PECUNIARY ACCOUNTS OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in account current with Jeremiah Evarts, their Treasurer, Dr. To cash paid from Sept. 1, 1814, to Aug. 31, 1815, in conformity to orders of the Board, and of the Prudential Committee, from No. 80 to No 112, inclusive, for expenses incurred in the prosecution of the objects of the Board, To losses by counterfeit bills received in donations, To balance carried to the credit of the Board in new account, Sept. 1, 1815, $5,007 80 19 00 19,833 30 $24, 860 10 Contra Cr. By balance brought to the credit of the Board in new account, Sept. 1, 1814, as appears by the Auditor's certificate of Sept. 16, 1814, By cash received in donations, between Sept. 1, 1814, and August 31, 1815, inclusive, as published in the Panoplist for October, 1814, pp. 479, 480, November, pp. 520, 521, December, pp. 575, 574, January, 1815, p. 46, February, pp. 89, 90, March, pp. 138, 139, $856-19 763 28 348 50 688 51 312 30 703 51 1,301 11 708 20 2,321 60 1,228 49 13,467 53 August, pp. 386, 387, September, p. 438, October, p. 486, By cash received as income of stock and interest on notes, during the year preceding August 31, 1815. By postage, and discount on uncurrent bills, reimbursed, 237 80 AN ABSTRACT OF THE EXPENDITURES OF THE BOARD, FROM SEPT. 1, 1814, to aug. 31, 1815, INCLUSIVE, Paid for 2501 sterling exchange on London, at 14 per cent discount, remitted on ac count of the salaries of the missionaries at Bombay, In part of the outfit of the Rev. James Richards, jun. missionary to the In full of the outfit of the Rev. Beujamin C. Meigs Towards necessary expenses incurred by Messrs. Richards and Warren, while obtaining a medical education at Philadelphia, Towards necessary expenses of Mr. Bardwell, while acquiring some knowl of the printing business, so that he might be qualified to superintend printing the Scriptures, if necessary, in the East, Towards necessary expenses of Mr. Warren, while waiting the direction of the Prudential Committee, Towards the expenses of educating Henry Obookiah,a native of Owhy hee, with a view to his future employment as a missionary to his countrymen, Expense of printing 1,250 copies of the annual report,* published in Nov. 1814, 71 43 10.00 50 00 Carried forward, $131 98-$3,339 76 *There has been a saving to the Board annually, in the article of printing, as nothing has been charged for setting up the types, when the same matter has been printed in the Panoplist. Brought forward, $131 98-$3,330 76 Expense of printing the Rev. Mr. Richards's Sermon, preached before the Board, Do. of printing the Rev. Dr. Worcester's Sermon, preached at the ordination of the missionaries, 44.137. am Towards the necessary expenses of prosecuting the suit for the Norris Legacy, 46 32 -222 43 600 00 $312 00 13 33 Travelling expenses of the members of the Board in attending the annual meeting at New Haven, Sept. 1814, Other contingent expenses of the meeting, Expense of securing, in a legal and proper manner, the last donation 325 33 ing meetings on the business of the Board, 31 62 $15 45 1 00 75-17 29 24 10 of Mr. Solomon Goodell, Expense of transporting silver, A keg for shipping dollars, Paid by the Treasurer for postage of letters, Do-on packages from India, addressed to the Rev. Dr. Worcester, 13 25 Paid by the Rev. Dr. Worcester for postage, Paid by the Treasurer for stationary, for a letter-box, Paid by the Rev. Dr. Worcester for stationary, 14 6351 98 6 00 S 81-11 06 Allowance to the Treasurer for his services, during the year preceding the annual meeting in Sept. 1814, Allowance to the Corresponding Secretary and Clerk of the Prudential Committee for his services during the same period, 842 300 00 100 00 + $5,007 80 It ought to be stated, that the actual engagements entered into by the Board, during the year preceding Aug. 31, 1815, do not fully appear by the foregoing abstract. As the mission to Ceylon did not leave this country till after the annual meeting of the Board, the greater part of the money, which had been appropriated to that object, was pot drawn from the Treasury till the embarcation of the missionaries. Since the annual meeting, the Committee have sent to Calcutta, for the purpose of distributing the Scriptures in the vernacular tongues of Asia, Paid towards the salaries of the missionaries at Bombay, Their salaries a year in advance, $2,500 00 1,000 00 3,111 11 • 1,118 85 Expense of their passage to Ceylon, 1,500 00 Besides these sums considerable expenses have been incurred for books, maps, medicines, surgical instruments, and many other unavoidable contingent charges; so that the balance now on hand, exclusive of the Norris Legacy, is several thousand dollars less than it was in Sept. 1814. It ought to be mentioned, that the owners of the brig Dryad charged for the passage of the missionaries only the estimated actual expense of providing for their passage, and of touching at Ceylon. The passage will therefore cost the Board $1,200 or $1,500 less, than if had been contracted for at the customary rate. It is doubtful, indeed, whether the owners of a vessel could be induced, in ordinary circumstances, to touch at Ceylon with passengers, unless a considerable allowance was made, beyond the common price of conveying them to the port whither the vessel was directly bound. Since the meeting of the Board, the Norris Legacy has been paid into the Treasury by the Trustees. That legacy, after deducting what had been paid by the Trustees as necessary expenses of prosecuting the suit amounted to $28,435 64. After deducting $908 45 which had been paid by the Board on account of the expense of said suits, the clear avails of the legacy are $27,527 19. Nearly all this sum is now in a productive state, and the whole will be shortly. In about a year and a half, the interest on the sum recovered will be sufficient to make up the amount of $50,000 which is to be kept as a capital sum, according to the will of Mrs. Norris, the interest of which only is to be expended in promoting the objects of the Board. The expense of recovering the Aegacy was,as will appear from what isstated above,$2,472 81. This expense may appear large: it is therefore proper to say that the Board was interested in two suits; one to establish the will of Mrs. Norris, and the other to remove legal objections to this par ticular legacy. The business was in litigation four years; and in the first suit it was necessary to obtain releases from several witnesses, who were legatees by the will; 3 1815. Pecuniary Accounts of Massachusetts Missionary Society. 381 which could only be done by paying the amount to which they were interested. Towards this charge, however, all the other legatees contributed. Neither the Trustees, nor any member of the Board, received any compensation for the time and trouble spent in conducting the suits. To those who are particularly acquainted with the circumstances of the case, and with the expense of legal proceedings where large sums of money are concerned, it will not appear surprising, that the recovery of this legacy should cost what it did. That Mrs. Norris's intentions were perfectly clear, as to the disposition of her property, admits not of a doubt. If her will had not been made the subject of litigation, the legacy would in all probability have been paid within a year from her decease, and have been placed thenceforward in a productive state. There will be an ultimate loss of interest, therefore, in consequence of the law-suits, for at least four years and a half, which would amount to more than eight thousand dollars; the greater part of which would have been expended before this day, in sending the Gospel to the destitute. Above three thousand dollars of the other property of the Board is appropriated by the donors to form a permanent fund, so that the balance on hand applicable to imme diate use is not large. AUDITOR'S CERTIFICATE. Charlestown, Nov. 21, 1815. THIS certifies, that I have examined the accounts of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. Treasurer of the American, Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for the year ending Aug. 31, 1815, and found the funds of the Board faithfully and accurately accounted for, and a balance of Nineteen Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Three Dollars and thirty cents remaining in the Treasury, consisting of cash, notes, and other property, agreeably to the foregoing schedule. CHESTER ADAMS, Auditor. $19,833 30. The schedule above referred to is a Trial Balance dated Aug. 31, 1815, and contains the particulars, which compose the following sums; viz. In notes on interest, amply secured, In bank stock, $10,418 34 3,150 00 In the hands of the Clerk of the Prudential Committee, to meet contingent expenses, In cash, reserved towards fitting out the eastern mission, In bills not current, principally. of the New York banks, 279 38 3,812 10 64 00 2,109 48 $19,833 30 1 During the year past more than half the donations to the Board have been made in bills of the New York and other southern banks, which have been at a discount of from 10 to 20 per cent. The Prudential Committee have been able, however, to dispose of nearly all these bills without loss, by lending them on good security to persons where they are current, the principal and interest to be paid in specie. The Commit. tee have been able to do this by calling in, for immediate use, money which had been previously lent. Donors may rest assured, that all practicable care will be taken to se cure the full value of their donations. ABSTRACT OF THE PECUNIARY ACCOUNTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MISSIONARY SO- Annual payments of members, Collection after the annual sermon, May 24, 1814, Collections in congregations, From Female Cent Societies, From other associated females, Other donations, For Bibles sold, $314 00 738 11 178 65 244 53 129 23 113 68 7 35 $1,725 55 Income of stock and interest on notes, 116 62 $1,842 17 Balance on hand at the beginning of the year, 4,158 42 $6,000 59 Balance carried to the credit of the Society in new account; viz. Ju notes and stock, In cash, $1,794 60 27 35 150 78 1,972 73 2,486 00 1,541 86-4,027 86 $6,000 59 LETTER FROM DR. NAUDI TO THE SECRETARY OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Malta, Valletta,Sept. 3, 1814. My Dear Sir, REFERRING to a letter which I wrote lately to you, I shall not repeat what I said about the young man, Jerome Pana, already prepared to leave Malta, and to be engaged under your Society, as one of those young persons whom you commissioned me to send out to be educated for the future benefit of North Africa. I had lately much conversation with a gentleman from Derna, an important place in the neighborhood of Tripoli. He had been in almost every corner of that territory, and had travelled much about the Deserts of Barca. That part of the Aucient World, which once gave birth to such great Christian men, and where the Church of Christ greatly flourished, is now the most neglected; and is reduced to a state, very little different from that of the Hottentots and other savages of Africa. A well-disposed man, endowed with such individual and Christian qualifications as are requisite for the purpose, would effect a great deal of good among those different tribes. There are among them a multitude of Jews; and in the late troubles, a very great number of this people migrated from Europe to Cairo, and other parts of Egypt, and to Jerusalem. It is very singular to observe, that, in the short period of two years, many unexpected conversions from the Jewish to the blessed religion of Jesus have taken place all round the Mediter ranean. I had the other day a second letter from the Bishop of Nicotia in Cyprus, in answer to one sent to him from one of my friends here, John Suappottolo, who is much interested in promoting the knowledge of the Gospel. He took upon himself to procure for us two good persons from Arabia, in order to be sent for better education to your benevolent Society for the ultimate benefit of North Africa. Fully persuaded of the essential good which will follow from your exertions in that part of the world, he promises to send to us shortly these two young men from Alexandria, well educated according to the custom of their country, and of good characters; and it will be all at his own expense till they arrive in Malta. We are always lamenting here the' good persons lost by the plague last year. Before my coming to England we had, as you know, a new Society, well adapted for religious purposes, in this island, which was called the "Society of Francisco," after the Founder. This good man died by the plague; and with him died a great part of our benevolent people. These perished, bécause, more than others, they exposed themselves to the contagion, All those members of the Society who took an active part in visiting the sick, and giving the Lord's Supper to the dying, lost their lives. Their zeal was a great blessing to the dying; but all of them failed, and are lamented. The other young man whom I mentioned to you, and whom I meant to send to the Society, lost his father and sister by the contagion: in consequence of which he is obliged to support the business of his father, and to decline, with great regret, accepting your proposal. He desires me to give you this statement, and begs to be considered always as an intimate friend of the Society. We have lost about twenty-four Priests, who were, for the most part, eminent persons for character and piety. At the burial ground, near town, about 6000 of our inhabitants are interred, who were lost to us in the fatal year 1813. Since the beginning of this month I have been in mourning for my sister Rosi, who was ill when I wrote to you last. She ended her life on the last day of July. Every thing possible was attempted to prolong her life, but in vain. I passed three months with her in the country, at a spot which is considered the best for consumptive diseases. We are very much distressed by this loss, and my mother is almost inconsolable. But let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! Her last words, just a minute before she died, were: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Father, I commend it into thy hands!" I continue that work which I began when I was with you, about the present state of Christianity round the Mediterranean and in the Islands. But I want a great deal of information for rendering it complete. The case of the Jews must be considered as mysterious, in respect of their present conduct. Notwithstanding they are at this time tolerated in Turkey more than before, and in a great measure protected in all the Levant and the islands by that falling empire of the Mahometans, yet their conversions to the Christian Religion were never so frequent as they have been in these latter times. I have received various accounts relative to this important subject. I greatly desire now to go to Syria, to Palestine, and particularly to Damascus, in order to examine into the present condition of that people, and their true situation. Perhaps I shall do it when Mr. Jowett arrives. Remember me when together to the respectable members of your Society. I never fail to commend them to the Omnipotent, that their zeal and their means for spreading the Gospel may increase, and their plans for promoting the grand object may have vigor and success; till, at last, the true religion of our blessed Savior shall cover the earth all over. I remain with true respect, Yours, &c. (Signed) CLEARDO NAUDI. OBITUARY. DIBD, at Dunbarton (N. H.) on the 12th of June last, Mrs. JEMIMA HARRIS, wife of the Rev. Walter Harris. It is sometimes a tribute due to worth, and sometimes the interest of virtue is promoted by recommending to public notice the memory of those who have been distinguished for usefulness. This Lady should not be classed with the multitude who, through the fondness or perhaps the vanity of friends, are eulogized in the public papers. Her mind was clear and discriminating, and always tempered with discretion. She had that correctness of judgment and taste, mixed with a mildness and affability of manners, which qualified her to act with propriety in the most polished circles; but her usefulness appeared most eminent there, where every understanding, discreet and pious woman can act to the best advantage, in domestic life, in directing the young minds of her children, and forming them to habits of virtue and propriety of conduct. It may be said with truth, that she was distinguished for domestic virtue. By her assiduous attention to every domestic concern, she relieved her husband of much care, and enabled him to devote his time to the important duties of the ministry. For many years she gave a decided testimony to the truth of those doctrines of our holy Religion, which are usually called the doctrines of grace; and in these she found support and consolation in the certain and near prospect of death. TO THE PATRONS OF THE PANOPLIST. WE have the satisfaction to inform our Patrons, that a new type has been procured for the commencement of the next volume. As the type will be larger than that which we have heretofore used, the page will be enlarged so as to contain the same quantity of matter. We have long regretted, that we did not print more copies of the volume of the Panoplist, which is now closed. In order to accommodate some of our old subscribers, who were not furnished through the customary channels, and to gratify several new subscribers, we are compelled to re-purchase a considerable number of copies. In future, we hope to be able to supply all subscribers; though, if the experience of the last year is to be regarded, it will be necessary to print several hundred copies more than are engaged at the commencement of the volume. |