, they would not work without a proper understanding, or some pay. I was present when a poor woman in the Methodist Society made a speech to the following effect: ‘From the creation down to now we work, work, work. Now, Lord Mulgrave and the King give we free, we take free, we happy; then master come, tell we work like before-time. No, me say, better take shot at one than make we fool so.’ The minister’s wife talked to her, and explained that this work for six years was to help pay the owner what the King could not afford to do, of the money that purchased her; and she seemed quite content, and said she would go to her work. If it were possible to speak to each thus, in the tone of a friend, they would believe; but their confidence in their owners is shaken—and who can wonder?”
Adverting to the necessity of additional aid to give instruction to the negroes and their children, Mrs. C. remarks to her female correspondent, “I wish you could just come some Saturday evening before the preaching Sabbath at this bay, and see the numbers who come to our house, two miles farther, after having walked twenty and twenty-five miles already, just to read their letters, or to hear a few verses out of the Bible, or Watts’s First Catechism, or something that will shed a ray of light over their benighted minds. I have about thirty-five little ragged black children who meet me in the place hired for worship on the bay at four o’clock every evening. These I try to teach for two hours, and the only member of the church who can read sometimes meets me to assist. We are going soon, I believe, to remove from this house; it is considered unhealthy, there being marshes near, and then I shall be too far off to attend to the children daily. On the sabbath, only every third, is too unfrequent for progress to be made. Could I see the means of support, I would, without loss of time, place a person at the bay to teach regularly, and then I trust some good would be done. The eagerness manifested for First Spelling Books with large alphabets is amusing and pleasing. I have purchased all I could get in Kingston, and sold them again at the same price, which is three times as dear as if I had them from England. Mr. C. has written to several English friends, to beg them to send us some, either to give away or sell. I hope they will, without loss of time, for it is distressing to be obliged to refuse such earnest requests. ‘Me want to learn, me good massa, that me may read out of the Bible for meself.’ This is just what we want for them, that they may not be led astray by every designing person, who may set himself up to instruct them.”