The purpose of the school is to do what it can in supplying one of the greatest needs of the colored people of this county, namely, preachers and other religious workers of their own race, who shall be deeply imbued with the knowledge and spirit of the Word of God. In doing this work it is not the aim of the school to give extended courses of instruction in anything save in the English Scriptures. These it proposes to teach as thoroughly as possible to colored candidates for the ministry, whether, in the common use of the terms, such candidates be educated or uneducated. Adoniram Judson Thomson, A. M., is principal. He impressed me as a very fine man, who is much interested in the elevation of the colored people. Prof. Thomson is assisted by Prof. Octavius Singleton, B. L., who is a very able young man and a credit to the race. THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE. The plantation upon which the Southern Christian Institute is located contains eight hundred acres of land, being a mile and a quarter long by a mile wide. It is located on the Big Black River, on the direct road between Jackson and Vicksburg, being twenty-five miles from the former and eighteen miles from the latter. It is two miles from Edwards, which is its postoffice. The name of the plantation is Mount Beulah. The Vicksburg and Meridian Railroad passes directly through the plantation, in which there is a flag station. It is only six miles from the famous battlefield of Champion Hill, and Pemberton's soldiers retreated directly across it; and the battle of the "Big Black" was fought partly upon it. The east end of the plantation is rolling, containing most of the timber and all the buildings connected with the institution: the old plantation building, to which has been added the dining-room, kitchen and office, and a girls' dormitory; a separate building for schoolhouse and boys' dormitory; a barn and eight cabins, six of which are located at this end of the plantation. The timber is nearly all of the hard-wood variety, such as oak, hickory, sweet gum, beech, etc. All rough-bark trees are covered with long festoons of Spanish moss. This part of the plantation has a beautiful situation on a bluff, which rises about fifty feet from the river. The western part of the plantation, containing about five hundred acres, is level, but is located in what is called the second river bottom, and hence is never overflowed. The plantation contains such fertile soil, and has such a location, that all the crops that are raised in the North can be raised here to advantage.