Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

WEST AFRICA.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Death of Mrs. Butscher.

To the afflicting intelligence lately received respecting this Mission, we are deeply concerned to add that of the death of Mrs. Butscher. Her husband's account of her departure is very affecting.

In a Letter, addressed to the Secretary, dated Sierra Leone, May 25, 1815, he says,

Rev. and Dear Sir

In distress of mind I am now sitting down to inform you, that my Dear Wife is no more with me, but is gone to Heaven. She died on the 19th instant, having left me, and our dear, dear pledges behind: one named Mary, two years old on the 26th of this month; and the boy, named Charles, who was two months old the day she died.

Three days previous to her death, she was taken ill with that infectious fever, which was brought hither by a vessel about three months ago, and has proved fatal to many within a short period. The Nova Scotian Settlers call it the "Bone-Broken-Fever." It is attended with pains in the bones, and stupidity in the head. When the black discharge, or vomit, comes on, then death soon follows: and this was the case with my dear, dear Catharine.

A few hours previous to her death, I asked her, "My Love, can you pray to Jesus?" She replied, "Yes, I can; but I feel stupidity in my head."-She said to her two Nurses, one of them a good old pious woman," My good old women, I never repent that I came to this country with my dear Butscher."-A few minutes before she died, I prayed again with her; and, having finished, I kissed her, and she embraced me. with such a force, that one of the Nurses was obliged to loose her dear arms from off my neck. Mrs. Davies, the Methodist

Preacher's wife, being present, burst into tears: and, a few minutes after, my dear wife expired.

Mrs. Davies took my Mary to her home; and another good lady, Mrs. Nicol, took the little boy, with his nurse, into her house. Was it not for these two good women, I should not know what to do with my dear little pledges; but I know that they are in good hands. May the Lord reward their present mothers and fathers, for I never can. I wish very much that Mrs. Davies would keep my dear Mary, as it is my earnest desire that my children should be brought up in that Sacred Truth to which their mother was devoted, and of which their father is a sincere advocate.

But, O! my dear wife, what shall I do without thee! I have about forty-five children under my immediate, care, now without a mother! Some are laid up with the measles: another is crying and pining away. There is little Rose, a girl about six years of age, whom Mrs. Butscher took last year from a slave vessel to bring her up-poor little thing, she knows her letters, and can sew very neatly, but is sick, fretting so after my wife, that I expect her to die to-day. Oh, Thou God of Heaven, what hast thou done! Surely thy thoughts and thy ways are not as my thoughts and my ways.

Our readers will not wonder that Mr. Butscher keenly feels the loss of Mrs. Butscher as an excellent wife: but they will know better how to estimate the extent of his loss, and that of the Colony and the Mission, when they hear the testimony borne to her public merits, by an intelligent observer at Sierra Leone. "Mrs. Butscher's death," he writes, "is a very heavy loss to the younger part of the Colonists: I may almost say an irreparable one, as I do not expect to find another woman here of equal abilities, and with an equal willingness to exert them."

Mr. Butscher having arrived in this country from Africa, by invitation from the Committee, in the Spring of 1812, married Miss Catharine Wilson, his late wife. She was a woman of acute understand

ing, considerable attainments, and tried piety. Her* faith and courage were not a little put to the test in the shipwreck of the vessel in which they sailed. We have given the narrative in our First Volume; and will only remind our readers of that interesting scene, when, waked at midnight by the shock of the vessel against a rock, all hurried on deck in consternation. "I spoke," says Mr. Butscher, " and exhorted those around me to commit their souls to our Blessed Lord and Saviour; and, taking my wife in my arms, I said, 'My dear, look unto Christ our Saviour. Perhaps, after a few mi nutes, we shall be before his Throne, where we shall part no more, but be with Him for ever:' upon which she said, 'The Lord's will be done !'"

To that wise and Holy Will we desire to bow: in full assurance that God will, in His own time, and by His own instruments, arise and have mercy upon wretched Africa.

Miscellanies.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHURCH MISSIONARY

SOCIETY.

Présent Contrib.

ASSOCIATIONS.

Total. L. s. d.

22 17 7 1192 0 2000 2526 6 8 1000 00 4860 0 0 3 0.0 3 0 0

Bedford and Bedfordshire; for Turvey. L. s. d.
Branch Association: half year, by
Mrs. Richmond, Treasurer...
Bentinck Chapel (omitted by mistake)
Bristol (including School Fund)....
Colsterworth, near Grantham.
Coventry by Rev. Jolin Davies, M.A.
Contribut, and Subscrip...43 00
Ship Fund...
1 0 6

Foleshill, by Mrs. Soden.. 5 0

1549 15

Making, with 111. 58. 9d, for last year (see, in

[ocr errors]

Present Contrib.

March List, 106/. 11s. 3d. and 4l. 14s. 6d. subs.

Total.

956

not acknowledged) the sum of.. ...... L.160 7 2 Drayton Beauchamp, Bucks - L.22 40 East Woodhay cum Ashmansworth:

+

Collection.....

L.S 2 Ο

Contributions .......... ・・・・ 380)6 10. 0

Leeds

90 0 0

Making, with Collections at Wortley, Bramley, Chapel-Allerton, Horsforth, Pudsey, and Rawden (entered, Oct. 1814), amounting to 59. 136. 9d.;

8

6 10 0

and 713/. 12s. 7d. noticed Nov. 1814; the sum of 865 6 Maryport and Dearhain, Cumberland

Nottingham (with Ship Fund) · ·

Princes Risborough, third part of Annual Produce..

5 4 0

30 6 0

5 4 180 2 8

5 15 4

20 4 54

[blocks in formation]

COLLECTIONS AND BENEFACTIONS.

Anonymous, at Nottingham, by sale of Jewels....

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

By Rev. W. T. Staines, Rochester '•·
Barrington Tristram, Esq. Lieut. R. A.
·Jersey....................
By Mr. Whyte, Tower
Joseph Wilson, jun., Esq., Clapham
(Annual)

[ocr errors]

1

714 7
477 1 24

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

CONGREGATIONAL COLLECTIONS.

Aston Sandford, Bucks (additional).
Bledlow, Bucks; one third of the
Collection.

2 3 0 260 10

3 12 4

34 5-11

Contributions to the School Fund.

Bristol Association:

For Thomas Conolly Cowan (three years)
From Mr. T. H. S. Brown, for Adelaide (two

years).

15 0 0

10 0 0

[blocks in formation]

Contributions to the Fund for the West-African Ship "William Wilberforce."

A few Friends in Westmoreland: by Rev. W.

.....

Carus Wilson
Rev. Edmund Harvey, M.A. Rector of Willian, Herts
Rev. James Pope, M.A. Rector of Great Staughton,
Hunt

Servants of Mr. Pope

Collection at Hargrave, Northamptonshire: by Rev:
J. M. Longmire

.......

......

........

Mr. Pritchett, Chambers-street, Goodman's-fields.
A Friend: by Rev. Josiah Pratt
Mrs. Cotterill, Bevere, near Worcester........................
Rev. R. P. Beachcroft, M. A. Blunham

........

Collection at Aldwinkle Church: by Rev. R. A.
Hannaford, B. A.

24 0 0

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

0 10

6

Small Donations from Bridlington and Scarbro': by Rev. H. J. Maddock

Church Lawford Association

10 0 0 11.03 2 2

[ocr errors]

13.0

21

[ocr errors]

Mrs. Barratt, South Crescent, Bedford-square
Collection at Clapton Church: by Rev. R. A. Han-
naford, B. A. (Rev. C. W. Fonnerean, L. L. B,
Rector)

Mrs. Archdale Palmer

Mrs. Powell

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][ocr errors]

3.13 6. 2 0 10

1 1 0

3 7

5 5

[ocr errors]

50

1 10

10

10 10 0

5

16 7

A Few Friends

...

[blocks in formation]

1

10

1

(N. B. Further particulars of the Bristol Contributions to

this fund are omitted for want of room.)

« AnteriorContinuar »