course might easily be kept up with all parts of
America and the islands; in a place of security, not exposed to the
insults of pyrates, savages, or other enemies; where there is no great
trade, which might tempt the readers or fellows of the college to
become merchants, to the neglect of their proper business; where there
are neither riches nor luxury to divert, or lessen their application,
or to make them uneasy and dissatisfied with a homely frugal
subsistence: lastly, where the inhabitants, if such a place may be
found, are noted for innocence and simplicity of manners. I need not
say of how great importance this point would be toward forming the
morals of young students, and what mighty influence it must have on the
mission.

It is evident the college long since projected in Barbadoes would be
defective in many of these particulars; for though it may have its use
among the inhabitants, yet a place of so high trade, so much wealth and
luxury, and such dissolute morals, (not to mention the great price and
scarcity of provisions;) must at first light seem a very improper
situation for a general seminary intended for the forming missionaries,
and educating youth in religion and sobriety of manners. The same
objections lie against the neighbouring islands.

And if we consider the accounts given of their avarice and
licentiousness, their coldness in the practice of religion, and their
aversion from propagating it, (which appears in the withholding their
slaves from baptism) it is to be feared, that the inhabitants in the
populous parts of our plantations on the continent are not much fitter,
than those in the islands above mentioned, to influence or assist such
a design. And as to the more remote and less frequented parts, the
difficulty of being supplied with necessaries, the danger of being
exposed to the inroads of savages, and above all, the want of
intercourse with other places, render them improper situations for a
seminary of religion and learning.

It will not be amiss to insert here an observation, I remember to have
seen in an abstract of the proceedings, &c. annexed to the Dean of
Canterbury's sermon, before the society for the propagation of the
gospel in foreign parts; that the savage Indians, who live on the
continent, will not suffer their children to learn English or Dutch,
lest they should be debauched by conversing with their European
neighbours: which is a melancholy, but strong confirmation of the