140 INFANTICIDE IN INDIA. [DEC. remorse. In these provinces, containing 120,000 people, from the investigations of Colonel Walker we learn that at least 4000 infant children are annually destroyed by their parents." The same bloody custom is traced to the Jats and Mewats, and in the provinces of Gujarat, Jaipur, and Jamedpur. A report by an excellent officer of the British government, the late Mr. Wilkinson, exhibits some definite statistics as to the extent to which this custom is carried. He states that an excellent Rajput chief, in conversing with him, gave it as his opinion that not fewer than twenty thousand infants were annually destroyed in Malwa and Rajputana. In several small districts where a census was carefully taken, startling facts were elicited. Mr. Wilkinson says "The aggregate result given by these censuses is 632 sons to 225 daughters. This is at the average rate of 36 daughters to 100 sons; in other words, out of every 100 of the females born, on the supposition of the equality of the sexes, 64 have been cruelly destroyed by their parents, or, in round numbers, about two-thirds destroyed, and only one-third preserved." Among the Sikhs also the practice prevails, it would seem, to an equally fearful extent. "Of eleven villages in the districts of Jaipur and Udapur, he found, after the closest inquiry, that the aggregate numbers of boys under twelve years of age were 369, and of girls only 87. This shows that 282 girls, or more than three-fourths of all born, were destroyed in these villages in the brief period of twelve years. In one of these villages there were only 4 girls to 44 boys; in another, 4 girls to 58 boys; and in a third, with a large proportion of boys, no girls at all, the inhabitants freely confessing that they had destroyed every girl born in their village." Inquiring for the causes which have introduced, and carried to such an extent, a custom so unnatural, and so revolting to every feeling of humanity, Mr. Seeley says extensive inquiries have led to the general conviction that it "does not arise from sheer cruelty, or from a destitution of parental affection." "The great mass of Hindu mothers possess as strong a love for their children as the mothers of any other people." Instances are known, and doubtless thousands of instances have occurred, in which the earnest entreaties of the mother have induced the father to spare the female infant. In thousands of other cases these pleadings of the mother have been in vain; and when the mother assents, and perhaps herself acts the part of the executioner, we are not to suppose that it is always with no pang of maternal grief. The real causes of the custom are supposed to be "1st, The difficulty of ob taining suitable matches for their daughters were they allowed to grow up, coupled with the supposed disgrace of their remaining unmarried. 2dly, The difficulty of defraying the marriage expenses which have been sanctioned by immemorial custom." Pride, in one or another of its modifications, has thus much to do with all this child-murder. "The tribes that practise it believe that they are the descendants of the sun and moon; that they can trace their ancestry to the commencement of that fabulous era of the golden age, upwards of three millions of years ago;" and therefore, "under the predominant influence of excessive pride, the lordly aristocratic Rajput, rather than brook the fancied disgrace of unequal alliances, and thereby break the line by contaminating the blood of so noble a descent, will quench the 1855.] THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. 141 very instincts of his nature, and doom to death his unoffending offspring." It is now more than fifty years since the attention of the British government was called to this subject; and "during this time, ardent, zealous, and Christian men, sustained by the Christian government of India, have laboured to root up and destroy this cruel and degrading In the year 1795 a regulation was passed by the supreme government, to the effect, that, within the British territories, infanticide must be judicially dealt with as wilful murder." But so great are the difficulties attending the detection and conviction of the guilty, that such efforts, and such laws, have accomplished far too little: the statute is believed to be, in great measure, a dead letter. "The civil officers of these districts have used all their authority and influence to induce the chiefs to enter into the most solemn engagements to discountenance and destroy this barbarous custom, and in many instances they have succeeded. But it has been found far easier to induce them to enter into such engagements than to make them fulfil them. They have seldom been found sincere in their professions. Some of them have put their infant daughters to death only a few months after the most solemn pledge to abandon the practice, and to exert all their efforts to put it down among their people." "This revolting and inhuman crime," says Mr. Seeley, "cannot be stopped by laws and enactments, by promises or pledges. Nothing but the elevation of the people by moral and religious training will cause them to look upon their present practices with disgust, and forsake them for ever. The remedy is found in the gospel, and in the gospel alone. Oh! when will it be applied? Let the Christian church in America answer this question." Nay, still more, we would add, the Christian Church in EnglandEngland, to whose guardianship and care India has been specially assigned. THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. (Concluded from p. 131 of our last Number.) BUT perhaps there was no spectacle that more struck the mind of this enterprising visitor than when he looked up to the foretop-gallant-yard of his own ship, and recalled the history of the man who was looking eagerly down among the reefs, and seeking out for the ship a safe entrance as she drew near to some familiar but perilous shore. The name of this man was Elijah Varani. Not long before, he had been the chief of Vewa, unmatched alike for his terrible exploits and for his ferocious cannibalism, the human butcher of Seru, the superior chief of Bau. Such had been his strength and courage, that he had been known to encounter the shark in his native element, and on many an island his name had borne as great terror with it as that of Africaner had done in the deserts of Namaqualand. But the gospel, after many a season of conviction and resistance, had subdued his savage heart; the deadly warclub had been broken; and when some of the higher chiefs sought to tempt him back to war by the offer of very large gifts, his reply was, "This is not now possible: I am the servant of the King of Peace. Besides, I love every one, and cannot destroy any more lives." As Varani sailed over the scenes of his former murders, many a Feejeean wondered at the mysterious power of the lotu, and predicted its final 142 THE FEEJEE ISLANDS. [DEC. triumph; and the Missionaries beheld in him an argument against all despair. On looking at the statistical table appended to Mr. Lawrie's visit, we find that there were already 37 chapels in Feejee, 23 other preachingplaces, 9 Missionaries and assistant Missionaries, 38 catechists and other paid agents, 68 local preachers, 117 day-school teachers, and nearly 4000 persons in attendance on public worship, including members and scholars. We sympathise with the reflection with which Mr. Lawrie records these moral triumphs, and gazes on whole islands that have been transformed within twelve years "This effect would not have been produced by legislation at home or abroad, nor by any bulls from Rome, nor by all the dancing-masters of France, nor by counting of beads and mounting of crucifixes; no, nor even by preaching the necessary efficacy of the sacraments, and the sacredness of those who are said to be the successors of the apostles. But the word of God-the simple preaching of Christ-has accomplished this moral miracle-this mighty revolution in Feejeean manners.' Since the period of Mr. Lawrie's inspiriting visit, the word of the Lord has continued to grow and multiply. The vast majority of the population are still heathen, but everywhere the empire of darkness is on the wane, and even the priests own that the God of the Christians is a mighty God, and confess that their time is short. Even where the gospel has not yet achieved its highest and peculiar triumph, the presence of the Missionary and the evangelist acts as a powerful check upon self-immolation and cannibalism, and every year saves many lives. It is not the least remarkable fact in the history of Missions in Feejee, that, while the Missionary has so often stood forth as an intercessor and a protector between the ferocious pagan and his victim, whom revenge and appetite alike prompted him to destroy, not a hair of the head of a Missionary has been injured; and in the unconscious restraint that has held back the hand of the man-eater from these devoted men, while so many whites have, during the same period, been mercilessly immolated, it almost seems as if their savage natures, restrained like the lions when the prophet was cast into the midst of them, had heard the command, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” Among the latest intelligence, we learn that Tumbou, the chief town of Lakemba, has recently been adorned with a large and beautiful place of worship; that the older stations, such as Ono, are in a healthy state; that Totoya's four towns are now wholly Christian; and that the Moulans, as a whole, are now learning the ways of the Lord. In the Nandy circuit the people in general maintain their profession, and twenty heathen villages are visited for the purpose of affording Christian instruction, in addition to the eight places which form the circuit. "" Religion increases much in Feejee," says a native teacher in a recent letter; "and there are many small islands in the group on which all the people have lotued. There are also many chapels and many people who have embraced religion in Novitileva and Vanualeva, two large islands." The Old-Testament Scriptures have just been translated and sent to press, and an English and Feejeean dictionary finished. The picture is shaded by the intelligence of the murder of Elijah Varani, the Christian chief of whom we have already spoken, with two brothers and four of his people, and of persecution and malignant obstruction to the 1855.] TURKEY-DEMAND FOR THE BIBLE. 143 Mission, in other parts of Feejee. But scarcely had the Missionaries ceased to weep over Varani's grave, when they were astounded by the intelligence that the great Feejeean king Thakombau had publicly embraced the gospel, and that hundreds of the people of Bau, the royal island, walking in procession, and headed by their priest, had followed the example of their king, and bowed their knees in worship of the true God. Thakombau had threatened to kill Varani at the time of his lotu; to which Varani had meekly replied, "Very well, but you will soon lotu yourself, and then will the thought follow you, I killed Varani because of his lotu.'" The first part of this prophecy of the Vewan chief was now verified, and with this a new day dawned on Christian Missions in Feejee. In the presence of his children, wives, sisters, chief women, and numerous male attendants - in all about 300-Thakombau announced his renunciation of heathenism, and his profession of the faith of Christ. "Our hearts were glad," writes the officiating Missionary. "I thought I could not have gone through the service. It was like the beginning of good days-like a dream when one awaketh; yet a blessed reality. 'Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things; and blessed be His glorious name for ever! Evil practices, of long standing and fearful magnitude, are done away with at a stroke; an effectual hindrance to the spread of the gospel removed. Feejee's brightest, best day! long to be remembered! A foundation of great, extensive, and everlasting good!" Thus is the gospel rapidly extending its triumphs in Feejee, and narrowing the domain of darkness, crime, and death. What it has done for Ono it is able to accomplish for the whole island-group-it will yet accomplish for the whole world. It is one of the sublime fancies of geology, that, through the labours of the coral insect, and the outbursts and upheavings of the volcano and the earthquake, vast coral platforms shall rise above the bosom of the Pacific, knitting and cementing those numerous isles into one spacious and blooming continent. But the greatest and best of moral revolutions meanwhile advances at a far more rapid pace. Already many a serene and smiling Patmos lifts its head above the waves, and is the home of those who converse with God; and every year the Mission ship is gliding among its islands, and leaving new evangelists to gather new and early triumphs. As cannibalism and infanticide disappear, population will increase, and colonists, attracted from New Zealand, and even Australia, by the fruitful soil and fragrant climate, will add their multitudes to the native tribes, and, by intermarriage, trade, and commerce, elevate and expand their minds. Christianity will adjoin this island-group to her blessed empire, and enable Feejee to add to the scenery much of the sanctity of Paradise. "The multitude of the isles shall be glad thereof. They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea. They shall glorify the Lord in the valleys, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea." wwwww TURKEY-DEMAND FOR THE BIBLE. THE following facts will be perused with interest and thankfulness by our readers, as evidencing the increasing demand for the Holy Scriptures among the Turks. They are communicated in a letter 144 A HINT. [DEC. from Mr. B. Barker, in correspondence with the British and Foreign Bible Society. On one occasion, some Turks calling at our dépôt for Ingils (Testaments), not only readily paid the price asked for them, but observed that those books were invaluable, and deserved a bakshis besides their cost. Another time, on the Rev. Mr. Spencer's (one of the Scripture readers) presenting Testaments to two Turks, when they saw what books they were, they kissed them, and placed them in their bosom, thanking Mr. Spencer over and over again for them. One day, when a Turk bought a Bible from our dépôt, he observed, "This book belongs to us, for we took possession of it when we took Constantinople: we then cared nothing for it, and the English have since printed it." This, I suppose, he intended as an excuse for purchasing a Bible in the presence of Christians. A Turk who is persuaded of the truth of the gospel, but dares not avow it publicly, expressed a wish to open a shop to sell the Scriptures, and other Turkish religious publications, in a quarter of Constantinople entirely inhabited by Turks, and applied to the American Missionaries for books for that purpose. These brethren have taken into consideration the courageous proposal of this Turk, and will, no doubt, give him a helping hand to put his project into execution, provided they can feel confident that no serious harm will befall him. It is a remarkable fact, that years ago our Society possessed only a small obscure dépôt in Galata, which was opened only twice a week, and where the Turks never put their foot in, and the Christians entered it rarely, and by stealth. Now, besides the great dépôt, which is kept open all day long in a most frequented street in Constantinople, leading to the principal bazaars, the Society's books are exposed for sale in the grand street of Pera, at the Scripture-Readers' Depository and Reading-room at Galata, at the London Jews' Society's stores at Constantinople, and last, not least, they are hawked about the streets of this vast capital by colporteurs, and may be met with on the great floating bridge, and other parts of the city, taken there by vendors of books. This, indeed, is a sign of the times, and all praise is due to God, who has brought about such wonderful changes. Italy, Spain, Portugal, &c., may truly blush to see the inveterate enemies of the cross countenancing the circulation of the Scriptures, whilst they, who avow to be the champions of that cross, studiously and energetically shut up all avenues against the promulgation of the words of our blessed Saviour, the precious founder of our redeeming faith. But theirs, alas! is a wooden cross, without life or spirit to kindle in their bosoms a sacred flame of pure vital Christianity. A HINT. THE plan of halfpenny-a-week contributions to the cause of Missions is rapidly extending in Switzerland, Alsace, and the south of Germany. By this means, in the space of six months, nearly 13,000 francs were secured; and a small Missionary periodical, transmitted to each in return for his subscription, has been placed in the hands of 25,000 subscribers. It is a fact worthy of notice, that this effort numbers thirty subscribers among the poor prisoners in the Bâle jail, where a gratifying revival of religion has been recently enjoyed. [Macedonian. |