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As the following interesting communication from the Rev. Doct Philip, to "the Society of Inquiry on Missions, in the Theological Semi nary at Princeton, N. J." may fall into the hands of some persons wh may not be acquainted with the nature and object of this Society, I be leave to state for the satisfaction of such, that it has existed from an earl period of the history of the Seminary. The plan was borrowed, I be lieve, from a similar institution in the Theological Seminary at Andover It is a Society which originated with the students, and has been kept u for nearly twenty years, by their voluntary association; and the whol business is conducted without any interference of the professors.

The Society of Inquiry holds its regular meetings on the first day c each month, during term-time; except, when the month begins on th Lord's day, in which case the meeting is held on the following day.

The object of this Society, as its name imports, is to collect missionar intelligence from all quarters, and to promote a spirit of missions amon the members. In pursuance of this object, a correspondence has bee opened with foreign missionaries in all parts of the world, and an inter course by letters is kept up with other similar societies, in this countr and Europe. This correspondence has been increasing in interest, ever year, and has been the vehicle through which much important intelli gence has been obtained, and communicated to the Christian public; c which the following communication from the Cape of Good Hope, is striking example.

It may not be improper for me to observe, that, in my opinion, no par of the exercises in the Theological Seminary has been attended wit more manifest good effect than those which appertain to the proceeding of this Society: and there can be little doubt, that some of those who ar now labouring successfully among the heathen, received their first mis sionary impulse from the ideas suggested, the intelligence received, an the solemn scenes, which they here witnessed: and when the thoughts those who have been removed for years from the place of their Theold gical education, revisit these sacred walls, there is probably nothin which is remembered with deeper interest, than the transactions of th first day of the month.

It will scarcely be necessary for me to state, that the Rev. Dr. Philip the author of the following deeply interesting communication, is a able and distinguished minister of the gospel, who has resided for man years in South Africa; and is the Superintendent of all the missionar stations in that region, which are in connexion with the London Mi sionary Society. Dr. Philip has, in a particular manner, distinguishe himself as the able advocate and undaunted defender of the interests

he Aborigines of South Africa, against the oppressive measures of the overnment and people, of the European colony, at the Cape. In conquence of some publications in which the cruel treatment of these peole by the colonial government was laid before the British public, he was abjected to a legal prosecution, and to a heavy pecuniary mulct. It is elieved, however, that by the generosity of his friends in England, he as relieved from the embarrassment which this fine must have produced his affairs. He is evidently a man of talents, possessing a bold, eneretic mind, and highly qualified for the arduous station which he occues. During the last year, as appears from the letter now published, he mployed no less than seven months in a visitation of all the missionary ations in South Africa which are connected with the London Missionary ociety. His opinions and suggestions respecting missions to the contient of Africa, contained in this paper, are highly deserving of attention being the result of much experience, at this time, when the attention f the Christian public is so particularly directed to that continent, and is cupied with plans of colonization, and of missionary establishments in hat dark region. A. ALEXANDER,

Princeton, N. J. Sept. 7, 1833.

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Cape Town, (Cape of Good Hope,) May 2d, 1833.

I deeply regret that it has not been in my power to give you a more early reply to your very interesting communication of 16th March, 1832. On the 15th of August, last year, I left Cape Town to visit our missionary stations in the interior. My tour occupied me nearly seven months, and it was not till towards the end of that period, your letter reached me. I am much delighted with the object of your society. It is long since I considered such a society a desideratum in Europe, and without knowing that such a society existed in America, I endeavoured some years ago to get a similar one formed in England, but I was unsuccessful in my attempts. I augur much good to the cause of missions over the world from the establishment of such a society in America, and from the spirit in which it appears to be conducted. I have had many letters from Europe, inquiring as to the success with which our missionary labours have been attended, but your letter is the first I have seen confessing ignorance as to the manner in which such labours should be conducted, and at the same time praying for information on the subject. The most painful trial I experienced on my late visit to England was, that I found that on this subject I could not make myself understood. This state of mind at home has been attended with the most pernicious effects upon our foreign missions; and till the evil is removed, our success will be far from bearing a proportion to the means, which will be expended on the object we have in view. Nothing can be more dissimilar than the state of things in Africa and in England; and yet the generality of the friends of missions in England have no idea that African missions are any thing different in their nature from their city or country missions at home. The consequences of this error have been and are highly prejudicial; and it will be no small satisfaction to me, if I can, by any thing I may be able to communicate to you, guard the friends of missions in America against so fatal a mistake. For the sake of brevity in my reply to the queries contained in your letter, I shall answer them as they occur to my mind while I am writing, without naming

them.

So far as my observation extends, it appears to me that the natural capacity of the African is nothing inferior to that of the European. At our schools, the children of Hottentots, of Bushmen, of Caffers, and Bechuanas, are in no respect behind the children of European parents: and the people at our missionary stations are in many instances superior in intelligence to those who look down upon them, as belonging to an inferior caste. The natives beyond the colony live in a world of their own, and they know little of our world, but we know less of theirs than they do of ours. In point of abilities and good feelings, I consider the Caffers on the borders of the colony as most decidedly superior to that portion of the refuse of English society that find their way to this country. I

* The letter was addressed to Mr. John B. Pinney, who had written in the name of the Society, and who was then contemplating an exploring tour to Africa. He has since visited Liberia and the adjacent country as a missionary of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, and is now in this country, making arrangements for a permanent settlement there.

have never seen any thing in civilized society like the faculty those people have in discerning the spirit and character of men. When Englishmen go among them, they will discover more of their visitors in a few minutes than some of their own countrymen may have been able to find out in them by an acquaintance of years. We have at this moment a young Caffer Chief at one of our missionary stations, who is vindicating the character of his countrymen, and exposing the cruelty and injustice with which they have been treated, in our public journals, with an ability superior to that of any of his numerous and virulent assailants within the colony. Contemplated through the medium of their own superstitions, or that of their general condition, we might hastily pronounce them to be inferior to the white race; but on those points they lose nothing by a comparison with our own European ancestors.

From the peninsula on which Cape Town stands, in S. lat. 34, to De la Goa Bay, which is in S. lat. 26, and from the eastern to the western coast, the people in this country are anxious to have missionaries. During my last journey I had people who came four and five days journey to request me to send them missionaries. We cannot suppose for a moment that this desire to have missionaries among the savage and barbarous tribes of South Africa, arises from any sympathy which they can have with us in the great end of our missionary labours, the conversion of the heathen to God, and the salvation of their souls. This would suppose a state of society among the ignorant heathen of which we have hitherto had no example in the history of the human race. But it shows that the missionaries, wherever they settle, impart certain advantages to those among whom they labour, that those around them can appreciate and for this reason, among others, they become valuable auxiliaries to us, inasmuch as they soften down the prejudices of the heathen against the truth and doctrines of Christianity, and procure for us a favourable reception and hearing. On one of my journeys into the interior of Africa, I met with one tribe of Korannas, which had been three weeks on the road, by which I was to pass, expecting me, to request me to send them missionaries. When they understood I could not then send thein a missionary, they requested me to send them an instructed native from one of the missionary stations; that by his superior advantages they might be secured against the frauds and impositions practised upon them by the traders from the Colony. Inquiring as to the office or station such a person would be called by them to fill, they replied that they would make him a chief. On the ground that their chieftainships were hereditary, and descended from father to son, I asked them how they could raise a person of no family to that rank. Their answer was curious and amusing. To get over this difficulty they proposed that the stranger should be married to a daughter of their chief. According to their usages, it appeared that a connexion with one of their great families conferred the rank of a son upon a son-in-law; and it was very gravely added, that by this means, and the approbation of the counsellors and the people, the stranger would have a preference granted to him above any other member of the chief's family. About fifteen days journey N. E. from our missionary station at Philippolis, on the Great River, there is a tribe of Bechuanas, that have been very much harassed of late years by a plundering horde of Korannas, who have been very much corrupted by the Colonial Traders, who have been in the habit of supplying them with brandy, guns and gunpowder, which they have received in exchange for the cattle they have stolen from the more remote and defenceless tribes. This Bechuana tribe had never been visited by a missionary; but they had heard of our missionary stations among the Griquas from their countrymen, who had found protection at them, and the chief set out on a journey to find out Dr. Philip, taking a thousand head of cattle with him to purchase a missionary. Shortly after this event he was visited by a respectable man from Philippolis, to whom he related the above circumstance, and that his old enemies, the Korannas met him on the road, and robbed him of his cattle. What this chief's motives were, in being so desirous to have a missionary, I cannot pre

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