BAPTISTS. 



47 



of $14,614 from the previous year, and the 

 disbursements had been $174,119. The in- 

 debtedness was now $45,433, having increased 

 $4,980 during the year. There were 222 mis- 

 sionaries under appointment of the Society, who 

 reported 19,140 persons in the Sunday schools 

 under their care, and had baptized 1,834 per- 

 sons. The churches aided by the Society had 

 contributed $5,911 to benevolent objects. A 

 new school for freedinen had been opened at 

 Natchez, Miss., making the whole number of 

 schools for the education of preachers and 

 teachers among these people eight, with 35 

 teachers and 1,056 students. The property of 

 the schools was all paid for, and free from en- 

 cumbrances. Applications had been made for 

 an increase of the teaching force, which the 

 Board, for want of means, had seldom been 

 able to grant. A school had been asked for in 

 Alabama, which could not be provided for the 

 same reason. This Society has been assigned 

 by the Government to the charge of the Union 

 Mission in the Indian Territory, embracing 

 Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and 

 Seminoles, numbering 56,700 persons ; and it 

 has also churches among the Delawares, Sacs 

 and Foxes, Ottawas, Nez Percys, and Miamis. 

 A resolution was adopted remonstrating against 

 the transfer of the Indian Bureau from the 

 Department of the Interior to that of "War, 

 except under the guarantee that the Indians 

 should not thereby be deprived of the care of 

 the religious associations under which the re- 

 cent policy of the Government had placed them. 

 The mission among the Chinese in California 

 had been carried on in cooperation with one 

 of the churches in San Francisco. This ar- 

 rangement would cease in July, when the Board 

 hoped to put the work in charge of a suitably 

 qualified missionary. The missionary work 

 among the German populations in the United 

 States was carried on in cooperation with the 

 Eastern and Western German Baptist Confer- 

 ences, which bore one half the expense. The 

 Society also labored among the Scandinavians 

 and the French. The appointment of a super- 

 intendent of missions to freedmen, and coop- 

 eration with the Southern Baptists in promot- 

 ing ministers' institutes among the freedmen, 

 were approved. 



The sixty-fourth annual meeting of the 

 American Baptist Missionary Union was held 

 May 30th. The whole amount paid in to the 

 treasury of the Society during the year had 

 been $278,723, of which $13,044 was for addi- 

 tions to the invested funds. The sum appli- 

 cable to the payment of the current expenses 

 of the year was $217,992, but the expenditure 

 had exceeded this sum, and the treasury was 

 in debt $26,489. There were 140 missionaries 

 employed in Burmah, Assam, the Telugu coun- 

 try, China, Japan, France, Germany, Sweden, 

 and Spain, with 956 native helpers ; and they 

 reported 793 churches and 63,145 members. 

 The enterprise of the Southern Baptist Con- 

 vention in buying a church at Rome was com- 



mended to the liberality of the people of the 

 Northern churches. 



The anniversary of the Woman's Baptist 

 Home Missionary Society was held May 29th. 

 The report dealt chiefly with the history of 

 the organization of the Society, which was 

 effected February 1, 1877. Its object is to 

 cooperate with the American Baptist Home 

 Missionary Society. Its total receipts for the 

 year had been $6,337, and its expenditures 

 $3,401.56. Auxiliaries had been formed in 

 fourteen States and Territories, and contribu- 

 tions had been received from nearly every 

 Northern State. The Society had nine mis- 

 sionaries in the field five in the Southern 

 States and four among the American Indians. 



A meeting of representatives of the three 

 societies of Baptist women, organized for the 

 promotion of foreign missions, the Society of 

 the East, the Society of the West, and the So- 

 ciety of the Pacific Coast, was held at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, May 30th. The Society of the 

 East reported a balance in the treasury of 

 $2,000, and under its care in the Asiatic mis- 

 sions, 24 missionaries, 25 Bible-readers, and 

 34 schools, with 834 pupils. The Society em- 

 braced 618 circles and 99 mission hands ; its 

 receipts for the year had been $14,318 ; and it 

 had had ten missionaries under appointment, 

 and sustained two schools at Ongole. 



The twenty-third meeting of the Southern 

 Baptist Convention was held at Nashville, 

 Tenn., beginning May 9th. The Eev. J. P. 

 Boyce, D. D., presided. The report of the 

 Foreign Mission Board showed that its total 

 receipts for the year from all sources had been 

 $35,710.45, of which $1,123 had been con- 

 tributed for the fund for the chapel in Rome. 

 The expenditures had been $22,182.41, divided 

 among missions in Europe, China, and Africa. 

 The Board possessed an invested fund of $18,- 

 200, and owed debts of $4,500. A church had 

 been bought for the Italian mission in Rome, 

 in the neighborhood of the Pantheon and the 

 University of Rome, for the sum of $28,500 

 in gold, to be paid within six months. Five 

 thousand dollars were still needed to complete 

 the payment, and an equal amount would be 

 required to complete certain improvements 

 which it would be necessary to make in the 

 church. The sum of $7,500 was obtained in 

 the Convention. The receipts of the Home 

 Mission Board had been $11,949, and the sum 

 of $4,535.76 had been paid to missionaries. 

 Thirty-seven churches and 75 other stations 

 had been supplied, and 39 Sunday schools con- 

 ducted, with 112 teachers and 1,228 pupils. A 

 report was made of the progress of the work 

 of education among the Indians. An offer of 

 land had been made to the Board for the ad- 

 vancement of this work, which the Board was 

 advised to accept, with the view of establish- 

 ing a manual-labor school. The duty of the 

 Convention toward the colored people was the 

 subject of a special report, which repeated a 

 recommendation made in the previous year 



