result of their united labors, the writer has been induced to undertake the preparation of the present volume. Representing their name, and sharing with them the great responsibilities of the ministerial office, claiming kindred with them according to the flesh, and humbled by the contemplation of their moral excellence, it seems pertinent that he should have great interest in their history, and be willing to give such information concerning them as he can furnish for the benefit of the Church of God. He has sought for information on the subject from every available source; but after the lapse of one hundred years, the materials for the biography of any man will in most cases be few and unsatisfactory. The Indian nations whom John Brainerd instructed in God's truth have faded and perished, and with them mostly the record of his toils for their welfare. But something still remains; and it has been the writer's responsibility to gather these fragments of a martyr-life, and, giving symmetry and completeness to the skeleton form, by linking "bone to its bone," to throw into it such a beating heart, and over it such a mantle of muscle and flesh, as would justify its introduction to the living generation of the nineteenth century.

Alone, the journal and biography of John Brainerd might lack interest, as the materials are scanty; but as a sequel to the memoir of his distinguished brother, it will, I trust, be regarded with satisfaction by the friends of Christ.

As the friend of Whitefield, the Tennents, Presidents Edwards, Burr, and Dickinson; as the trustee for twenty-six years of the College of Princeton; as the Moderator of the Old Synod of New York and Philadelphia; as one selected to fill the place of President Edwards at Stockbridge, on his transfer to Nassau Hall; as a chaplain in the Old French War on the frontiers of Canada; as the first domestic missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States; as a faithful missionary to the Indians for more than twenty years; and, above all, as a holy and consecrated man of God, I think there are materials in the life of John Brainerd to justify the tardy presentation of his journal and biography to the public. The author feels great satisfaction in being able to set a character so stainless and benevolent before the rising ministry of the land.

LIFE OF JOHN BRAINERD.

CHAPTER I.

JOHN

BRAINERD'S

PARENTAGE-HIS GRANDFATHER AND GRANDMOTHER-HIS FATHER AND MOTHER-HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS HIS STEP-BROTHER, JEREMIAH MASON-MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH SPENCER.

ABOUT the year 1649, there was brought, as is supposed from Exeter, in England, to Hartford, Conn., a little boy eight eight years of age, named Daniel Brainerd.* In what vessel he embarked, why he left home at such a tender age, by whom he was accompanied and cared for, we know not: we only know that this little boy came with the Wyllis" family, one of the most affluent and respectable in Hartford, and that he remained in it until 1662, when he was twenty-one years of age.

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We have followed Dr. Field's Brainerd Genealogy." In the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, at Worcester, we have lately seen a manuscript "Genealogy of the Brainerds," written in 1784, which states that Daniel Brainerd lived in the Wadsworth family, at Hartford, until he was of age, and then, after two years, removed to Haddam. We have no means of verifying the facts, as the whole matter rests on tradition.

What relation he sustained to the Wyllis family, whether he was a relative, or an orphan taken to be sheltered, or a bound boy, we have no knowledge. None of his name or blood have been clearly traced in Europe, nor outside of his descendants in America. Two hundred and twelve years ago, the boy of eight years put his little feet on the banks of the Connecticut; around him a great continent covered by a howling wilderness, and perilous from roaming savage tribes and beasts of prey. It is said that at least thirty-three thousand persons in these United States have looked back to that lone boy as the head of their family.*

Arrived at the age of twenty-one years, Daniel Brainerd, in company with twenty-seven others, young men of his own age, went about thirty miles below Hartford, and selected for settlement a tract of land twelve miles square, comprehending nearly equal portions on each side of the Connecticut River. Middletown, about nine miles above, and Saybrook, twenty miles below, had been already taken up and thinly peopled. Haddam, for

The name Brainerd was variously spelled in the early records: sometimes we find it Brainard, and again Braynard, but most commonly it was written Brainerd. This was the mode of David and John, and has obtained most in the family.

However spelled, the name is identical, as all trace their origin to the common ancestor, Daniel Brainerd. The name is said to be of Norman origin. Tradition has it that the name was originally Brainwood, or Braidwood. This has some probability, as the name Brainerd is not now found in England.