founder of their religion, who lived in the fifteenth century, comprise a mixture of Mahomedanism and Hindooism, permitting its proselytes from these two sects to retain some of their former observances. The Seiks are an active, courageous, and warlike people, more indulgent towards the female sex than either of the two sects from which they sprung, and less given to sensuality. Their language is the Punjabee, which would seem to be Hindostanee with a slight intermixture of Persian. Their trade with the other parts of India is inconsiderable; but if christianity were once to become prevalent in Lahore, the commerce of that province with Afghanistan, Cashmere and Thibet, on the north, and with Persia on the west, would promote its circulation in these extensive and populous regions. The territory of this people being between 28° 40' and 32° 20′ of north latitude, and not remote on the north and northeast from the southern slope of the Himmaleh mountains, must be far less exposed to the hot enervating winds and the humid atmosphere which prevail in other parts of India.

The political changes which have recently taken place in respect to India, the increasing desire of persons of distinction among the natives to give their children an English education, and the disposition of the constituted authorities to encourage the settlement of educated and intelligent missionaries in all parts of that country, are to be regarded as truly auspicious circumstances. Although these considerations, connected with the power of the press among a people having a written language, augment the prospects of ultimate usefulness, yet the peculiar genius of the Hindoo character, and the general state of society, should lead us to anticipate rather a gradual and permanent advance of the light and power of the gospel, than such a sudden and rapid renunciation of prevailing superstitions, on slight grounds, as would be likely to occur in the same circumstances in some parts of Africa.

The brethren readily obtained permission of the Governor General of India, to reside in the province which they had selected; but as the season least favorable for making the journey was about to commence, and as they could spend the intervening time profitably in the study of the language, they had concluded, on consultation with their friends in Calcutta, to remain in the vicinity of that city until June next. They express, and that repeatedly, the hope that additional missionaries may be speedily sent out to join them; and the decease of one of their valued members, and the importance of the field itself give great force to this solicitation. The committee are happy to say, that they have it in prospect to send a reinforcement in the course of the ensuing autumn. In the meantime, it would be highly useful to provide for that station, a printing press to be sent out from this country, with the view of obtaining a fount of type in the Punjabee at Calcutta: and charts, maps and globes, and other apparatus,, for the High School which the mission intend speedily to establish,"

would be extremely serviceable. "If one hundred additional missionaries could be sent out, there would be," say these brethren," an abundance of work to employ them all."

MISSION TO WEST AFRICA.

We now proceed to notice the principal events connected with the Mission to West-Africa, since the last report.

In July last, Mr. John Cloud, and Mr. Matthew Laird, who had been previously received under the care of the board as candidates for the missionary service, were designated as a reinforcement to the African Mission, and shortly afterwards, the Rev. J. B. Pinney unexpectedly returned to spend a few months in the United States, and to go back to his station in the fall. The reasons assigned for this step by Mr. P., were approved by the committee, and from the valuable information which they received from him, they were enabled to select two stations, whose relative situations, both as to the colony and the interior nations, are such as to afford great facility for the dissemination of the gospel in Western Africa. The information received from Mr. P. as well as from other sources, sufficiently show that in its indolent, vicious, and repulsive habits, and its great debasement as to intellectual and moral culture, the state of society among these miserable tribes is not only among the lowest and least inviting on the globe, but one which calls most earnestly for the compassionate aids of a civilized and christian people; and to none more justly, or directly, than those of the North American Continent, where the wrongs of the African race have been so extensively seen, and we trust, have been so sincerely deplored. The committee have been led to the conclusion, also, from what they have learned, that primary schools, for the instruction of the natives in the elementary principles of the English language, can be established with as much prospect of success as among any people so degraded in their character, and inhabiting a country presenting such formidable obstacles to the enjoyment of health and comfort.

After spending sometime in visiting the churches, these missionary brethren, together with Mrs. Laird and Mr. James Temple, a young man of color and a candidate for the gospel ministry, under the care of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, who had been received as an assistant, were regularly organized in the city of New-York, in October last, and sailed from Norfolk, Va., for Liberia, on the 6th of Novem-. ber following. The organization and departure of this mission, gave, especially in the eastern cities, new strength and vigor to that impulse which has been increasingly felt for some time past, in behalf of Africa, and the fact that missionaries from two other societies in this country, repaired to the Western Coast of that benighted continent about the same time, must be regarded as an auspicious circumstance, in respect to the future prospects of that necessitous portion of the globe.

Mr. Pinney, shortly before his embarkation, received from the Board of Managers of the American Colonization Society, the ap pointinent of temporary agent and governor of Liberia, and after consulting with the Corresponding Secretary and other friends of the society, it was judged best that he should consent to act in that capacity until a permanent agent could be obtained and sent out to Africa. This arrangement was assented to, on the part of Mr, P, and his advisers, with some degree of reluctance, on account of its being likely, for a time, to deprive the mission of the benefit of his counsel and his assistance, at a time when they would be peculiarly needful, On the other hand, his declination might, it was believed, leave the colony in a disastrous situation, and in one which might impede the operations of the missions which were about to be com menced within its territory, Mr. P, is now, therefore, in the exer cise of the duties of the Colonial Agent, but he expresses in his last letter, the hope that other arrangements may soon be made by the Colonization Society,

The Jupiter, in which the missionaries, and several other passengers, besides about fifty emigrants, embarked, arrived at Monrovia, after a passage of fifty-six days, on the 31st of December, The brethren were enabled, soon after their arrival, to rent a suitable tenement for their accommodation during their stay in Monrovia, and all the mem. bers of the mission soon experienced, in succession, the attacks of the African fever, In most instances, the fever has been uncommonly mild in its character, the past winter, at Monrovia, and much fewer cases of mortality have occurred among the emigrants, than in former years, Most of the members of the mission had, however, experienced one or two returns of the disease, and it is generally un derstood, that during the first year of a residence in the colony, little can be done to any advantage, as physical and mental effort, and exposure to rain or the heat of the sun, is almost invariably followed by relapses, more protracted and dangerous to the subject, than the first term of illness,

The missionaries, at the date of their last letters, appeared to have entertained encouraging hopes of being able to pass the usual period. of acclimation in safety. They speak favorably of the general state of morals in the colony, and express an earnest desire that the inte rests of education, and especially the establishment of a high school, may engage the attention of the friends of Liberia, The colonists are said to be, some of them, anxious on this subject, and to have expressed regret that the missionaries did not expect to remain, but repair to the interior.

Mr. A. H. Savage, then of Cincinnati, offered, early in the year of 1839, to put himself under the care of the board, as an assistant in a mission to Africa; but the operations of the society not then requiring his services, his application was, with his on consent, deferred. Under the influence of an ardent desire to do something for its degra ded tribes, he resolved to go out to Liberia on his own responsibili.

ty, and set up a school for the benefit of the natives, sustaining himself by his own industry. Mr. S. repaired to the colony, with the New-Orleans expedition, eight months ago, and endeavored as far as the circumstances of the case permitted, to labor for the good of Africa. He was the attendant of the Rev. Mr. Cox, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in his last moments, and "for his kind attentions to Mr. C.," says Mr. Spaulding, "he will ever consecrate his memory among the pious."

When the mission left this country, in November last, they were apprized of the previous application of Mr. Savage, the conversations of the members of the committee respecting him, since he repaired to Africa, and the rumor of his intended speedy return, and they were verbally advised, if he should still be in the colony-if the way appeared open, and his own wishes and christian character accorded with such a measure, in the meantime to receive him conditionally, and until a formal disposition of his case should be made, as an assistant in the mission, agreeably to the desire expressed in his previous application to the committee. On their arrival, they found him at the Government House, alone and in a very debilitated state. They immediately took him into their family, and afforded him, in his exhausted condition, every possible attention, for which he seemed extremely grateful. He was "too far gone, however, to be restored, and after enduring, with almost unprecedented christian fortitude, much pain and suffering, until the morning of the 7th of February, he then, without a sigh or a groan, closed his eyes on mortality, to open them, we have no doubt, upon the happy scenes of the New-Jerusalem."

MISSION TO THE WESTERN INDIANS.

The Executive Committee, on turning to a review of their Proceedings in relation to the Mission to the western Indians, would congratulate the board on the more favorable condition in which the before scattered remnants of the smaller tribes are likely to be placed, by their concentrated location on the reserved tract by the general government, and also on their apparently increasing disposition to receive religious teachers. It was stated in the last report, that the Rev. Wm. D. Smith, one of the two missionaries then under the direction of the society, was about to start on a tour of exploration, through the Indian territories west of the Mississippi.

Mr. Smith spent most of the summer, in visiting and conferring with the Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos, Kanzas, Ottawas, Weas, Ihoways, and Omawhaws; and the results of his exploration were approved by the committee. They finally determined to select the Weas, as the tribe among which their operations should be commenced; and arrangements were accordingly made to despatch a mission to that station in November last. Providential circumstances having, in the estimation of Mr. Smith, precluded the fulfilment of his original design of personally embarking, as a per

manent member of this mission, in connection with Mr. Joseph Kerr, the Rev. Wells Bushnell, late pastor of the Presbyterian church in Meadville, who had previously resigned his charge and offered himself as a missionary to the heathen, was appointed to that field, and Mr. Kerr having been ordained to the work of the holy ministry as a missionary to the heathen, these two brethren and their wives, with Miss Nancy Henderson and Miss Martha Boal, were, on the 4th of November last, duly organized as a mission family, and left this city for the place of destination on the 6th. After experiencing one or two disasters, one of which became the accelerating cause of such a state of impaired health, in respect to Miss Boal, as made it necessary to leave her on the way, the missionaries arrived at Independence, a town in the state of Missouri, about forty miles east of the Wea village, on the 21st of December following.

Having ascertained that some delay would necessarily occur in the preparation of a suitable dwelling for the family at the station, and that the furniture and other supplies had not been sent up the river, (it now being too late in the season for navigation,) the brethren concluded to pass the winter in Independence, occasionally visiting the Indians, and making other preparations for the commencement of their labors early in the spring. By the latest advices from them, it appears that they have been considerably among the Indians, preached to them through an interpreter, and have learned much of importance connected with their character.

It is the intention of the committee, to form local school establishments among the Weas and such other smaller tribes in their vicinity, as are not already provided with the means of instruction; but they consider the present location of the principal establishment among that people as but temporary, and as preparatory to a more advantageous position, to be determined after the emigrations shall be more complete, and the circumstances and the dispositions of some of the larger tribes shall be better understood. Mr. Henry Bradley, a young man whom the committee had previously accepted as an assistant in the agricultural department, has been recently sent on with additional supplies, to join this mission; and the committee hope to have it in their power still further to enlarge their operations in the west, during the present year. The adoption of a resolution by the Synod of Pittsburgh, at their last annual meeting, to sustain the society in attempting the immediate supply of every unsupplied and accessible tribe of the Western Indian Reservation, with the means of grace; and the favorable disposition on this subject entertained by the general government, as appears from our correspondence with the war department, lead the committee earnestly to desire that suitable missionaries for this field may be speedily obtained.

The Executive Committee are now, engaged in maturing a plan for the commencement of A MISSION AT TRIESTE, an important com