Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) LETTERS ON THE NICOBAR ISLANDS, THEIR NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, AND _The Manners, Customs, and Superstitions of the_ NATIVES; With an Account of an Attempt made by THE CHURCH OF THE UNITED BRETHREN, TO CONVERT THEM TO CHRISTIANITY. Addressed by _THE REV. JOHN GOTTFRIED HAENSEL,_ (_The only surviving Missionary_) TO THE REV. C. I. LATROBE. _LONDON_: PRINTED FOR THE EDITOR, NO. 10, NEVIL'S COURT, FETTER LANE, BY W. McDOWALL, PEMBERTON ROW. AND SOLD BY HATCHARD, 190, PICCADILLY; L. B. SEELEY, 169, FLEET STREET; JOHN LE FEBVRE, CHAPEL PLACE, NEVIL'S COURT; BINNS AND HAZARD, CHEAP STREET, BATH; AND MARTIN KEENE, DUBLIN, 1812. TO _William Wilberforce, Esq. M.P._ &c. &c. &c. DEAR SIR, Your obliging inquiries concerning the attempt made by the Church of the United Brethren, to establish a mission in the Nicobar Islands, I have not been able hitherto to answer as fully as I wished, the documents in my possession being few and unconnected, and a reference to Crantz's History of the Brethren, p. 504 and 614, furnishing but a short notice of the commencement of that undertaking. The difficulty attending our correspondence with our Brethren on the Continent, has likewise so much increased, that I cannot expect to be soon supplied with more detailed accounts from our archives; and the continuation of Crantz's History, in which a concise report of the progress of the mission is inserted, is not translated into English. I was glad therefore unexpectedly to meet with an opportunity of conversing with John Gottfried Haensel, a missionary from St. Thomas in the West Indies, who was formerly employed in the Nicobar mission, and resided for seven years in the island of Nancauwery. This worthy veteran has spent eighteen years in the East, and seventeen in the West Indies, and altogether thirty-eight years in the service of the Brethren's missions; yet by God's blessing, after suffering numberless hardships and dangerous illnesses, at the age of sixty-three he remains a most active, cheerful, and zealous labourer in the Lord's vineyard.