LETTER FROM BROTHER JOHN DAY
Bexley, March 29th, 1850
Rev. James B. Taylor:
Dear Sir — In a sort of journal I send, you will see what
has been going on in Messerado county, and at my station in
Bexley. You will see from sketches I have taken from the church
letter, the number of members in each church, the number baptized
last year, and the state they say they are in. I have had no reports
from our missionaries this year, and can say nothing of them. I
suppose they will write to you.
Affairs at my station are increasingly interesting. There are
now in my day school forty-three natives boarded, twenty-nine of
whom read the Bible. Several have left the school, among whom
are four girls. Although it is to be regretted that any should leave,
yet the anxiety of others to be received in their places atones.
About twenty colonists, you will see by their names, attend the day
school. About sixty natives attend the Sabbath school, and say
twenty-five colonists. From eighty to ninety natives, including my
school, attend worship in my chapel. Almost the whole of my
school appear to be seeking a better life. Three of my native boys,
I hope, are converted to God. The natives weep when they attend
preaching, and I hope I shall soon be able to write of great things
done by God among them. Their interest in preaching is
increasing. Some of their women weep because they have not
clothes to attend in. Others attend church with two yards of cloth
wrapped around them. I noticed nine one day clad in that way, and
although they appeared to be interested, I thought they felt
uncomfortable, while they saw other women neatly dressed, and
wished I was able to give each a frock. My wife has clad several,
but we cannot clothe all. The men mostly attend in their usual
dress.
This is not the first of my seeing natives attend church. I
have seen them attend, expecting a dinner, or a dash. But for the
word’s sake I see something new in Bassa. The old head men,
who were once our friends, ostensibly, are now aroused, and say to
younger ones, “You fools, you must not leave the fashions of your
fathers. Wait till you see old men mind this thing. I hear them
people preach, they dash me, but I don’t turn fool.” This is the
language of King Soldier and King Ben. But the hook is in too
