their recovery after having been taken down to the Ganges.

At the mouth of the river Hoogly, which is one of the branches of the
Ganges, is the island Sauger, which I saw as we approached Calcutta
after having been at sea for one hundred and twenty-eight days. Now, my
dear children, if you come out to India as missionaries, you will have
to sail nearly one hundred and thirty days before you can reach it.
Sauger island is the island where, formerly, hundreds of mothers were in
the habit of throwing their children to the crocodiles, and where these
mothers were wont to weep and cry if the crocodiles did not devour their
children before their eyes. Think what a dreadful religion that must
be, which makes mothers so hard-hearted. Did you ever take any corn or
Indian meal and throw it to the chickens? And what did these chickens
do? Did they not come around you and eat it? Well, just in this way the
crocodiles would come near those mothers, and devour their children.
Here is a picture of a mother throwing her child to a crocodile.

[Illustration]

I am glad to tell you, that the British have put a stop to the sacrifice
of children at that place; but mothers continue to destroy their
children elsewhere, and will continue to destroy them until Christians
send the Gospel to them. It is not improbable that vast numbers of
children are annually destroyed in the Ganges. Mothers sacrifice them,
in consequence of vows which they have made. When the time to sacrifice
them has come, they take them down to the river, and encourage them to
go out so far that they are taken away by the stream, or they push them
off with their own hands.

I just remarked, that mothers will continue to destroy their children