made virtually our neighbors, before we can expect the full flow of Christian sympathy to be excited in their behalf.

The Committee are informed that, although the Acting Board has not been successful in their past attempts to secure the full amount of agency recommended by the General Convention, yet there is every reason to believe the deficiency will be soon supplied.

But there is one influence to be employed in raising funds for this society which the Committee deem essential to its progress, which it is feared is, as yet, very imperfectly exerted, the influence of the pastors of the churches. But a small number of the pastors, it is feared, make a direct and personal effort to increase the funds of the Convention.

More attention is requisite on the following things:

1. That the annual contribution or subscription be made, and at a stated period of the year.

2. That every person in the church and congregation have the opportunity of contributing.

3. That juvenile societies be organized, by which not only present funds would be increased, but a benevolent generation raised up.

4.

That the monthly concert be rendered instructive, and thereby interesting; and that a collection be always taken.

5. And, lastly, that every family subscribe for the Missionary Magazine, who is able to do so.

Your Committee would close their report by expressing the opinion that the small amount contributed for Foreign Missions by the Baptist denomination is not owing so much to inability, or to a general want of benevolence, as to the fact that the proper influence is not exerted in eliciting their contributions.

R. E. PATTISON, Chairman.

The Committee appointed to nominate the Acting Board for the ensuing year, reported, and the report was accepted. The following persons compose the Acting Board for 1842-3;

Rev. DANIEL SHARP, D.D., President.

Rev. FRANCIS WAYLAND, D.D., Vice Presidents.

Hon. RICHARD FLETCHER,

Rev. LUCIUS BOLLES, D.D.,

}

ROBERT E. PATTISON, D.D.,

Cor. Secretaries.

BARON STOW, Recording Secretary.

Hon. HEMAN LINCOLN, Treasurer.

The Committee on Coöperation of other Institutions reported, and their report was accepted.

The Committee on Coöperation of other Institutions respectfully report:That it affords gratifying evidence of the various and widening usefulness of the missionary enterprise, that it is receiving the support of so many other institutions. Seeking directly the eternal welfare, but advancing also indirectly, yet most rapidly, the temporal interests of the heathen, your missionary body claims, and is receiving

from many other organizations, evidence of their sympathy in some or other of the details of its multiplied labors of love. This cooperation is found not only among other societies of our own denomination, but in institutions that blend together the several evangelical denominations; and even in institutions that are not directly religious in their character, and that could not, therefore, sympathize or aid in the whole of your labors. The fact shows anew what is so often seen, how every enterprise seeking the good of man runs, in some point or other of its labors, into the line of every other similar enterprise;—how the most magnificent of all enterprises, the conversion of a world, attracts to itself every lesser labor of education and civilization; and how the most glorious of all motives, the love of Christ, nourishes and enhances every lower motive of philanthropy and patriotism, the love of kindred and the love of home.

ment.

Giving its main attention everywhere to the preaching of the word and the dissemination of the scriptures, as your Board does, it has yet in addition sought the establishment of schools as a subsidiary means of good. In the support of these among our own Indians, it has received, from time to time, grants from the U. S. governOur principles and our interest, as a denomination, alike forbid us to become the stipendiaries of any political power. But if any work of our missionaries, which is legitimately their missionary business, be of such a kind that a government needs it, and are ready to compensate it, claiming at the same time no control over such missionary beyond this specific work, it is thought that this limited cooperation does not create the right of patronage on the one side, or the sense of dependence on the other. How faithfully the moneys received for schools have been applied for the specific purpose for which they were voted, appears sufficiently from the fact that the Board has, in sustaining such schools, expended not only the amount so received, but large additional sums from its own funds. Among the Cherokees it is gratifying to learn that their National Council are laboring to establish a system of common schools. Your Board have thus the double honor of acting, in some portions of their field of labor, as the stewards of their own National government in the good work of education, and in others, of having stirred up the Indian government to commence it from their own resources. It is such a system of common school education which prepares the youth of a land to read the bible. And, as is seen in Scotland, in Holland, and in our own New England, such a system of schools has always flourished most, just in those regions where that bible was most generally read. Your Board rejoice, in the Indian territory to see thus the accomplishment, after so many years, of a prayer that was, nigh two centuries since, habitually offered by Eliot, the earliest and not the least devoted of American laborers in the cause of Indian evangelization:-" Lord, send us good schools."

In the distribution of the bible, your Board has received large grants from the American and Foreign Bible Society, and in the distribution of religious tracts it has continued to receive liberal aid from the American Tract Society. These, with the other grants from various bodies acknowledged in the Report, show on how many sides the missionary undertaking touches the public mind, and in how many forms it is laboring for the benefit of the benighted pagan.

The mutual explanations that have been interchanged between your Board and the American and Foreign Bible Society, have distinctly and, it is believed, satisfactorily established the principles upon which the grants of that society to your Board are to be applied-principles upon which, as it appears, they have hitherto been employed by your Board.

Laboring, as both societies in some measure are, in the same fields, and sustained by the same denomination, it is to be hoped that they may continue to aid each other by the exchange of kind offices. Your Committee have no suggestions, unless it be that, in some portions of the field, it might perhaps conduce to the objects of both societies, if there were a previous understanding between the Boards of the two societies, as to the time in which their several claims should be presented and their agents labor in the work of collection.

All which is respectfully submitted,

WM. R. WILLIAMS, Chairman.

Rev. Hiram Bingham, Missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Honolulu, Oahu, was introduced

by the Foreign Secretary, and gave some account of the origin and progress of the mission to the Sandwich Islands, with which, for twenty-three years, he has been connected.

On motion by the Recording Secretary, seconded by Rev. Dr. Pattison,

Resolved, That this Board have listened with pleasure to the statements of the Rev. Mr. Bingham, and are happy to assure him and his associates in the Sandwich Islands Mission, of their cordial sympathy in the trials and vexations to which they are subjected, as well as in the extraordinary success with which the Divine Spirit has crowned their labors.

Adjourned till 3 o'clock, P. M. Prayer by Dr. Bolles.

Three o'clock, P. M. The Board met agreeably to adjournment, Rev. Dr. Chapin in the chair.

Prayer was offered by Rev. N. W. Williams, and Rev. Dr. Chase, of Massachusetts, and Rev. Messrs. Alfred Bennett, and John Peck, of New York.

On motion by the Recording Secretary, seconded by Rev. W. W. Everts,

Resolved, 1. That, as the present year is the jubilee of the English Baptist Mission, we will unite with our English brethren in religious services suitable to the occasion.

2. That the Acting Board be requested to adopt efficient measures to make the Baptist churches and preachers throughout the Union acquainted with this purpose, and earnestly solicit their cooperation. 3. That all the Pastors of Baptist churches in the United States be requested to deliver each a missionary discourse on the first Lord's-day in October next.

The Committee on Progress of the Missions, reported, and the report was accepted.

The Committee on Progress of the Missions, have had the subject under consideration, and, though left in some degree of uncertainty as to the precise point involv ed in their designation, have endeavored to embrace the three fold object of, 1st, reviewing the operations of the past year; 2d, noticing the fields of future labor, which our progress makes it almost imperative on us to occupy; and 3d, the requisite addition to the number of missionaries, and the means by which they may be secured. On reviewing the operations of the past year, the Committee have made out the

If one soul be of priceless value, what emotions of gratitude should swell our bosoms in recapitulating the conversion and baptism of 780 during the last year.

Nat. assists.

Scholars.

Ch. memb.

Baptized last

year.

Expense.

This view presents, at a single glance, the reported progress of the year, and may somewhat facilitate the second part of the object embraced by the Committee, viz. the future fields of labor.

Upon this point the Committee beg leave earnestly to direct the attention of the Board to the interesting field which divine providence has so manifestly opened for our denomination in the Ionian Islands, Albania, and Greece Proper. To the above places, which so eminently claim the regards of American Baptists, the Committee further recommend that during the current year every practicable measure be employed to enlarge and strengthen our missionary operations among the Aborigines of North America.

The want of funds has prevented the Board from increasing the number of missionaries at some of the stations where additional laborers are greatly needed-and from seeking out new stations in fields where the prospect of usefulness is most inviting. The appeals which come to us from almost all our missions for more help, to sustain the feeble hands, to fill up the vacancies occasioned by death, and to carry forward the good work, when those who are now in the field shall have been called to rest, are deeply affecting. They throw upon our churches, and upon us as individual Christians, a fearful responsibility. But your Committee cannot doubt, that whenever, and as fast as, pecuniary means are furnished to the Board for enlarging their operations-faithful brethren will be found who, in the spirit of love and holy consecration, will cheerfully respond to the appeal-and that from many whose hearts have long been burning with desire to preach the gospel to the perishing heathen, will be heard the answer-"Here are we-send us.'

The Committee on Relations to former Missionaries, and on Indian Missions, reported. Pending the discussion upon the question of acceptance, the Board voted to adjourn to the Lecture Room, at half past seven in the evening.

Prayer by Rev. Isaac McCoy.

Half past 7 o'clock, P. M.

The Board met in the Lecture Room of the First Baptist church, agreeably to adjournment; Rev. Dr. Kendrick, one of the Vice Presidents, in the chair.

Prayer by Rev. Dr. Babcock.

The report which was under consideration when the Board adjourned, was unanimously accepted.

The Committee to whom was referred the subject of Indian Missions, and the relations of the Board with former missionaries, beg leave to report:

That although the missions among our native tribes have not been extended aecording to the expectations of the Convention at its last meeting, yet your Committee believe that the Acting Board have devoted to this object all the funds which they have been able to command. They have already in their expenditure outrun the means which the brethren have placed at their disposal, and still several of their most important operations have been, from necessity, greatly curtailed. Under these circumstances it does not seem to your Committee that any thing could have been done more than the Board have accomplished. If the churches wish that missions should be extended, they must furnish the means for extending them. A wide and most interesting field of usefulness is at present opened among our Aborigines in their present, and, we hope, their permanent home. We trust that the liberality of the churches will enable the Board, during the coming year, to occupy it with promptness and efficiency.

In regard to the relations of the Board to its former missionaries, your Committee have to report that Mr. Royal B. Hancock, late printer at Tavoy, has been obliged

to relinquish his station in consequence of the illness of his wife. Mrs. Hancock died on her passage home. Mr. Hancock, returning to this country with his bereaved family, requested that his connection with the Board might be terminated. This request was complied with, and he was honorably dismissed from the service of the Board Nov. 1, 1841.

In the case of the Rev. Isaac McCoy, it appears that the Board had formerly been in the practice, in certain instances, of allowing persons to be considered as their missionaries with whom their connection was almost entirely nominal. This was the case in their connection with Mr. McCoy since his engagement in the service of the government in 1831.

The Board at that time expressed their approbation of his entering into the employ of the government in the following language.

"Voted, That the Board feel pleasure in learning that the Government have appointed Mr. McCoy an agent to adjust and mark the boundaries of Indians' lands, so that all may be judiciously located, &c., an office for which the Board believe Mr. McCoy to be eminently qualified; and that they consent to his accepting that office, and fulfilling its duties, and appropriating to the support of himself and family his salary from Government."

After the time of entering into such labors he did not receive from the Board any salary, he performed for them no stated service, he did not report, nor did they expect him to report, to them his plans, or his labors. Though zealously engaged in the work of Indian reform, he was employed in a field of usefulness over which the Board had no supervision. Your Committee are fully of the opinion that this indefinite connection can be of no advantage to either party, and that it should never have existed. To this opinion the Board itself had come, and therefore thought it expedient to adopt the rule of recognizing no person as its missionary who was not wholly devoted to missionary labor under its direction. Under these circumstances the announcement was made by authority of the Acting Board, in a note appended to the report of the last year, of the fact that Mr. McCoy had not for several years been laboring under the direction of the Board, and was not considered as its missionary. It was not, however, intended by this announcement, in any respect, to imply a censure upon Mr. McCoy or to detract from the estimation in which he is so deservedly held as one of the most zealous laborers in the work of Indian reform. Your Committee approve of the principle on which the Board has acted in this case, although they are bound to say that a greater degree of definiteness in the correspondence on the subject, would have been exceedingly desirable. They recommend that, in future, whenever the direct missionary labors of a missionary cease by resignation or otherwise, the connection be officially dissolved, in order to preclude all liability to misunderstanding.

In respect to a Western Agency, and a Western Committee, to take in charge our Indian Missions, as recommended by brother McCoy, the Committee believe that the subject involves public interests of so grave a character, that it would be inexpedient at this late hour of the present session of the Board to take up the question and attempt to dispose of it. They therefore recommend that it be referred to the next Annual Meeting, and that in the mean time the brethren take it into consideration, and that the Acting Board enter into such correspondence, and make such inquiries, as shall seem requisite in order to form a correct judgment of the expediency of the measure.

By order of the Committee,

S. H. CONE, Chairman.

On motion by the Recording Secretary, seconded by Rev. Dr. Chapin,

Resolved, That we are happy to believe, from satisfactory information, that the dissolution of the connexion which for many years had existed between the Acting Board and br. Isaac McCoy, was not occasioned by considerations at all involving his moral and Christian character; and that, in view of the peculiar circumstances attending the whole matter, it be respectfully recommended to the