DISTRIBUTION OF REWARDS AT COTTA.

131

Those who know the dislike which the natives have to any thing out of the usual order of things, will appreciate the difficulty of persuading the parents to allow their children to be out so late in the evening as their not leaving Cotta until five in the afternoon rendered unavoidable, and would see the care necessary to ensure that a bright moon should have well risen before sunset, to light the several parties to their homes throughout the district. As we were anxious to give every facility for friends in Colombo to be present, we were obliged to postpone the hour of dismissal (which in former years was about half-past two) to five o'clock, and were sorry to find, that after carefully avoiding the shoals of a council-day, so often fatal to Cotta gatherings, we had fallen into the quicksand of an English mail-day. This proved to have been the cause of the absence of many, who had otherwise hoped to have come, and it hindered His Excellency the Governor from being present on the occasion. The district, which is generally known as Cotta district, though originally but one, has now for the last ten years been divided into two, the one known as the Talangama district, and the other the Cotta district, the whole presenting an area of about ninety-six square miles as the scene of the Church Missionary Society's operations in the Cotta and Talangama districts.

The special feature of the day, that which distinguished it from ordinary gatherings, was, that the girls of the Cotta district alone had formerly assembled, but this year, not the girls only, but the boys of both the Talangama and Cotta districts, were collected together in the station church, which, with its approaches, was prettily decorated with flowers for the occasion; so that at one time the visitors saw the children of all the Church Missionary Society's schools in these districts. Owing to the absence of one or two schools, and sickness amongst the children, the numbers were not quite so large as had been hoped; but the exact numbers present run as follows-Talangama, girls, 148; boys, 209; Cotta, girls, 388; boys, 225: total, 970.

The children are not all of Christian parents, but many of them are the children of Buddhists. All receive a sound religious training, Scripture lessons forming an important part of their daily course of instruction. The schools began to assemble as early as twelve, though the nominal hour was one o'clock. The intermediate time, until three, was employed in resting, and disposing of the provisions supplied for them, viz. of plantains and cakes, whilst a large tub outside, full of water, served all the purpose of boiling cauldrons, and the array of teapots and jugs, usual at an English school-treat. About three o'clock visitors from Colombo began to arrive, when the distribution of prizes commenced; but owing to the want of proper information as to the sizes of the different children receiving cloths and jackets, the distribution proceeded slowly, in spite of the ready help offered by ladies present. A recurrence of any such delay will be guarded against another time. At half-past three o'clock Lady Robinson arrived, and expressed her surprise at the large number of children present, as did many others, for they not only filled the whole of the station church, but the two deep verandahs on either side. It is possible that those unaccustomed to seeing

132

POETRY THE MARTYR'S HYMN.

native schools scarcely appreciated the arrangement of half boys and half girls, as boys and girls, when closely packed, cannot be easily distinguished, though it must be admitted that the latter did not fail to indulge in their usual display of ornaments. After a cup of coffee, the whole party, with the children, adjourned to the compound, to see (to the natives) the novel sight of the ascent of a small fire balloon. It was amusing to see the interest excited, and to hear the questions asked; and it is not unlikely that the spirits used for inflating the balloon were regarded as some subtle mixture endowed with magical power. This concluded the proceedings, as the parents were beginning to express uneasiness at the lateness of the hour. The children quickly broke up and went away in the motley assemblage of bullock bandies, hackeries, &c., ready to convey them to their homes. It is much to be regretted that at present every effort to introduce singing into our schools at Cotta has (with the exception of the Institution students) failed. It would have added much to the interest of the day if the children could have offered something more than mere dumb show to those who were enough interested in them to come out from Colombo. The Singhalese are not, in our sense of the word, musical. Still it is to be hoped that the object in view has not been lost, viz. that of exciting in those present additional interest in Mission work, and of providing them with facts, of which they themselves have been eye-witnesses, as answers to those who disparage all Missionary efforts. Should any who are wishing more thoroughly to investigate the state of the schools, desire to visit them, either of the Missionaries will be ready at any time to accompany such friends into their districts.

THE MARTYR'S HYMN.

FLUNG to the heedless winds,
Or on the waters cast,
The martyr's ashes watched,
Shall gathered be at last;
And from the scattered dust,
Around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed,
Of witnesses for God.

The Father hath received
Their latest living breath,
And vain is Satan's boast
Of victory in their death:

Still, still, though dead, they speak,
And trumpet-tongued proclaim,

To many a wakening land,

The one availing Name.

( 133 )

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

ABOUT four years back a group of travellers succeeded in penetrating from the British territory of Rupert's Land through the ravines and passes of the Rocky Mountains into British Columbia. They left the Red River

N

134

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

on April 3rd, and succeeded in reaching Kamloops, on the Thompson River, on August 28th. The state of their raiment bore evidence to the hardships they had endured-their clothes in tatters; their feet covered only by the shreds of mocassins. They had passed through desolate regions, the journey having lasted two months, during the last five weeks of which they had not seen a human being. The dangers of the way were great. Now rivers had to be crossed, which, after some abrupt descent from the heights above, appeared raging and boiling fiercely round the great rocks. Now the path lay around the base of lime-clad hills, the snowy peaks of the mountain ranges rising thickly around. Great trees lay across the path, tangled and interlaced on every side. On the western slope the descent was rapid and continuous, and the vegetation assumed a new character. The cedar and the silver-pine appeared the timber was of larger growth, and occasionally their huge trunks, lying prostrate, barred the way. The scenery was superb. the bottom of a narrow rocky gorge, whose sides were clothed with dark pines, or, higher still, with light-green shrubs, the impetuous Frazer dashed along. On every side the snowy heads of mighty hills crowded around, while, immediately behind us, a giant among giants, rose Robson's peak. This magnificent mountain is of conical form, glacier-clothed, and rugged, . . . . its pointed summit of ice, glittering in the morning sun, shot up far into the blue heavens above, to a height, probably, of from 10,000 to 15,000 feet.

"At

These vast regions were void of inhabitants. There was no sound of the woodman's axe, no evidences of man's industry and enterprise, subduing the powers of nature to his use. One trace of man they found, and it was a solemn one. At the foot of a large pine was discovered the corpse of an Indian: it "was in a sitting posture, with the legs crossed, the arms clasped over the knees, bending over the ashes of a miserable fire of small sticks. The ghastly figure was headless. .. The clothes, consisting of woollen shirt and leggings, with a tattered blanket, still hung round the shrunken form. Near the body were a small axe, fire-bag, large tin-kettle, and two baskets, made of birch-bark. In the bag were a flint, steel, and tinder, and an old knife, and a single charge of shot, carefully tied up in a piece of rag. One of the baskets contained a fishing-line of cedar bark, not yet finished, and two curious hooks, made of a piece of stick, and a pointed wire; the other, a few wild onions, still green and growing. A heap of broken bones at the skeleton's side-the fragments of a horse's head-told the sad story of his fate. They were chipped into the smallest pieces, showing that the unfortunate man had died of starvation, and had prolonged his existence, as far as possible, by sucking away every particle of nutriment out of the broken fragments.

And so it has been with these Indian tribes-they lost their way amidst the dark mountains of error. Wanderers from God, they had gone astray. They were famine-stricken, not by a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. This man may be regarded as a type of the race, for, like him, they have become shrunk up and emaciated. Their vain superstitions could no more sustain them than the poor substitutes for food which were found beside the shrivelled corpse could sustain it when in life. Without the knowledge of the true God

INSTANCES OF CONVERSION IN THE NORTH-INDIA MISSION. 135

they were without those energies and habits which would have enabled them to compete with the difficulties of their position, and so rapid was the process of depopulation, that, but for the advent of the Christian Missionary, they must have perished from the land.

Our Missionaries have gone forth to help them, and, by the blessing of God, to rescue them from such a fate. These good men may be found in localities more remote from civilized life than even the dreary regions traversed by the party of which we have spoken. They are to be found around the cold, dreary coasts of Hudson's Bay; and the banks of the great Mackenzie, whose waters they traverse in their birch-rind canoes, until they reach the Esquimaux at the Arctic sea; nay, like these travellers, they have crossed the Rocky Mountains, although at a point far away to the north and near the shores of the icy sea, and, reaching the great river Youcon, as its waters flow on to Behring's Straits and the great Pacific Ocean, have there pitched their tents, amidst the Indians of that remote land.

How very strange it is, that the gentlemen composing this travelling party, so sharp-sighted in other respects, should permit themselves to be so hoodwinked on this subject, as to pen and publish the following sentence-"The Romish priests far excel their Protestant brethren in Missionary enterprise and influence. They have established stations at Isle à la Crosse, St. Alban's, St. Ann's, and other places far out on the wilds, undeterred by danger or hardship, and, gathering half-breeds and Indians around them, have taught, with considerable success, the elements of civilization as well as religion; while the latter remain inert, enjoying the ease and comfort of the Red-River Settlement, or, at most, an occasional summer's visit to some of the nearest posts." Now really this is too bad. Why, the Protestant Missionaries are as far beyond Isle à la Crosse as Isle à la Crosse is beyond Red River. Far, far away to the north-east, north, and north-west, they are to be found. Should the "North-west passage by land" reach a second edition, we do trust that this, and some like passages, will be expunged, and simply for this reason, that they are

untrue.

INSTANCES OF CONVERSION IN THE NORTH-INDIA MISSION.

AMIDST a general barrenness of result our Missionaries at some of the stations in North India have been cheered by a few cases of conversion of much interest, which the Lord has graciously vouchsafed to them, until the expected rain descends in abundance, and the seed which, although so largely sown, has as yet yielded only a few sparse blades, springs abundantly. For these we have not room in the pages of the "Record," within the limits of which it becomes every year increasingly difficult to condense the numerous details of our expanding Missions. We transfer these notices, therefore, to the pages of the "Gleaner."

BORODA, OF CALCUTTA.

BY THE REV. J. VAUGHAN.

ONE case of special interest has been the conversion of a young man who belongs to a native family of considerable respectability. He is the