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Show 30 ST. THOMAS AND TORTOLA .. to make way for us. So effectual have been the labors of these missionaries and their precursors, among the liberated negroes, that they now number nearly 2000 members of their chlirch, besides atlenders-more than a third of the whole population ! The attendance of the laboring people, on the present occasion, was large ; they were dressed with the greatest neatness, chiefly in white clothing, which forms a contrast with their sable hue, pleasing to the eye of a stranger, and peculiarly agreeable to their own taste. Without a word being said to them on the subject, they sat for a considerable time in solemn silence-a practice to which they had never been accustomed-and afterwards listened to the discourse addressed to them, with eager and de· vout attention. The occasion was one of deep interest to ourselves, and we could not avoid perceiving, that freedom was working well as a handmaid to religion. In the afternoon we crossed the water on a visit to the African settlement, at Kingstown bay. It consists of several hundred Africans, taken out of captured slave ships, and located on a tract of land, allotted them by order of the British Government. We had heard reports of their poverty and idleness; but these were belied by their decent and respectable appearance. A church is now in course of building for their use, under the· orders of the Bishop of Barbadoes ; and n school has been alrendy formed for the education of their children. About three hundred of them assembled, under the shade of a large tnmarind tree, and it hns seldom fallen to my lot to address a more-feeling, or apparently more intelligent, congregation. One thing is clear and unquestionable-that the African mind is abundantly susceptible of instruction in the great doctrines and principles of the Christian religion. I am, &c., &c., L8TTER IV . SAlN'l' CHIUSTOPHER'S. Flushing, L. 1. Sixth-month (June) 4th, 1840. I\IT tlBAR f'RII!.ND, A dead beat to the windward with a rough sea, and on board a small vessel, is certainly no luxury, but such arc the inconveniences to which one is very apt to be exposed, during a cruise among the West India Islands. After beating along the coast of T ortola for some hours, we made for the open sea, by the Round-rock passage, and after a night of corrlfortless tossing, found ourselves next morning, within sight of Saba. The lofty peaks of that island are vety handsome-its appearance being that of a single mountain, rising precipitously from the sea. It belongs to the Dutch; and the community of small proprietors who dwell there, arc said to be a little world to themselves, depending VCly 1 ittle on any distant government, but supportittg themselves by their own industry, in boat-building, fishing, &c. Our headwind, after a time, was exchanged for a calm, than which scarcely any state of the ocean is less agreeable to the mariner. The rudder no longer acts; exertion of every kind is fruitless ; the sails Gutter; the vessel rolls, but makes no progress, and one feels oneself to be imprisoned on the waters, beyond the reach of all human help. On the present occasion we consoled ourselves by endeavoring to describe our misfortune--" a calm at sea." In vain the mast is reared on high, In vain the sails are spread, Our bark refuses now to fly, Or even creep ahead. |