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the wind came from the south and south-east. We stood westward, and in one week we were obliged to tack about, to avoid the South American coast. And here we have been about a week, with but very little wind, and that not the most favorable. Still we are contented and happy. The captain thinks it settled that we shall have a long voyage. voyage.

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But we have ample provision, &c. for such a

It is always pleasant, to enjoy more happiness in an object than we anticipated. Such a happiness, I am pleased to say to you, I enjoy in my dear Sarah. One thing we both deeply regret; we have no place on board this ship suitable for retired and undisturbed devotion. Still I hope we are not entirely without comfort in the Holy Ghost. There is another brig in sight, by which we hope to send letters."

We have not the means for gratifying the reader with further details of the voyage. Letters containing such details, it is believed, were sent to friends in America, but they have not been placed in the hands of the Compiler. Though a voyage at sea is barren of most of the interesting objects, which meet the eye of a traveller, in a tour by land, yet there are even here many things to awaken curiosity, and call forth the exercise of devotion. Here he may behold the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep, when he commandeth the stormy wind, that lifteth up the waves thereof. He may admire the wisdom and the power of that dread Being, who has set bounds to the sea, that it shall not pass; and who has said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. In the perpetual sinking and swelling of her billows, he may see a striking illustration of the character of the wicked, who are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. This element, now so void of every thing to break the monotonous scenery, he may regard as one of the wide theatres on which are to be displayed the wonders of redemption in the latter day, when the abundance of the sea shall be converted to God. It can hardly be doubted that themes like these, and others of a kindred character, occupied the thoughts of our missionaries in their leisure moments. They had

seen the shores of their beloved country rapidly retiring, till they were lost in the distance, and had looked, for the last time, upon their native hills, now sinking beneath the waves. They had engaged in an enterprise, which they had reason to believe would hasten forward "the golden age" of godliness, and now, on their way to the field of their future toils, it was natural to look forward with desire and hope to that brighter and better day.

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CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Boardman's arrival and residence in Calcutta-Description of schools and native churches.

If, on leaving his native shores, there are circumstances calculated to fill the heart of the missionary with sorrow, there are, on his arrival at his destined port, those which give to it a thrill of joy. Now the perils of the ocean are past. The eye no longer rests upon the waste of waters, from which it would fain turn away, where, comparatively, not an object appeared to diversify the scenery, and not a sound was heard save the voice of the tempest and the flood.

On his arrival in a foreign country, there is, however, a wide difference between the scenes that he meets with, and those which he has left behind. Here every thing is new and strange. Nothing hardly seems akin to the land of his birth and the home of his early years. The face of nature, as well as the face of man, wears a different aspect. The hills that rise before him are not his native hills. The verdure that crowns them, differs in kind and appearance from anything which he has seen before. He no sooner steps on shore, then the curse of Babel meets him in the unintelligible sounds which break upon his ear. The peo

ple with whom he is now to associate, be they polished or rude, are to him barbarians, for they speak in an unknown tongue. Their complexion, their physical structure, and conformation of features, as well as manners and habits, are all widely different from those of his own countrymen. Nor is the change less apparent in the various tribes of animals which come under his observation. Birds of a different plume and different form every where meet him. If their notes are not less melodious, they are not such as he has been accustomed to hear among the branches of his native trees. The beasts which rove through their forests, and the fish that divide their floods, bear such a resemblance only to those with which he has been familiar, as to show that they belong to the same great family. It will

often happen, too, that the people among whom he is now to take up his abode, are equally diverse from his own in their morals, their forms of civil polity, and in the spirit and tendency of their religion. He may find to his grief, that morality is dethroned, and doomed to become the creature of mere expediency-that instead of being a free man in full possession of the rights which he has once enjoyed, he is now under a despotic government, and required to crouch at the feet of a tyrant. He may find, also, that the vitality of the Christian religion has here no existence that the temples which rise before him are temples of abominable idols, lifting to heaven "their spires of gilded blasphemy," and "claiming to share the incommunicable perfections of Jehovah."

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Such were some of the changes, which met our beloved missionaries, on their arrival in India. But they were changes which had been anticipated, and though painful, some of them, in the endurance, they were prepared to meet them with becoming fortitude. They had put their trust in that God, before the symbol of whose presence Dagon had fallen and was broken. Their faith in the stability of his promises, and the entire fulfilment of his divine purposes, was unwavering. In him they trusted for the overthrow of other Dagons, and the introduction of a better state of things.

The following letter is from Mrs. Boardman to her husband's parents, written soon after their arrival at Calcutta, and dated December 13, 1825.

"My dear Parents,

"Through the kind protection of the Father of Mercies, we were kept from danger during a long voyage, and permitted to land in Calcutta on the 2d of this month. As my dear husband has written to brother H. giving the particulars respecting our voyage, I shall speak of events of more recent date.

"We were several days sailing up the river to Calcutta. The banks of that part of the river nearest the Bay of Bengal, are covered with thick jungle, which appears at a distance like beautiful verdant foliage; but on a nearer approach, looks rude and dreary. Amidst this uncultivated desert a few little mud-walled huts can sometimes be

seen, and here and there wanders a wretched idolater. This jungle is infested with tigers and other wild beasts. As we approached Calcutta, the scenery gradually changed. Native villages became more frequent, and the inhabitants more numerous. They are often seen carrying large bundles of rice. But, O, how unlike our happy American cottagers! When evening comes, the poor Indian is not welcomed by an affectionate wife to the table furnished for their mutual repast. His children do not cling about him, and by their endearing caresses awaken in his bosom the tender and pleasurable emotions of parental affection. Alas! she who should be his companion, in whose faithful bosom he should repose all confidence, who should share in all his joys and mitigate his sorrows, is a menial—a mere slave. And those dear innocents whom he should love and protect with parental care, are spurned from his presence, and sometimes exposed to premature death. Before he lies down on his pillow at night, he does not raise his voice to the living God in prayer, or chant a song of grateful praise for present blessings, and the promises of future good which the Gospel gives. Ah, the wretched man has never heard of the Gospel, nor of one of the precious promises it contains. He cannot go to Jesus and plead that his soul may be washed in that blood which cleanseth from all sin, for he knows not that there is a Jesus, or that his blood has ever been spilt. His prospects of futurity are darker than the dreary desert by which he is surrounded, and his soul rude and uncultivated as the soil he treads.

For three or four miles below Calcutta, the scenery is most beautiful. On one side of the river is a fine botanic

garden of considerable extent. The land appears in a state of high cultivation, and the mansion houses of European gentlemen contribute much to the beauty of the prospect.

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Now, dear parents, I presume you are ready to ask, what are the prospects of your absent children? Our prospects at present are uncertain. The war in Burmah still rages with great fury. We have very little reason to think that a reconciliation will soon take place. No accounts on which dependence can be placed have been received from the dear missionaries at Ava. Very strong reasons

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