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this must necessarily be preceded or accompanied by their civilization; and that mere preaching to the adult Indians, though partially beneficial to the present generation, would not probably be attended with any general or permanent results. While, therefore the religious interests of the children are the objects nearest to their hearts, they are anxious to put them in possession of those qualifications, which may secure to them an important influence in the councils of their nation, and enable them gradually to induce their roaming brethren to abandon their erratic habits for the occupations of civilized life. The general feelings of the nation, at this moment, are most auspicious to their undertaking. For the reasons which I assigned when speaking of the Creeks, the community at large is most solicitous for civilization. In this they have made some progress; many of them growing cotton, and spinning and weaving it into coarse clothing.

After speaking of the liberal donations, which the Choctaws have made to the schools from their annuities, Mr. Hodgson proceeds:―

Here is noble encouragement for active benevolence! and the industry, judgment, and piety, of the seven or eight brethren and sisters at Elliot seem to qualify them, in a peculiar manner, for their responsible office. They have all distinct departments-the Rev. Mr. Kingsbury being the Superintendent; another brother, the physician and steward; another, the instructor of the children; another, the manager of the farm; the females also have separate and definite duties. At present they are over-worked; and the Rev. Mr. Kingsbury greatly regretted that so much of his attention was necessarily engrossed by his secular concerns. But, coming into a wilderness, in which the first tree was felled but about eighteen months since, they have had something to do, to erect ten or eleven little log buildings, to bring into cultivation 40 or 50 acres of woodland, and to raise upwards of 200 head of cattle. A deep sense, however, of the importance of the object, and an unfaltering confidence in God's blessing on their exertions, have supported them under the difficulties of an infant settlement; and under the still severer trials of a final separation from the circle of their dearest friends, and a total renunciation of every worldly pursuit.

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And, indeed, their situation is an enviable

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by an imperious sense of duty—and conscious of disinterested sacrifices in the noblest cause-can we wonder if they manifest a degree of cheerfulness and tranquillity, seldom exhibited even by eminent Christians, who are more in the world? I was particularly struck with their apparent humility, with the kindness of their" manner toward one another, and the little attentions which they seemed solicitous to reciprocate.

They spoke very light of their privations, and of the trials which the world supposes to be their greatest; sensible, as they said, that these are often experienced in at least as great a degree, by the soldier, the sailor, or even the merchant. Yet, in 'his country, these trials are by no means trifling. Lying out, for two or three months, in the woods, with their little babes--in tents which cannot resist the rain here falling in torrents such as I never saw in Englandwithin sound of the nightly howling of wolves, and occasionally visited by panthers, which have approached almost to the door-the ladies must be allowed to require some courage; while, during many seasons of the year, the gentlemen cannot go twenty miles from home (and they are sometimes obliged to go thirty or forty for provisions) without swimming their horses over four or five creeks. Yet, as all these inconveniences are suffered by others with cheerfulness, from worldly motives, they would wish them to be suppressed in the missionary Reports, if they were not calculated to deter many from engaging as missionaries, under the idea that it is an easy retired life.

Their real trials, they stated to consist in their own imperfections; and in those mental maladies, which the retirement of a desert cannot cure.

In the course of our walks, Mr. Williams pointed out to me a simple tomb, in which he had deposited the remains of a younger brother; who lost his way in the desert when coming out to join them, and whose long exposure to rain and fasting, laid the seeds of a fatal disease. It was almost in sight of one of those Indian mounds, of which the oldest Indians can give no ac-. count. They resemble the cairns in Scotland; and one of the missionaries mentioned having seen a skeleton dug out of one of

them.

Reflections on leaving Elliot.

I was highly gratified by my visit to Elliot-this garden in a moral wilderness; and was pleased with the opportunity of seeing a missionary settlement in its infant state, before the wounds of recent separation from kindred and friends had ceased to bleed, and habit had rendered the missiona

ries familiar with the peculiarities of their novel situation.

The sight of the children also, many of them still in Indian costume, was most interesting. I could not help imagining, that, before me, might be some Alfred of this western world, the future founder of institutions which are to enlighten and civilize his country-some Choctaw Swartz or Elliot, destined to disseminate the blessings of Christianity, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, from the Gulph of Mexico to the Frozen Sea. I contrasted them in their social, their moral, and their religious condition, with the straggling hunters and their painted faces, who occasionally stared through the windows; or, with the halfnaked savages, whom we had seen in the forests a few nights before, dancing round their midnight fires, with their tomahawks and scalping knives, rending the air with their fierce war-whoop, or making the woods thrill with their savage yells. But they form a yet stronger contrast with the poor Indians, whom we had seen on the frontier-corrupted, degraded, and debased by their intercourse with English, Irish, or American traders.

It was not without emotion, that I parted, in all human probability for ever in this world, from my kind and interesting friends, and prepared to return to the tumultuous scenes of a busy world; from which-if life be spared-my thoughts will often stray to the sacred solitudes of the Yaloo Busha, as to a source of the most grateful and refreshing recollections. I was almost the first person from a distance, who had visited this remote settlement; and was charged with several letters to the friends of the missionaries. I believe they had pleasure in thinking that I should probably in a few weeks see those, the endearments of whose society they had renounced for this world: it seemed to bring them nearer the scenes to which they had recently bid a last adieu. I felt a strange emotion, in being thus made the link of communication between these self-devoted followers of our blessed Lord, and the world which they had for ever quitted; and, when I saw with what affection they cherished the recollection of many, whose faces they expected to see no more in this life, I turned with peculiar pleasure to our Savior's animating assurance- -There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or lands, for my sake and the Gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

I left with them a late number of the Missionary Register, and another of the Christian Observer, which I had just received from England.

A Pastoral scene.

After parting with the Rev. Mr. Kingsbury on the banks of the Yaloo Busha, we proceeded through the woods, along an Indian Path, till evening, when we reached the dwelling of a half-breed Choctaw, whose wife was a Chickasaw, and whose hut was on the frontier of the two nations. We found him sitting before the door, watching the gambols of fifty or sixty of his horses, which were frolicking before him; and of more than 200 very fine cattle, which at sunset were coming up as usual, of their own accord, from different parts of the surrounding forest, where they have a boundless and luxuriant range. The whole scene reminded me strongly of pastoral and patriarchal times. He had chosen this situation, he said, for its retirement (in some directions he had no neighbors for fifty or a hundred miles,) and because it afforded him excellent pasturage and water for his cattle: he added, that occupation would give him and his family a title to it as long as they chose. He had a few slaves to cultivate as much land as was necessary, and occasionally killed as many deer in as many hours. Near the house were some bones of the buffalo; but that animal has not been seen in this part of the country for many years; he gave us a hospitable reception; and spread a bear skin for each of us in his only room, which we occupied for two nights, the following day being Sunday.

As our host spoke English very well, and was very intelligent, our quiet meals gave me an opportunity of obtaining some information from him relative to the Indians.

His wife, a pleasing young woman, ate with us, but would not or could not speak English; and I often smiled to find myself sitting over a cup of coffee between a Chickasaw and a Choctaw.

Customs of the Indians.

He told me, that great changes had tak en place among the Indians, even in his time-that in many tribes, when he was young, the children, as soon as they rose, were made to plunge in the water, and swim, in the coldest weather; and were then collected on the bank of the river, to learn the manners and customs of their ancestors, and hear the old men recite the traditions of their forefathers. They were assembled again, at sunset, for the same purpose; and were taught to regard as a sacred duty, the transmission to their posterity of the lessons thus acquired. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and

when thou risest up. He said, that this custom is now abandoned by all the tribes with which he is acquainted, except, to use his own words, "where there is, here and there, an old ancient fellow, who upholds the old way"-that many have talked of resuming their old customs, which the whites have gradually undermined; but are unable, from the loss of their traditions-that he supposes that these might be recovered, from distant tribes over the Mississippi; but

Their religious belief.

With respect to the religious belief of the Choctaws, he said, that it is a prevailing opinion among them, that there is a Great Spirit, who made the earth, and placed them on it, and who preserves them in their hunting journeys, and gives them their "luck in life;" that, however, they do not often think of him-that they believe that all who die, go to the Spirit country; but that some suppose it is divided into two-na

that the Choctaws are acting more wisely,||tions; the one abounding in fine woods, and in seeking civilization.

He told me that they had an obscure story, somewhat resembling that of Jacob wrestling with an angel; and that the fullblooded Indians always separate the sinew which shrank, and that it is never seen in the vension exposed for sale: he did not know what they did with it. His elder brother, whom I afterwards met, told me that they eat it as a rarity; but I have also heard, though on less respectable authority, that they refrain from it, like the ancient Jews. A gentleman, who had lived on the Indian frontier, or in the nation, for ten or fifteen years, told me that he had often been surprised that the Indians always detached this sinew; but it had never occurred to him to inquire the reason.

My half-breed Choctaw also informed me, that there were tribes or families among the Indians, somewhat similar to the Scottish clans; such as the Panther family, the Bird family, the Racoon family, the Wolf family: he belonged to the Racoon family, but his children to the family of his wife; families being perpetuated in the female line-an institution originating, perhaps, in polygamy. By marriage, the husband is considered as, in some degree, adopted into the family of his wife; and the wife's brothers are regarded as, in some respects, entitled to more influence over the children than their own father. The suitor always consults them (sending them the usual propitiating offering of a blanket) when he wishes to marry their niece; and if they approve, the father consents as a matter of course. I have since had this confirmed by information from many different sources.

Those of the same family or clan are not allowed to intermarry; although no relationship, however remote, can be traced between them; and although the ancestors of the two parties may have been living for centuries, in different distant nations: a marriage between a brother and sister, would not excite a stronger sensation, or be more loudly condemned. Indeed, wherever any of the family or clan meet, they recognise one another as brothers and sisters; and use one another's houses, though personally strangers, without reserve.

VOL. XVIII.

deer, and buffaloes; the other destitute of both that these imagine, that when the spirit of bad men leaves the body, it proceeds on the same road as that of good men, till the road forks, when it takes the way to the bad country, supposing it to be the other that many expect a great day, when the world will be burnt and made over again, far pleasanter than it is now, when the spirits will return from the Spirit country and settle again upon it; and that near the place where they were buried, will be their future home. He here pointed to a sermon book which he received from his white father (for he can read,) and said the following sentence conveyed the opinion of many Indians-"Wheresoever the body is laid till the resurrection, thither, as to a dwelling-house, death brings us home," -or, as an Indian would express himself, "the great fire brings us home." (To be continued.)

DONATIONS

TO THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS,

from March 18th 10 April 17th, inclusive. Albany, N. Y., Mrs. Betsey Frost, by Mr. F. Mathewson, $5.00 Amherst, Ms. Half of the avails of a

m. field in the Rev. Mr. Clarke's parish, by the Rev. D. A. Clarke, 11 00 Do. mon. con. $7, another m. field, $750, Mr. Sam. Church, 50 cts. A little boy for Ind. miss. 75 ets. S. T. avails of a m. field, by the Rev. N. Perkins,

15 75

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Mr. Wm. Ledyard, for ELLINGWOOD JENKS, in Mr. Poor's fam. For the general purposes of the Bd. Bedford, N. H. A friend of miss. by Mr. J. French,

20 00

30 00

10 00

18 00

5 00

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35 00

12 22

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Bennington, Vt. Fem. Char. So. by Mrs. C. Robinson, Tr.

Berlin, Ms. The Rev. Reuben Puffer,
D. D.

Berlin, Ct. Worthington par. Fem.
Benev. So. by Mrs. Barnes,
Half the avails of a m. field, by Mr.
S. Savage,

E. Andrews, S. Hart, and A. Worth, by Mr. A. Hitchcock, $2, each, and the Rev. N. Skinner, $t, Beverly, Ms. Mon. con. in the 3d Cong. Soc.

A small So. the avails of labor, A young lady of the 3rd cong. chh. Boscawen, N.H. Mon. con. in the East. Soc. by the Rev. S. Wood,

coll. in the same soc. $14,17 Coll. in sch. dis. No. 5, for Bibles for Ind. chil. at Mayhew,

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Mr. Olcott,

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Dona. of Mrs. Robinson, Newport,

by Mrs. Gilbert, Wilmington, Del. 3 00 Do. of ear-rings, by Miss Sarah Kilborn, Pittsfield, Ms. Do. of amulets, by Miss N. N. Ingersoll, Pittsfield, Ms.

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A payt for JoHN BROWN,

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A friend, for the Ceylon miss. $3, Miss L. Battelle, avails of books sold by Mrs. Leonard, $3; R. $4, a friend of miss. $2,50 Bowling Green, Ky. S. Garrison, Esq. by Mr. Goodell, $12, S. McDowell, $5, C. M. Skiles, $1, Rev. J., B. Lapsley, $3, two of his chil. 50 cts.; sundry members of the Masonic Lodge, $7,

A coll.

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Do. in part for 60 crosses, by Miss
Mary D. Buel, Troy, N. Y.
Coll. by Mrs. Waugh, Newark, Del.
forw. by Mrs. Gilbert,

3 50

7 00

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Bradford, Ms. The Sister Circle of,
Bradford Acad. for PARKER KIM-
BALL HASSELTINE, and FANNY BA-
KER, 3rd payt. by S. Kimball, Tr. 24 00
E. T. by Mr. Peter Parker,
Mon. con. in the east. par.
Brattleborough, Vt. Fem. Cent So. in

5 00

15 69

the east par. by E. W. Green,

9 00

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Do. by Miss Maria Carpenter,

Do. by Miss Julia M. Woodbridge,
Berlin, Ct.

Do. by Miss Martha Ely, Spring-
field, Ms.

Do. by Miss L. M. Chapman, Durham, N.Y. viz. from the Rea. Soc. 12 00 On a miss. card,

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By scholars in Miss Crane's school, By do. in Miss Chapman's do. Norton Hill,

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75

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Char. box at Mr. Stimpson's, Living

stonville,

Char. box of Miss A. Chapman, Do. by Miss Harriet Nott, N.Y. Do. by Miss Eliz. Jenkins, Windsor, Lancaster co. Pa. from various sources,

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Coll by Miss Harriet Chapman, N. Y. Miss Wheeler and Miss Reed, Athens, N. Y.

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Dona. from Mr. Baldwin, Hudson, N. Y.

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Collected by Miss Mary Ann Toby,do. 1 55
Do. Miss Polly Fowler, Guilford, Ct.
Do. Mrs. Abby S. Jessup, Sauga-
tuck, Ct.

Do. Mrs. Eliza Steenberg, Jersey
city,

Do. Mrs. Ashmead,

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A lady, by Mrs. Mary Billings,

Cooperstown, N. Y. Mon. Con. in the Pres. chh. by Mr. G. Pomeroy, 12,50, Mr. George Pomeroy, 13,00 25 50 Cornwall, Ct. Donations received at the For. Mis. Sch.from Jan. 1, to April 1, by J. P. Northrop, Steward,* Cumberland, Me. See North Yarmouth. Deerfield, Ms. Mr. John Clarke, a revolu. pensioner,

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Deerfield, N. Y. A So. of young peo-
ple,
Donegal, Pa. Fem. Miss. So. by Mrs.
M. Whitehill,
Durham, N. Y. (West) Children of a
Sab. sch. for hea. chil. by the Rev.
J. Jewell,

Avails of a m. field,

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Do. Miss Mercy Butler, Thetford, Vt. 4 00 Do. by a friend of miss.

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W. Morse and his family, $3,70; other individuals, $11,62 Ellington, Ct. Fem. Benev. So. by Mrs. A. Chapman,

15 52

18 00

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Miss S. Sherman, for "Views of Missions,'

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Chambersburgh, Pa. S. P. third payt. for ARD HOYT, India, by the Rev. N. Patterson, Charleston, S. C. Mr. John Dixon, by Mr. J. Tyler, Mrs. Gregorie and Mrs. Russel, the interest of a permanent fund for the continual support of a youth in Ceylon; the first to be named WILLIAM HOPTON; 2d payment,

Charlton, N. Y. Mr. Roswell Hawley, a balance,

Chatham, Ct. Fem. Benef. So.
Cherry Valley, N. Y. Mrs. S. Camp-

bell, part of avails of a garden, by Mr. J. Tmair, $3, Mrs. A. Tmair, avails of an onion bed, 2; only daughter of Mr. J. Tmair, solicited on her dying bed, 75 ets. A friend, for hea. chil.

12 00

30 00

50

14 36

Essex, Ms. Fem. Char. So. for hea. chil. by Miss M. Cogswell, Tr. Fairfax co. Va. Avails of a miss. card, of Mrs. L. P. H. from Mrs. M. O. $5, Mr. P. C. 3, and Mr. C. $1, 9 00 Farmington, Ct. A bequest of Mr.

Hugh Gaston, by H. Hudson, Esq. 24 50 Young Men's Miss. So. by Mr. J. Thompson,

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Chesterfield, Ms. A friend, av. of a m. field, through "Hamp. Ch. Dep." Chilicothe, O. Dr. Wilson, by Mr. A. Hitchcock,

1 50

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Hartwiek, Hope Factory and Otsego settlements, N. Y. youth and children,

10 00 1 00

P. N. Marr, 50 cts. W. Fowler, $1, other individuals, $3,50,

Millard,

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Tyringham, Ms. A friend,

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