vast designs. A work so extensive as to embrace at once Great Britain, Ireland, and America, required much assistance, and sometimes demanded the presence of Mr. Wesley when it could not be obtained. To remedy this inconveniency, his friends were dispatched to different parts, to preach the gospel, to cherish the infant churches, to superintend the different departments of the work which had been so happily begun, and which, from immediate successes, promised a plentiful and lasting harvest.

In the early stages of this important undertaking, which God has so signally owned and blessed, the preachers who acted under the direction of Mr. Wesley were comparatively but few in number. Their successes exceeded their most sanguine expectations; the harvest was great, but the labourers were few. The Lord of the harvest, however, soon raised up a number of pious men, and inclined them to go and preach among heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ.

The character of these men, the integrity of their views, the whole deportment of their moral conduct, and the discipline which has been established in the Methodist societies, are open to public inspection. Those who are acquainted with all these particulars, will not refuse the tribute of respect which Mr. Melville Horne has paid to the Moravians; and those who have no such acquaintance with them, are incompetent to pass an opinion.

It was on one of these important errands, that the writer of these sheets embarked for the continent of America, with an earnest hope of being serviceable in that quarter of the globe. But it would be foreign to the design of these volumes to enter into a minute disquisition of the transactions of the continent, though his second voyage to that portion of the globe ultimately led to the general establishment of the gospel in most of those islands which we are about to survey. On these grounds, however, some remarks, made by the author in the course of his voyage, may not only be pleasing but profitable to the reader; especially as they may be considered as remotely connected with the providential origin of that work which God has wrought among the negroes in these isles of the sea.

The author's second voyage to America commenced on Sunday the 24th of September 1786, and his destination was to visit the continent. But it pleased the almighty disposer of all human events to change his course; for after contending at sea against violent storms, the ship sprung a leak, which exposed him and the whole ship's company to imminent danger of foundering. Three missionaries accompanied him, who were in the first instance, with himself, bound for Nova Scotia,

By the 5th of December the danger became so extremely imminent, that a little council was held; when the captain, being convinced of the impossibility of reaching the port of Halifax that winter, resolved to sail with all possible expedition for the West Indies. This resolve he immediately put into execution, and on the 25th of December we landed at St. John's in Antigua. The journal of our proceedings in that island will be found in its proper place, combined with its civil history. The present chapter being restricted to the state of religion in Jamaica, it is to this object that we must confine our views.

The providence of God, which watches every numbered hair, and attends upon all our steps, appears too conspicuous to be overlooked, in the instance which has just been related. Violent and continued tempests, which endangered the lives of all the ship's company, were made subservient to his wise designs. And by these unpromising means we perceive in the event, that God has opened a wide door for the preaching of the gospel, through which multitudes have been already converted, and brought to an acquaintance with that adorable Saviour, whom to know is life eternal.

When we took our departure from England, the author had no design of visiting these insulated regions; but necessity urged us thither, and the call was too imperious to be disobeyed. Thus the most awful dispensations of Providence are but so many parts in the general harmony. They are but the issues of an infinitely wise direction, moving in an enlarged circle, which our understandings, darkened through sin, are not always able to perceive, and but rarely competent fully to comprehend. O that we may always be obedient to the calls of God, whensoever we perceive them clearly! and when they are wrapped in shade, may we seek instruction by applying to the Father of lights!

It was not till the third visit made to America by the author, that he sailed from Tortola for Jamaica, and landed at Port Royal on the 19th of January 1789. Here it must be ob served, once for all, that some years before this period, societies of Methodists had been formed in the other islands of the West Indies. But those who ministered in holy things were few in number, and totally unequal to that extensive work which has since been carried on. A more enlarged plan was

It is not improbable, that these accounts at first view may appear some what confused. To remove any such unfavourable impression, the reader is requested to examine the religious history of Antigua, in which the progress of the missions is traced from its earliest period. The history of that island will solve every problematical expression, and inform him in what manner the gos

now to be pursued. The openings of Providence had rendered an increase of pious missionaries necessary in all the British islands, that the light of the gospel might be held forth to all the Africans who had been left to perish in the idolatry which they had imported from their native shores. The event has justified the measure; God has blessed the labours of his servants in an especial manner in the conversion of multitudes of the negro slaves;-" a work most assuredly genuine, if there be a genuine work of God upon earth."

In this glorious undertaking the late Mr. Wesley eminently distinguished himself by his zeal and important aid, and by engaging the whole body of his preachers, in Conference, to unite in promoting this great undertaking. By these means the author was supported in carrying on this work of Christian love and compassion, in behalf of a multitude of souls dwelling in darkness and ignorance. Sanctioned by the patronage and direction of that truly evangelical minister of the gospel, in whom he had found a father and a friend; whose memory he will hold in constant veneration to the last hour of his sojourn on earth; and with whom, through the merits of their great Redeemer, he hopes again to be united in glory; he has been enabled, through divine grace, to add perseverance to resolution, and to feel on this side of the grave a full assurance that his labour has not been in vain in the Lord.

At this period the form of godliness was hardly visible in Jamaica; and its power, except in some few solitary instances, was totally unknown. The exertions of the Moravian Brethren were quite inadequate to the field which lay open before them. Iniquity prevailed in all its forms; and both whites and blacks were evidently living without hope and without God in the world.

Under such circumstances, that those who knew not God should despise his ordinances, and treat his servants with contempt, it was reasonable to expect. Derision and opposition are the legitimate offspring of that carnal mind which is enmity to the things of God. In every age and every climate human nature is the same. Vice predominates in the unregenerate heart; and he who attempts to stem the prevailing torrent, unavoidably exposes himself to those censures and reproaches which our blessed Lord and Master so explicitly foretold.

pel has been introduced into almost all the other British colonies in that Archipelago. But the island of Antigua being so much inferior to Jamaica, it would have been a violation of order, in a natural and civil view, to have introduced it first.

The author's stay was but short on the island at this time; but he preached four times in a gentleman's house in Kingston, to small but increasing congregations. The room being too confined, a Roman Catholic gentleman very generously offered him the use of a very large one, which had frequently been employed as a public concert-room. It is hoped, that the following brief account of these early efforts, from the author's journals, may be usefully cited; as it shews the dispositions of the people, and the infant state of the work of God at that

era.

The first evening I preached there, the congregation was considerable, and received the word with great decency and great attention. Whilst I was pointing out to the unregenerate the fallaciousness of all their hopes, and the impossibility of reversing the decree, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven," and seriously inquiring of them, whether they had found out some new gospel as their directory, a poor negro-woman cried out, "I am sure you are a new priest." The second evening, the great room and all the piazzas round it were crowded with people. I believe there were four hundred white people present (the largest number of whites I ever preached to in the West Indies), and about two hundred negroes; there being no room, I think, for more. After I had preached about ten minutes, a company of gentlemen, inflamed with liquor, began to be very turbulent; till at last the noise increasing, they cried out, "Down with him, down with him." They then pressed forwards through the crowd in order to seize me, crying out again, "Who seconds that fellow !" On which my new and gallant friend Mr. Bull, whose house was then my residence, stepped forth between the rioters and me, saying, "I second him, against men and devils."

Mr. Bull was supported by a lady* who made one of the congregation. This Christian heroine, notwithstanding the delicacy

of her sex, the concourse of people, the confusion which appeared, and the amiableness of her disposition, stood up,

This lady in her younger years had resided in England, and had been a member of the Methodist Society in London. Through the various vicissi tudes of life, she had left her native land, and taken up her residence in Jamaica, in which place her religious impressions had died away. It, however, had pleased God to afflict her with a dangerous illness, and this awakened within her a sensibility of her danger and her loss. She had in this extremity made an application to the throne of grace for mercy, and God had inclined his ear to her supplications, and given to her a manifestation of his pardoning love. Thus from the abundance of the heart the mouth was opened to speak a word for God.

and reasoned boldly with the rioters on the impropriety of their conduct.

Chagrined at the reproofs which had so unexpectedly overtaken them, and ashamed of finding resistance, where they expected to obtain silent approbation, if not support, their activity began to lessen; and shame, the companion of conscious guilt, soon led them to desist from their design. They appeared fully convinced, that instead of asking, "Who seconds the preacher," they had reason to inquire, "Who seconds us?" They seemed satisfied that nine-tenths of the congregation disapproved of their behaviour; in consequence of which, they abandoned their object, and retired. Their language, however, survived their actions. Though evidently ashamed, and apparently conscious that their unpleasant feelings were perceived, they seemed willing to support appearances. Like the school-boy in Blair, who "whistled aloud to bear his courage up," these gentlemen, while they retired from the scene of action, repeated their former vociferation; and nothing but "down with him, down with him," was heard from them while they were descending the stair-case, which they had mounted with so much vigour. Thus God, when we put our confidence in him, in the midst of strangers can raise up friends; he can stop the mouths of lions, suspend the action of fire, and preserve his faithful servants free from harm.

The spirits of the congregation were so discomposed by this unhappy accident, that I gave out a hymn, and then chose another text, and preached to a serious and attentive audience. I was at this time fully convinced, that great good might be done in this island, if the gospel were regularly preached here with power; and forming an estimate from the serious demeanour of the congregation, the attachment to the gospel which was manifested by many, both among the enslaved and free, it appeared evident, that a small society of truly awakened persons, both among the whites and blacks, might be immediately formed in Kingston.

The island itself was too populous to give sanction to neglect, and too wicked to leave us any room to conclude that the inhabitants were in the road to heaven. Between 3 and 400,000 souls, living chiefly without hope, and without God in the world, forbade all supineness; and the attention of many among those who heard, by giving an early promise of a productive harvest, presented an opening which pointed out our path.

In addition to these circumstances, justice obliges me to observe, that no place, either in Europe or America, in which the gospel had not been preached, was ever visited by me,