\ 




MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 



HE GOSPEL TO THE AFRICANS 

A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF 

THE REV. WILLIAM JAMESON 

IN JAMAICA AND OLD CALABAR. 
BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, 

THE REV. ALEX. KOBE, A.M., 

MISSIONARY AT OLD CALABAR. 




Tin- Missionary School and Graves at Creek Town, Old Calabar. 
SECOND EDITION. 

EDINBURGH: ANDREW ELLIOT, PRINCES STREET. 

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO. 




^ 



J31, 



EDINBURGH : T. CONSTABLE, 
PRINTER TO THE QUERN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY. 



TO 



THE ROSE STREET UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



AND TO 



THE GOSHEN MISSION CHURCH 



THIS MEMORIAL 



OF THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF THEIR 



FIRST FOREIGN MISSIONARY AND PASTOR 



IS INSCRIBED BY 



THE AUTHOR. 



PEEFACE. 

THE documents from which this Volume has been compiled, 
were read and arranged by the Reverend R. S. Scott, M.A., of 
Manchester, soon after Mr. Jameson s death, with the purpose 
of preparing a Memoir ; but for reasons which it is unnecessary 
to state, this purpose was not carried into effect. Mr. Scott, 
however, wrote a succinct narrative of Mr. Jameson s Life and 
Labours, which appeared in the Scottish Christian Journal. 
From that narrative the Author of this Memoir has obtained 
valuable aid, which he begs thus gratefully to acknowledge. 

These documents consist of Letters, Journals, and Reports, 
which were addressed to the Rose Street Missionary Society, 
and to the Secretary of the Mission Board of the United 
Presbyterian Church. Those addressed to the Rose Street 
Society were read at their meetings ; and interesting portions 
of them were printed in the Yearly Reports of the Rose Street 
Congregation. Large portions of those addressed to Dr. 
Somerville were given in various numbers of the Missionary 
Record for 1847 and 1848. To have introduced these into this 
Volume would have increased its size beyond what was thought 
proper ; and it was not needful, inasmuch as the Record, with 
its stores of interesting missionary information, is, or should be, 
in the hands of every family in the United Presbyterian Church. 
Many of the most characteristic and touching letters in the 
Memoir were obtained from private friends. 

The Author has not considered it necessary to give the docu 
ments in full, but has exercised his best judgment in selecting 



Vlll PREFACE. 

what appeared to be at once interesting and useful. Neither 
has he given those selections word for word. Mr. Jameson, 
like many other missionaries, wrote amid labours of an engross 
ing kind, and therefore hastily, pouring out his thoughts and 
feelings with great rapidity. A little liberty has, therefore, 
been taken with the selections ; and, in a few cases, where two 
or more letters referred to the same subject, and one contained 
statements which were not found in another, these have been 
put together, making the narrative fuller. Repetition has, as 
much as possible, been avoided, but some instances of this may 
have escaped notice. 

This Memoir is a contribution to the story of Emancipation 
that never-to-be-forgotten passage in the history of Great 
Britain. Memoirs of West India missionaries are important, 
and invaluable in this connexion. The faithful men who were 
missioned by the churches to evangelize the victims of avarice 
and oppression have a right to be heard. Indeed, their evidence 
will one day be considered the only evidence that should be 
trusted. 

The Portrait is considered to be a very good likeness. 
The Vignette, showing the mission burying-ground, and the 
wood-cuts, the first of which exhibits a splendid stretch of the 
Old Calabar river, as seen from Old Town, and the second, 
the scene from Creek Town Mission House, are very good 
representations of African scenery. They have been made from 
sketches taken on the spot by Mrs. Robb. 

ANNAN, December 2, 18(51. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

His birth Ancestry Father Childhood s promise Early sense of religion 
The schoolboy The student, at the University ; at the Divinity Hall The 
city-missionary The probationer Prefers missionary work At Firth. 
Called to Jamaica Ordained Married The farewell soiree, . . 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Leaves home The voyage First impressions of Jamaica Country and people 
Wanted at Green Island Duty calls to Goshen Bagnold s Vale Origin 
of Goshen station American Baptists Dreams Leaders The new mis 
sionary in harness Death of his father, 26 

CHAPTER III. 

Mode and spirit of mission work Pembroke Hall Need of education A 
prophetess Visit to Kingston Shed for meeting The missionary ca 
lumniatedThe shed opened Birth of first-born Godless Europeans, 
missionaries of the devil Liberated Africans Take up house at Lucky 
Hill Pen The Lord s table in a foreign land Jamaica fog, and mortality 
among Europeans Soul renewed How far is the negro intellect inferior? 
Scotch immigrants, . . 44 

CHAPTER IV. 

Emancipation Feelings of the Emancipated Sir Lionel Smith s tour of the 
Island The 1st of August, 1838 Missionary Influence, salutary Defence 
of Anglo-Ethiopia Mr. Jameson an educator Wages difficulty New 
Church needed Examination of Catechumens Mr. Moir arrives Rent 
difficulty Opposition Birth of a Daughter Conflicting views of Emanci 
pation, . . . . 74 

CHAPTER V. 

The Jamaica Academy Anglo-Ethiopia, a lever to raise Africa Goshen con 
gregation formed Wonderful deliverance No partisan The negroes on 
strike Teaching the difference between mine and thine Massa and the 
people at loggerheads Church formed Sets about building Munificence 
of proprietors Mr. Barkly Light of the dwelling extinguished Particu 
lars of Mrs. Jameson s death Verses by Mrs. Jameson Mr. Barkly lays 
the foundation-stone of the new church Bonham Spring Touching retro 
spect, 105 

b 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

Incidents The heavy tongue, but feeling heart Scenes in the Session Faith 
ful discipline Oppression and its results The negro not a fool Church 
building begun Mr. Moir leaves Chosen Theological Tutor Rejects pol 
luted gifts Arrival of Miss Jameson Building struggles Negro s account 
of the Fall of Adam The Lord s Supper at Goshen Letters of black 
people, 136 

CHAPTER VII. 

Jamaica Presbytery meets at Goshen The missionary dedication Seasonable 
aid The fatherless child sings himself into Canaan Vindication of the 
African Mission Church discipline Mr. Donaldson arrives Miss Mary 
Jameson Battle against the caste of colour The Divinity Students- 
Death of the Rev. James Paterson Review of 1842 Church completed 
and dedicated Mr. Donaldson s departure and death All ours is God s 
Review of 1843 Heartless corrupters, ....... 169 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Painful controversy Can a European Missionary depend solely on a negro 
church? Reluctance of Preachers to engage in foreign serviceRebelling 
against discipline Report of 1844 The African Mission Clifton Illness 
of Mr. M Gilchrist The Missionary sick Last Goshen Report, . . .107 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Mission to Old Calabar Mr. Jameson called to join it Accepts the call 
Appeals to the preachers Finds a substitute Farewell to Goshen At 
home Ordination of Rev. John Campbell, ....... 227 

CHAPTER X. 

Voyage to Old Calabar Arrival Fernando Po Duke Town Creek Town 
Preaches through interpreters Opens school Calabar marketing and 
house-keeping Egbo Institution Linguistic talents needed by a foreign 
missionary Death of Eyamba King Eyo Honesty The Warree returns 
from Jamaica Closing labours Illness Death, 253 



MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 



CHAPTER I. 

His birth Ancestry Father Childhood s promise Early sense of religion 
The schoolboy The student, at the University; at the Divinity Hall The city- 
missionary The probationer Prefers missionary work At Firth. Called to 
Jamaica Ordained Married The farewell soiree. 

THE subject of this Memoir lived so loving and useful a life 
that he was greatly missed when he died. He was missed in 
every sphere through which his course led him : in Orkney, 
in Jamaica, in Old Calabar, in the circle of his friends. In 
each he was greatly loved and leaned on ; and severe was the 
wrench that affection suffered when he was taken away. 

The best improvement that survivors in the field of labour 
and of conflict can make of the death of an honoured and 
zealous servant of God, is to believe and work like him. Wil 
liam Jameson, being dead, yet speaketh to missionaries; to 
those still living whom he taught publicly, and from house to 
house ; and, not less, to all who may become acquainted with 
his singularly affectionate, pious, and devoted character. 

He was born at Methven, in Perthshire, on the 27th of 
December, 1807. As he came of a godly race of men honoured 
in the history of the cause of God in Scotland a few notices 
of some of his ancestors will, we doubt not, interest the reader. 
Margaret Pringle, his mother, was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. 



2 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Pringle of Perth and Jane Moncrieff, one of the children of the 
Rev. Alexander Moncrieff of Culfargie, minister of the parish 
of Abernethy. His father, the Rev. John Jameson of Methven, 
was the son of the Rev. "William Jameson of Kilwinning and 
Mary Wilson, youngest daughter of the Rev. William Wilson, 
minister in Perth. He was thus a great-grandson, by the 
mother s side, of one, and, by the father s side, of another of 
the honoured fathers of the first Secession. The late Rev. Dr. 
John Brown of Edinburgh, whose name will be long fragrant 
in the Church of Jesus Christ, once said, in his own emphatic 
and kindly manner, to the only daughter of the subject of this 
Memoir : " Your father is in heaven, your grandfather is in 
heaven, your great-grandfathers are in heaven, and your great- 
great-grandfathers are in heaven ; see that you lose not your 
honourable inheritance " 

In the published " Remains of the late Rev. John Jameson 
of Methven," there is a passage like the above. In a letter to 
his son Alexander, March 12th, 1830, referring to the Memoir 
of the Rev. William Wilson, A.M., by the Rev. Andrew Terrier, 
and which had been newly published, he says : "It would do 
you good to have the Memoir by you, and to read in it daily, 
how one with whom you are so nearly connected, lived with God. 
He prayed much, and much for his children, and we who are 
his children s children, have come into his prayers. My dear 
A., when the Memoir is put into the bookseller s window, let 
some one who knows, have to point to you, with honourable 
respect, saying, And there goes one of his descendants, and, by 
the grace of God, not unlike him. In Glasgow, your own 
grandfather preached Christ ; and your great-grandfather and 
his father were men of God, and witnesses for his cause. I did 
not know, before perusing this Memoir, that we were con 
nected, by Mr. Wilson s mother, with Mr. James Guthrie, who 
suffered martyrdom, in the reign of Charles 11., at the cross of 
Edinburgh. Our little family is compassed about with a cloud 
of witnesses." 

The father of William Wilson was Gilbert Wilson, who 
possessed a small estate near East Kilbride, in Lanarkshire. 



ANCESTRY, 3 

Being a zealous Presbyterian, he was persecuted during the 
reign of the second Charles. The authorities deprived him of 
his heritable property, and sold his moveables at the cross of 
Glasgow. Mearns Muir, an extensive moorland in that district, 
was his hiding-place for a whole winter. At length, he escaped 
to Holland, where he found an asylum, until he returned with 
the Prince of Orange in 1688. His estate was not restored to 
him ; but, as some compensation for his losses, he was, at length, 
appointed comptroller of the customs at Greenock. Such was 
William Wilson s father. 

His mother, Isabella Ramsay, was the eldest daughter of 
Mr. Ramsay of Shielhill, a gentleman of property, near Kirrie- 
muir in Forfarshire. Mr. Ramsay was an Episcopalian, and a 
keen supporter of the Stuart dynasty. Miss Ramsay was Mrs. 
Guthrie s niece ; and while on a visit to her aunt, she became 
pious, and joined herself to the Presbyterians. Being disowned, 
in consequence, by her father, she found a shelter under Mr. 
Guthrie s roof, until her marriage with Gilbert Wilson. When 
her son William was prosecuting his studies for the ministry, 
her brother, who had succeeded to Shielhill, offered to leave it 
to her son, provided he would become an Episcopalian. This con 
dition not being accepted, Shielhill was left to a younger sister 
and her heirs. Father, mother, and son, all thus suffered for con 
science sake ; and the last had a further tasting of the same 
cup when, along with Moncrieff of Culfargie, the Erskines, and 
others, he had to give up his living in the Church of Scotland, 
through the violence of a faithless and unchristian majority. 
They were animated with the spirit that had breathed in the 
martyrs and heroes of the Scottish Covenant. 

The wife of William Wilson one of the great-grandmothers 
of the subject of this memoir was a lineal descendant of 
George Jamesone of Aberdeen, the " Vandyke of Scotland," 
" the first inhabitant of Great Britain, the works of whose brush 
could stand comparison with foreign painters." 

The Rev. William Jameson of Kil winning, when a preacher, 
in 1762, was appointed by the Secession Synod to proceed 
as a missionary to America ; but as the congregation of Kilwin- 



4 MEMOIK OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

. 

ning desired him for their minister, the Synod, at its next meet 
ing, released him from his missionary appointment. 

The memory of the Rev. Dr. Pringle is still fragrant in the 
city of Perth, where, for a period of sixty-two years, he was 
minister of the North Secession Church. He died in 1839, 
in the eighty-seventh year of his age, retaining his faculties 
fresh, and keeping up with a progressive generation to the last. 

The Rev. John Jameson, father of the subject of this Me 
moir, was a man whom to know was to love and to esteem. In 
his Memoir of the late Dr. John Brown, Dr. Cairns speaks of 
Mr. Jameson as a " man of true genius, and the fragments of 
whose mind show an originality and brilliancy not often reached 
in the finished productions of others." The Rev. George Gil- 
fillan also writes of him in terms of the most generous appre 
ciation. He says that he " was a man of various moods, as 
many men of genius are ; but, unlike some of that class, he 
was, in all his moods, amiable." " Jameson was indeed a 
singular composite. He was in intellect and genius a man, 
in simplicity and unconsciousness a child, and in affection a 
woman." " Even more than a man of genius, he was a man 
of heart, and of a heart that had been cradled and cultivated 
in the school of many sorrows." Of his " letters," he says 
that they " are, in pathos, in beauty, and in originality, in 
ferior to none in the language." And of his sermon on " True 
Fame," that " it told with prodigious power, and constitutes, 
next, perhaps, to a sermon on Elijah, by Dr. Ferrier, the best 
printed discourse by any one minister of the United Presby 
terian Church. The introduction is musical as the liquid lapse 
of the Earn itself, and several other parts are highly energetic." 
And of the subject of this Memoir, " Jameson s beloved son, 
William," that he was his father s " picture in appearance and 
fac-simile in disposition." 

Those are indeed blessed whom, in answer to the prayers of 
pious parents, God converts in early youth, and whom those 
parents are affectionately wise in training for nobly doing their 
life s work. Such parents as Mr. Jameson of Methven and 
his excellent wife, could not but exert a most benign influence 



EARLY DAYS. 

on their children. In their case, grace has run in the line, 
and they have all chosen the God of their fathers for their own 
God, and been identified with the Saviour s public cause. 

William Jameson was pious from his childhood. On the 
evening of the day on which he left Methven to sail for 
Jamaica, while the lessened circle sat together sorrowful at the 
departure of one so greatly beloved by them all, his good 
father said, " Well, my children, I got William from the Lord ; 
from the hour of his birth I gave him to the Lord ; and I 
never had cause to regret either the receiving or the giving. 1 

The following incidents show the budding of an early piety 
which, at length, expanded into the fragrance and fruitfulness 
of maturity. He was about three years of age, when, one day, 
his father led him out of doors during a thunderstorm, to see 
what he would think of it. They soon heard a very loud 
peal ; and William, grasping his father s hand in his, said, 
pointing upwards, " Stop, papa, stop ! God is playing a tune 
on the clouds." 

When he was about four years of age, a brother was born, 
who died in two weeks. He was named Adam. After the 
infant s death, his mother overheard William praying very 
earnestly, and weeping out, " Lord, I thank thee for Adam, 
though Adam is dead." 

On another occasion, when he wanted money for some of his 
own purposes, his mother heard him in his little closet praying 
for coppers. The word struck her, and she asked him when he 
came out, why he used that word. Blushing deeply, he said, 
" Mother, money was too big a word for me. I wanted only 
pence." He was then about six years old. 

When he was about twelve years old, one Saturday evening 
before the Lord s Supper, his sister Jane and he were sitting 
together. He spoke to her about the badness of her heart, 
and mourned that his own was so hard with respect to God 
and eternity. Among other things, he said, "This heart of 
mine is very cold and dead. I have been fighting to bring it 
under the influence of the Word of God ; but to-night, that 
blessed word makes no more impression on it than a piece of 



MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

small cord would make on a lump of hard, thick, tarry rope." 
Then, lifting up his tearful eyes to heaven, he implored the 
Lord to have pity on his heart, to subdue it to himself, and to 
fill it with love to Jesus Christ. 

The following incident shows the existence, in the boy, of 
the kind and generous disposition which made it a pleasure for 
the man to spend, and toil, and suffer for others. When he 
was at Methven school, on one occasion the master thought it 
to be his duty to punish a few of the girls for being late. 
One of these was the constant companion of the young Jame 
sons, and a relative of the family. When she was about, in 
her turn, to "hold out" her hand, William started from his 
seat, ran up to the master, and said, " Sir, do give me the 
punishment, and let her off." The little girl for whom he so 
kindly offered himself as a substitute, afterwards became his 
wife, and the partner of his missionary labours till her early 
death at Goshen. 

After attending school at Methven, he was sent to the Perth 
Academy, where he remained till July, 1823. He then re 
turned to Methven, and spent a year under the eye of his 
father, preparing for the University, which he entered in No 
vember, 1824, in his sixteenth year. During that period he 
opened an evening class, at the desire of several young men 
who wished to improve themselves in general and religious 
knowledge, and in this work he spent two hours each night. 
The meetings of this class were happy meetings, both for the 
teacher and for the learners. Six or seven of these young men 
became preachers or teachers, and filled important situations in 
different parts of the country with credit and advantage. Mr. 
Jameson studied four sessions at the University of Edinburgh, 
punctual, conscientious, and diligent in his work, and with 
characteristic ardour seeking such academical acquirements as 
become a minister of the Word of God. 

In 1828, he entered the Divinity Hall of the United Asso 
ciate Synod, which was then under the care of Drs. Mitchell 
and Dick. After his second session at the Divinity Hall, in 
October, 1829, he became an agent of the Perth City Mission 



COLLEGE LIFE. 7 

till July, 1831, when the connexion ceased, as he and his 
friends thought it proper that, since the period approached 
when he would become a licentiate, his time should be wholly 
given to study. 

In one of the reports of the Perth City Mission (March, 
1831), the Committee say that they "have reason to bless 
God, that, while their other agent has been so frequently 
changed, Mr. Jameson has been permanent, and still continues 
the zealous and indefatigable agent of the Society. Of Mr. 
Jameson, as he is present, the Committee cannot speak with 
freedom, as delicacy forbids this. Yet the Committee will 
earnestly pray that he may be strengthened for, and pre 
served in, his many arduous duties ; and that, while it pleases 
God to favour the Society with his valuable services, the con 
solations of the gospel may abound, more and more, to his 
own soul." 

In 1832, the Committee reported that "it was with ex 
treme regret that they parted with this gentleman. They feel 
justified in saying that his labours were abundantly character 
ized by a humble and devoted spirit, and they are justified in 
adding, nay, they would be culpable in withholding, their 
testimony to the success with which it has pleased God to crown 
those labours. They see, in his case, the fulfilment of the 
gracious promise of God a promise which will be fulfilled in 
the experience of all his humble, persevering, devoted servants, 
if not in this, at all events, in another world : l Them that 
honour me I will honour. " 

The missionary visited, for four hours daily, except on Satur 
days ; held three meetings weekly ; and, on Fridays, visited the 
sick. Mr. Jameson s service was not mere task-work. It was 
conscientious ; and was, obviously, a labour of love. It was 
the labour of one who was anxious to do good to souls, and to 
glorify his blessed Master. Two cases in which he was honoured 
to bring souls to the Saviour, are thus narrated in the Mission 
ary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, for January, 
1848 : "An old woman was greatly opposed to his visits, 
and, at last, became so annoyed at his perseverance, that, one 



8 MEMOIK OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

day, when she heard his foot on the stair, she threw a stool at 
him, and, in the act of turning round to get away, fell and 
hurt her knee. He raised her up, helped her into the house, 
and got a medical man to put her knee to rights. A bad 
swelling came on, which, in eighteen months, cut her off. He 
saw her every week, and, during that time, the poor woman 
came to herself, and was brought to the Saviour. She expres 
sed, at almost every visit, her thankfulness that he had been 
led to her door, notwithstanding her anxiety to keep him away, 
and blessed the Lord for the accident which, though producing 
death to her body, had, she said, wrought life in her soul. 
The other case was that of a man who led a very bad life, and 
had, by his vicious habits, brought his family to want. Mr. 
Jameson was anxious to get hold of this man, but was for a 
long time unsuccessful, as he invariably bolted his door when 
he was aware that Mr. Jameson was near the house. One 
day, however, he noticed this man s door open, and, looking in, 
saw that he was laid upon his bed. His complaint was inflam 
mation of the lungs. The man listened attentively to what he 
said to him, declared that he was sorry for the way he had 
treated him, and asked him to return soon. Mr. Jameson 
visited him frequently, conversed and prayed with him ; and his 
instructions were blessed. This man, who was formerly a 
terror to the neighbourhood, became meek as a lamb, and 
delighted to hear about Christ and his salvation. Being 
obliged to leave home for two weeks, Mr. Jameson hastened, 
the morning after his return, to this man s house. The door 
was standing open, the bed-curtains all thrown up, and the 
neighbours assembled in the room. He entered softly, and 
found him near his end. The people informed him that the 
dying man had longed greatly for his return, in order that 
he might tell him what the Lord had done for his soul. He 
waited to see the issue. Iii a few moments, the man opened 
his eyes, and looking up, as if he beheld his Saviour, sang 
audibly, Thou fairer art than sons of men ; and immediately 
expired." 

The interval between the sessions of 1831 and 1832 was 



LICENSE TO PREACH. 9 

spent with his father at Methven. This must have been a 
season of profit and progress. Hallowed intercourse with such 
a parent, and continuous study in a quiet rural town, where 
there was comparatively little to distract attention and consume 
time, could not fail to enlarge and perfect his views of divine 
truth, and fit him for the work of the ministry. His father 
was peculiarly fond of studying the Hebrew Scriptures. A 
portion was read and pondered every morning ; and he fre 
quently came down into the family circle with a face radiating 
delight and satisfaction at the ever fresh and cheering views 
which he was obtaining of the Word of God views which he 
used to say were conveyed to him by the ministry of angels. 
To enjoy daily the discourse of such a father was an inestimable 
boon to the student and to the future missionary. 

In September, 1833, Mr. Jameson was licensed to preach 
the gospel, by the United Associate Presbytery of Perth, and 
placed upon the list of probationers. He continued doing the 
work of a probationer for upwards of two years. 

During the period when he was a preacher, Mr. Jameson 
was sent to supply at Tunley, in the Lancashire Presbytery, 
and, while living there, he wrote to his aunt, Miss Mary Pringle, 
a letter of which the following is an extract : 

" I am working at Tunley with this encouragement, at least, 
that it is the work of God, and that his word does not return 
unto him void. The people are extremely ignorant, careless, 
and depraved. ... A religious Scotchman who comes to such 
a part of the country as this, sacrifices much, whatever he may 
gain in a temporal point of view. ... I love the classes ; a 
number of the pupils are making considerable progress. I 
preach twice at the chapel on Sabbath, and have commenced a 
preaching station in a small village, on my way home on the 
Sabbath evening. . . . My lodgings are very comfortable. I 
have a snug parlour and bed-room, "with a most excellent feather 
bed. To my breakfast, I have toast and coffee ; to my dinner, 
roast or boil ; but I am starved for want o kail. My landlady 
makes a kind of soup she calls broth, but they are no kail. If 
I don t live well it is my own fault." 



1 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

An incident which occurred to Mr. Jameson during the time 
when he was a probationer, is worthy of being mentioned. He 
was once benighted somewhere in the wilds of Galloway, while 
fulfilling one of his preaching appointments. The way was 
new, and he became apprehensive of danger from exposure. 
After wandering for some time, he observed a light which he 
followed till he found that it issued from a lonely house. He 
knocked at the door, and the mistress appeared. Mr. Jameson 
told his plight, and requested shelter. This she refused. Her 
husband was dying in a wild and wretched state of mind, and 
she had no accommodation for a stranger. But he told her 
that life was precious, that he had lost his way, that he wanted 
neither food nor bed, but he must be allowed to stay there by 
the fire, till day should break. He walked into the house and 
seated himself. There he heard the dying man groaning in 
the other apartment, and saw from his words how unfit he was 
to die. Mr. Jameson offered to speak and pray with him ; but 
the woman objected, saying that her husband would not hear 
a word about religion. But the stranger determined to take 
his own way. He prayed and conversed with the poor man, 
till he became calm and passed away. In the morning, the 
good woman would not allow him to go until he had broken 
his fast, saying that he had been a messenger of mercy to that 
house. Whether or not the dying man found Christ at the 
last hour of his godless life, we may know hereafter. But we 
know now, that that evening proved a new era in the history 
of the woman, who from that time became a true Christian. 

Dr. Newlands, of Perth, in a letter written, November 17th, 
1835, says : "When I was last in company with Mr. Ellis of 
Saltcoats, I asked him, in the course of conversation, why Mr. 
William Jameson had not had appointments in the central 
districts of our church. Mr. Ellis replied that Mr. Jameson 
had always been appointed to the missionary districts, in com 
pliance with his own special request, as affording scopo for that 
species of labour which was most congenial to his mind. I 
have reason to believe that his mind has been turned to mis 
sionary service from the commencement of his studies, and that 



LIFE AT FIRTH. 1 1 

a call to any congregation in this country would interfere with 
plans of usefulness which have been ardently cherished." It 
is, however, said that one of the vacant churches in the deno 
mination had resolved to call Mr. Jameson, and was deterred 
from doing so by learning that he was bent on foreign service, 
rather than on the pastoral work at home. His father, writing 
(January 29th, 1836), says : " I know my son s intentions to 
be, and to have been, for a long time favourably turned to the 
West Indies." Missionary work, both at home and abroad, he 
specially liked. He desired rather to gather a little flock in 
some heathen wilderness into the fold of the Good Shepherd, 
than to be employed in tending a flock already gathered. He 
has been known to exchange an appointment to a vacant con 
gregation, even when he had reason to believe that he was 
favourably regarded by it, for one at an obscure missionary 
station. And, therefore, he readily agreed to take charge of a 
station of this kind at Firth, a parish lying between Kirkwall 
and Stromness, a piece of outfield which the Presbyteiy of 
Orkney were trying to cultivate. The station was supported 
by the Secession Church in Kirkwall, under the pastoral care of 
Dr. Paterson. The Orkney Presbytery appointed Mr. Jameson 
to labour in this field for three months. At the end of that 
time, he had gained the hearts of the people ; and he agreed, 
at their request, made with the Presbytery s consent, to remain 
with them during the winter of 1835-36. When there was a 
prospect of Mr. Jameson s departure, and Firth was asked to 
give him up to Jamaica, Dr. Paterson wrote (March 2d, 1836) : 
"It is true, from my own strong desire, and from the uni 
versal desire of my congregation, to retain Mr. Jameson as our 
missionary, I shall comply with reluctance (with the request to 
give him up) ; but, in the circumstances of the case, I do not 
see what else I can do. I am happy to be able to say, that in 
getting him, I think your congregation will get an excellent and 
very devoted missionary. The people of our station are exceed 
ingly attached to him, and I see that his leaving them will be 
a great stroke ; but I must admit that Jamaica has, in some 
respects, preferable claims." 



1 2 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Mr. Jameson so manifestly spent himself for the people 
among whom he served in the ministry of the gospel, that he 
soon came to be regarded as necessary to their happiness. 
" So completely did he succeed in gaining the affections and 
confidence of the people of Firth, that it is believed there was 
scarcely a dry eye in the district when his resolution to leave 
it was made known." If a few months of labour so endeared 
the young probationer to the people of that Orcadian parish, 
how strongly attached must his own Goshen flock have been, 
after an intercourse of nearly ten years ! 

Among Mr. Jameson s papers, there remains an address, de 
livered in connexion with the " Stromness Missionary Society," 
in the beginning of 1836. This address is written in a fluent 
and ardent style, and glows with great warmth of zeal in the 
enterprise of missions to the heathen. Taking a glance at the 
wretched condition of fallen man, and the divinely prepared 
remedy revealed in the gospel of Christ, he illustrates the suit 
ableness and power of the latter in the hand of God, by a 
reference to the moral history of our own beloved land. He 
then surveys the regions of darkness the moral wastes which 
lie outside the pale of the Church of Jesus, where the devil 
holds unbounded sway over by far the largest part of mankind, 
by means of popish errors, Mohammedan delusions, and the 
idolatries of paganism. In looking at the work which has to 
be done, the Christian finds courage and hope nowhere but in 
our mighty God. " Desponding spirit ! lay aside thy doubts 
and fears. Lift thine eyes from these citadels of strength, with 
their towering battlements, and their numerous and well-discip 
lined forces, to Him who sits upon the white horse, on whose 
vesture, dipped in blood, and on whose thigh the name is 
written King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. See what the 
gospel the sharp two-edged sword that proceedeth out of his 
mouth hath already done, and learn what it shall again do." 

He then glances at several modern missionary spheres, as 
New Zealand, the Sandwich Islands, and the British West 
Indies. Not only had the labours of Christian missionaries 
been blessed among the bondsmen of our West Indian posses- 



MISSIONARY ADDRESS. 1 3 

sions, but it was to gospel influence, and to gospel power, that 
the recent glorious act of emancipation was due. In order 
that the whole world may be conquered to God, the divinely- 
appointed means must be used by the people of God. Is that 
man a genuine Christian who does not long to see the kingdom 
of Christ embrace all mankind, and who does not exert himself 
to help forward this glorious consummation ? While some, as 
the messengers of the church and of the church s Lord, bear the 
" lamp of life" into the dark wastes of heathenism, the church, 
collectively and individually, dare not look on with indifference. 
" The hearts of Christians must not be shut by avarice, or their 
arms enervated by sloth. All their stores they must bring into 
the storehouse, ere God open the windows of heaven, and pour 
out millennial blessings upon the church and the world." 
Vigorous, humble co-operation in every way, conduct becoming 
the gospel, and united earnest prayer, are all required at the 
hands of the friends of Jesus, in order that they may fulfil their 
duty, and be entitled to the reward of faithful service. Grati 
tude requires this, and so does compassion for the wretched and 
helpless. " What, brethren ! shall the Hindoo any longer be 
permitted to throw away his life under the ponderous wheel of 
Juggernath 1 Shall the tender infant still be plunged into 
Ganges, to appease an idol 1 Brethren, awake ! Hear the 
voice of God ! Let gratitude, and pity, and conscience arouse 
you to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 

By this time, the battle of freedom against slavery had been 
fought and won. After a struggle of twenty years, in which 
Clarkson, and Wilberforce, and Pitt, and Burke, contended 
against the African slave-trade, the importation of fresh negroes 
into the colonies was declared illegal, in 1807. And on the 
15th of May, 1823, a new struggle was begun, when, in the 
British House of Commons, Mr. Buxton rose up to move the 
resolution, " That the state of slavery is repugnant to the 
principles of the British Constitution, and of the Christian 
religion ; and that it ought to be gradually abolished through 
out the British Colonies, with as much expedition as may be 
found consistent with a due regard to the wellbeing of the 



1 4 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

parties concerned." After a conflict of ten years, on the 28th 
of August, 1833, the bill for the total abolition of colonial 
slavery received the royal assent. The slaves were to be ap 
prenticed for seven years to their former masters, and their 
masters were to be compensated by a gift of twenty million 
from the treasury of Britain. By this arrangement, seven hun 
dred thousand of the children of Africa, who were held in 
bondage in the dominions of Great Britain, ceased to be slaves 
on the 1st of August, 1834. From that period, to the 1st of 
August, 1 840, they were to serve their masters under the name 
of apprentices, and then they were to have the full liberty of 
British subjects. Not content with breaking the yoke of 
slavery, British Christians sought to provide for the education 
and religious instruction of the negroes. Missionaries had long 
laboured among them, amid reproach, and some of them were 
persecuted to the death. The record of these devoted servants 
of Christ, whether Moravians, or Wesleyans, or Episcopalians, 
or Independents, or Baptists, or Presbyterians, is on high. 
They have, and shall have, a greater reward than the trumpet- 
blast of human fame. 

In the year 1835, the United Secession Church sent out the 
Kev. James Paterson and the Rev. William Niven as mission 
aries to Jamaica. " The congregation of Rose Street, Edin 
burgh, under the ministry of their much loved pastor, the Rev. 
John M Gilchrist, in the awakening spirit of the day, embarked 
in the Christian enterprise of accompanying the maintenance of 
the gospel among themselves, with the activity of a mightier 
effort, to procure its extension also to others. They had a city 
mission, with its missionary ; and a Gaelic mission, with its 
Gaelic missionary, in Tiree, both maintained at their own proper 
charge. They resolved, also, to send out an ordained minister, 
as their own .missionary, to Jamaica, with all expenses at their 
own proper charge." 

They sought a man from the Lord, and were directed to Mr. 
Jameson, who was then at Firth. They received from those 
who knew him, the best accounts of his piety, steadiness, pru 
dence, and zeal. " With regard to Mr. William Jameson," 



CALL TO MISSIONAKY LIFE. 15 

wrote Dr. Newlands of Perth, " only one opinion can be enter 
tained by those who know him. He is a young man of good 
talents, and very decided piety ; and is more deeply imbued 
with missionary zeal than any of our preachers with whom it 
has been my lot to have personal intercourse. He is a person 
of the greatest prudence and amiability. I should consider any 
congregation or society which can secure the services of such an 
agent, eminently fortunate." November llth, 1835, Dr. Young 
wrote : " Mr. William Jameson is well known to me, and I 
hesitate not to say, that he is a young man of decided piety, 
steadiness, and prudence. His dispositions are peculiarly ami 
able and benevolent ; and he has long shown a strong desire 
for missionary usefulness. To all his relatives, however, he is 
very dear ; and the attachment of some of them is so strong, 
that it will operate as a painful difficulty in his way." 

We shall not apologize for inserting here an extract from a 
letter written by Mr. Jameson of Methven, January 29th, 1836, 
when Mr. M Gilchrist brought to his notice the desire of him 
self and his people to secure his son as their missionary to 
Jamaica : " I confess to you that, although I know my son s 
intentions to be, and to have been, for a long time, favourably 
turned to the West India mission, yet your letter brought the 
matter so much nearer to the point, that it did awaken in my 
mind all the emotions to which you so delicately refer ; and it 
will not surprise you, when I own that the mingling of such 
emotions has made me tardy in acknowledging, on my part, the 
honour which your congregation has done him, in making the 
application which your letter bears. I sincerely thank you, 
dear sir, and the gentlemen of your missionary committee ; and 
I regard it as no ordinary tribute of esteem and respect to any 
of mine, to be so accounted of by those, who themselves are 
standing so nobly forward in the most noble of all benevolent 
enterprises. I have no idea what my son may resolve upon, 
in the event of your applying to him. I can as little say how 
I shall feel, if he judge it to be his duty to accept the mission. 
In a matter of such importance, I would leave that which con- 
cerneth me and mine to the higher and better ordering of our 



1 6 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

blessed and gracious Master ; and I humbly trust, that, in this 
matter, in which you and your congregation are so deeply and 
so honourably concerned, he who has sent his Shiloh, will send 
for your confidence and comfort, by the hand of him whom he 
will send." 

The Lord seems always specially to prepare those servants 
whom he calls to any work of unusual difficulty or responsi 
bility. Trains of thought are traversed ; feelings corresponding 
with the enterprise are aroused ; sympathies are awakened and 
cherished ; and thus, unconsciously, the servant of the Lord is 
made ready to sever the strongest ties, to say farewell to the 
dearest friends, to go out of the known and accustomed track, 
and to enter on new and formidable enterprises. The history 
of modern missions abounds with notable illustrations of this 
remark, as is seen in the many records of the lives of mission 
aries, which have so happily been made for the instruction and 
encouragement of the Church of the living God, ever anew 
summoned to carry forward the work which is to be gloriously 
consummated in the overthrow of the kingdom of the prince of 
darkness, and the complete establishment of the kingdom of 
God, in every corner of the earth. 

The letter written in name of the Directors of the Congre 
gational Missionary Society of Rose Street, Edinburgh, which 
intimated to Mr. Jameson their wish to send him as their mis 
sionary to Jamaica, did not find him unprepared, as appears 
from the following reply, dated Orkney, February 9th, 1836 : 
" I received your letter of the 3d, and hasten to return my 
warmest acknowledgments to you, and to your committee, for 
the confidence they repose in me, in offering to commit into 
my hands a trust of so great responsibility. I humbly pray 
that, if my Divine Master lead me to accept of it, he will give 
me grace to be faithful. Although the missionary field in 
Jamaica has been before my mind for some time past, as the 
subject of earnest thought and prayer, yet I have not been able 
to come to a decision as to the will of my Master regarding 
myself. It is my most anxious desire to know his will, and 
to have a heart to do it. I desire to look up to himself, saying, 






DECISION. 1 7 

< Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Before I come to any 
determination on a matter of so great importance, it is the wish 
of my father, and it is also my own, that I should see him and 
my other friends, at home ; and their suggestions may lead me, 
by the guidance of unerring wisdom, to see the path of duty in 
the present case. I have laboured, for the last five months, as 
the missionary of the Kirkwall congregation. Your letter re 
quires me to hasten home ; the interest of the station requires 
that I should not abruptly leave it. It will be my concern, 
looking at all the views of the case, with the help of my father, 
and under the guidance of the Spirit of God, to know that line 
of conduct which I ought to adopt." 

Accordingly, Mr. Jameson left Firth (on the 20th of March, 
1836), and, in eight days, addressed Mr. M Gilchrist from 
Perth, before he had reached Methven, saying, that he became 
daily more satisfied that the path of duty was the one now set 
before him, in the providence of his Divine Master, and hoping 
that that Master would enable him to go forward joyfully. 

After a month passed in prayerful consideration, and in con 
sultation with attached relatives, he visited Edinburgh, and 
having met with tlje Directors of the Rose Street Congrega 
tional Missionary Association, and preached to the congregation, 
he was, at a general meeting of the Association, held on the 
5th of May, unanimously and cordially elected as their foreign 
missionary agent. The call thus presented to him he at once 
accepted, and returned to Methven to prepare for being ordained. 

On June 13th, 1836, he wrote to the same : " My mind is 
more and more reconciled to what is before me ; the more I 
look, the more I am satisfied that I am in the path of duty. 
I am now better able to look at the matter with calmness, and 
though many difficulties appear, why should I be afraid when 
my Master has said, My grace is sufficient for thee ? I leave 
the land of my nativity, but seek a better country, even 
heaven ; afflictions and trials very possibly await me, but the 
Saviour lives, my shield and fortress, my comforter and de 
liverer, my portion, and my all. Without a grudge, yea, joy 
fully, I leave all, trusting that the gospel, in the hand of the 

B 



18 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Holy Spirit, will prove joy to many to the land to which I go ; 
and what can I wish more 1 The darkness and misery of 
Jamaica, and the recompense of reward move me. But, above 
all, the thought that he who was rich for our sakes became 
poor, moves me that no more I should live to myself, but to 
him who loved me, and who died for me." 

At length the United Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh 
met in the midst of the congregation in their own church, on 
the evening of September 7th, to separate their missionary to 
the solemn and interesting work of benevolence and mercy by 
the laying on of their hands. " The Rev. James Watson, mis 
sionary from Jamaica, commenced the services with prayer ; 
the Rev. Mr. Cooper from Fala preached from 1 John v. 19 ; 
the Rev. Mr. M Gilchrist offered the ordina,tion prayer, and 
addressed the young missionary and the congregation ; and also 
in the name of the Rose Street Missionary Association, pre 
sented Mr. Jameson with an elegantly bound copy of the 
Bible, as containing the message which he was to proclaim, 
and the only instructions with which it was their wish to charge 
him. The Rev. Dr. Pringle of Perth, the venerable grand 
father of the newly-ordained missionary, concluded the solemn 
and impressive services by prayer." l 

Mr. Jameson, senior, says of the ordination, that " a scene 
more befitting the occasion, or more deeply interesting, has 
rarely been witnessed. Everything was in keeping. It was 
truly as if the Sun of righteousness had indeed broken forth on 
the princely willing people. Every eye looked, every ear 
listened, and every heart was gratified. The whole audience, 
and the house was filled to overflowing, hung on to the close of 
the service, with intense and unbroken interest." 

On the day after his ordination, Mr. Jameson was united in 
marriage to Nicolis Mackersy, only daughter of the late Wil 
liam Mackersy, Esq. of Kinkell, in Perthshire, who also was a 
descendant of the Rev. William Wilson of Perth. As it is con 
sidered desirable that new missionaries should reach a tropical 
field of labour at the coolest and most salubrious season, their 

1 Mr Scott s narrative. 



ORDINATION. 1 9 

departure was deferred for a time ; and thus Mr. Jameson 
had an opportunity of enlarging his acquaintance with the 
members of the Society, under whose care he was to go forth 
to the work of the Lord. " In the new and extraordinary cir 
cumstances into which the congregation was brought, in the 
almost universal interest throughout the congregation, the 
people could not rest satisfied with only acting together, and, 
in their devotional exercises, with merely looking at each other, 
in the understood confidence that they were of one heart and 
mind ; the craving of the common heart went out further, 
after a social meeting, in which they might break out in all 
the freedom of mutual conversation on the subject of their 
common enterprise. They threw themselves on the kindred 
feeling of the religious public in Edinburgh, and came together 
in a soire e, on the Monday after the ordination. That public, in 
fellow-feeling far beyond what the congregation had anticipated, 
responded to the proposal, and a great company attended." 

The object of this missionary soire e was to bid the youthful 
missionary farewell and God-speed in his mission to Jamaica. 
" The joyousness which so blithely spread itself over the face 
of the whole company, the hum of the busy and cheerful con 
versation in which the words flew from heart to heart, left 
little room for conjecture that the disciples in Edinburgh, 
having come together in the very same spirit in which their 
brethren had done of old at Troas, entered, during their break 
ing of bread, also, into the same conversation, one with an 
other. Did, at Troas, the conversation during the breaking 
of bread, assume its more elevated style, so common among 
the Hebrews, rising into set speeches ? Did Paul, as not a 
whit behind the very chief of missionaries, in such speeches sus 
tain and take the lead in the conversation ? In the same manner 
in the Rose Street soire e, when the repast was finished, the easy 
and familiar talking of the evening to one another gave way also 
to the same loftier order of conversation. This part was sus 
tained by Mr. M Gilchrist, and by the Rev. Messrs. Cooper, Rob- 
son, and Alexander. Mr. M Gilchrist gave a brief, luminous, and 
interesting narrative of the origin and progress of the Missionary 



20 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Association in his congregation, and its blessed results ;" and 
thus introduced the missionary in terms that flowed from the 
core of his genial soul, and which, eulogistic as they are, truth 
fully portray the subject of them, who was a man greatly 
beloved : 

" What may be called the more special duty I am this night 
expected to perform, is a singularly pleasing one. It is to in 
troduce to this meeting my esteemed and beloved friend and 
brother, Mr. William Jameson, the ordained missionary of the 
congregation of Eose Street, to Jamaica. All of you, my 
friends, have repeatedly heard this gentlemen, with high satis 
faction, from the pulpit. Many of you have met him, with no 
less pleasure, in private ; but I am confident it is with emotions 
of a higher and warmer satisfaction still, that you meet him, this 
evening, as one whom you have seen invested, at your call, with 
the holy office of the ministry, and who is about, as your agent, 
to leave his native shores to enter on the distant scene of his 
future labours. So now, as on a former evening, I would deem 
it improper to express in public, and in presence of my friend, 
the estimate I have formed of his character and worth. I am 
fully persuaded that such a liberty would wound and offend, 
rather than gratify him. Let me only say, that there is nothing 
I could desire in a foreign missionary which I do not find in 
him. His intelligence, his zeal, his prudence, his piety, his 
devotedness, and his genial and conciliatory manners, all com 
bine to invest him with singular fitness for the work to which 
he is appointed. The better I have known him, the more I 
have loved him. I am not aware that any one, on so short an 
acquaintance, ever established himself so entirely in my con 
sideration, or secured, by weight of excellence, felt and owned, 
so large a share of my affections; and the reason of this is 
found in my friend s character, of which simplicity and affection 
are the leading features. You don t require time to study him ; 
you are not left to apprehend anything at variance with your 
first impression, as in the case of artful and soft-hearted men. 
His character is like one of nature s untainted fountains, 
however deep, in consequence of the translucent purity of its 



ORDINATION. 21 

waters, you can look, in one glance, to the bottom, where 
nothing but shining sand and bright pebbles meet the eye. So 
it is with the character of friend. No mud of insincerity 
or of art conceals the bottom ; nor is its surface ruffled by the 
winds of temper ; you see him at once, as you always see him. 
There are no discoveries to be made, but such as are to his 
honour. With such an agent, under the guidance and blessing 
of Heaven, what expectations of happiness and success may we 
not entertain ? Sure am I, my friends, that, through the grace 
of God given him, the great ends of the compact will not fail 
of their accomplishment on his part. Let it be our care that 
there be nothing wanting on ours. I rejoice to think, my 
friends, that in sending Mr. Jameson to Jamaica, we have now 
the certain prospect (if both are spared) of sending, not one, 
but two missionaries, to that island. Our friend has been so 
wise and well directed as to secure, before leaving his native 
country, the incalculable advantages of a pious and accom 
plished companion for life ; and to a foreign missionary these 
advantages are indeed incalculable, whether we regard her as a 
woman or as a missionary. Nor are they less valuable to us. 
An intelligent and devoted female, standing in this sacred re 
lation to the missionary, has a field of usefulness presented 
scarcely less extensive and important than his ; and such, by 
universal testimony, is Mrs. William Jameson. Surely we 
have to congratulate you on this happy consummation, one so 
full of the promise of comfort to our missionary, and of more 
extensive usefulness in the great enterprise on which he is 
to enter. 

" I cannot, my dear brother, bid you farewell on this public 
occasion, without assuring you, in my own name, and in the 
name of the people over whom it is my honour to preside, of 
the sincerity and warmth of that affection with which we in 
common regard you, and of the unlimited confidence we repose 
in you as our messenger, in Christ s name, to the heathen. 

" I am fully aware that in the hour of discouragement and 
trial, of sadness and sorrow, the richest source of your comfort 
will be found in the sympathy and grace of your Divine 



22 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Master ; but, in such an hour, the thought may not be without 
its influence to soothe and sustain the fainting spirit, that you 
live in the esteem and affection of the people at whose instance 
and at whose charge you are serving the Redeemer in a distant 
land ; and that their fervent prayers, and fondest wishes, and 
ardent love follow you to the scene of your labours. Yes, you 
are in our hearts, my dear brother, if we cannot say to die 
and to live with you, at least, we can truly say to suffer and to 
rejoice with you; tenderly and intensely to sympathize with you 
in all your future experience, whatever be its character and 
complexion. And now I commend you to God, and the word 
of his grace, and to him who is able to keep you from falling, 
and to present you faultless before the throne of his glory, 
with exceeding joy." 

The other speakers dwelt on the duty and necessity of 
Christian missions, the claims of the negroes, and the en 
couragements to increased missionary enterprise. Mr. Jameson, 
senior, signified how willingly he gave his son to God, to the 
work, and to the congregation. Mr. Fyfe, Convener of the 
Missionary Committee, addressed the missionary in name of 
the congregation, bidding him farewell, and praying him the 
countenance and aid of the God of their salvation. The 
missionary, in reply, claimed the unfeigned remembrance of 
their prayers ; and pressed upon them, above all, the sure and 
diligent attention to their own eternal salvation, as the best 
support from home which could reach him far abroad. 

" It was now far in the evening, George Thompson, Esq., 
rose : for he had been earnestly solicited ; but such was the 
overwhelming interest of the scene, that a man, one of the 
master spirits of the age, seemed for a moment to hesitate, 
whether, from such an eminence of high excitement, it was 
lawful for him to proceed. He did proceed, and in that elo 
quence which has seldom, indeed, if ever, burst from the lips of 
man. The Spirit of God came down upon him. It was as if 
the veil which is hung between heaven and earth had been 
drawn aside for a little moment, to let out upon him, in the 
riches of a higher measure than is ordinarily allotted to the 



VALEDICTORY MEETING. 23 

sons of the mighty, a stream, in its full flood of the vastness 
of thought ; of bold, and happy, and grand conceptions ; of 
ever-ready, ever-varying, and overpowering utterance. As 
the descending Spirit came down upon him, the impassioned 
language of the speaker rose, presenting to every eye the scene 
which, from such a meeting as this, opened on the view, and 
exhibiting the toil of years, and of many a struggle, to carry 
the strongholds of negro oppression, and remove the rubbish, 
now giving way to the loftier enterprise still of rearing in its 
place, on the very spot, the house of God, in all the simplicity, 
the truth, and the noble grandeur of the building of mercy. 
It was well-nigh midnight ; and as they hung on in breathless 
attention, as this bold, and interesting, and Christian philan 
thropist continued his speech, the whole multitude looked one 
willing consent to cling to him, listening on to the break 
of day." 1 

" Other and more private meetings followed for prayer and 
conference on the work to which the Society and their agent 
were pledged ; and, on the 25th of October, the directors and 
collectors assembled, for the express purpose of commending 
Mr. and Mrs. Jameson to the divine guidance and protection, 
and of bidding them an affectionate and final farewell. In 
these meetings, Mr. Jameson confirmed the good opinion, and 
strengthened those friendly feelings with which the members 
of the association had, from the first, regarded him ; while the 
spirit of brotherly love, and of devotion to the cause of missions, 
which pervaded them, must have constrained him to thank 
God and take courage, and thus prepared him for going forth 
with greater cheerfulness and confidence, to proclaim that mes 
sage of mercy and salvation with which he was put in trust." 2 

The devoted servants of the Redeemer in Rose Street Church, 
Edinburgh, have always acted thus by those missionaries whom 
they have sent out. They have ever sought to beget and 
cherish in them a spirit of confidence, and to send them on 
their way rejoicing. 

The voluntary exiles, about to proceed on their distant 

1 Mr. Jameson, senior. 2 Mr. Scott s narrative. 



24 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

mission, had now before them a duty which is of all duties 
the most trying, and which is trying in proportion to the 
strength and tenderness of the affection that subsists between 
those who have to go and those who remain behind. They 
had to take leave of an attached circle at Methven, Airdrie, 
Perth, etc., who clung to them with ardent affection. It is 
natural that a parent should find it hard to part with a child 
who aspires to the work of preaching the Gospel to the heathen. 
But, surely, it is an offence of no ordinary magnitude in a 
Christian parent, resolutely to hinder one who is fitted in body, 
mind, and spirit, for that work ; and who, from being inclined, 
seems heaven-called, to carry the " lamp of life " to the dark 
places of the earth. We lately heard of a case which ought to 
warn parents whose affection blinds both their judgment and 
their conscience in this matter. A son was bent on being a 
missionary, but his parents persistently refused their consent. 
Mark the end ! That youth, once so full of promise, became a 
wanderer from God, and fell at once from religion and from 
virtue. Instead of leaving his native land, with the prayers 
and blessings of the Church of God, he left as a prodigal, and 
went no one knows whither ; and the child whom a mistaken 
affection refused to the honourable service of God, has gone, 
a miserable wreck, in the service of Satan. 

This part of our narrative will best be wound up by a few 
sentences from a letter written by Mr. Jameson of Methven to 
Mrs. Mackersy, on the departure of his sou and her daughter. 
It carries us back to the quiet manse at Methven, where so 
much that was good and amiable found a home ; and we weep 
in sympathy with the patriarch whose lover and friend had 
been put far from him, and whose eldest born was now de 
parting for a distant land, leaving another big blank in the 
lessening household band. 

"METHVEN, October 20th, 1836. 

" Yesterday William and his spouse, Nicolis, left us to their 
kail with your old friend Mrs. Ritchie, on their way, for 
good and all, to Perth. . . . The morning of their departure 
was something like death ; although we were expecting it, 



FAKEWELL. 25 

and knew the hour as it drew on, yet there was still some 
thing to do ; but on it came there was a hurry, a struggle, 
a tearing asunder ; off they went, and, in five minutes, we 
felt that they were gone. My little darling (Mrs. W. J.) be 
haved like a princess ; she adjusted everything. Her won 
drous presence of mind never forsook her she was in no 
fluster j she giggled not ; she smiled not ; pale as death, and 
silent as marble, she put her hand in mine, kissed me, and 
slipped away. God bless thee ! child of my heart, my daughter ! 
the fatness of the dew of heaven come down on thy sorrows 
and on thy joys ; the blessing of thy father and the house of 
thy fathers rest on thy lot, and be the crown of thy head ! 

" We had a soire e, too, in Perth ; and a feeling and interest 
ing meeting in the school here with the congregation, on the 
occasion of their presenting William with a watch, as a me 
morial of their esteem. On Saturday, the elders and managers 
presented William with a psalm-book, as a companion to his 
Rose Street Bible. , . . I had little spirit for these things, 
and I was ofttimes angry with myself ; for, in the midst of the 
scenes of gladness, I could feel no kindred spirit in them. It 
was to my children ! my children ! my children ! that my 
heart ran and clung. I am, however, more and more satisfied 
that He who loved us, and gave himself for us, is claiming 
them for the work to which he hath called them ; and he 
knows that, without grudge or murmur, I frankly surrender 
them to himself and to his work of mercy. ... I humbly 
trust that He will never forsake them ; and if, by their means, 
a single sinner be saved, a single soul be comforted ; nay, 
if but one word, a message of mercy, be carried across the 
Atlantic, to a single vessel of mercy, through their instrumen 
tality, he is welcome to the messengers, and we are honoured, 
and more than paid, by the message given them to carry." 

Thus did such a father give such a son to the work of God. 
With his whole heart, he surrendered him and his wife, whom 
he loved as a daughter, although his uncommon affection ateness 
of spirit made it a severe struggle, and cheerfully did he bid 
them God-speed. 



26 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 



CHAPTER II. 

Leaves home The voyage First impressions of Jamaica Country and people 
Wanted at Green Island Duty calls to Goshen Bagnold s Vale Origin of Goshen 
station American Baptists Dreams Leaders The new missionary in harness 
Death of his father. 

HAVING said farewell to home and friends, Mr. and Mrs. 
Jameson proceeded to Greenock. The "Christian," in which 
their passage had been taken, was to sail on the llth of 
November. But contrary winds detained her till the 22d, 
when the Rev. Mr. Sinclair, who had most hospitably enter 
tained them, accompanied them to the ship. A letter of Mr. 
Jameson of Methven, November 25th, 1836, contains a re 
ference to their departure. "William sailed on Thursday. 
God does all things well. By this delay, our missionaries had 
an opportunity, on Sabbath, of sitting down with their brethren 
in Greenock, and eating the Lord s Supper, ere they proceeded 
on their voyage, a meal for forty days. If the wind has been 
with them, in the same direction as with us, they should, 
by this time, be getting on towards, or across the Bay of 
Biscay. Be this as it may, we know who sees them, and who 
hears us." 

After being towed down the Clyde, they were forced, by a 
head wind, to take shelter in Rothesay Bay. " The next 
morning," writes Mr. Jameson, " we left the place of our re 
treat before a favourable breeze. On Friday, we found our 
selves off the coast of Ireland. But now the wind turned 
completely against us, and we were, for several days, at the 
mercy of an unpropitious gale. On the following week, it 
veered round, once more, in our favour, and we had a speedy 
run to the Bay of Biscay. Again, the wind turned against us, 



THE VOYAGE. 2t 

and drove us back to the Irish coast, where we lay for a num 
ber of days, tossed without ceasing on the tempestuous deep ; 
till it pleased our heavenly Father to send a breeze which car 
ried us on our way past the Azores, with St. Mary s full in 
view, into the region of the trade-winds." 

The voyagers, however, were disappointed in their hopes of 
the smooth seas and favouring breezes of this region, so welcome 
after the anxieties and tossings and miseries of the Channel 
and the ill-famed Bay of Biscay. They met with head-winds 
and stormy waves, for some time, till about the 8th of January, 
1837, when, at last, the trade-wind wafted them onwards to 
the sunny, smiling archipelago of the West ever looked back 
to with affection and interest by those who have once had a 
home there. They passed " Deseada" the desired a small 
island off Guadaloupe, the first land seen after leaving the 
Western Isles. " It was, indeed," says Mr. Jameson, " an ob 
ject of great desire ; we looked for it with much eagerness, 
and when we saw it, we gazed on it as a strange thing." 
Passing through the channel, between Antigua on the right 
hand, and Montserrat on the left, they would pass in view of 
the large rock Redondo the round which, when seen from a 
particular point, and especially in the dusk of the tropical 
evening, has so much the appearance of a large vessel in full 
sail, that, it is said, the captain of a Dutch man-of-war, cruis 
ing in those seas, fired several shots at it before discovering his 
mistake. On the 20th, the Blue Mountains of Jamaica rose to 
view. They saw, at length, the Queen of the Antilles, sitting 
there in all her mingled beauty, variety, and sublimity, one of 
the fairest spots on God s earth, though, for so many generations, 
polluted by an amount of moral vileness, of oppression, and of 
wrong, such as the great day of judgment alone can reveal. 
Mr. Jameson noted in his journal : " In the morning, I rose 
about three o clock, and on going on deck, the mate hailed me 
with the welcome tidings that the land to which we were bound 
was now in view. I looked, and, in the moonlight, saw before 
me the Blue Mountains. Oh, if ever I felt gratitude, it was 
then. Looking at these mountains, I was filled with wonder 



SO MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

and awe ; every unholy feeling was chased away for a season ; 
I was elevated above the transient scene ; I thought of heaven, 
and wished that I was entering there, to look, and wonder, and 
praise. The whole coast is exceedingly beautiful, diversified 
with verdant hills, and here and there a town, and here and 
there an estate, like a village at home for size." 

They had prayers in the cabin every evening during the 
voyage, and Mr. Jameson preached on deck every Sabbath, 
when the weather permitted. On the Sabbath evenings, he 
taught a class of seven or eight young persons. While they 
were off San Domingo, an apprentice fell from the mast-head 
into the water, striking against the vessel as he fell. " He 
was a very fine boy," writes Mr. Jameson, "one whose ac 
quaintance with divine truth, and whose marked attention, 
while I was speaking, pleased and struck me much. Alas ! 
his image is vividly before me, as he sat on his stool with his 
bonnet and his hands between his knees, his body reclining for 
ward, and his fixed eye and interesting countenance resting on 
me, as I told them that we might not all meet together again ; 
that our next meeting might be at the judgment-seat of 
Christ ; that ere another Sabbath some of us might be in 
eternity. The sad scene of to-day chides me for remissness. 
Oh, had I known that it would take place, with what earnest 
ness would I have urged the Saviour upon them ! But may 
I learn from this ever to feel myself and my hearers on the 
brink of eternity ! " 

Observe the exercises of a genuinely pious heart in these 
expressions, following a description of the calm and beautiful 
hour of setting sun and rising moon in the tropics. " But, 
oh, how cloudy the mind ! How agitated with stormiest pas 
sions the soul ! No light is there, and no serenity. Oh, 
wretch that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death 1 Thanks, eternal thanks to God, for the gift of his Son, 
who dispels the thickest darkness, and subdues all things to 
himself." Reader, be not surprised. The exercise is genuine ; 
the self-abasement is proper and warranted ; the consciousness 
of this sin and misery, while, along with it, there is a humble 






THE VOYAGE. 29 



but firm hope in God through Jesus Christ, betokens a not un 
healthy spiritual state, and fits the servant of God for his work 
whether at home or abroad. 

On the 21st of January, 1837, the "Christian" anchored 
at Montego Bay. On that day, Mr. Jameson wrote in his 
journal : " We have, at last, reached our long-wished for har 
bour. The passengers and the captain have gone ashore, and 
we are left for a little to ourselves. We have just received a 
letter from Mr. Paterson of New Broughton, expressing his re 
gret at having to leave Montego Bay before our arrival, and 
telling us how anxious they all were about us. This letter has 
cheered us greatly. . . . Everything reminded us that we were 
strangers. Our fellow-passengers were surrounded by friends, 
who welcomed them home by their tears, and their smiles, and 
their kind caresses ; but we felt that we were alone. Shield 
of the stranger ! We were happy in Thee. Doubtless, God 
of our fathers ! thou art our Father. God is with us, and our 
prayers, and the prayers of many on our behalf, lie before his 
throne. Swarthy faces, strange-looking houses, the uncouth 
dialect, cocoa-nut trees with their star-like clusters of waving 
leaves, orange trees, mingled gold and green, and, above all, a 
blazing sun, made us feel ourselves among new scenes and a 
strange people. Not knowing any person in Montego Bay, 
we remained on board all night. Next morning, Mr. Holmes, 
a Scotchman, and editor of a widely circulated newspaper, 1 
came on board for us. He is a great friend and warm sup 
porter of the Presbyterian missionaries. He gave us a hearty 
welcome to Jamaica, and a pressing invitation to accompany 
him to his house, and there remain till Mr. Waddell should 
be sent for to take us to Cornwall. I need not say how thank 
ful we were for the kind invitation ; how gladly we embraced 
it ] how much of God s goodness we saw in it. When we felt 
strange and lonely, He sent us this friend who cheered us by 
his many kind attentions." 

" January 23d. Mr. Waddell arrived at an early hour, most 
happy to see us, and expressed the fears which they had felt 

1 The Cornwall Chronicle. 



30 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

regarding our safety. "We reached Cornwall about seven P.M. 
A number of negroes, who were waiting our arrival, flocked 
around, and gave us a welcome. Good massa, we glad to see 
you ; good massa. After dinner there was a temperance meet 
ing. Mr. Waddell apologized for the delay of an hour, caused 
by his having to go to Montego Bay to bring the new minister. 
They with one voice replied, Quite good, massa, we thankful 
for the delay. This was the first meeting of negroes I have 
attended ; arid I cannot describe my feelings, on seeing so many 
sable countenances, bearing upon them the impress of the high 
est interest in what was going on. At the conclusion, all shook 
hands with the strangers, repeating their former expressions of 
kindness, their whole appearance testifying the sincerity of their 
words." 

" January 24:tk. I examined the children, and was surprised 
and delighted to find how accurately they answered the questions 
put to them. Mrs. Jameson also examined them by herself, 
and came in, also surprised and delighted with their progress. 
The teacher is a young female, taught and trained for the work 
by Mrs. Waddell. Mrs. Jameson noted one little girl, about four 
years old, who read the New Testament with ease and fluency. 
It is truly delightful to see them permitted to attend school; 
and, more particularly, to see so much progress among persons 
who have been declared, a thousand times over, to be as unfit 
to learn as the brutes. Why should we not indulge the hope 
that, ere long, under the benign influence of the Spirit of God, 
through the feeble instrumentality of his servants, knowledge 
shall bless this people, and holiness shall adorn them !" 

" January 31st. Took farewell of Mr. Waddell, and went to 
visit Mr. Blyth at Hampden. Here everything goes on most 
prosperously. The congregation is large ; and there are 200 
at school. The teacher is Mr. Drummond, from Stirling, sent 
out by the proprietor of Hampden. 1 He is well qualified for, 
and most diligent in his work. His leisure time he spends 
among the people, taking part with them in their prayer-meet 
ings, and in every way striving to lead them forward. Had we 

i A. Stirling, Esq. of Keir. 



JAMAICA. 31 

many such persons, they would greatly strengthen our hands. 
Care should be taken to send men of approved piety and pru 
dence ; for truly, in this country, we may be said to be as a 
city set upon a hill, seen and watched by all." 

" Sabbath, February 5th. Preached, at Lucea, to 500 or 600 
interesting people. They were longing much for the return of 
Mr. Watson, and were greatly delighted when I told them that 
he would be among them so soon. We commenced the work 
of the Sabbath at six A.M., and finished at five P.M. Some of 
the Green Island people were there to welcome me as the mis 
sionary sent out expressly for them. I was exceedingly grieved 
to find them so misinformed. I told them that I had not been 
appointed to occupy Green Island, or any other place ; but was 
to follow the way marked out by my Divine Master. That this 
matter had been left to myself and to the Presbytery now formed 
in the country ; that the claims of Green Island had been laid 
before me, together with those of Goshen ; and that, after 
calm and prayerful consideration, and consultation with my 
brethren, I had come to the conclusion that Goshen was the 
sphere of labour to which I was called. The people were much 
disappointed, and clung to me as if they would not let me go. 
They crowded the vestry-room, entreating, and urging me ; and 
followed me when I went to visit a sick person. I was moved ; 
but duty evidently pointed me elsewhere ; and I could not set 
aside the resolution so recently and solemnly formed. They 
resolved, ere I left them, to lay their case before the Church at 
home, and to make an appeal to the preachers. I encouraged 
them to do so, as it might, under God, be the means of deepen 
ing the Church s interest in the work of mercy in this land. 
When this appeal is published, let every one know that it comes, 
not from the missionaries wanting help, but from the people 
themselves, desiring the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is the 
bleating of the flock for the green pastures and the life-giving 
streams of gospel ordinances. It is the cry of the poor and 
needy, the ardent desire of longing souls ; and the servant of 
Jesus who shuts his heart against such an appeal, shows little 
of the spirit of his blessed Master." 






32 MEMOIK OF KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

"Sabbath, February 12th. Preached to-day to a full and 
most attentive congregation at Hampden ; and addressed the 
Sabbath scholars, in number about 500." 

"Monday, 13th. We took leave of our kind friends at 
Hampden, and set out on our journey to Carron Hall, about 
100 miles distant : our conveyance a gig, and our guide a black 
man, leading three horses for change, all being necessary on 
account of the wild and rugged nature of the roads, and the 
fatigue of travelling in a tropical climate. We passed the 
first night at the house of Mr. Naight, a fellow-passenger, who 
offered ground for a church and house, and every encouragement 
if I would settle on a property belonging to him in the moun 
tains of St. Ann s, one of the most healthy and delightful 
parishes in Jamaica, where the people have no instructor. It 
is with sorrow that we turn from these calls. 

" After a fatiguing journey, passing the night of the 14th 
at Drexhall, we reached Goshen at five P.M. on the 15th, where 
we met Mr. Simpson, who came to welcome us to our sphere 
of labour. The attorney, Mr. Geddes, was from home, but we 
saw him the following day, when he promised to do all he could 
to further the mission. 

"On Thursday, the 16th, we reached Carron Hall, and 
received a joyous welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Cowan, and from 
all the people. One negro said that Mr. Paterson, when last 
here, had prayed much that God would send another labourer 
to this quarter, and God has heard his prayers. The labours 
of our brethren in this quarter are as abundant and successful 
as those in the west." 

Turning from other fields, " white unto the harvest," with 
all the sorrow felt by the faithful servant of God, who has to 
say " No " to the call of souls hungering for the bread of life, 
Mr. Jameson chose to pitch his tent at Goshen. In the circum 
stances by which he was led thither he saw a manifest answer 
to all his own prayers and to those of his friends. Messrs. 
Simpson and Cowan had extended their labours to Goshen, often 
preaching there, and encouraging the people to pray and look 
for a servant of Jesus to come and live among them. The 



GOSHEN. 33 

time for favour had arrived, and the servant of the Lord came 
in the spirit of his Master, and in the fulness of the blessing of 
the gospel of Christ. True in his case were the words of the 
prophet : " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of 
him that bringeth good tidings !" 

In 1837, the people were still apprentices on the properties 
to which they had belonged before emancipation. Goshen had 
as many as 500 apprentices, the most of whom were living in 
the estate s village, half-way between the missionary s resi 
dence, Lucky Hill Pen, and the place of worship. Two other 
estates, belonging to the same proprietors, lay on either side, 
Goshen being in the midst ; and the three together covered a 
surface as large as a Scotch parish. About twenty years 
before Mr. Jameson went there, these Trinity estates, as they 
were called, had together 1000 slaves. Besides these, there 
were in Bagnold s Vale, through which flows the stream called 
the Rio Neuvo, several properties with gangs of apprentices, 
all within the missionary s reach. He calculated that there 
were about 6000 or 7000 people in the whole district, "with 
scarcely the means of salvation, so that gross darkness covered 
the people, and they were sunk in brutish depravity." One of 
the old proprietors of Goshen, Mr. Lang, who seems to have 
been a superior man, had sought the spiritual good of his 
slaves. He had fitted up a place of worship, and several 
Episcopalian ministers in succession had held service there. He 
also encouraged marriage among his people, and made a distinc 
tion between the married and those who lived only in concu 
binage, by seating them separately in the little chapel. But 
the estates passed into other hands ; and an attorney who loved 
the darkness rather than the light, demolished the chapel, 
and forbade the assembling of the people for religious purposes. 
Many years before the period referred to, several Baptists 
men of colour went from America to Jamaica, and introduced 
the gospel among the slaves in many parts of the island. One 
of these, Moses Baker, laboured about Trelawny ; and another, 
Mr. Gibb, laboured in St. Mary s and neighbouring parishes. 
Mr. Jameson writes of them thus : " They were, I believe, 

c 



34 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

sincere and zealous men ; but their knowledge of Christianity 
was most imperfect, and their minds were filled with the most 
absurd superstitions." They held night meetings among the 
slaves, instructed them according to their notions of truth, and 
immersed those whom they approved. Mr. Gibb extended his 
labours to Goshen, where he had many followers. The first 
thing he did was to " set them off to pray." He taught them 
some words of prayer ; appointed influential slaves as his 
leaders on the estates ; and told the people that if they saw 
anything in their sleep, they must tell it to the leaders. If 
they dreamed, they had the spirit, and the leaders would say, 
" Praise on, boy ; bright follower, you will soon be fittin to 
be baptized." If the inquirer had no dream, he was told that 
he was neglecting prayer. Mr. Gibb said that they must seek 
their dreams in the wilderness, that was, in the woods. Many 
did so. They slept under the trees, night after night, some 
times for months, praying and waiting for the coveted dream. 
One of Mr. Gibb s converts thus described the last " experience " 
he had before he was immersed : " I get under an orange 
tree and draw my coat about me. I fall down on my knees to 
say my prayers. I then look round me, this way and that 
way. Every ting was quiet. My head begin to look quite 
big, as big as my body. My heart say patter, patter, I 
thought the devil come to me. I rose and ran." "Did the 
devil run after you ?" "I not know that. I never look over 
my shoulder till I get home, and shut the door." He told his 
"work" to the leader; the leader reported it to Gibb; and, 
on the following Sabbath, the fortunate dreamer was baptized 
in the White River. Another once told the writer that he 
slept and prayed in the bush three months, till, one night, he 
dreamed that he was sitting under a tree with a loaded basket 
at his feet, and that a white man carne up and bade him lift 
the basket and follow. He followed till they came to a " sink 
hole ;" and his guide told him to throw his basket into the 
hole. This dream was considered satisfactory. The load was 
his sins ; the white stranger was the Saviour ; and the throw 
ing of his load into the hole indicated the pardon of his sins. 



AMERICAN BAPTISTS. 35 

He was " fittin ," and was accordingly baptized. They kept 
fast on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, on which days they 
ate nothing till four o clock P.M. After four o clock, when 
they left off work, they washed their faces, sucked an orange 
or other fruit, boiled coffee, roasted plantain, or prepared any 
other food they had, and went to the house of the leader to 
"broke piece." When they were eating, everyone shut his 
eyes and pressed them hard, and if he then saw anything like 
fire, he rose up and told the leader. The leader would say, 
" Fight on, boy, you do well." After eating, they drank their 
tea or coffee out of white cups. At this meeting they sat up 
late ; and, on Saturdays, frequently till day-break on Sabbath 
morning. 

Such were the puerilities and superstitions which were mixed 
up with the religion of heaven among the slaves in some parts 
of Jamaica. We may hope that some learned the truth as it 
is in Jesus, and were saved. But bad seed was sown, and it 
did not fail to bear much evil fruit. The leaders were nearly 
or quite as ignorant as the rest ; and they were sometimes as 
immoral as they had been before assuming the office. But, as 
they had great influence among the slaves, they were not 
favourable to any movement which would ignore or depose 
them. Mr. Jameson writes, at a later date, "There is the 
most abundant proof that the influence which the leaders 
exerted over the people was not unfrequently employed to effect 
the most abominable purposes. Seduction and avarice are sins 
too common in the history of Leaderism. Such is the fruit of 
a native agency imperfectly instructed. I might mention also 
some of the opinions circulated through this agency. That the 
Book (the Bible) is for Backra (white man), but God has given 
the dream to the negro, and it is a better guide than the Book 
for him. That John the Baptist is greater than Jesus Christ, 
for he baptized Christ. Hence, long after I came to Goshen, 
every such person whom I met, said that he belonged to John 
the Baptist s religion. Another frightful notion prevails, 
namely, that Jesus Christ had sin before he was baptized, but 
his sin was taken away by his baptism. Hence the very com- 



36 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESOX. 

mon opinion among the negroes that the dip, as they them 
selves call it, is necessary to take away sin." Notions of an 
equally absurd kind, equally inexcusable, too, as existing in 
a country where the word of God was accessible, although few 
of the class referred to could read it, prevailed upon other im 
portant spiritual questions. 

Missionaries had long laboured in Jamaica, but they were 
denied free access to the slaves on the estates, by the jealousy 
and enmity of the bulk of the planters. A few proprietors 
sought instruction for their slaves, and even helped to sustain 
the missionaries, but these were few in comparison with those 
who set their faces as flint against the slightest interference 
with the negroes. Some knowledge of divine things spread 
to places where no missionary lived, and a desire was felt for 
more. On Sabbaths, slaves used to steal away to church in 
their working clothes, carrying clean suits in their baskets to 
put on by the road, lest, if they set out dressed, they might be 
seen and hindered. Some walked or rode ten or twenty miles 
on Saturday night, and returned on Sabbath night, in time for 
the crack of the driver s whip which summoned them to work 
on Monday morning. Even before Mr. Jameson s arrival, there 
was a little knot of praying people on one of the Trinity estates, 
who used to hold their meetings at night. On these occasions, 
if there was any brother present from a place of greater spiri 
tual privilege, his instructions were welcomed as a contribution 
to their little stock of Christian ideas. Their overseer did not 
like prayer work, and thought that he had a right to stop it. 
He felt as did a brother overseer, when Joseph Wilson, one of 
the present pillars of the church at Goshen, got married in a 
Christian way. The overseer himself was living in concubin 
age, and the marriage of Joseph sounded in his ears like a 
rebuke. Poor man ! he was very savage, and told Joseph that 
the slave should not go before the master ; and, he supposed, 
Joseph would now begin to pray too. 

The little meeting referred to was hateful to the overseer. 
He caused their meeting-house, which they had made them 
selves, to be pulled down. They restored it. He again caused 



RELIGION UNDEE DIFFICULTIES. 37 

it to be demolished. One of the praying people, who after 
wards became a member of the church, was once flogged for 
keeping up the meeting ; and, on one occasion, the meeting 
was surprised by the relentless Busha and his bookkeepers, who 
locked up all present for the night. 

With the exception of the little light which thus had reached 
the people of that district, all was darkness, ignorance, and 
superstition. The writer remembers the animated description 
given of their state by a female who had been brought to the 
knowledge of the Saviour, under Mr. Jameson s ministry : 
" We were a wild people. Mr. Jameson found we wandering 
and stumbling among crags and gullies in the woods, blind, 
and with no man to care for we souls ; and he brought we into 
the light." His arrival was like life from the dead. His 
amiability, his kindness, his devotedness to the Lord s work 
among them, and the kindly interest which he took in their 
welfare, soon made way for him into every heart. It is re 
freshing to hear the few survivors of those times speak of them 
as with the fresh recollections of yesterday, while the tearful 
eye bears testimony to the sincerity and depth of the feelings 
which are thus aroused. They received the missionary as a 
gift from the Lord, and, to use the words of his venerable 
father, they had no cause to regret the receiving. 

Lucky Hill Pen House, which the proprietors had granted 
to Mr. Jameson as a place of residence, was out of repair, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Jameson were therefore welcomed to make their 
abode, for a time, under the hospitable roof of Mr. and Mrs. 
Cowan, at Carron Hall. Seven months passed before the re 
pairs were made, and great fatigue was thus caused in going to 
and fro ; while the missionary s labours among the people were 
interrupted by his having to live ten miles distant from them. 

An extract from a letter to the late Mr. Bryden, who was 
then the Treasurer of the Rose Street Missionary Association, 
a man of genuinely missionary spirit, of date March 9th, 1837, 
will carry the reader, in spirit, to the opening scene of Mr. 
Jameson s labours. 

" The field which I have chosen is very populous. I com- 



38 MEMOIR OF KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

menced my labours on Sabbath, the 26th of February. Mr. 
Cowan accompanied me. He preached in the forenoon, and I, 
in the afternoon. Our place of worship was a boiling-house, 
which was put at our disposal by Mr. Geddes, the attorney. 
It was the largest audience ever seen at that place. Many had 
to stand without at the doors and windows. There were about 
500 present. Many came from Carron Hall, a distance of 14 
or 15 miles, and a number of our own countrymen were with 
us. I told them that a congregation in the far distant land 
from which I had come, were anxious that they should make a 
right use of the liberty which Providence had now given them ; 
and, also, that they should enjoy the more glorious freedom of 
the children of God ; and, for this purpose, they had sent me 
to preach among them the unsearchable riches of Christ. For 
this great and important end had I come, and, in carrying it 
into effect, I was ready to spend and be spent. As I spoke 
they listened with much apparent earnestness and delight, and, 
at the conclusion, they came around me saying, * Thank you, 
massa, good massa ; we soon be able to read good book, now 
since minister come. One old man, when he heard that a 
minister was come to labour at Goshen, left Mr. Simpson, who 
had told him, and his neighbours, and, going to the side of the 
field, in prayer returned thanks to God. I hope God has heard 
your prayers in my behalf, and opened a door of entrance : for 
at present, at least, I seem to have come with the concurrence 
not only of the negroes, but of the white population the one 
party desirous of being instructed ; the other, of affording them 
instruction. 

" Although such be the field in its present aspect, yet there 
will be many difficulties to contend with, which we have not 
begun fully to feel. Hitherto our home has been with our 
brethren, whose kindness has almost made us forget that we 
are strangers in a strange land. It is truly gratifying to see 
how unwearied are their labours, and how great their success. 
Their congregations and schools are flourishing ; and the con 
fidence which the people repose in them is entire. This arises 
from their integrity, from their maintaining strict discipline, 



FIRST SABBATH. 39 

and from demonstrating, by their whole procedure, that they 
have but one object at heart the spiritual, temporal, and 
eternal welfare of their fellow-men. You have only to see 
what they have done, and are doing, to feel convinced that 
they have been misrepresented and calumniated. I speak ad 
visedly, when I say that if anything is being done for the 
advancement of this people, they are doing it." 

While sitting in the beautifully situated " great house" of 
Goshen, on the Sabbath evening, after the interesting services 
of the day, he writes in his journal : " Sabbath evening is 
calm and serene. The vale below and the hills around covered 
with verdure, fields of cane waving in the breeze, and the scented 
gale from the groves of pimento, revive the spirits ; and the 
browsing of the herds on every side tells of plenty and of peace. 
All nature seems to enjoy the Sabbath. But man, the very 
creature for whom it was principally intended, knows not its 
rest, cares not for its enjoyment. Here is a group around the 
grindstone, sharpening their tools for to-morrow s work ; there, 
a number of persons around a pool, washing clothes ; while 
others are coming from their provision-grounds with baskets of 
fruit and provisions on their heads. How great the difference 
between this district and those others where missionaries have 
been labouring for some time ! Lord ! give us also grace to 
labour, so that the wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the 
rose." 

On Saturday, March 4th, Mr. Jameson rode to Goshen, invit 
ing all he met to come to the boiling-house on the following 
day. They seemed pleased to be invited ; and on Sabbath, 
the meeting was crowded. Having preached in the forenoon, 
he intimated that he would go over the same subject in the 
afternoon, and make it simple, so that all might understand it. 
The house was more crowded in the afternoon, when Mr. Jame 
son went over the forenoon s discourse, in the way of question 
and answer, and found that indeed there was much need for 
such an exercise. 

" Monday, 6th. Called at an estate on the way to Carron 



40 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Hall : met the negroes in the middle of the day ; explained to 
them the object of my mission, and expressed the hope that, 
since I had come so far to tell them of Christ and mercy, they 
would come and hear what I had to say on this all-important 
subject. Called at another estate, and was kindly received by 
the owner. On my saying that I wanted to see the negroes, 
if it were convenient, to invite them to come to Goshen, he 
immediately called them to assemble at the door of his house, 
where I addressed them shortly. I returned home with a heart 
full of gratitude to God for so many manifestations of his 
power and goodness. In all the ways in which he was leading 
me, I saw him to be a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering 
God. 

" On my arrival, my joy was turned into grief, and my heart 
overwhelmed, by letters from home, announcing the death of 
my beloved father. I would be silent, Lord ! for this stroke 
is thine. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath 
done it ; therefore it is well. It is well for the dead. that 
it may be well for his bereaved children, for the people who 
were his charge, and for the church of the living God ! How 
uncertain our time ! How evanescent the world s good ! 
Lord ! we claim thee as our portion, and thy favour as our 
life. From the willows we take our harp, and go forward still 
praising thee. We rise from our sorrows to engage in thy 
work, with more singleness of heart, and with more unwearied 
activity ; that, at last, with our fathers, we may enter into the 
rest which God hath prepared for the faithful." 

While the missionary voyagers were looking at their Deseada 
the desired land in the West, the ripened saint at Methven 
came in sight of his desired haven. The " messenger of peace" 
entered the circle once more. He came to call away the pa 
triarch of the household and the pastor of the flock. " There 
have indeed been cases in which good men have fallen asleep 
very gently, and smiled so sweetly in death s face, that the 
smile seemed to disarm the tyrant. So did the great Chalmers ; 
so did the less known, but as good, and scarcely less gifted, 
Jameson of Methven. These men died . in a moment, and 



HIS FATHER S DEATH. 41 

with no apparent pain, and with a celestial expression on their 
faces." 1 

A letter addressed to his brothers and sisters, March 21st, 
1838, shows a remarkable depth of piety and affection. As 
we gaze on the missionary far from the mourners at home, 
while he alternately prays, and weeps, and smiles through his 
tears, we see an instance of simple faith in, and cheerful sub 
mission to, God, which we should seek to copy, when th e bitter 
cup is put to our lips. 

" All the circumstances connected with this most heart 
rending bereavement, even the most minute, we expect from 
you, and look for with the most intense anxiety every day. 
All that we know is, that on the 13th of January, our father 
came in from visiting the sick, went up to his room, and, at two 
o clock, was found sleeping in Jesus. Oh, my dear sisters and 
brothers, Nicolis and I feel deeply with you all our common 
loss. The stroke is heavy, very heavy indeed ! We are like 
to sink under it. We are like those who dreamed, as if we had 
been suddenly awaked from a state of lethargy. Our father 
dead ! lying yonder in the lonely grave ! to see him no more, to 
hear him no more ; his pulpit empty, his study empty ! Oh, it 
is difficult to believe it ! I weep not for him. No, he is happy ; 
home to his Father s house ; entered into rest ; the work which 
his Father had given him to do being performed and accepted. 
He is now associated with the happy company around the 
throne ; with our dear mother ; with his fathers and our fathers ; 
and with all the spirits of the just made perfect ; with angels 
who, as he sometimes told me, suggested to him, in his happiest 
moments, those lofty thoughts, and new and interesting views 
of Scripture for which he was so remarkable. Above all, he is 
with Christ, in the presence of God, with whom he walked so 
closely, whom he served so cheerfully, and before whose throne 
he kneeled so frequently in this world below. He is removed 
from many evils which I fear are coming, and which might 
have proved too much for his fine feelings, and his high and 
sanctified spirit, removed to a world free from them all, where 

i Rev. George Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. i. p. 239. 



42 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

there are joy and gladness without alloy, and where sorrow and 
sighing have for ever fled away. Weep for him ? Oh, no ! 
Dearest children, with myself, of our dear departed father, not 
at all. Our tears shall never flow from a heart fretful and re 
pining against God for this heavy blow. No ; as our beloved 
father used to say, we shall subscribe this heart-rending dispen 
sation, like the Psalmist, with Blessed God ; though thou hast 
laid upon us a heavy hand, yet, Lord, thou art our God after 
ail ; yea, after all this, and ten thousand times more, thou art 
in thyself, and in all that thou doest, most blessed. Neither 
shall our tears flow from a heart grudging our father the glories 
upon which he has entered ; nor shall they ever be shed as 
expressive of a desire that he should return to us. Ah, no ! 
we rather hail his glorified spirit ; \ve envy its perfect happi 
ness ; we long to be partakers of its blessedness. But I weep, 
and how can I refrain 3 for the strongest cord of my soul has 
been rent asunder in a moment, and without the least warning, 
so that the whole man bends, and is like to sink under the 
stroke. But, God of my father and his father, and my chosen 
God, I look to thee. 

" But, my dear sisters, I weep for you. Our beloved father 
lived in your hearts. You anticipated, when I left you, many 
happy days with him. But, alas ! soon have all your hopes 
been dashed to the ground. Let me counsel you, oh let me 
entreat you, to bridle your grief. Sin not in your sorrow. 
Be still, and know that this is God, the God of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, who spared not his own Son, but gave 
him up to death for us all. Such a God can do you no wrong. 
The blow is severe, but he will bear you up ; your hearts are 
torn, but he will heal them ; you feel forlorn and desolate, but 
he will be an inmate of your home your God, your Father, 
your support, your counsellor, and your friend. Futurity is 
dark, and fills you with many fears, but the same God who has 
led our beloved father and our father s fathers, and who has led 
us until now, says, < Fear not, for I am with you (Is. xli. 10 ; 
xliii. 2). You have now a claim upon this gracious God which 
you never had before : you are fatherless, and saith God ex- 



WORDS OF COMFORT. 



43 



pressly, < He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless (Deut. 
x. 1 8). Thou art the helper of the fatherless (Ps. x. 1 4). 
< The judge of the fatherless (Ps. x. 18). Leave thy father 
less children, I will preserve them alive (Jer. xlix. 11). And 
truly we have all been left on the Lord. You have the high 
est reason to expect the gracious fulfilment of these promises, 
for ye are the children of his servant ; nay, of his servants for 
many generations. Hence, Ps. cii. 28." 



44 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 



CHAPTER HI. 

Mode and spirit of mission work Pembroke Hall Need of education - A 
prophetess Visit to Kingston Shed for meeting The Missionary calumniated 
The shed opened Birth, of first-born Godless Europeans, missionaries of the 
devil Liberated Africans Take up house at Lucky Hill Pen The Lord s table in 
a foreign land Jamaica fog, and mortality among Europeans Soul renewed How 
far is the negro intellect inferior ? Scotch immigrants. 

BEFORE proceeding with the interesting narrative of a ten 
years missionary ministry, we shall give, in Mr. Jameson s 
words, a comprehensive view of the manner in which he and 
his brother missionaries sought to do their work. 

"It is manifest that the first and great duty of the mission 
ary of Jesus is to form a taste among the people for the pure 
and simple gospel. And this is to be done, not by attacking 
their favourite notions, or scattering anathemas against parti 
cular sins. Darkness is dispelled by the infusion of light, and 
error uprooted by the statement of simple truth. The cross of 
Christ rectifies all that is wrong in man s heart and life, sooner 
and better far than ten thousand times ten thousand arguments. 
How, then, do we proceed in forming and fostering a taste for 
the pure gospel 1 How 1 but as the Apostle of the Gentiles : 
I am determined to know nothing among you, but Jesus 
Christ and him crucified. We bring before their minds 
the fact that they are children of wrath ; that, through the 
love of God, every believer in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is 
saved ; that the difficulty of believing in and obeying Jesus 
Christ arises from the wickedness of the heart \ that the spirit 
of God alone can rectify this ; and that holiness of life is the 
proof that he has done so, in any particular case. By our con 
duct we seek to show them that we believe what we preach, 



EMANCIPATION. 4 5 

and that we earnestly desire their salvation. We strive to 
labour in season, out of season, by preaching, by Sabbath and 
day schools, by visiting families and the sick, by keeping a 
strict watch over the conduct of our people, and by much 
prayer with and for them. Through the blessing of God, we 
have seen the happiest results follow such a course ; prejudices 
uprooted ; jealousies destroyed ; confidence restored ; soul-de 
stroying systems scattered to the winds ; a taste for the simple 
gospel formed ; and a song of thanksgiving bursting from the 
hearts of a willing people to the God of salvation, for his lov 
ing-kindness and tender mercy." 

The era of emancipation is a memorable one. Such imperial 
munificence in Christian Britain ! such a proof of the reality 
and the vigour of her piety to God, and of her love to man ! 
such munificence to the despised negro ! and such generous 
consideration of those who were, many of them perhaps un 
willingly, in the position of slaveholders ! a name of evil 
sound, of which an honest man of free British birth, and of 
Christian name, must surely feel ashamed ! 

Depend upon it, there was a memorable work of grace, too, 
among the emancipated themselves. God saved the sons of 
Israel from Egypt, that he might give them his own laws and 
oracles. And while he gave civil freedom to nearly a million 
of the children of Africa, he also moved his people to send 
them the glorious gospel, that they might become free citizens, 
not merely of imperial Britain, but of the kingdom of heaven. 
The missionary went to his work. Both the veterans who had 
toiled amid reproach, before emancipation, and those who, at 
that time, entered the field, shared in the elevating influences 
of the time. And while Britain, impelled by high, and holy, 
and generous motives, paid the costly ransom-price, the minis 
ters of Christ were constrained to proclaim, widely and un- 
weariedly, his unsearchable riches. There can be no doubt 
that it was a harvest time of immortal souls a kind of first 
fruits of Ethiopia. And be it so, that many who afterwards 
fell away were received into the churches. What wonder was 
there in that 1 And what was such chaff to the precious 



4 6 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

wheat which was, most undeniably, then gathered into the 
garner of the Lord 1 

While we record, with admiration, the simple, fervent, and 
unostentatious piety of the subject of this memoir, his hearty 
devotion, and oneness of purpose and of effort, it is not to 
compare him invidiously with other missionaries. God for 
bid ! The history of that period has yet to be written. But 
were it written, were a correct picture painted of that scene 
when the representatives of Ethiopia stretched out their hands, 
unmanacled, to God, there would be seen, mingling in the 
very foreground, a band of as devoted missionary brethren as 
ever were sent by the Church into any heathen field. Many 
of them are now praising on high, and praising louder as souls 
pass from our West Indian churches into the church of the 
first-born in heaven. Some of them, unfit to labour more, 
under the sun of the tropics, have bid the sunny isle farewell, 
and are now serving or suffering at home ; and others are still 
where they best like to be living and preaching Jesus in their 
old accustomed spheres. 

We have accompanied Mr. Jameson on his way to Carron 
Hall, after his second Sabbath s work at Goshen. We have 
seen him rejoicing in the encouragement which the Lord was 
giving him. We see him riding up Hazard Hill, or by 
Windsor Castle, from Bagnold s Vale to Carron Hall, his and 
his partner s present home. There is time to look back and 
praise, to look forward and pray. We then enter with him 
into the chamber of mourning and of tears, which flow afresh, 
as busy memory recalls the scenes of childhood, youth, and 
opening manhood, in each of which mingles the form of an 
honoured and beloved parent. Only those who have passed 
that way can know the sorrows and the joys, the regrets and 
the pleasures of a Christian pilgrim at such a part of his road. 
We now see him getting meat out of this eater, and sweetness 
out of this strong. Heaven has been brought near ; the spirit- 
world has been vividly realized, and the missionary conies forth 
to his work with a new devotion. 

On Saturday, March llth, Mr. Jameson went to Goshen, 






PEMBEOKE HALL. 47 



and stopped by the way at the house of a proprietor, John 
Jeffrey, Esq. of Salisbury, examined his apprentices, and was 
happy to find that, through the care and diligence of Mrs. 
Jeffrey, a number of the young people were learning to read. 
This gentleman was most anxious to have a church and school- 
house built, and offered 50 to aid in the work. 

On Sabbath, the 12th, the boiling-house of Goshen was again 
crowded with a willing and interested audience. Those who 
came at the hour for classes were examined ; but very few in 
deed could read intelligently. A psalm was read and sung, but 
their voices had not been accustomed to sing the praises of their 
Maker. He then made them repeat a verse or two of Scripture, 
and catechised them thereon. Line upon line, and precept upon 
precept, was the missionary s motto from that time forward. 

"Monday, 13^. Called at Pembroke Hall, an estate not 
before noticed. The overseer stated that the attorney 1 wished 
me to come every second Sabbath, and preach at the estate, and 
that he was most willing to aid my plans. I said I should 
most gladly come on the afternoon of every second Sabbath, 
but not the whole day. For the ultimate success of the mission, 
it was necessary to have regular service at some one place, and 
Goshen had been chosen. Pembroke Hall is also a place of 
much importance. It is about five miles from Goshen, and 
embraces a great portion of Bagnold s Vale." 

" Sabbath, 2d April. After the usual morning s and fore 
noon s services at Goshen, I went, in the afternoon, to Pem 
broke Hall. The meeting was crowded, and as attentive and 
interested as formerly. At the close, about 300 remained, at 
my request, as I wished to know who could read. I asked 
those who could read to be so good as stand up. After a pause, 
the request was repeated. At last, one stood up and said, 
Massa, me the only one who can read ! I was much affected 
at the thought. Alas ! gross darkness covers the people. Arise ! 
Sun of Righteousness, arise ! and, with the brightness of thy 

1 The overseer in Anglo-Ethiopic, "obusha," contracted "busha," lias charge 
of the estate, and is accountable to the attorney, who is the agent of the absent 
proprietor. 



48 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

light, chase this long and dreary night for ever away ! This 
man said that he was trying to teach some others to read. At 
my request to see his pupils, about forty or fifty came forward, 
old grey-headed men and children, some with their spelling- 
books, and one with a Testament. I was much pleased to see 
the progress which some of them had made. 1 " 

" Sabbath, 1 6th. Exchanged with Mr. Simpson. The con 
gregation at Port Maria is numerous, and the Sabbath-school is 
large. The church is plain and commodious. I attended a 
private meeting of the members, when I had an opportunity of 
entering freely into conversation with them. Here there is 
much fruit of the labours of Mr. Simpson, and of his predeces 
sor, Mr. Chamberlain. 1 One lady of colour told me that she 
had long lived in the sinful ways of the country, but God, 
through the labours of these devoted servants, had found her 
out. In the afternoon, I addressed the prisoners in the work 
house. At the close, I told them that I had lately come from 
Scotland ; that the people there were very sorry when freedom 
was thus abused, and very happy when a good use was made of 
it. The negroes are always delighted to hear of the interest 
taken in them by people at home. At the conclusion, a prisoner 
came with his book, and begged a lesson. He is an interesting 
person, always carries his book in his pocket, and, at resting- 
time, may be seen sitting apart from the gang, with his chain 
round his neck and his book in his hand. His sentence is 
perpetual imprisonment ; but, I hope, in this changed state of 
things, it will be mitigated." 

"Friday, 2Ist. On my way between Port Maria and Goshen, 
I visited Mile End, a station formed by Mr. Simpson. Here I 
found a good number of interesting people, thirty or forty 
children taught by a coloured female, and a number of persons 
under training for church membership. As they are twenty 

i The Rev. J. Chamberlain was sent to Jamaica by the Scottish Missionary Society. 
He commenced his labours at Port Maria, and, by his genial and kindly manners, 
gained the affections of all classes. He laboured with much zeal and success, be 
ginning a cause which has been carried on, with equal zeal and success, by his suc 
cessor, the Rev. John Simpson. Mr. Chamberlain died of fever, in the prime of life, 
after a few years of faithful service. 






RELIGION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 49 



miles from Port Maria, and only six from Goshen, Mr. Simpson 
has put them into my hands. On my way to Goshen, numbers 
of people left their provision grounds, and came towards me. 
One brought in his hand a star apple and gave me. 

" Well, I said, you seem to know me. 

" * Yes, they replied, we know Massa very well. We see 
you every Sunday at Goshen. 

" l Do you attend every Sunday ] 

" Yes, Massa, every Sunday. 

" Well, I am delighted to hear that. I have come from a 
far country to tell you of Christ, and happy am I that you come 
to hear what I have got to say. Do you come in the morning, 
to the class ? 

" Yes, Massa, we want to be able to read God s Word. 

" I said that I was sorry not to know them better ; but that, 
when our house was repaired, I should live near them, and be 
able to teach them to better purpose. 

" * Yes, my good Massa, this is what we want very much ; 
we be very glad to come and get lessons and prayers. 

" Well, now, I hope you will come always, and give up your 
sins, and pray to God to give you an interest in Jesus Christ, 
that your souls may be saved. " 

"Sabbath 23d. Preached at Goshen and Pembroke Hall, 
to crowded meetings. After the forenoon s service, a man 
came forward and said : 

" l Sir, I think you said that we ought not to pray to John the 
Baptist. I want your opinion on this subject. 

" My opinion, then, is that you ought not. You might as 
well pray to me. John the Baptist was but a man, and we 
must pray to none but God. In God you have all you need 
and can desire. John the Baptist can neither hear nor help 
you ; but. God is ever with you. He knows your heart, and is 
able to satisfy your desires. 

" This seemed to satisfy him ; he thanked me, and went his 
way. These opinions and practices are the nurslings of igno 
rance the offspring of exceedingly crude views of the gospel, 
which increasing light will utterly destroy." 



50 MEMOIR OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

" Sabbath, May 7th. Exchanged with Mr. Cowan. Preached 
at Carron Hall to a large and attentive audience. The place 
of worship contains about 700, is crowded every Sabbath, and 
many have to stand around the doors. Besides Sabbath-schools 
and evening meetings, there is a day-school taught by Mrs. 
Cowan, with about seventy pupils. Some are learning geo 
graphy, grammar, history, and arithmetic ; and, as I have ex 
amined them frequently, I can bear testimony to the excellent 
understanding which many of them display, and the proficiency 
which they have attained. 

" Our own missionaries, for of them only am I as yet able to 
speak, are in labours most abundant, both { in season and out 
of season. They are high in the affections of the people, and 
they enjoy the confidence of many in authority on the estates. 
One overseer told me that Mr. Simpson had done more for his 
negroes than all the magistrates in the island could have done. 
1 On coming to the estate, he said, I found the negroes in a 
state of insubordination ; work they would not, even for money, 
I asked Mr. Simpson to speak to them, which he did. The 
people, at once, laid aside their hostility, went to their work, 
and, from that day to this, I have had no further trouble with 
them. An attorney has often told me how strikingly the 
superior training given by the Scotch missionaries appeared at 
the late rebellion. 1 Whole districts were in flames, but not 
one estate on which these missionaries laboured was burned. 
Nay, these estates proved barriers to the advancing tide of 
destruction." 

i On the 15th of April, 1831, Mr. Powell Buxton made one of his telling attacks on 
colonial slavery, in which he showed that while under freedom a negro population 
increased, under slavery it decreased at a rapid rate. In twenty-three years, the 
negro population in the West Indies had diminished by 100,000. The Government 
thought it was time to adopt stronger measures with the planters than mere re 
commendations to better the condition of their slaves. The planters took fire. In 
Jamaica they behaved and talked like madmen ; and the result of their public 
speeches and private talk was that the slaves became convinced that the king was 
going to give them "the free," and that their masters were to keep it from them. 
They conspired to stop work from Christmas 1831, unless they were paid for their 
labour. This was a bad beginning, and had a worse ending. Scenes of violence 
followed; sugar-works were burned to ashes; martial law was proclaimed; and 
blood was shed 



NEGROES AT CHURCH. 51 

On May 1 6th, Mr. Jameson wrote, " On the Sabbath morn 
ing I am engaged with a class from nine till ten, teaching to 
read, when there are present fifty or sixty, young and old. 
From ten till eleven, I have another class for reading the 
Scriptures, when from 200 to 300 are present. From eleven 
till one, I preach and have a service, like one at home, with 
this exception, that I am the chief musician as well as the chief 
speaker. In the afternoon, I go over the same ground as in 
the forenoon, adapting the thoughts and language jnore to the 
negroes. This is necessary, as, in the forenoon, I find it of 
importance to address my discourse to the whites present, if, 
by any means, I may gain them also. It is, indeed, delightful 
to see the interest which the people take in the work, and their 
satisfaction at having a minister of their own. Massa, we very 
glad you come ; very glad we get minister ; now we get good. 
At first, their minds, unaccustomed to analyse, would not work ; 
but now, as you proceed, drawing illustrations from their own 
manners, you see the eye brightening, the swarthy countenance 
beaming satisfaction at understanding what minister says, and 
the head nodding assent. It also strikes a European much to 
see so many black faces in a worshipping assembly. It fills 
the soul with emotion to see attention and deepest interest 
looking out of the countenance, and portrayed in the different 
attitudes and motions of the people. Truly, it is Ethiopia 
stretching out her hands to God. In the school, you have a 
sight no less interesting. The grey-headed negro, bending with 
age, and exhausted with toil, coming with his spelling-book and 
testament, to beg a lesson. In the same class you have the boy 
of nine, the youth in the prime of life, and the old man with 
spectacles under his hoary eyebrows, all looking on the sacred 
page with deepest interest, all setting their faces to the lesson, 
determined not to be baffled with its difficulties, now reading, 
now spelling, still persevering. They are not content with 
reading the lesson ; they desire to go over it again and again, 
and still they are not satisfied ; they will not stop till Massa, 
as they say, give them the understanding of the lesson. A 
few nights ago, a young man came to the house begging for a 



52 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

lesson. Mrs. Jameson heard him read, and, as it was late, 
she thought that he would wish to get home, as he had far to 
go. She rose from the table. He looked at her, and said, 
Please, Missis, give me the understanding of my lesson ; and 
he stayed another half -hour for that purpose. Might we not 
learn a lesson from this !" 

And thus did Mr. Jameson urge on the attention of friends 
how necessary it was that teachers should be sent to divide the 
work with the missionaries in the field. 

"It is cheering to see so many of the negroes so deeply 
anxious to rise above the brutishness which sinks their race. 
It points to the future, and tells us that we shall yet see greater 
things than these. 

"Teachers are much needed and desired. Children, freed 
by the Abolition Act, are running wild ; there are few to care 
for them, and fewer still to train them. Unless they be speedily 
trained to work, and educated, their manhood bodes ill to the 
country. Many proprietors and attorneys are anxious to aid in 
the instruction of the people. The Island Government has 
called the attention of the House of Assembly to this ; and the 
Home Government has given a grant of money to forward it. 
Thus, God is opening up the field ; and everything is in its order. 
He missioned the ministers of reconciliation first, who prepared 
the field for education, and weathered the storm which in con 
sequence arose. Now, the storm is changed into a calm. It 
is found that education is as necessary for the negro, for the 
master, and for the country, as ignorance and the whip were 
thought necessary before ; and, consequently, the cry from all 
corners of the land is education, schools, teachers. In dif 
ferent parts of the island, schools have been erected by the 
Mico Institution, 1 and by the Government grant. In other 
parts, as among ourselves, the missionary himself teaches, or 

i A Lady Mico died in 1710, leaving a sum of money to her daughter, on a certain 
condition. The condition was violated, and the money went, according to the will, 
to ransom Christian slaves in Barbary. In 1827, it had accumulated to 110,000. 
There being then no Christian slaves in Barbary, this money was invested to be em 
ployed in educating the negroes. The Mico charity now maintains a normal school, 
in which natives are trained for the work of teaching. 



NEGROES AT SCHOOL. 53 

employs a teacher ; and in those places which are too far from 
school, if a negro be found who can read, he is employed, 
during his leisure time, to teach the others. Thankful we are 
for these beginnings, small though they be. They create an 
ardent longing, and give rise to many an earnest prayer that 
the Lord of the harvest would send out a band of prudent and 
devoted men to this work. At the importance and variety of 
the duties we have to perform, and at the difficulties we have 
to encounter, we sometimes feel appalled. But why this 1 Our 
strength lies not in man, in the might of his arm, in the strength 
of his intellect, in his prudence, or his piety. No. God, 
our sufficiency is of thee ! " 

Writing on this same subject (December 15th, 1837), Mr. 
Jameson says, " Every day people are bringing their children 
to live, they say, with Massa, and serve him, that he may teach 
them ; but prudence requires that we refuse these offers, else 
our family would soon be large enough. In the forenoon, Mrs. 
Jameson is occupied in teaching the free children who come to 
the house, and in the evening, both of us are employed in 
teaching the apprentices, who come, after the labours of the 
day, from the estates around. On three days of the week, I 
ride out to visit the estates at a distance. I first meet with 
the free children, and then with the apprentices, during their 
hours for resting." 

Looking at the extent of the work, which exceeded the 
powers of one labourer, Mr. Jameson earnestly entreated that 
one labourer more might be sent to bear part of their burden, 
and to share in their joys. " I rejoice," he says, " that I can 
apply for this assistance to the Church to which I have the 
happiness to belong, which my great-grandfathers were instru 
mental in founding, where both my grandfathers have laboured, 
and amidst the labours of which my father died ; and I ear 
nestly hope that I shall not apply in vain." 

On his arrival, Mr. Jameson was led to expect liberal assist 
ance from the attorney of the Trinity estates, as Messrs. David 
son, Barkly, and Company, the proprietors, had the furtherance 
of his mission, and the welfare of their apprentices much at 



54 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

heart. But circumstances hindered the giving of immediate 
help. The house that had been assigned him as a residence 
was being slowly repaired ; and it was very difficult to obtain 
the labour necessary to erect a shed at a spot half-way between 
Goshen and Pembroke Hall, at which both congregations might 
conveniently meet together. At length, he was forced to take 
this matter entirely into his own hands. 

He writes, " We are left entirely to ourselves. It is better 
that the Church of God should do her own work, and that she 
should be aided by those only who are her own. In this way 
she will preserve her independence. The Church forgets her 
dignity when she becomes a beggar at the doors of the wealthy, 
when the love of God and holiness dwell not within." 

But the people for whose use and benefit the shed was to 
be made, were unwilling to aid him. They remembered that 
the chapel which Mr. Lang had fitted up for them, had been 
destroyed. At length, by paying them for their work at the 
ordinary rates, and stimulating them by his own example, Mr. 
Jameson succeeded. At first, some of the people were disposed 
to regard him as only an agent of the planters, whose influence 
would be against the interests of freedom. But this delusion 
was soon dispelled by his conduct among them ; and they came 
to see in him a servant of the Most High God, who showed 
unto them the way of salvation, and not a servant of their mas 
ters to bring them and their children into new subjection. 

At length, finding it beyond his strength to do his work at 
Goshen, and then, after a ride of six miles, to go through the 
same work at Pembroke Hall, Mr. Jameson resolved to take 
these places on alternate Sabbaths. 

Sabbath, May 21st, was, therefore, spent at Pembroke Hall. 
" Two hours in the morning, and in the interval, I heard the 
children read, and catechized them. There were sixty children. 
At the close of the afternoon s service, resumed the classes. In 
the evening, the apprentices at Salisbury, where I spent the 
night, came to lessons and to family worship." 

" Monday, 22d. Called at an estate where the negroes were 
in a state of insubordination. A young woman there had set 



A PROPHETESS. 55 

up for a preacher. She said that she had been in heaven, and 
seen Jesus Christ ; that he had told her that the people were 
free in 1832, and should not work for Massa ; and that she 
was commanded to preach, because the people did not under 
stand * backra preachers. The people, therefore, had refused 
to work, and the magistrate had sent some of them to the work 
house ; and advised the overseer to get me to speak to them. 
On hearing this, I promised to go the night following at seven 
o clock." 

" Tuesday, 23d. Went, according to agreement, to visit the 
people on the estate referred to. The house was quite full. 
The prophetess, as she called herself, was there. As I began, 
she came forward into the middle of the floor, and cried out for 
her guava switches, that she might flog either me, or the people, 
or both. I stopped, and told her to sit down, and be quiet. 
As she still persisted in making a noise, I said I should have 
to put her to the door, but would prefer that she should sit 
quietly and hear. She then took her seat, and remained quiet 
till all was over. I told the people that I came there, to-night, 
intending not to take the least notice of this person, for her 
conduct was so extravagant, and her pretensions so absurd, 
that to notice her at all was making too much of her. But, as 
she had thrust herself in my way, I would describe her character 
from the Bible. I told them that her pretensions were false ; 
that what she taught was false ; that her conduct then, and 
before, showed her to be one of those deceivers who turn men 
from Christ, disturb the peace of his Church, and uphold the 
kingdom of darkness. The people listened eagerly, and with 
apparent satisfaction. Such cases, I am sorry to say, are not 
uncommon. The knowledge of the people is scanty, their in 
tellect is weak and clouded, and their passions are strong, so 
that they become an easy prey to the wicked pretender who 
has a little more cunning than themselves." 

In connexion with this case, Mr. Jameson expresses his views, 
which he ever held very strongly, and of evils caused by im 
perfectly instructed teachers and guides among the black people. 

Speaking of the leaders appointed by the American Baptists, 



56 MEM01E OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

and of their successors, he says, " Persons, whose knowledge is 
exceedingly imperfect, set themselves up as leaders, explain the 
Scriptures, preach to the people, and sit in judgment upon, and 
certify their fitness for baptism, and for admission to the full 
fellowship of the Church. In consequence, these leaders fre 
quently form a very erroneous estimate of their own capacities ; 
and, aspiring to a higher position, they leave the church to 
which, at first, they belonged, and, carrying their people along 
with them, form congregations of their own. Many congrega 
tions in this and other parts of the island have been thus 
formed ; and, I fear, it is an evil which will grow. We long 
for the day when persons of African race shall be preachers of 
the gospel. May that day soon come ! But we also desire 
that such preachers may be enlightened and well qualified, in 
every respect." 

In the second week of June, Mr. Jameson went to Kingston, 
the commercial capital, passing through Spanish Town, the po 
litical capital of Jamaica. This was a journey of forty miles 
on horseback. He enjoyed the grand and beautiful scenery on 
the way from the north to the south side of the island. From 
the mountains where Carron Hall stands, the traveller descends 
into St. Thomas in the Yale, which is a hollow, being, in fact, 
a basin with several outlets to the south. Through one of these 
the Bog Walk, a magnificent pass of about seven miles long 
lies the road to Spanish Town. The Rio Cobre, Copper 
River, flows through it, and the road winds along the edge of 
the stream. 

The next entry shows that the damp which fell on the mis 
sionary s spirit, through the backwardness of those who ought 
to have helped him, was clearing off. The people had come to 
a better mind. The Lord had answered the prayers of his 
servants. 

" /Sabbath, June 1 8th. Preached at Goshen. The boiling- 
house was full, as usual. There were fifty or sixty young 
people, eager to read their lessons. Heard some in the morning, 
some during the interval, and some in the afternoon. Massa, 
said some, we much need of you. We hope you stay with we. 



DAY DAWNING. 57 

We went to the church yesterday, and put on all the thatch we 
could get and if you get more we will put it on. One ex 
pressed his anxiety that I should come to his neighbourhood at 
night, to read and pray with them. A young man asked me 
to christen his child. I told him that I could not do so with 
out first ascertaining the knowledge and piety of the parent. 
Another, who had given me his name to proclaim for marriage, 
came to tell me that, as I did not belong to the holy Catholic 
Church, I could not marry him good. The holy Catholic 
Church I found, on inquiry, to be the Established Church. 
I explained to the people how matters stood. True, I did not 
belong to the Established Church. But that Church is no more 
the holy Catholic Church than mine is. The holy Catholic 
Church is the whole Church of Jesus Christ, and all belong to 
it who preach the doctrines of Christ, and in whose hearts 
these doctrines exercise a purifying influence. I do not read 
a prayer when I marry, but I say a prayer. I do not marry 
you out of the prayer-book, but bring the Bible and show you 
marriage as contained in it. Now, will any of you say that 
my marrying is less holy, because I do not read a prayer, and 
because I do not use a prayer-book, but pray as the Holy 
Spirit dictates, and marry you from the Bible 1 No, Massa, 
they replied. By this time, the poor man came weeping, say 
ing that he wished me to marry him ; that he had every con 
fidence in me ; and he and his wife were to place themselves 
under my ministry." 

" Sabbath, July 2d. Had an opportunity of observing the 
Lord s Supper, at Carron Hall, for the first time in this distant 
land. 104 persons sat down at the feast of mercy. The 
whole were at one table, and the services were conducted as at 
home. Altogether, the scene was most impressive and cheering. 
Truly, Ethiopia is stretching out her hands to God. Some of 
the members of Port Maria church were present, and one of 
them handed me a collection which the congregation there had 
made to aid in erecting the church at Goshen." 

" On Friday, July 7th, went to Goshen, and hired a num 
ber of people to gather cane tops to thatch the shed. At 



AH MI-MOIH OK IMA. \\II,I,I\I\1 JAMI .MON. 



i \ M. tm Saturday, there were thirty four poople in Ui<> field. 

\ l\\ l\< nYlni K, ;||| Ilic |up;i III MlO h. Id WOW MUTfUd to UlO 

pla< e. AH limy had rolnned to work before, I fell, it iiooonnary 
to H!IOW, by pin in" Hi- in li Mi. n labour, Mini, I, ho Ohuirh of 
< lni.il, lii roHOIllven \\illiin il ill . ,nid (lint to gain it/M obji i I 
il \\ill nparo no oxpeiiMe, mid be b;illled by no oppowtioil. 
Raving I0nt thttt Mm ineHHsi^e of reediieilinlion, it. will nlno 

iv iluMII II IM.II . ill \\ In. I. |,o (-I... I nin il, I ll. i. luiH I- M 

H-iil, outcry beeiuiHO of llm wiiHlel ul expenditure l money 
in .liimnim. Hill, tliono who liuvo to i uro ilui lienvy mid ovor 
rei iirrin/ , expeiiHCH ediineelcd willi nn iiil ant eliurcli, in a foreign 
nnd expensive Innd, tuid wbo know iJuii I In- . < \ p ( n . . nm i bo 
iiK>i, or Mieir eredil, will (nil, mid Mieir iiHef ulneHH \M deniroyed, 
know Mini ihi SXpenditUTt, iliou^li ^ivn.^ \n not wiiHtc.fnl." 

11 tSabbath) \)fh,.-- I renelied ,-it Goihen. The <la,y WMH wel, 
with thunder nnd lightning. An eftrthquftke nhook t IK enrih 

nnd cnir henrU. At the end n nuin wuuo Hiiying, M:IHHII, me 
vory linngry lor proviHion. I Mnm^ht that nil pro YilioD ground 
lind (ailed, nnd proeeeded b> ninke HOIIIO HMiiarkM, when ho cor- 
rei led me, Hiiyintf that ho lind been hungry lor Mm Word of 
(J.td. 11 

On .Inly 17th, Mr. JMAMOB wrot(^ to Mr. M QilohHlt : 

"The ehnreh in a Hhed AO foot by MA, POH(,H drivon into 
tho ground, in nil the ron^linoHH of nature, Hnpport a roof of 
in ii. 1 1 il . .pi ill\ rude, nnd MUH in i In. l,l\ thatehod with oano 
topm. All wo doMJro in a IIOIIHO in which to worship ( Jod, \\illi 
out oxptmnn^ to mm, or wind, or rain. Wo look to (Jod for 
MII:.. and we beliovo that llo will provide*. 

11 The Port Maria eon^ro^iition gave mo a collection. ( 1 arron 
Mall in- pi. -MI i , d in, .in. Mi, i ; nd \vit,h money Mum ramcd, 
we IIM.VO ^ot tho roof nearly HialclMMl. 

"Our own IIOUHO is not yet rep&ired ; and our Mini- < .m- 
lying I")* 1 and (here, M Mn-\ \\eropaekodin Mdinbnr^li I 
:ini . liielly grieved, ItocaiiHc* I cannot follow any ro^nhi \;i< m 
I \\.M! \\ C havo to Hintf of groat moroy, too, for om health 
in good ; and (he alienism of IMr. and MrH. (-owan, and of Mr. 
Simpson, in unremilMii^. Their kindnoHH Im < I. ml us under 



mi MINHKINAIIV hl.ANM I i i. M 

I i .1... .-. "I lW.loflW. Tli- ml. ft I --I MM |.. ..|,!M IN JIM : 
<-\ , mid iiiiiiiiif.riM IIIH! |.i|,i i. i.. i ..I . i .1. ulli H N- , 

l.ih .lll H, HllOldd WH I V i I- ,Mi|. ll l h. .,!. i.. I., n < 
I iil< ll I Li . li<> I Ml , I I i." Mi.it Otllll jiluri tt, I ) 

,i<l in ill i.< iki i-d," 

</,/,<//, ///, Ahout eighty pfOpltWfff worldlier id. Mm 
whcil \ i i nlvi . Inrli, I |. ...i ii,. I,, lor tfu lr liiiH <luy wnil<, 

I it., n .(,..!. .I. ..ni a i. I...M IIP I. I. .- 1 i. .. I.- ! inn lliitt liinin 
in iii .I. ! wiuii. lii Iciirli Mii-ii i liililn n in ..i. i. i Mutt i , niiiy, 

I UilW IIM IIIIN, l>0 l>l|||<| to II,. I .I- I Irll, llUI I Illlll II" / 

i li..nl.l I nicy I riinic to WK liI lie, l.liii yoke, (if liiiiiilnj/<nirnnii l Hi- 
IM I "I UK ii l.il.lim. II. WIIM lnlr.r. Iliul I I" MI Inn. I i. I 
IP. ... hnirliiii^ l.lu-ni, nX(!d[t oil l.lnr.r. Irnnh, I would (Mil. hi 
00ffl0| i " r| my IVIniMli* woulil not liftvn H^lit liifli II. wn. lul, 
jimt to llicn iiiiif.lci to Nity tlitit tut hud n- ii ! i propOffd^ "" . 
. nn I knew, thought ol r.nrli lciin. TIlOMt wlio ^(iiciul 
Hi i-.iii w n^nil^.t tint Wr tliM cni ifiif-M ol llii il Lii-ii-M. 

"ll l I l.- l to I " ]. I I. M, If. MI ll .1 II, IIM. I.MlH WllH ll, IllOftt 0| 

-.11. Mn ii" I d lor IVi itdoiii, mid lor dml.li uid <t|.iii iiil.y, W 
I i..i-tlin w, much to ln-iir i l om l.lm npicion of Mm 

i";i"CM, Thuy urn xw<tdjntfly JwtloiiM of thuir lllmH-y, imd 

Olll - n< i. in ..-. II.H- r.vri iuhvr III liililllllf/ Ull -il AllMpic.ioilH to Ollf 

I 

NMnth % ^ M- -U U n KH t iimltur of Uiitiikfiilin/w Mint 

i>ll ilii; n-portw ^iuit im lull to injuiM our Hulihuth niccliii^w, 
lip I i In midii iirc WDM u* muiH i oim UM nvnr I huvo 

I-." Ii Hi in (Wo n, < n told IIM: .I ll ii -I IM III. I | l. .uM 

in.iii , i IK in. I li \y hud j. 1 1 li<i, (:oididi h( <? in my iiiunyin^, 
Ho Id -i i ILL i rwiHon to ho|i<i thut tin-, olijc.ctionw omdM to 

IK, I- .IM| .nii,, .MI, I., |, I|..IIH n.- murriii^o - i ni ny, men 
ii"H <l in ! in,, i ),-< , iii ! . i ol I,-, in- injured nw, huvo 

l"l|. M | g I " 

/, ,,// /,./.!,/_ ")///, Wn liitvn Md dny MniKhiid tho thul^h- 
i UK ), ni I, ll, |K-oj)|<i cxcrti d ii..i,. to Lint ut 

in , i .n l ". M n .i .1 hill, i .h i,.i| wli<ii tliD lu*t hundl nl wn 
|i ui "n. They ".niii.M i .,i -..ii 1.1,1 wltolit duy, lor which I 

Hi in ..I. Hi- - tjfllfflOfl i ill 



60 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

" Sabbath, 30th. I preached vacant our old church, the 
boiling-house, and intimated that, on the following Sabbath, we 
should meet in our own church ; and desired the people to bring 
seats with them." 

" /Sabbath, August 6th. At an early hour, the people began 
to assemble. It was cheering to see bands coining from every 
quarter, some carrying chairs, some stools, and some benches, 
wending their way to the house which we had erected for the 
worship of the God of Israel. This eased the pain of former 
discouragements ; it far more than made up for former diffi 
culties. It proved to us that the Lord was on our side, 
and would still be with us, till we should have performed all 
the work which he had appointed for us. At nine o clock, 
we began the classes ; at ten, the house was full ; at eleven, 
crowded. I preached from Matt, xviii. 20 : Where two or 
three are," etc., and showed them the two grand points of dif 
ference between the assemblies of God s people and those of 
the world ; that the former met in Christ s name, and for his 
service, and that Christ himself is in the midst of them. 
That, therefore, the glory of such assemblies consists not in the 
presence of wealth and rank, or in the magnificence of the 
building, but in the excellence of the work, the spirituality of 
those engaged in it, and, above all, in the gracious presence 
of Jesus Christ. They listened with much seeming interest and 
delight, and, I trust, with profit. In the middle of the day I 
arranged the readers into different classes, for the sake of order 
and comfort. I took down the names of 120 persons who 
promised to attend the classes regularly. At the close of the 
afternoon s service, the people came forward and expressed 
themselves highly satisfied with their church, and said, * Massa, 
just one thing more now : to have you down from Carron Hall 
in the midst of us. " 

An interesting little incident happened on that occasion. A 
humming bird flew into the open shed, when Mr. Jameson was 
leading in prayer, and, after fluttering about his head, as it 
flutters while sucking honey from the flower, it perched upon 
his crown. The people saw it, and were pleased ; for they 



THE FIRST HOUSE OP PEAYEK. 61 

thought it was a favourable omen. The people of Africa, like 
the Romans, are wont, at this day, to take omens from the flight 
of birds. 

Arrangements were made for boarding the shed all round, 
and for seating it. On the 2d of September he writes, " Five 
P.M. The people all home ; the church seated, and the sittings 
calculated to contain from 450 to 500 people." None but a 
missionary who has had to go through the labour and effort 
needed to procure shelter for his family, and a roof under which 
to carry on his work among the people, can fully sympathize 
with Mr. Jameson, as he lingers in this unadorned shed, and 
looks around on the rough structure. This is the best he can 
get. If it were infinitely finer, it would not be too good for its 
purpose. But its appearance does not hinder it from being the 
meeting-place of the Lord of salvation with this people, in the 
dawn of the day of the gospel upon them. 

" Thursday, September 9th. Mrs. Jameson confined. Sad 
night ! All other anxieties and fears were for the time for 
gotten in my concern about the safety of her who had become 
my companion in this land of strangers and of many difficulties. 
I cried unto Thee, Lord ; I said, Thou art my refuge and my 
portion in the land of the living. Her sorrows terminated in 
the birth of a dead boy. I feel thankful that the Lord, while 
He has taken to himself our first-born, has spared the mother. 
The Lord permitted him not to abide with us. He took his 
soul to himself, and gave us the body to lay in the grave. He 
is buried beside Mr. Cowan s first-born, under the shade of a 
bamboo tree." 

The following extract expresses the missionary s feelings 
about the hindrances that are put in the way of the gospel 
among a heathen people, by the want of religion, and the posi 
tive wickedness of Europeans. A man must either be a true 
man a genuinely godly man in the presence of heathenism, 
or he is all but certain to be decidedly bad. A morality which 
springs merely from a regard for appearances, or for the public 
opinion of a country like Scotland, but which is not the out- 
coming of a regenerated heart, soon withers and dies amid the 



62 MEMOIR OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

moral miasma of heathenism. How many promising youths 
have become vile, and been lost to all good, on leaving religious 
circles, to push their fortunes in foreign lands ! Their morality 
not being rooted in godliness of heart, is speedily sapped and 
swept away ; from bad they grow to worse ; in the lowest 
depth they find a lower deep, till they are hardened into shame- 
lessness, and frequently die the death of the wicked." 

" September 19 th. The simple gospel is scorned and 
nauseated by Scotchmen, and the sons of Scotch ministers are 
foremost in the band. Alas ! we have much reason to blush 
for our countrymen. With one exception they have forsaken 
us. At first, they professed to stand by us, but they love the 
world with its unholy pleasures too much to love the gospel 
too. They do not openly oppose me, but by their coldness to 
all that is good, by their disrespect to all that God has ap 
pointed for man s salvation, and by the impurity of their lives, 
they show what spirit they are of." 

" Saturday, September 23d. Visited a sick person, at the 
request of her husband the first since I came to the country. 
These visits to the negro houses need to be made with caution. 
The day of man s claiming property in his fellow-man is fast 
drawing to a close. In the meantime, we must diligently use 
the opportunities we have of sowing the seed of eternal life, 
which, blessed be God, are now many, and are daily increasing." 

Writing to Mr. M Gilchrist, September 26th, 1837, he says, 
" Some negroes were lately placed under my care, who were 
taken in a slave-ship by H.M.S. Racer. 500 of them were 
brought to Jamaica ; and the Governor distributed them among 
the different estates, as apprentices, on condition that they 
should be clothed, fed, and educated, and, at the end of five 
years, receive 10, to enable them to follow any pursuit they 
might desire. The proprietor of Salisbury, Mr. Jeffrey, received 
thirty, all young people. They were fresh and good-looking, 
and some of the boys decidedly interesting and smart. It is 
only four weeks since they came, and one of the boys knows 
most of the letters, through the attention and perseverance of 
Mrs. Jeffrey. Mr. J. ranks them before the house every night, 



LIBERATED AFRICANS. 63 

and teaches them the names of the different parts of the body, 
which amuses them much. Their great delights, at present, 
are their clothes, of which they received two changes, and 
their food. A few nights ago, one of the boys stole a hen from 
the coop, plucked it, and was proceeding to eat it, when the theft 
was discovered. Next morning, Mr. J. called the boy to the 
door, and showed him his error. In a few minutes, all his 
fellows surrounded him. They tied a piece of cloth on his head, 
and then, dancing around him, singing the songs of their country, 
with switches in their hands, every one, as he passed, struck 
him with his switch, until Mr. Jeffrey had to interfere. The 
dead fowl was tied on his back, and he was sent to work. In 
the evening, the poor boy underwent the same treatment from 
his countrymen, and was to have the fowl tied to his back in 
the morning, but he devoured it during the night." 

In the same letter, Mr. Jameson refers to certain exaggerated 
accounts of the emancipated, on the one hand, and of the mas 
ters, on the other. The former were depicted in too favourable 
a light ; and the latter were too much blackened. The friends 
of the negro were not always wise in their defence of him, any 
more than his enemies were fair in their attacks. The latter 
set forward only the bad ones as the sample ; and the former, 
sometimes, set forward only the good ones. A medium repre 
sentation, both of the people and of the planters, would have 
been truer, and, therefore, more expedient. There were well- 
behaved and industrious negroes, as well as lazy, good-for- 
nothing fellows ; and there were kind and righteous masters, 
as well as harsh and oppressive ones. " The statement that 
all the planters are brutes and barbarians, is a very extravagant 
one." To represent Jamaica as evangelized, and the negroes as 
all pious and patient, was equally extravagant. This misrepre 
sentation was calculated to do mischief in several ways. It 
encouraged the churches at home, in some cases, to abandon 
the infant communities before they were able to stand alone ; 
and it stirred up the enemies of emancipation and of missions to 
depreciate and slander the good that, by the grace of God, had 
really been accomplished. We must bear a little with the ex- 



64 MEMOIR OP EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

travagances of both sides ; and the friends of missions will do 
well to learn, from the case of Jamaica, neither to form exag 
gerated notions of the good which they do, nor to expect too 
much in a short period. There are laws of progress in the 
kingdom of God plainly laid down in the word of God. The 
growth of a minute seed into a spreading and umbrageous tree, 
the leavening of a large mass by the silent and gradual influ 
ence of a little leaven, are figures of the history of that king 
dom, given us by the Lord himself. 

Fiat justitia mat coelum, do and speak according to justice 
and truth, whatever may be the consequences. No good is ever 
done to a good cause by extravagance of statement on the part 
of its promoters, or by painting their opponents blacker than 
they really are. Neither is that style of praise at all judicious 
in which so many are apt to indulge, either on their own account, 
or on account of others. Obedience to our Lord s law of love, 
as explained by Paul, would prevent much bitter feeling between 
individual Christians and bodies of Christians : " without pre 
ferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality." "Let 
nothing be done through strife or vain-glory ; but, in lowliness 
of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Let us 
not be desirous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying 
one another." 

In sending home his journal, containing these notices of en 
gagements and labours during nine months, Mr. Jameson con 
cludes thus : " We have certainly experienced some difficulties 
in this distant land, but these are few and light when compared 
with those experienced by our brethren before us ; they are in 
significant when compared with the mercies we have enjoyed ; 
they are far fewer and lighter than might have been expected. 
They have taught us to confide in God rather than man. When 
we sing of judgment, we would, in a higher note still, sing of 
mercy." 

At length (20th October) the missionary and his partner took 
possession of their house Lucky Hill Pen a small residence 
about three miles from the place of worship. It stands quiet 
and cheerful, amid rich evergreen pastures, where hundreds 



LUCKY HILL PEN. 65 

of cattle feed, and has been a pleasant home to Mr. Jame 
son s successors. The people began to gather round them, 
in the evenings, to learn to read the word of God. The les 
sons being heard, religious instruction was given to those who 
thus assembled. "While I write," says Mr. Jameson, "my 
wife is in an adjoining room with twenty of these learners. 
The answer just given by one of the children to a question, 
amuses me much. The question was, * Where is God ? the 
answer, < All about/ This was his idea of God s omni 
presence." 

Having been laid down with fever for two weeks, and unable 
to officiate on the Lord s day, he records : 

" November 5th. Preached to a large and attentive audience. 
Many of them came, they said, uncertain whether or not there 
would be service but they were so wearied, or hungry, as 
they expressed themselves, that they were willing to run the 
risk." 

The people were now as willing, as they had formerly been 
backward, to aid in preparing a roof under which to worship 
God. The Goshen carpenters waited on Mr. Jameson, and 
asked to be allowed to finish the boarding of the church in 
their own time. 

"Sabbath, November 12th. After service, I intimated to 
the people that, as I had not had an opportunity of ascertain 
ing who were my own people, and who not, I intended to 
open a class for persons who wished to be instructed with a 
view to become members, and that they must come and con 
verse with me privately before I put down their names." 

During the week many came ; and the missionary was greatly 
cheered with finding so much interest and earnestness, although 
their knowledge was scanty and imperfect. As many couples 
were living according to a fashion, alas ! too common still, that 
of " beastly concubinage," it was made a rule that none such 
should be admitted, unless they consented to marry. Many of 
these couples, therefore, complied with the divine law, and 
were married accordingly. 

Mr. Jameson also began to visit from house to house, and 
E 



66 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

was much encouraged by the tokens of an awakening interest 
and anxiety among the people. One sick person told him that 
her husband had long since died, and she wished to be married 
to the Lord Jesus Christ. " Met a man who told me that he 
and his wife could not agree, and that he belonged to John the 
Baptist s religion. I told him that there was no such religion, 
and that he had no peace in his family, because he was not yet 
acquainted with the religion of Jesus Christ. If he prayed to 
Jesus every day, and submitted his heart to Christ, he would 
enjoy peace in his family, and peace in his heart, for then he 
would have peace with God." 

On the 10th of December, Mr. Jameson says : " Spent a 
happy day at Port Maria, with my brother, Mr. Simpson, and 
his flock, in observing the Lord s Supper. After the forenoon s 
service, Mr. Simpson ordained three elders, and in the afternoon, 
the disciples gathered around the table of the Lord. It is 
delightful in any circumstances to sit down at that table, more 
especially with the interesting children of Ethiopia. The 
solemn stillness which pervaded the church when the disciples 
were partaking of the emblems of the Lord s broken body and 
shed blood, was, every now and then, interrupted by the sighs 
and sobs of the melting heart. On the Monday, we held the 
first meeting of session ever held in Port Maria, and I can truly 
say that I was surprised and delighted at the sound judgment 
and manly deportment of the members in the different cases 
which were brought before them." 

On December 21st, Mr. Jameson visited a part of his district 
where he had not formerly been, and was delighted to find him 
self welcomed by a great number of interested and steady friends. 
It is a joyous thing when the husbandman alights upon a spot 
which the Lord of the vineyard has been secretly cultivating 
through his feeble instrumentality. This is casting precious 
seed upon the waters, and finding it when and where it was 
least expected. 

A meeting was held, on Christmas day, for the purpose of 
explaining and enforcing the advantages of education. " In 
stead of preaching a sermon on education, I made the people 



JOURNEY IN JAMAICA. 67 

judges, and ctdled up before them all those who had made 
application for Testaments. I examined them on the book they 
had read, and then asked them to read a verse in the Testament, 
and left it to the meeting to decide who were worthy to receive 
a Testament. Out of fourteen applicants eight were considered 
worthy ; the rest were advised to persevere at their books. I 
then presented each of the teachers with a Bible, and addressed 
them on the advantages of education." 

" /Sabbath, December 31 st. We made our first collection 
3, 12s. sterling much more than I expected." 

" January 1st, 1838. To-day I went, according to appoint 
ment, to visit the estate of R H . On my arrival, I found 
the people rioting and dancing in the great house. I thought, 
what is the use of talking so much about moral instruction, and 
of expressing so great a desire for the visit of the minister, 
when the people are thus encouraged to trample under foot the 
one, and trifle with the appointment of the other ? I told one 
to say to the people that the minister had kept his word, that 
he was sorry to find them thus employed, and that it would 
have been much better had they been reading their books, and 
spending the first day of the year with God." 

" January 12th. During the last week, we have been busily 
preparing for our journey to the Presbytery, feeding our 
horses, mending our saddles, bridles, and portmanteaus, and 
resting and strengthening ourselves. A journey of 80 miles, 
in a coach and four, along a smooth turnpike, is nothing com 
pared with a journey of the same length here, where one has to 
jog on horseback, over precipitous mountain tracks, and by 
paths which the torrent has torn up, and, in a great measure, 
swept away." 

" January 31 st. Since my last entry in the journal, I have 
experienced much of the Lord s kindness, in the long and tire 
some journey. In our way, we passed through a great variety of 
scenery, which delighted the eye and beguiled the weariness of the 
ride, the stupendous precipice, the rocky mountain, the endless 
evergreen forest, the green vale, the extensive coffee plantation, 
and the refreshing green of the rich cane-field. At our various 



68 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

halting-places, we met with much kindness ; and we were, in 
different quarters, requested to return and preach the gospel of 
peace. At length, we arrived at New Broughton, and received 
a joyous welcome from our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Paterson, and 
had a happy meeting with the brethren. After remaining six 
days together, we separated, refreshed by our mutual intercourse. 
In labours, our brother Mr. Paterson is most abundant, and the 
fruit of them appears to be no less so. In his school and in 
his congregation the Lord seems to be blessing him." 

" March 1st. Preached at Goshen negro village, in the 
house of one of my people. I spoke to the audience about 
the thief on the cross, and all appeared to be deeply inter 
ested. After speaking for nearly an hour, I told them that 
I must now conclude, when a number of voices cried : Go 
on, Massa, we no tired yet. Having spoken for some con 
siderable time longer, and examined them upon what I had 
said, nine o clock came, when I was obliged to move. They 
seemed reluctant to part. Good-night, Massa ; give my how- 
d ye to Mrs., sounded from every corner as I left the house. 
Found Mrs. Jameson in the midst of the evening class, waiting 
my return to have family worship. 

" Have just heard that Mr. , a curate, has been 

attacking me in every quarter where my influence extends, 
throwing doubts into the minds of the people about my power 
to dispense the sacraments, to marry, etc. I take no notice of 
him or his attacks, unless my opinion is asked. 

"It is a pity that individuals, instead of busying themselves 
with that work in which they profess to be engaged, turn their 
shafts against those whom they ought to regard as brethren 
and fellow-labourers. The Church has long slumbered in this 
country, and she is moving now because she is moved by an 
external force ; and, with characteristic self-complacency, she 
is loud in her own praise, both as to what she has done, is 
now doing, and is able to do. 

" One expects no enemies in Jamaica, but the prince of 
darkness. Least of all does one expect to meet with foes 
among those who have left their country professedly with the 



MOTHER WINTEE. 69 

same object as one s-self. These things, however, do not move 
me, otherwise than, I hope, they humble me, and train me to 
the Christian exercise of blessing those that curse us, and pray 
ing for those who despitefully use us." 

Keturning late from an evening meeting, he writes : " I 
have often heard of a Jamaica fog, but never was in the midst 
of one before. The moon was full and bright, the air cold, 
and the fog, an endless cloud, dense and piercing. This is 
one of the causes of Jamaica mortality. Europeans leave 
their carousals in a heated state, and dash into the fog ; per 
spiration is suddenly checked, fever ensues, and in a short time, 
death." 

Mr. Jameson did not know, while he was riding home that 
evening, under the pale moon, and through the snow-white 
fog, that one soul in the meeting had been savingly impressed. 
She was a person who, from age and weakness, had not been 
able to attend the meetings at Goshen boiling-house. She 
was one of the few who used to meet for prayer, and were 
persecuted by the overseer, as has been already stated. Some 
years before this, she felt a strong desire to be able to read. 
By begging a little help from any one who knew letters, she, at 
length, mastered the art. In his visits to Goshen, Mr. Simp 
son found her out, and gave her a New Testament. Being 
unfit for labour, Mother Winter took charge of the children 
while their mothers were in the field. To keep them out of 
mischief, she began to teach them. This angered the overseer, 
and he took her before the magistrate, saying that she was an 
idler. The wisdom of the British Parliament had provided a 
stipendiary magistrate in each parish, whose business it was to 
see that the provisions of the Act of Emancipation were not 
infringed. These magistrates, when not, as in some cases it is 
alleged they were, partial to the employers, were efficient pro 
tectors of the negroes. The people in St. Mary s say, u Had 
it not been for Massa Walsh, we no been live to see the free." 
This gentleman, Henry Walsh, Esq., has been uniformly the 
friend of the black people, and his protection was needed by 
many apprentices in the parish of St. Mary s. Mother Win- 



70 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

ter s case could be decided only by Mr. Walsh. On hearing 
it, he said that she was obviously unfit for field-work, and 
what better could she do than teach the children ] Mother 
Winter, who had come into the presence of the magistrate, as 
she tells, trembling and praying, had her mouth thus filled 
with a song of deliverance. 

Mother Winter used to tell the writer that before Mr. 
Jameson came, she feared God, but did not fully know the 
Saviour. On that evening, he spoke on the rich man and 
Lazarus, and the word came with power. From that time, she 
became a new creature, and began to live in a new world ; 
and still she holds on the tenor of her Christian way, a very 
happy, humble, and faithful disciple. She is living in a green 
old age, respected by all, in the hope of going home to the 
happy land, and there meeting Father Jameson, of whose 
ministry she was one of the first fruits, and whose joy and 
crown she, with many more, will doubtless be. 

The following letter is to his sisters, on their leaving their 
Methven home : 

"I am just recovering from a slight attack of fever. Much 
reason have I to bless God for his gentleness towards me in 
my sicknesses. Oh, may they be sanctified ! that they would 
make me live less for myself, and more for Christ, and work 
for me an exceeding and eternal weight of glory ! Nicolis 
enjoys good health ; and this is an unspeakable blessing to me. 
Her anxiety about me is extreme, and her care of me the most 
unwearied. 

" Your account of leaving Methven our home from child 
hood interested and affected us much. It was a time the 
most trying, but the Lord stood by you, and now you will look 
back and sing the song of mercy. When Nicolis and I left 
you, many said that we were going from ease and comfort, to 
enter on a thorny path. In some respects it may have been 
so ; but yours, as well as the path of many friends at home, 
has been so too. Afflictions and trials are confined to no one 
country or situation, but are common to all. Nay, wherever 
there are heirs of glory, there must also be the purifying 



NEGRO INTELLECT NOT INFERIOR. 71 

furnace ; wherever the children of God are, there must also be 
the rod. 

" In Perth you will find scope for usefulness. In the lanes 
and back-lying districts there are many poor and destitute, 
living in darkness and ignorance ; but you will find, too, many 
a willing ear and grateful heart. Many bed-ridden patients 
will esteem you, and be comforted by the word which com 
forted you in your affliction, and whose affection and gratitude 
will be expressed by tears. I wish you could find out some of 
my old people, and tell me about them. Imitate Dorcas, or 
rather, I should say, Christ himself, who went about continually 
doing good." 

Sugar estates, in slavery time, had each a picaniny gang 
the boys and girls, who were sent to work under a female 
driver. The Act of Emancipation provided that these children 
should be allowed to attend school. But many planters dis 
liked this, and disliked also Mr. Jameson s energetic efforts to 
educate. He had to complain of certain malicious reports 
which had been spread against him in connexion with this. 
Facts were the best answer which he could give. He resolved 
to make the school useful, and that would shut the mouth of 
slander. The school throve, as schools always thrive, under 
lively, hearty, and kindly management. Goshen school be 
came what Mr. Jameson wanted it to be, " a centre of light 
to the district." We have heard one of the old members, on a 
meeting day, rise up and declare that almost all, even in other 
churches around, who could read their Bibles, owed it to Goshen 
school. 

" We have children of every colour, white, brown, and black. 
I have been trying to discover the boasted superiority of intel 
lect of the white ; but I confess I cannot find it. Every day s 
observation convinces me that there is not the thousandth part 
of a hair s breadth between the untutored negro and the 
untutored Scotchman ; that the one is as dull and stupid as 
the other ; and the black child is as apt to learn, and is as 
often at the head of his class as the white child." 

Surely the opinion of those who have taught the white and 



7 2 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

the black, and have taught them together, is worth something 
in the question still agitated as to the capacities of the whites 
and negroes respectively. Missionary testimony alone is trust 
worthy in a question of this kind. It is not fair, and it is not 
philosophical, to slight the evidence of fact and of experience. 
Negro children have, undeniably, a fair average capacity to 
receive an ordinary English education. Many missionaries 
know this by experience. The writer of this has taught the 
school at Goshen, in the absence of the teacher, and therefore 
knows that there is not a greater amount of stolidity in a 
Jamaica school than in a Scotch parish school. This much we 
say in justice to the negroes. It is ungenerous in men of 
British race to scorn them, as some seem to pride themselves 
in doing. The British race is the foremost in the world, and 
what land is like our own island home ? But we lower our 
selves when we unjustly disparage others. 

The following passage describes a visit which Mr. Jameson 
paid to Middlesex, a place among the mountains, six or eight 
miles from Goshen. At that place a number of people were 
living, who had emigrated from Scotland. An attempt was 
made at that time to allure European labourers to Jamaica ; 
and many from Ireland and Scotland went out with high ex 
pectations which were doomed to be disappointed. White men 
from Britain cannot work under the sun of the tropics. They 
are not adapted to endure the rays of a vertical sun, as the 
negroes and other natives of the tropics are, by the colour of 
their skins and by the thickness of their crania. This European 
immigration proved a complete and miserable failure ; and it 
entailed fearful suffering on those who had been deluded by 
parties guilty of culpable rashness, or of something deserving a 
far more dishonourable name. Many of the immigrants died, 
a few returned to Britain, and scarcely a vestige now remains 
of this other instance of colonial folly. 

Mr. Jameson writes (April, 1838) : "I found them all 
busy in their provision grounds. Some of them are old men 
and women bordering on sixty ; one man is almost seventy. 
There is a number of stout young men and women, and a good 



SCOTCH IMMIGRANTS. 73 

many are children. I asked all the people to meet me in the 
room where the business of the township is transacted. Forty 
people soon gathered, and we spent an hour in devotion. I 
cannot describe the feelings which almost overpowered me, when 
I saw so many of my own countrymen before me, and thought, 
every moment, that I was addressing them in a foreign land, 
5000 miles from the country of our birth. I read Psalm cxxi. 
An old man came forward, with his Bible in his hand, and a 
Highland bonnet under his arm, and struck up * Bangor. We 
sung, but our harps were sometimes, for a moment, on the 
willows. While we sung, I frankly confess, we wept. We all 
seemed to feel that we were singing the Lord s song in a foreign 
land. I read Psalm xxv., and prayed. While I was addressing 
them, the manager, a native of the country, came in. I was 
exhorting them to attend to the instruction of their children, 
and to give them lessons, as far as they were able, in reading 
and writing. He seemed to think that I was exacting too much 
from them, and that they had other things to do. I explained 
to him that every Scotchman was bound to teach his own 
children, as far as he was able. After a meeting which I will 
not soon forget, I returned home, and they to their grounds." 



74 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 



CHAPTER IV, 

Emancipation Feelings of the Emancipated Sir Lionel Smith s tour of the 
Island The 1st of August, 1838 Missionary Influence, salutary Defence of 
Anglo-Ethiopia Mr. Jameson an educator Wages difficulty New Church needed 
Examination of Catechumens Mr. Moir arrives Rent difficulty Opposition 
Birth of a Daughter Conflicting views of Emancipation. 

THE day of freedom at length dawned upon all the slaves 
who were under the sceptre of Britain. It had been enacted 
that non-praedial slaves those who were house servants 
should become free on the 1st of August, 1838, while the 
praedial, or field-working slaves should remain apprentices till 
the 1st of August, 1840. The apprenticeship was only a miti 
gated, if, indeed, a mitigated slavery. And notwithstanding 
that stipendiary magistrates had been appointed to see the Act 
of Emancipation carried out, the apprentices were exposed to 
great wrong and oppression. Many persons in charge of estates 
seemed, like Satan, to be in great wrath because their time was 
short, and the nearer that the time approached, the fiercer 
burned the flame of their fury. It vexed them, as it vexed the 
Egyptians before them, to see their bondmen going free, and 
they pursued the fugitives with threats and violence. Still 
was the soul of humanity wrung by the sight of bleeding backs, 
mangled and torn with the lash. And these sufferers were not 
malefactors who were flogged for their crimes, but, sometimes, 
Christian men and women, whose offence was that they had 
lost time, or otherwise broken the regulations of a code which 
was inconsistent with the rights of freemen. For however the 
like of Thomas Carlyle, in one of his cross moods, may declare 
himself in favour of the whip for the backs of lazy Africans, 
there is a more excellent way ; and, so long as a man infringes 
on none of the rights of his neighbours, it must be a crime to 



APPRENTICESHIP ABOLISHED. 75 

treat him as a criminal. Undeniable evidence that the appren 
tices were suffering much harsh and unrighteous usage, stirred 
up in Britain a desire to bring the apprenticeship to an end at 
once. A motion to that effect was made in the House of Com 
mons, on the 30th of March, 1838, but was lost by a majority 
of sixty-four. In May, however, another motion to the same 
effect was carried by a majority of three. 

But the Legislature of Jamaica wisely resolved to take up 
the matter themselves. Mr. Jameson was in Spanish Town 
when the question was discussed in the House of Assembly. 
" All professed to detest slavery from their very souls, but 
loudly wailed for the injury which would be inflicted on them 
by emancipation. All professed ardent attachment to their 
Queen and country, but cursed the interference that forced the 
negroes from their grasp. They professed a desire to see the 
negro as free as themselves, but were very unwilling to untie 
the cords with which he was bound. The voice of Britain, 
however, was not to be misunderstood. The bill passed, and 
the nursling of ages, of money, and of blood, expired, and that 
in the house of its friends, and deprived of existence by their 
hands. With God all things are possible, and all things easy. 
He speaks and it is done." 

The following is an interesting account of the abolition of the 
apprenticeship by the Island Legislature. 

" June 25th, 1838. The last link of slavery s chain is broken 
for ever. Saturday eight-days, the last and fatal stroke was 
given. Four weeks ago, the Governor received a despatch from 
home, intimating that the Government s new bill was to arrive 
by the following packet. His Excellency forthwith summoned 
the House of Assembly. The House met, and resolved to 
anticipate the expected bill, by enacting that the apprenticeship 
should cease, and unrestricted freedom should be the order of 
things, from the 1st of August. The measure was carried with 
out a dissenting voice. The Assembly s bill was amended by 
the Council. These amendments the House rejected with 
scorn, declaring that their Honours ought to take their bill, and 
be thankful. That since they had submitted to sacrifice two 



t MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

whole years of the apprenticeship, their bill was entitled to 
better treatment. In the meantime, Lord Glenelg s bill arrived ; 
and, to the no small annoyance of the Honourable House, it 
was immediately proclaimed by order of the Governor, and 
forthwith became law. There was now no time to fight about 
amendments. The opposing parties met in conference, when 
matters were adjusted ; and on the 1 6th day of June, the bill 
was passed. The House was prorogued, and the members 
returned to their homes to make preparations for the approach 
ing event. 

" I need not say that this event has filled the land with joy 
and praise. The Lord has done far more for us than we expected. 
In our sequestered spot we were sitting quietly, making up our 
minds to receive, with gratitude to God, this new bill which 
Government was sending out. On Sabbath, I brought before 
them the Governor s letter, and told the people what improve 
ments had been made in the Apprenticeship Act, and exhorted 
them to faithfulness. Next Sabbath, a letter reached me with 
the tidings that the apprenticeship was doomed, and that uni 
versal freedom was to be enjoyed from the 1st of August. 
Many believed not for joy. We stopped our usual work, and 
spent some time in offering to the Giver of all good thanksgiv 
ing and praise. It was in truth the figure clothed in reality 
the bringing to the captive the unexpected message of freedom. 
Some days afterwards, I asked one of my people what arrange 
ments they were making for the 1st of August. Indeed, 
Massa, we have not yet begun to think of making arrange 
ments, we are so glad. 

" Last night, I had a meeting with those of my people who 
live on a neighbouring estate, to examine into a case of moral 
delinquency, of which I had just heard. It appeared that their 
master had taken possession of the property, that he gave a dance 
to his people on Saturday last, and kept it up till four o clock 
on Sabbath morning. Such things are very grievous. Some 
were there for whom I had a high esteem, who have been my 
steadiest people, and who were most eager in their pursuit after 
knowledge. They told me that they did not know the impro- 



GLADNESS OF THE PEOPLE. 77 

priety of their conduct, or rather, as it afterwards appeared, had 
not the boldness to resist the wishes of their young master. I 
assure you we have much need of your prayers, and your special 
prayers for this, that the Lord would keep those whom he is 
gathering into his infant church here, from falling again into 
the pollutions of the world. Numerous and strong are the 
temptations which encompass the flock. In every way, the 
devil tempts them. Pray for us that we may have grace to 
stand." 

" On my return from Spanish Town," writes Mr. Jameson, 
" I found all happy at the prospect of freedom ; but some 
doubted. One poor old man thought the news too good to be 
true. Massa would not part with him so easily. The paper, 
as he calls it, put this matter beyond a doubt. A notice was 
handed to him, intimating that, on the 1st of August, his ap 
prenticeship expires, and that, three months after that date, 
he shall peaceably retire from the estate, if he cannot agree to 
remain, and work for the wages offered. This notice was 
given to all the people on the estates ; and many came to 
have it read and to get the understanding of it. I told 
them not to fear the paper. It w T as the badge of their coming 
freedom. They would no longer be the property of their 
masters. But if they gave up working on the estates, they 
must also give up their houses and grounds. Some thought 
that, when the Queen gave them the < free, she also gave them 
their provision grounds. I told them that they were no longer 
to be as the horses and cattle the property of the estates 
to be bought and sold with the soil ; but were to be free men, 
to work for wages, and out of these wages to pay rent and edu 
cate their children. They thought that, as they had built 
the houses, and brought in the provision grounds from the 
bush, they had the best right to them ; I told them that the 
time during which they had already held their houses paid 
them for their labour in rearing them, and that the yearly pro 
duce of their grounds repaid them for the labour of cultivating 
them. Your masters gave you these grounds, because you 
were slaves or apprentices. But now you are to be neither 



78 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

slaves nor apprentices ; you are to work for wages ; and, 
therefore, you must pay rent." 

The Governor, Sir Lionel Smith, sailed round the island 
during the month of July, to meet with the apprentices, and 
give them his best advice, with the view of preparing them for 
the duties of their new position. Ministers of the gospel were 
invited to co-operate with His Excellency in this important 
work. And there never was a time when their advice and in 
fluence were more required ; and they never had it more in 
their power to benefit the country. Physical restraints were 
nearly at an end ; corporal punishment had all but ceased ; the 
strength of the former system was gone ; and nothing remained 
but moral impulse. Every minister visited the people in their 
houses, or met them at appointed times, exhorting them to 
diligence and good conduct, showing them in what spirit they 
should enter on their new situation, and how faithfully they 
should try to discharge their new duties. 

Messrs. Cowan, Simpson, and Jameson waited on Sir Lionel 
at Port Maria, and presented an address, which was well re 
ceived. Apprentices came from all parts of St. Mary s to see 
and hear the Governor. His words were much to the point, 
and every one was highly gratified. 

On returning home, Mr. Jameson was distressed to learn 
that the people were deserting their work on all hands, and he 
went round the district to show them the way of rectitude. 
Some had formed wrong and extravagant notions, from mis 
taking the Governor s speech, and they were elated by the 
near approach of the 1st of August. Mr. Jameson assured 
them that this folly of theirs was opening the mouths of their 
enemies, and shutting the mouths of their friends. They were 
apprentices till the 1st of August, and must work till then. 
Even then, it would be for their interest not to desert their 
work, but to be diligent and laborious, that they might receive 
wages, that the country might be prosperous, and that the 
grea,t measure which secured their freedom might be crowned 
with success. 

At last the day of freedom came ; and the way in which the 



THE FIRST OP AUGUST. 79 

people spent it was greatly to their own praise ; for it won for 
them the golden opinions of all their friends, gratified and de 
lighted, beyond measure, those who had fought their battle, 
and gave a manifest proof of the good effects of the glorious 
gospel of the blessed God. The 1st day of August, 1838, is a 
day much to be remembered by the freed-men of the West 
Indies, and by all generations of their children, as the day that 
saw slavery go down, with its whips, and stocks, and hand 
cuffs, and tread-mills, " to the vile dust from which it sprung." 

Mr. Jameson gave graphic and touching narratives of the 
1st of August at Goshen, in his journal and letters. 

" The sun went down, on the 31st of July, amid joy and 
singing. The people continued at their labour to the last. Now 
it had ceased ; and one after another came to the missionary s 
residence till the school-house was filled, while numbers of 
children marched round it, singing hymns of praise to God for 
sending minister among them, the old people following them 
and joining in the song. I went down, and found the multi 
tude very happy indeed. * Minister, they said, we thought 
this day would never come. We cannot believe that on to 
morrow we shall be free. Thank God ! We never can thank 
God enough. We want to sit all night, thanking God, if you, 
minister, think it proper. 

" * Oh no, my friends, it is not proper to sit all night, for 
you will be tired out long before morning, and unfit for the 
exercises of that joyful day that is to burst on you to-morrow. 
As for myself, I cannot do so, for I am exhausted. 

" Some wished to pass the night with us. I said that those 
who came from a distance should remain, but those who lived 
near had better go home. They asked me if it would be pro 
per to fast all night. I replied that it was good to cherish 
the spirit of fasting at all times ; but, considering the heavy 
work in which they had been engaged all day, and what was 
before them to-morrow, I advised them to go to their beds, get 
a sound sleep, take a hearty breakfast in the morning, and 
come to church : for they could not worship God while 
their heads were sleepy and their stomachs hungry. As for 



80 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

myself, I was going to bed at once, for I had been toiling since 
five o clock in the morning, and was very tired. To-morrow, 
I intended to eat an additional yam, to drink an additional cup 
of coffee, and to take an additional spoonful of sugar to it, be 
cause these things were no more to be produced by the labour 
of slaves, but by the industry of freemen. I told them, also, 
that the children of Israel did not fast the night before they 
left Egypt, but every family ate a whole lamb. With these 
things they were more than satisfied \ and, after prayer and 
singing, we parted for the night. 

" At dawn, while the morning star was yet bright, the fall 
ing of the chain of the gate awakened me from my slumber. 
I arose, and hastening to the school -house, heard the well- 
known voice of an old negro, singing, Hark, the glad sound, 
the Saviour comes ! In a little, a few more arrived, moving 
through the thick fog which the rays of the rising sun had not 
yet dispelled. At break of day, our family were called together, 
to raise our happy hearts in humble acknowledgments to our 
Father in heaven. I had arranged with my people, the Sab 
bath before, that, at five o clock, every family in the church 
should meet around the family altar to praise God for his 
goodness. By seven o clock, the school-room was crowded. 
Every countenance beamed with joy. The old negro seemed to 
have got back the vivacity of youth. * Massa, said one old, 
feeble man, and my hand got a shake which well-nigh squeezed 
the blood out of my fingers, Massa, we never thought we see 
this day. We bless God for let we see this day. We were 
put in a ship, crushed and trampled down, carried away from 
our country and people, and brought here ; but, Massa, we for 
get and forgive all, for the joy of this day. One who had 
already shaken my hand twice, came, a third time, saying, 
1 Massa, we cannot get too much shaking. Hundreds were in 
and around the school while religious services were conducted. 
I married fourteen couples, some young, some old. 

" After getting refreshment, the people ranked themselves, 
and walked to the church, three miles distant. We followed as 
soon as possible. When we came in sight of the church, a 



MISSIONARIES NOT INEPT. 81 

dense mass of human beings burst upon our view. The church 
was literally packed, and there were two or three times as many 
without. I wished them all joy. Sung a part of the 103d 
Psalm, and addressed them from the words, I will deliver thee, 
and thou shalt glorify me, and also from Rom. xiii. 12-14. 
I showed them that God had wrought this deliverance for them, 
and was now saying to them, Glorify me. But the work of 
emancipation was far from complete ; they saw the first day of 
a career, which I trusted would be a glorious one, ending in 
their rising into full light and liberty. They must forsake 
whatever would hinder their progress ; they must cease from 
the abominations of former days, from riot, and drunkenness, 
and chambering, and wantonness, strife and envying, from prac 
tices fit only for slaves, and which show men to be the slaves of 
the devil. They must carry with them all that can speed them 
onwards in the path of light and liberty ; they must cling to 
their bibles, their church and school, their minister and teacher, 
their Sabbaths, and, above all, their Saviour. We spent the 
day happily together, and parted full of comfort and of peace. 
In parting, I expressed the hope that they would end the day 
as they had begun it, with God ; so that the good impressions 
made by the services might not be disturbed by feasting and 
merriment. On returning home at five o clock, I was glad to 
see my highest wish realized. All was order and peace ; and 
contentment seemed to have fixed her abode among the dwell 
ings of the people. 

" Next morning, a person said, Minister, your word yester 
day be good, and have good effect ; I never see Goshen people 
so quiet. All were happy, but there was no riot. Many were 
the visits made to us, and many the presents brought for trans 
mission home. An old woman brought a pine-apple for the 
Queen. An old man wanted to learn to write, that he might 
send her a letter of thanks for sending the free. " 

The conduct of ministers of the gospel is very apt to be 
scrutinized with an unfriendly eye by those who cannot sympa 
thize with their spiritual objects ; their proceedings are often 
grievously misrepresented, either through thoughtlessness or 



82 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

malice ; and their efforts to remove social evils, and to promote 
social righteousness, are often resented by parties who are 
thereby offended. Yet it must be confessed that the influence 
exercised on a community by persons disinterested in their 
motives, pure in their aims, and prudent in their movements, 
is of the most beneficial kind. The history of the Emancipa 
tion is a triumphant testimony to the truth of this remark. 
No one can doubt that it was chiefly through the efforts of 
pious missionaries that this great measure came into peaceful 
action in the West Indian possessions of Great Britain. Free 
dom had, before this, visited the shores of a neighbouring 
island. A Toussaint L Ouverture a son of Ethiopia, and a 
man of genius had arisen and headed his kindred in winning 
liberty from the hated yoke. But how different were the 
scenes that attended the emancipation of Hayti, from those wit 
nessed in Jamaica, on the day, of freedom ! In the British 
West Indies, freedom came, smiling and gracious, as the dawn 
of a Sabbath morn ; in Hayti, it came as the hurricane, and red 
ruin marked its path. In the one, the banner of freedom was 
the white flag of peace ; in the other, the black flag of death. 
In the one, the day was ushered in with the song of praise and 
the voice of prayer ; in the other, with the trumpet of war, the 
shrieks of the dying, and the shouts of the once down-trodden 
slave, hewing with the bloody knife his way to freedom. Be 
yond a doubt, it was God who caused this difference, by means 
of that blessed gospel which the missionaries preached to the 
slaves, and by means of the moral influence over them which 
they had obtained as the ambassadors of Christ. 

Writing to the Directors of the Eose Street Missionary 
Association, about three months after this period, November 
13th, 1838, Mr. Jameson thus truly, and with graceful modesty, 
gives his opinion on this matter : 

" In the late crisis, the minister of the gospel has been of 
essential service to the district in which he lived. To him the 
people looked for advice, and made known all their difficulties. 
In those cases where he has imparted to them sound advice, 
and laid himself out to lead them with calmness and soberness, 



PEACEFUL TRANSITION. 83 

the results have been peace, a general return to industry, cheer 
fulness at work, and a fair rate of wages. 

" The great principle which has guided my brethren and 
myself, has been that laid down by the apostle : ( Servants, 
obey in all things your masters according to the flesh ; not with 
eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in singleness of heart, fearing 
God. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and 
equal ; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven. In 
following this line of conduct, we have experienced many diffi 
culties, and have been exposed to troubles. We have not passed 
unscathed. At one time we were suspected by the people of a 
desire to advance the interests of their masters rather than 
theirs ; at another, we were accused by the masters of leaning 
too much to the side of the people. My brethren and I looked 
for righteousness, and wherever we found it, we steadily followed 
it, without respect to party, rank, or colour. 

" Up to the present moment, peace has prevailed on the 
estates on which we labour. Mr. Blyth says in a letter, some 
time ago, that his people were all at work, and conducting 
themselves in a most exemplary manner. Mr. Waddell and 
Mr. Paterson give the same account of their people. Of our 
churches in St. Mary s I am glad to bear the same testimony. 
In Goshen, my own district, I have been most happily dis 
appointed, for the character of the people on this property led 
me to expect very different things ; and it was the last that 
I expected to see in a promising condition. It has, however, 
been among the first to show an example of diligence in the 
improved state of things. When I thus speak, I do not mean 
to say that everything is well settled, that there is nothing to 
lament, and nothing to rectify. I speak comparatively. Ere 
things are fully settled, time, care, and diligence will be re 
quired, and especially the many and earnest prayers of the 
people of God." 

The following extracts are from the journal at this period : 

" An old woman, a house apprentice, was talking with me 
about the 1st of August. I asked her whether she would re 
main on the property, or go away. She replied, Massa, we 



84 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

heart well satisfied with you, and with the gospel which you 
preach, and we cannot leave you. 

" A house apprentice belonging to the congregation, was asked 
by his employer how much he would require a year for his ser 
vices. He did not know. For one thing, however, I am 
determined not to give up my Saturdays and Sabbaths. 

" You must give up your Sabbaths, for that is the day I 
need you most. 

" Well, Massa, rather than give up my Sabbaths, I will give 
up my place. 

" Why are you so anxious about the Sabbath V 

" You white men who can read Bible, should know that 
better than I do. Does not the Bible say, Remember the 
Sabbath-day to keep it holy V 

" Oh, yes ; you go to church, I see.* 

" Yes, Massa, 

" You are no better of that. You are worse instead of 
better. This person came to ask my advice, and I counselled 
him to go on as he had begun." 

Much has been spoken and written in the West Indies, in 
Great Britain, and in America, to the discredit of the emanci 
pated people of Jamaica. Many heartless calumnies have been 
spread to the injury of their reputation, and to the lessening 
of that sympathy which once in a full tide flowed through 
the soul of the piety of Great Britain, carrying in its bosom 
death to oppression and liberty to the slave. * The truth, 
however, is, that the black people are just like other people. 

i Of this we have an instance in a work of Anthony Trollope, who writes his 
travels somewhat as he writes his novels. He says that the provision grounds 
of the Jamaica negroes are "spots of land for which they either pay rent, or on 
which, as is quite as common, they have squatted without payment of any rent." 
Did Mr. Trollope not know that thousands of these spots are freeholds, and that 
they were purchased and paid for by negroes, who thus hold them in fee-simple ? 
Or, knowing this fact, did he wilfully conceal it from the readers of his book, 
and thus, in effect, bear false witness against his neighbour? What confidence 
can be put in Mr. Trollope s opinions about the brains and the souls of the 
negroes, when he shows so much ignorance about the tenure on which they hold 
their lands? The man who found out that freeholders are either rent-payers or 
squatters, must be excused for saying that the negro " addicts himself to religion 
for the sake of appearances." 



LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS. 85 

Their good and bad qualities, their virtues and their vices, are 
common to humanity. Depraved human nature is the same 
among them as elsewhere, and the same elsewhere as among 
them; and so is sanctified human nature. The same appear 
ances which present themselves in other lands which have 
civil liberty and an unfettered religion, also present them 
selves among the freedmen of the West Indies, to an extent 
proportioned to the amount and duration of their civil and 
religious privileges. Anglo-Ethiopia is an infant people ; it 
needs time to grow ; it must be a child, a youth, before it 
can be a man. Guided by the light which the experience of 
other nations affords, this people ought to make more rapid 
progress than those which have had to feel, and force, and 
fight their way to honour, and liberty, and power. But all 
history teaches us that the rise of nations to intelligence, and 
virtue, and influence, is slow. " Rome was not built in a 
day." There is a long interval between the acorn which the 
tiny squirrel buries in the ground, and the gnarled oak that 
laughs at the blast. Are we to expect that a nation trained 
under slavery, shall, in one generation, free themselves from all 
the evils which slavery breeds and nurses 1 Are they good for 
nothing because, trained unto evil, and destitute of aid and 
encouragement, except what the kindness of distant friends 
has afforded, they have not, in twenty-three years, shaken off 
all the vicious tendencies and habits which, common to man 
kind, were fostered in them, to a fearful extent, by their pre 
vious circumstances as slaves, and have not stood up adorned 
with the light of intelligence, the graces of social virtue, and 
the beauties of holiness 1 Is this the law of national pro 
gress 1 What people, even in the most favourable circum 
stances, ever made the progress which is demanded of this 
people, and the lack of which is thought by many to warrant 
their condemnation, and the condemnation of the beneficent 
measure which made them free ? In the course of this Memoir, 
testimonies in favour of the people of Jamaica will be given, 
in extracts from Mr. Jameson s letters and journal ; and we 
claim for him the confidence and the credit which are due to 



86 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

a witness of sound sense, quick observation, sincere piety, and 
unimpeachable veracity. 

From the very beginning of his labours at Gosh en, Mr. 
Jameson saw the necessity of education for the young, and, 
with the aid of his devoted partner, he laboured in this de 
partment of the work. Classes were formed for the young 
people, which, at first, met on the Sabbaths ; and, occasion 
ally, on other days, as was found convenient. In his ear 
liest letters, Mr. Jameson dwelt on this pressing necessity, 
rendered all the more pressing, because emancipation had freed 
the children from compulsory labour, and they were running 
about in idleness. Convinced that the work would not be 
prosperous, perfect, or permanent, unless the young were taught, 
and that the people would not become intelligent Christians, 
would fail to profit to the full by the instructions of the pulpit, 
and would want one of the most precious means of grace, 
unless a Bible-reading and Bible-loving generation were raised 
up, he, like all other enlightened missionaries, exerted himself, 
even before he had any reason to expect assistance, in this 
department of the work. 

" August Qtk. This week, there has been an extraordinary 
crowding to the school. Thirty-five scholars have been added 
to the list, some of them as old as myself. Novelty brings 
many ; some desire to be permanent, and display anxiety to 
learn. If you could look in upon us, you would see benches 
round the room packed, and benches in the centre not less so, 
while many sit on the floor. Rude and ignorant though we 
considered them at first, and small though we considered their 
progress, yet, when brought into comparison with new comers, 
their superiority is great. I could not have imagined it. 

" The peace and good-will which prevailed on the eventful 
1st of August still continue. Up to this time there has been 
no sound of riot or revel. The house of God is crowded, and 
the voice of prayer and praise is often heard among our people. 
The people are anxious to begin work at once, but their 
masters are tardy in making arrangements with them ; and 
those who have proposed arrangements, offer wages which the 



CAN T EAT FKEE. 87 

people refuse to accept. Both sides go to excess : the people, 
by expecting too much, and the masters, by offering too little. 
Work here is heavy, and the people, if underpaid, will get 
disheartened and cease to labour, and then the employers will 
lose more than if they had been more liberal in their offers. 

" Death has been among you of late. Tender our sympathy 
to the bereaved families. Blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord; their sorrows are ended, their labours are closed, and 
their rest is glorious. that we may live as on the brink 
of eternity ; then shall we serve the Lord better. Our good 
friend, Mr. Bryden, desires to know our hours of meeting on 
the Lord s day. We begin at nine o clock in the morning, and 
conclude about four. We think much of you on the Lord s 
day, and feel much happiness in the thought that we are meet 
ing together at the throne. 

"As to the accordion which, I understand, has been talked 
about, and seriously objected to by some friends, I have to say 
that I do not intend to carry it to church. I would as soon 
take the bagpipes. I am fond of music, and desire to conse 
crate all that I have of the gift to the glory of God, but I 
never wish to see an instrument in the Lord s house as a sub 
stitute for my own voice." 

A few weeks later, he wrote as follows : " The balmy days 
of ease and cessation from labour must come to an end. The 
people say, We can t eat free. They now come to us to know 
what they are to do. We say, Work for wages. 
" True, but what wages ought we to receive V 
" * That is a question which I cannot answer. Your masters 
only can answer it. I hope they will give you as much as 
they are able ; and this, I trust, will be as much as will make 
you comfortable. I advise, then, that you go at once to your 
masters, and tell them that you are willing to be employed, 
and ask them to state the terms on which they will employ 
you. 

" Well, minister, we have been to inassa, as you told us, 
but he offers us only two bits (9d. sterling), with houses and 
grounds, medicine and medical attendance. Our wives must 



88 MEMOIK OF KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

work, and our children above ten years of age. We must 
work ten hours a day, in rain and wind, as well as sunshine, 
and this for five days a week. We are anxious to work, but 
we must live by our work. We made four bits (Is. 6d. ster 
ling) in the apprenticeship, and why give us less when we are 
freer 

" l Now, I will lay down a great principle which must guide 
you in settling this question. The master must not give you 
more than his property affords, else, in a short time, the estate 
would be in ruin, and you would be without employment and 
without wages. On the other hand, the master is bound to 
give you wages worthy of your work. You must not be too 
extravagant in your demands. You must yield a part on the 
one side, if your masters yield a part on the other. 

"The weather was delightful. The cane-fields were wav 
ing in luxuriance. The oxen were rejoicing in their freedom 
from the yoke, and too often, in their uncontrolled indulgence 
among the rich canes. The people were resting from their 
many years of toil ; and the masters were anxious that the 
resting should cease. Such was the state of things for the first 
two weeks. During the third week, the masters began to 
offer a macaroni, or Is. sterling, a day, and the people began 
to move. Some, unwilling to return to work, went about 
stating that a law was coming from the Queen to fix the rate of 
wages, and that if any one went to work before the 1st of 
November, he would be imprisoned by the Governor, and that, 
for three months, they had their houses and grounds free of 
rent. 

" At this juncture, the Governor desired the Attorney-Gene 
ral to publish his opinion as to the law on the subject ; and 
this was, that rent could be charged for every week since the 
1st of August. Those who had been sitting at their ease 
had now to bestir themselves, to atone by their diligence for 
the past, and to keep themselves out of the hands of their 
masters. And now all is industry around us. Cheerful 
ness sits on every countenance, and peace and comfort reign. 
At sunrise you hear the cry of the wain-men driving the sugars 



THE SLAVE A FKEE LABOURER. 89 

to the wharf ; and on all the estates around you see large gangs 
of free labourers receiving a shilling a day." 

Mr. Jameson had now to gird up his loins for a most impor 
tant and necessary work, involving great anxiety of mind, and 
great pecuniary responsibility. A permanent and substantial 
place of worship was necessary, and also accommodation for the 
day-school. At home this is simply a question of money. If you 
have that, there are architects, and builders, and skilled crafts 
men, ready to undertake the work. But abroad, the difficulties 
are great ; and from the want of efficient and industrious work 
men, the expense of such undertakings is heavy. To this 
matter the following letter refers. The work being thus put 
into his hands, Mr. Jameson went about it in the spirit of 
faith in God, and persevered in it, until a plain but substantial 
and commodious building arose, beautiful for situation, sur 
rounded with hallowed recollection, and destined, we trust, to 
be the centre of precious influences, and the birthplace of im 
mortal souls for many, many generations. 

" To THE DIRECTORS OP THE KOSE STREET MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

" GOSHEN, August 25th, 1838. 

" MY DEAR, FRIENDS AND BRETHREN, Your kind conside 
ration of our circumstances was duly brought before us by your 
respected secretary. And now I return you our best thanks for 
so promptly sending us a fellow-labourer, to aid us in the work 
of the Lord in this distant part of the vineyard. We long for 
the arrival of our brother, Mr. Moir. The Lord control the 
winds, and bridle the waves, and bring his servant to his work 
in peace ; so shall our hearts be gladdened by his presence 
among us. The Lord bless him with long life and vigorous 
health, and make him an eminent blessing to us all. The 
Lord bless you for this renewed instance of kindness, and 
supply your wants out of his riches in glory, through Christ 
Jesus. And to Himself, the fountain of all mercy, be ever 
lasting glory ! 

" Your kind request, to be informed of the sum which the 
enlargement of the present school-house, or the building of a 



90 MEMOIE OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

new one, might cost, was also duly brought before me. I re 
gret my delay in replying to this kind solicitation, but I de 
sired to inquire further into the matter, that I might bring 
before you a scheme, which circumstances daily press upon 
my attention. This is the procuring a church as well as a 
school-house. 

"1. On coming to Goshen, twelve months past last February, 
I preached a considerable time in the boiling-house. Finding 
that the temporary church, promised to be erected, was car 
ried forward neither by the estates nor by the people, and after 
making application to the managers of the estates, and to the 
people, till I was ashamed, I found it necessary, for the honour 
of the cause with which I am identified, to take the responsi 
bility of the work upon myself. In humble dependence upon 
Him whose I am and whom I serve, I began the work, and, 
with the aid of people from Carron Hall and Port Maria, a 
shed was finished, which shelters us from the sun and the rain. 
The cost of the whole amounted fully to 100 currency. It 
was my original intention to keep a daily school at the church ; 
but difficulties occurring, which in present circumstances were 
unavoidable, my thoughts turned to some point nearer our 
dwelling. I applied to Goshen for an old pimento house in the 
immediate neighbourhood. I was told it was at my service, if 
I chose to be at the expense of fitting it up. This I did. The 
school continued to increase so rapidly, that I found it neces 
sary to put a roof upon an old stable adjoining. Even still 
we are squeezed together, unable almost to move for want of 
room, and to breathe, from heat and confinement. This depart 
ment of our work, from the causes now mentioned, we find 
exceedingly laborious and exhausting. The daily attendance 
averages from 100 and upwards. The accommodation is 
fitted for half this number, but, unwilling to put any away, we 
do the best we can. New ones are ever coming, but for want 
of room many stay away. Fever has seized numbers, the 
source of this malady having been the heat of the place. Such 
is our school. 

" 2. The church is similarly situated. The people are 



NEW CHURCH NEEDED. 91 

packed together, and numbers are obliged to stand around the 
boards outside, so that the heat is excessive, and rendered more 
unbearable from the exclusion of the breeze by those standing 
outside. The roof, in many parts, has already begun to give 
way. It consists of sugar-cane tops, and cannot long resist the 
wasting influences of the climate. The posts which support the 
seats are sinking beyond their original level into the ground, 
and the boards are bending and creaking, so that the whole 
would require a thorough repair, costing upwards of 20. 
Similar repairs will be necessary every year, and the people are 
averse to lay out their money in this way. They would rather 
pay the interest and the capital of a debt contracted to erect a 
new and substantial house which would secure permanence to 
their present privileges, and the transmission of them to the 
children. Since the 1st of January, we have raised by collec 
tions in church <30, and by the end of the year I expect 20 
more. The object of these collections is to pay the boards 
brought from town for the present church. When these are 
paid, we propose to begin monthly collections for a new church, 
and I have reason to believe that the people will contribute 
with tenfold cheerfulness. 

"3. The necessity for a church and school is so great, that 
were we to defer their erection till we raised the money, or 
were we to defer making application to home for aid till we 
raised the amount on the spot, a delay would be occasioned, 
which must prove detrimental to the cause, as well as to the 
health, if not the life, of the agents now employed, and of 
the friend and brother soon to join us. The voice of Provi 
dence is, Whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy 
might. I would be glad if I could point to our building 
fund as commenced and prospering. The time of my labour 
in this field has been short, and the expenses and debt which 
urgent circumstances have incurred, have contributed to pre 
vent this. But the cause, I believe, has possession of the hearts 
of many of the people ; and I fear not, in a little time, and 
through the blessing of God, to be able to pay whatever sum 
may be intrusted to us. 



92 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

" 4. In applying thus formally to you, the Directors, I do 
it not expecting that, as a society, you will take up this mat 
ter. Your exertions are already wonderful ; and were I to 
ask you to do more, I would be going beyond the limits of 
propriety. I come before you now to solicit your best advice 
and co-operation, and to put into your hands certain facts, 
to be used in whatever way your prudence may dictate. I 
earnestly ask you to state without reserve your opinions, and 
your questions of every sort. I am stepping upon ground to 
which I am unaccustomed, but it is one to which duty calls, 
and where I may expect the direction and blessing of my Divine 
Master, and your service, co-operation, and prayers." 

" October 1st. This month is remarkable in the history of 
freedom for a counter declaration to that of the Attorney-Gene 
ral, given by two lawyers in town, that no rent can be charged 
till November. I do not enter into the merits of the question. 
But the declaration has done no good to any but the idle, and 
no good to them. Its effect has been injurious : for the people 
do not know whom or what to believe." 

The following letter, being of a private nature, might be 
withheld, did it not breathe so rich a spirit of piety, tender 
ness, zeal, and fidelity. The expostulations addressed to his 
youngest brother, may be, doubtless are, equally applicable to 
other young men of piety and talent, and may be the means 
of drawing out such a one to the help of the Lord in some 
field of missionary enterprise, perhaps in Ethiopia itself, 
on whose shores the standard of the gospel is now planted, 
and through whose moral and spiritual darkness the Sun of 
Righteousness is beginning to shine. May the Lord of the 
harvest send forth hundreds of such labourers to degraded and 
enslaved Africa. 

"GOSHEN, October 5th, 1838. 

" MY DEAR SISTERS, You hung your harp upon the wil 
lows, or rather you took it down and sent us a song of lamenta 
tion. Dry up your tears, my sisters, your father lives and 
triumphs ; and, best of all, our father s God lives : and He has 
proved himself faithful who hath said, I will never leave you 



NEED OF GOSPEL-PREACHERS. 93 

nor forsake you ; for father and mother having left you, He has 
taken you up. 

" The anniversary of our dear father s death brought with 
it many recollections which made the old wounds bleed afresh. 
I wonder not at this. But other thoughts, more consoling 
and animating, arise out of the same subject. A year in 
heaven ! How short to him who is surrounded with its glories 
and filled with its joys, although long and lonesome to friends 
left behind to mourn their loss ! Oh, how much has he 
learned in that time ! How much has his glory increased, and 
how much is it ever increasing ! A year, almost two years, 
since we parted ! How much nearer are we to the meeting- 
point ! Happy hour ! when death-divided friends shall meet 
to part no more. 

"I am distressed at James s resolution to go to Manchester. 
I wish he had begun his career in Perth, and remained under 
the eye of his grandfather as long as he could enjoy his pre 
cious instruction and advice. My dear James, I thought you 
would join me in the ministry of the gospel. Your father de 
sired this, but he ceased to urge it because of his tenderness to 
you. The training which he bestowed on your boyhood was 
intended to turn your heart to this holy and honourable work. 
He also prayed for this. I had means of knowing all this that 
you had not. I am glad to hear of your piety, and hope it is 
the gracious fruit of the Spirit of God. May he increase it 
aye more and more. But, James, I solemnly ask, Have you 
made your profession the subject of earnest and prayerful con 
sideration "? Do you avoid the ministry because of the toil 
necessary in preparing for it, or because you will be ill repaid 
in money for your time and labour 1 I cannot think this of 
you. You love Jesus Christ. Your heart is warmed by his 
love to sinners. Oh, then, why should you turn aside from the 
work of proclaiming this love to a perishing world 1 You say 
that there is already plenty of preachers. Far from the truth. 
If your views be bounded by the British coast, and if you take 
as your pattern the hangers on for churches at home, there 
may be some truth in your statement. But when you regard 



9 4 MEMOIR OP REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

the world as the field, and look at the small amount of agency 
employed for its conversion, the statement is absolutely ridi 
culous. Jamaica itself would employ the greater part of the 
unemployed. There may be plenty of bankers and manufac 
turers, but there is an incalculable want of the ministers of 
reconciliation. There is, at this moment, a pressing call for 
such in this country. The education which you have already 
received will secure you an extensive field of usefulness here ; 
and, under the inspection of the Presbytery, you can carry 
forward your studies, and be licensed and ordained in due time. 
As to your health, there is every prospect of its being much 
better here than in a mercantile house in Manchester. Your 
constitution is well fitted for this country ; and the pleasure of 
laying out your talents and your acquirements in bringing the 
children of Ethiopia to God, will be much greater than buying 
and selling for a master for even 500 a year. Think then, 
my dear brother, on these things." 

James Kerr Jameson, to whom these sentences were specially 
addressed, was the youngest of the family. When only three 
weeks old, he was left motherless, and was an object of peculiar 
interest and solicitude to his affectionate father. The Rev. 
George Gilfillan says, " He grew up into a very promising 
and excellent young man. He became a banker, first in Man 
chester, and then in Hanley, where he was the principal founder 
of the Presbyterian Church, now under the charge of Mr. Mar- 
tyn, and where, till his death, he continued a most efficient 
member. Mr. Martyn preached his funeral sermon. It de 
lightfully attested the effects of Jameson s piety and prayers 
on his youngest child." A portion of Mr. Martyn s sermon 
is appended to the third edition of the " Remains of the late 
Rev. John Jameson." There are several touching references 
to James in that fragrant casket of " Remains," which has 
afforded sweet and genuine comfort to mourners in the hour of 
anguish. 

An unknown friend having offered to the Rose Street Mis 
sionary Association the sum of 50 annually, for five years, 
either in support of their present missionary engagements, or in 



ARRIVAL OF MR. MOIR. 95 

furtherance of some new scheme, the directors unanimously 
agreed to recommend that a catechist or teacher should be sent 
to assist Mr. Jameson, provided funds could be raised, in addi 
tion to former contributions, sufficient for the salary of such 
an agent. The recommendation was brought under the notice 
of the friends of the mission at the annual missionary social 
meeting ; and, in a short time, subscriptions were offered which 
were deemed sufficient. The proposed measure was, therefore, 
carried into effect, and from among five candidates Mr. David 
Moir was chosen. He arrived in Jamaica in October 1838. 

Mr. Moir entered on his important work with the utmost 
zeal, and during the time he was Mr. Jameson s coadjutor, nobly 
seconded his efforts for the good of the people. The fruits of 
Mr. Moir s labours still live abundantly in that district. On the 
Sabbath after his arrival, Mr. Jameson invited the people to 
prepare a place beside the church, in which Mr. Moir might 
carry on his school. They cordially entered into the work. So 
hearty were they, that some came before the pulpit, and others 
stood up in different parts of the church, offering their services. 
The school had outgrown the accommodation, and a part of the 
scholars used to assemble under the spreading boughs of a 
neighbouring tree. On Saturday morning, old and young came 
out, when some dug holes for the posts, others went into the 
wood to cut and carry timbers, others gathered grass for thatch, 
and others prepared the rough timbers and fixed them. In a 
few Saturdays the shed was finished. " What reason," writes 
Mr. Jameson, " have we to thank God, and take courage ! At 
first the people would do nothing without wages ; now, they 
are happy in any way to help the cause of Christ among us." 

Mr. Jameson, relieved of the school, was now able to devote 
himself to other work. He writes : " I visit the estates to 
instruct those who are at work. Last week, I went to an estate, 
at the earnest request of the overseer. In teaching the children, 
I found that none of them could answer a single question. One 
boy from a neighbouring estate, under my care, repeated some 
of the things he had learned, and read a few verses in the New 
Testament. I said, * Why does this boy read, and know so 



9 6 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

much, while all the rest are as ignorant as the mule ? They 
knew why, and looked at one another. I went on to Pembroke 
Hall, and had a large meeting of old and young. The people 
had just finished their work, and came to get a word from mini 
ster. On the way, I met Mr. Cowan and a teacher who has 
come to begin operations in Bagnold s Vale, sent by the Mico 
Institute in Kingston. The Lord is opening up streams in the 
desert Glory be to His name." 

These efforts to teach the young were not pleasing to the 
planters. They made a rule on some of the estates near, that 
all above ten years of age should pay rent, unless they did work ; 
and some were ordered off, because they preferred the school to 
the field. At one place, Mr. Moir was interrupted by several 
whites, one of them being the overseer, who complained that 
the bigger boys and girls did nothing, and said, that unless the 
missionary got them to labour three days of the week, gratuit 
ously, he would shut the school. Addressing one of the boys, 
he said, " Sir, if ever I see you set your foot in the school again, 
or upon this estate, I will make you be taken to Port Maria 
jail." Such interference was inconsistent with the freedom 
which these people now possessed. They had a right, surely, 
to send their children to school, if they chose to do so, rather 
than to the field. The missionaries were most anxious to be on 
friendly terms with the managers of the estates ; but they could 
not descend to be their tools. The vexatious means which the 
latter adopted to coerce the people, only injured the properties. 
Had a more generous policy been tried, the people would have 
been bound to them ; but, instead of this, they were driven off, 
and now are, in great numbers, independent freeholders. 

"November, 1838. For some time I have been examin 
ing my people with a view to the ordinance of the Lord s 
Supper, and have been much pleased at the extent and ac 
curacy of the knowledge which some have acquired. I can 
not speak with certainty as to the sanctified effect of this 
knowledge. I hope, but that is all Some, of whom my 
opinion was most favourable, have disappointed me, and this 
makes me cautious. Blessed be God ! that a minister s comfort 



A BACKSLIDEE. 97 

depends not on sight, but on faith, not on seeing the fruits of 
his labours, but on believing the promise of him who cannot 
lie, that these labours shall not be in vain. Some have been 
cut off from the list for returning to the sinful ways of the 
country. One married man affords a melancholy example of a 
class, alas ! too numerous. He was, for many years, in full 
communion with the church at Port Maria, high in profession, 
and in the confidence of both minister and people. I looked 
to him for efficient help in my labours, and he seemed most 
happy when aiding the cause of Christ. Some months ago, 
reports unfavourable to his character reached me. I was slow 
to believe them. At length, they came through a channel 
which rendered instant inquiry necessary. On examining into 
the state of his family, I found religion, on his part, much on 
the decline, his hours late, his habits irregular, and the company 
he kept the very reverse of what it ought to be, and of what it 
once was. The Session of Port Maria saw it dutiful to remove 
him from the midst of us. Kecent events show the propriety 
of this step. The sin which before was secret, is now openly 
and unblushingly acknowledged. These things we must look 
for. There are ever some rocky ground hearers, who, in the 
time of temptation, fall away. 

" A few evenings ago, I had a meeting in the house of one 
of my people. After we had concluded, the people seemed all 
very happy and delighted. One of them said to me : * Minister, 
we are very happy when you come among us. We had no 
such thing as this before ; the people spent their evenings in 
dancing and riot, and their Sabbaths in walking about j but 
now, all stay at home at night, attending to religion, and spend 
their Sabbaths in the church. " 

The following shows the kind of influence exercised by the 
missionary, and the results of that influence : 

" Last night, a man came to me with a paper. It was a 
charge for two weeks rent, amounting to six shillings. Well, 
Richard, is- this a just debt 1 Whether would you have your 
house and grounds without rent, as a slave, or have them with 
rent as a free man ? Rent can be paid only in one of two 

G 



98 MEMOIE OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

ways, either by money or by work. Now, have you paid it 
during the last two weeks, in work? No, Minister, I was 
working out. Well, then, the estate is just charging you that 
additional sixpence which you got by working out. The charge 
is just. You owe the debt, and Christ desires you not to get 
out of it in any dishonourable way. I advise you to go, to 
morrow morning, and pay the money, and go to work and get 
your shilling a day. You will then have twenty pounds cur 
rency, with houses and grounds, and no rent to pay ; and, by 
the blessing of God, you will live in peace and comfort. 
Minister, I will do as you bid me. I do not wish to go 
away. I once thought of going, but I cannot leave my church 
and you. Our church and school have been blessed of God 
for securing the continuance of the people on their respective 
properties. Since the 1st of August, many have been restless. 
Dissatisfied with their present houses, they are going about in 
quest of what they consider better settlements. The estates 
on which I labour have been troubled, more or less, w T ith this 
evil. But I believe that our church and school have tended 
materially to counteract this spirit, they being the centre of a 
powerful attraction, settling many in contentment, who would, 
otherwise, have been carried away with the current, drawing 
many to the neighbourhood who had left their former resi 
dences, and bringing back others who, in the first excitement of 
freedom, had taken their departure from our midst. Many say, 
We love our church, we wish the education of our children, 
and we cannot leave you. Some of those who returned said : 
We could have got work elsewhere, and been among our 
friends, but we want to be near minister. One man said to 
me that he had gone to town to try how work would do there. 
I lived there three weeks, but returned, for I was anxious to 
be near my church. An elderly woman said : I want to 
leave the estate, and indeed I would not care where I go, were 
it not that I cannot think of being far from you. Minister, 
they say, if you had not come among us, things would not have 
been so well on the 1 st of August. The word you tell us makes 
our hearts soft, and we cannot think of doing wrong thing. " 



ESTABLISHED SECTARIANISM. 99 

Jamaica has a church established by law. The Episcopalian 
section receives nearly 40,000 sterling annually, from the 
island revenues. There have been among the rectors and 
curates, some who obeyed and preached the gospel, and were 
not ashamed to co-operate with the servants of Jesus in the 
other sections. Others are Puseyites. One Sabbath, in Nov 
ember, 1838, Mr. Jameson had preached at Middlesex. On 
his way home, he met some persons, and asked them if they 
had been at church. They said they had been at father 
Whyte s at Halifax. Who is father Whyte 1 " "A black 

brother, to whom Mr. , the curate, gave his books when 

he went away." " But do you think that the Sabbath will be 
as profitably spent at father Whyte s as at Lucky Hill church? 
Do you think that father Whyte is as able to instruct you as I 
am T " No, Massa." " Then why do you spend your Sab 
baths in the negro house, seeking instruction to guide you to 
happiness in time and in eternity, from one who is not qualified 
to instruct 1 I do not wish you to change your religion, if 
Church of England, or < Church of Light, as you call it, or if 
Baptist, or Methodist ; I do not wish you, unless you choose, 
to become Presbyterian. But I certainly desire that you 
should come to my church, except when your own ministers 
are with you." 

" I am sorry to have to lay the blame of this pernicious sys 
tem upon the minister rather than the people. During the 
time he was in this quarter, he busied himself in declaiming 
against me. When he left, he warned the people against join 
ing my church. And to secure his object, he chose out a per 
son on each property where his influence extended, and installed 
him as the spiritual guide of the people. If any of my people 
invite them to Lucky Hill church, they reply that they are 
forbidden to come. Such is the character of the zeal of some 
who ascribe divine efficacy to the touch of a bishop s fingers, 
who describe as hirelings those not thus touched, and who 
warn the people against us as fit only to give a little instruc 
tion which cannot convert. In their newspaper, the country is 
warned against those sectaries who come in shoals from the 



100 MEMOIR OP KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

shores of Britain, who are a curse to the country, and ignorant 
of all literature, sacred and secular. The country is urged to 
resist them, and drive them from the island. This paper is the 
organ of the Established section, and is conducted by one of 
their parsons, who was missioned from his own country to 
preach peace and good-will. But facts which disprove these 
empty assertions, are as widely known as the assertions them 
selves. Their style of action is to be regretted, because of the 
injury which it inflicts on the Kedeemer s cause : for it too 
often, and not unnaturally, happens that parsons righting is the 
planters mirth." 

Mr. Jameson was sometimes requested to administer the 
ordinance of baptism to the offspring of connexions unsanctioned 
by marriage. " Beastly concubinage" was, and still is, too 
much the order of the day in Jamaica, even among the upper 
classes. The following is a specimen. " Sir, through the 
grace of God, be kind enough to baptize this unfortunate ille 
gitimate child, and oblige one who was brought up a Presby 
terian." Shame on you, and on thousands like you ! A dis 
grace to their country are many Britons who go abroad to 
heathen lands or British colonies. While the capital and the 
commerce which pass through their hands, are a power in all 
places, yet their lives and lips too much testify against the 
blessed religion of God. 

Writing to Mr. M Gilchrist, on the 20th of November, 1838, 
Mr. Jameson says : " I have now to sing of another mercy. 
The Lord never wearies in doing good to the unthankful and to 
the evil. He crowns us with his tender mercies, and is ever 
putting a new song in our mouth. On the 14th day of this 
month, Mrs. Jameson was safely delivered of a fine healthy 
daughter, and both are doing well." 

He also alludes to the state of matters among the freed 
peasantry, defending them, and apologizing for them, in the 
peculiar circumstances in which they were placed. His re 
marks are just as well as generous. That so much should have 
been made of the unsteadiness of the newly free, merely showed 
that the supporters of slavery had neither conscience nor heart. 



NEGROES NOT UNSETTLED. 101 

The same may be said of many in America, in Britain, and in 
the West Indies, at this day. 

"I see by the papers that gloomy hints are abroad concern 
ing the state of matters here, while the brighter accounts are 
kept out of view. The state of the question, as I understand 
it, is this : Since the 1st of August matters have not proceeded 
so smoothly as could have been desired ; but far more so than, 
from the nature of the case, could have been expected. Those 
who expected that the freed population would take their hoes 
and resume their toil, on the day of the week, or even in the 
month, when their chains were broken, expected what would be 
accounted extravagance in people at home, placed in like cir 
cumstances. How long is it after a coronation, a market, a 
Christmas, ere the tradesman settles down to his duties, or the 
school-boy to his lessons 1 And why should the negro be ex 
pected to return to his drudgery, the moment he is a freeman 1 
Do we blame the school-boy because he does not return on the 
first day after his vacation % or do we wonder at his buoyancy of 
spirit, when he rises on the first morning of his vacation, and 
finds himself free from his books, and at liberty to wander where 
he chooses 1 Why should we blame the negro ? Why wonder 
at his buoyancy of spirit, when he rises on the first bright morn 
ing of freedom, and finds the whip laid aside for ever, the voice 
of the shell silent, and the chain which bound him broken ] Is 
it not natural that he should hasten to see his friends, who were 
sold in the days of slavery, and torn from him, to toil in some 
distant part of the island ? Let the negro alone. He will soon 
return to his old quarters, glad of rest, as the school-boy gladly 
seats himself on his old bench, after the vacation ends. The 
first excitements of freedom have passed, and the people are 
returning. They fondly cling to the estates on which they were 
born, and to the soil on which they spent their early days. The 
fact that they have exhausted their strength on this property, 
endears the spot. An old negro said to me, the other day : 
Massa, I have bought a little property, and I might go and 
live there, but my cocoa-nut tree is on Goshen, and I was born 
there. In my garden, my wife, my sons, and my daughters lie 



102 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

buried ; the sweat of my face has dropped on its earth ; I am 
getting old, and I cannot leave the spot where my strength is, 
and where all my joys and my sorrows have been. The ieel- 
ing of this old negro is the feeling of all. There is nothing on 
earth more distressing to the negro than to be driven from his 
birthplace, his friends, and his provision grounds." 

At length, the missionary has the happy privilege of seeing 
some to whom he can give the right hand of fellowship. He 
has not been in haste to administer the ordinance of the Lord s 
Supper. But now he looks forward to it. In a letter to Mr. 
Bryden, December 4th, 1838, he says : "I have not yet fixed 
the day when our first communion will be dispensed. Every 
day, I see greater need for caution ; for the Lord is showing me 
that those in whom I placed most confidence, are the very per 
sons in whom I ought to have placed the least ; and thus I 
feel perplexed about the matter. The Lord will guide. Pray 
for us. Last Sabbath, I rebuked and suspended a number for 
dancing, who were coming forward to the Lord s Supper ; and 
some of them are among the most intelligent of my people. 
Early on Monday morning, a man came to the house telling me 
that some of the people had had a fight, arising from a dispute, 
after service on Sabbath. These had also been conversing with 
me, and seemed quiet, decent people. But the Lord is sifting 
us, and setting up marks to keep me right." 

" December. Mr. Moir s Sabbath-school advances prosper 
ously. The new shed is full, yea, overflowing. Two hundred 
young people, whose regular instruction on the Sabbath I could 
not overtake before, are now classed, are learning, and following 
those who are more advanced. Were you to transport your 
selves to Lucky Hill church, on Sabbath morning, at ten o clock, 
and see 200 children busy with their reading lessons ; at eleven 
o clock, and see them engaged with their questions and their 
different religious exercises ; and at twelve, and see them march 
in silence, and in order, from their school-shed to the church, 
your souls would magnify the Lord for all that he has enabled 
you to do for us here." 

At this period, Mr. Jameson and Mr. Moir went, one day in 



SCHOOLS PROSPERING. 103 

the week, to two estates in Bagnolcls, to teach the children. 
There was also a daily school at Mile-End taught by a native 
of Jamaica. And so busy were all, that, at the end of 1838, 
there were about 370 children enjoying some amount of educa 
tional privilege. Those only who, by experience, know the 
fatigue of a long ride, and an hour or two of vigorous effort to 
instruct young people, and far more, old people who have grown 
up without early tuition, and all this under the enervating sky 
of the tropics, can fully appreciate the energy and zeal which 
such labours implied. The churches of all denominations have 
great cause to bless God for the valuable reapers some of them 
still alive whom they were honoured to send out to the white 
harvest of these earlier days of the mission. They were blessed 
with much success ; and, if one asks where the proof is, we 
answer, The numerous churches at various stages of intellectual 
and spiritual culture, which are to be found in Jamaica and other 
West Indian Islands. May these first fruits be followed by a 
yet more plenteous ingathering ! May the hopes excited by 
these earlier triumphs be realized an hundred-fold ! 

At Christmas, the school was examined. The white people 
present were surprised at the progress which had been made in 
so short a time. The black part of the audience seemed much 
delighted with the picaninies. 

" During Christmas there is no work. People are hurrying 
to town to see and hear. Pigs are screaming in every quarter, 
under the knife of death ; and every one is determined to enjoy 
the ( free, at Christmas-time. All is sobriety and order. I 
have seen no drunkenness." 

" Certain musicians came to Bagnold s Yale, expecting the 
welcome reception of former times. At one property, they 
tuned their instruments, and began. Some gathered round to 
hear, but Mr. Moir made his appearance and they dispersed. 
In the evening, the performers renewed their attempt on the 
steps of the Busha s house. A Lucky Hill Presbyterian, im 
bued somewhat with the spirit of other days, came forward with 
a club, and knocked the end out of the drum, and silenced the 
fiddle with a blow. John, however, did not escape without a 



1 04 MEMOIE OP REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

scar. The musicians beat him lustily. But he was comforted 
by knowing that he had suffered in a good cause." 

At the end of nearly two years of labour, the following sta 
tistics were given : Average attendance, 600 ; catechumens, 
204 ; marriages, 42 ; adults reading in the Old Testament, 
10; adults reading in the New, 50; children in Sabbath 
classes, 240. 



MEETING OF PEESBYTF.KY. 105 



CHAPTER V. 

The Jamaica Academy Anglo-Ethiopia, a lever to raise Africa Goshen congre 
gation formed Wonderful deliverance No partisan The negroes on strike 
Teaching the difference between mine and thine Massa and the people at logger 
headsChurch formed Sets about building Munificence of proprietors Mr. 
Barkly Light of the dwelling extinguished Particulars of Mrs. Jameson s death 
Verses by Mrs. Jameson Mr. Barkly lays the foundation-stone of the new church 
Bonham Spring Touching retrospect. 

NEW Year s-day, 1839, was spent in the church. Mr. Moir 
addressed the children ; and Mr. Jameson the married people, 
on the duties of husband and wife. A church and school 
building society was formed, and 194 persons became contri 
butors. 

The Jamaica Missionary Presbytery met at Port Maria, in 
January. It was a refreshing season to the brethren. At one 
of their sittings, they had the happiness of welcoming the Rev. 
Mr. Scott, a new missionary, who had just arrived. In a letter 
to Mr. M Gilchrist, January 30th, 1839, we rind an allusion to 
the academy for training natives of Jamaica for missionary ser 
vice. The results of this institution have been very valuable. 
It has furnished most of our mission schools with efficient teachers, 
and some of these again have been trained for the higher office 
of the ministry of the gospel, by the Theological Tutor (Rev. 
Alexander Renton), with whom the liberality of the Church 
has also gifted her daughter in the West Indies. This academy, 
which, from its very commencement till now, has been con 
ducted by Mr. Millar, with remarkable vigour and success, was 
begun at Bonham Spring, an out-station of Goshen, and, after 
a time, transferred to Montego Bay. 

" The hearts of the Presbytery are set on an academy for 



106 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

training young men for the ministry, with a view to Africa and 
the islands around us. I hope that Christians at home will aid 
us in the work. The desire and the determination of the Pres 
bytery are to dispense, as little as possible, with any part of 
that course of preparation which is considered indispensable at 
home. We think that this course ought to be extended rather 
than shortened, and that what is necessary to enlarge, as well 
as simplify, the views of a home minister, is more necessary for 
a minister here. To say that a man of learning is requisite for 
the ministry at home, but that any kind of man will do for the 
poor ignorant negroes, is to say what is not true. A home 
preacher may throw out to an audience the crude views of an 
illiterate mind, without damage to any one but himself ; but to 
settle such a one here would be to risk immortal souls." 

The academy was commenced with a view to both Jamaica 
and Africa. The brethren sought to attempt great things for 
God and for Ethiopia. They looked upon Ethiopia in the West 
as a means of reaching the heart of the great mother-land of the 
black-face. They wanted to regard Jamaica as a depot in which 
to find storming parties to assail the devil s strongholds in Africa. 
They thought of the churches of Christ throughout the world 
sending to them for men, and, at their call, men of Ethiopian 
race, well qualified and trustworthy, going forth to the work. 
The forlorn hope has, to a great extent, been formed of Euro 
peans, who are seeking a lodgment and a base of operation on 
the shore of Africa. And who knows whether the anticipations 
under which the brethren sought to establish their academy, 
may not yet be realized ? Two of their objects have been 
accomplished : for the mission schools in Jamaica are taught, 
and well taught, by natives. Several natives trained in the 
island, have also been introduced into the ministry of the 
gospel. And who knows, but that at no distant day, labourers 
of the right kind may be chosen by the Lord from the Jamaica 
churches, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ among the 
tribes of their father-land ! Surely ten millions of Africa s 
children are not in the West for nothing, or only to make sugar 
and rum, and to grow cotton. He who prepared Israel in the 



THE JAMAICA ACADEMY. 107 

iron furnace, is doubtless preparing, in the West Indies and 
America, a powerful agency to act upon deeply degraded Africa. 
We, in our short-sightedness, are so impatient to see the fruit 
of our labours, that we lose patience with the unobserved, and 
frequently unobservable, majestic march of the plan of God. 
An impatient child, dissatisfied with the slow growth of his 
little garden plot, just as his young flowers are sprouting, pulls 
them up to see how they are growing, or leaves the whole to 
the weeds, and makes a "garden in another spot. The foolish 
child loses much of his labour by such impatience. Even the 
growth of a flower or vegetable proceeds heedless of man s im 
petuosity. How much more the growth of the kingdom of 
God ! Why do churches act over again the silly child, in the 
management of their mission gardens 1 Verily, were it not for 
the Great Husbandman above, the unreasoning haste with 
which, in some cases, infant churches are left to shift for them 
selves, would be the means of spoiling all. Such a mode of 
acting, to use Mr. Jameson s words, " is to take the ark from 
Moses, and leave the deliverer of Israel to perish in the help 
lessness of infancy ; it is to deny Samson a mother s care, 
without which his gigantic strength cannot be nursed." Take 
care of the child : train him for his future work : teach him to 
look forward to it : and, when God s auspicious hour arrives, 
He will command his strength, and an inspiration from on high 
will move him to the enterprise of his mission. He will go 
forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and " Ethiopia 
shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." At the same time, 
we must pray to the Lord to raise up labourers in our little 
churches in Ethiopia herself. Could we get properly fitted men 
there, they would, in many respects, be the best of pioneers. 
But we must levy contributions from all quarters. The British 
missionary, with his broader training and his self-reliance, with 
his experience and his knowledge, must lead the van. The 
West Indies and America must give the cream of their Ethiopian 
talent, and piety, and self-devotion ; and our infant churches in 
Africa must also contribute their share, however humble, and 
however scanty, to the great enterprise. There is room for all : 



108 MEMOIR OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

there is need for all. Standing on the edge of this dense 
jungle, this interminable and entangled continent of bush, we, 
the vanguard of the Lord s army of Ethiopia, wonder whether 
it shall ever become a field which the Lord hath blessed. 
When this desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, when 
Ethiopia shall be seen sitting in the heavenly places of the 
church of Jesus, dispossessed, redeemed, washed, raising her 
dusky brow and swimming eyes to the Lord who has pitied her, 
and, with outstretched hands laying her tribute at his feet, 
surely there will be heard in heaven hallelujahs as loud and 
rapturous as when it shall be said, " Lo ! these from the land 
of Sinim !" 

Thus did Mr. Jameson first mention the mission to Africa, 
which has since become a fact : " The people s hearts are 
turning towards Africa. They are earnestly pressing us to send 
a missionary thither. We all agree ; and, ere long, I hope our 
church here will apply for a missionary from home, or appoint 
one of our brethren, to go for us to the land of Ethiopia. Our 
ambition is to send the first well-educated native missionary to 
that field of labour. 

Two-and-twenty years have passed, and this aspiration re 
mains still unrealized. Yet it is gratifying that two educated 
and ordained natives of Jamaica have gone to Western Africa, 
in connexion with the Baptist mission. One of these, the Rev. 
Joseph Merrick, died at Bimbia, much and justly regretted ; 
the other is the Rev. Mr. Pinnock, who went out in 1857. 

At that meeting of Presbytery, it was agreed that the adhe 
rents of Goshen station should be formed into a congregation ; 
and Messrs. Blyth and Anderson being appointed to aid in that 
transaction, went with Mr. Jameson from the Presbytery, on 
their way home. On the fourth Sabbath of January, 1839, 
the relation of minister and people was solemnly declared by 
Mr. Blyth, in the manner usual among Presbyterians. The 
ordinance of baptism was administered among us, for the first 
time. My own child was the first offered to the Lord in our 
church. This was its first outset from the house in which it 
was born, its first journey in this vale of tears, long enough for 



FIEST BAPTISM. 109 

one so tender, and not without its dangers. When starting 
from the house, on the way to the church, the wheel of the 
gig, with which we had been favoured for the occasion, came 
into contact with the gate-post. The shafts were broken in 
two, and, in a moment, the vehicle was precipitated to the 
ground. Angels, the guardian spirits of the heirs of salvation, 
were in attendance. The mother and the tender babe escaped 
unhurt, and we brought the child, rescued from destruction, 
and gave her to the Lord, soul and body, for time and for 
eternity. It was a new situation for Mrs. Jameson and myself, 
but it was not the less interesting that it was our own child, in 
the midst of our own people the people we were gathering to 
the Lord and the public recognition of our own God, and our 
father s God, in a foreign land. It was a hallowed day ; many 
an arousing word, and many a comforting word were spoken ; 
it was the first sermon I had listened to in my own church, and 
the first Sabbath I enjoyed the satisfaction of being a hearer, 
since I came to Jamaica." 

With all his zeal and energy, Mr. Jameson was distinguished 
for prudence and thoughtfulness. He was not easily carried 
away by appearances, but was alive to the real state of matters, 
and to what was for the true and permanent interests of the 
people. He lamented waywardness and want of principle among 
them, not less, perhaps more, than injustice and harshness 
among the planters ; and he impartially sought, on all proper 
occasions, to teach both parties the way of rectitude. On the 
30th of January, he wrote to Mr. M Gilchrist : "I have tried 
to show you the working of freedom as it is ; its bright and its 
dark sides, that you may judge of matters for yourself, and that 
you may see the line of policy I have been led to pursue. I 
hope it will meet with your approbation. I wish to stand 
wholly out from parties, and to adhere to righteousness, and to 
lead my people in peace along its paths. I have been success 
ful in this, in some good measure, although many times it has 
been a hard task. The more popular way would have been to 
identify myself wholly with the people, to support them in 
measures reasonable and unreasonable, just and unjust, through 



110 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

good and through bad report ; but I desire a conscience void of 
offence towards God and towards men." 

In his journal he writes : " This is the third week of cessa 
tion from labour, and the people appear disinclined to resume 
their work. Upon inquiry, I find that they are waiting for a 
new law from the Queen, to the effect that they shall not work, 
in summer, for the same wages as in winter. This strike is too 
general. I have gone round the district, and showed to as 
many as I could meet, the impolicy and impropriety of this. 
I told them that they had not needed to stop working, in order 
that the free should come. Their working had rather helped 
it on. If any other law, then, were coming, it would come not 
the less surely and speedily that they kept busy at their work. 
Besides, if they knew the difficulty which their friends had ex 
perienced in getting the rate of wages raised to what it was, 
they would not be anxious to disturb the question, so soon after 
its settlement." 

" This week (the fourth), the people have, at last, taken our 
advice, and turned out to their work. The country again 
assumes the appearance of life and activity. The fields are 
again awake, and the face of society puts on a more promising 
aspect." 

" Visiting a sick person, I saw a quantity of sugar-cane in 
a corner. The daughter, a little girl, saw me fixing my eye on 
the cane, and shrunk back, squeezing her hand over her mouth, 
knowing that her mother was caught in a fault. 

" Well, Mrs. , did this cane grow in your garden ? 

" No, minister. 

" How did you get it ? Did you cut it 1 

" Oh, no, my minister, me just beg the wain-man as he was 
passing. 

" Who was the wain-man ? 

" Jock Whitter. 

" Well, I met Jock a few weeks ago, riding on a mule, and 
I asked him, "Jock, where have you been?" "I was at 
massa s," said Jock, "for money to pay the people, and I am 
riding home as fast as I can, lest somebody rob me in the dark." 



MINE AND THINE. Ill 

"Very good, Jock," said I, "take as good care of the money 

as if it were your own." Now, Mrs. , if I had said to 

Jock, " Brother, give me a little of this money a dollar or so," 
would I have done right ? 

" He! he! he! no, minister, no ! that never do. 

" If Jock had taken out a dollar and given me, would he 
have done right ? 

" c No, minister, that very bad. 

" l Well then, what difference would there have been, in God s 
sight, between my asking, and Jock s giving me, his master s 
money, and your asking, and Jock s giving you, his master s 
cane ? And ought not I to have returned the money 1 And 
ought not you to return the cane 1 

" As I was standing with some persons, expostulating with 

them about the same thing, Mrs. s daughter passed with 

the canes to restore them to the owner. 

" The country, at the present moment, is the scene of inter 
minable confusion. Nobody knows what is law, or not law. 
The local magistrates support the interests of the planters ; the 
stipendiary magistrates are on the side of the people. The 
contest assumes the appearance of a game at draughts, a struggle 
for mastery rather than righteousness. The Attorney-General 
says one thing ; some lawyers in town say another, and the 
opposite ; and authorities in England, the Attorney and Soli 
citor-General, disagree with the highest law authority in the 
island. Thus we are driven to silence, from a respect to our 
character and office. It is high time that Britain demanded 
from some quarter a code of righteous laws for her emancipated 
colonies. The people are willing to work, and do work, but 
they and their masters are ever disputing, and there is no law 
to appeal to. What would be the state of society at home, if 
the question of rent and occupation were unsettled, and families 
were liable to be turned adrift on the world, at a week s notice, 
the doors locked, and the provision-grounds destroyed, if wife 
and children were to be charged rent equally with the husband 
and the father, if the child at school were charged rent, and 
were liable to be hindered from prosecuting his education, yea, 



112 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

to be driven from under the parental roof ? Whilst this 
has been done in some quarters, I must say that it has not 
been general, in so far as I know ; but the fact that it can 
be done shows in what confusion we are at present. Masters, 
too, are fully as much oppressed as the people. Their ripe 
canes are often not cut ; their young canes are not cleaned ; 
the cattle have been allowed to range at large in the luxuriant 
fields ; future crops have not been planted ; many work when 
they like, and sit down when they like. If ever Jamaica re 
quired the prayers of the Church, and the watchful eye of the 
Church, and of British philanthropy, and if ever prudence and 
discretion were needed to guide, it is at this moment." 
; The gospel had now been preached for two years at Goshen, 
and among the surrounding properties, by this zealous labourer ; 
and the word of God had not returned unto him void. The 
Lord had given the increase. Sinners had been brought to the 
Saviour. They had been carefully instructed, in order that 
their piety might rest on the foundation of a correct knowledge 
of the truth. Mr. Jameson had not hastily admitted any to 
the fellowship of the church, nor did he receive indiscriminately 
all who sought admission. After anxious and prayerful inquiry, 
thirty-two were selected from among the candidates. On Satur 
day, the 9th of March, 1839, these were received into the 
fellowship of the visible church of Jesus Christ ; and Mr. Moir 
was ordained as an elder. Members of the church at Carron 
Hall were present, on the Sabbath ; and upwards of 100 sat 
together at the table of the Lord. " It was," writes Mr. 
Jameson, " an interesting and solemn season a season which 
will be remembered through eternity. * Massa, said one, < we 
never thought to see such a day. We thought our children s 
children might see it, but not we. Another said, We could 
sit there for ever. Some who were detained by sickness, were 
grieved at being absent ; but they said that it pleased God, and 
they were pleased." 

The following (March 19th, 1839), gives an interesting 
account of the work at that period : 

" The school is succeeding far beyond my most sanguine 



FIRST COMMUNION. 113 

expectations. There are 246 on the list, and 200 attend 
daily. Our room at the Pen became far too small. Mr. 
Moir kept school under the shelter of a lofty tree, but this 
being inconvenient, we removed to the church, and since then 
the school has increased by dozens at a time. The people 
say they cannot get a picaniny (little child) to go a message 
for them ; they are all at school together. Some come a 
distance of seven miles, and return in the afternoon. Those 
who live farther away, bring their food with them, and sleep 
at the Pen, while some who cannot be accommodated, live 
with friends in the neighbourhood. Mr. Moir is everything 
we could wish. 

" To hear their children read, sing hymns, repeat the 
catechisms, and say their prayers, is far beyond what the 
parents expected. When the father comes home from work, 
and the child from school, the latter must take his book and 
read, while the former listens as to an oracle. In various 
cases known to us, the child gathers the family together be 
fore going to bed, and is their mouth at the footstool of God. 
It is common in the congregation for the children to read and 
sing, and the father to pray." 

It now became necessary to set about the building of a house 
of prayer, in good earnest. The saying of the Duke of Welling 
ton, " If you want a thing well done, you must do it yourself," 
has special force in Jamaica, and, indeed, in all mission spheres. 
The building of such a house was not easy in the interior parts 
of Jamaica. The house proposed was calculated to cost 1200, 
but it was not finished for less than 2000. To find the 
money, to collect the materials, to hire the workmen, and then 
to superintend the work, were enough to fill one man s hands. 
But when he had also to oversee, and take part in, all the 
duties of Christian instruction, over a district two or three 
times as large as an ordinary Scotch parish, and to act as pastor 
of an infant church, we cannot but admire the energy of will, 
the perseverance in action, and the simplicity of faith which it 
was given him to exhibit. 

The committee of the Rose Street Society, anxious to further 

H 



114 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

the work, promised such assistance as was within their power, 
and also opened a correspondence with the proprietors of the 
Trinity estates, laying before them extracts from Mr. Jameson s 
letters, to inform them of what he was doing at Goshen and its 
neighbourhood. These gentlemen, while, being Episcopalians, 
they would have preferred a church in their own connexion, 
yet, in the most generous manner, agreed to aid Mr. Jameson s 
efforts. As Mr. Barkly now Sir Henry Barkly, formerly 
Governor of Jamaica, now of Victoria was then visiting the 
West Indies, they expressed their satisfaction that they would 
thus obtain correct information on the subject, and become 
acquainted with Mr. Jameson and his labours. 

At length, Mr. Barkly arrived. He resided some time at 
Goshen, and gained golden opinions among the people, by his 
affability, and by the kindly interest which he took in their 
welfare, of which the survivors of those days still speak with 
obvious delight. Mr. Barkly conceived a high respect for Mr. 
Jameson s character, and a high opinion of his labours among 
the people ; and so favourable was his report, that, on his 
advice, twelve acres of Lucky Hill land were given in fee simple 
for the church and school, 300 sterling as a donation, and 
all the building material, as wood, stone, and lime, which the 
estates could furnish. 

The Church and School Building Society, which had been 
formed, on the 1st of January, 1839, with 194 contributors, 
had swelled, before the end of that month, to 334, who gave 
from 3d. to Is. monthly. Mr. Jeffrey of Salisbury contributed 
60 sterling, and, under his superintendence, the people turned 
out and built a large lime-kiln. The foundation was dug, and 
preparations were made for the laying of the foundation-stone. 

In the meantime, Mr. Jameson had to pass through one of 
those valleys of the shadow of death which lie in the path to 
heaven. He suffered one of the severest afflictions that can 
befall a missionary in a foreign land. His excellent and devoted 
wife was removed from his side, after three short years of happy 
union. She had, on the whole, been healthy ; and she had 
been most active in the work of the mission, seconding her 



ARRIVAL OF MR. BARELY. 115 

husband s efforts, solacing his heart, cheering his home, and 
lightening all his labours. On the 21st of June, she was 
seized with fever, and on the 12th of July, she expired. We 
can sympathize with the afflicted husband in his fears and 
anxieties, during those three weeks of doubt and conflict ; and 
in his anguish, as his beloved partner is taken away from him, 
and he feels that now his strongest earthly tie is broken, and 
that henceforth his Master calls him to more devoted labour, 
and more earnest self-sacrifice. 

Mrs. Jameson s father was the eldest son of the Rev. John 
Mackersy of Kinkell. He held the farm of Cultmalundie, 
near Methven, and was an elder and manager of the Secession 
Church at Methven, under the ministry of his uncle, the Rev. 
John Wilson, and of his cousin, the Rev. John Jameson. 1 

Mrs. Jameson s mother, Catherine Dempster, was a daughter 
of the Rev. Simon Dempster, Secession minister of Leslie, in 
Fifeshire. Mrs. Dempster s mother was a very godly woman. 
On one occasion, she said to her daughter : " I have got from 
the Lord the promise of you, and your seed, and your seed s 
seed." She thus expressed her inward conviction, which she 
regarded as a Divine monition, that God would answer her 
prayers for her posterity. 

Mr. Mackersy of Cultmalundie died, leaving his children very 
young. He was a kind-hearted, good man. Mr. Jameson of 
Methven, writing to his widow, Mrs. Mackersy (August 29th, 
1823), says : " I was just thinking, as I walked into Perth, 
this afternoon, that as, on this day seventeen years, your hus 
band and I rode in to bring out my bride, his conversation was 
more than usually elevated, and serious, and interesting some 
thing akin to that going to Emmaus. I felt it wonderfully 
then ; what would I have given for it now !" Mr. Jameson 
was appointed trustee of the fatherless children, and as they 
lived at Methven, some time after their father s death, they were 
cared for by him, and instructed along with his own children. 
Living over again the scenes of his wife s death, on the anni- 

1 The Rev. John Mackersy, minister of the Secession Church at Kinkell, married 
Isabella Wilson, one of the daughters of Rev. William Wilson of Perth. 



116 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

versary of that event " a season charged with an, accumulation 
of anxiety and anguish " he writes to Mrs. Mackersy, " I 
beheld your children sitting at table with niy own : it was, for 
a moment, like the shooting of a gleam of sunshine athwart a 
sky of clouds and gloominess. The thought that my friend 
and theirs was no more, to bid them welcome, came pressing on 
like the thick and murky cloud returning after the rain." 

Mr. Jameson s only brother, John, became a solicitor in 
Airdrie, where he was much respected, and obtained the title 
of the "honest lawyer." A valuable gold watch was presented 
to him by the " liberal electors of Airdrie, in acknowledgment of 
his able services as their agent," at an election in 1842. He 
died in 1847, on the very day on which Mr. Jameson was 
taken with his death-illness in Old Calabar. 

Mrs. Jameson was possessed of excellent abilities, and of varied 
accomplishments. She was thoroughly educated, very intelli 
gent and humorous, and wielded a ready and graphic pen. She 
has left several oil paintings, one of them being a portrait of 
her grandfather, Mr. Mackersy of Kinkell, which show both 
taste and talent. Her portrait, painted by Sir John Watson 
Gordon, of Edinburgh, is now before me. It is one of those por 
traits which are obvious likenesses, and not mere pictures. There 
is nothing about it to attract attention, but the face, and it is 
such a face as one never tires looking at, and returns to gaze 
upon with ever new delight and love. It betokens the sweet 
ness of disposition, the modesty, purity, and decision of cha 
racter, and the wondrous self-possession for which the original 
was distinguished. Her diffidence made her indisposed to 
speak much about her religious experience ; but her piety was 
at once genuine and devoted. It was characterized by self- 
distrust ; and, no doubt, this arose from the integrity of a highly 
conscientious character. On one occasion, when some friends 
were engaged in earnest conversation about the attainableness 
of an assurance of personal safety, she expressed considerable 
dubiety ; and this is referred to in the following notices of her 
death-bed experience, when she said to her husband : " Now I 
know that all my sins are forgiven." Then, through the grace 



MRS. JAMESON. 117 

that is in Christ Jesus, the Holy Ghost gave her such a view 
of the Saviour as hers, and so enabled her to embrace him, 
that she felt his everlasting arms around her, felt that she was 
in his hands, and that, therefore, she could not perish, but 
should have everlasting life. She was indeed a woman of whom 
her husband could always justly be proud, and in whom his 
heart safely trusted. 

The following are instances of her presence of mind and cour 
age. When she and her brother were little children, one day as 
they were playing together, his dress caught fire. No one was 
at hand to give assistance. Without any screaming or noise, 
she snatched off her own upper dress, and wrapped it round 
him. When she was travelling on the coach to Airdrie, on one 
occasion, the horses became unmanageable, and the driver told 
the passengers to mind themselves, if they could. Several 
gentlemen made their escape, by scrambling over the stern, and 
left Miss Mackersy to care for herself. She determined to 
keep her place, and the driver encouraged her to hold on. She 
did so, and clung with all her strength, till, at length, after a 
run of three miles, the horses slackened their speed. 

After she was under engagement to go to Jamaica, she wrote 
to her future partner : " If the Lord calls me, if He has need 
of me, I go cheerfully, and do count it greater honour than all 
the riches of this world. It has been my desire to renounce 
its vanities, and live separate from it. I have prayed God 
to deliver me from its temptations, when almost carried away 
by them. And if He is now granting my request, though 
giving me a pang with it, shall I grudge to leave all and fol 
low him 1 But I do not leave all, since you are with me, since 
you have given me your heart, the only one I ever could have 
cherished a thought of. Mine is yours ; and it is not the 
thought of a moment, but of many years of searching and try 
ing. The earnestness of your youthful affection clung to me 
all my life ; and if, at any time, I have been thought of by 
others, then it has been most warmly remembered. This has 
often seemed strange to myself; but, of late years, I have 
thought that surely God was leading me. If so, William, can 



118 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

I not go with you to any land, to any people ? Surely I can 
give you Ruth s answer. Although called to leave beloved 
friends, we have God with us ; and shall He not unite us again 
where there is no separation, when this life, which is but a 
shadow, has passed away 1" 

Again : " I should like much to be at your ordination, an 
event so deeply interesting. I should like to get into some 
corner where I could see you, and hear all. We may talk of ijt 
when solitary strangers in a far distant land, if you are spared. 
But, oh, my dearest William, I weep at the very thought of 
seeing you set apart, devoted, perhaps to death. This thought 
overwhelms me. It is the thorn in my flesh. It clouds every 
joy. I heard of a young man whose whole life and heart were 
devoted to missionary work, and who died some days after he 
landed. The ways of God are most mysterious. This fills me 
with fear, but I will try to trust in Him who has said, l Cast 
thy burden on me. Mr. Deans 1 sermon was remarkable : for 
it was just at the time when I was in deepest perplexity. I 
came out of the church, that day, quite convinced that the 
words were spoken to me, and determined to leave my own 
heart and my foolish thoughts with God for direction." 

Mrs. Jameson s labours among the people were much blessed, 
and we cannot help mourning that she was removed so soon. 
Writing about her, February 1st, 1838, Mr. Jameson says : 
" Her labours among both young and old are unremitting, and 
eminently successful. She has gained the esteem and affection 
of all. No one will leave the house without seeing Missis, 
and bidding her l day day. When they come, they always 
bring something to her ; and on the Sabbaths, when I am not 
at home, they flock to our house to get food, as they say, to 
their souls from Missis. At home, on Portobello sands, she 
was like the poet s gem in the cave of ocean, or like his flower, 
wasting its sweetness in the desert air. Here, she is laying out 

1 Eev. Geo. Deans of Portobello. On that occasion, Mr. Deans read the 24th 
chapter of Genesis ; and his remarks on the willingness of Rebekah to leave her 
home and kindred to share the lot of the man of God (verse 58), were what more 
particularly seemed to Miss Mackersy to be the voice, saying, This is the way, walk 
thou in it. 



JAMAICA HOUSEKEEPING. 119 

her time and talents in the noblest of enterprises teaching 
Ethiopia to stretch out her hands unto Gfod. And although 
she has left the ease and comfort of home, yet it is to beautify 
her own crown, by bringing a few more gems to beautify the 
crown of our Redeemer. . . . She is up in the morning, feeding 
her fowls, gathering their eggs, and superintending the children 
while they clean the house. During the day, she is in the 
midst of her pupils, teaching them to read, write, and sew." 

The following extracts from her pen will convey some idea 
of the numerous and wearisome trials which our missionary sis 
ters and partners have to endure in their self-denying service, 
especially in new fields of labour, before their heroic and perse 
vering efforts have created helps for themselves : 

On March 12th, she wrote: "Friends would not be 
offended at my never writing, if they knew how my time is 
taken up. All last summer we had the school. In the morn 
ing, we rode to the White River, and without this cooling bathe, 
I do not think I could have endured the heat. After school hours, 
I had always more to do than I could manage. ... I assure 
you, there are no slumberers here. Before daylight, the bell is 
rung for all to rise. At half-past seven, the bell rings for wor 
ship. Then comes breakfast. Oh, what a multitude of trifling 
troubles we have in Jamaica ! Mr. Moir swallows his break 
fast, and rides off, followed by all his train, and I am left to 
clear away as I can. The school is so popular, that none but 
the lame and the sick will stay to help me. I have often 
thought of you, when I had no servant at all, and wished that 
you could look across the Atlantic, and see me sitting at my 
threshold, watching the cooking operations outside a fire 
erected near the door, the soup-pot on high, perhaps the beef 
in another under, a little black girl keeping up the fire, and 
anon running to the kitchen to turn the yam me sitting in the 
shade, but the fire heat bursting in at the door, and the sun s 

rays coming through the very walls. I often wished Mrs. , 

who said that missionaries should not keep servants, had but 
one week of it. ... The girls are very stupid about household 
matters, from being brought up like cattle. For instance, I 



120 MEMOIK OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

told one the other day to lay down the carpet before the bed. 
She took a clean folded shirt of Mr. Jameson s, and began to 
lay it down." 

Writing to Miss Jameson, March 20th, 1838 : "Well done 
the Perth ladies ! Many thanks for their box. Truly you 
have done a good work to us. I made about 15 out of it, 
and this is the beginning of a fund for building church and 
school. I have been the seller, and have had my work, but I 
rejoiced in it. Some of our whites have tried to throw con 
tempt upon me, by saying I was now keeping a store. I don t 
mind that ; I shall sell all I can, so that it forward our work." 

Again, April 9th, 1838: "There is no doubt that the 
constitutions of the missionaries soon fail. As they have so 
much fatigue and exposure to the sun by day, and to the dews 
by night, they are liable to fevers, and then they are dosed 
with calomel till their stomachs become like a washed clout, as 
Mr. Cowan says of his. I think the ministers at home should 
exchange with their brethren here, and let them home to recruit. 
It would do good to both parties ; and, more especially, it 
would interest those at home in the poor perishing souls in this 
heathen land." 

In a letter to Mrs. Mackersy (July 15th, 1839), Mr. Jameson 
narrates some of the circumstances of his beloved partner s 
death, and none can fail to see that the God of all comfort sus 
tained his servant in his hour of woe. 

" My beloved mother, I hope the Lord has heard, and will 
now answer, the prayer of many in this land, who love you be 
cause they dearly loved Nicolis who taught them, but whom 
the Lord, in his adorable but mysterious providence, has seen 
it good to take away. I hope that He has in his own way been 
preparing your mind for the heavy intelligence, and oh, I hope 
that, when this letter is put into your hand, you will experience 
the supporting and consoling influences of God s Holy Spirit." 

Having mentioned a few particulars of the commencement 
and progress of the malady, during which she was attended by 
three doctors, and that she had been removed to Salisbury, 
five miles from their residence, to try the effect of a change of 



HER LAST ILLNESS. 121 

air, he says : " On Friday, the 1 2th, towards afternoon, she 
sunk, and at 7 P.M., she fell asleep in Jesus, without any 
symptom of pain or struggle. Not a finger or a joint moved, 
not a feature was distorted, but all the placidity of heaven 
rested on her countenance. At the moment of departure, a 
smile came upon her lips, and spread a melancholy sweetness 
over her pale countenance, yea, more than sweetness, a blithe- 
sonieness and an energy which I have not before seen. It 
seemed to indicate that our dearly beloved was in the happiest 
mood, that she had taken her flight, just as the glories of the 
eternal world burst upon her view, and that her last effort upon 
the earthly tabernacle which she was leaving behind, was the 
stamping upon the countenance this joyous smile, as a token 
to us that all our prayers were now answered, that our be 
loved had now passed the Jordan, that she was now on the 
shores of Immanuel s land, had got the first glimpse of its 
glories, and was refreshed after her cares and toils, with the 
first draught of its joys. It told me to weep for myself, but 
not for her ; that she was clothed upon with her house from 
heaven, while I was in a tabernacle, burdened and groaning. 

" The day following, at 4 P.M., her body was laid in the 
grave, at Salisbury, beside her friend Mrs. Jeffrey, amidst a 
great assembly of those to whom she had first imparted the 
knowledge of Christ. Deep was the interest excited by this 
solemn event, and many the tears shed over her grave. Among 
no people could she have been more generally useful j by none 
could the loss of dear Nicolis be more deeply felt or more sin 
cerely lamented. 

" During the whole period of her illness, Mr. Cowan was 
much with us, and contributed greatly to the comfort of my 
beloved wife. In the last week, Mr. Paterson arrived from 
Manchester, and came from Carron Hall to share in our 
affliction. Mr. Cowan and he were both with me on the sad 
day when the Lord called me to part with my sweetest earthly 
comfort ; they spoke and prayed with her ; they retired 
and prayed by themselves ; in this way the Lord made abund 
ant provision for her spiritual benefit. On Saturday, Mr. 



122 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Simpson came from Port Maria to the funeral ; and he and Mr. 
Paterson remained with me yesterday, which was the Sabbath. 
The Lord sent these His servants to pour the consolations of 
the gospel into my sad and desolate heart. 

" Now, my dear mother, I know that your heart will be 
very sad, that it will be overwhelmed, that the blow will be 
heavy, heavy. Oh, what can I say 1 I brought Nicolis to 
the field on which she has fallen. The Lord enabled me to 
deliver my sweetest mercy into his hand, to give her back to 
him who gave her to me. But I feel sad when I think of 
your sadness. My poor heart feels doubly desolate when I 
think of your desolation. My dear mother, let me press on 
your instant attention the last two verses of the 4th chapter 
of second Corinthians, and the first part of the 5th. Oh, let 
me beseech you to look not at the things which are seen, but 
at the things which are not seen. Think, oh, think more of 
the gain of our beloved Mcolis, than of our irreparable loss. 
Think of the good which she effected among the children of 
Ethiopia, and of the honourable position she holds among those 
who have helped to fulfil the prophecy : * Ethiopia shall soon 
stretch out her hands unto God. The day of her activity has 
been short. It has, however, been all the time which God al 
lotted to her ; every moment of it has been occupied. She 
trifled not ; many gems has she won to her crown, and to the 
crown of her Redeemer, by coming here ; many more, than if 
she had been the companion of your pilgrimage and the cheerer 
of your solitary hours. If sharp arrows pierce your soul, think 
that the next time you see our beloved friend, you will envy 
her exalted and honourable position, and you will say that she 
has been wise, and that with those who esteemed her foolish, 
has been and is the folly. 

" The death-bed experience of Mcolis has been in full cor 
respondence with her life, serene, and marked with the full 
assurance of faith and hope. Two weeks before her death, 
she said : William, I think I am going to leave you. My 
time is come. I desire to live only for your sake. I feel at 
leaving you alone in this sad country ; but the Lord will 



DEATH-BED EXPERIENCE. 123 

take care of you, and comfort you. I fear I have sinned in 
being too anxious about baby, and about laying up for her 
education and for a time of sickness. I should have taken 
your advice, and cast myself and all my cares upon the Lord. 
I spoke to her of Christ Jesus, and of the freeness, the ful 
ness, and the sovereignty of forgiving mercy. She appeared 
much delighted and satisfied. She lay quiet some time, and 
then said : Oh, I have had a sweet meditation with the 
Saviour. Now, I know that all my sins are forgiven. Now, 
I know that all my backslidings are healed, and that I am 
accepted in the beloved. And with emphasis she said : I 
desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better. 
Tell me your lecture on the 23d Psalm. This I did, so far as 
I could recollect it. Ay, she said, death is a gloomy vale, 
but Christ will lead me through. Now, I will tell you what I 
want you to do, my dear William. Send baby to Mrs. Cowan 
to take care of, and, if you find an opportunity, send her home 
to my mother. " 

" After some directions about gifts to be given to various 
parties, she added : Now, I have done with the world. 
Lord, give me a quick, and, if it be Thy will, an easy passage. 
After this, she got a respite of some days. She then said : 
1 William, the Lord has heard your prayers, and sent me relief. 
This she said, I thought, with an air of regret. Her eye 
seemed to have been resting on heaven. She was much in 
meditation, and much in prayer. Sometimes she prayed audibly, 
and her petitions were expressed in short sentences, and clothed 
in pointed and powerful language ; and the intercourse which 
she enjoyed with Christ on these occasions, seemed to have 
quickened her desires for immortality. 

" The night before she died, she slept none. She said to 
me : William, tell me some promises, some about pardon ; 
say to me the 23d Psalm. I am going to die, to pass through 
the gloomy vale. I think that the spirit of your father is not 
far away from me. The Lord will be with you, my dear Wil 
liam. Tell my mother that I die, not because I have come 
to Jamaica, but because I have come to the time appointed. 



124 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Towards the last, the fever fell into her brain, so that the sweet 
ness of our intercourse was now past. 

" During her illness, I myself watched her, night and day. 
I gave her all her medicines. I trembled for, and wept over 
her. Prayer was made, everywhere, in meetings, throughout 
the congregation. The poor child of Ethiopia feared and 
prayed, and now mourns and weeps, and bids me keep good 
heart, for that the Lord will help me. And, my dear mother, 
they are praying for you. Oh, may the Lord sustain and com 
fort you ! . . . This moment your letter has come in. Alas ! 
a flood threatens to overwhelm me." 

On the 1 6th of July, he wrote thus : " My beloved aunts, 
the Lord has stunned me with the blow of his hand. He has 
taken my Nicolis from my sight. I feel the sadness of desola 
tion and woe. My heart is overwhelmed. Lord, thy waves 
and thy billows go over me. I speak as an impatient one j 
ascribe this to the infirmity of a heart that feels its loneliness, 
not to the blessed God whose arms support me. The Lord has 
done it, and what shall I say ? I bless him with my whole 
heart. I needed chastisement, and I am chastised. I desire 
to learn the depths of Thy holy law, Lord." 

The following contains a touching account of the removal of 
Mrs. Jameson to Salisbury : 

" Mrs. Jameson was now in the deep waters of affliction. 
The raging fever had baffled the skill of the physician, and 
mocked his most potent prescriptions. Change of air was our 
last hope. Young men were staying at the Pen overnight, to 
be ready to start with their afflicted friend, at the first appear 
ance of returning day. There were a dozen of them together, 
and the first part of the night was spent in prayer. Their peti 
tions were few, but much to the point ; their manner was simple, 
earnest, and affecting ; it was a solemn night the last on 
which Mrs. Jameson was in her own house. The most of them 
were members of her Sabbath class. Massa Jesus, pity dear 
Missis ; give her comfort and heal her. Another Pity our 
dear minister ; and, Jesus ! take not away from him his dear 
wife. Another prayed, Jesus ! have pity upon poor baby, 
and take not away her dear mother. 



REMOVAL TO SALISBURY. 125 

" Daylight was approaching, and the dear patient had now to 
be removed, ah ! never to return. The couch we had pre 
pared was brought a mattress laid upon a net made of cords, 
suspended between two bamboos. I carried the dear one in 
my arms, and laid her there. The bearers silently moved along 
through the dispelling darkness. She felt revived, but the 
fever continued. We reached the church, and found a company 
who had been waiting there from early morning, to carry her to 
Salisbury. They had spent the precious moments, amidst the 
thick darkness, in earnest prayer on behalf of their dying friend. 
Salisbury was reached at last. Mrs. Jameson felt refreshed 
and revived ; but this was of short duration. Fever returned 
with redoubled fury ; she sunk ; her spirit fled. 

" This stroke, Lord ! is thine. All thy ways are faithful 
ness, and truth, and sure mercy. * Massa, said the people, 
keep good heart. It cannot be helped. We sorry for you. 
We never forget to pray for you. If you lose heart, what will 
become of us 1 If the Bible do not give you good consolation, 
what can we expect 1 You have often told us what blessed 
support the gospel gives to God s people in affliction. We now 
look for it in you. Massa, said an elderly woman, one of 
my people, and a good woman, I come to live with you, to 
serve you, and I can never leave you again. From that day 
she became my servant ; and I find in her one who is faithful, 
and most anxious to please." 

" One day at worship, we were singing the 30th Paraphrase. 
Jane, the servant now referred to, wept much, and, at the close, 
Miss Taylor came and said, Minister, there is something the 
matter with Jane. She seems very dull, and cries much. I 
went and asked her, What is the matter with you, Jane 1 
No answer. I asked her a second time. No answer. I said, 
Jane, are any of the children annoying you ? l No, Massa. 
* Anything pain you V Well, minister, I must just tell you. 
My heart is sore. I desire to know God ; but I am sorry I 
cannot know him. If I could know him, I would be happy. 
I hope she is a child of divine mercy. She has made consider 
able progress in knowledge, since she came into the family ; and 



126 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

often at worship she is weeping. I may truly say she has left 
all for my sake. She has a little property of her own, and a 
house which she built upon it. This she has committed to the 
care of a cousin, that she may be with me." 

Mr. Moir, who was a member of the happy little circle, thus 
refers to the death of Mrs. Jameson : 

" Her life was one of great activity. She seemed to be filled 
with the spirit of these words : ( Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with thy might, etc. One evening about a week 
after she became sick, she conversed long with her husband, 
told him that she was dying, and gave him her last wishes. 
Her calmness and composure of mind surprised and delighted 
him ; and that night has been often remembered. One Sab 
bath, Mr. Jameson remained at home with her, and I supplied 
his place in the church. After the public services, there was 
a meeting for prayer on our friend s behalf. Those who led in 
prayer, poured out their souls in the language of the most ex 
perienced Christians. Though thou shouldst bray thy servant s 
wife in a mortar, heal her, and save her soul. l Flog the 
patient, but save her soul. Bless thy hand-maid. Thou 
loan her to our minister. Heal her, Jesus, my best doctor ! 
and let not our minister hide face too much, and lose heart. 
Anoint her from the very crown of the head, to the very sole 
of the foot. < Spare her for the little baby s sake. On going 
home, I told her all that had passed. A holy calm came over 
her mind, a heavenly smile sat upon her countenance, and her 
words were, That is fine ; oh, that is sweet. 

" The deepest anxiety was shown by Mr. Jameson during the 
whole period of his wife s illness. He seldom left her. He 
often wandered between hope and fear. He often committed 
her to God : * She is the Lord s, let him do with her as He 
pleases. When she was about to leave him, he put her into 
the Lord s arms ; and when her spirit fled, he embraced the cold 
clay, pressed her chill lips with his, and heaved a deep sigh. 
Then turning to those around, he said, You know what to do 
with her. I know not. I leave her to you. He retired to a 
room by himself, and, in a little, he came out, called together 



ANGUISH OF THE BEREAVED. 127 

all who were about the house, and, in a most impressive man 
ner, addressed them one by one." 1 

i How touching is the following incident ! When Mr. Jameson had committed 
the remains of his beloved wife to the dust, and again reached his now empty home, 
he opened her private drawer, and saw lying before him the following stanzas, 
which, it is supposed, were written by Mrs. Jameson, in anticipation of her early 
death. There is a deep and tender pathos in the simple, though imperfect lines, 
in which she tries to comfort him, by leading his mind to the bright scenes into 
which the blow that saddened him had ushered her. It is not certain whether they 
are original or copied. 

" When I am dead, and silent lying, 
Should you, in your hour of awe, 
Gaze upon me, softly sighing, 
Back the solemn curtain draw ; 
But the frame of clay you ll see, 
Oh, beloved, will not be me ; 
I shall be with Christ, my treasure, 
* Drinking in eternal pleasure. 

" When I m in the coffin shrouded, 
Mantled in a winding-sheet, 
All the springs of life beclouded, 
In that peaceable retreat : 
Stay the tear, to weep forbear, 
I, my friend, shall not be there ; 
I shall be where Sharon s Rose, 
Chief in beauty, fragrant blows. 

" When you see my eye fast closed, 
And regret its quenched beam, 
Every fringy lash reposed 
Where oft flowed the copious stream ; 
Let no tear-drop fall from thine ; 
Dear one ! it will not be mine, 
Mine on Jesus will be dwelling, 
All the sons of light excelling. 

" When my feet, devoid of motion, 
Side by side inactive lie, 
Should you think, with fond emotion, 
Never more with me they ll stray. 
They will not be mine, beloved : 
Mine, by love s impatience moved, 
Will o er heaven s bright pavement glide, 
Till they reach Immanuel s side. 

" Should your mournful eye-beam linger, 
Should your palm the surface press 
Of my icy, marble finger, 
Shrinking from its nothingness. 



128 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

The following was written to Mrs. Mackersy (July 22d, 
1839), a week after Mrs. Jameson s death, while the mourner s 
wound was still bleeding, although, the balm of heaven s con 
solation was soothing its anguish, and the fruits of righteous 
ness were being rapidly matured in his smitten soul. This 
severe affliction was indeed the means of at once fitting the 
Lord s servant for a higher kind of service below, and of carry 
ing him on a long stage in his preparation for his own too early 
removal. Never did the remembrance of his partner lose in 
vividness ; and Nicolis in heaven was always an attraction 
towards that everlasting home of believers : 

"My BELOVED MOTHER, My last letter reached you, I 
hope, by last packet. I hasten to follow it up, by telling you 
much that is consoling to my sorrow-stricken heart, in hope 
that it will be no less soothing to yours. I watched my beloved 
Nicolis, from the first moment of her sickness, till she left me 
behind in this vale of tears. And, oh, my dear mother, if my 
mind is entirely satisfied about anything, it is that all is well 
with her, that she now is where she often expressed an earnest 
longing to be, and from which she desires not to return. 

Dearest friend, twill not be mine, 
Motionless in palm of thine, 
Mine will then be sweetly playing, 
O er a harp angelic straying. 

" When you mark my head reposing, 
Heedless, thoughtless, tearless still, 
Death s dark victory disclosing 
O er the memory, heart and will ; 
As you trace care s furrowed line, 
Cross the brow, twill not be mine, 
Mine will lean on Jesus breast, 
Pillowed on eternal rest. 

" When the humid grave s receiving 
That cold casket, where to dwell, 
Oft my spirit, sadly grieving, 
Found it but a prison cell : 
I, my love, shall not be there, 
Clear escaped for ever, where 
I shall be with Christ, my Lover, 
Lord, Jehovah, Bridegroom, Brother." 



TENDER RECOLLECTIONS. 129 

Heaven was often the subject of her conversation, long before 
her illness. When we sat together, happy in each other s com 
pany, Nicolis would throw upon me that look which never failed 
to fill my eye and melt my heart her dying look too, the last 
ere her sweet eye closed for ever and as she looked, she used 
to say, How sweet and refreshing will heaven be ! No toil, no 
annoyance, no sorrow there ! Death is terrible, but it will soon 
be over ; and heaven will far more than make up for all crosses 
and for all losses. Before retiring to rest, I frequently prayed 
with her ; she always put her hand in mine, and as we prayed 
she wept. Oh, these were very sweet and solemn moments. 
If ever I found my soul enlarged, and my bands untied, it was 
at these times, when we gave ourselves anew to God, and com 
mitted our babe into his hands, and when our spirits glanced 
across the ocean, and we laid at the foot of the throne our dear 
mother, our brothers and sisters, aunts, and aged grandfather, 
and all friends. Our union has been of short duration, but it 
has been exactly what our sovereign God appointed. And 
although short, yet it has been so full of sweetness and true 
happiness in the midst of much that was rugged and trying in 
our lot, that I feel the Lord has given me, in a narrow compass, 
what he has spread over the long lifetime of many others, yea, 
what many more are never able to attain. I blessed God, and 
will ever bless Him, for the precious gift which He gave me in 
Nicolis ; and it would be ill on my part were I not also to 
bless Him, when in infinite wisdom He has seen it right to take 
her away. The stroke is heavy, heavy. I feel solitary and sad. 
My heart is smitten and withered. But I would be dumb, 
because the Lord hath done this. The departure of my beloved 
Nicolis has made a blank in my heart and home, which nothing 
but God himself can fill up. He can do it ; and I trust He 
is doing it. I think I can say that His presence is sustaining 
and comforting my soul ; that He has brought me into the 
wilderness, but it is to show me more of his loving-kindness. 
Her seat is empty. With her looks, her words, and her watch 
ful and tender care, I am no more blessed ; but when I think 
of her gain, how unspeakable ! of her escape from sin and 

i 



130 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

suffering, and sorrow, and toil, of the fulness of joy that now 
fills her soul, of the exceeding and eternal weight of glory with 
which she is now arrayed and crowned, oh, it would be wrong 
in me to give way to that selfishness which would begrudge 
my love the full enjoyment of these glories, even for a moment, 
for the sake of the good which her presence on earth secured 
to myself. Oh no, my beloved Mcolis, you were happy on 
earth, but you are infinitely happier in heaven ! When present 
with me, you were absent from the Lord. Now, is your joy 
complete. In a little, I will follow you, sing with you, rejoice 
with you, and in company with you adore the Lamb for ever. 
Then, this sadness of heart shall have passed away, and these 
tears of bitterness been dried up, and death itself swallowed up 
in victory." 

In the mission service of the Church there are ever occurring 
instances of disinterested Christian kindness. Does the mother 
die, leaving an infant in tender years ? Another sister never 
fails to take the motherless one into her bosom, and care for 
it as tenderly as if it were her own. Fellowship in Christ s 
service blends the mothers hearts into one ; and nowhere may 
a dying mother be more certain of a warm nestling place for 
the object of her anxieties, than among a missionary sisterhood. 
Mrs. Jameson s daughter was only eight months old at her 
mother s death. But Mrs. Cowan sent for her sister s child, 
and tended her with all a mother s care, till Miss Jameson joined 
her widowed brother, in 1840. "Providence," wrote Mr. 
Jameson, " has shown much kindness in providing such a re 
treat for the dear motherless babe." 

"To THE RCSE STREET JUVENILE MISSIONAEY SOCIETY. 

" July 31**, 1839. 

" MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, I intended writing you a 
long letter, but at present this is out of my power. I send 
you what will interest you far more a sketch of our homely 
church, taken by Mrs. Jameson, a considerable time ago. Its 
colours are somewhat faded by having lain a year in this 



FOUNDATION-STONE LAID. 131 

climate ; and Mrs. Jameson, discovering defects in its execution, 
wished to improve it, but was prevented by the pressure and 
increase of other engagements. It w T as intended, my dear young 
friends, for you ; and I feel bound to embrace this first oppor 
tunity of sending it, though I am loathe to part with it. 

" As your eyes rest upon this little picture, think of her 
whose work it is. Think, oh, think, how early in life death 
laid his hand upon her, and seek, oh, seek yourselves to be 
ready ! Think of the glory with which she is now crowned, 
and be ye followers of her who, through faith and patience, 
now inherits the promises. Know that death waits not when 
he receives the commission. The king of terrors can neither 
be bribed nor driven back by violence. It is ours to wait his 
approach and be ready, and to have Jesus as the anchor of the 
soul : for blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Pray 
for me. I much need your constant and earnest prayers. For 
the present, farewell." 

At length, everything was ready for laying the foundation- 
stone of the new church. That ceremony was performed by 
Henry Barkly, Esq., on Saturday, September 28th, 1839. Mr. 
Jameson writes : 

" We had an interesting day at the laying of the foundation- 
stone. The school was examined in the forenoon, and gave 
much satisfaction. Messrs. Barkly, Cowan, Paterson, and 
others, were present, and a great assemblage of people. I first 
spoke a few words to the people, and read the paper to be 
deposited in the stone, containing a short history of the station. 
Mr. Paterson prayed. After singing the 102d Psalm, verses 
13-19, Mr. Barkly laid the stone. Mr. Cowan then prayed. 
Afterwards, Messrs. Barkly, Cowan, Paterson and Jeffrey ad 
dressed the people. The collection amounted to 48. Our 
people are increasing their subscriptions, and doing what they 
can in labour, with much cheerfulness. As yet, little more has 
been done than digging the foundation and laying the corner 
stone. The plan proposed is somewhat as follows : A build 
ing, 75 feet by 50 ; 12 feet being taken off the length for a 
vestry; walls 20 feet high, to allow a gallery, if necessary. 



132 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

The roof is to consist of three small roofs. Mr. Moir is busy 
as usual. The school is still numerous. The children are 
getting a box ready with coffee, pimento, cocoa-nuts, etc., to send 
home." 

Including the monthly contributions of the people, the sum 
of 600 was contributed in Jamaica the first year, and the rest 
Mr. Jameson hoped to raise by loan or donation from friends of 
the work in Scotland. 

In 1 839, several new openings had occurred, which Mr. Jame 
son and his valuable coadjutor, Mr. Moir, sought to improve to 
the utmost of their strength. The school at Pembroke Hall was 
given up, as the children in that quarter could reach the school 
at the church, and as other more necessitous places seemed to 
claim attention. Early in the year, Mr. Moir undertook to 
hold a prayer-meeting with the Scotch immigrants at Middlesex, 
every Thursday evening, to keep school, on Fridays and Satur 
days, and, alternately with Mr. Jameson, to preach to them, 
every third Sabbath. The people fitted up a house for Mr. 
Moir, and soon expressed a strong desire to have him stationed 
in their midst, promising to contribute as liberally to his support 
as their means allowed. But it was resolved that, in the mean 
time, no change should take place. 

" Education is now the order of the day among young and 
old. From time to time, applications are made to us to extend 
our labours. There is a fine field here, not only for negro 
schools, but also for boarding-schools to train the better class 
of browns and whites, especially the former a class as degraded 
as, and more neglected than, the blacks. For this purpose, a 
large and excellent house, healthily and beautifully situated, is 
offered to me. The proprietor desires a well-qualified teacher 
from home. In the meantime, I purpose going there, three 
days every week, to commence a negro school. I have been 
induced to do so, because of the solicitations of the people, 
because it enables me to do something for a distant portion 
of the congregation, and because of the advantageous situation. 
I will begin operations in the hope of breaking up a field for 
some friend and fellow-labourer from home." 



BONHAM SPRING. 133 

The place referred to iu the above extract was Bonham 
Spring, a pimento estate, in the parish of St. Ann s, six miles 
from Goshen. Mr. Jameson thought that it would suit for the 
Missionary Academy, on which the Jamaica Presbytery had set 
their hearts ; and he brought the matter before the Synod s 
Committee for Foreign Missions, by whom Mr. Millar was sent 
to Bonham Spring, in 1841. He continued there till the 
Academy was removed to Montego Bay. 

The following letter we are unwilling to abridge. It is 
exceedingly touching, and one cannot read it without profiting. 
Mr. Jameson had been from home, and on his return, his 
wounds bled afresh from a sense of his loss, and he imme 
diately sat down to write. 

"November 1st, 1839. The third year of our connexion is 
about to expire. During this period, we have seen much of 
mercy and judgment. The Lord has wrought for us, and with 
us, and by us, both at home and abroad. He has severely 
chastened more than one of our number, not, however, too 
severely, or more severely than was necessary. No ! a living 
man ought not to complain. To be out of hell is a greater 
mercy than we deserve ; and to be crowned with loving-kind 
ness and tender mercy, oh, joy unspeakable ! 

" In wandering over the past, the mind rests upon the happy 
and hallowed scenes we enjoyed, three Septembers agone. Ah 
me ! Some were there who are no more, whom the grave 
hides from our weeping eyes. What can we say 1 Oh what ! 
but that the whole paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, 
that it is well with our dear departed friends, that such dispen 
sations are for the good of God s people, that both in measure 
and kind, they are exactly answerable to the case in hand, 
that our beloved dead we shall see again in a better state, and 
that with them we shall enjoy holier and sweeter fellowship 
than ever. But they are away ! Our earthly intercourse 
with them has ceased ; their seat is empty ; we cannot pray 
for them ; we look for them, but cannot find them ; we talk 
to them, but receive no answer ; the vision is the object of our 
tenderest regards ; the waking thought is, * all is well, but still 



134 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

\ve must go to the grave to weep. How easily are our fondest 
hopes prostrated ! How do men of the world befool them 
selves, when to gain the world they lose their souls ! How 
do Christians miscalculate, when worldly interests and incli 
nations are allowed to interfere with the commands of the 
Saviour ! Soon may these interests be overturned, and the 
disciple be obliged to confess, that, after all, it is the highest 
interest, as well as the first duty, to comply with the require 
ments of the blessed Lord. Had my beloved wife and myself 
been moved by the tears of friends, and had we been induced 
by their entreaties and arguments to abandon the great work 
to which we are called, oh, how many sparkling gems would 
her crown have wanted, and how foolish would I now look ! 
I would have been a spectacle to men and angels a convert 
to obedience, as the pettish school-boy submits to the laws of 
school, after having been soundly whipped. How blessed is 
it to be at our post, to suffer while doing our duty ! When 
we look for comfort, then we find it. Lord, this word of 
thine is my comfort in mine affliction, by it, in straits, I am 
revived. 

" I must now proceed to business matters. 

" First, let me acknowledge with deep gratitude your letters 
and those of private friends ; also those brought by Mr. J., and 
one from your secretary, which I found waiting me this after 
noon. I thank you for your sympathy. I reached my home 
this afternoon, none to welcome me, none to embrace me ; all 
was silence, the door was shut. I ventured in, and as I wan 
dered from room to room, your letter caught my eye. I grasped 
it, opened it, and as I read it, my bursting heart got utterance 
and found relief. I thank you, and along with you the Session 
and managers, for the respect you showed my beloved wife in 
putting on the garb of mourning. I thank you for your 
interest in me and my. child. My warmest thanks to the 
ladies of the congregation for their letters and gifts to Mrs. 
Jameson in the box ; also to the young people of the congrega 
tion, and to the Juvenile Missionary Society, for their gifts, and 
for the means of instruction which the school enjoys through 



TOUCHING RETROSPECT. 135 

their liberality. Thank every friend who thinks of us, feels for 
us, prays for us, and who contributes in any way to the cause 
of the Redeemer among us. May the Lord reward you all a 
thousand-fold !" 

In 1847, referring to this season of sorrow, Mr. Jameson 

wrote : " The resignation to His holy will which my blessed 

Master enabled me to show, when He, so unexpectedly, took to 
himself my beloved wife, and my continuance at the work to 
which He called me, T have reason to believe, from the testi 
mony of many of the people, did more to recommend the gospel 
of Jesus to their opening minds, than any twenty sermons 
which I ever preached." 



136 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Incidents The heavy tongue, but feeling heart Scenes in the Session Faithful 
discipline Oppression and its results The negro not a fool Church building 
begun Mr. Moir leaves Mr. Jameson chosen Theological Tutor Rejects polluted 
gifts Arrival of Miss Jameson Building struggles Negro s account of the Fall of 
Adam The Lord s Supper at Goshen Letters of black people. 

As work multiplied on his hands, and anxieties grew, Mr. 
Jameson was unable to keep a record of daily events. But, 
at the end of 1839, he threw together a number of statements 
and incidents, from which we make the following selections, 
without regard to the order of time. In speaking of his own 
want of memory for incident, he mentions a negro belonging 
to Eltham, one of the estates which he used to visit, who could 
tell the year, the month, the day, the hour, at which any parti 
cular circumstance connected with his own or his master s 
family occurred, during fifty years. He could also tell the 
weight of a bag of pimento or coffee, or anything which he 
could lift, with almost perfect accuracy. 

The incidents and statements referred to are of two kinds : 
1st, illustrative of the work of God in the souls of the people ; 
and 2d, referring to the state of matters on the estates, after 
freedom. Both classes are interesting, and may be regarded as 
specimens of what the experience of every missionary at that 
time could furnish in abundance. 

" An overlooker of a gang on one of the estates was called 
by the overseer to identify a cloak which was found lying in the 
field, with some pieces of sugar-cane in its folds. He could not 
tell whose it was ; but, on taking it home, he discovered that 
it belonged to his own daughter. Next day, he brought her 
before the overseer, confessed with shame and tears that she 



EOMAN VIRTUE. 137 

was the culprit, and desired the overseer to put a particular 
brand upon her. The overseer said he would keep two days 
pay from her, by way of fine ; but this would not satisfy her 
father. She had put him and his family to shame. They had 
now joined religion, and were, every Sabbath, hearing of the 
evil of sin, and if his daughter acted thus, what could be 
expected of others *? What would the church think of him 
and his family, if this were allowed to pass unnoticed and un 
punished 1 

This was a kind of Eoman virtue in a black man : for, in 
general, black people are very unwilling to reveal each other s 
faults. It would have been like the ordinary practice, if the 
overlooker had done his best to screen his daughter. 

Mr. Jameson relates a praiseworthy instance of respect for 
the Sabbath-day : 

u One of our people was ordered to take a mule, and go to a 
distant part of the country. He was to start on Saturday, and 
would require to travel on the Sabbath. * Busha, said he, 
1 why do you always send me on Saturday, and make me travel 
on Sabbath ? If you send me out on Monday, I will go, but 
not on Saturday. Besides, I want to help in digging the foun 
dation of our church, and if I am not there on Saturday, the 
minister, and the brothers and sisters will think that I don t 
care about the church. Busha was angry, but the man held 
to his point. This man is very obedient and serviceable, so 
much so that his kindness of heart exposes him to numerous 
applications of this sort. 

" In conversing with my people, previous to the Lord s 
Supper, I have been pleased with the progress of many who 
had been admitted. After the last communion, I told the 
members that I would examine all, before another sacrament ; 
and, if I found any not making progress in knowledge and 
holiness, I would consider it my duty to keep them back. Some 
have grown much in knowledge, and others, of whom this could 
not be expected, appear to be growing in tenderness of heart, 
and in devotional feeling. 

" I was examining an old African woman on experimental 



138 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

religion. Among other questions, I asked, < Do you understand 
the gospel which I preach V The poor Ethiopian, much moved 
by the question, said, Oh, me minister, me head tick, me 
tongue heavy, but, pressing her hand upon her bosom, me 
heart feel. Me poor Guinea woman, minister me no able for 
speak good ; but what you say come in here, pointing to 
her ear, and strike me there, pointing to her heart. Under 
stand you, minister ! How could all this change take place 
upon we hearts, and conduct, and families, if we not under 
stand you f 

" Well, what do you think of Christ V 

" Oh, Massa, me love Jesus. He died for me. Me have noth 
ing to think about but Jesus. Me give myself for ever to Jesus. 

"It is delightful to see the progress of the gospel, not only 
in purifying the immoral atmosphere, but in bringing the ties 
of earthly brotherhood under subjection. A member of the 
church brought his sister before the Session, for visiting sus 
picious houses, and for light and giddy conduct. The Session 
advised him to take her to his own house, and look after her, 
which he has done. One father complained that his daughter 
did not read to him so often as he liked, and that when asked 
to do it, she often took the book, in bad humour. When the 
Session spoke to her, she wept, and promised amendment. 

" Another brought his son, and said that the youth s folly 
was breaking his and the mother s heart. He had been away 
for weeks, and they did not know where he was till last night, 
w r hen his brother found him and brought him back, covered 
with rags and dirt. The father could say little for weeping. 
The brother, who is a very excellent young man, after describing 
the humbling condition in which he found him, concluded with 
an appeal somewhat as follows : Oh, my brother ! you break 
your father s and your mother s heart. You fill your whole 
family with shame. You are destroying yourself. You are 
putting to shame the whole church. Listen to the Session. 
He could not proceed any farther, but sat clown and wept ; 
and it was some time before any of us could break the solemn 
silence, for we were overpowered. 



SESSION SCENES. 139 

" Thought I, these were the men who were kept in a de 
grading bondage by their mercenary task-masters, whose ava 
rice and selfishness led them to hazard the assertion that, in 
mind and in heart, they are scarcely a degree above the brutes ! 
Let the barbarian of another hue look here. Let him learn 
what he has lost since he left his country, if, even there, he 
possessed aught of the high attainment of knowing what it is 
to feel, and what it is to love. 

" Sometimes, strange scenes take place in the Session, which 
illustrate the character of the negro. 

11 A member was brought before us for rum-drinking, rude 
conduct, and improper language. He could not deny the charge. 
The elders, one by one, spoke to him in a most solemn manner. 
The man stood sullen and unmoved. I asked them what we 
should do with him ? They all agreed that as he had forfeited 
the confidence which the church reposed in her people, and 
had put her to shame, he should be cut off the list, and that 
this should be announced, on the following Sabbath. As I 
lifted the pen to erase the name, the man s patience gave 
way ; he snatched up his hat and stick, and, quick as lightning, 
bolted out of the church, raging and roaring as if he had lost 
his senses. 

" Next day, he came to the Pen. three miles, through a 
heavy rain, and said he could get no peace, but must come 
and confess himself to minister, and ask pardon. I told him 
it was not my pardon he had to ask, but God s, for he had 
sinned much against Him. He begged to be taken back again. 
I told him I could not take him back, for a long time, before 
I had proof that he had repented, and was living a new life. 
I prayed with him, and he went away. 

" Francis Burton, a member of the Session, was called be 
fore his brethren, for quarrelling with his daughter-in-law. 
The girl was newly married to Burton s son ; and, like too 
many of the young negro women, was proud and full of tongue. 
She was evidently in fault, and had been abusing her father-in- 
law. The Session, however, thought he lacked patience, and 
lectured him on the duty of forbearance. They exceeded due 



140 MEMOIR OP REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

bounds, and gave the old man more than he deserved. The 
last elder arose to speak, but Burton could stand it no longer. 
He rose and ran. An unmarried son, who was sitting beside 
him, followed and threw himself upon his father s neck, and 
wept, entreating him to return. But feeling had mastered the 
old man, and he went away. The son returned bathed in tears, 
and described how his father had been treated by this girl. On 
being spoken to, she showed how proud was her heart, and un 
bearable her tongue. These scenes arise from the irascibility 
of the people, and from the horror and disgrace which they feel 
at being called before the Session. However painful, at the 
time, these things may be, they have always been followed with 
salutary effects." 

As illustrative of the social state of the people, Mr. Jame 
son refers to the numerous family quarrels which had occurred 
in his congregation during the year. The husband enforced 
submission on his wife, with his fists or his cane. The wife 
used her tongue too hotly, and, in the height of passion, would 
take off the ring, trample it under foot, and throw it in the face 
of her angry lord. The black man, patient in many respects, is 
not so with his brother, and least of all with his wife. 

Rum, too, was producing incalculable mischief. The oppor 
tunities of obtaining rum had been greatly multiplied, and 
many were plunging headlong into the vortex of intemperance. 
This led Mr. Jameson to counsel temperance or total abstinence. 
One after another came forward, resolving that, in the strength 
of " Massa Jesus," they would take no wine or spirits. Some 
joined the total abstinence society ; others, afraid of attempting 
too much at once, joined the temperance movement. These, 
feeling their own weakness, expressed their reliance on Jesus 
Christ for the help they needed, fearless of the taunts and jeers 
of the wicked. The excuses of others for not giving up liquor 
were amusing. One man did not know how he could take a 
dose of castor oil without a little rum. With another, tea did 
not agree, and rum and water found the best substitute. An 
other could not get wine, willing as he was to join the tem 
perance. 



JAMIE S EXCUSES FOR THE DROP. 141 

" l But/ said Mr. Jameson, do as I and others have done, 
give up wine too. 

" * Oh, Massa, you want to kill we, to put we in we graves 
altogether. 

" Well, Jamie, you look very poorly ; have you been sick V 

" I was in town, Massa, and bad water gave me sore belly. 

" Astonishing, Jamie, the town water never gave me sore 
belly. Now, tell me how much rum you drunk in town. 

" Not much, minister ; just a little among the bad water. 

" Now, Jamie, I know very well you were drunk every 
night. It is the filthy rum you swallowed, and not the bad 
water, that makes you look as if you had risen out of your 
grave. Give it up, Jamie, and that will save, not kill you. " 

The testimony of an eye-witness like Mr. Jameson, so con 
scientious and impartial, respecting the working out of the 
emancipation, must be regarded as peculiarly valuable, be 
cause it is correct and trustworthy. Those who had charge of 
Goshen estate seem to have acted in a violent manner to the 
people. The result was disastrous to the property. So com 
pletely were the people scattered, that the site of the negro 
village which, when Mr. Jameson went there, had a popula 
tion of not less than 500, is now a solitary common. 

The following cases are painful illustrations of reckless and 
unrighteous treatment inflicted by arbitrary power on parties 
who had not the means of resistance or of redress : 

" One of our people on Goshen estate, a very excellent 
man, and who has been steadfast in his profession, was admit 
ted to the Lord s table at the first communion, which took 
place in the spring of 1839. On the Monday following, the 
overseer, on learning the circumstance, came to the field, 
and abused him in the vilest manner, opened and discharged 
the enmity of his heart by cursing and swearing, and calling 
him hypocrite, liar, scoundrel, etc. The follower of Jesus 
answered meekly : Busha, me wish to serve Christ : me wish 
to do something good for myself now. In talking to him 
about the matter, I said : Murray, you must lay your ac 
count with reproach for Christ, but be you steadfast. Oh, 



142 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

yes, Massa, me know that ; me don t mind suffering for Jesus, 
for he suffered so much for me. 

" In a few weeks afterwards, he was turned out upon the 
world with his wife and children, homeless and destitute ; his 
provision grounds were spoiled, and the produce of them sold 
for the benefit of the estate, or eaten by its servants. On 
asking the reason, I was told that Murray was cunning, lazy, 
etc. I never could learn the particulars of his transgression. 
None of those who lived near him and worked under him, 
could lay anything to his charge ; and the general conclusion 
was, that he was too often with minister, and, for this fault, 
was turned adrift, and that he had once applied to the magis 
trate for protection against a wanton act of aggression on the 
part of one of the estate s managers, which step gave great 
offence. I cannot say how Murray acted in the field, but, as 
a professing Christian, he has been most exemplary all along ; 
and with tears and with much depression of spirits he used 
to tell me of the rudeness and unfaithfulness of those around 
him. He found an asylum on Salisbury. He and his family 
lived there during the summer of 1839. 

" Robert Laing was the driver of the second gang. He be 
came sick. The doctor saw him and prescribed for him. As 
medicines were furnished by the estate, he sent for the dose, 
and got it. Becoming worse, he sent again, when instead of 
the medicine, a rent account was sent him, amounting to six 
dollars, or 24s., for two weeks. I happened to call on him, 
that morning, and he showed me the paper. He wept, and 
said, Massa, I am not able to pay that rent. I am sick, and 
cannot work. And even were I well, how could I pay such a 
rent, when my wages are only 5s. a week ? I remonstrated 
with the overseer ; and nothing for the present was done. A 
few weeks afterwards, as I w^as returning home, in the evening, 
a person called me. What is the matter *? I asked. Robert 
Laing wants to see you. On going to his house, I found it 
locked. When Robert came, he said, Oh, Massa, my house 
is taken from me, and my furniture is thrown out upon the 
road ; and my wife and I know not where to go, or what to 



CASES OF OPPRESSION. 143 

do. * Who did so? c Busha. I turned my horse to go 
down to the house. The people said, You need not go, for 
he has left home. Next morning, I went to the attorney, who 
lived fourteen miles distant, and got the sentence of ejectment 
recalled, and the house re-opened. 

" Some weeks afterwards, I received a letter from the over 
seer, desiring me to interfere no more, but allow him to dis 
charge what he considered his duty. I waited to see what 
this would be. A warrant of ejectment goes forth against 
Laing. The court 1 decides that the sentence shall be carried 
into effect on Monday, giving Laing Friday, Saturday, and 
Sabbath to prepare for the event. Against this decision, 
Henry Walsh, Esq., the stipendiary magistrate, protested in 
the most solemn manner, but a majority of the magistrates 
ruled against him. Laing came to tell me the decision of the 
court. He said : I will do what I can, on Friday and Satur 
day, but, on Sabbath, I will come to the church, and get some 
comfort there. I leave all with God. On Monday, they were 
ejected ; their house was demolished j their provision grounds 
spoiled ; and the defenceless family thrown on the world as 
vagabonds, to seek a home where they could best find it, and 
that among a number of estates whose managers have agreed 
not to employ a labourer from another estate, without a certifi 
cate from the overseer. 

" Laing and his wife were sheltered by a neighbour. He 
was warned that if he persisted in affording them shelter, he 
would be ejected also. Grant, however, continued to admit 
them under his roof, although they dared not go there, except 
during the darkness of the night, when they would creep into 
the dwelling of their friend, to partake of that cheer and rest 
which it afforded. Before the morning star had ceased to shine, 
these children of hardship and sorrow had to rise and seek 
concealment. They had to separate, and sometimes did not see 
one another for several days together. 

" The reasons assigned for this mode of treatment are such 

1 A court of local magistrates, consisting of planters or attorneys, or even over 
seers, who receive commission from the Governor of the Island. 



144 MEMOIR OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

as these : " It is necessary to show the people what the law 
can do. Mild measures will spoil the labourers. Stringent 
measures are safest for the people and the country, and the 
only means of carrying on successfully the cultivation of the 
estates." 

Mr. Jameson wrote to the attorney, on February 20th, 1839, 
protesting against the treatment which Laing had received. 

" Ejectments, as I have now seen them, are a retribution 
fitted only for the worst of characters. Permit me, in the most 
earnest manner, to solicit your interference to put an end to 
such proceedings without delay. 

" Ejectments are producing feelings in the minds of the 
people which will ultimately endanger the prosperity of the 
estate, which are unfavourable to yourself, and which, although 
pent up through terror, are yet ready to burst forth with 
terrible violence the moment that the proprietor (H. Barkly, 
Esq.), daily expected, sets his foot on Goshen. 

" Again, I am disposed to say on behalf of Goshen, that the 
conduct of the people, since the 1st of August, has not merited 
such retribution. They were among the very first, not only in 
the district, but in the country, to resume their labour, after the 
commencement of freedom, and from, that time to the present 
moment, they have been among the few who keep the lead. It 
is true that some things have not been as we could have wished. 
Those who were born, and have grown up as slaves, cannot, in 
a day, become true freemen. At present, therefore, instead of 
alarming the people, and turning their joy into bitterness, it is 
our duty, for a season, to bear with the follies of what may be 
called the childhood of freedom ; and, with a discipline which 
the circumstances of the case, and which mercy require, to study 
to dispel everything Utopian in the views of the people, and lead 
them to see more clearly what is their duty to God and to man. 
This object I keep steadily in view in all my labours ; and I 
feel that this severe system is taking my people from me, is 
raising their fears, disappointing their hopes, unmanning their 
energies, and setting them adrift upon the world, before that 
experiment be fairly tried, which, by the blessing of God, will 



MR. BAEKLY COMES. 145 

in the end prove fully successful. These considerations I urge 
upon you from an unfeigned heart, from a desire to be faithful 
to God, and to a people who have placed themselves under my 
guidance, and from best wishes for yourself." 

" Ejectments went on. In July, I received a letter from the 
attorney, praying me to interfere to stop the people from leav 
ing the property, as forty were on the eve of moving, besides 
many who had gone, and many more who were preparing to 
go on the first opportunity. Only one or two belonging to 
the estate were in the field ; the whole work of cultivation 
was in the hands of strangers, and carried on at great ex 
pense." 

Thus did Mr. Jameson endeavour to pursue an even course 
between the masters on the one hand, and the people on the 
other. He did not approve of rabid attacks on the former, but 
much regretted when they were made. He did not consider 
it to be his duty to discuss politics in public meetings with his 
people, but he endeavoured to correct what he saw to be wrong 
in their conduct. If the employers refused to listen to his ex 
postulations on behalf of the oppressed, he knew that there was 
a self-rectifying principle in freedom that would soon write folly 
in their mad measures, and that in the most effectual man 
ner. And so it came about in the case of Goshen. Mr. Barkly 
arrived in time to save his valuable property from the fate of 
a ruinate. The master came and reckoned with his servants. 
He delayed long enough to give the harsh mode a fair trial, 
long enough to show that a free population cannot be coerced 
by those to whom their hands are necessary. At bis coming, 
the people flocked to state their grievances. Mr. Barkly declared 
he had never seen such an ebullition of pent-up feeling ; and 
he set himself to undo the mischief and injustice of the past. 
Amusing as well as exciting was the scene that was witnessed 
on that occasion, as it is narrated by individuals who were pre 
sent. One old negro came up, and stared with mock surprise 
at Mr. Barkly s boots. He examined with feigned astonish 
ment the trousers and coat which he wore. " High ! Massa 
Barkly have boot ! Massa wear good coat and trouser ! High 

K 



146 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Massa G tell we say, Massa Barkly no look boot, no have so 
so coat, s pose it no be him give him." 

All concerned in these measures were removed ; all the ejec 
ted were recalled, their houses were restored, and their wages 
increased, while a more equitable arrangement as to rent was 
proposed. The strangers working on the estate were paid off. 
Murray was reinstated in his former office, and a new house was 
erected for Laing and his family. " The work of the estate," 
wrote Mr. Jameson, " is now wholly carried on by the estate s 
people, they are cultivating their grounds with diligence, al 
though they complain of scarcity, caused by the sad scenes of 
fast summer ; Goshen is now covered with rich cane fields ; the 
plough is daily at work ; sugar is being made ; Goshen has thus 
surmounted past evils, and once more is happy and prosperous. 
All this proves that the perversity which has been so generally 
and loudly complained of, arises in part, and perhaps in good 
part, from the mistreatment, as well as from the disposition, of 
the people. Treat the black man with equity, and he will 
generally be found to make a grateful return, yea, he will be 
disposed to pass over those minute details which, were he scru 
pulous, he might urge in his own favour." 

The following conversation between Mr. Jameson and a car 
penter, who had been ejected from Goshen, and recalled by Mr. 
Barkly, is well told, and is exactly what one still carries on 
with the more intelligent of our West Indian peasantry. We 
may give it as a specimen of minister and man, and also of 
the position in which the freed people found themselves, in 
many cases after emancipation. It must be borne in mind, 
however, by those who would have correct views of the question 
between masters and people, in those days, that what was true 
of some was not so of all. A vast deal of mischief to the cause 
of freedom in Britain and America has arisen from not attend 
ing to this fact. Each estate has its own history. And, pro 
bably, there was a great variety in the mode of treating the 
people, in different parts of the island, or at least on different 
properties. Tn some places in the leeward parishes, at least, 
the work-people on the estates continue to occupy the same 



PLANTEES FOLLY. 147 

negro villages which they occupied in the time of slavery. There 
were no ejectments. There were equity and forbearance to 
wards the people, and there was therefore no interruption to the 
working of the estates. Yet Goshen is a sample of a class of 
cases, which was too numerous, and which must be considered 
as sufficient to account for much that is to be deplored in the 
history of emancipation, but which many have most unright 
eously, either from ignorance or malice, laid to the charge of 
the freedmen. Surely every impartial judge will agree with us, 
that such treatment as that which was experienced on this, one 
of the finest and most productive properties in Jamaica, was 
simply suicidal, and did not deserve to succeed. But while 
the people on other properties may have been treated as fool 
ishly and unrighteously as those on Goshen, there was no Mr. 
Barkly to correct the mischief by a timely remedy ; and thus 
the people were permanently alienated and scattered, and the 
properties became what in Jamaica is called a ruinate, where 
fields once fertile are covered with useless bush, and expensive 
buildings are in the last stage of dilapidation and decay. And 
some of these properties, in the palmy days of Jamaica, afforded 
revenues on which proprietors lived amid the refinements and 
luxuries of British society. 

We venture one other remark here before we copy the con 
versation between Minister and Nelson, it is due to the 
slandered peasantry of the West Indies, and it is, that for the 
unjust and ruinous treatment of the people the proprietors were 
not altogether, and, in many cases, not at all to blame. We 
would not that our remarks were supposed to criminate, in the 
very smallest degree, the proprietors of the Trinity estates, who 
were upright and honourable men. Living at home, they did 
not know what was being done by their managers, who would 
have acted very differently had the properties been their own. 
The interests of both proprietors and people were thus wantonly 
sacrificed in many cases by coarse, immoral, wrathful men, who 
were utterly unfit to manage such gangs of people. While 
slavery lasted, and the horse-whip could be used at pleasure, the 
sugar was duly made, and the rum duly distilled ; but when 



148 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

arbitrary power was taken away, these men lacked the moral 
and intellectual fitness for their altered circumstances ; and, 
worst of all, they lacked that self-control without which no man 
can rule his fellow- creatures. The history of Jamaica and of 
" Freedom" has yet to be written. Pity will it be if that 
noble passage in British colonial history shall fail to find a 
worthy writer a man with the qualities of head and heart 
which it demands and deserves with powers of research, and 
sympathy, and eloquence worthy of the theme one with lei 
sure to perambulate the mountains and valleys of the sunny 
isle, and hear with his own ears what is said by the now 
lessening generation on whom slavery vented his last expiring 
rage, and to search out the records and correspondence of the 
time. 

To this day, the people of St. Mary s speak of Kelly, the 
overseer referred to above, as a man who was fit for any deed 
of violence or cruelty. They say that when he had charge of 
another property, before he came to Goshen, he used to grind 
people on the grindstone. From his wanting a finger, they, 
to the day of his death, used to call him " tumpy-fmger Kelly." 
He became a proprietor, and died a few years ago. The people 
say that his death-bed was horror ; and that in his delirium he 
called for the Goshen people to come and get the money of 
which he had defrauded them. We do not vouch for the truth 
of these stories ; but there were worse things done in Jamaica 
than Kelly was charged with done, too, by men who had been 
born in Christian Britain. 

Let us now hear the conversation between Minister and Nel 
son : 

"M. Well, Nelson, how d ye? 

N. So, so, Massa. 

M. l What are you doing now ? 

J\ T . 1 1 am carpenter on Goshen again. 

M. You were ejected, were you not V 

N. < Oh, yes, my good minister, everything taken from me ; 
put out of a house which I built myself ; cut the timbers with 
my own hands, on my Sabbaths, when a slave ; brought them 



TALK ABOUT RENT. 149 

from the wood on my own head ; and paid fippence (3d ster 
ling) for every bundle of thatch that I put on it. 

M. Did your grounds suffer ? 

N. Grounds suffer, Massa ! ! Ay, Massa, my grounds were 
destroyed. There were plenty of provisions in them good 
provisions, Massa and Busha not only took them from me, 
but gave them to the hogs, ate them himself, and sold them. 
But my Master in heaven is good, Massa. Jesus better to we 
than we deserve. He turn things for the better. Massa 
Barkly come out and put things to right. 

M. l Where did you go when you were set off from Goshen 1 

N. A man on Guy s Hill had compassion upon me, and 
gave me a piece of land to build a house upon, and plant some 
provisions. I built a little hut, and planted a ground and 
fenced it, but the gentleman s cattle came and eat all my pro 
visions every yam and cocoa in my field. 

M. What did the gentleman do for this T 

N. l When I told him, he was very sorry for it, and came 
and saw it, and gave me five shillings. 

M. l Five shillings ? did he not give you any more 1 

N. He said he had no more at present, but would remember 
me again. 

M. l Did you ever get any more ] 

N. No. He was kind to me in my distress, and I do not 
wish to trouble him. 

M. Have you got any provision grounds since your return 
to Goshen? 

N. To tell you the truth, my good minister, my labour 
has been so often abused, that I have not strength (courage) 
to raise any more provisions. 

H. l How do you get provisions for yourself and family V 

N. <I buy them in the market. 

M. But you have every confidence now in Goshen. Mr. 
Barkly has done all he can to restore confidence, and to secure 
you quiet possession of your houses and grounds. 

N. True, Massa. But Mr. Barkly goes home, and we do 
not know what will take place after that. 



150 MEMOIR OF KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

M. You knew Mr. Grigor of old, when he was book 
keeper on Goshen. You all loved him then ; and it was the 
fond recollection which you had of him that induced Mr. 
Barkly to raise him to the office of attorney. 

N. l True, my good minister ; but men sometimes very 
good when book-keeper, but very bad, wicked, when big 
attorney. 

M. True ; but I know Mr. Grigor a little, and so far as I 
have been able to discover his principles, there is no fear. I 
would have none, and I do not think you need have any. 

N. But Mr. Grigor may die, and another may come who 
will pull and mash us 1 

M. No ; Mr. Barkly has taken good care of that ; and 
after what he has done to those who were here before Mr. 
Grigor, none will ever venture upon such a course again. 

N. I do not think it right, Massa, to build a good house 
for myself, or repair my old one, so as to make it quite com 
fortable, when I must, at the same time, pay rent for it. 

M. Well, but Nelson, Mr. Barkly gives you cattle to bring 
your timber from the wood ; he gives you doors and windows, 
and he gives you 4 currency (2, 8s. sterling), to purchase 
nails, etc. 

N. Massa, I am a carpenter ; I know my trade, and I can 
tell you that is nothing at all to the expense of putting up a 
good house. No, Massa, I do not think it good that when I 
pay such a big rent for my house, I should spend my time, 
and labour, and money in building it. Now, my lord 

M. Nelson, don t give me these fine names ; I don t want 
them, and I can t suffer them. Call me minister ; but lord, 
or papa, or such stuff as you give to your leaders, don t 
give to me. Besides, these names you ought to give to Christ, 
and him only. He is your Lord, he is your Father, and the 
man who receives such titles or names from you is proud and 
presumptuous, and takes what he has no right to. 

N. Beg pardon, Massa ; beg pardon, minister. 

M. i I only tell you, that so you may know what is right. 
Well, what were you going to say 1 



LONG-HEADED NEGRO. 151 

A T . < Well, my minister, suppose I desired to leave Goshen, 
and I went to Massa and said, Massa, Nelson is going away, 
he is not to work any longer on Goshen. Or, suppose Massa 
called me and said, Nelson, I have no more work for you ; 
therefore, you can seek work where you can find it. Would it 
not be a good thing if I had nothing of my own to leave on 
Goshen, if I could carry with me all that belongs to me ? 

M. True. 

N. Well, minister, you see, if I build the half of this 
house, giving my time, and labour, and money for it, and 
Massa never give me anything but poor 4, the loan of his 
cattle, and a door and a window or two ; and, at the same 
time, make me pay a rent of 6 a year, Massa is never paying 
me for my work and everything, but I am paying Massa ; and 
when I leave Massa, I leave what I have made with my own 
hands, and with my own money, and for which I have never 
got thanks. 

M. Well, Nelson, what would you like ] 

N. 1 1 would like if Massa would build us houses, and give 
us proper grounds about the houses. 

M. Would you take one of these houses ? 

N. * Take one, Massa ! I glad to take one. I very happy 
to pay rent for it. Then if Massa and I parted, I would not 
be the worse of Massa, and Massa would not be the worse of 
me. " 

Mr. Jameson adds : " I 1 have given this conversation at 
length, as it contains the pith of the rent question, which, at 
present, is the subject of discussion among us. It discovers a 
shrewdness in the negro which, in a little time, will utterly 
discomfit all attempts to settle such great questions on any 
other basis than that of equity. Proprietors may meet the 
people half-way ; and such advances, combined with kindness, 
the people feel and generally appreciate. But so long as entire 
equity is wanting, so long as the people are required to spend 
a considerable portion of their time, and labour, and wages, to 
erect houses for which they are charged rent fully equal to their 
value ; so long as this rent is levied, not according to the value 



152 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

of the houses and grounds, but according to the will, and as it 
best suits the convenience of the proprietor and manager, in 
the way which will raise most money to enable the estate to 
pay the wages at the least possible cost to itself, the payment 
of rent will be unsatisfactory to the people. Any peace which 
now happily prevails, arises out of the contrast with a worse 
state of things, which has now passed away ; but it is only the 
healing of the surface of the wound, whilst the root of the 
disease remains to fester and to break out anew. Another 
consequence arises out of this state of feeling. The people, 
whenever they are able, are purchasing patches of ground, of 
three, or five, or six acres ; so that the population, advancing 
in the purchase of land at the same ratio, may soon be pro 
prietors of the soil. A father purchases a few acres to settle, 
as he says, his children when he dies. This practice, rendered 
desirable and necessary by the base practices of many managers, 
since the commencement of freedom, is yet of very questionable 
expediency in advancing the future prosperity of the country. 
It is for the interest of the proprietor, for the ultimate benefit 
of the emancipated population, for the prosperity of the country, 
and for the success of freedom, that a system be adopted with 
out delay, by which the labouring population will be lodged and 
settled in security and comfort, and with entire equity. 

" In the transition from slavery to freedom, the negro had 
the same right to compensation for the house which he built, 
as the master for the slave which he bought. The same argu 
ments which hold good in the one case, hold good in the 
other. This would not only have been a matter of equity, 
but of expediency. It would have prevented much of that 
misunderstanding and asperity of feeling which told upon the 
fields, and now tell upon the pockets of so many. It would 
have set at rest the question to whom the houses and grounds 
belonged ; and it would have prevented the belief that the 
Queen was to make over to the people their houses and 
grounds an impression which was everywhere prevalent, 
and which required to be rectified by a proclamation from 
the Home Government. It is true that the existence of such 



HONESTY THE BEST POLICY. 153 

a belief among the people was openly denied by a few, and 
the Government proclamation was pronounced wholly unneces 
sary. The reason that induced the few individuals referred 
to to adopt such a course, is best known to themselves. But 
true it is that what was declared to have no existence, existed 
in my district, and, so far as I can learn, existed everywhere ; 
that the Government proclamation, instead of being unneces 
sary, was the very thing needed ; and that since that procla 
mation was made, the impression has wholly disappeared. 
And what I say is, that had the people received compensation 
for their houses for which they were now to pay rent, the 
erroneous impression now referred to would not have existed, 
a Government proclamation would not have been required, the 
value of the houses would have been distinctly ascertained, 
and a just rent would have been of easy introduction." 

But amid all the excitement of the crisis through which they 
were passing, Mr. Jameson s ardent piety, as genial and tender 
as it was manly, seems to have suffered no abatement. 

The following, dated January 2d, 1840, to Mr. Bryden, is 
both touching and beautiful : 

" In your last, of July 3d, you mentioned the loss of two 
of your children. Oh ! gladly I say and think with you, they 
are not lost. The thought that our beloved dead were lost, 
would be altogether insupportable. The knowledge that our 
sweetest flowers are decayed in the dark and lonely grave, is 
hard enough to bear ; but, if there were no spring time, no 
morn on which to meet again, if there were no celestial para 
dise, where our lovely flowers are now richly blooming, no house 
from heaven with which their spirits are clothed upon, how, oh, 
how could we bear up 1 Blessed Jesus ! for taking our nature 
and destroying him who has the power of death ! Blessed 
Jesus ! for throwing such light upon a world unknown ! May 
we follow our loved ones in due time ! Happy the meeting ! 
no parting again !" 

Mr. Jameson attended a meeting of Presbytery, in the be 
ginning of 1840. Mr. Cowan and he returned home in com 
pany. He talked of Mrs. Jameson s death a great part of the 



154 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESOX. 

way home. Mr. Cowan had never seen him so much over 
whelmed. He reached home on Saturday night, and after the 
Sabbath services, was seized with fever. Mr. Cowan went to 
see him, and found him suffering much. His mind reverted to 
Mrs. Jameson s death, and he feared that his own end was nigh. 
His people were all anxiety. " Mr. Cowan was met, on all hands, 
on his way home to-night, by people running to ask for him. 
One, in his own peculiar style, said, If anything happen to 
minister, it will knock us all to pieces ! " The above notice is 
from a letter written by Mrs. Cowan, on the 8th of February, 
1840, before Mr. Jameson had recovered. She adds : " I trust 
his valuable life will be spared, for the work s sake, and for our 
sakes. To us his loss would be incalculable, and much more 
to the cause here." 

The following extract is dated February 25th, 1840 : 
" The masons are now preparing stones for the building. 
The people busy themselves, on Saturdays, at the lime-kiln. 
Yesterday (Sabbath) afternoon, the congregation spent an hour 
in supplicating the Lord s direction in this important under 
taking, and His especial blessing on the friends who are so 
deeply interested in their welfare ; also upon the contributions 
which they themselves and others had made, and were making, 
to forward the work." 

From a letter to his aunts we take the following (February 
27th, 1840) : " Catherine is getting very like her mother. I 
hope she will prove like her in her many estimable and endear 
ing traits. For of all whom I ever knew, although she had 
never been mine, Nicolis possessed all that was amiable and 
lovely. She used to say I was too good for her ; but the reverse 
was the case. She was riper for glory than I, and has sooner 

entered on its full enjoyment Oh, if we understood what 

it is to be with Christ, and were our hearts truly raised above 
this transient scene, how little would we hanker after the earthly 
society of departed friends. We would envy their present con 
dition ; we would be animated with their success ; we would 
rejoice in their glory and happiness ; we would prepare to follow 
them, and long to embrace them in that world where all is 



THE MISSIONARY SICK. 155 

holiness and beauty and love. In ray musings, I sometimes 
find myself talking to Nicolis. I know not whether she is near 
me or far away ; still I like to cherish the thought that though 
unseen, she may yet be near. Oh, how much do we owe to 
the Eedeemer for bringing heaven so near, yea, for making its 
very angels ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, and for 
preparing for us a house from heaven after our earthly taber 
nacle is dissolved. If the apostle had illustrated this subject 
from nature, as he illustrates that of the resurrection elsewhere, 
he might have pointed to the caterpillar drawing along its slug 
gish and limber body, its only enjoyment being to feed on leaves, 
and to this same creature, when it appears in another form, 
full of life, sportive and gay, speeding through the air, dancing 
in the sunbeam, and visiting spots which, as the sluggish cater 
pillar, it never could have reached. Who knows what the 
house from heaven is, with which the soul, unwilling to be 
found naked, is clothed when this earthly house is dissolved ? 
.... Tell my mother to dry up her tears, and to be cheer 
ful and happy. Dear Nicolis has overcome, and has sat down 
with Christ on his throne. If I saw my mother above this 
trial, its bitterness to me would be past." 

From the first, Mr. Jameson tried to induce the people to 
help themselves, and they felt and responded to his appeals. 

" On Friday, we met, and read your letters, and agreed to 
raise the school fees. The congregation will make another col 
lection on the 1st of August, and thus they will be trained to 
that duty, which they will be called upon, sooner or later, to 
discharge. I am glad to say that they appear to be willing to 
do everything in their power to assist in the great work. 

" We are now overhead in church building ; twenty masons 
have been at work during the last three weeks. Our greatest 
difficulty is in getting carriage. Wains we have been promised, 
over and over again, but when the time comes, there is some 
thing in the way. If getting up the shed was trying, the 
church is to be still more so. We have fine timbers and stone, 
and plenty of water. Sand is the article most difficult to be 
got, having to be brought a distance of three miles. God is 



156 MEMOIR OF KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

with us, and your hearts and prayers are with us. The expense 
of getting the whole set agoing is very great. Mr. Barkly s 
300 we have not yet touched, but we will soon, I fear, have 
to set upon it also. Can you put at our command 600 *? 
We will begin to pay it up as soon as the church is built. Mr. 
Moir is better ; my little one is well ; and I am quite recovered. 
Mr. Cowan and I visited the school a few days ago. The pro 
gress is astonishing, and the children are in a high state of 
training. Mr. Barkly has gone into the proposal of building a 
house for Mr. Moir at the church, the interest and part of the 
principal to be paid annually." 

But the prospects of Goshen were again disappointed in the 
wisdom of the Lord, who sees it needful to lead his people 
through hard experiences. Mr. Moir s health gave way under 
his arduous labours. He tried a visit to Manchester, but with 
no permanent advantage, and, at last, was forced to return to 
Scotland. The following letter was written on the 3d of July, 
1840, the day on which Mr. Moir left Goshen. 

" Mr. Moir has this night left us for the ship, and once 
more our little family is weeping. All is silent and sad. Tt 
looks as if death had been again at work. The evening is 
closing about us, and the silence and gloom which reign in 
our little dwelling, recall this time last year with its sadness 
and woe. The last week has been a busy time at the Pen 
every one bringing something to teacher before he went away. 
They brought baskets of cocoas, yams and plantains, abundance 
of eggs, pines, and cocoa nuts, and fowls in dozens. He leaves 
this with the tears and deep regret of all who know him. 
Should he recover, I hope he will pursue his studies, and 
take license, for he possesses many fine qualifications for the 
ministry." 

At a meeting of the Jamaica Missionary Presbytery, held July 
3d, 1840, Mr. Jameson was requested to take charge, for a 
short session, every year, of those students who had made con 
siderable progress in their studies. These had gone to Jamaica 
as catechists, in connexion with the Synod s Mission, and with 
that of the Scottish Society, and were desirous of preparing 



ME. MOIR LEAVES. 157 

themselves for the ministry. Mr. Goldie, who expresses him 
self gratified in " adding a stone to the cairn" of his old teacher 
and friend, says that Mr. Jameson was well qualified for super 
intending their studies, " as he had himself enjoyed the oppor 
tunity of receiving a thorough education, and had evidently 
well improved it. At the time of the vacation of our schools, 
we went up for a month to Goshen, and were domiciled with 
him, while he and we did our best to improve our short session. 
The studies to which we chiefly gave our attention were New 
Testament Greek, Hebrew, and Divinity. In this last he did 
not prepare any lectures, so as to give a system of his own, 
but adopted Dr. Dick s work as a text book, and taught by 
examination. I do not recollect that there were ever more 
than six in the class, so that he was able to give all necessary 
attention to each of his students ; and he and we had full op 
portunity of becoming acquainted with each other, and with the 
subjects to which our attention was directed. Some of the 
parts of Home s Introduction were also regularly brought under 
review ; and short essays and discourses were prepared on topics 
and texts named by Mr. Jameson. He was in the custom also 
of giving to each of us a somewhat extensive subject, on which 
an essay was to be prepared, and brought up next year. 

" Being brought into such intimate association with Mr. 
Jameson, we could not but know him thoroughly. He was one 
of the most unselfish of men I have ever met with. His own 
comfort, his own honour, his own everything, he thought not 
of, if, by any sacrifice of them, he could promote the comfort 
and wellbeing of others. Moreover, he was most eminently a 
man of God. Latterly, he was a man of one book, and that 
book was the Bible. All leisure time was devoted to its con 
stant perusal. Thus, though in the world, he was not of the 
world, but had his conversation in heaven. And, as I have 
heard the late King Eyo say, He spoke of heaven as if he had 
been there. " 

The following notice of the work at Goshen Hall is from 
the Rev. William Anderson, of Old Calabar : " We are quite 
busy and quite happy. I feel that it is good to be here. We 



158 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

meet at 6 A.M., to read Greek, and dismiss at half-past 8. 
Then we have worship and breakfast. We meet again at 10, 
read Hebrew, are examined on a portion of Dick s Lectures, and 
one of us reads an essay. This occupies till 3 P.M. We then 
dismiss for dinner, and have the afternoon for study. At both 
meetings we receive a great deal of instruction from Mr. 
Jameson." 

As fruits of Mr. Jameson s labours in this department, we 
can point to Mr. Elmslie of the Grand Cayman, Mr. Aird of 
Jamaica, Mr. Anderson of Old Calabar, and Mr. Goldie himself. 
All these brethren have been honoured to do much in the 
Lord s work ; and the last has translated the whole of the 
New Testament into the language of Old Calabar. 

The following letter shows the busy missionary taking time 
to notice the kindness of young friends, and to remind them of 
the claims of Jesus on their hearts and services. It is ad 
dressed 

"To THE ROSE STREET CHURCH SABBATH-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, AND TO 
THE YOUNG MEN S SABBATH MORNING CLASS MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
AND TO THE JUVENILE MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

" September 15th, 1840. 

" MY VERY DEAR FRIENDS, I thank you for the very 
beautiful engraving of the church which you have sent me, and 
for the number of these engravings. I thank you for your 
consideration of our funds. I know not, very dear friends, 
whether my feelings are proper, but I will state them, and leave 
you to decide. I would prefer giving to each family in the 
congregation one of the engravings, as an additional token of 
your kindness, a memorial of the wife of their first missionary, 
and a view of their first church. My feelings with regard to 
selling are perhaps foolish and childish, but having few to con 
sult with here, I will not move until I get your advice and 
approval. I feel deeply your generous consideration, in the 
desire which you express to return to me the original painting. 
It is needless to say how highly I value this production of my 
dearest friend, but it is on that account that I wish it to be 



LETTER TO THE YOUNG. 159 

yours and not mine. It was executed for you, and I have much 
satisfaction in carrying out the desire of her who is now removed 
from my side. Please, beloved friends, to accept the small 
gift, as a memorial of the wife of your first missionary, and 
as the first fruits of your labours in the gospel in a foreign 
land. I am more than pleased with the numerous copies of the 
engraving, and with the very beautiful manner in which they 
have been executed. 

" I have still one object of thanks, and that is, the very 
valuable letters which you have sent to the congregation. The 
letter from you all as a class is peculiarly precious ; and your 
advices as to the making of contracts, time of working, and 
hours of resting, are of the highest importance. The people do 
not like to be called idle, or to get the name of being inatten 
tive to their work. They say that Baekra newspaper tell 
false on them ; cane never rot here, except when want of rain 
keep back the mill ; we must make sugar for massa, else we no 
get wages. 

" Now, my dear friends, let me express my hope that you still 
continue diligent in your daily labours, and especially in your 
Sabbath class. The knowledge of Christ is the pearl of great 
price. His name is as ointment ; it is a strong tower ; and, 
oh, what is it not to the child of God ! Will some of you 
commit yourselves to the work in Jamaica 1 You say we will 
never see or meet our dear friends again in this world, but we 
will meet in heaven. Why not meet with Goshen Christians 
as well here as in heaven 1 Why not cross the Atlantic as 
well as the Jordan 1 You must cross the one, and why not say 
you will cross the other 1 We much need help. Six weeks 
ago, I began this letter, and only now am I finishing it. 
School and congregation, church building, and the students of 
theology, all claim my time. I do a little at everything, and 
fear I make as little progress as a body between equal and op 
posite forces." 

In a letter to Andrew Fyfe, Esq., S.S.C., Nov. 24th, 1 840, he 
wrote : " I long much to hear from you. Last letter I re 
ceived contained the welcome intelligence that the Synod had 



160 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

agreed to send out Mr. Millar. Since that time, I have received 
from the proprietor a note, in his own handwriting, giving the 
house at Bonham Spring for five years, and pasturage for two 
horses. For some time, I have considered it my duty to give up 
Bonham Spring, as my general health has been unsound, owing 
to frequent fevers, and as I have had more to do at home than 
I eould accomplish. The people, however, are wearying much 
for one to teach their children and themselves. I hope the 
Lord will provide. My sister has been telling me of your un 
tiring efforts to secure a teacher from the Synod. Accept, my 
dear friend, of my warmest thanks for your interest and care, 
and give my best acknowledgments to the committee. May 
the Lord make our way prosperous. 

" The Synod s cutting off her Colonial and Missionary Churches 
from a share in her aid is leaving them to struggle against a 
strong current. It is a severe measure. Other bodies of Chris 
tians are liberally supported by the House of Assembly and 
parish vestries. The Scottish Kirk is pushing hard to be taken 
under the wing of the Government. The different English 
Societies are carried onward by their churches at home. Our 
people are not made of money. The most of those attending 
our churches are labourers, receiving 7s. 6d. per week, and there 
has been no such outpouring of the Holy Spirit as that recorded 
in Acts iv. 34, 35. There is, however, a system of money- 
raising, which, for the welfare of Christ s kingdom, would better 
be broken up. We, who belong to the Secession, desire to 
cling to our Bible, and to the customs of our fathers, as far as 
practicable. We desire to be Voluntaries ; we desire to walk 
according to the law of Christ, that every man give as the 
Lord hath prospered him. We desire to defend the purity of 
Christ s Church in this ordinance as in other ordinances. Hence, 
although needful of money, I have considered it my duty to 
return certain sums which were sent me, considering that prin 
ciple is of more importance in the Church than money. These 
transactions I will give at large in my journal. All things con 
sidered, I think that the Synod has crippled us sadly, by with 
holding what would enable us to keep pace with a rising country, 



POLLUTED GIFTS. 161 

and putting us in a position for showing the efficiency of the 
Voluntary method. 

Mr. Jameson s principles were high and honourable. Once 
he remarked, that the vile behaviour of some of our country 
men, made it almost pollution to put their gifts into the treasury 
of the Lord ; at the same time, admitting that there is a limit 
to the rejecting the voluntary gifts of such men. But one such 
gift a liberal one too, and proffered at this time of need, when 
he did not know where he should find the funds necessary to 
carry on the heavy work on hand was promptly and decidedly 
refused. A neighbouring proprietor had promised 50 to the 
building fund. In the meantime, he had used unholy freedoms 
with one of his servants, a young woman attending, says Mr. 
Jameson, " my classes, who has, in consequence, been expelled. 
He sent part of his subscription, which I considered it my duty 
to return, stating that the money of one who shamed and 
grieved us, and tended to destroy us, I could not receive." 
The money was sent back with the following note : " The 

disclosures which , formerly a member of iny classes, made 

to me, some time ago, regarding your conduct towards her, 
forbid my acceptance of the sum you offer to the church." 

The arrival of his eldest sister, in November, was a happy 
event for all concerned. She had cheerfully devoted herself to 
promote her brother s comfort and usefulness ; and the mission 
was, in every respect, the gainer, the people, by the presence 
among them of one peculiarly fitted for usefulness among the 
children of Africa, and the missionary, by the companionship 
of a beloved sister who could enter thoroughly into all his 
anxieties, and hopes, and plans. She was recognised, and is still 
warmly remembered by the people as being, in all respects, the 
counterpart, and the worthy coadjutor of their beloved minister. 
The friends of Mr. Jameson and of the mission rejoiced in this 
arrangement, having reason to believe that, amidst his many 
duties, and in the desolate state of his own home, his personal 
comfort was neglected, and his health endangered. 

The following extracts refer to this matter, and they give 
us a near view of the marvellous affectionateness of the 

L 



162 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

man s heart, who, at the same time, was able to make so 
thorough a consecration of himself to the public cause of the 
Redeemer : 

"December 3d, 1839. However much comfort my coming 
home at present might afford me, yet it is altogether beyond 
my power. Baby is yet so tender, that I fear it would injure 
her. She is thriving so well under the kind care of Mrs. 
Cowan, that I should not like to remove her. Besides, I can 
not bring my mind to leave the grave of my beloved Nicolis. 
I feel as if that would be tearing myself from her arms. She 
left her earthly all for my sake ; she loved me ; she nursed me ; 
she watched over me with unwearied and most anxious care. 
Now she has left me, and all that remains for me to look upon 
is her grave. I delight to visit it, and cannot yet depart so 
far from it. This may be considered an infirmity. Call it so. 
Call it what you please. Still its existence is a reality ; and 
the consolation which it gives is ever grateful. Such, moreover, 
is the nature of my engagements here, that I could not pos 
sibly move from the spot, without seeming to desert my post at 
a most interesting emergency, and without retarding the work 
to a very serious extent. 

"As to your coming out, I know not what to say. After 
what has befallen me, I am afraid to say, Come. I feel 
more and more, every day, the comfort you would be to me. 
Since my beloved Nicolis has left me, there are none but your 
selves whom I should desire to take her place in the manage 
ment of my domestic concerns. And it would be a great 
happiness to have my dear child at home with myself, which 
cannot be in present circumstances." The above, as well as 
the following, was to his sisters : "July 6th, 1840. I am 
afraid to ask, far more, to press you to come. My poor heart 
got one terrible wrench ; another such would, humanly speak 
ing, be far more than I could bear. I am willing, according to 
the grace given to me, to endure my present loneliness with 
patience, and to bear all the sadness and sorrow to which, for 
some months, I have been no stranger, rather than bring other 
friends whom I love to this land of sultriness, fever, and rapid 



SOLITARY AND SAD. 163 

death. But, oh, my dear sisters ! if you want to see Goshen, 
I want to see you. If you desire to put hand to the glorious 
work, haste and come. We need you in the house, and we need 
you in the field of labour. . . . ... 

" I never felt the loss of my beloved Nicolis so overwhelm 
ingly as now. All in the Presbytery returned home with light 
hearts and joyful. But my heart was heavy, heavy as my 
father used to say, big with woe. I laid my feverish head 
upon the pillow, and looked in vain for the solace of her who 
is gone from me for ever. I can venture no farther. Do not 
show this letter, and expose my weakness. I must bear up 
before the world ; and it is only to you, or to my mother, that 
I venture to lift the sluice to the pent-up flood." 

Again, July 10th, 1840, to the same : "I want you to 
look after my house, and to herd my income. Since Mcolis 
left me, I cannot do this myself. I know not how my dear 
wife managed to make the ends meet. I wish you to come for 
this, although it were for nothing else : for, if the management 
of the house is left on my shoulders, along with everything else, 
I shall very soon founder. I have not time to attend to it. 
And I feel that debt would endanger the cause of Christ as 
much as anything else." 

In the following letter to Mr. Bryden, February 9th, 1841, 
Mr. Jameson acknowledges the receipt of gifts from his friends 
in Edinburgh, which came timeously, and were welcomed during 
that season of anxiety. 

" I have to acknowledge the receipt of the boxes. On Satur 
day, they arrived in safety from Ocho Bios. I know not what 
to say to you and all friends for this kindness. The medicine 
chest is most valuable ; please, tender the warmest thanks of 
the church at Goshen to Miss Logan, Lauriston, for this valu 
able gift. I am sometimes overwhelmed when I think of all 
that is done for us by you at home, and of the poor return I 
make, even on the score of acknowledgment. All that I can 
say is, that you have the deepest thanks of myself and congre 
gation, and that your kindness is ever before me and ever en 
couraging me. My apparent remissness is always lying like a 



164 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

weighty burden upon my heart ; but incessant employment 
makes me altogether unable to attend to other duties in which 
I take much delight. No sooner was the Hall closed, than the 
Presbytery came. No sooner was the Presbytery over, than 
Mr. Taylor fell sick, and I had to turn into the school. Thus 
I happen to be, for the present, minister, teacher, and catechist 
at Goshen and Bonham Spring. Of late, I have become builder 
also. I formerly referred to the carelessness of the contractor 
for the walls of the church. His men refused to work any 
longer for him, and he had to retire. By the advice of all my 
friends, I have employed the headman mason, and all are now 
working cheerfully. With one thing and another, I have not 
a moment from the dawn till I lie down to sleep away the cares 
and toils of the day. Keeping books and paying money are 
departments with which I am not well acquainted ; but when 
we rise to duty, and face difficulties, the way becomes smoother, 
knowledge is gained, and habits are acquired which more than 
repay the loss of ease and comfort. The traveller s way may 
be toilsome, along rugged tracks, and in uncongenial regions, 
but his increased information more than repays the toil. I 
know that He whose name is a strong tower, is with me ; and 
that your prayers go up daily on my behalf ; and truly I have 
reason to rejoice in my infirmities that the power of Christ may 
rest upon me. As a blessing has been upon the coffee and 
sugar we sent you, we cannot but repeat, and, if possible, 
double the quantity of Goshen and Salisbury produce, this year, 
for yourselves and kind friends. I am glad to learn by Mr. 
Fyfe s letter, that your soiree succeeded so well, and that your 
noble subscription was so speedily raised. 

" It is said of Britain, that she has only to will a thing, 
and it is done ; how much more truly may this be said of 
the Church of Christ ! Her treasures lie in her will. And 
Calvary, and all the blessed ordinances of divine grace, and 
the mighty working of the Spirit of God, conspire to this one 
end the making of a willing people. The widow of Zare- 
phath found that the more she gave to the Lord s cause, the 
more she got to give. Ever giving she ever increased. She 



A NEGRO S ACCOUNT OF THE FALL. 165 

learned what God s people, at the present day, more, perhaps, 
than at any other period, have learned, that there is a giving 
which enriches, and a withholding which tends to poverty. 

" I have appointed this afternoon for the examination of 
candidates for the Lord s Supper. We intend to observe this 
ordinance on Sabbath eight days. There will be upwards of 
thirty new members. Among these there are three young 
females of Mrs. Jameson s training, who are hopeful characters. 
The sower goes, but the seed remains ; the sower dies, but 
the seed lives ; the sower must decrease, but the seed must 
increase." 

In a letter to the Rev. John Parker of Sunderland, who, 
along with his congregation, took a deep interest in Goshen, 
and aided the work there in various ways, Mr. Jameson 
(February llth, 1841) gives the following account of the fall 
of our first parents, from the lips of an aged negro, at the 
examination of candidates referred to above : " Massa (God) 
say Adam must nyamee (eat) all de fruit in de garden, but 
de tree of knowledge. But he say to Adam, * Adam, you no 
must nyamee dis fruit, else you dead. De serpent come, say 
to mammy Eve, Dis fruit bery good, it make you be wise. 
Mammy Eve take lillee (little) bit, and bring de oder half 
gib daddy Adam. Daddy no will taste it fust time, but 
mammy tell him it be bery good. Den him nyamee de oder 
half. Den daddy and mammy been know dat dem be naked. 
Dey go hide in a bush. Massa come from heaven, but Him 
no fin Adam all about. Den Massa strike him foot on de 
ground, and say, I wager Adam been nyamee de fruit. 
Massa go seek Adam and fin him hidin in de bush, and put 
him out of de garden. Daddy and mammy take leaves and 
sew dem for clothes." 

Another said, " Oh, yes, me know me be bery great sinner ; 
me sleep in sin ; me sit in sin ; me drink sin ; me nyamee 
sin ; me do no tin but sin ; dis wicked heart make me sin." 

The members of Goshen church were well instructed in 
their duties. They were encouraged to cherish and express 
their gratitude to the friends who had sent them the gospel, 



166 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

and to pray and give that the gospel might be spread in Africa. 
There are extant many short letters which were addressed to 
their friends in Eose Street and in Sunderland, one or two 
specimens of which we shall insert here. The first is from an 
aged African female, still alive. It is not easy to follow her 
when she is speaking ; but what she lacks in utterance she 
makes up by expressive gesture. 

" So long time me come from Guinea, my tongue heavy. 
Jesus so good as spare me to this hour, and send minister out 
here to tell me good word. Bless we teacher and we minister, 
and all the society family at home. With all my heart, and 
with all my mind, I member Jesus till last day come. 

" CECILIA HARVEY." 

" Jane Byefield thank Mr. Simpson to give we minister 
from the Rose Street family, and our minister write home for 
a teacher for we ; and we thank him give we a kind teacher, 
and we love him ; he learn we the word of God. I can 
neither read, write, nor see, but we thankful for the word, 
and we very glad to have we minister and we teacher to give 
we knowledge of Jesus Christ, and we satisfied for minister 
and teacher to stop with we if God spare them. We cannot 
deliver up our teacher to Middlesex people. We loved minis 
ter s wife as we love himself. She teached we the same as 
minister himself, when he was not there ; we lose her ; we 
cannot help it. We love the little one left behind. If the 
Lord spare her, we shall be very thankful for it. Mrs. Jame 
son was kind to Jane Byefield ; and I like her family, though 
I don t see them. I send my love to Mrs. Jameson s mother, 
her brother, and her family, to Mr. Jameson s family, Mr. 
Moir s family, and to the family in Rose Street ; my duty to 
them all. JANE BYEFIELD." 

The following is from one who can write himself. He 
writes with his left hand, with the paper turned upside down, 
a very legible hand. He has been a consistent member and 
faithful elder of the church, and can express himself with great 
feeling and fluency. 

" MY DEAR FRIENDS IN SUNDERLAND, I love to send you 



LETTERS OF NEGROES. 167 

a letter, Hope the Lord may be with you. The Lord able to 
send my minister to me. He also able to send minister over 
to Africa, When minister come here, we were in children 
practice. He gave me first lesson-book ; the second day of 
freedom, he gave me New Testament. And now I have the 
whole Bible. I learn my Sabbath morning hymn through 
the week. The hymn I am now saying is the fifty-first ; 
Soon shall this earthly frame dissolved. Our verse is 2 
Cor. iv. : f If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are 
lost. We are reading in Judges, and in Acts, the story of 
Peter healing the lame man. My kind regards to Mr. Parker 
and all the congregation. ROBERT HAMILTON." 

The writer of the following is also an elder one who is 
still bent on self-improvement : 

" MY DEAR MINISTER PARKER, We have received your 
interesting letters, and our minister has read them to us. We 
hope the Lord may bless their interesting words to our souls. 
As God has given us the Bible, may he grant us the Holy 
Spirit, that we may carry it with us wherever we go. We 
have heard with much pleasure what you say about supporting 
the gospel. Our church building takes away from us, at pre 
sent, all the money we can spare. When it is finished, we 
hope to join you in doing more to support the gospel, and to 
send it to Ethiopia that she may stretch out her hands to God. 
We send you, through the family in Rose Street, a little coffee 
and sugar for your tea party, and hope that soon we will be 
able to do much more. HARRIS ANDERSON." 

Many may despise these simple effusions. But not so the 
thoughtful, who consider nothing interesting to a human 
creature, foreign to their business and bosoms. See an African 
in Africa such an old woman as Cecilia Harvey ; heathenism 
and superstition have shrivelled and withered up almost every 
thing human about her. Her thoughts rise no higher than the 
instincts of a mere animal. It is almost impossible to say 
anything that can pierce that dead intellect and petrified heart. 
But yonder, in Jamaica, see her, in the very evening of her 
days, with opened heart and awakened intellect, stretching 



168 MEMOIE OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

forth her withered hands to a compassionate Saviour, declaring 
that with all her heart, and with all her soul, she will remem 
ber Jesus till the last day. Jesus shall win such trophies even 
in the wilds of Ethiopia herself. The voice that shall wake 
the dead ! can it not rouse even the dead soul of an African 
in Africa ? It can, and it will. Jesus ! the hour is coming. 
Let it now be. 

How fine is the following scene, which took place in Goshen 
church, and is told by an eye-witness ! Mr. Jameson was 
faithful in requiring obedience to the law of Christ, on the 
part of all who were admitted into the church. He was not 
one of those who think that either doctrine or duty should be 
modified to make it easier for the heathen to receive the doc 
trine, and perform the duty. Some appear disposed to relax 
Christian morality, even to the extent of opening the Lord s 
table to the polygamist. 

One of those who had been chosen as elders, although he 
was a sincere Christian himself, had a very unruly family. His 
children scorned control, and laughed at decency. On one 
occasion, Mr. Jameson saw it proper, for the sake of religion, 
to request the old man to consider himself no longer an office 
bearer of the church, simply on account of the ill behaviour of 
his children. The old man rose and said : " Yes, my minister, 
me will do what minister say, because it be good. My family 
make me be shame. But although my house be not so with 
God ; yet hath he made with me (pressing his hand on his 
heart) an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure : 
for this is all my salvation, and all my desire." The earnest 
look of the old man, and the burst of genuine feeling, in words 
which he did not expect to hear, melted Mr. Jameson into 
tears. The old people s class had been learning the verse, some 
time before. 



SELF-CONSECRATION. 169 



CHAPTER VII. 

Jamaica Presbytery meets at Goshen The missionary dedication Seasonable 
aid The fatherless child sings himself into Canaan Vindication of the African 
Mission Church discipline Mr. Donaldson arrives Miss Mary Jameson Battle, 
against the caste of colour The Divinity Students Death of Rev. James Paterson 
Review of 1842 Church completed and dedicated Mr. Donaldson s departure 
and death All ours is God s Review of 1843 Heartless corrupters. 

THE following, from the pen of Miss Jameson, gives an in 
teresting account of the meeting of the Jamaica Presbytery in 
July, 1841, at which it was resolved to embark in the mission 
to Africa. The Presbytery met at Goshen, and Messrs. Blyth, 
Waddell, Anderson of Bellevue, Niven, Scott, Simpson, Cowan, 
and Jameson made up the band. 

" They had two days of anxious deliberation in regard to 
Africa, and of earnest prayer to God for direction in the deeply 
important matter which they were considering. Mr. Waddell 
introduced it, and read extracts from Buxton s work. 1 After 
he sat down, all was silent for a few moments. Then each 
minister rose in his turn, and solemnly devoted himself to 
Africa, if God should call him. I wish, my dear friends, you 
had witnessed the scene. Looking at every difficulty and 
danger, and many such await Christ s servant in wild, untamed 
Africa, these eight devoted men solemnly pledged themselves to 
the enterprise of a new mission there. Do you ask how I felt ] 
I was lifted above myself at the noble bearing of the men." 

Let us pause for a moment and contemplate the scene that 
took place on that occasion, when of these brethren, after, two 
days deliberation, each in turn arose and solemnly devoted him 
self as the leader of the forlorn hope in a new assault on the 
kingdom of darkness. This had been brought about, partly 

1 The Slave Trade and its Remedy, by Sir T. F. Buxton. 



170 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

through the desire of many of the people to see something done 
to extend in Africa the same glorious gospel which had given 
them joy. At the time when this self-dedication was made, 
they had in view no particular part of the Guinea Coast. They 
only desired to put themselves at the disposal of the Lord, 
who seemed, at that particular time, to be asking, " Whom 
shall we send, and who will go for us 1 " The Spirit of God 
moved them all to say, " Here are we, choose thy messenger. 
By thy grace we are all ready to be offered for thy cause in 
wretched Ethiopia." The vow was heard in heaven. Two of 
that band were sent. One of them laid his bones in the dust 
of Africa ; and of the remaining six, one died in Jamaica, while 
the other five live to see the result of that day s dedication. 
The seed which they thus planted, has begun to spring. We 
look to thee, God, for the power from on high, that it may 
grow up a tree of life and liberty for countless living and 
unborn thousands. 

The following letter to the Rev. John Parker of Sunder- 
land (August 5th, 1841), mentions a striking instance of the 
seasonable aid with which our Father in heaven favours his 
children : 

" Your very welcome note came by last packet ; and it was 
read to the church last Sabbath morning. It strengthened my 
hands and encouraged my heart, for your arguments against 
dreams were like those which, from time to time, I had brought 
before them. I asked the people why Mr. Parker said the 
same thing that I said. Because he gets it where I get it. 
The blessed Bible is the book of my friend in Sunderland, as 
well as our book, and it teaches us all the same thing. Achan 
I read to them yesterday, in their 1st of August meeting. May 
the Lord bless your esteemed labours among us, as well as at 
home. 

" I have, my dear brother, things innumerable to thank you 
for. The Bethel Flag is a beautiful periodical. I circulate 
numbers among the young people s classes ; all read them with 
interest and delight. Canaan is a simple and beautiful 
piece. We had the two first verses of old ; the other verses 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 171 

are a happy addition. There was a run upon it, and some of 
the children have carried it off. 

" The boxes, my dear brother, stand identified with the most 
striking interpositions of Providence on our behalf. Our out 
side walls were finished, and paid for, when it was found 
necessary to build three strong walls inside, to support the floor 
ing. This work I had to begin with an empty purse. Your 
box, and the box from Montrose, instead of being landed at 
Ocho Rios, were carried to Montego Bay, where they lay for 
two or three months. A few weeks ago, I heard that they 
were at Ocho Rios, and sent for them in my straits. They arrived, 
two Saturdays ago. The following week, 30 had to be paid. 
I told the people that the boxes were come, and that they must 
buy their 1st of August clothes out of them. On Thursday 
night, at eight o clock, I had just reckoned the masons accounts, 
which amounted in whole to 17, 9s. 7Jd., when my sister 
came up stairs, and, putting the sale-bag upon the table, said that 
it contained 17, 9s. 7d. I thought, surely she has been look 
ing over my shoulder, and I could not believe. On counting the 
money, we found not only the sum mentioned by my sister, 
but one quatty (1 Jd.) more, which was the remaining halfpenny, 
and a penny to the bag. I was then compelled to own that a 
higher One was looking over my shoulder, and, in His own way, 
providing for our need. Well, said my sister, the Lord will 
provide the remaining sum before it is required. Next morn 
ing, the masons came in for their money. On being paid, they 
went to the box and bought, so that the money returned again 
to the fund. I paid ; the people bought ; the money came 
back ; and now our debt is paid, and 9 remain to meet other 
expenses. Truly, we are the children of many mercies. With 
what gentleness does God rebuke our fears ! How richly does 
He supply our wants, and enforce his own blessed injunction, 
* Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and sup 
plication, make your requests known unto God. How blessed 
to live in the hearts of a praying people ! Prayer begets these 
boxes. Prayer brings them to us in time of need. Prayer 
draws down upon them God s enriching blessing, and makes 



172 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

them answer the purpose designed. My dear brother, pray 
for us. Tell our kind friends, when they send us boxes, to 
continue in prayer for us : for prayer is our wealth, and strength, 
and aid." 

" MY DEAR BROTHER, Your two letters on the influence 
of children, are to us most valuable. They have introduced me 
to a wide field of instruction, which, I hope, will be blessed 
both to church and school. Your words to us have been spirit 
and life. 

" I have to acknowledge your kindness in regularly sending 
the Herald. I have read the paper of <3?6Ao7rais with much in 
terest. The Missionary particularly interested and over 
whelmed me. You will, I fear, consider it heavy work to cor 
respond with me : for I am slow at the pen, whilst yours is the 
pen of the ready writer. For two years, my thoughts have been 
so much among stones and mortar, and my hours so occupied 
in school, that I feel it no easy work to call up my scattered 
thoughts ; and, as to the pouring them out at railway speed, 
that is out of the question. I hope you will have forbearance 
with the infirmity of a brother, and not ascribe my slowness to 
indifference. I often sigh over those days when it was my 
happiness to sit down quietly in my room, and enjoy those 
hours of retirement, which help to raise the mind above the 
harassments of this world of toil and care, and to fit us for 
communion with God, and for his blessed work. But those 
days are gone by. Still, there remaineth a rest for the people 
of God ! Sweet rest ! Blessed the day when the soul enters 
upon the enjoyment of it ! 

" I hope Jamaica will be forward in the great work which is 
to be commenced in Africa. The building of our churches is, 
at present, a barrier to missionary enterprise. Five of us are 
struggling with this millstone : but we hope, in due time, 
through God s goodness, to overcome ; and then we will arise 
and give ourselves with more energy to the work. 

" We have just laid in the grave an interesting little boy, a son 
of the late Mr. Kay. 1 I took him under my care, on the death 

1 Mr. William Kay was sent as a catechist to Jamaica in February, 1838. He died 



THE DYING BOY. 173 

of his father. He had been two weeks at his new home, when 
he took scarlet fever and died. He was about the age of my 
little daughter, three years. The last day he was in company 
with his little playmate, he sat and sang Canaan. The last 
word he was heard to utter was Canaan, and now he is in 
the happy land." 

Early in 1841, Mr. George Millar from Edinburgh arrived 
at, and took charge of, Bonhain Spring. The school which he 
taught there was a blessing to the district. Boarders were also 
received, and several missionary students were among the 
number. 

Friends at home thought that the Jamaica missionaries were 
going rather fast in the matter of a mission to Africa. Exist 
ing engagements were heavy ; and how could they enter on a 
new enterprise of magnitude and importance, until the Jamaica 
Mission had taken shape, and been somewhat consolidated ? The 
following letter, dated January 4th, 1842, dwells upon this 
point, and indicates the claims of the brethren to credit for sound 
sense and moderation, as well as zeal and faith : 

" I have, to-night, received letters from two of my brothers 
who appear to be under the impression that I am on wing for 
Africa. By last packet but one, I received your kind favour 
also, which alluded to the same subject. I purposed to write 
you by return of post, but being engaged with the students, I 
had not a moment s time. I find it necessary, however, to let 
other duties stand for the night, and betake myself to this 
one. Instead, therefore, of writing my brothers, I address you 
on this important subject. I am not aware what peculiar as 
pect the Presbytery s measure may have assumed at home, or 
upon what grounds I, more than any other of my brethren, 
should be considered as about to go to Africa. I have not the 
least idea that I shall be honoured with a trust of so vast impor- 

in 1841, after three years of faithful service at Mount Horeb, ten miles south of 
Montego Bay. The Jamaica Presbytery recorded in their minutes (January 19, 
1842) " their sense of the great loss which they sustained in the death of Mr. Kay, 
whose unwearied diligence in the cause of his divine Master, whose unassuming 
manners and sincere piety had endeared him to the members of the mission, and 
gained for him the affection of those among whom he laboured." 



174 MEMOIR OF KEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

tance and difficulty. But if the appointment falls upon me, I 
shall accept of it only upon condition of its receiving the entire 
concurrence of the Society, whose agent I have the privilege to 
be ; and provided another be found to take the oversight of the 
work and flock here. 

" These two points were expressly referred to when consi 
dering the question, and they enter as elements into the mea 
sure. So much for the position of the question in relation to 
myself. I would now direct your attention to the reasons 
which led the Presbytery to adopt these resolutions. It seemed 
to us that a wide door was about to be opened for missionary 
labour in Central Africa, and, in consequence of this, that there 
was a loud call to the Church of Christ to make preparation, 
and to hold herself in readiness to enter, and to occupy the field. 
It was also impressed upon our minds that, in this great en 
terprise, the Church in Jamaica should show herself not only 
interested, but forward in undertaking the work. If coldness 
appeared among Ethiopia s children, where was zeal to be looked 
for 1 We felt also that it belonged to us, the ministers, to 
guide our people. In considering the question, we also felt that 
as yet we were but minors, and could not act with the full 
freedom and vigour of manhood ; but we considered it our duty 
to act according to the circumstances in which we were placed. 
We therefore proposed that each member of Presbytery should 
devote himself, individually, to the cause of Africa, and that 
he should feel himself bound to carry the gospel to that be 
nighted land, should Providence call him to the work. In 
the spirit of this resolution, it was also agreed to offer ourselves 
to the churches at home, as willing to be their agents there, 
should they desire to occupy that field. To this we were induced, 
from the consideration, that agents will be more easily found 
to come to Jamaica, than to go to Africa, that we were, in 
some measure, already acclimatized, and, therefore, better pre 
pared for a more trying region than persons from home, that 
we were also, in some degree, acquainted with the manners of 
the negro, and inured to the toils and trials of a missionary life, 
and that, enjoying the confidence of our people, a number of the 



THE AFRICAN MISSION. 175 

best people in our churches might be induced to accompany us as 
colonists. We also proposed to support the agent who went from 
among us, feeling assured that, by so doing, the funds which are 
necessary for the carrying on of the work here, would not thereby 
be damaged. Such are the reasons which led to the resolution 
recorded in the minutes of last Presbytery. As we are yet 
under tutors, it remains with the church at home to say whether 
any portion of Central Africa shall be occupied by us as a field 
of missionary labour. We feel that we cannot go and leave 
our flocks in Jamaica uncared for. Our places must be filled 
with efficient agents. It would be false philanthropy to leave 
our people destitute, for the purpose of carrying the gospel to 
those who are not a people. But any one of us is willing to 
submit, once more, to the pang of separation, to break the 
dearest ties, and to face the deep, the perils of an African climate, 
and the trials of an infant mission, for the benefit of our 
churches, that Ethiopia may stretch out her hand to God, 
and that we may bear a part in working out the most rational 
method yet proposed for the amelioration of Africa, and the 
destruction of the slave trade. . . . I am happy in Goshen, 
and I hope T am useful. I love my people ; and were I to 
consult my own feelings, I would much rather live and die 
among them. And I confess it is my most earnest wish never 
to be long out of sight of the grave of that dear one who left 
all, and accompanied me to this distant land ; and much do I 
desire that my grave should be in hers. But Jesus calls upon 
me once more to take up the cross. I trust that I shall be 
found preferring him to my chief joy, and that you will be 
ready to bid me God-speed. But of this, my dear friend, there 
is no prospect, at present ; yea, during the past year, respon 
sibilities and difficulties of various kinds have been increasing, 
which will serve to tie me down here for years to come. Of 
these I will tell you more afterwards. If God has work for 
me elsewhere, He may soon remove them all. But one thing is 
dutiful, never to leave the Church of Christ in a state of dis 
order in one place, for the purpose of establishing it in another. 
To dishonour it where it is established, is not to contribute to 



176 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

its stability in any quarter ; and, to speak without mystery, I 
must stay here till the debt on the church be paid." 

In reviewing the work for 1841, Mr. Jameson wrote to the 
President and Directors of the Missionary Association in Rose 
Street Church, February 4th, 1842 : 

"I sit down to give you a brief sketch of our proceedings 
at Goshen during the past year, in which it will be seen that 
there is much cause for humiliation, as well as for gratitude 
and praise. There are 177 families on our list, most of which 
are whole families ; while, in the case of others, some of the 
members come to us, and some go to other churches, or to no 
church at all. Ten families have joined us since last report. 
Five or more of our young people have married, and set up 
separate families. Seven persons have been admitted to the 
communion of the church. The smallness of this number arises 
not from want of applicants, but from the necessity of being 
cautious. There have been eight baptisms, and eleven mar 
riages. On the same day, and at the same time, an old father 
and mother, with their young son and his bride, were united in 
the bonds of matrimony. 

" A few of the members and catechumens have been sus 
pended, three for quarrelling, and one for allowing his 
daughter to leave his house on the Sabbath-day, with her 
hoe and her basket, for the purpose of being ready to go to 
work next morning. An elder, I am sorry to say, was de 
posed for carrying his tools on the Lord s day, and bringing 
them with him to church. One of the catechumens was ex 
communicated for killing his neighbour s ass ; he hacked it 
with his cutlass till it died. Others have been admonished by 
myself and the session ; but, on the whole, I have much 
reason to be satisfied with the peaceful, sober, and consistent 
behaviour of the congregation. Their attention to the means 
of grace has been regular, and the progress of many in know 
ledge satisfactory. 

" The week-day classes for religious instruction have not 
been so regular as I could have desired ; neither have I been 
able regularly to visit the congregation. This arises from the 



REPORT OF THE YEAR. 177 

necessity of being daily in the school, and from the numerous 
and varied matters that are continually pressing upon me. I 
feel, however, more and more, the want of this minute inspec 
tion. Our Sabbath audience remains much the same ; the 
house is as full as is convenient. I have reason to believe 
that, when we get into our new house, our audience will be 
considerably increased. Subscriptions and collections have been 
regular. Subscriptions, 105 sterling ; collections, .50 ster 
ling. Along with this, we have raised a fund of 8 for me 
dicines and medical attendance. Altogether, our contributions 
amount to 163. The law of the medical fund is that every 
one who pays Is. sterling, is entitled to medicine and medical 
attendance. In this way we aid one another, and, by a united 
effort, we help the weak and poor among us in sickness. 

" The building has been standing still, for the last six 
weeks. The roof is finished and the estimate ended ; and I 
have not had leisure to arrange for the laying down of the 
floor. This I intend to begin with as soon as possible. Pro 
vidence has brought help to my hand in this time of need. 
Mrs. M Dowall, a very excellent lady, a member of Port 
Maria congregation, is to give us the loan of 500. I am 
to pay six per cent., to give a bond on the property, and re 
fund the money in six years. I am much concerned to see 
the sad distress at home, and the more so, as I am not in cir 
cumstances to ease you of the heavy burden which this mission 
imposes. I will make every effort to relieve you as far as pos 
sible. I intend to establish a regular system which will be 
permanent. I feel much for my native land, and pray the 
Lord to remove his hand of judgment. I am sorry to see a 
falling off in the Synod s Mission Fund." 

On February 25th, 1842, he wrote to Mr. M Gilchrist : 
"I am truly happy that the report of the Station for 1840 
gave so much satisfaction to the Directors, the Society, and 
friends. I hope the Lord is blessing us, but often fear lest 
he withdraw his gracious presence. Oh, there is much bar 
renness among us, much that is wrong, little that is right. 
I often think that all we possess is in answer to the prayers 

M 



178 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

of dear friends at home. For myself, I have to cry out, My 
leanness ! my leanness ! When I became a missionary, I ex 
pected to have nothing to do with the world s troubles and 
bustle. Whereas, I have everything to do with it ; for no 
thing can move but through my poor instrumentality ; and I 
do assure you, touch it in whatever way, from whatever 
quarter, and by whatever motive, your soul must partake of 
its plagues. But the fact that we enjoy your kindness, your 
sympathy, and your prayers, cheers, supports, and comforts us. 
Our sacrament, on the last Sabbath in October, was delightful 
to us ; and the thought was most sweet that you were with 
us at the same work. I often think, on the Sabbath morning, 
that it is good for us that the sun rises upon you first : for 
your morning prayers are at the throne for us before we begin. 
Thus, I sometimes think and say that we are the better of 
you in this matter ; and it is a strong consolation to ask God 
in my closet, family, Sabbath-school, and morning prayer, to 
hear the prayers which we know are presented for us, on the 
morning of this day, by dear friends in Rose Street, and to bless 
those who have been praying for us." 

On hearing that Mr. Peter Donaldson had been appointed to 
the office of teacher and catechist of Goshen, Mr. Jameson thus 
expresses his feelings : " I am delighted to see that Mr. 
Donaldson is appointed to be my fellow-labourer among the 
young. I cannot feel grateful enough to you, and to our dearly 
beloved friends in Rose Street, for this new expression of deep 
interest and love. It will be a great relief to me, and enable 
me to attend more fully to the congregation. We have got a 
very comfortable house fitted up for him, near ourselves ; it is 
far from the school, but he will have a horse." 

The amount of school fees collected during the year 1841, 
was 32, school having been held during only nine months. 
There were 125 boys and 112 girls on the list, in all, 237. 

Referring to her brother s activity at this time, Miss Jame 
son, April 22d, 1842, wrote : 

Our beloved William has much need of relief. Ever since 
the Hall ended, he has had the whole work of a school of more 



ARRIVAL OF YOUNGER SISTER. 179 

than 100 children, besides his ministerial duties. Our doctor 
says, ( Parson Jameson is an iron man ; the climate has no 
effect on him at all. I never saw a minister at home go through 
the half of what he does. Every night I think he will come 
home to me sick." 

Thus does he again weep with those that wept, in a letter to 
Mr. M Gilchrist, May 20th, 1842 : 

" I was sorry to learn that the Lord has, once more, visited 
you with affliction, and removed one of your tender lambs to 
his own fold above. The loss to you is great, but the gain to 
the dear child far exceeds our utmost thoughts. Your cup is 
bitter, but hers is unmingled sweetness. Oh yes ! my boy and 
his mother, your darling and her grandmothers, have all met, 
long ago, and met many more dear departed friends, and have 
talked over scenes in Goshen and Rose Street which are full of 
interest to their now glorified spirits. I cannot but look to 
heaven as my home, as the dwelling-place of the partner of my 
soul, as the home of my kindred, as the meeting-place where I 
shall once more shake hands with those from whom I have been 
long and far separated, and where I shall be introduced to dear 
ones in Christ, whom I never saw in the flesh. 

" The blessed God has not stripped your garden of all its 
pleasant flowers. I rejoice to hear that another bud has ap 
peared upon the stem that, so lately, was bereft of its lovely 
blossom. May this tender bud long bloom, and be an ornament 
to her father s house, and bear fruit to the glory of God." 

The following letter refers to an arrangement by which the 
mission family at Goshen obtained an addition to their happi 
ness, and the congregation another zealous and efficient labourer 
for their good. Miss Mary Jameson arrived in Jamaica in 
January of 1843. When Mr. Donaldson was removed in 
August of the same year, she aided in conducting the school 
till, in 1846, the family was broken up by Mr. Jameson s 
departure to Africa. She then became the wife of William 
Milne, Esq. She came to Scotland with her husband, in the 
year 1848, and died in 1855. Like her brother and sister 
she is still held in affectionate remembrance at Goshen. Pos- 



180 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

sessed of good natural talents, and a cultivated mind, she was 
distinguished for her amiability. Her piety was deep and fer 
vent, and her end was peace. 

It is a family letter, and one which, on that account, might 
be withheld. But it is so like the man, and breathes such a 
spirit of devotedness to the Lord s cause, and such elevated senti 
ments throughout, that we cannot deny the reader the benefit of 
seeing it. Would to God that the same spirit of simple con 
fidence in God, and entire consecration to his service, lived in 
every genuine Christian bosom ! The best affections of the 
heart would not then stand in the way of the Lord s cause, but 
parents would give their children, when the Lord had need of 
them j and far more Christian men and women would offer 
themselves to the work of the Lord in heathen lands, while the 
treasury of the house of God would overflow with the givings 
of a willing people, at length girding themselves, in right ear 
nest, to the enterprise of gospelling the whole human family. 
Oh, the grim silence of death covers, like a pall, the face of 
many nations ; and how few are at the work of removing it ! 
We are only at the outskirts of vast Ethiopia. When shall the 
messenger of peace from the west, shake hands with his brother 
from the east, in the centre of her desert wild ? When shall 
the voice of mercy awaken the echoes of numberless valleys, 
and hills, and forests which are yet unknown to Europe 1 Oh, 
thou King on God s holy hill of Zion, may we not soon see a 
willing people, beauteous with holiness, and many as the morn 
ing dew-drops, hurrying to and fro, with thee on their lips and 
in their hearts, preaching thy unsearchable riches to these most 
miserable outcasts in the land of Ham ! Let the Church of 
God know assuredly that Africa is not to be gospelled at small 
cost of time, and toil, and men, and money. That vast strong 
hold of the devil is not to be conquered by the " awkward 
squad," or by a handful of raw recruits. To save " God s black 
but comely child" will be no child s-play. It will, as indeed the 
whole mission work, looked at in its grandeur, as for the honour 
of our blessed redeeming God, require the true manhood and 
womanhood of the Church of Jesus. Let this be understood. 



LETTER TO AUNTS. 181 

" I am afraid, my dear Aunts, that you will think hard of 
my asking Mary to come to Jamaica. But you brought us up 
for the Lord, and you gave us to the Lord ; and surely for 
your dear children to be engaged in the regeneration of a lost 
world, is the best portion, and the greatest honour. The sepa 
ration is painful, but the meeting will be the sweeter, whether 
it be on this side the grave, or on the other side. I cannot say 
when we may be home. This is entirely in the hand of God. 
At present it enters not into my calculations. I feel much 
happier to attend to the work in hand. God controls our every 
movement, and his promise is, * With mine eye set upon thee, 
I will show thee direction. 

" I feel with reference to Mary s life as I do respecting my 
own, that they are in his hand. We can only fill up the 
measure of our days ; and neither the cool climate of Scotland, 
nor the warmer latitude of Jamaica, can add one moment to 
this measure, nor take one moment from it. All who believe 
the word of God must be satisfied of this, that as hirelings we 
must fulfil our days, and that the number of them can neither 
be increased nor diminished by any movements of ours. But 
the being over solicitous about this frail spark may cause a halt 
ing in our Christian race, and may fill the end of our days with 
regret. Nicolis was honoured with but a short period of warfare 
in the mission field, but who can doubt that she fell at the post 
assigned to her, or who can say that she would have lived a 
moment longer in the house of her mother, or in any house in 
Scotland 1 She had work here to perform. She lived to do 
it and when next we see her, Jamaica will beautify her crown 
with its brightest lustre. The Lord prepared the way for Jane 
to follow. She is happy, and blesses the day that she put 
hand to the work. Mary desires to join the company. I dare 
not forbid, lest I should quench a fire which the Spirit of the 
Lord has kindled. I do not forget that I may die, and that 
without being able to lay up a fraction ; but the earth is the 
Lord s, and the fulness thereof ; all that I have is the Lord s, 
and it all goes in his service. I cannot accuse myself of extra 
vagance in my stewardship. I know that He will provide 



182 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

for my sisters and daughter, and not the less so, because they 
have followed the Saviour in the regeneration. I am truly glad 
to see how well and happy Jane is in this distant land. Cathe 
rine thrives amazingly under her care ; and what more can I 
desire ] The Lord has emptied my cup, but he has filled it 
again. His billows have passed over me, but his tender mercy 
has calmed their raging, and placed me again by the waters of 
quietness. How long the calm may continue he only knows. 
I desire to hold every blessing with a loose hand, excepting 
Christ, the rock of my salvation. The likeness of my dear 
Mcolis, which our aunt in Edinburgh has so kindly sent me, is 
very precious to me. She all but speaks. She looks, but sees 
me not. But hush ! farewell !" 

The arrival of the portrait above alluded to, was the occasion 
of a renewal of all Mr. Jameson s tender recollections. After 
all had retired to rest, Miss Jameson heard him come down 
stairs softly. She arose, and, on opening the door of her bed 
room, she saw her brother with a candle in his hand, bathed in 
tears, standing before the portrait. The females, when they 
visited the Pen, were wont to drop a curtsey before it, in testi 
mony of their fond remembrance of their departed friend. 

The arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Donaldson is thus intimated to 
the Directors, June 14th, 1842 : 

" MY DEAR FRIENDS, Mr. and Mrs. Donaldson have at last 
arrived, after a long passage of eleven weeks. For preserving 
them through so many perils, I trust we feel thankful to the 
God of our mercies ; and for this fresh token of your interest 
and love, next to the great God, would I return the thanks of 
my poor heart to the Board of Education and to you. Yes, my 
dear friends, my heart is too full to utter all its thoughts. 
May the God of heaven bless you ! May your abundant sow 
ing produce for our blessed Master prosperous fruit ! 

" Mr. Donaldson has commenced his labours, and promises 
to be all we desire, anxious, vigorous, and affectionate. The 
children seem to be much interested in him, and he happy with 
them. The school-house is rustic, and, to a stranger fresh from 
the metropolis, sufficiently uncomfortable ; but our friend is not 



THE CASTE OF COLOUE. 183 

put about. He walks over the rough floor, and gives his word 
of command, as if he had long been accustomed to such things. 
His quadruped is a mule, named Kitty, a young bud of the 
mission tree, reared and trained by my boy William. She is 
saddled every morning at eight, when she moves off with her 
charge, as if she felt happy in being the bearer, and careful 
lest she should inflict any injury, this being her first outset in 
the work. Mrs. D. also enjoys good health. I have advised 
her not to teach any, for some time. She must first get a house 
beside the school, and, even then, it is necessary that she should 
do but little. We are much delighted with Mrs. D. She is 
well fitted to be a blessing to her husband, an auxiliary in the 
work, and a comfort to us. They went into their house, last 
night. Their abode is of a rougher texture than the one they 
left on the other side of the Atlantic, but we have made it as 
comfortable as we could. God s blessing and presence will 
make them happy ; and His grace, I hope, is making them 
content." 

Writing to Mr. Bryden, June 21st, 1842, Mr. Jameson says : 
" There is one circumstance to which we have not ventured 
to give prominence. Robert Jarrit, whose name you will observe 
in the list of successful candidates for prizes, is a negro. At 
his entrance into the school, the brown parents and their 
children stormed, and threatened to withdraw. We determined 
to adhere to a righteous principle. He has made honourable 
progress, and his superiority has silenced the clamour of preju 
dice. His appearance at the examination was injured by his 
modesty. He trembled like a leaf, and the big tears rolled 
over his dark cheeks, while his voice was quite smothered. 
Several specimens of elegant penmanship were laid on the table, 
in competition for the prize. After considerable difficulty, two 
were fixed upon, as best and second best, by the gentlemen 
present. It turned out that both belonged to Jarrit." 

The following extract is from a letter of Mr. Donaldson, 
October 21st, 1842 : 

" On Monday morning, I commenced my labours in the school, 
and I had no great difficulty in conducting it, even from the 



184 MEMOIE OF REV. "WILLIAM JAMESON. 

first. Mr. Jameson assisted me the first week, and showed me 
the system he had been pursuing. It nearly resembled the 
most approved systems of the schools in Edinburgh, especially 
that of Circus Place Academy, and was, in fact, as nearly as 
possible, the system I intended to adopt. Mr. Jameson is an 
excellent teacher, as good as any I have ever seen. He is a 
complete missionary, and I assure you that between the church 
building, the school, and his other duties, he has enough of 
work indeed, I am surprised how he gets on at all. Highly 
as he is esteemed by friends at home, he is by no means over 
valued by them. I had heard much about him, before coming 
to Jamaica, and now being his associate and assistant, I can say 
all things I heard of this man are true." 

The following pleasing picture is from Miss Jameson s pen, 
in a letter to the Misses Pringle, December 20th, 1842 : 

" You will like to know about our Divinity Hall. It met 
last week, and is a real good concern. There are five as sub 
stantial Scotchmen as you could wish to see. The Professor 
seems quite in his element, and has the best of health. The 
students seem to be happy and comfortable, and come in from 
their studies always in high spirits. They sat very close last 
week, and were the worse of it. William, therefore, determined 
that they should take a ride every day after dinner. About 
four in the afternoon, they mount their horses and scamper off 
like boys when the school is out, every one whipping up his 
neighbour s horse, and trying to pass him. 

" To-night, I joined the party. We rode round by the bot 
tom of our Goshen hills. The scenery was most beautiful ; 
everything was rich green, and the trees were hanging with 
yellow oranges, and shaddocks, a fruit like the orange, but 
twice as large. William said, in his own droll way, Really, 
lads, we are a formidable party. I think we may take the 
name of the Theological troop ! You cannot imagine how 
happy we are. I cannot believe that this is the Jamaica we 
dreaded so much when I was with you." 

One of the marks of true magnanimity is a generous appre 
ciation of what is excellent in the character, and praiseworthy in 



MR. PATERSON OF NEW BROUGHTON. 185 

the exertions, and honourable in the success of fellow-labourers. 
Out upon the littleness that makes us niggardly in our sincere 
commendations of brethren and their works ! Flattery is 
nauseous ; mere lip compliment is unworthy of a Christian, 
and incompatible with godly sincerity ; but it is a luxury the 
heart that is so humble and unconscious of self that it takes 
true delight in preferring and honouring other brethren. This 
was characteristic of Mr. Jameson. Sincerely and gracefully 
did he, on suitable occasions, render honour to whom honour 
was due. And what did he, or what do any, in such cases, but 
praise and magnify the Giver of every good and perfect gift, to 
whom all the virtues, and all the exertions of his servants are, 
in reality, due ] 

The Rev. James Paterson was the first missionary sent by 
the Secession Church to Jamaica, where he arrived in the spring 
of 1835. He laboured with remarkable zeal and success, under 
the immediate auspices of the church in Broughton Place, Edin 
burgh, commencing the prosperous station of New Broughton, 
of which the Rev. Andrew Hogg is now the pastor. After 
labouring for eight years, Mr. Paterson was, in a very sudden 
and distressing manner, removed to his rest and reward. 

Thus does Mr. Jameson refer to that event, in a letter dated 
February 2d, 1843 : "It is my painful duty to announce to 
you the death of another beloved labourer. My friend and 
brother, Mr. Paterson, was on his way, last week, to the 
Presby teiy, in company with Mr. Robson ; 1 when going down 
a declivity at a rapid pace, the gig gave a jolt, by the wheels 
passing into a hollow excavation in the road, and Mr. Paterson 
was thrown out. His companion was mercifully preserved, and 
on his reaching the spot where Mr. Paterson lay, he found that 
life was extinct. This sad event has covered us with the 
deepest gloom. But we desire to be still, and know that this 
is God. that we may improve these repeated admonitions 
which, of late years, the Lord has been giving us. I had a 
few lines from Mr. Robson, who says that Mrs. Paterson and 
the family are bearing up, but the stroke is overwhelming. 

1 The Rev. Dr. Robson 



186 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

May the arms of the everlasting God be underneath them, to 
sustain and comfort them. I trust some one will be willing 
speedily to come out, and occupy the place of our beloved 
brother whom the Lord has removed. The climate is most 
salubrious ; the drudgery and toil of an infant mission are 
over. There are a large and flourishing congregation, and a 
new and substantial church and school-house. Little remains 
to be done but to attend to the more delightful departments of 
the Christian ministry. Our faithful brother and his worthy 
wife and family have toiled in season and out of season, yea, 
beyond measure ; and when about to enjoy the fruit of their 
toil, the Lord has removed his servant to his higher reward, 
and left to another this enjoyment in the vineyard here below. 
How mysterious is this dispensation ! But we know- that all 
is well." 

Reporting progress during the year 1842, Mr. Jameson writes, 
February 2d, 1843 : 

" Another year has passed, leaving behind it many tokens of 
the Lord s mercy, as well as much on our part that is calculated 
to humble and abase us. For while the Lord has been giving, 
and we receiving, how little gratitude have we manifested, and 
how little zealous and sincere activity has marked our steps ! 
Truly, while the multitude meet the first moments of the new 
year with shouts of acclamation, it best becomes the Christian 
to be lying at the footstool of his God, confessing the multitude 
of his transgressions, and imploring grace to enable him to re 
deem the time, during the remainder of his years." 

" I know but little difference between our congregations of 
1841 and 1842 ; a few have joined, and a few have left us, in 
consequence of marriage, and removing to other quarters ; but 
so few, that it affects us but little in either way. I may say of 
the congregation generally, that it remains steadfast, and is 
making progress in the knowledge of Christianity. During the 
past year, fifteen persons have been admitted, for the first time, 
to the Lord s table, making the total of full members admitted, 
since the commencement of the station, 137. Ten children 
have been baptized, eight couples married, and four persons be- 



CHURCH COMPLETED. 187 

longing to the church have died. Several have been suspended 
for quarrelling, a sin to which the people in this country are 
much addicted ; one has been excommunicated for adultery, and 
another for stealing corn from the field. These latter cases 
were of peculiar aggravation, and filled the whole church with 
shame and horror. While such sins are now and then com 
mitted by individuals among us, it is pleasing to observe the 
general feeling of abhorrence with which the report of them is 
received. This is a token for good, and indicates an advance 
in moral sentiment : for the time is not yet long gone by, yea, 
among a certain class, it is even now present, when such 
practices were of frequent occurrence, and, of course, excited 
little or no remark. 

" I have endeavoured to set agoing meetings for prayer more 
generally throughout the congregation, this last year. Hitherto, 
I have not given much encouragement to them : for I have not 
considered my people qualified to undertake the duties which 
they impose. Many of the congregation can now read the 
Scriptures ; and I have requested that all in a certain quarter 
should meet and read the word of God with one another, and 
pray, and read a tract which I give in my visits, or upon the 
Sabbath-day. The elder in this case is not, as he has been re 
presented to be, the teacher or leader. He has never been with 
us an instructor, as I do not consider him capable of being so 
employed. The elder, with us, is an office-bearer, not for 
teaching, but for ruling, and for oversight. 

" The week-day and Sabbath-day classes for religious instruc 
tion are still kept up. Mr. and Mrs. Donaldson have begun 
to gather together the younger portion of the congregation, 
which I was unable to undertake. My sister, whom the Lord 
has brought to us in safety, will take my class, and I will 
devote a little more of my time to the instruction of the old, 
and of those who cannot read. The Lord has strengthened our 
hands greatly. May it be for His glory, and for the progress 
of His cause." 

The year 1843 saw the church completed. The anxieties 
and efforts of the missionary were honoured and crowned with 



188 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

success. A substantial house was erected, which will serve for 
generations as a house of prayer. 

Having summed up the entire cost, and entered the accounts 
in the church books, he, in one sentence, penned at the foot of 
the last page, gives utterance to his emotions of gratitude, in 
these words words which will form the inscription on the 
cope-stone of the completed temple of the Lord : "To the 
Most High God be all glory and praise. Not one word He 
has spoken has failed. W. Jameson." 

The entire cost of the building was 2204. Of this sum 
780 was raised at the station, from 1838 to 1844 inclusive, 
a period of seven years. The magnificent donation of Messrs. 
Davidson, Barkly, and Company, the proprietors, amounted to 
300 sterling, besides materials. Friends in many parts of 
Scotland and England contributed, by boxes of clothing and 
donations in money, 316. About 73 were given by the 
other stations and friends in Jamaica. The late Mr. Gibb of 
Edinburgh devoted pictures, which were sold for 100, to the 
work, and there was left on the building a debt of 605. 
500 of this bore interest at six per cent. ; and, aided by a 
grant from a legacy left by Mr. Gibb, the whole was extin 
guished in 1857, the church at Goshen having paid the inte 
rest, and the congregational expenses, and spent the surplus in 
reducing the debt, while the Missionary Association of Rose 
Street Church, during a period of twenty years, paid the salary of 
the missionary, besides liberally helping to maintain the teacher. 

The following extracts describe the opening services, and the 
feelings with which the undertaking was regarded by the mis 
sionary. It was a day replete with interest to him, u being 
the answer to many a prayer, the realization of long-cherished 
hopes, and the blessing of a gracious God on his feeble attempts 
to glorify Him :" 

" GOSHEN, April 12th, 1843. 

" MY DEAR FRIENDS, The long-looked-for day has at last 
arrived, and our church is opened ; or rather, I should say, it 
has been dedicated to our God, for whom it was built, and who 
enabled us to build it. We met, and presented our offering 



OPENING OF CHUECH. 189 

with cheerful hearts, and may we not hope that our gift Jeho 
vah, through Christ, has accepted, that our prayers he has 
heard, and that he will not withhold the blessings which we, 
his people require. There was necessarily but a short time 
between the fixing of the day and the event, as I wished to 
have the presence and assistance of my early* friend and much 
respected brother, the Rev. John Robson 

" On the morning of the 31st ult., at half-past ten o clock, 
the Rev. Mr. Beardslie, an American Independent brother, 
opened the services by singing the last four verses of the 24th 
Psalm, and by reading 1 Kings viii. from verse 10 to the end 
of the chapter, and by offering up the prayer of dedication. 
The chapter was read from a new pulpit Bible, which the male 
friends in the congregation had presented for the use of the 
church. The preliminary services being concluded, Mr. Robson 
preached from 1 Kings ix. 3. The words of the text were, 
1 Mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. In 
the discourse he showed the care of God over his Church, and 
His kindness to her, as implied in His heart as well as His eye 
being upon her, and this he did in a way so simple, that all 
appeared to understand him, and with so much beauty and 
power, that all seemed delighted and impressed. On my asking 
some of the people if they understood Mr. Robson, they all 
replied that they understood every word, and one said, Yes, 
minister, and I eat every word, for it was very beautiful. 

"After the sermon, the Rev. Mr. Simpson addressed the 
congregation, giving a brief but clear account of our doctrines 
and government. After this, the Rev. Mr. Cowan addressed 
the church ; then the Rev. G. F. Waters, curate of the Church 
of England ; and, last of all, the Rev. Mr. Beardslie. The 
addresses were all most suitable ; and, I trust, impressions were 
made which, through the mercy of God, will result in glory to 
the divine Saviour, and in everlasting good to immortal souls. 

" I ought to have mentioned in its proper place, that, at the 
close of Mr. Robson s discourse, a collection amounting to 37 
sterling was obtained. Since that time, the sum of 10 has 
been presented by Mr. Simpson as a donation from his people, 



190 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

who could not come to Goshen. This makes the whole 47. 
The services of the day were finished at three o clock, until 
which time the audience remained with exemplary quietness and 
attention ; and, in a short time after this, all was still about 
the church, which, during the day, had been the scene of so 
much animation. 

" On Sabbath, the Lord s supper was dispensed. Mr. Simp 
son preached a powerful discourse from John iii. 14 ; and Mr. 
Robson explained the nature of the ordinance, and served the 
table. Altogether, this has been a season which will be long 
remembered by all in Goshen, which, I believe, will be talked 
of by some of us in heaven, and which will bring glory to Him 
who loved us, and gave Himself for us. 

" Mr. Robson is looking as well as ever I saw him, healthy 
and vigorous. He is truly a messenger of comfort and joy to 
the churches in Jamaica. Whether he ever return again is 
known only to God. For this short and flying visit we are 
most thankful. He has been enabled to say much, and to do 
much that will contribute to the establishing of the cause 
among us." 

To the Rev. J. Parker, April 12th, 1843 : " Thus, my 
dear brother, through your kindness, and the kindness of your 
people, combined with the Christian efforts of many other be 
loved friends in England and in Scotland, have we in Goshen 
been able to carry through, or nearly so, our arduous under 
taking. I need not tell you that it has been a work full of 
difficulty, and that it has required the exercise of patience and 
faith. I was an utter stranger to the varied crafts required 
in a work so extensive, and totally without means to meet the 
expense of it. Nothing would have moved me even to think 
of such a work, but an irresistible conviction of its necessity 
for the good of the cause. In surveying the history of Goshen 
church from the beginning until now, I am astonished at the 
wondrous interpositions of Divine Providence, and inclined to 
break forth into loud shouting of f Grace ! Grace ! I feel that, 
without your prayers, I would have been as helpless as without 
your boxes. The former brought down the blessing of the God 



DEPARTUKE OF MR. DONALDSON. 191 

of the widow of Zarephath upon the latter, so that the gifts of 
your Christian kindness never failed to supply our wants, and to 
cheer our hearts. Allow me, my dear brother, in my own name, 
and in the name of my people, to return thanks to you, and to 
beloved Christian friends in Sunderland, Greenlaw, Newcastle, 
and wherever there is a friend who has given us his aid." 

Mr. Donaldson s health gave way, in the beginning of 1843. 
He endeavoured to go on with his work, with various inter 
missions, till the end of July, when he was ordered home, as 
the only means of preserving his life. He went on board ship, 
on the 8th of August ; and, on the evening of the 1 Oth, he 
breathed his last, " and was admitted, we doubt not, to join 
that happy choir, whose song is unbroken by sickness or pain, 
and from whom sorrow and sighing have for ever fled away. 
His tomb is under the waves of the ocean, but his spirit rejoices 
before the throne of God and of the Lamb." 

On the 21st of August, 1843, Mr. Jameson wrote to Mr. 
Bryden : " Your welcome letter came by last packet. The 
letter to which you refer did not reach me. It must have been 
in the ill-fated Solway. You will see, then, why I have not 
acknowledged, long before this, the extraordinary kindness of 
our worthy friend, Mr. Gibb, and why his generous gift has 
been permitted to remain so long in your hands. The fact 
that God guided his servant to make a surrender of his paint 
ings to our necessities, was not forgotten by me, but I wished 
to wait patiently God s own time and way of sending the re 
sult of the sales. I feel that this new display of our heavenly 
Father s mercy has come in the very best time, on many ac 
counts. It is a testimony from himself that his eye is ever 
upon us, that the work is his own, and that he will not leave 
us. My poor heart, by late scenes, has been well-nigh over 
whelmed, and the sovereign dispensations of an all-wise God 
have rilled me with trembling. The failure of Mr. Donald 
son s health and his removal from us have pressed heavily 
upon me. My hopes seemed to be blasted, my plans thrown 
into confusion, and my strength made weak. But behind 
that frowning cloud I cannot but see the beams of mercy, and 



192 MEMOIR OF HEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

from such an abundant supply in time of need, I cannot but 
hear the voice saying, Be not afraid, it is I. Oh, I desire 
to be humbled, and to ask why it is that the Lord contendeth. 
I desire to be truly thankful, and, with my whole soul, to 
magnify and bless his holy name." 

The following letter to his brother Alexander, September 
10th, 1843, is both interesting and instructive, and full of im 
portant principle : 

" You are greatly entitled to call me a careless brother. I 
desire now to write you a few lines in reply to your late cheer 
ing letters. My heart rejoices in the work of mercy which 
the Lord is carrying on in your soul. Yes, Sandy ! we are 
all the Lord s from top to toe, from the hat to the shoe-tie. 
If there be anything about us, of which the Lord cannot and 
will not say, * It is mine, to that thing we have no right, and 
of what avail will it be to us ? It will be our weakness and 
sorrow, and not our joy and strength. Somehow, we think 
that our Bible is the Lord s, that the Sabbath is the Lord s, 
the church is the Lord s, the bawbee in the plate is the Lord s, 
our prayers and our family worship, and our prayer-meetings, 
the session, and the visiting are the Lord s. But as to my 
boots, shoes, stockings, trousers, waistcoat, coat, shirt, neck 
cloth, hat, and staff, my penknife, my scissors, and my etc., 
what has God to do with these 1 Yes ! the more we under 
stand that passage, f Ye are not your own, ye are bought with 
a price, the more will we perceive that, if the person be the 
Lord s, his purse is the Lord s, that all connected with his 
house is the Lord s, and that whatever is not the Lord s, the 
person is better without. 

" These remarks were suggested to me, dear Alexander, by 
seeing in your last letter, your wish to get Christians to save 
all that necessity does not require, to put into the treasury of 
the Lord. I rejoice in this as an evidence of the work of the 
Spirit in your soul. If the Church of the living God would 
act thus, if her members would eat nothing, and drink no 
thing, and wear nothing, but what health and real comfort, 
not to say necessity require ; and if they would devote their 



REVIEW OF THE YEAH. 193 

savings to the great cause of the Redeemer, oh, how vast would 
be the treasury which the Church would put at the disposal of 
its Lord ! Its extent would shame the treasuries of earthly 
monarchs, and it would humble those who say that the king 
dom of the King of Righteousness must have aliens as its pay 
masters. Let the Church do her duty. Surely she is as able 
to give the money as the men." 

The events of 1843 were thus reviewed in a report, dated 
January 18th, 1844 :- 

" In reviewing the events of the past year, mercy and judg 
ment are found mingled in the cup which our heavenly Father 
has given us to drink. Our hearts have been kept constantly 
alternating between hope and fear, joy and grief. Sickness has 
been wasting some among us ; death has been thinning our 
ranks, and breaking up our limited circle ; difficulties have, 
now and then, been threatening to obstruct our path, but as 
they approached, a way of escape has been opened up ; they 
passed like the mountainous iceberg, in frowning silence, and 
the trembling heart was left to sing its song of deliverance. 

" During the course of last summer, I visited the congrega 
tion, at least, twice, and some parts of it three or four times. 
I went into every house, and talked with every family apart. I 
then gathered several families together, and spent some time in 
public catechetical examination, and in reading the Scriptures. 
I felt much pleasure in this department of work, and I hope it 
proved profitable to the people themselves. I have been unable 
to continue it since I resumed the work of teaching, but I hope 
soon to be able again to begin it, Mr. Jarrit having come to 
take my place in the school. 

" Two classes have been kept up regularly for religious in 
struction ; the one meets on Tuesday evening, at the church, 
and the other, on Wednesday, at my own house. Since we re 
ceived the lustres from Dr. Young s congregation in Whitby, 
we have commenced a monthly prayer-meeting. It is upon 
Thursday, when the moon is nearest full, and has hitherto been 
pretty well attended. I have also been in the practice of 
going, as often as I was able, to Bonham Spring, on the Tlmrs- 

N 



194 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

day, for the purpose of preaching. We generally have a good 
attendance, not only of Mr. Millar s scholars, but of the neigh 
bours around. Since August, we have endeavoured to enjoy 
the Lord s Supper, on the last Sabbath of every month. This 
we have not been able to accomplish, but, upon an average, we 
have had it every second month. I was delighted to find that 
you had been directed to make similar arrangements. We will 
take your days, and we will be in the midst of the work, when 
you will be around the family altar at your evening worship. 

" Our church has not increased in numbers, during the past 
year. None have joined it who were not with us before. It 
was reported that many were waiting until the church was 
opened, to give in their adherence, but none of these have as 
yet come forward. This, I believe, is chiefly owing to the fact, 
that the duty of serving our God with our money is an element 
in our creed. There are Established Churches (Episcopalian) on 
both sides of us, where this divine ordinance is not only not 
enforced, but where the want of it is considered a glory ; con 
sequently few will leave a church where they are never called 
upon to give, and join one where giving is enforced as a Chris 
tian duty. A man and his wife have gone out from us, because 
of their aversion to pay their monthly subscription. During 
last year, they resisted the calls of the collectors, and two 
months ago, they started off to the Established Church, where, 
as the negroes say, they will be permitted to eat and drink their 
money. 

" A painful case of backsliding occurred in the congregation, 
two weeks ago. A young woman, one of my first scholars, 
taught by Mrs. Jameson, and, until her apostasy, a full mem 
ber of the church, has been seduced by a white man, and led 
by him into a state of concubinage. The man set himself to 
gain her eye, her ear, and her heart, and to harden her con 
science ; and this he has accomplished so effectually, that, in 
the face of day, she left her father s home and proceeded to the 
house of her disgraceful servitude. This is one instance, out of 
many, which the history of the mission churches in Jamaica 
can supply ; and now I feel constrained to ask how long is 



EVIL MEN AND SEDUCERS. 195 

this to be tolerated ? Shall our churches and schools be thus 
invaded without end 1 Shall the minds of our youth be poisoned 
continually, their consciences seared, and they themselves ren 
dered fit for anything, however base it be ? Can you do nothing 
to arouse the moral sense of Britain to this stain upon her 
colonies 1 To proclaim to every believer in a righteous Provi 
dence, that Jamaica can never prosper so long as such abomi 
nations are tolerated, yea, defended as necessary and right 1 
As truly as God turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the 
sins of them that dwell therein, so truly are these men the 
enemies of their country, and of the prosperity of the island, 
as well as the enemies of their species. Why should not this 
abominable system be made to quail before the public gaze ? 
Why should it not be swept out of existence by the force of 
public opinion and Christian principle 1 If slavery were bad, 
this is no better. If the one brought down upon itself public 
execration, why should the other be allowed to pass with im 
punity, yea, and be tolerated upon the ground of necessity and 
right ? Might not the Government be requested to institute 
an inquiry as to the extent of the evil ? Surely, if it be so ex 
tensive, and every one knows it to be so, who is acquainted with 
the state of things in the colonies, and if it be accompanied 
with untold evils, no country can thrive, physically or morally, 
with such a curse in its bosom." 

The case referred to above is a specimen case. Many such 
are chronicled in the book of remembrance, as having taken 
place in Jamaica, and indeed wherever missionary labour has 
had to be carried on among Ethiopians in the neighbourhood of 
godless Europeans. Ministers naturally feel a deep concern for 
those young people whom they have taught from childhood, and 
admitted to the fellowship of the church, or whom they ex 
pected and longed to see cast in their lot with the people of 
God, whom they hoped to see grow up strong in virtue, and 
a blessing to their families. Alas, how often are these buds of 
promise nipped ! How often do these blossoms go up as dust ! 
How often are these hopes blasted by the selfish and degraded 
vices of those whose position in society gives them facilities for 



196 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

the seduction of the young ! How true is it that " one sinner 
destroyeth much good ! " 

The evil of which Mr. Jameson wrote with so much holy 
warmth and indignation, still exists to a fearful extent, entrap 
ping once hopeful youth, disgracing families, degrading the 
people, shaming the churches, withering the hopes of ministers, 
and causing them to writhe with indignant scorn of those 
conscience-seared men who thus recklessly sport with the hap 
piness and souls of their fellow-creatures. When we look at 
these and other abominations, we cannot wonder that Jamaica 
has sunk, scathed and blasted with the lightnings of God s 
wrath ; we wonder not that families who once rolled in wealth, 
are now plunged into beggary ; that their properties are hope 
lessly embarrassed, and that useless bush rankly vegetates over 
thousands of acres which once were the scenes of a busy, but 
blood-stained industry. 



PAINFUL CONTROVERSY. 197 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Painful controversy Can a European Missionary depend solely on a negro 
church ? Reluctance of Preachers to engage in foreign service Rebelling against 
discipline Report of 184-4 The African Mission Clifton Illness of Mr. M Gilchrist 
The Missionary sick Last Goshen Report. 

BETWEEN the years 1831 and 1843, a controversy arose in 
Jamaica respecting certain corrupt practices which were said to 
exist in the Baptist churches. I should be glad, could I see 
my way clear to pass over this matter in silence. I take as my 
own the words of the Rev. Mr. Hinton, in his " Life of the 
Rev. Mr. Knibb," on this very question : " I should gladly 
have avoided all reference to it, had such a course been con 
sistent with my duty as Knibb s biographer." And I can also 
say of Mr. Jameson, what he says of Mr. Knibb : " The portion 
of his correspondence which refers to this dispute is too large, 
and the development of his character to which it gave rise is 
too important to allow me to overlook it." 

The American Baptists (see page 34) " had the most obscure 
and limited notions of divine truth ; and their system was a 
compound of superstition and error. Being the first which 
they knew, and being so suited to their own superstitious 
notions, this system made a deep and lasting impression on the 
people," and numbers of them became these men s followers. 
Mr. Gibb s disciples numbered hundreds in St. Ann s, St. Mary s, 
and St. Thomas in the Vale. When these men died, the bulk 
of their followers joined the " White Baptists," through the 
influence of their leaders, and " because they liked the wash, 
that their sins might be washed away." The " White Baptists" 
adopted the leader system, thus made to their hands, and 
"plenty" of those whom Gibb had "set off to pray" (p. 34) 



198 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

became leaders as well as members in their churches. These 
nuclei carried with them their old leaven of superstition, which 
could not be purged out easily or soon ; and it was alleged 
that the important work of preparing and certifying candidates 
for baptism was too much left to the leaders ; that many of 
them being wicked, and most of them ignorant, the leaders 
were worse than unfit for such a trust ; that they gave to their 
classes no instruction worthy to be called sound and religious, 
but required them to bring dreams, which were called their 
"work/ "travel," or "experience;" and that fitness for 
baptism was judged of by these dreams. It was alleged that 
the ministers baptized numbers of people without any intimate 
personal knowledge of them, merely on the certification of the 
leaders that they were fit for the ordinance ; and that while 
they preached to the people in the mass, the discipline of their 
churches was mainly left in the leaders hands. This state of 
things, it was alleged, prevailed so much in the Baptist churches, 
that it became the duty of other Christian societies to remon 
strate against it. 

The first remonstrants were several Baptist ministers the 
Rev. Messrs. Coultart, Whitehorne, Reid, and Kingdon. The 
last three also broke up the leader system in their own churches, 
and were disowned by the Baptist Missionary Society. 

This state of things also forced itself on the attention of 
missionaries of other denominations. Mr. Jameson wrote : 
" We came to know these things, not by prying into other 
churches, but by our people appealing to us for protection 
from a corrupt system, when its superstitions were spread out 
to allure them. As we proceeded in denouncing this system 
among our own people, facts were laid before us, showing that 
it was daily practised in the leaders meetings. Our people 
live among the Baptists, and these things cannot be hid from 
them." Mr. Jameson was too honourable and too upright to 
join in a senseless hue and cry against brethren who had in 
curred odium ; and whether right or wrong in his convictions, 
his motives were unquestionably pure. He was concerned 
for the honour of his Divine Master and the true interests 



LEADERS PRACTICES. 199 

of religion among the negroes. His convictions were the result 
of a most patient and laborious investigation, and of six years 
of faithful missionary labour, during which he had followed 
the people to their homes, taught and catechised them in the 
most careful manner, and knew them as intimately as any mis 
sionary ever knew his people. 

We quote a few of his remarks on this painful subject : 
" I am solemnly persuaded that in the Baptist churches 
there is a most pernicious system at work, which is perpetuat 
ing, instead of removing superstition, and which, while it 
swells their numbers, ruins their purity." " Evils, many and 
great, have arisen from employing an ill-instructed native 
agency. I refer you to the mass of evidence from almost 
every Christian body in the island, and from Baptist ministers 
of the highest respectability evidence brought forward with 
out collusion, and from the purest motives." " If the Baptist 
ministers will only look narrowly into the state of their 
churches, if they rigidly examine their people, separately, if 
possible, from the influence of the leaders, they will find the 
charges brought against the system fully substantiated." " Such 
being my deliberate conviction, it would be poor brotherhood 
indeed to the Baptist churches, to sit still any longer, and 
allow this system to pursue its secret and destructive course. 
It would be unpardonable cowardice, and conscience and the 
word of God forbid me, to be silent about these enormous 
evils. God forbid that I should be guilty of purchasing peace 
at a price so costly," 

In Mr. Jameson s papers there is abundant proof of his 
charity towards the Baptist brethren. Neither he nor those 
with whom he acted, ever accused these brethren of abetting 
or approving the evils of which they complained. Mr. White- 
home wrote : " The minister can know nothing of the people, 
beyond what the leader thinks fit, nor can he discover from 
the people anything of the leader s character." While the 
practices of the leaders were concealed from the Baptist mini 
sters, they were revealed to other ministers by their own people. 
The leaders knew that their ministers would have frowned 



200 MEMOIE OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

upon them as sternly as any. Other brethren complained 
that the Baptists knew so little about their people as to be 
unaware of these evils, and that instead of receiving thanks 
for offering help in sifting them to the bottom, they were 
treated as enemies. Among other odious names, they were 
called " slanderers " and " filthy scavengers " a title which, 
if their services were really needed, reflected less dishonour on 
them than on those churches which they sought to cleanse. 
The purity of these mission churches was dear to all genuine 
missionaries. 

Mr. Knibb, a great and good man, ever to be mentioned 
with honour as one of the most courageous and generous 
champions of the down-trodden slave, came to England, and 
eloquently defended the Baptist churches, amid the plaudits 
of a crowded meeting in Exeter Hall. But that was the last 
place to sift and settle such a question. Writes Mr. Jame 
son : " Mr. Knibb has been in London, denying in the most 
solemn manner that there is anything wrong in their leader 
ship system, and denouncing as slanderers those who are of 
an opposite conviction." " To whatever extent our motives 
may be impugned, or our characters misrepresented, yet truth, 
gospel purity, and the best interests of Jamaica demand faith 
fulness and sacrifice." " Holding these views, I deeply re 
gret that the majority of the Baptist missionaries have uni 
formly ascribed the testimony which has been borne to the 
existence of these evils, to the working of jealousy or envy." 
" The London Baptist Society has repudiated all evidence re 
specting the corruptions of the leader system, and has ascribed 
the testimony bearing to the worst passions of the soul." 
" From the aspect which the present controversy has assumed 
at home and here, I object to the Baptist missionaries and 
their churches being made judges. A Board which sat in 
Edinburgh upon this question, recommend an investigation in 
this country. At such an investigation, I and my brethren 
will at once and gladly adduce the evidence which has led us 
to believe that serious abuses exist in the Baptist churches in 
this island." " With reference to Mr. Cowan, I am sure, 



THE CONTKOVEKSY. 201 

from my intimate knowledge of his character, that he has 
made no charge without having what he considers satisfactory 
evidence of its truth. I know that once and again he has 
brought the fact of particular abuses before individual Baptist 
ministers. And I may say for him, for myself, and for my 
brethren of the Presbytery, that the strenuous denial with 
which the charge of these abuses has been uniformly met, 
both here and at home, the excision of Mr. Whitehorne and his 
brethren for protesting against the evils of the leader system, 
and the extraordinary statements of Mr. Knibb during his late 
visit to England, made us feel that to be silent any longer on 
this question, would be to sacrifice truth, and to shield errors 
the most pernicious to the purity of the gospel, and to the best 
interests of the mission cause in Jamaica and Africa." 

We must believe that these good men were persuaded, by 
what they thought sufficient evidence, that these evils existed. 
They were not diaboloi malicious accusers seeking to destroy 
the Lord s work, by blasting the reputation of his servants. 
We cannot believe that they had any animus against their 
brethren. It was not Christianly kind to accuse them of envy 
ing the popularity of these brethren, or of being irritated by 
disappointment, because the latter were followed by hundreds 
and thousands, while their own congregations were small. 
This explanation will, we are persuaded, satisfy no one who 
looks at the question in all its bearings, and has had sufficient 
data for a calm and deliberate judgment. With the convic 
tions held by Mr. Jameson and his brethren, silence would 
have been treason to the best of causes. Their representations 
ought not to have been scorned, their motives ought not to 
have been maligned, and their characters ought to have been 
respected. They were honest and pious men, and their alle 
gations should have been honestly examined. Had it been 
proved that they were misinformed, they would have been 
ready to allow it. But they could not be tranquillized by 
" the triumph of Mr. Knibb at Exeter Hall," because that 
triumph did not meet the merits of the case. 

Some may blame me for awakening a dispute which had 



202 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JATklESON. 

better be allowed to sleep. But I dared not pass it over, with 
out being unfaithful to my duty as Mr. Jameson s biographer. 
If I sin, it is in the good company of Mr. Hinton, who, in his Life 
of Mr. Knibb, has shown no particular tenderness to those with 
whom the subject of this Memoir acted. From the part which 
Mr. Jameson took in this matter his memory can receive nothing 
but lustre. It cost him vast labour, and led him often to his 
knees. That the controversy was necessary was not his fault. 
That he and others braced themselves to such a duty is all to 
their honour. But Mr. Jameson cherished not a shade of 
sinful bitterness towards the brethren with whom he differed. 
He fought sternly with the evil, but could take the brethren 
tenderly to his heart. And sure I am, that more good than 
harm has come of the controversy. Some of those who con 
tended sharply here on earth, have embraced one another yonder 
in heaven ; and the rest will, in due time, join the loving 
circle, where all will wonder at the Lord s patience with their 
respective errors and infirmities, and at His condescending use 
of their unworthy services in the Church below. And I am 
equally sure that all evils will be, at length, rooted out of our 
mission churches, as the children of Ethiopia, guided onwards 
by light from heaven, cast off more and more the slough of 
old-time ignorance and superstition. Most heartily do we say 
amen to the following words in which Mr. Jameson reviews 
this controversy : 

" I hope that this painful discussion will be of ultimate bene 
fit to the Church and the mission field. One thing we learn 
from it is, that a native agency ought to be employed with 
caution, narrowly watched in its operation, and trained for its 
work ; that, at first, it may be used to superintend, but, ere it 
be employed to teach, the agents themselves should be well in 
structed, and their minds freed from the trammels of their 
former superstitions." 

With the views above expressed regarding the employment 
of a native agency, the following remarks are not at variance. 
He and his brethren were only anxious that the agents should 
be faithful men, and really able to instruct others. With re- 



SCOTCH PRESBYTERIANS SLOW. 203 

spect to Africa he asks : " Will not the Synod undertake a 
mission there, and use the tools they have prepared in Jamaica? 
Why prepare tools, and not use them, especially when they 
are so much required ? Why begin a mission in the South 
Seas, where all is new, and take no advantage of an instru 
mentality which they have prepared or are preparing an in 
strumentality so well suited to Africa a field of missionary 
labour no less necessitous ? Will no presbytery or congregation 
make a commencement in Calabar 1 Surely some will be found 
to wipe off the reproach which is ever thrown upon us : l You 
Scotch Presbyterians are slow in your movements, and always 
last in reaching the field. I wish Goshen were at its man 
hood, and had broken its fetters, then would you see me in 
the midst of you to plead the cause of Africa, to entreat you to 
turn your efforts to that melancholy land, and to make offer of 
my services as your missionary there. Some of my people wish 
to go, but I tell them that they must think well about it ; 
that it must be a matter, not of feeling, but of principle, not of 
excitement, but of calm deliberation and of earnest prayer. 
The hardships of the missionary life will soon cool down effer 
vescent feeling ; and if there be no root in the agent, he will 
desert the cause, and yield himself to the vices of the surround 
ing heathen." 

How true these views are every mission field can witness. 

In 1844, J. H. Young, Esq., of Glasgow, visited Goshen. 
Anxious to promote the interests of the mission, he suggested 
that the people should offer to maintain their minister, pro 
vided the debt of 605 on their church were paid for them. 
The people agreed to this ; and, at first, Mr. Jameson himself 
acquiesced in the proposal. But, on due consideration, he 
changed his mind. He found that the greatest sum which 
the congregation could contribute, would be utterly inadequate 
to meet their expenses, and supply the mission family with 
the necessaries of life. He concluded, therefore, that it was 
not his duty to peril his own comfort and usefulness, run 
before Providence, and, like Peter, ask to be bidden walk on 
the water. At the same time, were his Master to call him, he 



204 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

should be dismayed at no difficulty, and shrink from no priva 
tion. 

The Directors thought with their Missionary. At the same 
time, several friends who had lent 105 to Goshen, generously 
offered to make it a gift, if the people should raise the sum of 
300 during the year. An effort to do so was made, but it 
came short of complete success. 

There can be no doubt that Mr. Jameson s views were sound. 
When men go out as the messengers of the churches, these 
churches are in honour bound to maintain them at their post. 
And they must feel under their feet, firm and sure, the rock of 
home support, while the breath of home sympathy must come 
across their bosoms, to cheer and nerve them in doing the 
Lord s work among an alien people. If an African church 
were to invite a minister, and he were willing to cast himself 
upon their support, the case would be different. But the home 
church says : l Who will go for us, as our missionaries, to 
preach among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Jesus 
Christ ? " If one of its ministers or preachers says, " Here 
am I, send me," and he is sent, wafted on the breath of prayer, 
and cheered by the warm sympathy of Christian hearts, a bond 
is thus formed between that missionary and the whole body 
whose missionary he is, as sacred and as binding as exists be 
tween any individual minister and his congregation. Mission 
aries, when honoured to raise up infant churches, have to teach 
and train them to perform all Christian duties. Among other 
things, they must teach them to cast their gifts into the treasury. 
And the parent church must not be impatient to get quit of the 
obligation to furnish the missionary with the means of living. 
Neither must the missionary be cast entirely upon the support 
of any properly mission church. We cannot conceive the pos 
sibility of a case where it would be proper to say to him that 
he must look for no more support from home, however short his 
people may come of giving him food and raiment. An apostle 
has before now suffered hardship from the neglect of duty on 
the part of Christians, and few modern missionaries have it in 
their power to weave or dig for their daily bread. 



THE CHURCH AND ITS MISSIONARIES. 205 

"To J. H. YOUNG, ESQ., GLASGOW. 

"August 19^, 1844. 

" I must tender you my heartfelt thanks, and the deepest 
gratitude of my family also, for the great interest you take in 
our welfare and prosperity. And I am also requested to give 
you the best thanks of my Session and Congregation for your 
expressions of kindness to them, and especially for the munifi 
cent donation of 50 towards the funds of the church, for the 
present year, and the same amount for the year ensuing. I 
have seen much of God in the building of our church ; and in 
your coming here, and in our brief term of intercourse, I would 
remark not the least of God s mercies." 

Writing to his brother Alexander, September 5th, 1844, he 
says : 

" I am glad to hear that A has been so safely brought 

through the dangers that lately encompassed her ; and that 
you both have to sing a new song of deliverance. Once in my 
case it was mingled with judgment, when I laid my first-born 
the very image of myself in the grave, on the day of his 
birth. On another occasion, it was clear sunshine without a 
cloud. But last of all, my hope and joy was herself removed, 
and I was left to pour out the strains of the sorrow-stricken 
heart, alone. Yet surely I have reason to say, that when brought 
low, the Lord helped me. 

" We are moving on as usual. Mary and Robert Jarrit are 
busy with the school. I am there also when time and other 
engagements permit. Notwithstanding all our efforts among 
the young, both in church and school, while some are a comfort, 
there are others whose pride and perverseness threaten to dis 
tress us much. The hallowing impressions which arose out of 
emancipation are becoming more and more blunted, the farther 
we recede from the day of freedom, and the generation which 
knew not slavery, being now from twelve to sixteen years of 
age, is, as a whole, wild in the extreme. The old people, hav 
ing been schooled in slavery, are docile. The young, who were 
not long enough under its yoke to be broken in, are in general 
proud and self-willed. Drunkenness and revelling, which were 



206 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON". 

common in slavery, and which * for a season had disappeared, 
have revived with more violence than ever. At the midnight 
revel and dance, all sorts of evil are carried on. Some of our 
young people had gone to these scenes on the 1st of August last, 
and when called to the Session to be admonished, one of them 
very gravely told the elders that he would not be ruled by 
black men. I stood firm, and made the fellow sign a recanta 
tion ; then the Session considered his case along with that of 
others, and found that they all had been at the dance ; and they 
were separated from the church. Dancing is held at home to 
be a harmless amusement, and so, perhaps, to a certain extent, 
it is ; but it is not so here. It gathers the most filthy and 
disreputable characters ; and a professor of religion cannot be 
there without compromising his character, and associating in 
his amusements with the enemies of his Saviour." 

On October 2d, 1844, he thanks the Directors for their kind 
assurance of entire confidence in him. " Indeed, your long- 
continued kindness to us, and the many substantial proofs of 
your Christian beneficence which have come, year after year, to 
cheer us in our work, have prevented us from ever for a moment 
calling in question the confidence you repose in us. Allow me, 
my dear friends, to reciprocate the assurance, and to say, that 
to enjoy your entire confidence I have daily striven, and do 
daily strive ; and, although I seek not honour from men, yet 
it is my aim, and it will be my joy, to be by you accounted 
faithful." 

The following facts, extracted from the same letter, bearing 
upon the pecuniary means of the emancipated peasantry, are 
important : 

" It has been common to represent the negroes as being well 
paid and well off. This is true to a certain extent, but those 
who mingle most with them, who visit their dwellings, and are 
eye-witnesses of their sicknesses, their sores, and their hard 
ships, know that they are not so well off as is said. For in 
stance, when, in a case of distress, I advise a doctor to be 
called, the very common reply is, Minister, it is impossible ; 
we cannot pay his charges, which are from ] 6s. to 20s. 



PEEACHEES FOND OF HOME. 207 

" The rate of wages is being considerably reduced. For in 
stance, a piece of job-work which was done last year for 6, 
was done this year for 3. As freeholders have to pay taxes 
as well as school fees and medicines, it is manifest that they 
have enough to do. Their grounds supply them with yams 
and other vegetables. Without these they could not live. The 
value of a provision ground as a means of support, however, 
depends upon its extent, and upon the having facilities for 
carrying the produce, as well as the proximity of a good 
market." 

Mr. Jameson neither advocated nor practised the " let alone" 
system. None of our Jamaica missionaries flinch from what, at 
home, is thought to be best left in the hands of intelligent 
Christian laymen. But he had the good sense to see that to 
press the people to give more, while they were getting less, 
might cause an unhealthy reaction, and do more ill than good. 

On November 19th, 1844, he addressed Dr. M Kerrow upon 
a subject on which he felt deeply, and wrote often, viz., the 
unwillingness of the preaching staff of the Church to engage in 
foreign service : 

" REV. AND DEAR SIE, I have read with much pleasure 
your address to the probationers on the subject of missions. I 
hope the Lord will make it effectual in moving many, not only 
to consider their duty, but also to do it. It is affecting to see 
so many men of talent, learning, and piety, lying at home with 
scarcely half work, and in an over-stocked field, while millions, 
daily sinking into hell, are crying, Come over and help us ; 
and while the Saviour, to whom the heathen are given as his 
inheritance, is asking his servants, Whom shall I send, and 
who will go for me V To such a question shall the servant 
reply, I have married a wife and cannot go, or, I am en 
tangled with matrimonial promises and preparations, and cannot 
go, or, I am afraid my constitution will not stand the climate, 
and therefore I cannot go ] Suppose such excuses were ten 
dered to her Majesty s Government by any of her soldiers, under 
orders for a foreign station, how would they be treated 1 What 
would the answer be ? Before you enlisted, was it not in 



208 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

your power to take up any other calling 1 But since it has 
pleased you to offer your services to your Monarch, it now be 
comes your sacred duty to comply with all the engagements of 
her high service. Two of these are the following : 1st, That 
personal and domestic engagements, except in extreme cases, 
must give way to the public good ; and 2d, In her Majesty s ser 
vice there must be no cowards. These two principles were 
also woven into the very constitution of the Christian Church 
by its own King and Head, at the time of its first formation, 
and cannot be violated without sin, and without damage to the 
public cause. This appears evident from Matthew x. 37-39. 
The Master, in sending forth his disciples to preach the gos 
pel, says, He that loveth father or mother more than me, is 
not worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more 
than me, is not worthy of me : and he that taketh not his 
cross, and folio weth after me, is not worthy of me. He that 
findeth his life shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my 
sake shall find it. Those who refuse compliance with the 
orders of our King on the ground of health, or of constitution, 
and in whose ears these things are constantly rung by friends 
who grudge them to the Lord s foreign work, would do well seri 
ously to consider also the preceding verses, from the 28th to 
the 34th. And then let them ask themselves whether, on a 
mere idea or supposition, they are at liberty to set aside an 
express command of their divine Master. It was thundered in 
my ears incessantly, that in going to Jamaica I was going to 
my grave. My constitution was not fitted for the climate. 
I would not live many months, etc. Now, what is the fact 1 
My advisers have all been mistaken ; and my blessed Master, 
whose public cause I was enabled to prefer to every private 
consideration, has blessed me in this distant land with the very 
best of health, for the period of eight years. Again, in Luke 
xiv. 26, 27, the same principle that of subordinating private 
and domestic interests to the public good is distinctly stated, 
as an essential element in the kingdom of Christ. JSTow, those 
who have devoted themselves to the service of Him whose com 
mission is, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 



PREACHERS SHOULD BE DEVOTED. 209 

every creature ; and who have encompassed themselves with 
entanglements of various kinds, so that, on the ground of these, 
they seek to be excused from going to any other field of service 
than that which suits their entangled circumstances, should 
consider this passage with its context, beginning at the 18th 
verse. In these remarks, I refer to those whose place in the 
vineyard Providence has not yet pointed out. Hence, I direct 
the attention of those who purpose devoting themselves to the 
service of Zion s King, to this same chapter, and especially from 
the 26th to the 34th verse. Let them consider whether it be 
right for the man who offers himself to the work of Him whose 
field of operation is the world, so to encumber himself, while a 
student, that, when called to the service of his Lord, he will 
feel himself shut up to say : * My Master must take my ser 
vices at home, or want them altogether : because, for such and 
such reasons, I cannot go beyond the boundaries of my native 
country. 

" I hope that I shall not be considered presumptuous while I 
thus speak. I feel that I am exposing myself to this charge ; 
but God is my witness, and to his bar I appeal. I speak of 
brethren in all respects far better than myself. Still they are 
brethren, and with myself, the servants of the Church s great 
and glorious Head. My lot is cast in the mission field, where 
I desire to spend and be spent. Around us death has been 
doing its work, and one labourer after another has been re 
moved ; and one infant missionary church after another has 
been suddenly reduced to destitution. Year after year has 
rolled past, and numerous appeals have been made on behalf 
of those desolate portions of God s heritage, but all has hitherto 
proved unavailing. Hopes have been excited, but they have 
as often been disappointed ; and now those infant churches, 
gathered out from a darkness even worse than that of heathen 
ism, languish under the heart-sickness of hope long deferred. 
All this is taking place, while in the mother church the supply 
is considerably ahead of the demand ; and while not a few 
could be spared to the mission field, if the parties themselves 
were only disposed to follow the Saviour in the regeneration 

o 



210 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

of a lost world. Ye, said the Saviour to his disciples, are 
the salt of the earth, and this expressly with reference to that 
gospel which they were commissioned to carry to all nations. 
Now, if we, intrusted with interests so vast and important, 
shall make our public commission bend to our personal con 
venience, shall hear the cry from the heathen as if we heard 
it not, and shall prefer the easy, and comparatively indolent 
work of supplying vacancies, to the toils and perils of the mis 
sion field, then, let us examine ourselves, lest we be as the 
salt which has lost its savour, and is henceforth good for nothing 
but to be cast out and trodden under feet of men." 

These are weighty considerations, and they are well put in 
these earnest and impressive sentences. It should be difficult 
for the unemployed preaching staff of our British churches to 
sit easy under reasoning and expostulation like the above. 
Would to God that we could lay them, written in characters 
of fire, before every probationer and every student, and fix his 
attention on them, till he were forced to take the matter into 
the court of conscience, and the presence of the Master, and 
have it well settled that it is his individual duty to stay at 
home here, waiting his chance of a vacancy in some little 
corner, surrounded by steeples and echoing with the sound of 
the church-going bell, while yonder, waste on waste lies in 
the grim silence of death, and the name of Jesus is unheard ! 
Let it be known that a missionary must count upon having to 
endure hardness. He goes alone and unarmed, among selfish 
and covetous barbarians, who may regard him as a lawful 
prey. If he is a father, he will have to leave his children in 
their tender years behind him, and the pang of this separation 
may be second only to their death or dishonour. He may be 
exposed to malaria, and frequent and consuming sickness. 
But none of these things must move him. It has been the 
duty of some of the Lord s people to face death for his sake, 
and it is the duty of some of them, at the present day, 
to make the sacrifices that are necessary in establishing his 
kingdom in every land. The true spirit of Christian missionary 
enterprise, however, is an inspiration from above ; and it is 



REVIEW OF THE YEAR. 21 1 

better to send a handful who have it, than a host who have it 
not, or who, from their want of love, and prudence, and faith, 
may hinder, rather than help on the cause. 

Of date January 13th, 1845, is the report of the station 
for 1844, written with his usual fluency, and showing the 
same entire consecration to the Master s work, and the same 
warm zeal for its progress, in the growing holiness and num 
bers of the church. All Mr. Jameson s reports breathe of 
piety and devotion ; and ever, amidst the details common in 
such documents, he breaks forth into expressions of joy or 
gratitude, or earnest longings for success. 

" In reviewing the past year, I hope I can say that the 
blessed work has been making progress. ... By means of 
domiciliary visits, some have been brought out, who were liv 
ing without God and without hope in the world ; while others 
who were walking in the abominations of the country, have 
been induced to marry, and to rank themselves among the fol 
lowers of the Lamb. 

" During the year, divine service has been regularly enjoyed 
by the congregation. When supplying for Mr. Cowan at 
Carron Hall, on the first Sabbath of every month, my place 
was taken by Mr. William Millar, who expounded a chapter 
of God s word, and read a sermon out of some approved book ; 
and I feel true pleasure in stating that these services were 
very acceptable to the people. In my visits among them, they 
have referred, once and again, to the words which he addressed 
to them. 

" The district prayer-meetings, ten in number, and held two 
or three times a week, have been in constant operation. In 
certain quarters, I found that there was a meeting held on the 
Sabbath morning, before day, for special prayer, the reading of 
the Bible, and the revising of the hymns, and questions, and 
passages of Scripture, which form the exercises of the public 
class. These meetings break up at sunrise, when all go home, 
and prepare for the house of God, to which they come at nine 
o clock. I was much delighted, encouraged, and comforted, by 
the discovery of such meetings, yea, a thousand times more 



212 MEMOIE OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

than if they had been begun at my suggestion. The fearers of 
the Lord spake, and they still speak, often one to another, and 
the Lord hearkens and hears, and of them he says : They 
shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels. Blessed 
day ! when long-parted friends shall meet again, and when the 
redeemed family shall meet with Him who bought them with 
His blood. The monthly prayer-meetings in the church have 
also been regularly kept up. At these, two persons, an elder 
and a member, usually officiate ; on which occasions, more than 
at any other time, I think I see the spiritual profiting of the 
people. It is delightful to hear with what appropriateness 
some of them use, at the throne of grace, the hymns and verses 
of the Bible which they learn, and to notice the unction, the 
earnestness, and point of their prayers. The Lord s Supper 
has been enjoyed among us, on the last Sabbath of every second 
month, the day on which dear friends in Rose Street were also 
sitting around the same festive board. The mutual mingling 
of our prayers and of all our religious exercises, and their 
ascending together to the throne of the everlasting Father, 
supply to the heart thoughts which tend to quicken, strengthen, 
and comfort. 

" During the past season, I have visited the congregation 
twice, and many parts more frequently. In the course of these 
visits I have enjoyed much delightful intercourse with the people, 
by which my soul has been refreshed, and theirs, I trust, edified 
and also refreshed. At the same time, I have met with persons 
of a very different description, and have had to look on scenes 
of a mingled character, some painful in the extreme, some re 
volting and disgusting, and others ludicrous. But through 
these visits, I hope, good has been, and is being done. Such is 
a brief summary of the year s operations. But it is time to 
bring before you the report of the school. 

" The number upon the school-list during the year has been 
124 ; the average attendance from 70 to 100. I feel much 
pleasure in stating that the children have made satisfactory pro 
gress in the different branches of education. They appear happy 
at school ; and, some weeks ago, when I desired them to say 



REV. MESSRS. HOGG AND MAIN. 2l3 

when the Christmas holidays should begin, I was quite taken 
aback by their choosing just the week before Christmas. I 
asked them if they would not have it two weeks before Christ 
mas. Forty or fifty little things cried out : < No, we want to 
come to school. The older children, however, came forward 
and stated that they wished to work to get a little money before 
Christmas. Feeling that the vacation was as necessary for the 
teachers as for the scholars, I held to the point previously fixed 
upon, and dismissed the school for a term of four weeks, amidst, 
I believe, the regret of teachers as well as scholars, all parties 
being more disposed to remain than go. 

" Saturday last brought the long-looked-for box to Goshen, 
containing the school-books, Mr. Whyte s J precious gift. The 
sight of his fine paper and peris induced me to sit down and 
re-write this report ." 

On March 7th, 1845, Mr. Jameson expressed his pleasure at 
seeing an old friend, a Methven man, George Cunningham, Esq., 
who went to Jamaica in quest of health. " He was so much 
improved during the voyage, that, although he had to be carried 
on board ship, he has just completed an overland journey, under 
a tropical sun, without pain, and with no other discomfort than 
a little fatigue." 

In this letter he rejoices over the arrival of the Rev. Messrs* 
Hogg and Main, who have been spared to this day, and still 
labour in the most interesting circumstances. " It is cheering," 
he says, " to receive such a reinforcement. Manchester will 
once more be well supplied. I hope that God will carry on 
His work there, and increase the results yet more and more. 
May those who have come, be long spared in life, and health, 
and strength ! " 

On March 17th, 1845, writing to Dr. M Kerrow, he details 
his efforts to meet the wants of the Mile-End district, and de 
precates the forming of a too high estimate of the piety and 
general advancement of the people. His views on this latter 
point were most correct and judicious. " Action and reaction 
are equal, and in opposite directions." And the African mind 

i Mr Andrew Whyte of Edinburgh, a generous friend of Goshen. 



214 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

having been repressed, controlled, and bent by slavery, has a 
tendency to recoil from the extreme of cringing subserviency, to 
that of unreasonable self-esteem and contempt of all right and 
due obedience to superior authority. 

" Clifton is situated about two miles from Bonham Spring, 
and six or seven from Goshen. It is in the neighbourhood of 
a number of families belonging to Goshen church, who are 
prevented, by the distance, from attending divine ordinances re 
gularly, and whose children, for the same reason, can derive no 
benefit whatever from the school. These families are the 
oldest Presbyterians in the quarter ; they were, at first, con 
nected with Port Maria, and through them the station at 
Goshen was begun. They have once and again been dis 
appointed, in not receiving that pastoral superintendence which 
they expected. Still they have continued stedfast to the cause, 
and take a deep interest in its prosperity. One or two of the 
young people were taught at Mr. Millar s academy; and all 
availed themselves of the Sabbath instructions which were en 
joyed during Mr. Millar s residence at Bonham Spring. On his 
removal to Montego Bay, I was unable fully to supply the dis 
trict. In the meantime, Mr. Thomson came, and, not succeed 
ing in obtaining Bonham Spring house for our purposes, I 
procured Clifton, which is equally central and healthy. 
Although we were first in the field, we have been the 
last in getting a settlement. In consequence of this, hundreds 
whom I have taught, now tell me when I meet them, that they 
have joined the Baptists, or Wesley ans, or Church of England. 
The design of our present operations is not to bring back those 
that have left us : for this I have no desire to do j but to 
benefit those who have adhered to us through good report and 
bad report ; and to endeavour to bring in those who are still 
standing afar off, by seeking to do good to them and their 
children." 

Mr. Thomson s health failed ; but Mr. Jameson kept the 
Clifton school agoing during the season, until the lease of the 
premises expired. The Wesley an Methodists, who have laboured 
in Jamaica with their characteristic energy, afterwards built a 



CLIFTON STATION. 215 

chapel in the district which Mr. Jameson thus earnestly sought 
to cultivate. There are very few in that neighbourhood now 
connected with Goshen. But the labours of Mr. Jameson, and 
the man himself, are fresh in the memories and hearts of all 
there. And whenever the Goshen minister pays a visit to 
Mile-End, he is sure of a lively and interested audience. 

The following is an address to his people, on being absent on 
Sabbath, April 20th, at Clifton, where he went to intimate the 
cessation of Mr. Thomson s labours : 

" In consequence of the illness of Mr. Thomson, and the 
necessity, on this account, of giving up, for a time, the station 
where he was employed, I deem it my duty to leave you, for 
the purpose of visiting the friends there, to lay before them the 
painful tidings. Our mutual friend, Mr. Millar, has kindly 
promised to be with you, to read and explain God s most blessed 
word. I hope you will listen with attention and interest ; and 
I pray God, in his infinite mercy, to bless the truth to the souls 
of you all. Hear, saith the Lord, and your souls shall live. 
Say not of the Sabbath, It is a weariness ; but esteem it the 
holy of the Lord, and honourable ; and honour Him and His 
Sabbath, by not thinking your own thoughts, or speaking your 
own words, or doing your own actions. In God s house, 
and out of it, let quietness and solemnity mark your whole 
conduct. 

" In your prayers, remember that portion of our church family 
at Clifton, whose hearts will be filled with sorrow at the tidings 
which I have to bear to them. Pray the Lord to restore to 
health his young servant who was labouring there, and to fit 
him for many days of usefulness. 

" What need you have to improve your Christian privileges, 
lest the forbearance of God come to an end, and He remove 
your candlestick out of its place ! Then you will lament and 
say, * The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and we 
are not saved. 

" Pray, also, the Lord to prepare you by his Holy Spirit, for 
drawing to his holy table next Sabbath. See that you are in 
love one with another, * He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in 



216 MEMOIE OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

God, and God in him. Examine your own selves, and know 
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be 
reprobates. Purge out the old leaven the leaven of malice and 
wickedness. Crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts ; 
and be ready to meet with the Lord at his table, and to give 
yourselves wholly to him. 

" Let those who are not members of the Church of Christ 
who have been sitting at ease, and allowing precious opportu 
nities to pass away unimproved, consider what they will say to 
Christ, when he examines into their misimprovement of the 
means of salvation. Oh, thoughtless hearers of the gospel ! 
what will you say ? what can you say 1 You must stand con 
demned : speechless must you stand. Be wise, therefore, before 
the day of mercy pass away for ever. Seek, at once, the sal 
vation of your precious souls. Break off your sins which are 
so fatally entangling you. Turn to the Lord, and join your 
selves to the company of his people." 

The following remarks are a specimen of the manner in which 
Jamaica missionaries deal with their people, in endeavouring to 
train them in the duty of giving to the Lord : 

" On Thursday evening, there will be a meeting for prayer. 
I hope that many will attend to cry to the Lord for his presence 
at his table on Sabbath, and in behalf of the heathen world. 
Same evening, I will read over the names of those who have 
paid their subscriptions, and the amount paid by each. I hope 
none of you are putting off the payment to the end of the year. 
Come, at once. Why delay in the Lord s work ? You may be 
dead long before August ; and will you appear before your 
Judge for your crown, while you have slipped away, having 
neither fed the hungry, nor clothed the naked in his Church, nor 
done anything at all to aid the Church in her necessities ? Why 
should the Lord s professing people keep the Lord and his 
Church standing, month after month, outside their door, while 
they are serving themselves and the world first, and then come 
up, at the very last hour, when the long year is just expiring, 
with only the third, or the half, of their offering, and, with a 
sorrowful countenance, saying, I have no more, and can get 



SEVERE ILLNESS. 217 

ho more 1 Good reason why ! You have taken the Lord s 
portion the portion which He gave you for his church and 
you have mixed it up with your own worldly portion, and spent 
it all during the course of the year. He towards whom you 
act thus deceitfully, is God and not man, and to you he saith : 
Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh, 
shall of the flesh reap corruption ; he that soweth to the Spirit, 
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. " 

Writing to Mr. M Gilchrist, September 17th, 1845, he 
announces his determination to send home his sister and 
daughter, as this step seemed necessary for the health and 
education of the latter. Alluding to a scheme for the follow 
ing year (1846), he says : "This measure would require my 
presence in the congregation ; and such indeed is the pressure 
of evil upon the church from the world without, a pressure 
which, alas ! is causing many to fall, that every missionary 
should be at his post, unless he has strong reasons for leaving 
it. While I thus write, I do not think that there is any cause 
for being alarmed at the present state of things. The church 
is just casting off her bad humours, and this will, in the end, 
promote her health and peace. ... I rejoice in the hearty 
response of the church to the call from Africa. I hope that 
the painful discussions in the Synod have been brought to an 
end, and that past differences will now be lost in the union of 
love and zeal, in executing the great commission of our Lord, 
* Go and teach all nations. " 

In the latter part of this year, Mr. Jameson was prostrated 
by a severe illness, which kept him from his loved employ 
about three months. Who can doubt that it was to him a 
season of great spiritual improvement, and had a bearing on his 
call to Africa, and his removal to heaven about two years 
afterwards? Severe discipline not unfrequently precedes a 
new demand on the zeal and faith of the Christian. Thus, 
the bonds that tie him to earth are weakened, and he is the 
readier to gird up his loins, and grasp the pilgrim s staff or the 
warrior s sword, as the work and the service may require. 



218 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

The intelligence of an event which affected the people of 
God with sorrow and sympathy, reached Mr. Jameson in the 
latter part of this year. To Mr. M Gilchrist he had conceived 
a most devoted attachment, which was not less warmly reci 
procated on the part of that honoured and devoted servant of 
the Lord. The men were formed to be brothers, from their 
geniality and congeniality of temper and character. The es 
teemed pastor was in the van of the philanthropic and Christian 
movements of his most exemplary people. The stroke which 
deprived them of his ministrations, and plunged his family into 
mourning, was also felt in Jamaica, and the following letter 
which Mr. Jameson wrote, November 4th, to Mrs. M Gilchrist, 
testifies of his warm affection for his "brother beloved :" 

" MY VERY DEAR SISTER, The present packet has brought 
us a letter from our sister in Perth, detailing the circumstances 
connected with the deeply distressing and mysterious affliction 
of your beloved husband, and of my beloved friend and father. 
A report of this sad calamity reached us, by the last packet, 
but it was of such a nature that, while it raised . our fears to 
the highest pitch, it yet left us in ignorance of all the circum 
stances ; and we were waiting for the present packet with 
an anxiety, the intensity of which I am unable to describe. I 
often tried to pray for that dear friend, towards whom I 
cherish all the affection of a son, but I felt all uncertainty, and 
wished that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly far hence, 
and see, and know, and be at rest. Jeanie s letter, which we 
have just received, has brought before us those sad scenes 
which have been passing in your happy family ; and, while it 
has delivered us, in some measure, from the pain of uncertainty, 
it has overwhelmed us with the account it gives us of the 
state of our dear friend. I feel thankful to the God of all 
mercy, however, that his life is continued, and that there are 
symptoms of improvement. Would to God that his useful 
life may be spared for your sake, my dear sister, for the sake 
of the dear children, for the sake of the devoted people who 
are attached to his ministry, for our sakes in this distant 
corner of the vineyard, and for the sake of the Lord s cause 



LETTER OP COMFORT. 219 

generally ! Humanly speaking, his is a life which we can ill 
spare. For myself, I feel as if I cannot want him at all, and 
hundreds feel as I do. 

" My dear sister, I hasten to say how deeply we all sym 
pathize with your dear husband, with you and your family, 
and with the congregation. I may say for every praying indi 
vidual and family in Goshen church, that we cease not, day or 
night, to make mention of you all, and of your great affliction, 
in our prayers. We entreat the Lord of life to lengthen the 
days of his servant, and to restore to its vigour a life so use 
ful. We entreat the God of all grace to bear you up under 
this heavy stroke, and to make all consolation to abound to 
ward you. 

" God will do what is right with our dear friend ; and we 
may rest assured that this is just what is best for him, best 
for you and the dear children, best for the congregation, and 
best for us all. True, we may not at present see this. These 
harrowing scenes fill the eye, and rend the heart. By them 
the eye of faith may be dimmed ; and the child of God, cower 
ing under the pelting tempest, may feel as if all these things 
were against him. When the heavens are pouring out their 
floods, the lightning flashing through the sky, the thunder 
disturbing its peaceful bosom, and the tempest rending the 
lofty oaks, and stripping the forests of their leafy shade ; the 
poor traveller, with a sinking heart, says to himself, What 
good is there in all this 1 In a few days, the parched ground 
is covered with its green mantle, and all nature seems to put 
forth new strength. So, my dear friend, wait and see the 
salvation of God. A little time will show that all is well, 
that this dark cloud is full of mercy, and that it comes at the 
bidding of that God, who has encompassed your path hitherto 
with so many blessings. In the hands of God, our merciful 
High Priest, would I leave our dear afflicted friend, feeling 
assured that he will do all things well with him. And upon 
the same kind and gracious care I also cast you. I trust that 
every consolation may abound toward you, and that our God 
may supply all your need. I also hope that the Blessed 



220 MEMOTK OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Shepherd will himself look after the flock, for the purpose of 
sanctifying to them this very trying dispensation, and of 
maintaining among them all the ordinances of the blessed 
gospel. And I do fondly hope that our dear friend will soon 
be raised up to break again the bread of life." 

The Secession students attending the University of Edin 
burgh, had formed themselves into a Missionary Society. They 
were wont, at that time, to meet in the Session-house of Rose 
Street Church. In April, 1845, they wrote to Mr. Jameson a 
friendly letter; and the following are a few passages from his 
reply : 

"Dec. ISth, 1845. Your interesting and to me delightful 
letter of 5th April last, reached me about June, and refreshed 
and cheered me very much indeed. The spirit which it breathes, 
and the means which it shows to be in operation for awakening 
and increasing missionary zeal among you, who, if spared, will 
be the heralds of mercy in future years, cannot fail to excite 
devout gratitude and joy in every pious heart. 

" My dear friends, I rejoice to aid in furthering your impor 
tant design. Being the Lord s servant, I am the servant of 
his Church, and I am only doing my duty in complying with 
your request. 

" I know how real an interest is felt in our work here by 
dear friends in the distant land. And for that interest I desire 
to be ever grateful, and to do nothing unworthy of it. But all 
we can say about our labours is that we desire to be faithful. 
But, alas, how imperfect and feeble are our efforts, and how 
infinitely far short do we come in all our attempts to promote 
the Divine glory ! We are most unprofitable servants ; and if 
God makes us instruments of mercy to any, to Him to Him 
alone be all the praise and glory ! 

" In casting our eye over Jamaica, we see parish churches 
and missionary churches, and school-houses ; we see large con 
gregations and well-filled schools. But let us not suppose that 
the land is Christian, because it bears the name. The apparatus 
which God has promised to bless has been set up, but it does 
not act like a steam-engine. Look at the corn field over which 



NEEDFUL ADMONITIONS. 221 

the sower plods Lis weary way. Watch his silent, but laborious 
work. Look at the slow and peaceful growth of the seed. 
Now, it lies in the bosom of the soil. Now, its verdant leaf 
covers the naked clod. Now, its growth is accelerated by the 
genial mildness of spring, and again, it is hindered, and even 
threatened with destruction, by the cold winds, the scorching 
sun, or the heavy rains. At length, harvest comes, and barns 
are full. So will it be with the word of God in Jamaica, and 
every other where. Here, dear brethren, the seed is being sown ; 
it is growing in many fields ; but harvest-day is still far off. 
And many, many, unfriendly blasts are sweeping over us. But 
those who have root in themselves, from being the subjects of 
the Holy Spirit s saving operation, are still standing, and will 
be the joy of the Eedeemer s soul, and our crown of rejoicing. 

" Jamaica claims the continued care of the parent church, 
not only for her own sake, but for the sake of Africa. For a 
while, our people may be encouraged to give themselves to the 
work of God there, under the care of the ministers with whom 
they are acquainted. Thus, you will have to fill our places, 
while we, from time to time, lead forth bands of Ethiopia s 
children to their fatherland. 

" One thing more would I say to you. Having enlisted in 
Christ s work, be soldiers indeed. The territory of our King is 
the wide, wide world. Say not, you will go here, or you will 
go there ; you will not go to this place or that, but to the 
other. Dear brethren, say not so. But as the eye of the 
servant is towards his master, yea, as the whole British army 
is at its Monarch s beck, ready without a murmur to go to the 
utmost bounds of her vast dominions, upon the shortest notice ; 
yea, to penetrate into the heart of the enemy s country, to 
vindicate her honour, and establish her throne, so, as soldiers 
of the cross, say ye to your Master, Here are we ! Send us 
where thou hast most need of us. Now, avoid those entangle 
ments which, in after-life, and when the day of active service 
comes, will leave you no liberty, and which will make it ne 
cessary for the Church either to take your service at home, or 
not at all." 



222 MEMOIR OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

The following are extracts from the last report which Mr. 
Jameson sent to Rose Street : 

" The attendance upon divine ordinances is much the same 
as was stated in my last report. In good weather, it has been 
regular, and although numbers be not flocking into the house 
of the Lord, but the reverse, still those who are in it, are 
making progress in solid attainment. And I have reason to 
bless the God of all grace for the steadiness and faith of many. 
I am sorry, however, to report that the past season has wit 
nessed a greater amount of backsliding than I ever remember 
to have taken place in the congregation, in the course of a 
year. 

" What shall we say to these things 1 While the love of 
many is waxing cold, while those who had a fair profession, 
are turning back to the sins of the world, while the young 
are giving their hearts to know madness and folly, and while 
men of rank, education, and influence, are lowering themselves 
by becoming seducers, shall we suppose that these are all symp 
toms of a dying cause 1 No, verily ! The opposite is the fact. 
The devil finds that his kingdom is menaced : and he cannot 
rest. The wickedness of the wicked cannot be any longer con 
cealed amidst those dark clouds of ignorance which, in former 
years, enveloped this country, and, therefore, it lays itself out 
to secure, as far as possible, the countenance of the Church to 
its works of darkness, by enticing her children to follow polluted 
pleasures. 

" But He who is for us, is greater than all who are against us ; 
and He will assuredly cause Zion s righteousness to go forth 
as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. When 
we look at our churches, and see the many who are walking 
consistently with the truth, what reason have we to rejoice and 
bless God ! It is ours to sow the seed, and it is God s to bless 
the seed sown. The greater part of our old scholars are now 
away, busy at work, and have been so, during the last season ; 
thus furnishing a complete refutation of the charge brought 
against the missionaries, that their schools were making the 
young people lazy. It has turned out here as at home. The 



YEAELY REVIEW. 223 

children come to the school, until they are able to read and 
write a little. Then, when farther advanced, they work part of 
their time, and attend school another part. And, at last, they 
retire altogether. Three young men are about to go to Montego 
Bay to the Academy. They have got on a considerable way with 
their learning, and they wish to be teachers. Through the 
kindness and liberality of our friend Mr. Gibb, I am enabled 
to further their desire. I fondly hope that these young lads 
will be blessed by God, and made a blessing. 

" I am very desirous of having my dwelling-house removed 
to the church. We should there be in the midst of our people, 
and could secure a meeting, at any time. Besides, I should 
avoid those night exposures, which I feel are telling upon me. 
You may ask why I did not see all these advantages before 
now. I saw them, but, somehow, the way of obtaining them 
did not occur to my mind until lately. I built the church 
larger considerably than the congregation requires, in expecta 
tion that, by my visits and invitations, the large population who 
were sitting at ease, might be induced to come in. But in this, 
to a certain extent, I have miscalculated. For, at the present 
time, the general population is drawing off from, rather than 
drawing near to, religion. And to those who are desirous of 
having a connexion with religion, and of enjoying its ordinances 
and its sacraments, with little trouble and pecuniary outlay, and 
with little or no sacrifice of worldly indulgence, our Erastian 
Establishment affords every facility. This feature of the pre 
sent time will live out its day. It has come, and it will go. 
But it will take its time. And a season will follow, in which 
the fruits of present toil and of present prayers will appear. 
Let us wait patiently for it, and by persevering labour do all, 
under God, to bring it about. Then we shall gather strength, 
and when the church requires that portion of the building 
which is now intended for the minister s residence, she will be 
able to erect a dwelling for the one which she takes away. 

" I must now lay before you a view of our pecuniary contri 
butions. But here, I am afraid, you will think that we come far 
below the mark which you set for us. I have done what I 



224 MEMOIR OF EEV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

could do with propriety, in order to raise the sum to the 
highest possible mark. But I find, this year, that a pressure 
on one point is in danger of causing a relaxing in another. I 
have been well sustained by a number of the congregation, who 
are always willing. I have endeavoured, by private exhorta 
tion, as well as from the pulpit, to stimulate those who are 
backward, and whilst, in some cases, I have been successful, 
yet in others, feelings have been awakened which have led 
some to absent themselves from the Lord s table, and others to 
keep away from the church. I am more and more satisfied 
that this pecuniary contribution is not a thing which we can 
drive. Unless the Lord open the heart, we cannot expect an 
open hand. There have been some encouraging instances of 
activity and faithfulness, especially among the old and the chil 
dren. Some have a ground, the produce of which they devote 
to the church. Others have taken pieces of work, the profits 
of which they allot to the church. One little girl at school, 
nine years of age, sewed a shirt, for which she received two 
shillings, which she gave as her subscription. Another little 
girl, about the same age, raised from her ground the same 
amount, and she also brought it, and put it into my hand. A few 
among our adult youth have been exemplary. But the greater 
number appear, at present, to be laying out the most of their 
earnings in dress and folly. I have frequently urged upon 
them and their parents the consequence of this, in a coming age, 
when the present generation of church members shall have 
passed away. One affecting instance of the debasing love of 
money I cannot refrain from narrating. It is of a woman, 
whose master generously returned to her, as he did to all his 
other slaves, the compensation-money which fell to himself. 
The individual referred to received as her share two hundred 
dollars, or 40, and her children as much. During 1845, she 
has been paid 30 of the amount. Her subscription not 
appearing, I told her that she for one could not plead poverty. 
At last, out of the hundred and fifty dollars which she had just 
received, she gave one dollar. I thought of returning it, but 
wait to see what effect the word of God which I spoke, may 



KINDNESS OF THE PEOPLE. 225 

have upon her. In a word, as we have not the intelligence 
nor the church machinery of home, we cannot expect that uni 
form consistency among our members, nor those vigorous and 
well-sustained efforts, which mark the high attainments of the 
parent church. You cannot judge us by the figure of the four 
living creatures which are before the throne. You must take 
a lowlier figure, that of the parent bird teaching her newly- 
fledged young to fly. She sits upon the topmost branch, invit 
ing and entreating, promising and reproving. Some are moved 
by her persuasion, and make a willing effort to reach the point 
where the mother sits, but when half-way, they plunge, they 
flutter, and come far short. Some are too timid to try ; while 
others, in a sulky mood, look as if they saw not, and listen as 
if they heard not. So is it here. Our best people are willing, 
although unable, to do what they desire. Others have the 
means, but want the heart. And, in such cases, we find that 
we can do no more than hold to their eyes the torch of truth, 
and looking upwards, cry aloud, < Come from the four winds, 

breath ! breathe on these slain, and they shall live. " 

In giving the statistics, Mr. Jameson mentions that, up to 
the end of 1845, he had admitted 192 persons into the church; 
and that of these, thirty-six had died, or been excommunicated, 
while eleven were under suspension for carelessness and folly. 
" With reference to myself, I am waiting to know the mind 
and will of God respecting the disposal of my future service. 
Although I expect not a voice from heaven, yet I feel assured 
that God will give such intimations of his pleasure as to put 
beyond a doubt the path in which I have to go. And if this 
be to leave Goshen, and to go to the dreary moral wastes of 
Africa, I am ready, as soon as I see another here, to bring my 
family home, and to make arrangements for departing thence. 

1 feel that some more of us must embark in this great and im 
portant work, towards which the Secession Church has acted in 
a manner so godlike; and what is there to hinder me, more 
than another, if my Master call 1 " 

It will interest the reader to hear from Miss Jameson of the 
affection which the people showed during the missionary s ill- 

p 



22 G MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

ness. "Never can I forget their affectionate care during 
William s fever. They would not allow me to buy either 
chickens or yams, but, every day, they supplied us with both. 
When thanking them, many of them would say : No, my 
Missis, it is our duty to do so. When minister w r ell, and we 
sick, him visit w T e, him bring physic, him comfort we from the 
good word. Him never give we up. Now, when him sick, 
we love to carry thing for him comfort. We pray God to bring 
"him round. Mind minister good, Missis, and we will bring 
chicken and yam till it please God to make him better. Their 
grief at hearing of Mr. M Gilchrist s sore sickness w r as very 
great. Many of them came to William, weeping, and saying : 
1 Oh, minister, we sorry very much to hear that we father over 
the water be sick. We heart bitter for him, and we pray God 
to spare him good life, and make him quite strong again. " 



ORIGIN OF THE AFRICAN MISSION. 227 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Mission to Old Calabar Mr. Jameson called to join it Accepts the call- 
Appeals to the preachers Finds a substitute Farewell to Goshen At home 
Ordination of Rev. John Campbell. 

WE now come to the last and short period of Mr. Jameson s 
life, which was spent in thoughts about, and in preparation for, 
his work in Africa, which, alas ! proved so short. Would that 
it had been longer ! Would that he were even now in the field 
there ! But the Lord is on high. He hath the residue of the 
Spirit, and can make many such labourers to arise and go forth 
to his own help against the mighty. 

In marking out the future course of such a missionary as Mr. 
Jameson, we should have pictured him grown to a good old 
age among the people whose spiritual father he had been ; lead 
ing on his flock from one step of Christian progress to another ; 
with a new generation rising up around him, whom he had 
trained from infancy, looking on him with all the affection and 
reverence which such a character and such a ministry wert 
fitted to inspire. But another lot was appointed him. A new 
call was addressed to him ; and, in spite of the attractions 
binding him to Goshen, believing that he heard his Master s 
voice saying, This is the way, walk thou in it, his ardent mind 
at once embraced the call ; and he started oft on what he 
hoped would be a long career of usefulness in deeply degraded 
Africa. 

The origin of the mission to Old Calabar, in the Bight of 
Biafra, has been noticed in the course of this Memoir. In the 
words of Dr. Somerville, "Just as the woman of Samaria, 
when she found Christ, and had her heart opened by the touch 



228 MEMOIK OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

of divine mercy, felt an instantaneous desire to bring her 
countrymen to the Saviour, so the feelings of the negro con 
verts in Jamaica went out strongly to their fatherland ; and 
the cry became almost universal, We must send the gospel to 
Africa." 

And this was a satisfactory evidence that the work of God 
among the freedmen of Jamaica was, so far, genuine. In 
answer to this desire on the part of the people, the missionaries 
of the Baptist denomination sent out a mission to the island of 
Fernando Po, and to Bimbia and Kameroons, on the opposite 
mainland. And we have seen that eight brethren, assembled in 
Presbytery at Goshen in July, 1841, borne along by the feelings 
of the people, and resolved to take measures to embody them 
in action, solemnly devoted themselves to God, each of them 
engaging, if the choice fell on him, to go forth as pioneer, or 
leader of the " forlorn hope " in any part of Africa to which 
the Spirit of the Lord should call them. 

We have seen that the nature of this movement was, at first, 
somewhat misunderstood at home, being considered as prema 
ture, while the churches in Jamaica were still, to so great an 
extent, dependent on the bounty of the home churches, and 
while some of them had heavy building engagements on hand, 
or buildings encumbered with debt. It was thought to be 
both prudent and dutiful that they should strive to do more to 
maintain their own ministers, rather than divide their efforts by 
a bootless attempt to begin a mission in Africa an undertaking 
beyond their infant strength. This misunderstanding, how 
ever, was soon corrected. The Jamaica brethren explained that 
they and their people desired only to be agents and aiders of 
the home church, if the home church should undertake this 
new mission. They could furnish one or more brethren accus 
tomed to missionary labour among Ethiopians, and inured to 
the tropics, as well as assistants of African descent ; they could 
be regarded as a normal school for an African mission, which 
they and their people yearned to see in operation. 

The next step was to look out for a field of kbour on the 
West Coast of Africa. The Rev. George Blyth went to Liver- 



WADDELL AND JAMESON. 231 

pool to make inquiry at persons employed in the African trade. 
And Providence led to the selection of the Efik or Old Calabar 
people, who occupy a territory on one of the most navigable 
rivers on the coast of Africa. The chiefs of the Efik people 
sent them an invitation to come ; the Synod sanctioned the 
adoption of the new enterprise ; and then the Jamaica brethren 
proceeded to select fit agents. 

The Rev. Hope Masterton Waddell was unanimously chosen 
by his brethren as the person, who, in their estimation, was the 
best qualified to conduct the first band. Mr. Edgerly was 
appointed to accompany him, along with Andrew Chisholm, a 
carpenter, and Edward Miller the last two, natives of Jamaica. 
Mr. Waddell spent some time at home, visiting many places, 
explaining the nature, objects, and prospects of the enterprise. 
The Lord greatly prospered his labours and the labours of 
others. The utmost interest was felt by the people of God 
everywhere ; and the means necessary for the work were readily 
furnished by a willing people, devoted to the honour of their 
exalted King, and full of compassion for the desolate and friend 
less children of Ham among the rivers of Ethiopia. 

Mr. Jameson, as one of the consecrated eight, had contem 
plated the possibility of being called upon to redeem his pledge. 
In a letter to Mr. William Bryden, he wrote : " The question 

of Africa is exciting deep interest among us Perhaps 

I may be called upon to plough the rugged soil of Africa, 
and another may water the vineyard here. I desire to 
have no will of my own in the matter. Lord, show me ivhat 
Thou wilt, where Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt." But the 
call came sooner than he had anticipated ; and he was required 
to arise and depart sooner than, in any case, he had resolved to 
move. 

The following sentences of a letter addressed to the Presi 
dent and Directors of the Rose Street Missionary Society, 26th 
December, 1845, will be read with interest. Re% Dr. Somer- 
ville writes : " There is none who peruses it, breathing as it 
does such deep, fervent, and believing zeal, that will hesitate to 
acknowledge that Mr. Jameson is just the man who is fitted to 



232 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAMT JAMESON. 

be a fellow-labourer in Africa, with our ardent and devoted 
Waddell." 

Mr. Waddell had written to Mr. Jameson (31st October, 
1845), asking him to make every effort to prepare a few more 
native agents, and to be ready to go at their head to Africa, in 
the following year. " This view of the subject," says Mr. 
Jameson, " had not as yet been before my mind. I felt as my 
brethren feel, a deep interest in the all-important work. I felt 
that the vows of God with reference to Africa, should I ever be 
needed there, were upon me ; and I thought it possible that, some 
time or other, I might be called upon by my Divine Master to 
arise and go thither. But anything like this immediate move 
ment I was not contemplating. When Mr. Waddell s letter 
came, I saw that there was a speciality in it which I could not 
feel easy in passing over in silence. I then wrote to Mr. 
Blyth, and urged upon his attention the propriety of settling 
definitely, through the Committee, the next agent who should 
go to Africa, as much had to be done between his appointment 
and his sailing. At the same time, I said that, in common 
with my brethren of the Presbytery, I was at the disposal of 
the African Committee, and I was willing to undertake the 
work, if I thought that my Divine Master, through them, called 
me to it. The reply to my communication is as follows : * As 
our eye has been upon you all along, you need not entertain 
any doubt of your services being accepted for Africa. Once 
more, in my fleeting and ever-varying life, I am placed upon a 
point where every movement involves great and important con 
sequences, a point where overwhelming views of my own 
littleness my utter nothingness ever fill my mind, where I 
discover work to be performed which fills me with trembling, 
and leads me in agony to cry out, Wherein lies my capacity for 
this ? but a point from which also are discovered the rays of 
the Sun of Righteousness thinning, and scattering, and melting 
from the face of the horizon those battlements of clouds, and upon 
which is heard the gentle voice of mercy from the most excel 
lent glory, saying, My grace is sufficient for thee ; go in this 
thy might. Beloved friends, I am willing to go in the strength 



EXEMPLARY DEVOTEDNESS. 233 

of the Lord my God, and I am willing to remain here. I have 
no will but that of my Divine Master : for sure I am, that 
happiness, and comfort, and success in my work, depend on my 
being just where he wants me to be, and in doing just what 
he wants me to do. To serve God have I come into the world ; 
in this most blessed service would I spend my days ; and when 
I have done all that is appointed for me, I would depart and be 
with Christ, which is far better. It matters little where my 
grave my last resting-place may be, or by whose hands my 
lifeless body may be consigned to this dark and silent abode. 
All is in safe keeping for time and for eternity. On the resur 
rection morning, all will be found well nothing the worse for 
falling asleep far from the graves of my fathers, and for being 
buried by a rude and barbarous people : for I know whom I 
have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto him against that day. 

" But it is essential that another minister be found to take 
my place in Goshen and it is exceedingly desirable to have 
him here before I go. We cannot weaken Jamaica for the sake 
of Africa ; and I cannot, with any comfort, leave my young, 
and inexperienced, and weeping flock, without seeing one in the 
midst of them to teach, to comfort, and to lead, when I resign 
my charge. Oh ! surely some heaven-born spirit some heart 
in which lives the liberality of Christ will be found in the 
Secession Church, and that soon : for there is not much time to 
lose. I cannot leave without seeing one in my place to feed, 
comfort, and care for this flock : for there is much weeping, and 
this letter to-day has been frequently interrupted with sorrowing 
hearts and tearful eyes. 

" An old African was here a little ago. It was affecting to 
see the old weather-beaten man wipe his streaming eyes, and 
to hear him say, with a look of agony, 

" Oh, my minister ! we cannot say to you, Do not go : for 
it is the Lord s work. But what are we to do 1 You comfort 
us, and your going away will mash us (that is, it will knock us 
to pieces). Oh, my minister ! Oh, my minister ! 

" I brought him in, and seating him beside me, said : 



234 MEMOIR OP REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Francis, I am sorry to see you so grieved. You know I 
am going on my Master s work, and he will take care of me. 

" Oh, my minister, I don t fear for you at all ; I am dis 
tressed about myself. No fear of you, but what become 
of me? 

" Francis, I don t like altogether to hear you talk that way. 
You talk as if my mouth had given you the comfort, and as if 
I had done for you everything. Now, think again. Whose 
word has given you comfort 1 

" Francis replied, The word of God. 

" Now, am I to take all that word with me ? 

" f No, my minister. 

" Well, again, who has brought this word to your heart, 
Francis ? 

" The Holy Spirit. 

" Now, does He leave you when I go ? 

" No, no ! bless God ! bless God ! He abide with me for 
ever. 

" Well, Francis, I am not going away (should I go) before 
another minister come ; then I will bring him round to see you, 
and show him all how I do with you when sick, and how I 
speak to you when I teach you ; and this minister will just say 
the same words that I speak. So you will have everything the 
same but the man, the same God, the same Saviour, the 
same Spirit your teacher and sanctifier ; and the only difference 
will be the old man here took up the speech, and finished 
the sentence, 

" A new mouth. ; 

Writing to Mr. Blyth, 25th February, 1845, Mr. Jameson 
said : " I fully and entirely surrender myself to the African 
Committee, and hold myself in readiness to meet their views, 
whatever these may be. This I do in the full assurance that 
the Committee will use every means along with myself to have 
my place supplied in Goshen, so that the cause may not suffer 
there. The work in both places is God s, and I am sure that 
in obeying so urgent a demand for Africa as that sent from 
home, the cause of the blessed Saviour in Goshen will lose 



ANXIETY ABOUT HIS FLOCK. 235 

nothing, but, I trust, will, through the Divine kindness, gain 
much in the end Our worthy and respected Chair 
man has hinted that I am running before Providence, and had 
better look out for Jonah s whale. I may be before the Com 
mittee, but not ahead of Providence." 

In these circumstances, Mr. Jameson appealed to the 
preachers of the United Secession Church. He declared his 
willingness to obey the call now addressed to him, and told 
them that his chief anxiety respected the interests of the 
little Christian Society which had been brought into existence 
through his instrumentality. 

" To vacate this infant church, even for a short time, 
would seriously damage its interests ; and to serve Africa at 
such a cost would in the end prove highly disastrous to the 
cause which we all desire to serve. I am not at liberty to 
leave the sphere in which God has placed me, and where he 
has sustained me during the last nine years, without seeing 
another on the spot, into whose hands to resign my trust. 
Neither do I feel at liberty to leave my people upon the pro 
mise of occasional supply from the brethren. For I know 
that every brother has enough to do with his own church : 
and the inconveniences of travelling in this country are so 
many and so great, that the flock would have a very precarious 
subsistence indeed. 

" I therefore, dear brethren, make my appeal to you. By 
you will my views of duty be very much regulated. If one of 
you be led to respond to this appeal ; if he will come out 
to Goshen, and say to me, Go forth into that dark land, and 
the Lord go with you ; and I will take your place at Goshen, 
and water the flock, then shall I know that the Lord is 
sending me far hence, and then I shall hasten to obey his 
will. But if no response be made to this and other appeals, 
then surely I must conclude that the Lord has no work for 
me in Africa, but that He wills me to remain and tend the 
flock in Goshen. This important matter, dear brethren, I 
leave in your hands. Judge ye concerning it with impartial 
judgment. If the Lord is now saying, Who will go for us ] 



236 MEMOIE OF KEY. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Whom shall I send V With reference to Africa, I desire to 
say, Behold, here am I, send me. And with reference to 
Goshen, I trust that some one will be found willing to use the 
same language. Oh, if our Divine Master calls us to distant 
work, let us not count our lives so dear, our friends so dear, 
or our country so dear, as that, for their sakes, the interests 
of his glorious kingdom among the heathen shall be disre 
garded. To one and all of us is the commission given : 
Go ye and teach all nations, etc. From the relation in 
which the preacher of the gospel stands to this commission is 
he emphatically * the light of the world, and the salt of the 
earth. Oh, then, dear brethren, may none of us be found 
putting under a bushel that radiant light with which our 
Divine Master has intrusted us, by refusing to face the diffi 
culties and dangers connected with the spreading of its 
heavenly beams among the peoples dwelling in thick dark 
ness, and in the region and shadow of death ; may none of 
us be as the salt which has lost its savour, by refusing to 
carry to the perishing heathen, or to the far-distant missionary 
church, the life-giving, heart-changing, moral-reforming, and 
soul-saving gospel ; and this for no better reason than that 
we love father and mother, houses and lands, or our own 
lives more than our Lord. As those who hold the commis 
sion of our Lord, as those whose high and holy profession de 
clares that we are separated for the express purpose of preach 
ing the gospel, let each of us stand, looking up to the heavenly 
throne, and saying, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do 1 
And let us be ready to go wherever we are called, and to do 
whatever we are bidden. Pardon me, dear brethren, for pre 
suming to speak thus to you. My only apology is, that I am 
speaking out (almost unconsciously) those truths with, which I 
require, every hour, to check the unbelieving doubts and fears 
of my own heart, and with which I seek, through divine grace, 
to fortify my mind, in the prospect of more arduous duties 
and of greater dangers." 

To Mr. Jameson s letter of 26th December, the Society re 
plied : 



APPEAL TO THE PREACHERS. 237 

" 20th February, 1846. That while they are grateful to 
God for giving them such an agent as Mr. Jameson, while 
they continue to cherish towards him the warmest affection, 
and have unabated confidence in his prudence and zeal, and 
while they look forward with great anxiety towards a separa 
tion between Mr. Jameson and his attached flock at Goshen, 
yet, believing that God is now calling him to go as a herald 
of mercy to Western Africa, they feel that they would be 
wanting in duty to God, to the Church generally, and to them 
selves, were they to throw any obstacles in Mr. Jameson s 
way ; and, therefore, they not only do not oppose his going to 
Africa, but bid him l God-speed in his new enterprise. They 
also specially desired to make arrangements for preserving- 
Mr. Jameson s connexion with the Society." 

The Society were worthy of their missionary, and their mis 
sionary was worthy of them. With reference to the above 
communication, Mr. Jameson (April 3d, 1846) wrote : 
" Beloved friends, I reciprocate your affection and esteem. The 
period of my union with you has been indeed the sunshine of 
my days, and with it are connected the most blissful associations. 
Clouds, it is true, have once and again obscured my sky ; and 
my heart has been nigh to breaking, but your kindness has 
comforted me. Many circumstances render the present move 
ment a trial of no ordinary kind to my poor, faithless heart ; 
and the thought of being separated from you whom I love as 
my own soul, is one which fills me with the bitterness of 
anguish. The thought of leaving Goshen, with its important 
and interesting work, and its numerous endearments, and of 
leaving Rose Street, with all its prayers, and zeal, and sympathy, 
and friendship, in one day, almost overwhelms me. 

" My sister Mary s marriage will throw the school into my 
hands. I know the value of her assistance, now that I am de 
prived of it. The progress which her young charge has made, 
shows that in l\er removal the school has sustained a heavy loss. 
She is not going far away, but will live in the midst of the 
people, over whom she has acquired a salutary influence." 

A minute of the Committee of Directors of the Rose Street 



238 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM JAMESON. 

Society (April 18th, 1845), states that "Miss Mary Jameson 
had laboured devotedly in educating the young for two years, 
and that no remuneration had been solicited either by herself 
or by her friends ; and they express their approbation of labours 
so disinterested and abundant by presenting her with the sum 
of 50." 

The receipt of the Rose Street communication, acquiescing 
in Mr. Jameson s mission to Africa, is thus described by Miss 
Jameson : 

" Before opening the letter, he desired me to retire with him 
to his room, and shutting the door, laid the letter on the table. 
We kneeled down, and he poured out his soul before God, pray 
ing that, whatever might be the decision, we might be enabled 
to meet all, and not flinch from trying duty. He then opened 
the letter, and wept while perusing it. After a long pause, he 
said, < Well, well, Jane, tis all of the Lord, who knows the 
end from the beginning. He knows well that I desired not to 
leave this dear people, or to break up our pleasant home. Oh, 
no ! I would desire to live out my days among them, and to 
have my dust resting with theirs till " that day." Being called 
to Africa, I referred the matter to my beloved friends in Rose 
Street, and besought the Lord to declare his will through them. 
He has now done it in a beautiful and thrilling manner, by the 
fine spirit which they display. Therefore let us be up and 
doing, and make haste to follow as the Lord leads. " 

Mr. Jameson continued at his post, resolved to remain there 
till the Lord should break up his way. On the 26th of March, 
he was formally appointed to proceed to Africa, by the Jamaica 
Missionary Board, who also proposed that Mr. Goldie, then at 
Negril, should take charge of Goshen in the meantime. But 
this proposal was not adopted, as it was thought not to be 
advisable to break up Mr. Goldie s arrangements, since a mis 
sionary for Goshen would soon arrive from home. It was now 
six weeks from the sailing of the last vessel of the season. 

The following spirit-stirring appeal was addressed to the 
friends of the African Mission in Lloyd Street Congregation, 
Manchester, the Rev. Dr. M Kerrow s, 5th June, 1846 : 



LETTER TO LLOYD STREET CHURCH. 239 

" Among the many fields of missionary labour which present 
themselves to the eye of the Church, that of Africa is likely to 
occupy a very prominent position for years and ages to come. 
What continent has been so much neglected as Africa ? What 
people has been so abused as the Negro race ? Truly, they have 
been servants, and servants of servants unto their brethren. 
While the curse has been most distinctly predicted, and most 
completely fulfilled, so the time to favour Ham s land is no less 
explicitly foretold, and who can doubt that the oracle will be 
as fully accomplished ? God foretells the one, as well as the 
other ; and whatever dangers and