222 



Mont klij Review of Literature, 



[FEB. 



is to gather together what he considers 

 calculated to add to the stock of our 

 knowledge of the g^lobe. 



The earliest missions in modern times 

 were Catholics, both in the east and the 

 west. But very early the reformers of the 

 continent made several efforts. Before 

 Calvin's death even, a party of Swiss 

 passed over to the Brazils, but with a 

 result most disastrous to themselves. 

 After a residence of some months, they 

 were driven out to sea in a miserable 

 vessel, with scarcely any food, and very 

 few survived their sufferings. A few 

 years afterwards Gustavus Vasa dis- 

 patched some missionaries to Lapland, 

 and early in the following century the 

 Dutch sent out more than one expedi- 

 tion to Ceylon and Java. The Danes 

 were still more conspicuous, and made 

 several attempts both in Greenland and 

 the East Indies. Our own American 

 colonists, towards the middle of the same 

 century, promoted similar undertakings 

 among the Red Indians the names of 

 Brainherd, Ellis, and Serjeant, as mis- 

 mionaries, are familiar. None, however, 

 were so indefatigable as the Moravians 

 during the last century under the pa- 

 tronage of Zinzindorf, assisted occasion- 

 ally bv the English friends of missionary 

 exertion. 



But no direct attempt was, we believe, 

 ever made in this country, save some 

 slight and inefficient efforts by the 

 Church Society for the Propagation of 

 the Gospel, before that of Dr. Coke, the 

 methodist. He and three others, des- 

 tined for Nova Scotia, were driven by 

 adverse winds to one of the West India 

 islands, an event which, in its successful 

 results, laid the foundation of the Wes- 

 ley an Missionary Society. In 1792 the 

 Baptist Society despatched Carey and 

 Ward to the East Indies; and four years 

 after the London Society fitted out a 

 mission to the South Seas. With this 

 latter expedition the compiler com- 

 mences his volume, and sketches in suf- 

 ficient detail the voyage of the ship Duff 

 among the islands ot the South Sea. 

 Though calculated to cool persons of 

 less ardour than the patrons of missions, 

 the result only animated them, and the 

 ship was again despatched with a rein- 

 forcement of pious labourers* Unluckily 

 they were captured by the French, and 

 put ashore at Monte Video, from whence 

 they at last got back to England. In 

 the meanwhile the original mission met 

 with rough treatment from the natives 

 of the island, prompted by two or three 

 worthless shipwrecked sailors. The 

 greater part contrived to escape, but a 

 few persevered. No fresh attempt was 

 made to relieve them from home, though 

 the London Society never quite aban- 

 doned the hope, ami in 1815 a Mr. Wm 

 Ellis was commissioned to reconnoitre 



the scene, and put the society in posses- 

 sion of adequate information. On his 

 representation another batch of mission- 

 aries was prepared, and Mr. Ellis con- 

 tinued to prosecute his researches, and 

 labour in his vocation with more or less 

 success for eight or ten years. These 

 matters fill up nearly two-thirds of the 

 volume before us, and the remainder is 

 taken up with the pith of Vanderkempt's 

 narrative, and M. Campbell's two jour- 

 neys over the dreary regions of the Cape. 

 The compiler purposes to proceed, and 

 we wish him success in his labours. Half 

 a dozen similar volumes may be readily 

 got up, with matter full of interest, and 

 very little known. 



Stories of American Life, by American 

 Writers ; edited by Miss Mitford, 3 vols. 

 I2mo. There is no longer any need of 

 complaint about lack of native talent in 

 America. Writers multiply every day, 

 and their productions already appear in 

 numbers numberless. How long, or 

 rather how short a time is it since Ame- 

 ricans depended wholly on reprints of 

 our works ! and now we are ready to re- 

 turn the compliment, and reprint theirs. 

 Browne, Cooper, and Miss Sedgewick 

 are the only names yet familiar among 

 novel readers-for Washington Irving's 

 subjects are almost all Englishbut in 

 addition to these now pretty well known 

 writers, the Americans have annuals, 

 magazines, and other periodicals, v/hich 

 embrace some of the most popular pro- 

 ductions of the most popular living 

 writers in the world of the west. Ver- 

 plante, Paulding, Hall, Neale, Barker, 

 Willis, &c. all men of renown, and 

 mighty in their hemisphere. 



Miss Mitford accordingly, commission- 

 ed by Messrs. Colburn and Bentley, has 

 made a copious selection of short pieces, 

 eight or ten to the volume, and they are 

 beyond all question entitled to class with 

 any collection of tales which fill similar 

 volumes with our own native produc- 

 tions. The clever editor has studiously 

 confined her selections to pieces which 

 have something national and character- 

 istic of the country in them. They are, 

 therefore, not merely European cha- 

 racters and incidents coupled with Ame- 

 rican names. "Many a clever essay have 

 I rejected," says Miss M., " because it 

 might have been written on this side of 

 the Atlantic ; and many a graceful tale 

 has been thrown aside for no graver 

 fault than that, with an assortment of 

 new names, it might have belonged 

 to France or Switzerland, or Italy, or any 

 place in Christendom (not, we suppose, 

 meaning to exclude America from the 

 regions of Christendom), where love is 

 spoken and tears are shed ; whilst I have 

 grasped at the broadest caricature, so 

 that it contained indications of Iddal 



