The following letter, received at this office, affords much encouragement to the friends of Liberia. Its writer is an intelligent and reliable colored resident of the western part of our State.-Colonization Herald, Philadelphia, Pa.

DEAR SIR:

Coultersville, Pa., May 17, 1861.

I received letters from my sons in Liberia. They were pleased to learn of our intention to join them in that country. Poor fellows, how disappointed they will be about our not coming! I do not know that they will be more disappointed than I am; but I could not sell my property here. My son David went in 1853, visited us in 1859, and returned to Liberia in the same year. He and myself persuaded William to go along with him. We wrote to James, the eldest brother, at the Sandwich Islands, and as soon as he received the letter, he left the ship of which he was mate, came home, and sailed in the Mary Caroline Stevens for Monrovia, last May. Since his arrival in the Republic, he bought a farm, built a house on it, and was doing well. In his last letter to me, dated February 20, he states that he has taken charge of Payne & Yates' Liberian ship, for a voyage to England and along the African coast. He put his farm in the care of his brother William. The boys are thriving finely. I will do all in my power to encourage every one who wants to go to that noble country. It vexes me to think that my family relationship and property still prevents me from joining my sons in Liberia. DAVID KELLY, SR.

THE OCEAN EAGLE.

This fine bark arrived in New York April 28th, after a very protracted voyage. She is now nearly refitted, and her owners expect to have her sail from this port for Monrovia, Liberia, before the close of June. The following is her report of passengers:

Rev. J. Best and lady, of Presbyterian Mission, Corisco.

Rev. Mr. St. John, lady and infant, Presbyterian Mission, Gaboon River.

Mr. Man and wife, and two children, of Liberia.

Mr. Lindsey and wife, and three children, of Liberia.

Cargo.-3,000 gallons oil; 140 tons barwood; 29 casks malado; 28 tons camwood; 140 lbs. ivory.-Col. Journal.

JESSE SHARP-LIBERIA SUGAR.

As an instance of honorable fidelity and successful industry, Mr. Jesse Sharp, a small farmer on the St. Paul's River, Mesurado County, Liberia, is worthy of notice.

By letter from Hon. B. V. R. James, Probate Judge of Liberia, Mr. Sharp was recommended to us as a trusty, industrious member of the Presbyterian Church, who desired credit for a small sugar mill, to be paid for by shipments of sugar made on his farm. Mr. Sharp is a painter by trade, but not having constant employment, turned his spare time to sugar-cane planting. He forwarded well-attested documents to show that he was free from debt, and owned a small farm and house.

The case seemed so promising, that the Managers of the New York State Colonization Society authorized the necessary advance of funds, the more readily because he forwarded a small lot of syrup at the same time, for sale on account.

The purchase was made in May, 1859. In 1860, and again this year, Mr. Sharp has faithfully forwarded consignments of malado (thick syrup) to us for sale-the gross proceeds of sale, amounting to nearly $1,000, and leaving a handsome surplus in our hands to be invested for him, after paying for the mill, principal and interest. Well done. We may confidently believe that Mr. Sharp will yet be a large planter, if his life is spared. We hope Liberia will have many like him, faithful and prompt.-N. Y. Col. Journal.

RUSSIAN EMANCIPATION.

Some forty-two millions of the population of Russia have for a long period been held as Serfs: about one-half had been liberated by the late Emperor Nicholas; those belonging to the imperial domain, and twenty millions more belonging to private proprietors, the recent manifesto will free.

How mighty the consequences of this great event! It will set in motion elements of improvement which, though slow, will be sure, and be felt through vast masses of human beings and all future ages.

The Methodist Missionary Advocate says:

The following is a summary of the imperial manifesto, proclaiming the emancipation of the serfs, dated the 3d of March (February 19, O. S.,) and published this day:

The proprietors of landed property preserve the right attached to the same.

The landed proprietors are, however, to cede to the peasants for their permanent use the dwellings with the ground, which will be allotted to them anew by law, in consideration of the payment of dues.

During this state of things, which will form a transitory period, the peasants are to be designated "tributary peasants."

The peasants are permitted by law to purchase their dwellings, and, with the consent of the landlords, the land also.

The peasants will then become free landed proprietors.

This new order of things is to be carried out throughout the empire within two years, and until then the peasants remain in their former state of dependence upon the landlords.

A committee has been appointed for the uniform regulation of the affairs of the serfs. It will be presided over by the Grand Duke Constantine. The imperial manifesto has produced a good impression at St. Petersburg and Moscow.

AFRICAN MISSIONS.

From the Presbyterian Home and Foreign Journal.

From South Africa the Missionaries give very encouraging accounts of the benevolence of the converts to the faith of Christ. They say they have done better than we had dared hope, and some have given a very large per centage on their income. At Ifumi they have given about £20, at Amanzentote £26, and about the same at Inanda Umvoti, not heard from.

"We are exceedingly gratified with the cheerfulness with which these sums have been contributed. Ifumi station has done especially well. They have but just finished a good chapel, for which the natives paid upwards of £100, and on the day of the annual meeting of the Board in Boston, besides all given for the chapel and the Jubilee Fund, they pledged nearly £20 for Home Missions.

"You cannot look upon these things with all the interest, wonder and gratitude that we feel. You have never seen these same men and women, naked, filthy barbarians; and you have never seen and sympathized, as we have, with their extreme poverty, their trials and struggles during the days when they first became interested in the truth, and forsook, as many did, cattle, houses, parents and friends, for Christ's sake."

The Rev. J. Tyler writes from Endumbini, (Zulu Country,) of the eruel hardships of a Zulu wife who had received the Gospel:

"Teacher," she said, "my husband is killing me, and I cannot live with him. He will not let me wear clothing, attend meeting, read the Bible, or teach my children, and my life is one of misery. I am now going home to my father's kraal, for I cannot dwell with such a tyrant.' I asked if she still prayed, and endeavored to do her duty in all things; to which she replied in the affirmative, adding that she had no desire to abandon her husband and children, provided she could live with them and worship God in peace. I could not advise

her to return to her cruel husband, nor did I think it safe for her to go to her father's heathen kraal, where she would be exposed to peculiar temptations to relapse into heathenism. As I had no objections, she concluded to remain on the station for a short time. She had not been here a week, before her husband, accompanied by a heathen brother, and armed with clubs and spears, came upon her unawares, seized her by the neck and dragged her away. As I was absent from home at the time, the poor woman saw no way of escape, and suffered herself to be driven back to her husband's kraal, where she has the prospect of being associated with a heathen woman, whom her husband has recently purchased for his wife. Such is the fate of one poor woman, who is trying to emerge from the darkness of Zulu

heathenism.

From the same paper for June, 1861, we copy the following:

"AFRICA. We have letters from Corisco to the 20th of February; from Niffau to the 1st of March; and from Monrovia to the 23d of February. From Niffau we receive pleasant intelligence. The Rev. Messrs. Amos had removed their families to that place, and had fully entered upon their missionary work. There were twenty pupils in school, who were doing well. Religious services on the Sabbath were well attended, and the missionaries were much encouraged in view of the prospects of usefulness before them. Mr. Miller had also taken his family to his new station at Mount Coffee, and was encouraged in view of the prospects of usefulness around him. At Corisco there had been some sickness in the mission families, but all were well again at the date of our letter. On the 1st of January, Miss Jackson, the female teacher of this mission, was united in marriage to the Rev. Walter H. Clarke, of the Gaboon Mission. Mr. Clarke has since been appointed a missionary at Corisco. Mr. Ogden mentions that four individuals had been received to the communion of the church on the last sacramental occasion."

Of the South African Mission, Rev. Mr. Tyler wrote in October last:

The heathen,

"Our prospects were never better than at present. so far as I know, are without exception friendly to us. Our congregations are as large and attentive as I could expect. Seven young men and boys have come to reside with us for a year. Some of them have previously lived with us and been taught to read. Three years ago they were all engrossed in heathen follies and vices. It is our constant prayer that God will bring their precious souls into His Kingdom, and make them blessings to their countrymen."

We copied in our last number a brief notice from the Liberia Herald of the death of the Rev. E. P. Rodgers, a colored minister who visited Liberia on his way to Yoruba. On the 20th of January, Mr. Rodgers wrote from Freetown, January 10th, 1861:

"The Episcopal Mission here is doing a good work. In addition to schools and churches supported by them, their Orphan Asylum and Hospital are monuments of their work in this place."

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He adds, "But Africa is a great field, wide enough for all denominations. In many parts she swarms with inhabitants, who are idolatrous and superstitious. "The wrath of God abideth on them,' and nothing but civilization and the Gospel of Christ can raise their moral condition, and turn them from darkness to light. These influences must go hand in hand. The highest civilization cannot raise the soul to heaven of itself, nor can christian institutions be permanently established and flourish among a people entirely ignorant of civilized life."

Mr. Rodgers expresses earnest desires that hundreds of his people in this country would engage in the work of African Missions, and adds:

"True, they may fall at their posts, but they may derive consolation from the thought that if they lose their lives they shall find them again."

The Church Missionary Society of London regrets the failure of the "Sunbeam" and "Rainbow" to ascend the Niger at the last season, for navigation had passed, before the gun-boat arrived. The Rev. Mr. Crowther writes from Lagos that the disappointment gives a serious blow to the missionary and commercial enterprise of Sierra Leone, and affords a matter of triumph to the slave-dealing tribes of the lower Niger, who will exult in having closed the river against legitimate commerce, while the friendly tribes around the mission stations and factories higher up, will be discouraged, and the mission agents be reduced to straits from the cutting off of communication between them and the civilized and Christian world.

The revival of religion in Jamaica has been very general and very wonderful. A clergyman writes to the London Missionary Society:

"I can, at present, only record results of a general character. Many of the rum-shops and gambling houses, which were the greatest hindrances to our usefulness, have been closed; husbands and wives, long separated, have been reconciled; prodigal children have returned penitent to their parents; banns of marriage were published last Sabbath in some of the chapels by the score; ministers have been aroused to greater diligence and zeal; the churches are being purified; sinners are converted; every place of worship in this vicinity is crowded on the Sabbath; the demand for Bibles is beyond our power to supply it; all classes are compelled to give some attention to that Divine Power which alone could accomplish such results; and many 'who hate the change,' are compelled to exclaim, 'This is the finger of God.""