widowed MOTHER that now writes you, and my feelings at this moment, (as well as when I first read my son's letter,) are inexpressible; you must therefore excuse my plain and imperfect acknowledgement for all your kindness towards my dear boy. He is young, and had been led astray, but the Lord in mercy led him to you, and he is now in the right way, through your kind influence.

May Heaven's best blessings forever rest upon you and yours. Accept a rejoicing mother's eternal thanks for having restored to her her long lost son. May I ask of you the favor to keep the parcel until my son's return from Canton, which he told me in his letter would be in a twelvemonth.

Begging your pardon for having encroached upon your time and patience, I remain, dear sir, with a mother's gratitude, Yours, most sincerely,

P. S.

And obliged, HELENA E

The parcel contains several religious books, my likeness, a bead chain and

several letters.

H. E. Sailor's Magazine.

This is but one case out of many in which the exertions made for Seamen, here and elsewhere, have proved successful. For a short and simple narrative of another kind, we refer to the extracts from the Anniversary reports, on another page of this number.

FOREIGN TRAVELS.

Greece in 1844; or, A Greek's Return to his Native Land-a narrative, edited by THEODORE DWIGHT, Jr.

CHAPTER VII.

Interesting objects and scenes in and about Athens.--The modern city long unknown in Europe.-Early modern accounts of Athens.Some events of the late war.

The reader can easily imagine something of what the feelings of a Greek may naturally be, when, after a long absence from his native country, he finds himself not only in Greece again, but in the centre of Greecein Athens. After the scenes I had witnessed in my childhood, in a distant island of the country, then far from the great body of the nation, exposed to the savage enemy, and most of the time completely within their power, and after a long absence in another continent, it was delightful to realize the perfect peace and security now so happily established among my countrymen. My enjoyment was enhanced, not only by my restora tion to my family, and the contrast of our condition and prospects with the sorrows and

the apprehensions we had formerly known, but by the reflection that thousands around us were in the same happy condition, and had experienced a similar change in their prospects.

My time was variously occupied during my stay in Athens. I had much to say and much to listen to, first in the family, and afterwards among their friends, to whom I was soon introduced. Then my curiosity soon led me to the various spots and monuments which attract every traveller.

What changes have taken place in Athens ! and some of the strangest are caused by the influx of foreigners. French, English and German shops are open on all sides, and these languages are heard in every street. The large hotels are kept by foreigners, and conducted in the style of London, Paris and other cities of western Europe. Many foreign residents are also found-families who have purchased or erected mansions, and taken up their permanent abode in the city or its environs, attracted by the beauties and associations of the place, the mildness of the climate, and the salubrity of the situation. Many of these foreigners have the aspect of refinement and intelligence, as well as of wealth or competency; and they are, with reason, regarded by the Greek inhabitants as a welcome and valuable acquisition to the population.

How striking is the reflection, amid such crowds of forigners congregated in this famous capital, that, less than three hundred years ago, the opinion prevailed in Europe, even among the most learned men, that Athens had been razed to its foundations! Her monuments, her very localities, it was supposed, had no longer any trace except in books. Such a mistake was the effect of Turkish barbarism and European torpidity combined. Clark informs us that the work of Martin Crusius (about 1580) confirmed that error, and that the first traveller who truly described Athens in modern times was De la Guilletière, a Frenchman, who published a book in Paris in 1675. After being four years a slave in Barbary, he paid a visit to Athens, in company with several other Europeans, and gave a very accurate, sensible and interesting description of the city and its antiquities. In the year when this volume appeared, Wheeler, an Englishman, set off for Greece, accompanied by Dr. Spon; and both, in their published journals, while they disparage their worthier predecessor, copy from him without the least acknowledgment. Dr. Clark is of the opinion that De la Guillitière (or Willet, as the same name has become changed in England,) is properly to be regarded as the first writer who acquainted Europeans with the existence of Athens and her remains, as Crusius had hardly excited any attention, though nearly an hundred years his predecessor, and he, as has been remarked, encouraged the prevailing opinion that she was no more. De la Guilletière, however, made many mistakes in the inscriptions that he at

tempted to copy, which is not much to be wondered at; but his descriptions, and especially his map, are spoken of in high terms.

It may appear almost incredible that such ignorance should have prevailed on a subject of this nature; for why should not some reports be brought from Athens by the many merchants who then, as at other times, had intercourse with Greece, even if in small numbers? Dr. Clark gives one reason-which is, that the name was so disguised by foreign corruptions as to be no longer recognized. The few Italian traders who visited the harbor of Piræus, called Athens Setines or Sethina, by which no one could certainly recognize it; and yet," says Guilletière, in speaking of the ancient cities of Greece, “no one has preserved its name with better success than Athens has done: for both Greeks and Turks call it Athenai."

Of all the cities of Greece, none perhaps was the scene of so many changes and of so many sieges, in the course of the late war, as Athens. The beginning was made in 1821, when the insurgents in the Morea and the sailors at sea had done enough against the Turks to excite their countrymen in every quarter. There had long prevailed a comparatively good understanding between the two parties in this city. The Turks, of course, held possession of the Acropolis: but the Greeks were the chief part of the population of the city which lay at its feet, although that was garrisoned by a moderate body of troops.

When the state of the country began to appear alarming, the Greeks dwelling in the city and in the country for many miles around, fled to the coast, and embarked for Salamis and other safe places. After a short time, such of the men as meditated something for the nation, returned and traversed the plain of Attica in bands, depredating, or waylaying, surprising and cutting off smail parties of the enemy who ventured to expose themselves. The banks of the Cephisus, so celebrated in times of Athenian splendor, now became the scene of a cauticus but bloody partizan warfare; but the Turks were too few often to venture from the city walls, which were soon destined to an assault by the Greeks. One night in June, 1821, they were attacked, and with such spirit that the town was soon in their hands. They then pressed the siege of the Acropolis, and the Turks had begun to suffer from famine, when a Mahomedan army, under Omer Pasha, arrived and d ove them back to Salamis. But this inhuman commander committed the most barbarous atrocities. He sent out to ravage the country, and had the remaining inhabitants tortured, treated with every indignity and cruelty, and put to death in various ingenious modes, to increase their sufferings. His men often amused themselves with hunting down the poor peasants with horses, making sport of their fears, and cutting them in pieces, or shooting them when weary of their sport.

But in June, 1822, the army had retired,

and the Turkish garrison in the Acropolis were suffering severely from the want of water. Their only spring, just outside of the walls, was in the possession of their enemies. After a time they capitulated; but many of them were massacred, in retaliation for the recent atrocities of their countrymen at Scio, at the instigation of refugees from that scene of horror.

When the Turks next invaded the Morea from the north, they passed by Athens without waiting to besiege the Acropolis, and would have left Corinth also unmolested, had not the garrison deserted it from fear.

In 1826, while Gouras had command of the Acropolis of Athens, Col. Favier occupied the city for some time, with his disciplined troops; and he proceeded hence with them, on his unsuccessful expedition against Euboea. In July, Kiutahi Pacha came down with a Turkish army, occupied the Museum Hill, and began to bombard the city and Acropolis. He had two long and bloody battles with Col. Favier's corps and a body of Greeks, whom he drove back with extreme difficulty, though with a vast numerical superiority.

In October, when the Acropolis alone was in possession of the Greeks, and they were suffering severely from disease, as well as the loss of many men, a timely reinforcement forced their way in at night, bravely led by Grigiottis. After this, however, the garrison were more closely besieged than ever, so that for a long time not a word of communication was held, even with the government. The most energetic exertions were then made for their relief, and to drive back the Turks. Col. Gordon landed at the Pyræus, and occupied the hill, supported by the steamboat Perseverance, and afterwards by the frigate Hellas. Karaiskakis afterwards came down from the north, and Favier cut off the Pacha's communication with the sea of Negropont, while the Greeks and many foreigners, newly arrived, assembled to partake in the recovery of Athens. Lord Cochrane was present with his frigate. and in the general command. Karaiskis was unfortunately mortally wounded just at the moment when advantages had been gained, and his practical skill was needed to counteract the European ideas of Cochrane. Shortly after, the flower of the Greek army, which had imprudently encamped on the open ground in the plain, preparatory to an attack on the Turks, was overwhelmed by their charge, and all the Greeks were driven to a precipitate retreat.

There appears to have been a difference in the dispositions of the Turkish commanders. Kuitakhi Pacha, who so long was at the head of their armies in Attica, was a brave and skilful soldier, without the inhumanity of a wild beast. He was not guilty of the practices of his predecessor, Omar Pacha, who rendered himself and his soldiers abominated to the extreme, by the scenes of cruelty of which he made the country the theatre.

But I have not room to go into the many

other interesting epochs of the late war in this place. A narrative of the sieges of the Acropolis, now by the Greeks and now by the Turks, would offer a large fund of interesting scenes and characters, sufficient alone to fill volumes.

Thus it is that the traveller in Greece at the present day finds himself surrounded by things which may almost lead him to doubt the sufferings which the people endured only a few years ago. Luxuriant harvests wave on the spots which but a short time since were stained with blood and peace, prosperity and happiness prevail where was nothing but desolation, or sights and sounds of WO. The marks of those times may seem fewer than might have been expected; but now and then something presented itself to remind me of them.

Striking Facts and Remarks from the Anniversary Reports.

The Anniversary Week in New York was peculiarly interesting this year.

American Seamen's Friend Society.-The 17th Anniversary was held in the Tabernacle On Monday, Capt. Richardson in the chair.

Captain Hudson, of the U. S. N. was cheered to learn from the report that the Great Author of Nature had affixed his seal to the exertions of this Society. Some apparently insignificant cause or event, on distant seas, a book, a tract, an exhortation, has led the trembling sailor to the cross of Christ. Twenty years ago what was well nigh universally the condition of seamen? Drunkards, profane swearers, Sabbath breakers. 17,000 seamen now are members of the Marine Temperance Society of New York.

Mr. J. G. Clark, a sailor, related his own personal history in a speech of great interest and most natural and winning eloquence, which both delighted and affected the audi

ence.

I am, said Mr. Clark, a native of Massachusetts. My parents were both pious, and I enjoyed, in my childhood the benefit of their good example and Christian instruction, and listened to their prayers. At eighteen, tempted by a wayward imagination, I forsook all the advantages of home for the ever-varying, precarious and perilous life of a sailor. I have experienced almost all the hardships and dangers of the sea, was in the Exploring Expedition under that brave and generous officer, Captain Hudson, (who has just addressed you,) and at one time on shore, at one of the islands in the Pacific, with two officers, the savages, unprovoked fell upon us, slew my two companions, and left me pierced with spears and bruised by their war clubs, covered with wounds for dead. But God raised me up and made me deeply sensible of the duty of devoting my spared life to his service. I began to regard myself as a living represen tative of the holy religion of Christ, and that I could not remain inactive, but must labor to

make known to my shipmates and others the value of the faith I professed. Mr. Clark gave several intensely interesting facts in his subsequent history, spoke of the conversion of many seamen with whom he had sailed, and turning to the sailors present, urged them to efforts for their own improvement, with a manly and truc hearted earnestness and eloquence. In conclusion, he observed that he could never forget an admonition given to him by his father, in view of the possibility that he might be called to speak in public, (borrowed from a grist-mill,) to "shut the gate when the corn was out,"-and of course, said he, I have done.

N. Y. Sunday School Union.--The report contained the following just tribute to the memory of the late Rev. Dr. Milnor.

"He has now gone far above the praises and beyond the rebuke of men. He was a Christian gentleman of enlarged views and of a liberal spirit-a pattern worthy of all imitation.

"For all which belongs to Christian courtesy, united with the love of the truth and zeal for the interests of piety, he had few equals and no superiors. For a series of years, he presided over this institution with that patriarchal dignity and simplicity which secured the love and confidence of Christians of all denominations. His was in deed and in truth a catholic spirit. He loved and acknowledged all of every name to be members of the Church, who possessed the spirit and bore the image of their Lord and Master-and it affords us a melancholy pleasure to pay this feeble tribute to his memory."

Rev. Mr. Dowling, spoke of the grand necessity of teaching Bible truth, and the adaptation of the Sabbath school enterprise to preserve the young from antichristian error. The policy of Rome is to shut out the Bible. It is written in the laws of her church. She fetters the press by council enactments, and strains every nerve to keep the light from her people. When Wickeliffe first translated the New Testament, a Romish opponent said that Christ gave the truth to the clergy and doctors, but now it is given to the laity and even the women! In our day we have seen unblushing efforts to banish the Bible from the day school, and where shall they go but to the Sabbath school for the instruction they need. And the present Pope has issued his Bull against attempts to popularize the Bible by spreading it among the people. The same Bull pretends that the Roman church seeks to instruct the people, but it must be through a doctor set to interpret the Scriptures.

If I hear of a man that don't want the Bible circulated, I think of the king who did not want the prophet because he prophesied no good of him. Depend upon it, if any denomination opposes the circulation of the Bible, it is because the Bible is opposed to them.

To a blind Asylum, a young lady, blind and and deaf, was brought, to see if any thing

could be done for her. Her friends were told that there was no hope. And as she could not hear, a tap was given to her hand to signify "No:" she burst into a flood of tears. Shall I never look upon a human face again; or upon the sweet page of the word of God?" But one of her friends took the Bible and placed it upon her breast. It was a touching act, and it reached her heart. She broke out in the language of joy and praise, repeating the precious promises she had learned in the Sabbath school. Her heart was comforted, and she found joy in God.

Such

A little boy lost his sight after he had learned to read, and he so mourned for the word of God, that his father procured for him the Bible in several large volumes in raised letters. He was delighted with his treasure, and used often to go with them by himself. His mother once looked in upon him silently, and saw him at prayer over his volumes. He then took each one and kissed it. was his love for the bible. Now what would infidelity do? Why it would snatch those precious promises from the memory of that blind girl. It would tear those Bibles from the closet of that blind boy. O, it is cheerless, cold, and cruel! Now to save the children of our country from the wiles of the infidel, we must teach them the Bible. Men often become infidels by not reading the Bible, and they hate and oppose it because they do not know what it is.

Rev. Mr. Childlaw, of Ohio, a Welchman, was then introduced. My countrymen are monuments of the benefits of Sabbath school instruction. The minister of my native town. Rev. Mr. Charles, was the first to establish thein there, and the people flocked by thousands to learn to read. They had not books enough, and that want gave rise to the British and Foreign Pible Society, that is now flooding the world with light. Mr. Charles went to London and plead for them and waked up Mr Hughes, and he said if such were the wants of Wales, what must be the wants of the world. That was the germ of that noble Institution.

Once I was travelling in the Wilds of the West, as a Sunday School Missionary, and overtaken by the night, I stopped at a little cabin and asked for lodging. The good woman said she had scarcely any thing for me to eat, but she would do her best. So she spread her table, and as I sat down, I asked a blessing. She stepped up to me, and asked if I was a Methodist Minister. I told her "no, but I was a minister." "Well, won't you give us a sermon ?" Certainly, if there are people to hear." She took down a long horn, and going to the door she blew blast after blast that rung through the woods, and presently the people began to come. "Run home," said she, "and get your wives, I've got a minister here, and we are going to have a sermon." So after a while some 18 or 20 People got together and I preached to them. Aad after preaching, they asked me to hold

a class meeting, and so I did for the first time in my life, and a precious season we had till after midnight. That night I slept on a bearskin with my saddlebags for a pillow, and waking up after sunrise the next morning, there was the table loaded with good things which the people had sent in for my breakfast. I rose and went on my way rejoicing.

That was only eight years ago, and now there is a church on that very spot. Such is the blessing of God, on our labors. Go on, then, in this blessed work and may God reward you yet more abundantly.

Foreign Evangelical Society.-This Soci ety celebrated its sixth anniversary on Tuesday evening, at the Rev. Dr. Hutton's church, on Washington Square, Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen presiding.

The receipts are several thousand dollars more than in any former year.

To the papal States, France and Belgium, the Committee have appropriated more than 50,000 francs, of which 42,000 were remitted to the Corresponding Committee at Geneva, who were requested to apply it towards the salaries of 50 colporteurs, to aid seven young men who are in the theological school at Geneva, and in such other ways, in France, Italy, and Belgium, as they might judge most prudent and efficacious, &c. &c.

As to Canada, the good work is making very satisfactory progress, both in connection with the Swiss mission and the Canada mission. Reference was made to the report for details. The Society hope early to be able to do something for the Spanish race on this continent. A converted Spanish monk is now in our midst, willing and anxious to do something to advance the cause among them. He is now engaged in preparing Tracts in the Spanish language, three of which he has already completed, and in translating Prof. Merle D'Aubigné's History of the Reformation. The recent revolutions in Spain have done much to open the eyes of the people to the exhorbitant claims of Rome; and the influence exerted thence, it is believed, will be felt in South America.

Rev. Mr. Wilkes, of Montreal, then made some statements concerning the condition of the people in Canada. Lower Canada, the portion of the province of which he wished to speak, he said, was discovered and settled by the French, twenty or thirty years before the first settlement was made in New England; and yet if any intelligent traveller were to pass from New England into Canada, which has a soil quite equal, a climate very little inferior, and other natural advantages not far behind those of New England, and to compare the condition of the inhabitants of the two adjacent sections, he would stand astonished, and ask how it came to pass that more than two centuries had passed away since Lower Canada was settled, and it still remained in its present degraded and wretched position. Not one man in ten can read; not one in fifty can write; and though more women than

men can read, still not one woman in twenty of the French Canadians can read. Agriculture is in a most wretched condition. The people are starving on a soil which the inhabitants of Vermont have often envied them. How is this? Indeed, I know no other cause than that Popery had reigned there from the first settlement of the country until now. No system was ever more richly endowed, so far as lands and money are concerned, than Popery in Canada. No colony of France ever received into its bosom a larger proportion of the ancient nobility of France, than Canada; but to what avail?

American Tract Society.-The 20th Anniversary was celebrated in the Tabernacle on Wednesday morning; the President, Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen was in the chair.

Sixty-eight new publications have been ste reotyped during the year. The Society have now published in all 1,176 publications besides 2,007 approved for circulation abroad.

Circulated during the year 373,757 volumes, 5,626,610 publications, 152,727,239 pages, being an increase of 61,255,773 pages over the preceding year, and making the whole number of pages circulated in twenty years 1,544,053,796.

One hundred and forty-three colporteurs, volume agents and superintendents of colportage have been engaged in the service of the Society during the whole or a part of the year, in twenty-four States and Territories, (including Texas,) and exclusive of those in the service of the Society at Boston and other auxiliaries; of whom one hundred and three are still employed. The total number of families visited exceeds 153,000, with most of whom the colporteurs have had personal religious conversation or prayer; not far from 47,000 families, who were destitute of all religious books except the Bible, were each supplied with a book gratuitously, and several thousands with the Bible or Testament by sale or gift. The total circulation of volumes exceeds 374,000, including 24,000 sets of D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation.

The destitution of the country is illustrated by statements from the correspondence of colporteu s, missionaries, &c.

1. In respect to religious books and Bibles -not far from one third of the families being destitute of alf religious books, the Bible excepted, and from one-sixth to one-eighth of the population visited not having the inspired volume:

2. In respect to a preached gospel-the av erage attendance on evangelical preaching in the districts visited, not exceeding about onehalf the population: &c.

Colportage, in its practical application to these various classes, is discussed and illustrated by instructive facts.

Rev. Nehemiah Adams, Boston, said: The intelligent reading of a useful book is an important event in any man's life. How many ministers date from such reading a change,

and an important one, in their pastoral care. It gives direction to thought and action for a long time to come. Now literary men can go into a store and buy for themselves; but there are multitudes who want to be furnished with approved books, the first in our language, and they make an impression never to be effaced.

I have looked at the subject of colporteurs, and the fears which, as a pastor, I once entertained about their influence have passed away. He illustrated the subject of Christian activity by the vain attempt to dam up and smother a spring, when it would find channels and flow forth. It was impossible to repress the burning desire of Christians to labor, and it was better to guide them wisely and find something for them to do.

Mr. Adams then called attention to the chair in which Elizabeth Waldridge, the Dairyman's Daughter, had sat while she was sick; and remarked that so long as the Society published books for such people as sit in such chairs, they would have a hold upon the hearts of the church.

Dr. Kane, Agent of the American Bible Society in the South West, spoke in testimony to the faithfulness and self-denying labor of the Colporteurs of this Society on the Western waters and in New Orleans. I heard two of them, one a bachelor and the other married. The latter was exhorting the other to get married as it was so much cheaper. This vest said he cost me ten cents to get the stuff, and nothing for the making, for my wife made it. And by such economy as this, they manage to get along. Dr. K. related some touching incidents to show the value of their labors in the city of New Orleans.

Rev. Baron Stowe, of the Baptist Church, Boston, said: On the continent of Europe I saw in a cemetery a tomb with the door ajar, and a hand stretched out of it holding a lamp, signifying that the tenant of the tomb still enlightens the world. So Luther and others will give light to the nations till the end of time.

When the devil fought with Luther at Wittemberg, he little thought what power was in the inkstand the Reformer hurled at him. But he has felt it since. These publications are written by men of prayer, adopted, printed, packed, sent out, distributed with prayer! He told of a dying Karen who asked for a tract that had fallen in his way; he had never seen a missionary, but the tract had found its way to him and he had read it. He took it now from his friend and selecting one word, he laid that word upon his lips and expired. The word was the name of Jesus.