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The church here alluded to, is one of the Episcopal order, established in the Oneida tribe, where Mr. Eleazar Williams officiates as Catechist and Lay Reader. Interesting accounts of its prosperity, particularly of the devotion of the worshippers in their public service, the regularity of their responses, and the melody of their singing, are related by those who have visited them. This church belongs to the Diocess of the Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, and the following notice of its consecration is copied from the Christian Journal of October 1819.

“On Tuesday last, the Chapel erected for the Oneida Indians, at Oneida Castle, was consecrated by the Bishop, receiving the name of St. Peter's church. Fifty-six Indians who had previously been prepared for that purpose by their Instructer, Mr. E. Williams, received confirmation, and at the visit of Bishop Hobart last year, ninety-four were confirmed. Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the exertions and pious zeal of Mr. Williams, in his successful efforts to bring into the Christian Church these infidel brethren; for when he arrived among them, two or three years ago, more than half of the Oneidas were of that character.” Missionaries have been repeatedly employed among this tribe, and the late Rev. Mr. Kirkland, (father of the President of Harvard University, Cambridge,) who long discharged the duties of that vocation with zeal and ability, thus speaks of their religious belief, and that of the other nations with whom they where confederated. “The region of pure spirits, the Five Nations call Eskanane. According to their tradition there is a gloomy fathomless gulph, near the borders of the delightful mansions of Eskanane, over which all good and brave spirits pass with safety, under the conduct of a faithful and skilfull guide appointed for the purpose, but when those of other characters approach the gulph, the conductor who possesses a most penetrating eye, instantly discovers their spiritual features, and denies them his aid, assigning his reasons. They will however attempt to cross upon a small pole, which before they reach the middle trembles and shakes, till presently down they fall, with horrid shrieks. In this dreary gulph they suppose resides a great dog or dragon, perpetually restless and spiteful. Sometimes the guilty inhabitants of these miserable regions approach so near the happy fields of Eskanane, as to hear the songs and dances of their former companions; but this only serves to increase their torments, as they can discern no light, or discover any passage by which they can gain access to them.”

The Tuscaroras have affinity with the Oneidas, and resemble them in most of their traditions and customs. Missionaries have been occasionally sent to them, and the exercises of a Sabbath, as conducted in the church under the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Crane, is thus described by a literary and liberal minded English gentleman, who has travelled extensively in the United States. “On my visit to the cataract of Niagara, in 1821, I passed with great pleasure a Sunday, with the Tuscaroras in the vicinity. With their devotion during the services I was particularly impressed. Some of them who approached the church during a heavy rain, observing it to be the time of prayer, remained without, unsheltered, till prayers were finished. Their minister by the aid of an interpreter, gave them a sermon of such impressive simplicity, that the whole of it remained upon my memory. But when the tunes of Old Hundred and Plymouth burst forth in strains of perfect melody, I could scarcely restrain my feelings. Afterwards, a grey-headed chief, leaning upon his staff, addressed our Father in Heaven. In his supplication he asked that the stranger who had come from over the great waters, might be preserved on his return to his home, and be blessed for feeling an interest in poor Indians. The deportment of these sons of the forest, and the influence of the whole scene, was so forcibly affecting, that I found it impossible to refrain from tears.”

“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”—Proverbs ix, 1. This inspired metaphor of the royal teacher, may among other sources of instruction, permit an application to our present subject. If in the most sublime truths of christianity, may be traced an adaptation to our grosser frame, a recognition at once of our infirmities, and our needs; does it not become us in our erection of a spiritual temple among the heathen, to imitate the “wisdom that is from above,” and to suffer its foundation to rest upon the earth, since its service is for the benefit of those who are “from the earth, earthy?” Perhaps the failure of most of our early attempts to convert the aborigines may be traced to inattention in connecting the advantages of civilization with the blessings of christianity. Their success in many instances was conspicuous, but the adjunct was wanting, which could impress on the character of a roving people, the feature of permanence. Individuals were made solemn, purified, and, we trust, gathered to the family of the redeemed; but the multitude required from christianity, a visible pledge that she was divine. Like the Jews, they “sought after a sign, yet not even the sign of the prophet Jonas” was given them, who after immersion in the deep for a time, was raised to liberty and light. The arts of civilized society, would have convinced their reasoning powers that the tree which bore good fruits was good; and to the wretched numbers who have perished for want of sustenance would have been as “life from the dead.”

“We are hungry and naked,” say the Chippeways in their speech to Governor Cass, “we are thirsty and needy. We hope you will relieve us. The President of the United States is like a lofty pine upon the mountain's top. You are also a great man. The Americans are a great people. Can it be possible they will allow us to suffer?” Schoolcraft, who traces his personal observations among our natives, with the pen of a master, remarks, that “the savage mind, habituated to sloth, is not easily roused into a state of moral activity, nor at once capable of embracing and understanding the sublime truths and doctrines of the evangelical law. It is necessary that letters, arts, and religion, should go hand in hand.” The younger President Edwards, whose knowledge of the customs and language of our aborigines, particularly of the Stockbridge tribe, is well known to have been extensive, points out as the only method of securing their loyalty to government, “the prosecution of the design of thoroughly instructing them in the true religion, and of educating their children to useful knowledge.” The process of turning them from hunting and fishing to husbandry, must of necessity be slow; yet it seems that it would not be impossible to lead from the beauty and comforts of harvest, up to the Giver of Good, those souls which had been accustomed even through darkness and ignorance, to “see God in clouds, or hear him in the wind.” Yet those roving minds require to be arrested by the certainty of present good, before they will renounce vicious gratifications for the hope of futurity. A religion which recommends itself by teaching them to guard against the famine, the storm, and the “pestilence walking in darkness,” furnishes their conviction with a strong proof, that it is able to provide a shelter in the day of wrath, and a refuge when all earthly habitations are dissolved. To vanquish their doubts of the excellency of doctrines, it is necessary to ameliorate their condition, and to remove their ignorance. To the force of the first argument, the child, and the Chieftain of hoary hairs, are alike accessible: the last, must appeal chiefly to the rising generation whose intellect, unshackled by long habit, is docile to the voice of instruction. Wisely, therefore, have our recent missionaries applied themselves to the education of children; and wisely are they permitting their system to embrace agriculture, with the domestic and mechanic arts. Thus, they open a new era in the history of that divine compassion, which during the lapse of two centuries, has often awakened to toil for our aborigines, yet as often wept that her toil has been in vain. Thus are they taking the most effectual method to arrest the fugitives in their rapid progress to the grave, by causing not only the dark forest to resound with the praises of Jehovah, but also the “wilderness and the solitary place to blossom as the rose.”

If any claim to religious instruction can be founded on strong solicitude to receive it, the aborigines upon our borders have instituted that claim, and confirmed it by ardent gratitude for that measure of the gift which has been imparted. In this respect they exhibit a strong contrast to most of the Asiatic heathen, to whom the gospel has been sent. The reluctance of the Hindoos to listen to, or submit their children to a system which would sap the foundation of preconceived idolatry, is feelingly described by Henry Martyn. In the course of only a few pages, the following passages occur, and others of the same nature might easily be selected. “Wherever I walked, the women fled at the sight of me. The children ran away in great terror. I left books with some of the people, and went away, amid the sneers and laughter of the common soldiers. A party of boatmen I talked with, and begged them to take a tract, but could not prevail. A Mussulman who had received one of the Hindostanee tracts, and found what it was, was greatly alarmed and returned it. I am much discouraged at the rebuffs and suspicions I meet with. As I was entering a boat, I happened to touch, with my stick, a brass pot of one of the Hindoos, in which rice was boiling. So defiled are we in their sight, that the pollution past from my hand, through the stick and brass to the food. He rose and threw it all away. Walked in the evening to a poor village, where I only produced terror.”

If the zeal which “counts all losses light,” would reproach itself as weak to be moved by these afflictions, or selfish to be influenced by them in the choice of a theatre of action; yet minds of a more calculating class, who feel that life is short; and those who love the luxury of doing good, would be inclined to choose that station, where probabilities are greatest of performing the most in a limited time. Still the missionary in his most eligible situation has enough of trial, enough of privation, to remind him that he is a herald of that Prince, whose “kingdom is not of this world.” The tribes upon our borders to whom religious teachers have been sent, so far from testifying like the oriental heathen, strong reluctance or aversion, have entrusted their children to them with tears of gratitude, and in many instances aided in the expenses incidental to their education. The Cherokees who have probably shared the most largely in these benefits, have made the greatest progress in civilization. The culture of the earth has become an object of increased attention. Many of their females understand the use of the distaff and loom, and the agency of the needle in promoting domestic comfort. An intelligent traveller in that region, about four years since, writes “the Cherokee women almost universally dress after the manner of the whites, in gowns manufactured by themselves, from cotton which they have raised on their own little plantations. Rapidly are they coming into habits of industry. In the Choctaw nation, 2000 spinning wheels, and several hundred looms have been made and distributed.”

The Cherokee council has recently promised a set of tools to those young men who would become acquainted with some mechanic art; and has also divided the territory of the tribe into districts, and appointed judges in each for the regular distribution of justice. The children, who have become members of the Schools, make respectable, and often rapid progress in the branches assigned them. The circumstance of imparting to them our language, instead of being forced to acquire theirs, furnishes our missionaries with an important facility which is denied to their eastern brethren. Time and mental labour are thus rescued for other purposes; and the pupils after obtaining the English tongue, which they have hitherto done with great ease, enjoy in our books the advantage of an unbounded store of knowledge. The delay occasioned by acquiring the Hidostanee or Sanscrit sufficiently well to converse with and preach to the natives, assumes the aspect of an obstacle, which severity of application alone can conquer. A Missionary, eminently distinguished by his translations in the Asiatic dialects, remarks “the idiom, and just collocation of the words in HIndostanee are very difficult. Every few miles, the language changes, so that a book in the dialect of one district would be unintelligible in another.”

Among the facilities afforded for the instruction of our western heathen, and which seem almost to amount to a preparation for truth, may be numbered the circumstance, that their minds are not fettered by an idolatry like that of Juggernaut, at once abject, imposing, and barbarous. Their belief in the Great Spirit, and the “land of souls,” is not so adverse to the “simplicity which is in Christ,” as the mysteries of Vishnoo, and of Brumma. Roger Williams in his work, entitled, “A Key to the Language of the Indians of New-England,” which bears date in 1643, and is now very scarce, has the following passage. “He who questions whether God made the world, the Indians will teach him. I must acknowledge that I have in my conversations with them, received many confirmations of those two great truths, that God is, and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. If they receive any good in hunting, fishing, or harvest, they acknowledge God in it. Yea, if they meet with but an ordinary accident, such as a fall, &c. they say God was angry, and permitted it.”

This habitual sense of the agency of a Divine Being in all the affairs of life, might serve both as an example and reproof to some inhabitants of a christian land; and seems to prove that a path is already broken up, for the footsteps of knowledge and piety. The latter assertion is however applied principally to those upon our frontiers, who suffer from poverty and degradation. The natives, whose territory is farther to the west, maintain comparative independence; and finding their own mode of life sufficient for their wants, are less disposed to receive a better. But “our brother within our gates,” hath not rejected our benevolence, hath not put from him the word of life.” Do we “adjudge him unworthy of eternal life, that we turn from him to other Gentiles?”—that we prefer invading the jurisdiction of foreign governments, to discharging the debts which our own has incurred? For the Indian hath a claim upon our justice, which sophistry cannot cancel. It is vain to say that their land was obtained by purchase. What a purchase! When whole townships were obtained for a single intoxicating draught; and provinces, like the vineyard of Naboth, wrested without payment, save the life of the owner. In many of the original purchases of land from the Indians, payment was rendered with the sword, silencing the lip that complained of injustice, and stilling the bosom that throbbed at tyranny: Have we ever wrested from the Hindoo his rice-field?—from the Cingalese his aromatic groves?—from the South-Sea Islander his liberty? Have we introduced among them new and mortal diseases, destructive weapons before unknown, and vices more fatal to the soul, than the pestilence to the body? Heaven forbid that a christian, who holdeth in his hand the light of life, should be unwilling to cast its beam upon any land lying in darkness, or even indifferent whether any nation under heaven should continue to “sit under the shadow of death.” But ought he not first to relume those tapers which his ancestors aided in extinguishing? first to guide those wanderers whom he has contributed to plunge deeper in the labyrinth of woe? Ask the man of integrity, if he ought not first to discharge his debts, ere he indulge in the luxury of benevolence? But what shall we render to those whom we have bereft of territory, of liberty, and of happiness? What can we offer, but the hope of Heaven! Life to them is as a sealed book, and Death an abyss of horror; but we can teach them to read from one the lesson of resignation, and to behold the darkness of the other kindle with the glories of the resurrection.

It is a remarkable fact that every nation which has established permanent colonies in America, has assumed as a first principle, the conversion of the natives; and that every one has been either forgetful of the promise, or unfortunate in its execution. Spain bore upon her blood-stained banners, the peaceful semblance of the cross. But so ill did her charitable pretensions comport with her execrable barbarities, that the miserable natives, after a full explanation of the doctrines of her church, were accustomed to say, that they “had rather endure the sufferings of hell, than to enter the abodes of heaven, if they must dwell there with Spaniards.” A Prince, whom they offered a mansion in a better world, after having deprived him of every comfort in this, inquired, “Is this heaven of which you speak, the place where you Spaniards go after death?” On their replying in the affirmative, he answered in the strong language of nature, “Then let me go to another place.”

France, with the ostensible design of promulgating Christianity, commenced her settlements in the New-World. Yet Champlain, who came thither under her auspices, in the year 1603, seemed to think that this design might best be promoted by a war among the savages! Accordingly he provoked sanguinary conflicts, between the aborigines and Hurons, and the powerful confederacy of Iroquois. Fields were watered with blood, yet the “peaceable fruits of righteousness sprang not.” The next year, Henry IV of France, gave the Sieur de Monts, grants of land in Acadia, now Nova Scotia, and he bound himself to propagate the doctrines of the cross among the aborigines. Charlevoix asserts that his monarch would not again have received Canada, when it was restored to him by Charles First of England, (who after taking it found its expenses too greatly overbalancing its profits), had it not been for the design of converting the natives. But how did the conduct of France comport with her professions? A few Romish priests and Jesuits, disseminated the peculiar tenets of their belief, but did they ameliorate the condition of the savage, by mingling his simple adoration of the Great Spirit, with the worship of gods innumerable? or illuminate his mental darkness by teaching him to bow down to “images made like unto corruptible things?” Yet France has not been tinged like Spain with the deepest dies of cruelty. Candour requires the acknowledgment that some of her holy men have evinced a strong interest in the religious instruction of the natives, mingled with that national urbanity which has powerfully gained the affections of many of the sons of the forest. “On the walls of the Chapel of the Ursulines at Quebec,” says Sansom, “is still delineated an elegant picture, representing the Genius of France, just landed upon the shores of America, from an European vessel which is seen moored to the rocks. She is pointing to the standard of the cross, at the mast-head, and with the other hand offering to a female savage the benefits of religious instruction, which she kneels to receive.” The Charter given by England to her first colonists, also recognized as an essential object, the religious instruction of the aborigines. But how did their conduct in many instances fulfil this sacred injunction? The natives of the forest were seen fading before their footsteps, like the morning mist over the mountain, as if their presence, so far from imparting spiritual life, destroyed even the principle of animal existence. The example of many of the traders, who by frequent intercourse with them gave the strongest representation of what they supposed christianity was, almost universally contradicted a religion which forbids fraud, and tyranny. Yet even then, such was their expectation of seeing some practical influence flowing from it, that the first settlers, who witnessed the emotions of their surprize, were accustomed to hear them say, with a solemn countenance, “You know God! will you tell falsehoods, Englishman?” When the doctrines of a pure religion, have been forcibly explained to them, how often has their effect been destroyed by examples of vice and barbarity. How miserably has a system of holiness been undermined by the sins of those who professed to establish it. A zealous Missionary, once reasoning with the natives, on the importance of moral virtues, when derived from rectified principles, was interrupted by a Chief, who rising, said with great earnestness, “Hold your tongue! Go home, and teach your own people not to lie, get drunk, and cheat poor Indians: then come and preach to us, and we will believe you.” “They have always been ready to retort upon us,” says Gen. Lincoln, in his observations on the Indians, “where are the good effects of your religion? We, of the same tribe, have no contentions among ourselves respecting property: and no man envies the enjoyment and happiness of his neighbour! But they have very different opinions respecting us. These impressions ought to be removed: has it ever been attempted?”

Several Seneca Chiefs, who in the year 1818, were much noticed in England, where they excited great curiosity, express themselves in the following manner, in an address to some benevolent people of the Society of Friends at Leeds.

“The great injuries we have received from white men, the wickedness we saw constantly practised among them, greatly strengthened our minds against their ways, and their religion; thinking it impossible that any good could come out of a people, where so much wickedness dwelt. In this bondage have we and our fathers been held for more than two hundred years, retiring and wasting away before the white men, our means of subsistence diminishing, corrupting ourselves with their sins, hardening ourselves in our afflictions, destruction before us, and no arm to deliver.”

While we urge that the just claims which our aborigines have on us for religious instruction should no longer be slighted, can it be thought of inferior importance, that those christians who have intercourse with them, should strive to exemplify the moral virtues which their faith enjoins?—that those who preach the law, should neither make void the law, nor through the errors of their brethren “find the gospel made of none effect.”

This passage is a close paraphrase of the speech of Charles Renatus Hicks, to the messenger who first proposed to him on the part of our government, to extend the benefits of instruction to the children of his tribe. This interesting individual received the name of Renatus at his baptism, by the Rev. Mr. Gambould, the Moravian missionary; and has continued by his sincerity, zeal, and christian example, to fulfil the high hopes which the dawn of his piety excited in the breast of his spiritual father. His influence in his nation, which is considerable, is faithfully devoted to the aid of the missionaries and the promotion of their sacred cause. The following extract from a letter of this excellent chief to a friend in New-England, dated 1818, furnishes a pleasing specimen of his sentiments, and his style. “Go on, and inflame the light to greater brightness in the souls of your believers in the religion of Jesus Christ, that they may suffer the red man to come with them to the fountain-head, which burst forth in healing streams upon Mount Calvary, giving all the human family to be as one in Christ. This shall warm the cold-hearted white man to encourage the red man to come and taste the heavenly manna. Then shall the red man acknowledge that his elder brother was kind to him in distress, and gave him clothes when naked, and drink when thirsty. Then shall both enjoy His love, who is the first and the last, and liveth forevermore; and never more quarrel about our covering the Mother-Earth, though the Red Man once lorded over her deserted waste.”

Brainerd, in the Cherokee nation, was the first institution among our aborigines, upon a plan combining christianity with civilization. There, the experiment was first made, whether Indians would resign their children to foreign teachers, and whether those children were capable of the application, the proficiency, the subordination of those, whose infancy had passed amid higher privileges. Success has crowned an attempt which commenced amid the fears of many, and the humble hopes of a few. The children of the forest have cheerfully adopted a system of methodical study and labour, more strict than we find established among ourselves. Their progress has been almost universally rapid, and their minds are considered by their teachers of an excellent order. That learning which the child of indulgence views with aversion, and for the partial acquisition of which he fancies himself entitled to reward, they consider as recreations. Food and raiment, which he receives without thanks, they esteem as favours, exciting gratitude. Among them also, are some happy students of the “wisdom that cometh from above;” and the important influence acquired by the Missionaries over the minds of the parents, by attention to the welfare of their children, is a channel through which much good may enter.

The experiment first tried among the Cherokees has been repeated among the Choctaws and Great Osages, so that already, at a variety of stations, several hundred native children are listening to the voice of Instruction.

Whether the Indians ever can be civilized, still remains a question with many cautious minds. If they ever can, now is the time: when famine and misery have forced them to seek a refuge, and when that refuge is provided for them in the arms of humanity. But reason assures us, that the process must be slow. National character is not modified, much less renovated, in a moment. By the time that the whole of the present generation has past away, the point may be decided. Yet if in civilized countries, where education exerts its sway with fewer obstacles, the children even of virtuous parents sometimes prove faithless both to the example of the one, and the impression of the other; much ought to be expected of a roving and untutored race, to counteract the purposes of instruction, and repress the enthusiasm of hope.

At a time when missions to the East almost monopolized the exertions of christians, the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury was revolving amid the solitude of the student's cell, the design of devoting himself to our western aborigines. With firmness worthy of his cause, he penetrated the lonely forest, and established the first permanent institution in which the children of our natives had ever been taught to blend the arts of civilized life with the hopes of an immortal existence. When the first obstacles to an institution have been surmounted, he has left it to form others in the wilderness; choosing not to “rest in his labours, but to bear the burden, and heat of the day.” Only a few years have elapsed, since his solitary tent was pitched among the wilds of Chickamaugah; now, many christians have entered the same path, to water the seed in the desert, and to forget their toil amid the joy of harvest. This self-devoted band may be considered as adopting the plan which filled the discriminating mind of Eliot, the first Indian apostle, who in his early intercourse with them, declared, that in order to succeed in their conversion to christianity, it was necessary that “they should be taken off from their wild way of living, and brought into some kind of civil society.”

This particular notice of an individual, when many of the native pupils have distinguished themselves by proficiency in study and cheerful acquiescence in the rules of their new institutions, may be explained by the circumstance that she was the first among that number who embraced christianity. A short time after she became a member of the school at Brainerd, which then bore the original name of Chickamaugah, Catharine Brown, at that time about the age of 16 years, was remarked for her rapid progress in the various branches of education, and for the influence of pure religion upon her heart and deportment. A variety of ornaments with which she was furnished by her parents, had been worn with some haughtiness, as valuable aids to a comely appearance. These were of her own accord laid aside, and offered to assist in defraying the expenses of the mission. On the minds of those of her companions who seemed less sensible than herself of the advantages extended to them, she strove to impress the magnitude of their privileges. Soon after the establishment of the school, one of the instructers writes, “Catharine takes great pains to make those little Cherokees, who are inclined to be inconsiderate, understand the privilege they enjoy in attending school here. Often has she been heard interceding for them with her Father in Heaven. Every night she reads the Scriptures, and prays with those little girls, who lodge in the same apartment: and every day she gives increasing evidence that the love of God is shed abroad in her heart.” Since that period she has become more extensively known throughout the christian community, as an interesting example of the power of that holy principle which at once renovates, fortifies, and exalts our nature. She has become a faithful Instructress in a school recently established among her tribe: and her brother, a promising young man, who has also embraced our religion, is receiving in the excellent institution at Cornwall (Connecticut) an education to fit him for a missionary to his people. “Oh how great would be the blessing,” he exclaims in the glowing, unrestrained language of nature, “could we see many young heathen become heralds of salvation to their dear benighted countrymen, see them hail the little flock of Christ at the Cherokee nation, and overthrow the dominion of darkness there, and make the banks of Chickamaugah tremble, and fly on the wings of heavenly love over the lofty Lookout, and visit the slumbering inhabitants there; and reach the plains of Creek-Path, and turn that path towards heaven, that it may be travelled by Cherokees also; and thus go on until Spring-Place, Taloney, Tsatuga, and all the people, acknowledge God as their Saviour.”

The Lookout is a majestic mountain, whose base is washed by the Tennessee River, and the places alluded to, in this sentence, are villages of the Cherokee territory, some of them within the vicinity of the former abode of the writer.

Among the first converts to christianity, from our American wilds, by the recent exertions of benevolence, was an intrepid Cherokee warrior, by the name of Charles Reece. In our last war with Great Britain he distinguished himself at the battle of the Horse-shoe, by swimming across the river in the face, and under the fire of the enemy, and bringing off the boats in triumph. As a testimony of valour, he received from government a musket, richly ornamented with silver. This bold warrior was so much affected by the religious instructions of the Rev. Mr.Cornelius, when a traveller in that country, that he sank at his feet, as if utterly deprived of strength, and desiring to become as a little child, that he might learn in humility, the words of his Saviour. The day after, he came several miles to find the missionaries at Brainerd, inquiring of them, with the deepest solemnity, “Can you tell me what God wants me to do?” and in conformity to their instructions, resigned his imperfect theory, for the knowledge and practice of a consistent religion.

The Rev. Mr. Cornelius, now of Salem (Massachusetts,) was appointed in 1817, to travel through the United States, in order to excite the benevolence of the people in favour of the mission to our aborigines, which had been patronized by government; and likewise to visit several of the tribes upon our borders, and discover with what dispositions they would meet the designs of mercy. These important offices were discharged with such a happy combination of zeal and ability, that many hearts ascribe their first deep sympathy for this miserable race, to his eloquent description of the woes “of our brother, perishing within our gates.”

Mrs. Gambold, the wife of the Rev. John Gambold, aided in bearing the burdens, and performing the duties of a missionary, with distinguished zeal and ability, for a period of sixteen years. Her exertions were devoted to the Cherokees, and her residence was at Spring-place in Tennessee. She was admired in early life, for her amiable and refined manners, and for the possession of those accomplishments which are highly valued in polished society. For fourteen years she was an Instructress in the Female Seminary at Bethlehem (Pennsylnia), beloved by those who were under her care, and happy in an employment which at once gave her independence, esteem, and the consciousness of an useful life. “Yet there,” she says, “my equally favourite object was to throw my humble mite into the depressed scale of our poor aborigines. Strongly did I feel for their situation; and whoever spoke or acted in their favour was my friend. My heart bled at the view of their accumulated wrongs.” Moved by this tender and ardent zeal, she decided to renounce the comforts of her situation, the allurements of refined society, and to endure perils in the wilderness. With unabating firmness, with the most tender sentiments of piety, she discharged the duties, and sustained the privations of her station. To the wandering natives, she exemplified the Apostle's precept, that “God is love: and that he who dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God.” With the most endearing condescension, she poured instruction into the minds of their ignorant children, waiting patiently for the harvest. “Our institution for the young,” she writes in 1819, “is at present small. But how good is our Saviour! Some of those dearly beloved pupils hath he already brought into the ark of safety.” The promising Cherokee youth, who received the name of Elias Boudinot, and is now pursuing his studies in the institution at Cornwall (Connecticut,) acquired the rudiments of learning and piety from this excellent woman. She exerted herself in forming a Sunday school for the blacks, who, she observes, used “formerly to profane our most holy festivals, the Lord's day, Christmas, and Easter; nor were our repeated remonstrances of any avail.” A native woman, by the name of Margaret-Ann Crutchfield; who with her husband was interested in teaching the African school, is affectionately styled by Mrs. Gambold, “the first fruits of the nation, which it had pleased our dear Lord to give us.” She was a niece of Charles Renatus Hicks, and her piety, like his, proved to be both sincere and lasting. Her ardent feelings were often strongly excited by the oppressions, and spiritual darkness of her people. Having been taught to read and write by her benefactress, she thus expresses herself in a letter to a friend in New-England, bearing date in the winter of 1819. “I feel great concern for my poor nation. The white people drive some of them from their houses, and from settlements upon their own lands. One old man, who was driven out in this manner, moved to some distance, where he lives in a camp. Then this old man begged the white people, who took possession of his place, for a boat, that he and his family might go to the Arkansas. But they answered him that he might make a canoe, and get to that country, as he could. If such things are allowed, we know not what will become of us. I think our good Father, the President, is ignorant of the proceedings of the white people here. I believe that he is our friend, and wishes to do right for the Indians. There are a good many of us, who wish to remain in our own country. We have just begun to see good days, by having the gospel preached to us. My dear brother and sister Gambold, have been labouring in this country for thirteen years. It is very painful to them, after labouring so long, to see the Indians driven away. My uncle Charles R. Hicks has gone on to the President at Washington, to plead our cause. I trust our Saviour will support him, and make all end well. If he should not succeed, I know that we are gone. But one thing we know, that our dear Saviour will never forsake us.” The death of this interesting convert took place in October 1820, and was attended with peaceful, even triumphant hopes. Mrs. Gambold, in her account of the scene, adds a little circumstance expressive of the reverence which the natives entertain for true piety, even before they have been led to renounce their own debasing superstition. The evening after the funeral, a large meteor was observed, emitting vivid streams of light, and attended with an explosion like thunder. “This,” said one of them, with their characteristic gravity, “this is a warning to us. It signifieth that a good woman hath died.”

At the institution of the recent missions among the Cherokees, the faithful Moravian labourers, forgetting that narrow division of sect which too often causes coldness and contention in the family of Christ, received the new occupants at Brainerd, with the most ardent affection. Mrs. Gambold mentions in a letter, “How great was our joy, after many years hoping and wishing with tearful eyes, for more labourers in the field of our dear Lord, which is truly large, and requires many sowers, when our beloved brother Kingsbury entered our little abode with a cheerful countenance, ready, through divine assistance, to do his utmost in cultivating the long neglected soil, and in preparing a harvest for that dear Redeemer, who shed his precious blood not only for us, but for the Indians also.”

In a public notice of her death, her friendship, and even maternal kindness to the Missionaries of another persuasion is gratefully recorded. “By the variety of her useful acquirements, she commanded the respect of all who knew her; and by the amiableness of her deportment, and the disinterestedness of her services, conciliated the affections of an untutored people. But she looked above human approbation, her heart was fixed upon her Saviour, and beyond a doubt, her services in his cause will not pass unrewarded.” To these remarks upon this excellent woman, may be added an extract from the London Missionary Register, conferring on the religious denomination to which she belonged, a tribute of praise, honourable both to the merit that deserves, and the liberality that bestows it. “It is but justice to the United Brethren to say, that they make the best missionaries in the world: for to a persevering, temperate zeal that never tires, they join habits of personal industry which enables them to subsist at a very small expense to their employers. The expense of their establishment at Gnadenthal, amounting to £ 600 per annum, is defrayed by the Missionaries themselves, with a deficiency of only £ 19. They have completely won the affections of the Hottentots, have prevailed on them to shake off their habits of sloth, and are rapidly bringing them to a state of civilization.”

For a particular account of this interesting child, see a work recently published by the Rev. E. Cornelius, of Salem (Massachusetts), entitled “The little Osage Captive.”

Numbers x, 29. This will be recognized as the invitation of the Jewish Lawgiver to his brother, when Israel was about to remove to the promised land. Its spirit seems still to be infused into the minds of those who are engaged in the formation of benevolent societies; and among the young, the sympathy arising from it, is almost irresistible. The age in which we live, has been called the age of charity; and it is peculiarly distinguished by the charities of childhood. Innumerable associations for the most disinterested purposes, of bands just entering into life, adorn our country. Apart from the aid which has thus been rendered to poverty, and to the heathen, the effect is important upon the unformed minds of the actors. For when industry or self-denial are made the basis of their charity, energies are awakened, and habits cherished, which look beyond the happiness of this life, and affect the destinies of Eternity. The great designs of the present century, in the accomplishment of which, both Infancy and Age unite, are thus beautifully illustrated by the poet Montgomery.

“In the Bible Society, all names and distinctions of sects are blended, till they are lost, like the prismatic colours, in a ray of pure and perfect light. In the Missionary work, though divided, they are not discordant; but like the same colours displayed and harmonized in the rainbow, they form an arch of glory, ascending on the one hand from earth to heaven, and on the other, dascending from heaven to earth, a bow of promise, a covenant of peace, a sign that the storm is passing away, and the ‘Sun of Righteousness, with healing on his wings,’ breaking forth over all nations.”

His excellency James Monroe, the present Chief Magistrate of the United States, has distinguished himself by a kind regard to the interests of our aborigines. He has awakened their gratitude and confidence; and they are accustomed to speak of him as a Father, who is solicitous for their welfare, and to view him as a Philanthropist, listening to “the sighing of the prisoner.” The recent missions are indebted much to his patronage, for the degree of success which has given strength to their infancy. In his tour through the western states in 1819, he visited Brainerd, gave particular directions for the erection of a building, intended for the instruction of female pupils, and expressed the most friendly interest in the whole establishment. This benevolent regard to the miserable, which will long render his name respected and beloved, seems now to be pervading the higher ranks of society, promising to overcome that stern indifference which has too long been entertained towards the sons of the forest, by a nation which covered their glory. In the language of Scripture “the set time to favour them has come.” No stronger proof of this assertion need be adduced, than the constitution of a Society recently organized at the seat of government, under the appellation of “The American Society for promoting the civilization and general improvement of the Indian tribes within the United States:” and which comprizes a great proportion of those illustrious characters, whose virtues dignify their opinions, and whose opinions must influence multitudes in our great community.