there is great danger that Mr. Hawley's mission and ministry there will be entirely broken up. Mr. Hawley came from there about two months ago with one of my sons,* about ten years old, who had been there with him near a twelvemonth to learn the Mohawk language.”† How Brainerd regarded the whole matter is shown by the following letter to Dr. Wheelock:-— REV'D AND VERY DEAR SIR: NEWARK, May 17, 1755. I received yours of April 28th by Mr. Williams, and shall endeavor to have a strict regard to your orders respecting a schoolmaster, and do my best in that affair. I came to town last evening, and had but a few minutes with the president,‡ by reason of company and his setting out for York this morning, but expect to see him upon his return, and shall endeavor to engage him in the matter. And, oh, I wish Heaven may succeed the enterprise, and every other attempt for the conversion of the poor Indians to Christianity! I am still in a great plunge. I hope I am desirous to know the will of God, but am at a great loss. I am told by the president that I was dismissed from my charge as missionary about the 7th instant, and that the people of Newark have since had a society meeting, and voted unanimously to give me a call upon probation; or, if *This was Jonathan Edwards, D.D., jun., afterwards President of Union College. † President Edwards' letter to Rev. Mr. McCulloch, Scotland. President Aaron Burr, of New Jersey (Princeton) College, which, then in its infancy, was located at Newark. It seems to have travelled with its presidents. Under the presidency of Mr. Dickinson it was located at Elizabethtown, his residence. there were one or two that did not vote, there was not one that negatived it. This seems to look like a call in Providence, and certainly suggests duty. But, for my part, I cannot but look upon myself as very unequal to the work, and can truly say I had rather continue in the mission if any suitable provision could be made for the re-settlement of the Indians and the comfortable support of the mission; and, to be sure, I have been very far from desiring a dismission. But who can tell what the designs of Infinite Wisdom are? I hope I feel something of a disposition to say: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? I intend to open my heart to the Presbytery, who are to sit in about ten days' time: perhaps I may get some light. You will, I trust, not be unmindful of me, though, indeed, I am not worthy of a thought. I need, greatly need, the prayers of the Lord's servants, though I am very undeserving. Please to present my best regards to Mrs. Wheelock, in which my wife joins, and accept the same from, Reverend sir, Your very humble servant, The spirit of this communication is most beautiful. How humble, submissive, devout, and benevolent! There is in it a tenderness, naivete, simplicity, and unselfishness, marking the writer as eminently Christian,-"a child of God." It were well if we had more of this spirit in all our hearts. Aside from its piety, the letter is shaded with sadness. Invited as the successor of President Burr to the church in Newark, then and now one of the strongest and most influential in the land, John Brainerd is cheered by no gratified ambition, by no prospect of augmented salary, or more élite social enjoyments. His heart is with his Indians, -“with his few sheep in the wilderness." The Synod of New York this year appointed Messrs. Brainerd and Spencer to take a journey to North Carolina before winter, and supply vacant congregations six months, or as long as they should think necessary."* Synods of that period said "to one, Go," and he went; but in this case the dangers of the times hindered obedience. In this year also the "Rev. Gilbert Tennent reported that he had received from Great Britain a bill for two hundred pounds sterling, generously given for the propagation of the gospel among the Indians, and to be under the direction of the Synod." It was the interest of this sum which the Synod annually voted for the support of Mr. Brainerd, his mission and school. * Records of Presbyterian Church, p. 264. CHAPTER XXVIII. MR. BRAINERD RESUMES THE MISSION-REMOVES TO BRUNSWICKAGAIN DISMISSED-RETURNS TO NEWARK-ACTION OF THE SCOTCH SOCIETY-BROTHERTON. 1756. ALTHOUGH invited to Newark, and for a time having charge of the church, Mr. Brainerd was still longing for his Indian field. He says: I moved with my family to Newark, and continued there till June, 1756, when the Correspondents, thinking they had a prospect of procuring the land on which the Indians are now settled, requested me to resume the mission, with which I complied; and, giving up the call I had to settle at Newark, moved with my family to Brunswick, being the best place I could now fix to accommodate the Indians in their present situation, till the land for their settlement could be procured. In this situation I continued till September, 1757, when the Correspondents, being disappointed, and seeing no way to procure the land, dismissed me a second time; and the congregation at Newark, having continued all this time unsettled, renewed their call to me the next week, which I soon after accepted, moved again with my family, and settled there.* The manuscript records of the Society in Edin * J. Brainerd's letter, Sprague's Annals, vol p. 151. burgh give the best solution of these complicated and conflicting movements. We give them in full, as they show the zeal and sacrifices with which good men in Europe and America labored to protect and help the poor Indians. Extract from Minutes, dated Edinburgh, 2d June, 1757. "The Committee reported that there was transmitted to them from their Correspondents at London a letter, of the 30th December last, from the Rev. Mr. Burr, President of the College of New Jersey and Preses to the Society's commissioners there, bearing that the said Correspondents have again taken Mr. Brainerd into the Society's service, since the tenth of June last; that the reasons of his demitting his charge and returning to it again were communicated in a letter to the Marquis of Lothian; that the Committee have agreed to the employing Mr. Brainerd with his former salary, and have at the same time withdrawn the allowance given Mr. Tennent for visiting the congregation in Mr. Brainerd's charge during the time that he was out of the Society's service; that the letter from Mr. Burr to the Marquis of Lothian is but newly come to the Committee's hands, and, as it contains a proposal of meeting the Correspondents at New York to buy a tract of ground for the Indians, the Committee transmitted the said letter, with one from Mr. Brainerd to Mr. Burr, to the General Meeting. The General Meeting, having heard the said report, caused the aforesaid letter from Mr. Burr to the Marquis of Lothian to be read, dated the sixth August last, and bearing that the aforesaid proposal of purchasing land in the Indian country, where a mission might be settled, being become impracticable by reason of the present war |