of one year among the Indians in the interior, during which time it frequently happened that he did not see a white person for five or six weeks together.* "Of all the missionaries," writes Mr. Smith, in his History of New York, "Mr. David Brainerd, who recovered these Indians (of New Jersey) from the darkness of Paganism, was most successful. He died in October 1747, a victim to his extreme mortification, and inextinguishable zeal for the prosperity of his mission." But has Brainerd, any more than Eliot, or Mayhew, left behind him any permanent trace of the real conversion of the American Indian? We read, indeed, of "the excellent Brainerd, who at Crossweeksung converted by his preaching — so far as the human eye can judge - seventy-five Indians out of one hundred, to the faith and obedience of the Gospel, within twelve months:"‡ but it is to be feared that this "judging by the eye" too often misleads us with respect to Indian conversion; and we may, therefore, fairly hesitate in giving credit to the same writer, who, adopting the accounts given by Gookin, says, we learn with certainty," that in his time there were in Massa

* Douglass's Summary, part ii. sect. 10,

+ Smith's Hist. of New York, part i. Dr. Douglass says, that Brainerd only preached to the Indians in English, which, of course, the latter did not understand.

Dwight's Travels in New England, vol. iii. let. 9.

chussets colony eleven hundred praying Indians in fourteen villages; in Plymouth colony, nearly six thousand; in Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, perhaps fifteen hundred more; and when to these were to be added those in Connecticut, he makes the total number "not far from ten thousand." But Gookin himself, in his account of the whole Indian population in New England at their most prosperous period, does not calculate them to exceed eighty thousand souls (a number which Dr. Dwight even admits to be probably overrated by at least ten thousand); so that we are thus desired to believe, that at the time alluded to, one-sixth or one-seventh part of the Indians in that part of America was converted to Christianity! The assertion is wholly incredible.

In the time of Queen Anne, attempts were made to establish missionaries among the Iroquois. Governor Hunter, at a grand council held at Albany with some of the Indians of that confederacy, after distributing presents among them, told them, "The queen had not only provided fine clothes for their bodies, but likewise intended to adorn their souls by the preaching of the Gospel, and that some ministers should be sent to instruct them. When the governor had finished his speech, the eldest chief rose up, and, in the name of all the Indians, thanked their good mother the queen for the fine clothes she had sent them; but that, in regard

S

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

Dr. Colden states, that a missionary was sent. over by Queen Anne, with an allowance from her privy purse, to reside among the Mohawks. "The 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,