The Christian Keepsake, and Missionary Annual

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HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCESS VICTORIA,

This Volume is,

WITH SPECIAL PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS'S

MOST HUMBLE AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,

THE EDITOR.

PREFACE.

IN offering to the public the CHRISTIAN KEEPSAKE and MISSIONARY ANNUAL for 1836, the Editor has much pleasure in gratefully acknowledging the testimony that has been given to the acceptableness and utility of its predecessor.

Encouraged by the favourable attention publicly bestowed on the volume for 1835, greater exertions have been made to render the present publication increasingly welcome to the Christian reader of intelli

gence and taste. Its pages are still carefully devoted to the interests of piety and benevolence at home, and the records of the progress of Christianity abroad; the latter furnished by Missionaries who have dwelt among the people to whom their notices refer, or individuals whom professional or scientific pursuits have led to the countries they describe. With a trifling addition to the

price, the number of the plates in the work has been extended to seventeen; and the size so enlarged as to exceed, in this respect, the most costly and attractive of its contemporaries. The engravings, in point of execution, will be found equal to those of the preceding volume, while the additional number of admirable portraits of individuals, eminent in the walks of Christian philanthropy, will greatly enhance their worth. portraits of the African Prince and his juvenile teacher have been previously published in another form, but, at the suggestion of several friends, the plate has been re-engraved expressly for the present work, and will prove, it is believed, an acceptable addition to those with which it is associated.

The

To the friends who have aided in the literary department of the volume, the Editor tenders his sincere acknowledgments, as well as to those whose kindness has supplied the subjects of its embellishments, by which, it is hoped, the CHRISTIAN KEEPSAKE has been rendered more generally attractive and permanently valuable.