told me that a number would
attend our meetings in the night, that could not come during the
day. Of course, this is a condition unfavorable to such Christian
work, and yet I hope to be able to gather considerable audiences and
reach this needy people with the living gospel of Jesus Christ. I
speak in Spanish with comparative ease. We held services Sunday
morning, at which I preached. We then sang several hymns which the
people are rapidly learning. We need hymn books to offer them for
sale, that they may be used in our meetings."

[Illustration: A STREET IN SANTURCE--A SUBURB OF SAN JUAN.]

From this letter it will be seen that work is opening hopefully
before our evangelist. As the work develops it will demand a
reinforcement of preachers capable of doing the same sort of
earnest, evangelistic work. The demand in every department of this
new island territory is pressing and imperative. Surely the churches
of our Congregational fellowship will see to it, each one of them,
that the work is fully and cordially supported.

But a very natural question remains to be answered, namely, why have
these missionaries gone to this island field? The answer is easy and
natural. In the first place, Porto Rico is the only territory that
has come under the immediate direction and control of the United
States government as a result of the war with Spain. It is
emphatically a home missionary field. The responsibility of our
American churches is immediate and direct for the spread of the
gospel among the inhabitants of this island, who are even now our
fellow citizens. The American Missionary Association follows the
flag. By the adjustment of work suggested by the churches years
ago, at which the Association surrendered its foreign field and took
the work among the Indians as a legitimate department of its home
work, it has confined its missions to the territory of the United
States. Patriotism reinforces the demands of Christianity for the
physical, intellectual and religious development of the people in
Porto Rico. The time is immediate and the command imperative. It is
the command of our country as truly as of God.

Churches, expressing their views through resolutions of local
conferences and associations, urged upon the A. M. A. to occupy this
island field. This was another reason for going.

The appeal put before the churches in behalf of this important new
work met with immediate and hopeful response. Ten thousand dollars
ar