Prof. Brumby said he was perfectly astonished, and so were his pupils who came with him. He said good work was being done at the Knox’s Institute, and he hoped that this work would continue. The Mayor said many good things, among which were these words: “You are not only being taught lessons in books, but also lessons of virtue and morality.” He bade us go on. My school beat in the spelling-match, and this encouraged my pupils greatly. The Athenians are awake. I shall return the latter part of June to labor for three months under the free-school system.
The religious work of the A. M. A. in Savannah and the vicinity has never been in as prosperous a condition since I have been here as at the present. The increase in the congregations and the membership has been greater than any previous year.
At Savannah, twenty-four have united with the church; fourteen children have been baptized. The Sabbath-school has more than doubled in numbers. Over two hundred scholars are enrolled; the average attendance is about one hundred and sixty.
Ogeechee Church, which is ten miles from Savannah, has received nineteen members. Brother McLean has the confidence and support of his people. He is doing a good work in the Sabbath-school. His wife is a good worker, and a great help, especially in the Sabbath-school. There are about fifty scholars in the school. They also teach a day-school and a night-school.
Plymouth Church, at Woodville, three miles west of Savannah, Rev. J. H. H. Sengstacke, pastor, has had an interesting work of grace in the Sabbath-school. Twenty-eight united with the church, mostly from the Sabbath-school, which has about seventy-five scholars. The day-school numbers now about fifty; in the winter it had a hundred; now the children have to work.
East Savannah is two-and-a-half miles from the city—a little village of colored people. A few whites are there, who live by selling liquor to the colored people. There are nearly three hundred children in that vicinity. The A. M. A., by the assistance of a Boston friend, built a little church there. J. H. Stephens, a student in my theological class, started a Sabbath-school, and preaches to the people. The children are very wild, though some have bright intellects, and can make useful men and women; but they are as uncultivated as the children in the centre of Africa. It is very hard to keep the attention of such children, and secure a regular attendance at school. Mrs. Markham and Hattie B. Markham and Mr. Floyd have been going out regularly every Sabbath to work in the East Savannah Sabbath-school. Sometimes they have had eighty or ninety scholars, then only forty or fifty; the average has been about sixty.