; it may be pleaded, That the Negroes are grown
Persons when they come over, and that having been accustomed to the
Pagan Rites and Idolatries of their own Country, they are prejudiced
against all other Religions, and more particularly against the
Christian, as forbidding all that Licentiousness which is usually
practiced among the Heathens.... But a farther Difficulty is that they
are utter Strangers to our Language, and we to theirs; and the Gift of
Tongues being now ceased, there is no Means left of instructing them
in the Doctrines of the Christian Religion. And this, I own is a real
Difficulty, as long as it continues, and as far as it reaches. But, if
I am rightly informed, many of the Negroes, who are grown Persons when
they come over, do of themselves obtain so much of our Language, as
enables them to understand, and to be understood, in Things which
concern the ordinary Business of Life, and they who can go so far of
their own Accord, might doubtless be carried much farther, if proper
Methods and Endeavors were used to bring them to a competent Knowledge
of our Language, with a pious view to instructing them in the
Doctrines of our Religion. At least, some of them, who are more
capable and more serious than the rest, might be easily instructed
both in our Language and Religion, and then be made use of to convey
Instruction to the rest in their own Language. And this, one would
hope, may be done with great Ease, wherever there is a hearty and
sincere Zeal of the Work.

But what Difficulties there may be in instructing those who are
grown-up before they are brought over; there are not the like
Difficulties in the Case of their Children, who are born and bred in
our Plantations, who have never been accustomed to Pagan Rites and
Superstitions, and who may easily be trained up, like all other
Children, to any Language whatsoever, and particularly to our own; if
the making them good Christians be sincerely the Desire and
Intention of those, who have Property in them, and Government over
them.--Dalcho's _An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in South Carolina_, pp. 104-106.

ANOTHER PASTORAL LETTER OF BISHOP GIBSON OF LONDON

To the Missionaries in the English Plantations (about 1727).

DEAR BROTHER,

Having understood by many Letters from the Plantations, and by the
Accounts of Persons who have come from thence, that very little
progress hath hitherto been made in the conversion of the Negr