The Itritish Government took steps early in the seventeenth century for the Christianizing of its colonies. The Virginia Company, whose enter prise began in 1584. was directed by its charter to teach Christianity to the Indians. and Sir Walter Raleigh subscribed one hundred pounds to that object. The some duty was laid upon the Slasgaelmsetts Colony by charter in 162S. In 1016 the Legislature of Jlassachusells passed a law for missionary work among the Indians. This gave State support to the eIi'o•ts of .1ohn Eliot of Roxbury, Thomas Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard. and others• In 1648 Cromwell induced the English Parliament to consider the organiza tion of a Government foreign missionary enter prise. The renewal of civil war. however, put an end to the scheme. But the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel in \eu• England. formed in Engin MI in 1649. received a grant from Parliament and aided i'diot's mission. It still exists under the name of 'The New England Com pany,' and expends the TeVelllle from its endow ment funds for the edneation of Indians in the Dominion of Canada. All these efforts re sulted in the formation of several villages of con vested Indians in New England before progress was arrested by war. In the East Indies, on the renewal of the charter of the British East India Company in I69S, the duty was imposed upon the company of maintaining ehaplains at its stations, and later the obligation to see that it native servants were instructed in Christian doctrine. Discussions regarding religious condi
tions in the company's stations led to the organ ization ill 109S of the Society for the of Christ ia» K no wled ge (S. P. C. N.), designed to provide Christian schools and books for mg leeted English communities. This was followed three years later by the organization of the xoriety for Ho. Propagation of the aospel in Foreign Ports (S. P. C.), designed to provide chaplains for the religious culture of Englishmen in foreign lands. Neither of these societies aimed at Christianizing the heathen. But the S. P. C. K. saved the Danish mission in South India from dying with its founder, and supported it for a hundred years. It has also issued Christian literature in the languages of various nou-C'ln•is tian peoples. Its issues of this description in 1900 :mounted to 47.300 volumes. As to the S. P. C.. it gradually took up work among the pagans, and in 1901 it had 744 missionaries and 33S4 native workers in India, China, Japan, Ma laysia. Africa, and the West Indies. In view of their later history. these two societies may he regarded as the earliest of the voluntary foreign missionary societies of Great Britain.