PREFACE. BEFORE the reader proceeds to the perusal of the following Memoir, it may be proper to inform himthat the first and second parts of it have been chiefly selected from various Journals, which Mr. Martyn was in the habit of keeping, for his own private use, and which, beginning with the year 1803, comprehend a period of eight years. The third part is extracted from an account which he drew up of his visit to Shiraz in Persia; in which some occasional observations on the state of his own mind and feelings are interspersed. It is termed a Narrative by Mr. Martyn; and had his life been spared, it was probably his intention to have enlarged it, for the use of the public, or perhaps to have communicated it, nearly in its original shape, to his intimate friends. From the style and manner of it, at least, it may be presumed not to have been exclusively intended (as the Journals above-mentioned evidently were,) for his own recollection and benefit. The greater part of these papers were upon the point of being destroyed by the writer, upon his undertaking the voyage to Persia; but, happily, he was prevailed upon, by the Rev. D. Corrie, to confide them under a seal to his care, and by him they were transmitted from India, to the Rev. C. Simeon, and J. Thornton, Esq. Mr. Martyn's executors, in the year 1814. The Narrative, which was sent, by Mr. Morier, from Constantinople, came into their hands in the following year. Such are the materials from which I have compiled the present Memoir,-throughout the whole of which I have endeavored, as much as possible, to let Mr. Martyn speak for himself, and thus exhibit a genuine picfure of his own mind. In making a selection from a mass of such valuable matter, it has been my anxious wish and sincere prayer, that it might prove subservient to the interests of true religion. A principal object with me has been to render it beneficial to those disinterested Ministers of the Gospel, who, "with the Bible in their hand, and their Savior in their hearts," devote themselves to the "great cause" in which Mr. Martyn lived and died; and, truly, if the example here delineated should excite any of those servants of Christ to similar exertion, or if it should animate and encourage them, amidst the multiplied difficulties of their arduous course, my labor will receive an eminent and abundant recompence. JOHN SARGENT, Jun. Grafham, July 7, 1819. CONTENTS. pressions He visits Cornwall and returns to Cambridge, when he His tour through Wales to Cornwall Returns to Cambridge, and resolves to preach the The state of his mind between the period of deter- His difficulties and discouragements on first exercising Executes the office of Public Examiner in St. John's Visits London respecting a Chaplainship to the East . 12-19 20-30 37-40 40-43 43-66 67-69 69 70 71,72 73,74 Returns to Cambridge-His diligence in the ministry- Visits Cornwall as it appeared for the last time His journey from Cornwall to Cambridge His letter to his youngest sister His great happiness and holy sensibility in the work of His joy on the Sabbath Chosen again examiner at St. John's His prospects and retrospect A record of his feelings at this season arrives at Falmouth .. His mixed emotions at unexpectedly visiting Cornwall His acute mental misery-His arrival at Cork, and joy- 107-109 110-115 115-120 120-124 He leaves Cork-A storm-Mr. Martyn's sensations Extracts of letters from Funchal Sailed from Funchal for the Cape of Good Hope, A description of St. Salvador and of the events which He leaves St. Salvador for the Cape-The army 142-145 145-157 |