I will not say that this has been the pleasantest labor of my life.  A long and wearisome ride across wide prairies, under a burning sun, has often been followed by a fruitless effort to excite interest enough to justify established preaching.  I would not convey the idea that this region is not full of promise to the missionary, notwithstanding I am fully persuaded that we are not to expect such immediate results as have followed my own labors elsewhere.  We must first sow, and then, in due time, we shall reap, if we faint not.

The M. E. Church reports 120 preachers in Kansas and Nebraska; the U. B. Church, 9, sustained in part by contributions from abroad.  The Missionary Baptists make good their right to the name they have chosen, by sustaining four missionaries.  I confess it is a matter of profound humiliation to me that the demonstration that ours is primitive apostolic Christianity, is found in the fact that we can afford but one missionary in Kansas, and that to his support not one dime has been contributed from abroad.  The brethren in the Territory, under an unexampled pecuniary pressure, and out of their deep poverty, have done all that has been done.  Two new churches have been organized—­one at Big Springs, Douglas county, numbering twenty-eight members; the other at Cedar Creek, Jefferson county, of eleven members.  We have also the nucleus of a congregation at Atchison, and another at Elk City, Calhoun county.  Thus we have in this part of Kansas the foundation laid for eight churches, all of which are steadily increasing in numbers; and the brethren composing them, in all the elements of future growth, and in moral and in religious excellence, are at par value with the brotherhood in any of our States or Territories.

If the older churches, blessed with such abundant means, would aid us in this hour of our need, it is my opinion they would be no poorer on earth and much richer in heaven.  But whether they aid us or not, I trust we shall hold our own, and ultimately prove that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.  We have a number of young preachers, who are giving promise of future usefulness.  Very truly, your brother,

PARDEE BUTLER.

P. S.—­Five persons in this congregation, and one at Big Springs have been recently added by baptism; also two from other denominations.

On the 1st day of July, 1859, Bro.  Butler made a very interesting report of his labors, and especially of his tour in several of the free States—­mostly where he had labored in the gospel before his removal to Kansas.  As the document is too long for publication entire in this volume, only the more important extracts can be given.  The first two paragraphs being only a fuller statement of what is already written, the first extract will show the voluntary indorsement of Bro.  Butler by the churches for which he had been laboring, as follows: