are clearing land, culling firewood, split-, ting rails, &c. Brother Smith is preparing to enclose a field of 15 or 18 acres. Brother Jewell is employed in completing two log dwelling houses. Our schools are in a prosperous state. The children gratify us by their industry in manual labor, and by a regular attention to their books. When at leisure, they generally have some book in their hands, and this book is commonly the Bible. A man here, by the name of Dyer, is quite sick. He came to avail himself of brother Pride's aid as a physician. 3. Sabbath. This morning Mr. Dyer expired very suddenly. Brother Jewell attended a meeting at Capt. Trumbull's. Our exercises, we trust, have been mercifully blessed to our own souls. In the afternoon, commenced a Sabbath school in the school house. Heretofore, the children have been invited to our private rooms. 4. In the afternoon, attended the funeral of Mr. Dyer. In the evening, observed the concert of prayer, when the Lord appeared to be near us. 9. Had a very pleasant prayer meeting. Two of our hired men continue serious. One of them appears to be truly penitent. We hope, with trembling, concerning him. 10. Sabbath. An Indian chief passed the sabbath with us, and appeared to be much interested in the instruction, which was given him about the Lord Jesus. 11. Another Indian from a considerable distance, called upon us, and, in company with the chief, visited both the schools. Each of them was highly pleased. 16. Tus-eam-i-ub-by, an aged chief, and his son, called upon us and visited the school, to which he is a true friend. We had considerable conversation with them on the subject of religion; and were gratified to witness the interest, with which they listened to us. Just before they left us, we asked them how they felt about what they had heard. They replied, that they must go soon, but would be glad to hear more from us on the same subject. || When our conversation ended, they took us by the hand, called us friends and brothers, and bade us farewell. A pleasing incident. In the evening, brother Wood mentioned several incidents, which occurred during his journey, illustrative of the attachment of the Choctaws to the missionary brethren, and of their extreme anxiety to hear more about the religion of Christ. The following will be interesting. When riding on the great road, from David Folsom's to brother Williams's house, he came to a little toll bridge. Some children put up the bars to prevent his passing, and an Indian stepping up, said, "money, money." Brother Wood then directed his interpreter to tell the Indian, that he was a missionary from Elliot, &c. When he heard this, he was quick and loud in saying, in his own language, "Money ik shoo ik sub un no." "Money, none at all, I don't want." Brother Wood then asked him, if he knew any thing about God; he said Mr. Williams had told him a little, but he wished to learn more. Thus the Lord appears to point out these heathen as chosen vessels of mercy. 13. This morning, brother Dyer left us to go to Mayhew, to attend to some of our business there, and to establish his health, which is feeble. In the afternoon several of the natives came, and gave good attention to the religious instruction, which was offered them. When heaven was described, one man wished to know if he was going there; this afforded us a good opportunity to describe to him the true character of Christians. The people thanked us for what we told them. We record but few of the many instances, which occur, of a willing and grateful attention to divine truth; and these we record as a proof of God's favor, and an animating reason why we may hope hereafter for a blessed harvest of souls; and also as a reason, why some one should be set apart to the blessed work of visiting their dwellings, and making known a Savior. Successful labors of the boys. 20. This day the boys, under brother Bardwell's care, completed the chopping on the new field containing 15 or 18 acres, This work has been almost entirely performed by about 30 boys, who, in addition, have split many rails, rolled up logs into heaps, and cut nearly all the firewood, which we have used this winter. We feel very much encouraged, by our present success, to hope that much may be done here on mission ground, to meet our ordinary expenses. 23. Had a pleasing interview with a young man, who was desirous of entering our school. His importunity would hardly suffer a denial. 24. Sabbath. This day has been a precious one. Some Choctaw and several black people were here. At noon, an excellent opportunity was offered and improved for the brethren and sisters to take these ignorant, but precious souls, to their rooms, and teach them the way of life. It is, indeed, good to be here; some of our laborers and a few of our scholars, appear to be more thoughtful than they have been. The Lord is waiting, as we hope, in mercy and love. Far different is our present situation, in the enjoyment of health, surrounded with children, visited by the heathen, and smiled upon by heaven; from what it was last fall and summer, when our children were dispersed, and ourselves laid on beds of sickness. We are among the most favored and happy, though most unworthy servants of the Lord. 26. Had further conversation with the young man mentioned in our journal of the 23d. He is as ardently desirous of obtaining an education, as ever. We think we must not send him away, and have finally concluded to let him remain and work with some of the brethren; hoping the Lord will make plain the path of our duty. A halfbreed came to-day, wishing to place a son in school. He offered to give us a cow and calf, if we would receive him; but we were obliged to tell him, as we have other persons who have come with the same request. Interview with the parents of several children. March 3. This Sabbath has been very interesting to our souls. The parents of some of the children were with us. To them we made known a Savior, in our private interviews with them. They appeared to be interested, and told us they were glad to hear us, and wished all the Choctaws knew what we had told them. They inquired of us if they could pray in the Choctaw language; if they might call God "our Father;" and they wished us to tell them what they must pray for. Truly here is field for an Evangelist. 4. When our Choctaw friends left us this morning, taking us by the hand, they said, "We have seen our children; all is good. We are glad, and shall go home and sleep sound." Soon after, a Choctaw, who had heard us say a little about God yesterday, came to a room where some of us had just risen from prayer, to know more about God. He said he had thought about that, which we had told him, and had come to hear more. Oh! that the friends of the Redeemer would pray more fervently. Soon might our walls be salvation, and our gates praise. Reception of girls into the School. 5. A little girl was brought to us, to be received into the school. As the number of girls is small, and more can be accommodated in their school room, we gladly received her. 7. Another little girl the Lord has this day put into our hands. The Choctaws are too indifferent to the education of their daughters, while they are all alive to that of their sons. Hence, we especially rejoice, when the girls are offered. We have now sixteen of them in school, under the care of sister Thacher. They make good progress in their studies, and, by their daily deportment, much endear themselves to all our hearts. They are a precious little circle of children, and we doubt not but all our friends take pleasure in commending them to God. 9. This afternoon we heard from our keel boat. It is but a few miles down the river. 11. Consulted upon the propriety of observing a day for fasting and special prayer. Our situation seems urgently to require that such a season be observed. Many in our family have been awakened, and some of our children have been, and still are serious. But we are often called to weep, by seeing our fondest hopes blasted or delayed. We feel the urgent necessity of more importunate prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit. AMERICAN INDIANS. JOURNEY AMONG THE CHOCTAWS, CHICKASAWS, AND CHEROKEES. (Continued from p. 153.) WE now bring to a close our extracts from Mr. Hodgson's account of his journey.From the Choctaw nation, where we left him in our last number, he proceeded to the country of the Chickasaws. Our limits constrain us to pass over the notices, which he made while passing through this nation of Indians. Those of our readers, however, who have a taste for the descriptive, will understand why we insert the following paragraph, which was written as he was crossing the line, which separates the present territory of the Chickasaws from their last cession to the United States. At night, we slept in the woods; and, in the morning, crossed Bear Creek, a beautiful romantic river. A few miles further, we came to the summit of a hill, from which we had an extensive view of the country below us. The surface was broken into lofty ridges, among which a river wound its course: and the mass of forest, which lay between us and a very distant horizon, exhibited no trace of animated existence, but a solitary cabin and one patch of Indian corn. The view of this boundless solitude was naturally a sombre one; but, to us, emerging into light from the recesses of thick woods, in which, for many days, our eyes had seldom been able to range beyond a narrow circle of a few hundred yards, it imparted sensations of cheerfulness which it would be difficult to describe. Not that we were tired of the wilderness. The fragrance of the woods, receiving the same information throughout East Tennessee. which enveloped us in a cool shade, and the melody of their warbling tenants, regaled the senses with a perpetual feast: while the gambols of the squirrels, the cooing of the doves, the variety of large suakes which often crossed our path, birds with the richest plumage which we had seen only in museums, and, above all, the magnifi-senting many of the interesting features of cent forest-trees which here attain their largest growth-all presented an unfailing succession of objects to interest and amuse us. The delicious climate also of the state of Mississippi gave to the morning and evening hours an ethereal charm, which some of your readers will understand: to others, no description would convey any definite ideas, where the reality would make a faint and feeble impression: They know not how the deep'ning trees, Dark glens, and shadowy rocks, can please, The morning blush, the smile of even; What trees, and lawns, and mountains mean, The dying gale, the breathing scene, The midnight calm, the whisp'ring heav'n. Besides, there is something so soothing in the retirement of these vast solitudes, that the mind is, at first, unwilling to be disturbed in its reveries, and to awaken from the deep, and, perhaps, unprofitable musings into which it has suffered itself to be lulled. Yet, although it would shrink from the glare of a day-light which would summon it to its ordinary cares, and would start back from a sudden introduction into the din and bustle of a jarring world, it is refreshed by looking abroad on the face of nature, and is delighted to revive its sympathies with the rational creation, of which it forms a part, by glancing on the distant confines of civilized life.. Having previously learned, that his journey would not be extended by visiting the missionary station among the Cherokees, Mr. Hodgson proceeded through Alabama and East Tennessee, to Brainerd. It is not my intention to swell your pages by dwelling on this part of my route, interesting as it was to myself: I will only observe, that, in passing through the northern part of Alabama, I was particularly struck with the rapidity with which it has been settled. It is little more than two years since these public lands were sold. At that time not a tree was felled; and now the road is skirted with beautiful fields of cotton and Indian corn, from 80 to 120 miles in extent. Whenever I inquired, which I seldom failed to do as often as stopped, I found that there were schools and opportunities for public worship within a convenient distance. I was gratified by In passing the Cumberland, Racoon, and Look-out mountains, we were delighted with a succession of romantic scenerysometimes exhibiting the extended outline of a Highland prospect; at others, pre a home view, in the neighborhood of Windermere or Keswick. At the foot of the Cumberland mountains we slept in a solitary hut, where we found a neat old woman, of 70 or 80 years of age, very busily engaged in spinning. A young clergyman, who had been visiting Brainerd, was also driven in by heavy rain; and his offers to conduct family worship were thankfully accepted by our hostess and her son. He arrives at Brainerd. We reached Brainerd early on the first of June, and remained till the following morning. The manner of proceeding was so similar to that at Elliot, that it is unnecessary to describe it. Indeed, this institution was originally formed by some of the missionaries, who afterward went on to establish the settlement at Elliot. The number of Cherokee children amounted to about 80; and, in addition to these, were two little Osage Indians, who had been rescued from captivity by benevolent interference. One of them was a little girl, whose owner, at the time she was found, was carrying the scalps of her father and mother. He was induced to part with her for about 301. generously advanced for her ransom by a lady at New Orleans. Her simple tale of sufferings, was a long and melancholy one, and the little boy's constitution was nearly broken by ill usage.* I was informed here, that many of the Indians evinced, at first, an indisposition to labor in the field, especially as the females were entirely exempted from the task: but they soon acquiesced; and exhibited, on this occasion, the docility and good humor, of which their teachers (perhaps with excusable partiality) represent them as possessing a more than common share. One of the chiefs offered to find a slave who should work all day, if the missionaries would excuse his son from agricultural labor between school hours; but he was easily convinced of his mistake, and apologized for his ill-judged request. * An interesting memoir of the Little Osage Captive, here mentioned, has been published by the Rev. Elias Cornelius of Salem, who discovered her in the wilderness, and first made her known to the public. Editor. I was much gratified by hearing the children sing their Cherokee hymns: and many ancient prophecies came forcibly to my recollection, when joining, in this Indian country, with Americans, Indians, and Africans, in singing the following verse of one of our hymns:-- Let every nation, every tribe, And crown him Lord of all. Some negroes attended family prayer; and many come from a considerable distance to public worship, on Sunday. I was told, indeed, that there were instances of their walking 20 miles over the mountains, and returning the same day. Reflections on the Indian Missions. 'What animation would an occasional glance at Elliot or Brainerd infuse into our Missionary Committees! and how cheering to many a pious collector of one shilling per week, would be the sight of her Indian sisters, rescued from their degraded condition, and instructed in the school of Christ! What, though we are but the hewers of wood or drawers of water for our more honored and enterprising brethren; our humble labors, feeble and desultory as they are, and ever attended by imperfections, by which their efficiency is much impaired, are still a link in the chain of human agency, by which God is pleased to accomplish His purposes of mercy to a fallen world. train of melancholy reflections on the eventful history of this injured race. Sovereigns, from time immemorial, of the interminable forests which overshadow this vast continent, they have gradually been driven, by the white usurpers of their soil, within the limits of their present precarious possessions. One after another of their favorite rivers has been reluctantly abandoned, until the range of the hunter is bounded by lines prescribed by his invader, and the independence of the warrior is no more. Even their present territory is partitioned out in reversion; and intersected with the prospective boundaries of surrounding states, which appear in the maps, as if Indian title were actually extinguished, and these ancient warriors were already driven from the land of their fathers. Of the innumerable tribes, which, a few centuries since, roamed, fearless and inde pendent, in their native forests, how many have been swept into oblivion, and are with the generations before the flood! Of others, not a trace remains but in tradition, or in the person of some solitary wanderer, the last of his tribe, who hovers like a ghost among the sepulchres of his fathers-a spark still faintly glimmering in the ashes of an extinguished race. From this gloomy review of the past history of these injured tribes, it was refreshing to turn to their future prospects; and to contemplate those missionary labors, which, under the blessing of God, are arresting the progress of that silent waste, by which they were fading rapidly from the map of nations. Partial success, indeel, had followed the occasional efforts of the American government for the civilization of the In verance of disinterested Christian love, to prove, to the world at large, the practicability of an undertaking which had often been abandoned in despair. With respect to the degree, in which the efforts of the missionaries have already been successful, in reference to the spiritual in-dians, but it was reserved for the perseterests of their heathen brethren, they do not expect the harvest, when only beginning to break up the soil. They are aware, also, that, in a subject in which their hopes and fears are so sensibly alive, they are in danger of being misled by very equivocal symptoms; and even where they believe that they discern the fairest promise, they shrink from the idea of blazoning forth to the world, as decisive evidence of conversion, every favorable indication of a change of heart. Still, however, even in this respect, and at this early stage of their exertions, they have the gratification of believing that their labor has not been in vain. Moral obstacles, which had bid defiance to worldly policy or interested enterprise, are yielding to a simple confidence in the promises of God, and a faithful compliance with the divine commands-Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Christians, of different denominations, are sending laborers to the task; and it is animating, indeed, to contemplate the United States-in the name, as it were, and as the representative of the various nations who have participated in the wrongs inflicted on this injured racepreparing to offer the noblest compensation in their power, and to diffuse the Gospel Reflections on the State and Prospects of throughout the aborigines of this western Soon after leaving Brainerd, I crossed the river Tennessee, which here forms the boundary of the Cherokee nation. the Indians. I now bade a last adieu to Indian territory; and, as I pursued my solitary ride through the woods, I insensibly fell into a world. And, surely, if any arguments were necessary in support of missions, in addition to those derived from the force of divine commands, and the suggestions of diffusive DONATIONS TO THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, sive. charity, we should find them in the history of the early intercourse of Christian Europe with Asia, Africa, and America. Or if, viewing the wide range and growing energies of British missions, a deep sense of our defective efforts should at any time be insufficient to repress every feeling of self- from April 18th, to May 14th, 1822, inclus complacence, we have but to recollect how large a portion of the past labors of our missionaries has been consumed, in eradicating the vicious habits which we have introduced into some heathen nations, or in dispelling the prejudices which our inconsistent conduct has diffused through others. It is not in our naval, our military, or our commercial character, that we have as yet appeared generally as a blessing to benighted nations. It is not when we press into the wars of Christians, the tomahawk or scalping-knife of the Indians—it is not when, deluging his country with spirituous liquors in the prosecution of an unequal traffic, we send forth a moral pestilence, before which the frail virtues of the savage fall, like the dry leaves of his forests in the blasts of autumn-it is not when thus engaged, that we either conciliate his affections, or elevate his moral tone. The men who fertilize the moral wilderness and evangelize the heathen world, are animated by a higher spirit than the desire of conquest, or the lure of gain-by the spirit of our Marsdens, our Careys, our Buchanans, and our Henry Martyns. These are the men, who, at once the benefactors of their species, and the representatives of Christian Britain, secure for their native country the veneration of far distant tribes, while preaching on their mountains the glad tidings of salvation, or filling their valleys with bymns of praise. The time, I hope, will come, when not our missionaries only, but our naval and military commanders, our soldiers, our sailors, and our merchants, will all carry with them to every country where they hoist the British flag, unequivocal demonstrations that they come from a Christian land; and it is animating, indeed, to regard our colonial establishments, our extended commerce, and our vast marine, as instruments, in the hands of Providence, to prepare paths for our missionaries, and to subserve that sacred cause in which they count not even their lives dear. In that cause, it is scarcely possible to be neutral. The question of missions is Bow brought home to every breast; and the influence of individual opinion on the social and domestic circle, carries into the most retired situations an awful responsibility, as to the decisions which may be formed, and the sentiments which may be expressed, on a subject so deeply affecting the highest interests of the human race. YOL. XVIII. Abington, Ms. Children in Miss P.'s school for hea. chil. $1,60; unknown persons, !, 2 60 Alna, Me. Mon con.by Mr.S.W.Clark, 10 00 Amherst, Ms. So. in the Acad. for Audover, Ms. Char. box kept by Mr. C. Cutler, Theo. Sem. $9,77; av. Athol, Ms. Mon. con. by Dea. E. Bal- Attleborough, Ms. Mr. Levi Reed, Austinsburg, O. Av. of m. fields, by Mrs. Betsey Hawley, $3; Rev. my, av. of industry, by Mr. A. Benson, Vt. Av. of a m. field, by J. So. for the support of For. Mis, for Berlin, Vt. Mon. con. Berlin, Ms. A friend, av. of a m. field, PORTER and EDWARD HENRY For EDWARD DWIGHT and ISABELLA Eight young men of the Old South Soc. for an Ind. chi. in Mr. Chamberlain's fam. Brainerd, to be named BENJAMIN BLYDENBURG WIS. NER, first semi ann. payment, Boxborough, Ms. A friend, by Mr. Jo. seph Stone, Bozrahville, Ct. Fem. Cent So. in part Bradford, Ms. W. par. So. for hea. chil. by J. Kimball, Jun. Esq. Brainerd, Cher. na. D. Henderson, Brentwood, N. H. Char. box in the meeting-house, by the Rev. C. Col. 10 00 18 27 7 00 63 1. 00 17 62 10 38 5 00 23 00 20 00 3.50 3 00 40 00 60 00 75 77 15 00 12.00 12 00 14.00 2.00 410 8 00 83 00 24 25 |