VERBECK, Guide Fridolin

[s. 789] : Born January 23, 1830, in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. Died March 9, 1898. On May 7, 1859, he sailed from New York for Japan as a mi ionar}’ of the RCA, and on the following November he arrived at Nagasaki. From this time until his death, nearly forty years afterward, his life was identified with the progre of Protestant Mi ions in Japan. It was while living in Nagasaki that he came in contact with Wakasa, the Japanese officer who, while commander-in-chief of the forces at Nagasaki in 1854, picked up a floating copy of the New Testament in English, became interested in the life and teachings of Christ, and, in 1866, was baptized by Dr. Verbeck. During a part of his residence in Nagasaki he taught two cla es of young Samurai, the ” two sworded.” These young men afterward became prominent in the new government which succeeded the revolution of 1868. Remembering their instructor, they summoned him from Nagasaki and sought his aid and advice in framing their new institutions, and in 1869 he removed to Tokio, or Yedo, as it was then called. For nine years thereafter he remained in close connection with the government, giving shape to and supervising the government university and the system of education as at first established. He accompanied the first deputation of Japanese to the outside world, on their tour among the nations of Europe. In recognition of his services in this and other directions, he received from the government the decoration, of the third cla , of the Rising Sun, which entitled him to appear at all public and court receptions. In 1889-90 Dr. Verbeck visited the United States, and his addre es on the evangelization of Japan made a deep impre ion. In the translation of the Old Testament he bore a conspicuous part; but he took most pleasure in lectures and evangelistic preaching. He did much toward the planting of Christianity and the development of a new civilization in the “Sunrise Kingdom.” VICTORIA (Kamerun) A trading station on the coast of the Kamerun Colony, West Africa, situated about 35 miles W. of Kamerun River. It has a botanical garden, is connected with Buea, the capital, by telephone, and is the terminus of the railway to Lisoka. Station of the Basel Mi ionary Society (1886), with (1903) 2 mi ionaries and their wives, 5 native workers, 5 outstations, 6 day schools, and 115 profe ed Christians, of whom 85 are communicants. Also station of the German Baptists of Berlin (1891), with (1903) 1 native worker and 1 place of: worship. Vanlydiubadl Vinton VICTORIA (Mexico). See Ciudad Victoria. 789