In 1796, when Amboyna was taken possession of by the British, under the command of Admiral Rainier, upwards of 17,000 of the natives were reported to be Protestant Christians; the rest of the inhabitants were Roman Catholics, Mahomedans, and Pagans.*

SECTION IV.

FORMOSA.

IN 1634, the Dutch formed a settlement on the western part of Formosa, and erected the fort of Zealand, which secured to them the principal harbour in the island.† Mr. Robert Junius of Delpht was soon after sent by the senate of the United Provinces, to introduce Christianity among the Pagan inhabitants. Having undertaken this important charge, it is said he took great pains in teaching them the principles of religion; and we are informed, that near 6,000 persons were baptized by him. Besides appointing schoolmasters in different places, by whom about 600 young people were taught to read, he collected the chief heads of religion, composed some prayers, and translated certain psalms into the Formosan language. It was chiefly in the northern parts of the island that he carried on these operations; but he also planted churches in twenty-three towns in the south; and after having set pastors over them, he returned to his native country.‡

Besides Junius, several other ministers from Holland laboured in this island; and, in 1661, the Gospels of Matthew and John, translated into the Formosan language by Daniel Gravius, were printed at Amsterdam; and they were followed the next year by a Catechism written by two other persons; §

* Edinburgh Encyclopædia, art. AMBOINA.

+ Modern Universal History, vol. viii. p. 49.

Sebellii Antidotum Ambitionis in Turner's Remarkable Providences, p. 76. § Fabricii Lux Salutaris, p. 595.

but it is probable these works never reached Formosa, or, at least, were never of much use to the inhabitants, for about this very period, the Dutch were expelled from the island, under circumstances of peculiar horror, by a Chinese pirate, and a numerous fleet under his command.* The whole country being overrun by these invaders, such of the Europeans as had not saved themselves by a timely flight, fell into their hands, and were treated with the utmost barbarity. The fortress of Zealand was, at length, reduced to the greatest straits; the soldiers were daily dying of the bloody flux, the scurvy, and the dropsy. In the course of nine months, upwards of sixteen hundred were cut off either by the famine or by the sword, while those who survived were obliged to surrender to the enemy. By these disastrous events, nearly thirty ministers were ruined in their lives, or in their fortunes. Some of them were beheaded, while their wives and many others of their countrymen were carried into slavery.† In 1682, the grandson of the pirate, who expelled the Dutch from Formosa, was obliged to surrender the island to the Emperor of China,‡ in whose hands it has ever since remained; so that probably no traces of Christianity are now to be found among the inhabitants.

Besides the converts in these places, the Dutch made a multitude of others in Sumatra, Timor, Celebes, Banda, Ternate, and the neighbouring Molucca islands; but we fear they were in no respect superior to those we have already described.

Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. viii. p. 499. vol. x. p. 359. † Baldæus in Churchill, vol. iii. p. 572.

Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. viii. p. 507. Fabricii Lux Salutaris, p. 594.-Niecampii Hist. p. 275.-Paget's Christianographie,

p. 275.

CHAPTER IV.

PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY BY THE ANGLO

AMERICANS.

SECTION I.

MASSACHUSETTS COLONY.

AFTER the House of Stuart ascended the throne of England, the tyranny of the government, both in church and state, became so violent and intolerable, that numbers of the people fled from their native land, and sought an asylum in the wilds of America, in the hope of obtaining that liberty of conscience among savages, which was denied them by their own countrymen. Having left their friends and their country chiefly for the sake of religion, they could not behold, with indifference and unconcern, the poor Indians wandering in the paths of ignorance and error, without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world. For some years, however, the difficulties attending a new settlement in a desert uncultivated region, the quarrels in which they were unfortunately involved with the natives, the disputes that fell out among themselves, together with various other circumstances, prevented them from making those early exertions for the evangelizing of the Indians, which the nature and importance of the object demanded.

In the year 1646, the General Court of Massachusetts passed the first act, encouraging the propagation of the gospel

among the Indians; and it was recommended to the elders of the churches, to consider the means by which it might best be accomplished.* One of the first to comply with this order was Mr. John Eliot, who, not having been allowed to keep school in his native country, had retired to NewEngland, and was now minister of Roxbury, a place in the neighbourhood of Boston.† He had for two years past been applying to the study of the Indian language, with the assistance of a young ingenious native, who understood English, whom he hired for this purpose; and notwithstanding the enormous length of many of the words, the harshness of the pronunciation, and the want of affinity with the languages of Europe, he was now able not only to understand, but to speak it intelligibly.‡

Having in this manner prepared himself for the work, Mr. Eliot, about the end of October, proceeded, with two or three of his friends, to visit some Indians, at a place about four or five miles from his own house, to whom he had previously given notice of his design to instruct them in the Christian faith. Several of them met him at some distance from their wigwams, and, bidding him welcome, conducted him into a large apartment, where a great number of their countrymen were assembled, to hear this new doctrine which the English were to teach them. After a short prayer, Mr. Eliot delivered a discourse to them in the Indian tongue, which lasted upwards of an hour; and comprehended many of the most important articles of natural and revealed religion. He informed them of the creation of the world, and the fall of man; of the greatness of God, the maker of all things; of the ten commandments, and the threatnings denounced against those who broke them; of the character and office of Jesus Christ; of the last judgment, the joys of heaven, and

• Hutcheson's History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, vol. i. p. 161. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 227.-Gillie's Historical Collection relating to the Success of the Gospel, vol. ii. p. 124.

Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, vol iii. p. 867.—Mather's Ecclesiastical History of New England, Book iii. p. 193.

the torments of hell. Having finished his discourse, he asked them, whether they understood him; to which they answered, they understood all. He then desired them, as was afterwards his usual practice, to ask him any questions they might think necessary with regard to the sermon, upon which some of them made several inquiries of him, such as: "How a man might come to know Jesus Christ? Whether Englishmen were ever so ignorant of Jesus Christ as they were? Whether Jesus Christ could understand prayers in the Indian language? Whether, if a man was wicked, and his child good, God would be offended with that child; for, in the second commandment, it was said, He visits the ini quities of the fathers upon the children?" To these and some other questions of a similar kind, Mr. Eliot and his friends endeavoured to give the Indians plain and simple answers; and after a conference of about three hours, they returned home highly delighted with their visit.*

Encouraged by so favourable a reception, Mr. Eliot and his friends paid the Indians a second visit about a fortnight after and found a still greater number assembled than before. After teaching the children a few questions, he discoursed to the whole congregation about an hour concerning the nature of God, the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, the necessity of faith in him, and the awful consequences of neglecting the gospel. During these exercises, the whole of them appeared extremely serious and attentive; and after sermon, an aged Indian stood up, and, with tears in his eyes, inquired, "Whether it was not too late for such an old man as he, who was now near death, to repent and seek after God?” Some others asked, "How the English came to differ so much from the Indians in their knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, since they had all at first but one father? How it happened that sea-water was salt and river-water fresh? How

Day-breaking of the Gospel in New-England, London, 1647, in Neal's History of New-England, vol. i. p. 242.-Gookin's Historical Collections of the Indians in NewBngland in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. i. p. 168.