Mountains. The numbers in this state are 6,779; the increase 741. We here received most reviving letters concerning the progress of the work in Kentucke, the new Western World (as we call it) In these letters our friends in that country earnestly intreat to have a college built for the education of their youth, offering to give or purchase three or four thousand acres of good land for its support. We debated the point, and sent them word, that if they will provide five thousand acres of fertile ground, and settle it under such Trustees as we shall mention under the direction of the conference, we will undertake to complete a college for that part of our connection within ten years.

In travelling from this conference to Virginia, we were favoured with one of the most beautiful prospects I ever beheld. The country, as far as we could see from the top of a hill, was ornamented with a great number of peach orchards, the peach-trees being all in full blossom, and displaying a diversity of the most pleasing colours, blue, purple, and violet. On the opposite side of a beautiful vale which lay at the foot of the hill, ran the river Yeadkin, reflecting the rays of the sun from its broad, placid stream: and the mountains which bounded the view, formed a very fine back ground for the completing of the prospect. The two days following we rode on the ridge of a long hill, with a large vale on each side, and mountains rising above mountains for twenty, and sometimes, I suppose, forty miles on each hand.

In Halifax county (Virginia) where I met much persecution four years ago, almost all the great people in the county came in their chariots and other carriages to hear me, and behaved with great propriety; there were not less than five colonels in the congregation. On the 18th we

opened our first conference for the state of Virginia in the town of Petersburg, and both in the public and private meetings the Lord was very present with us. Thirteen preachers were received on trial, all well recommended: in the former conferences there was not a sufficient number of new preachers to answer all our calls, but in this conference every deficiency was supplied.

From Petersburg we set off for our second Virginia conference, which we held in the town of Leesburgh, visiting Richmond by the way. At this conference also we had a very comfortable time. The numbers in society in Virginia this year, are 14,226: the increase 2,023.

From Leesburg we set off through Alexandria and Annapolis for Baltimore. At Alexandria I preached in the great presbyterian meetinghouse which has been built in that town, and, praised be God, gave huge offence to the unregenerate rich, and great joy to the pious poor, by the testimony I then bore against sin.

At Annapolis, in Maryland, after my last prayer, on Sunday the 3d of May, the congregation began to pray and praise aloud in a most astonishing manner. At first I felt some reluctance to enter into the business; but soon the tears began to flow, and I think I have seldom found a more comforting or strengthening time. This praying and praising aloud is a common thing throughout Virginia and Maryland. What shall we say? Souls are awakened and converted by multitudes; and the work is surely a genuine work, if there be a genuine work of God upon earth. Whether there be wild-fire in it or not, I do most ardently wish, that there was such a work at this present time in England. In one meeting in this state we have reason to believe that twenty souls received full sanctification; and it is common

to have from twenty to fifty souls justified in a day, in one place.

Our first conference for the state of Maryland begun in Baltimore, on Tuesday the 4th, in which we were all unanimous and truly affectionate. On the Wednesday evening after I had preached, and Mr. Asbury exhorted, the congregation began to pray and praise aloud, and continued so to do till two o'clock in the morning. Out of a congregation of two thousand people, I suppose two or three hundred were engaged at the same time in praising God, praying for the conviction and conversion of sinners, or exhorting those around them with the utmost vehemence: and hundreds more were engaged in wrestling prayer either for their own conversion or sanctification. The great noise of the people soon brought a multitude to see what was going on, for whom there was no room in the church, which has been lately built, and will hold a larger congregation than any other of our churches in the states. One of our elders was the means that night of the conversion of seven poor penitents within his little circle in less than fifteen minutes. Such was the zeal of many, that a tolerable company attended the preaching at five the next morning, notwithstanding the late hour at which they parted. Next evening, Mr. Asbury preached, and again the congregation began as before, and continued as loud and as long as the former evening. This praying and praising aloud has been common in Baltimore for a considerable time; notwithstanding our congregation in this town was for many years before, one of the calmest and most critical upon the continent.Many also of our elders who were the softest, and connected, and most sedate of our preachers, have entered with all their hearts into this work. And it must be allowed, that gracious and wonderful

has been the change, our greatest enemies themselves being the judges, that has been wrought on multitudes, on whom this work begun at those wonderful seasons.

On Friday the 8th we set off for our college, which is about twenty-eight miles from Baltimore. I was highly pleased with the progress they have made towards the completing of the building; the situation delights me more than ever. There is not, I believe, a point of it, from whence the eye has not a view of at least twenty miles: and in some parts of the prospect extends even to fifty miles in length. The water-part forms one of the most beautiful views in the United States; the Chesapeak-Bay in all its grandeur, with a fine navigable river (the Susquehanna) which empties itself into it, lying exposed to the view through a great extent of country.

During my stay at the college I had several long conversations with Dr. Hall, our president, and am satisfied beyond a doubt, that he is both the scholar, the philosopher, and the gentleman: he truly fears God, and pays a most exact and delicate attention to all the rules of the institution. Our classic tutor is a very promising person: he is not yet the polished scholar, like the president; but his manifest strength of understanding, and persevering diligence, will soon, I doubt not, perfect every thing that is wanting. And our English and mathematical master gives us considerable satisfaction.

On Saturday morning, the 9th, I examined all the classes in private: and in the afternoon we had a public exhibition of the different abilities and improvements of our young students. Two young men displayed great strength of memory, and great propriety of pronunciation, in the repe

tition of two chapters of Sheridan on elocution, and were rewarded by Mr. Asbury, as a small testimony of our approbation, with a dollar a-piece. One little boy, a son of Mr. Dallam's, a neighbouring gentleman, delivered Memoriter, a fine speech out of Livy, with such an heroic spirit, and with such great propriety, that I presented him with a little piece of gold. Three other boys also so excelled in gardening, that Mr. Asbury rewarded them with a dollar each. But what is best of all, many of them are truly awakened.However, we were obliged to undertake the painful task, in the presence of the trustees, masters, and students, of solemnly expelling a young lad of fifteen years of age, to whose learning we had no objection, but whose trifling, irreligious conduct, and open ridicule, among the students, of experimental religion, we could not pass over: as we are determined to have a college, in which religion and learning shall go hand in hand together, or to have none at all. But nothing relating to this institution perhaps has given me greater pleasure, than to find we are already enabled to support four students fully, and two in part, (preachers' sons and orphans) on the charitable foundation.

On Wednesday the 14th, we opened our second conference for the state of Maryland, in Chester-Town, where also we had nothing but love and unanimity. The numbers in society in Maryland are 11,117; the increase 1,107. On both the first and second days of the conference, there was much praying and praising aloud in the congregation. The second day they began at three in the afternoon, immediately after the sacrament, so that we could not hold a love-feast, as we intended, and continued till eight in the evening; when Brother Everitt, one of our elders, preached.