the items are of interest; and some of those respecting the population reveal some of the dark shades of the problem that lovers of the country are trying to solve.

In round numbers the population is 17,500,000, not counting foreigners. There are some 350,000 more women than men. Of the entire population only a little over 5,000,000 can read and write, and some 600,000 can only read, leaving nearly an even 12,000,000 who can neither read nor write.

This abject ignorance of the masses looms up in the background of every picture that can be drawn of the political, intellectual, and moral condition of the country; it is one of the greatest obstacles to the spread of the knowl edge of the gospel; and in equal degree is an ally of the State Church, that has adopted as one of its characteristic maxims that well-known one, "Ignorance is the mother of devotion."

A Missionary from Mexico writes :—

All the feast

TO-DAY is Corpus Christi, one of the great feast days. I doubt if there is one in a hundred who thinks anything about the day except that it is the time to buy fruit. All the servants and children are given extra money to buy their fruit; and the streets are full of enormous piles of watermelons, plums, mangoes, and the great variety of Mexican fruits. "This is my corpus," one will say to another, displaying his purchase. days are marked by some special dainty, sold only on that day; and the fasts are great feasts in reality. Good Friday, instead of being a day of fasting and prayer, is a great time of paseo, when all the new dresses must be finished, and everybody goes out in the streets. Large crowds go in the early morning to communion, and then consider their duty done. Sunday is always observed in much the same way, with an early mass and then unlimited pleasure. There is always a fine band concert in the plaza, and I am sorry to say that most of the Americans are seen in the gay crowd.

We keep up English service, though it often is confined to the missionary families; so if anybody wants a church-going Sunday he may have it. We realize how many temptations there are in a foreign city, and try to do a little home, as well as foreign, missionary work.

FROM THE ISLAND OF MOKIL.

We make the following extract from a private letter from Mrs. Rand :— FOR a month after we got here we lived, or rather existed, in Charlie's house. The house was so small we could not get in it all our things, so we let some things remain over on a little island where the "Star" landed them. Our cook stove we had on the porch, and that was where we did our cooking for a month. As soon as the "Star" left, the natives went to work to

A SKETCH OF THE MISSION WORK IN CHIHUAHUA.

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put us up a house. We had some lumber which Mr. Rand brought down two years ago to repair our house at Ponape. This, with some that Charlie let us have, and the native material, made us quite a good, comfortable house. You would be surprised to see how nice and cozy we look. We have been in the new house little more than two weeks. The natives made all the doors of it of boxes, and the shutters too. We had two glass windows which were pretty well smashed up on the "Star"; but we happened to have some panes of glass, so we thought the windows could be made all right. A week or two ago Mr. Rand sent one of the boys over to the little island where our things were, to get the panes; on his way home the canoe upset, and the panes all went to the bottom. Out of the two windows we succeeded in getting one good one, and that we had put up in our bedroom. I guess I must have thought too much of that window; it did look nice, and the only glass window in the house. But it is gone now. Saturday the men were putting up some native mats for a ceiling in the room, when they let fall, accidentally, a heavy timber. It went through the window with a crash, breaking panes, sashes and all. Sister Ida and I were standing in front of the house and saw the timber go through the window. We looked at each other, and finally Ida said, "You've thought too much of that window, Carrie." So it is with many things that we value; one by one they are being destroyed. With three moves, a fire, a hurricane, and want of proper care while on the "Star," if we have not yet learned how to take joyfully the spoiling of our goods, it isn't because we have not had lessons enough.

MEXICO.

A SKETCH OF THE MISSION WORK IN CHIHUAHUA.

BY MRS. GERTRUDE C. EATON.

It is just ten years since the Prudential Committee sent Mr. Eaton on a tour of exploration to this city, before the railroad was completed to this point; and he, like St. Paul, felt his heart faint within him when he saw the city given up to idolatry. He accepted the commission to undertake a new mission of the A. B. C. F. M. in this Northern Mexico, where no Protestant work had ever been done. We did not come here till the following fall, in November, when our precious baby Harry was a little over two months (he was five weeks old when I left Andover; nine when we started on the long journey). Although we had not crossed the ocean, we realized that we were in a foreign, and a very inhospitable land. One little boy in the United States asked if there were cannibals in Mexico. In the literal sense there are not, but in truth they would gladly have annihilated us had it been in

their power. As it was, they tried their best to discourage us, by refusing to rent us a house or to work for us, or even sometimes to sell us necessary supplies. I think I can truly say that "my tears were my meat" those first months; and yet, so conscious were we of the Lord's guiding presence that we never doubted that we had done well to come, nor regretted the step. At first there was little we could do beyond accustoming ourselves to the strange ways of living and studying the language. We ran across a snag in this, too, for no one was found willing to teach us, as the people did not want Mr. Eaton to learn to preach this "new religion." The presence of my sister in the home was of real service in giving us an entrance, as her English classes brought some of the liberal young men to the house and gave us an acquaintance, though the women were usually afraid of us. Meantime we started services in English for the many resident Americans, and by the spring of the year were holding song services in Spanish, when my husband read prayers from the Episcopal prayer book and a sermon or an appropriate tract. We were never sure of a congregation. Sometimes we would have a

A MEXICAN WOMAN.

few, and at others hardly any one would venture in, though some always listened at the doors and windows. We stayed ourselves upon the promises, especially this: "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." One of the first things we did was to display the Bibles and Scripture texts in the front window of the house. One

large Bible was always open, so that passers-by could read. One morning we found the glass had been broken and the pages torn with a poker, or something of the sort. The iron bars had protected the books from being stolen. Great notices were posted up on the cathedral doors menacing us with the wrath of the Church, and excommunicating all who should in any way serve or assist us. The animus of the people was all against us; and when, before the year closed, our dear baby failed in health, sinking daily for months, and Mr. Eaton, being all run down while trying to carry on the work of preaching in English and Spanish, grew daily weaker, and we were obliged to seek the cool climate of Wisconsin for a season, it looked as if even the Lord had forsaken us, and we had, indeed, made a mistake in coming. However, we felt that we must return, and after having buried the little one and nearly lost Mr. Eaton, we set our faces Mexico-ward, though it cost us far more than the first time. Our reward was awaiting us, however, for we found that the Bibles were doing their work, and the first converts, Felipe and Nutonia, without word of ours or explanations of any kind, were waiting to be baptized, having read their way clearly in the wonderful Word. That second year saw more progress. The woman's meeting was started in the house of the Orozcos; women who received us politely, though not joyfully at first. With the baby organ and Ryle's Commentaries to read from I began the work which from that day to this has never ceased, and our Tuesday meetings for women are found now wherever there is a company of believers. Mr. Eaton, his own colporteur, sold hundreds of Bibles in different parts of the State, visiting Cosihuiriachic, Parral, Jemenez, Paso del Norte, and other places, in nearly all of which we now have congregations-the first seed sowing having been followed by other consecrated workers-and in many, churches. On some of these trips I accompanied him the following year, and we walked the streets and sang like minstrels whenever any would listen to us, or like peddlers we went from house to house with Bibles and Testaments. Those were days that tried men's (and women's) souls.

Meantime in the city a little congregation was slowly growing. A Sunday school, with some bright young faces with the elders, was gathering, and believers were being received at every communion. Felipe and Nutonia were indefatigable in their work, and having brought many into this church, they went to Paso del Norte, and they were the first workers in the church that now exists there. Had I time to go into particulars, I should like to tell of the trials encountered in every place where work was first begun, but also how the truth has triumphed over every obstacle at last.

In about the fourth year a little school work was begun, under the lead of the best of our young women, though she was very incapable of teaching.