away, and, moreover, he exhorted them to live in peace with their pale-faced brethren. He told the white people that he wanted to have them shoot him like a man, as he did, and not hang him; but they disregarded his entreaty, and hung him before the time. The Governor sent him a reprieve, but it was not received until after he was dead. He exhorted his people before he died to go West, where there were no pale-faces; "for," said he, "they will sell you rum and cheat you out of your land. It I suffer the white people to hang me, the Great Spirit will receive me to the good hunting-ground; but if I run away, he will not suffer me to go there."

After the death of the old king, the white people went and took every thing which his wife had left-not only his property, but his land-from her, and turned her out of doors with four or five small children, one of them being only a few days old. But she died soon after her husband, and all of her children, except an only daughter three years old; but, before she grew up, she saw her aunt killed by a white man, and she suffered almost every thing but death. This orphan was the mother of Mr. Calvin, and the first convert to Christianity under David Brainerd's preaching after he went amongst the Indians; and her husband was his teacher or interpreter. She said that he was the first white man she could ever love, having suffered so much from them, for she had always been afraid of them; but now God had sent this man to pay her for all the wrongs which she had suffered, and now she could pray for everybody.

She loved David Brainerd very much, because he loved his heavenly Father so much that he was willing to endure hardships, travelling over mountains, suffering hunger, and lying on the ground, that he might do her people good; and she did every thing she could for his comfort.

After his death, his brother John succeeded him, and died much lamented by the Indians. Her father said, when David Brainerd first explained to the Indians what sin was, and how Jesus Christ came into the world and died to save them from everlasting punishment, it affected them so much to hear that Christ suffered to save such wicked Indians as they were, that they threw themselves upon the ground and sobbed aloud. Several hundreds were hopefully converted under his preaching, and he had two or three large churches in different parts of the country, as the Delawares were quite numerous at that time. Before David came amongst them, his people commenced going West in small bands; but, after the Brainerds closed their labors amongst them, they followed on after their brethren in small bands, and many of them carried the good seed which had been

sown in their hearts to the far West. But the last company which was left in New Jersey her father brought to New Stockbridge, in the State of New York. Some of these went to Kansas; but they are dead, and nearly all which he brought with him.

Says that she never heard her father say much about David's labors amongst the Stockbridges, as he knew but little respecting them; but that she had heard old Mr. Metoxen, who was a head man amongst them, and lived and died a devoted Christian, say that David did a great deal of good amongst his people, and had a large church, but that he did not stay long.

Old Mr. Metoxen has been dead a number of years.

When John Brainerd died, he left the conch-shell which his brother and himself also used to call the people together for public worship. It bears evident marks of age by its smoothness; and I obtained it of his daughter, and preserve it as a precious memento of such devoted missionaries.

Whilst I labored amongst the Stockbridges, it was composed of remnants of two other tribes besides them, namely, Delawares and Munsies. My church at one time, I think, numbered about seventy members, and generally they gave as good evidence of personal piety as a church of the same number amongst white people. But political dissension was their ruin. A part wished to become citizens of the United States, and another was determined to remain in the Indian state. This, together with another cause, beyond my control or the control of the American Board, seemed to render my labors well nigh nugatory. I was succeeded by an excellent brother in the ministry, though not a missionary of the Board; and, after laboring for a considerable time, he gave up, for the same reasons, I believe, that I did.

Since I left them they have been in a deplorable condition, very much divided and distracted. They sold out the Reservation which they owned when I labored with them, and have part of them removed to one in an adjoining county; but it is so poor and frosty that they cannot live there, and they are about to sell out to go West, perhaps to Nebraska. There are only thirty-four families in this latter place, with a church of about twenty members in connection with the Methodists; but there are only ten of the old members. Some thirty of the Stockbridges have enlisted in the United States service, but some are already dead.

Yours very truly,

CUTTING MARSH.

[The Indian woman's story, if it misstates some facts, is generally truthful, and confirms our statement, that the religious influence exerted by the Brainerds still lives, and is energizing on the Indian tribes of the West. Our old friend, the Rev. Mr. Marsh, will have from our readers many thanks for his interesting communication.— EDITOR.]

D.

[The following, from the Missionary Herald of 1834, is confirmatory of the letter of Rev. Mr. Marsh, as to the interest still felt by Indian wanderers in the missionaries of New Jersey. The extract is long, but we could not withhold it from our readers. The scene occurred some six hundred miles beyond the Mississippi (see p. 423).]

David Brainerd not Forgotten.

On the subject of converting the Indians to Christ, the question is often asked, "Where are the fruits of the labors of Eliot, the Mayhews, Brainerd, and other eminently holy and successful missionaries among them?"

The churches must charge to the account of their own negligence or abandonment of the work, that they have seen so little fruit from the labors of those missionaries of apostolic spirit, just referred to. Successors were not sent to carry forward and finish the work which they began; to instruct, enlarge, and perpetuate the churches which they gathered; or to prepare books, establish schools, and use other means for promoting their intellectual improvement. A vine was planted, a choice vine; but it was overtopped and choked by thorns; and while no man dug about it or watered it, or even visited it to see whether it bore fruit or not, it withered and died.

The following interesting account of a single family descended from David Brainerd's church was addressed to a Christian friend, and has been kindly forwarded for the Herald:

"I have here, in this part of the world, found some of the children of David Brainerd's church-members. My heart has been so full ever since I found them, that I have hardly thought of any thing else; and this morning I resolved to return to the house, and sit down and give some account of them.

"Last Saturday I went to a missionary-station in the Shawnee nation, situated a little above the mouth of the Kansas River, and about a mile and a half from the river on the south side. A twodays' meeting among the Shawnee and Delaware Indians commenced

on this day. Full an hundred Indians assembled. They were well dressed, and they behaved well; many of them appeared to be serious Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. Pixley, late of the Osage mission, were there with the people at the first meeting. At the second meeting, Mr. Kingsbury and myself addressed the Indians through interpreters. We told them about the Choctaws, and our labors among them: they were quite attentive.

'After the meeting closed, I walked a few steps and spoke to an Indian woman, who spoke good English. I inquired of her concerning her origin. She said she belonged to David Brainerd's people. This at once roused up my heart to make many inquiries. At her side sat her sister, also a member of the church: both could read in the Bible, and both kept their Bibles through all their wanderings. Their father and mother and grandmother were members of David Brainerd's church.

'These two women became pious about twenty years since, under the preaching of Isaac Wab-e, who was a disciple of Sampson Occum, at Brotherton, in the State of New York. When they were quite young, their father, Jacob Skiket,* left the State of New Jersey, and removed to New York. The children yet remember how he prayed in his family. They spoke much of their grandmother, who often prayed with them, and, when she prayed, Catharine, one of the sisters, said, 'I would look to see if I could see anybody; but I could not see any one.'

"I asked Catharine if she had ever seen any trouble. "Oh, yes!' she replied.

'Have you ever seen the time when your children have cried for something to eat, and you had nothing to give them?'

"Oh, yes! When we lived down on James River (which is a branch of White River, which empties into the Mississippi), we had hard times we had to go one hundred and fifty miles to buy corn, and we had no preaching.'

"'Did not you almost forget the things of religion, and your hearts become cold?'

"Oh, yes! my heart died;' and here she spoke at length.

"Elizabeth then spoke of her troubles, when she was on a journey of nine hundred miles from the State of New York, and, while passing along on the south shore of Lake Erie, her husband died of the lake fever, leaving her with six small children, and the youngest two days

* His real name was Stakit, not "Skiket." He was one of John Brainerd's principal men who signed the answer to the Muskingum invitation, before recorded.—ED.

old. 'I thought I never should get through my troubles; but the Lord helped me; I did not forsake him.' She now has a son who is pious, and prays in his family; his mother lives with him. These two old women were well dressed, spoke good English, and seemed to be very happy, as now they live where they can attend religious meetings. They sustain a good religious character among their acquaintance; their children have attended our mission-school at Harmony. Think of this, and see how the Lord provides for his people, for their children and their children's children! A school was established at Harmony, in the Osage nation, to educate the grandchildren of David Brainerd's church-members. Several of the children are hopefully pious.

"I also inquired about David Brainerd. mother say about him?'

'What did your grand

"He was a young man,—he was a lovely man; he was a staff,— he was a staff to walk with. He went about from house to house to talk about religion: that was his way. He slept on a deer-skin or a bear-skin. He ate bear-meat and samp: then we knew he was not proud. He would come to my grandmother's and say, "I am hungry, make haste!" Then she would take down the kettle, and he would eat. But some of the people did not like him, and said, What has this white man come here for? we don't want him here?" and they told him to go off. When the Indians assembled to dance and have a feast, he would go there also, and go away in the bushes and pray for them; and then some said, "We do not want this white man here; let us make away with him." But others said, "No; we will not kill him." After a while they found that he was an honest man, and then they would do any thing he said.'

"I then asked her why Brainerd died so soon, as he was a young

man.

"My grandmother said he was not used to our way of living,—so cold in the winter, sleeping on skins and on the ground. He went to New England, and died of the consumption.'

"I then told her where and how he died.

'After his death, his brother John came to our people: he died in Deerfield, in New Jersey. He was in doubt* when he was about to die, and one Indian woman went and talked to him.'

"I could tell you much more, and must add what a girl, residing

* We see in this painful evidence that John Brainerd shared in the peculiarities of his family, many of whom, first and last, have had a tendency to religious despondency. My own pious father, a most conscientious man, was thus afflicted.-ED.