freely, for they are of a character and position to imply no discredit to their ancestor. Happily, they need no letters of commendation from us; but, in justice to the memory of John Brainerd, we must express our satisfaction that his religious faith and purity of life have so richly adorned his children and his children's children.

We may also add, that our personal regard for these living descendants has mingled with our reverence for the dead in cheering the preparation of this volume.*

From all we can learn by tradition concerning Mr. Brainerd's person, we infer that he was tall in stature, large in frame, and active in his movements.

Rev. Dr. Field, who was for many years minister of the parish in which Brainerd's parents resided, says, "In John Brainerd was rather

tall."

person,

Mrs. Hood says she recollects something about his person: he was a large-boned man, not fleshy, a little above the medium size. From our knowledge of his family, we incline to believe that the tradition in his native town was correct. We set him before us as a tall, dark-haired, gray-eyed, heavy-browed, grave, sensitive, sanguine, and rather

* From Mrs. J. C. Sims and her intelligent son, Clifford Stanley Sims, Assistant Paymaster in the United States Army, we have received assistance indispensable to the completion of this book. At our earnest request, Mrs. Sims has kindly sent us a sketch of her great-grandfather's family. See Appendix G.

timid and formal man. His personal manners and habits may be inferred from his journal and correspondence. He was "a man always conscious of his awful charge." A little more flexibility, cheerfulness, and unrestraint would have left a more radiant halo over his memory; but these were not consistent with his views of ministerial holiness and propriety.

A connection of Major Ross' family, an excellent member of the Episcopal Church, has addressed us the following note:

"DEAR DR. BRAINERD:

"Of the beautifully-good pictures that hang 'on memory's wall,' I could not say that your kinsman John Brainerd exceeds them all. The impression left on my mind is, he was far too good. Letters are said to be characteristic; and here, perhaps, we have them in sentences of good words crowded together in such a mass, that you have to wait until they become ancient documents to appreciate them.

"How big these letters were with thoughts I cannot say; but we distinctly remember in early youth to have heard his name always pronounced with reverence, even while perhaps passing one or another of his epistles from an older hand to the blazing hearth.* It seems there

* It was the office of the lady writer of the above, innocently, but in our view most disastrously, to aid in consigning the manuscripts of David and John Brainerd, which had long reposed in a garret at Mount Holly, to the flames, about forty years ago. Hinc illæ lacrymæ ! Sir Isaac Newton said of the innocent pet, whose gambols had upset his ink to the ruin of his great mathematical researches and jottings, "O Diamond! thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done."

must have been a pent-up sort of goodness in him, so that you would never find out while he lived how good he was. His only daughter was very dear to him, but she was not familiar with him; and you know it will be so, when one can only look to see how awful goodness is."

This is not flattering, but doubtless expresses an impression prevailing among the young of his generation concerning not only him, but other dignified clergymen of his day. We think her picture is too deeply shaded. John Brainerd's frequent messages from his little daughter to Dr. Wheelock's children, and the fact that he held a pen in the hand of his infant granddaughter to announce her own birth to the grandmother, show that he had warm affections, and some playfulness in his disposition.

Mrs. Hood, now living at Bridgeton, ninety-one years old, says she resided in Deerfield until her twentieth and remembers Mr. Brainerd as a year,

pastor.

"He was much given to speaking to children, and would take much notice of them when he visited. I thought a great deal of him when I was a little girl, because he used to speak to me when he met me."

Whatever might have been the personal manners of Mr. Brainerd,—and we believe they were not only dignified, but attractive, there can be no doubt that he bore with him everywhere a tender, affectionate, and benevolent heart. By his breth

ren he was called the "good missionary" and "dear Mr. Brainerd." His Indians clung to him with affectionate attachment to the last; and among the aged in all the region from Mount Holly to the seashore his name is still familiar, and his memory cherished with love and reverence.

CHAPTER XLV.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BRAINERD'S LIFE AND LABORS.

AS, from the nature of the case, the writer could

have no personal knowledge of Mr. Brainerd, and as this volume embraces almost every item of information concerning him which time has spared, the author has little advantage of his readers in forming a true estimate of Mr. Brainerd, and of the value of his services to the Church and the world. Those who read the book will draw their own conclusions.

He had

Was his life a success or a failure? great obstacles to encounter. Not alone was his little Indian flock always invaded by an evil influence from without, but his pecuniary means for doing good were always limited. In New York and Virginia, collections for missions were obstructed by law.*

*The Rev. Epher Whitaker, of Southhold, L. I., under date of January 18, 1865, gives us the following extract from the records of Suffolk Presbytery, L. I.:—

"SMITHTOWN, L. I., October 29, 1761. "This Presbytery being acquainted with an order of Synod (by a letter from the Rev. Mr. Simon Horton, of New Town), enjoining all their Presbyteries to make a publick collection for the support of the Rev. Mr. Brainerd, missionary among the Indians,-concluded that we cannot safely comply with that order of Synod in promoting such a contribution, it being (as we are informed) contrary to the Constitution of the civil Government of New York, unless a License or Brief be first obtain'd from the Governour of the Province for the purpose."