Note—This volume is an abridged translation in the Foochow Dialect of the First Part of Sheffield's Universal History (卷一卷二). The work was first rendered into colloquial by Mr. Ling Muk Kek, and then passed under the review of the undersigned. Very numerous reductions and emendations were made, and some additional matter inserted. This was done more particularly in the actions on South America and Africa. In the latter, the aim was to describe briefly the countries bordering on the seas and oceans, and the new Congo Free State.
In completion of the work, the present volume will be followed by another, embracing the latter part of Sheffield's (卷三卷四).
It is hoped that the work will justify the cost and labor of publication, by greatly reducing the amount of time and work, required in our schools by teachers and scholars, besides being useful to the increasing number of preachers and lay members of the native churches.
C. C. Baldwin.
Foochow, June 10, 1892.
