MISSION MISSISSIPPI. 



845 



Calmuck), they distributed the ,Holy Scriptures. 

 Their report is given in the Biblical Journal, pub- 

 lished at Petersburg (1824). The great opposition 

 of the Calmuck priests, however, induced the khans 

 to threaten an emigration, and the mission was given 

 up from political views. On the other hand, the 

 missionary Carruthers exerted himself, with great 

 zeal, in the conversion of the Tartars in the Crimea, 

 and a new station has been established on the Cau- 

 casus. The whole number of missions of the United 

 Brethren cost, in 1823, between seven and eight 

 thousand pounds, besides the support of fifty-five 

 retired missionaries and fifty-three children. The 

 society receives the largest contributions from Hol- 

 land, Denmark, and Sweden. 



Concerning the conversion of the Jews to Christi- 

 anity, in London, Berlin, Petersburg, Dresden, 

 Breslau, Minden, Konigsberg, Posen, &c., the first 

 public report of the Berlin Society, established in 

 1822, appeared in 1824. It has issued a stereotype 

 edition of the New Testament, in the Hebrew lan- 

 guage, and sent a missionary to the Polish Jews, 

 who had succeeded in gaining attention in more than 

 one synagogue. 



There are, at present, in Germany, above 

 thirty missionary and auxiliary missionary societies, 

 which are connected with the missionary society of 

 Basle. The Basle society issues a lithographed cor- 

 respondence ; other societies, at Hamburg, Leipsic, 

 Berlin, &c., publish yearly reports; and others, as at 

 Stuttgart and Konigsberg in Prussia, publish mission- 

 ary journals. In St Gall there is a ladies' missionary 

 society. The great missionary school established at 

 Basle (1816) not only educates the pupiis (of whom, 

 in 1824, there were thirty-three, in four classes, in- 

 structed in all departments of theology ; in the ex- 

 planation of scriptural passages from the Hebrew 

 and Greek; in the Latin, English, and Arabic tongues; 

 in the comparison of the Koran with the precepts of 

 the Bible ; in geography, arithmetic, geometry, and 

 astronomy ; in rhetoric, singing, and drawing) for 

 the British and Dutch missions, but has, also, 

 since 1822, maintained missionaries at its own 

 expense, at the stations on the Caspian and Black 

 seas. One of these missionaries, Aug. Dietrich, has 

 undertaken, with Mr Macpherson, the superinten- 

 dence of the Persian translation of the New Testa- 

 ment, and has also superintended the publication of 

 several biblical extracts and precepts into the Per- 

 sian language, and translated the work of Grotius 

 on the truth of the Christian religion into Arabic. 

 The missionary school established at Berlin, under 

 the direction of the preacher Janicke (1800), has 

 already sent more than twenty pupils to the East 

 Indies, Sierra Leone, and the Cape. The Russian 

 government has employed, in the German colonies 

 planted about thirty years ago, from Odessa to 

 Gandscha in Georgia, and Astracan, missionaries from 

 Basle, as colonial preachers, who have the spiritual 

 charge of the Germans, and endeavour likewise to 

 operate on the adherents of the old Eastern sects, 

 particularly the Armenians, and to gain access to 

 the Mohammedans among the Persians. The trans- 

 lation of the New Testament into modern Persian, by 

 the missionary Martin, has been distributed, and 

 eagerly, but secretly read. To effect these objects, the 

 Russian emperors have conferred privileges, not only 

 on the Scottish missionary colonies at Kara, but also 

 on the evangelical missionary colony established 

 (1822) in the Caucasian village of Schuschi, princi- 

 pally inhabited by Armenians. The Moravian Unit- 

 ed Brethren now employ 171 preachers of the gospel, 

 in thirty-three missions in the West Indies, North 

 America, and South Africa. According to the 

 seventy-second number of the Transactions of the 



Evangelical Missionary Societies in the East Indies, 

 there are now upon the main land of India forty-nine 

 missions, twelve on Ceylon, and three on other islands. 

 In Ceylon there are seventy-five missionary schools, 

 with more than 4000 scholars. 



The principal missionary societies in the United 

 States are the following ; American Board of Foreign 

 Missions, founded in 1810 ; income, in 1829 30, 

 106,928 dollars : American Baptist Board of Foreign 

 Missions, founded in 1814 ; income, 1830, 12,000 

 dollars : Board of Missions of the General Assembly, 

 founded 1818 ; income, 1830, 12,632 dollars : Metho- 

 dist Missionary Society (1819), income, 1830, 13,128 

 dollars : American Home Missionary Society (1826), 

 income, 1830, 33,229 dollars. The whole income of 

 the various Missionary, Tract, Education, and Bible 

 societies, for 1830, was about 500,000 dollars. The 

 American Board of Foreign Missions has six stations 

 in India, one at Canton, four in the Mediterranean, 

 six in the Sandwich islands, and thirty-five among 

 the Indians of the United States, employing fifty-nine 

 missionaries, and 175 assistant missionaries. The 

 board has printing establishments at Bombay, Malta, 

 and in the Sandwich islands, from which the Bible has 

 been issued in eleven languages. The number of 

 scholars in their schools is 47,550. The expenditure 

 during the twenty years from its foundation was 

 915,750 dollars. The annual reports of the different 

 societies contain all the necessary information rela- 

 tive to their means and success. Besides the works 

 already referred to in the article, the reader may 

 consult Lord's History of Missions, and Brown's His- 

 tory of the Propagation of Christianity. 



MISSISSIPPI, the largest river of the United 

 States of America, and one of the largest in the 

 world, rises in about lat. 49, and Ion. 96 47', and 

 flows south-south-east till it falls into the gulf of 

 Mexico, in lat 29 6', and Ion. 89 30'. The length 

 is usually given at 3000 miles ; some make it less. 

 We speak without reference to the great branch of 

 it called Missouri. The country in which the most 

 northern branches of the Mississippi have their rise, 

 is an elevated table land, abounding with marshes and 

 lakes, that are filled with wild rice. From the 

 same plateau flow the numerous branches of Red 

 river and other streams, which fall into lake Winni- 

 peck, and thence flow into Hudson's bay. It is not 

 easy to decide which of the numerous small lakes of 

 this table land should be honoured as the principal 

 source of the Mississippi, for travellers are not agreed 

 in determining which of the numerous streams flow- 

 ing from these lakes is the main river. We follow 

 Mr Schoolcraft's map in giving the latitude and 

 longitude of La Bush lake to the extreme source of 

 the Mississippi. After a winding course of nearly 

 700 miles, its waters are precipitated over St An- 

 thony's falls, a cataract of sixteen or seventeen feet 

 perpendicular. About twelve miles above these falls, 

 it receives St Peter's river from the west, which is 

 regarded by some as the principal river. The width 

 of the Mississippi, fortwelve miles above St Anthony's 

 falls, is about half a mile. Below the falls, it is con- 

 tracted, for some distance, to 200 yards. The large 

 and navigable tributaries which it afterwards receives, 

 are so numerous that we can only mention a few of 

 the principal. About latitude 44, the St Croix 

 comes in from the east, said to be navigable by boats 

 200 miles. In 42, the Wisconsin, also from the 

 east, opens an easy communication with the waters 

 which flow into lake Michigan. Near 40, on the 

 west side, is the Des Moines, 1 50 yards wide, and 

 navigable by boats for a great distance. In 39 

 enters the Illinois from the east, 400 yards wide, 

 navigable by boats for more than 300 miles. A little 

 below 39, the mighty Missouri comes in from the 



