to the preachers, they had already had some of them, who, instead of preaching the Gospel, taught them to drink to excess, and to cheat and quarrel among themselves; and they entreated the governor to take from them the preachers, and a number of Europeans who came among them: for, before their arrival, the Indians were an honest, sober, innocent people, but now most of them were rogues; that they formerly had the fear of the Great Spirit, but they hardly now believed in his existence." The heavy charges thus made against these preachers must have applied to the native Indians who were employed by the Europeans as. teachers of the Gospel among the tribes. This unfortunately was too common a practice both among the French and British settlers in North America. There were in New England, about the year 1687, (as already noticed,) not fewer than twenty-four of these native preachers; and if we are to judge of them from the sample presented by Dr. Mather, in his Ecclesiastical History of that colony, we cannot be much surprised at the Indians of the Five Nations entreating their good Mother to remove them from their country. †

* Long's Travels of an Indian Interpreter, page 32.

In the year 1694 an Indian was executed for a murder committed by him when he was drunk. Dr. Mather states, that after his condemnation, the Indian said, "The thing that undid him was this. He had begun to come and hear

The

Dr. Colden states, that a missionary was sent over by Queen Anne, with an allowance from her privy purse, to reside among the Mohawks. Common Prayer," says he, " or at least a considerable part of it, and some other pieces, were translated for the minister's use, viz. an Exposition. of the Creed, Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, Church Catechism, and a discourse on the Sacraments; but as that minister was never able to attain any tolerable knowledge of their language, and was naturally a heavy man, he had but little success, and, his allowance failing by the queen's death, he left them."* From that period a long time elapsed without any teacher going among the Mohawks. At length a young man voluntarily repaired to their country, and set up a school to teach the Indian children. He soon afterwards went to England, where he took orders, and returned as a missionary. Colden has inserted in his History a letter which

the preaching of the Gospel among the Indians; but he minded the Indian preacher how he lived, and he saw plainly that the preacher minded his bottle more than his Bible. He loved rhum too well, and when his rhum was in him, he would quarrel with other people, and with himself particularly. This," said he, "prejudiced him against the Gospel, so he lived a Pagan still, and would be drunk too; and his drunkenness had brought all this misery upon him." Magnalia, book vi. Appendix.

* Colden's History of the Five Nations. Introduction, P. 18.

he received from this missionary some time afterwards, in which he gives a very flattering account of his success in converting and improving the Indians; but as he admits in his letter his own want of the Mohawk language, and that he could not procure an interpreter, one cannot help suspecting, in some degree, the accuracy of his state

ments.

In the year 1734, an Indian mission (under the patronage, also, of the Scottish Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,) was commenced at Stockbridge, in Massachussets. The first missionary was Mr. John Serjeant, a zealous and pious minister, who translated for the use of the Indians most of the New, and parts of the Old Testament, into the Mohekanew language. He instituted a school for the Indian youth, and benefactions were procured both in England and America for its support. Two masters were appointed, one to teach them in the school, the other to superintend their lessons of husbandry in the field; there was also a matron to direct the female children in pursuits of a domestic nature, The death of Mr. Serjeant appears, in a great measure, to have put a stop to the benefits expected from this institution. His immediate successor was a minister who was obliged to preach to them through the channel of an interpreter. He was succeeded by the son of the original missionary, and, under his zealous ministry,

the Stockbridge Indians were invited by the Oneidas (one of the Five Nations) to reside with them in the Oneida Reservation, in the western part of the state of New York. This invitation was accepted, and they removed from New England to that quarter, where their few descendants now continue, under the government of the United States.

A similar attempt to that at Stockbridge was made in the year 1754, when another Indian school was established in New England, and contributions for its support obtained in Great Britain and America. The funds collected in England were put in the hands of a board of trustees, at the head of whom was the Earl of Dartmouth: and those collected in Scotland were committed to the Society established in that country for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. From this institution arose Dartmouth College, which was established in 1760, in Hanover township in New Hampshire, and Dr. Wheelock, its founder, was made president. The school was united to the college, but the institution, as far as the Indians were concerned, did not succeed. "Experience had taught Dr. Wheelock," says Belknap," that his Indian youths, however well educated, were not to be depended upon for instructors of their countrymen. Of forty who had been under his care, twenty had returned to the vices of savage. life; and some,

whom he esteemed subjects of Divine grace, had not kept their garments unspotted.

In British North America, there are at present - besides the Roman Catholic establishments appropriated to the use of the Indians-three Protestant missionaries among the Esquimaux on the coast of Labrador. In Canada there is only one regular Protestant Indian mission, but several of the missionaries of the British settlements in the Upper Province, act as occasional visitors for the religious instruction of the Indians; and there are likewise schoolmasters appointed to teach them. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is taking steps to extend and improve these establishments. The Church Missionary Society also nominated, a few years ago, the chaplain of the newly-formed British settlement on the Red River of Lake Winnipic, to be their missionary in that quarter; who, among his other duties, has to superintend the religious and school education of the neighbouring Chippewa and other Indians, both of the pure and the mixed breed. A regular

schoolmaster and schoolmistress have also been sent out by the same society, who have appropriated a liberal allowance for these benevolent purposes.

After the revolutionary contest which terminated

Belknap's Hist. of New Hampshire, vol. ii. chap. 24.