direction to the Sea of Azov.  The villages are all built on the same pattern, being formed of one straight street of neat houses on both sides, adorned with trees in front and gardens behind.  The German colonists consist principally of Mennonites and Lutherans.  The former are the most numerous and thriving; they were invited to settle there by Catherine the Great, in order to improve the state of agriculture; but their example has not had the desired influence on the surrounding districts.  Although his German neighbor is in an infinitely better condition than himself, the Russian peasant will not imitate the husbandry which is practised so successfully before his eyes.

At Rybalsk, John Yeardley had a Scripture reading and a religious opportunity with a few serious persons who came to the house; and the next evening he held a meeting for worship with the colonists.

On the 3rd, they left for Neuhoffnung.  They travelled in a covered carriage, which, though without springs, was a great improvement on their last vehicle.  They came the first day as for as Konski, where they passed the night, sleeping in the carriage, the air being very mild the night through.  In the afternoon they arrived at another Mennonite colony, Schoenweise, where they had a short interview with Pastor Obermanz and a few of his flock.  These people produce a small quantity of silk.  The travellers were now on the Steppes; they found them very thinly peopled, so that all the country out of sight of the villages appeared like a vast desert.  On the 4th they passed through three colonies—­Gruenthal, Priship, and Petershagen.  The settlers here are from all parts of Germany, mostly from Prussia and Wuertemberg.  Next came Halbstadt, the seat of the Bishop, and Alexanderwohl, where the Friends passed the night.  They were surrounded by a large number of settlements on all sides.

These were the places where, according to his previous impressions and apprehension of duty, John Yeardley was to have entered on that work of gospel-labor to which he had so long looked forward.  But, instead of finding, as on former occasions of a similar kind, his heart enlarged and his mouth opened to preach the word, he seems now to have felt himself straitened in spirit, and to have been obliged to pass in silence from colony to colony, a wonder perhaps to others, a cause of humiliation to himself.  Never before, in all his many journeyings, had such a trial befallen him; and it may be supposed that, coming so soon after the copious and unrestrained exercise of his gift which he had experienced in Norway, it would press upon him with peculiar force.  The people to whom he was now come, seem, it is true, to have been in a different state from the simple-hearted Norwegians, who thirsted for the “pure milk of the word;” and their comparative indifference to spiritual things may have been a main cause of the silence which he felt to be imposed upon him.  With the reserve natural to him, he has left but little clue to the motives and feelings under which he acted.  Great must have been the relief when, as happened on several occasions, his bonds were loosened, and the command was renewed to speak in the name of his only-loved and gracious Lord.