FOURTH LETTER. 



HOUGH our ship is ploughing through the waves 

 of the Arabian Sea, my thoughts go back to 

 that island of spices which good Bishop Heber has set 

 so many people singing about. I feel that there is 

 very much more to be said about it than I have time 

 to write now, or you have space to print. I said in 

 my last letter that Ceylon may be regarded as the 

 central point from which Buddhism has spread so 

 largely over Asia. I believe it may be made the cen- 

 tral point for the wider spread of Christianity. 



Mr. Moscrop tells me that they are able to secure 

 Christian teachers for all the children in their schools, 

 which cannot be done in India. This is a most im- 

 portant feature, the percentage of conversion to Chris- 

 tianity of the better class of the people being much 

 larger in Ceylon than on the continent of Asia. 



The percentage of Christians to the whole popula- 

 tion of the island is quite ten times that of India. 

 Ceylon being the classic land of Buddhism, its down- 

 fall here would influence a vast proportion of the 



