To the Chairman of the Famine, Rarer Fonp. waiting for relief, doled out daily and ople surrounding it, hing nightly to them, either in money, or food, or grain, according to the class to whi ich they belong, viz., poor people of the ighbourhood for' 30 or 40 li; refugees, and those who have tickets for receiving the ration of grains.
It is very touching to ace sometimes these crowds rushing upon you, a8 soon as they have the chance to do s0, kneeling ywn; knocking their heads to the ground grasping your dress on every side; and oxying out the long story of their miseries. So that this small and lonely village, unknown before, is now spoken of everywhere, and crowded constantly with sad locking people, who come to it in great numbers as to a e raart of business or to an inexhaustible fountain, to recent generous relief of the Christian charity.
Tf those gent ud come, they would also be pleased to observe the little legion, Th trusted to the nurses, of 220 boys and babes, the residue of 600 and more, the majority of whom had died from typhus and the cold and hunger from which they had suffered. If we add a hundred atill nourished in the residences beyond the Yellow River; 54 in Han-chuan, distant from Chia-shan-hsien about 30 ti; and 25 in Lu-y-hsien, we have the total little army of 399 babes and boys this and still surviving. those living. do the orphan howe here where we hive 70 boys and 5 girls from ose in the use here, nine to sixteen years old, who escaped from the epidemic that sacrificed a hundred more of these little victims. Besides a goodly number of destitute people fills up this residence, waiting for the autumn harvest, not far off 'All this will entirely justify; I sup the sum of Tls. 11,000, the most of which, viz., Tls. 6,467, were kindly granted by the Committee employed till now in nourishing orphans, paying nurses, supporting destitute people, saving' from starvation numberless refugees, giving alms daily at the door, and help to the most needy families, during all this time of distress, whose number now exceeds 400. If we make the average of five individuals per family, and give only 33 cash a day to each, we make out about five dollars each family per month, that forms altogether goad amount, Though they have not been supported for the same time, or in the same proportion. We may still suppose the average of 200 families have been supted for six months, at the rate of five jollers each per month.
But the last stroke of the Christian charity that has been employed in mitigating the horrid calamity here has been the public and regular distribution of grains ferred for many reasons by us to the distribution of money) to a thousand and more other families during these last two months. Without this relief, many could not reach on to the harvest of autumn, though looking so hopeful. In about twenty days the distress will be over; but. the kindness of the donors will be remembered Bingo the month of November, 267, rer Gat me there Pil' be ift bt ook lo of the people will remain,
charge only 500 orphans to support. This work of ity, i has much. this the improved ti discon at poe dle who, wi joeyer we are known, have always been kind to us, but of the Literati and tins, who after the Mandarins, publication of the 8 Att. of the Memo, foreigners, and consequently againat Christ-oficial orders from Peking, against ians, raised a violent Toponiee which was increasing year by year, that brought us and the European name to the utmost degree of discredit, The Literati excite the opposition of the people in the ho reward from I tandanns, who follow the perverse intentions of the Government, so openly and repeatedly infested. "The European Missionaries cannot now, as they could freely do before, appear in every place, after the riot excited by the Governor himself t'in-ming) in 1873, by orders from Po inst us in Ki foo and the ig there for many years, without any other fault than that of the Christian name, The Mandarin of Wan-yang-foo at once followed the example of the Governor by expelling us from the ci where hehad a residence for 200 years, Ani all these acts of violence we have received without our giving them the least cause for complaint, Than from Peking came praises and promotions for the ence Trent of our enemies. But T should be too long were I to narrate the Chad of our woes; what I have pointed out was in order to let you know the cause that made the authorities of Honan so unfrion: to those good gentlemen in Kai-fong-foo.
real cause of it all is in Peking the Mandarins cannot help following exactly the orders they receive from their Government, from which they have everything either to hope oF fear.
But the good done by the Euro charity in this distress has in the people a fooling of appreciation, which the Literati and cannot refuse to see on the evidence of facts, while they have shown on occasions favorable dispositions in regard to us. A Mandarin legate, sent by the Governor to Nan-yang to observe the distress of the people, paid us a visit on the 28th of June, He was astonished at seeing the great amount of foaina people at our door, as there were ain and alms that we gave to several
more than a thousand that day, and could not find words to extol this charitable work; he assured us he would make a favourable report of it to the Governor, Many also amongst the distinguished literati frequently send us notes of the most destitute families, recommending to our charity. You will be pleased to see some of these notes inclosed herewith. Till now we made distribution of grain in the villages only, but latterly we have been obliged to add 3,000 names more of those living in the city of Nan-yang, as they came many times urging us to assist them, So that this work will doubtless bring along with it other advantages of high importance, I thought it not quite useless to send on a copy of the Honan map, to make it fter known to every one what are the boundaries of the famine districts, though they may not be so exactly defined, as not to be here and there perhaps 100 li and more in error, There may be seen better the districts that enjoyed the liberality of the Committee, viz., several districts depending on the Prefecture of Nan-yang; going to the North; Vu-tchou; Siang-hsien; Hu-tchou Wu-yang; Chang-teh-fou; the Liu-hsien district; Hui-hsien; Vu-ngan-hsien. We send several sums also to Chia-shan and Lu-y, though out of the ssid boundaries, in a in order to collect orphans and to help refugees.
I should be glad to forward you fuller culars, but I have written rather
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.