formed by some of the Missionaries, who afterward went on to establish the settlement at Elliot.

The number of Cherokee children amounted to about 80; and, in addition to these, were two little Osage Indians, who had been rescued from captivity by benevolent interference. One of them was a little girl, whose owner, at the time she was found, was carrying the scalps of her father and mother. He was induced to part with her for about thirty pounds, generously advanced for her ransom by a lady at New Orleans. Her simple tale of sufferings was a long and melancholy one, and the little boy's constitution was nearly broken by ill usage.

I was informed here, that many of the Indians evinced, at first, an indisposition to labour in the field, especially as the females were entirely exempted from the task: but they soon acquiesced; and exhibited, on this occasion, the docility and good humour, of which their teachers (perhaps with excusable partiality,) represent them as possessing a more than common share. One of the chiefs offered to find a slave who should work all day, if the Missionaries would excuse his son from agricultural

labour between school-hours; but he was easily convinced of his mistake, and apologised for his ill-judged request.

I was much gratified by hearing the children sing their Cherokee hymns: and many ancient prophecies came forcibly to my recollection, when joining with my English servant in this Indian country, with Americans, Indians, and Africans, in singing the following verse of one of our hymns

"Let every nation, every tribe,

"On this terrestrial ball,

"To Him full majesty ascribe,

"And crown Him Lord of all."

The following prophecy will ever be most especially associated with my recollections of this

scene:

For from the rising of the sun, even unto "the going down of the same, my name shall "be great among the Gentiles; and in every

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place incense shall be offered unto my name, "and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of " hosts."

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Some Negroes attended family prayer; and many come from a considerable distance to public worship, on Sunday. I was told, indeed,

that there were instances of their walking 20 miles over the mountains, and returning the same day.

What animation would an occasional glance at Elliot or Brainerd infuse into our Missionary committees ! and how cheering to many a humble collector would be the sight of her Indian sisters, rescued from their degraded condition, and instructed in the school of Christ! Exposed as her humble efforts often are, to ridicule or contempt, what a dignity do they assume, when contemplated in actual and close connection with their end; when seen to afford, as they really do, a participation, which it may be the privilege of the most retired individual to enjoy, in the most interesting transactions of the age in which she lives, and in the most momentous concerns of the system with which she is connected, in the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, the general diffusion of the Scriptures, the abolition of idolatry, the moral renovation of the globe. What, though we are but the hewers of wood or drawers of water for our more honoured and enterprising brethren, our humble labours, feeble and desultory as they are, and ever attended with imperfections, by which their efficiency is much impaired, are still a link in the chain of human

agency, by which God is pleased to accomplish his purposes of mercy to the human race.

With respect to the success of the efforts. of the Missionaries in reference to the spiritual interests of their heathen brethren, I will merely observe, that they do not expect the harvest, when only beginning to break up the soil. They are aware, also, that on a subject on which their hopes and fears are so sensibly alive, they are in danger of being misled by very equivocal symptoms: and even where they believe that they discern the fairest promise, they shrink from the idea of blazoning forth to the world, as decisive evidence of genuine piety, every indication of an awakened attention to religious truth. Still, however, even in this respect, and at this early stage of their exertions, they have the gratification of believing that their labour has not been in vain.

We left Brainerd early on the 2nd June, and at the distance of seven miles passed the boundary of the Cherokee nation, by crossing the Tennessee river for the third time. It appears here to be nearly 1000 yards wide, and is very beautiful.

I now bade a last adieu to Indian territory; and as I pursued my solitary ride through the woods, I insensibly fell into a train of

melancholy reflections on the eventful history of this injured race.

Sovereigns, from time immemorial, of the interminable forests which overshadow this vast continent, they have gradually been driven, by the white usurpers of their soil, within the limits of their present precarious possessions. One after another of their favourite rivers has been reluctantly abandoned, until the range of the hunter is bounded by lines prescribed by his invader, and the independence of the warrior is no more. Even their present territory is partitioned out in reversion, and intersected with the prospective boundaries of surrounding states, which appear in the maps, as if Indian title were actually extinguished, and these ancient warriors were already driven from the land of their fathers.

Of the innumerable tribes which, a few centuries since, roamed fearless and independent, in their native forests, how many have been swept into oblivion, and are with the generations before the flood! Of others, not a trace remains but in tradition, or in the person of some solitary wanderer, the last of his tribe, who hovers like a ghost among the sepulchres of his fathers -a spark still faintly glimmering in the ashes of an extinguished race.