Apologies in a preface are rarely either agreeable or useful. The author ventures, therefore, to say only that, having spent the most of his life in teaching the A. B. C. of religion and literature to the children of Ethiopia, and chiefly in that peculiar dialect called Negro-English, he may be permitted to allude to the fact in extenuation of whatever literary deficiencies may appear in the following work.

The Scottish missionaries in Jamaica at one time designed to publish a history of their mission in that island, and began to prepare the materials for it. The idea, though not carried into effect, was a good one. The records of the original founders of churches as of states come in the future to be of great interest, and if lost cannot be restored. Traditions, vague and uncertain, may perhaps be gathered; but the facts of history are not among the things that the ages to come may invent or discover. The Rev. George Blyth furnished his share of the work, some years ago, in his very interesting volume of “Missionary Reminiscences.” More recently the “Memoirs of the Rev. William Jameson” have been a valuable contribution to the same object. The present volume contains mine. It may be hoped that some other fellow labourer will yet complete the work by filling up the blanks, and bringing down the history to the present time.

The mission to Old Calabar was the offspring of that in Jamaica, and has all along been intimately connected with it.