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MOHAWK SCHOOL.

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brace the Christian religion, and experience its power in his heart, in patriarchal simplicity, as a proof of an Indian's attachment to the memory of a missionary, who had been the means of his conversion to God.-He lived a reformed man for fifty years, and at a very advanced age, said, just before he died," I am an aged hemlock-tree: the winds of one hundred years have whistled through my branches : I am dead at the top." (He was blind.) "Why I yet live, the great good Spirit only knows. Pray to my Jesus, that I may wait with patience my appointed time to die: and when I die, lay me by the side of my minister and father, that I may go up with him at the great resurrection.”

Our next visit was to the Mohawk school, for the erection of which, the New England Company had placed money also in the hands of Mr. Brandt. The wood and materials were collected on the spot, but the building was not completed. I urged the immediate completion of it, as the place where the children of this district met for instruction was attended with much inconvenience. There were about twenty present, who were taught by a Mohawk named Laurence Davis, some of them were just beginning to read, and of the thirty-four, who

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were said to belong to the school, twelve could read in the English Testament. Within a few miles of this school in the Mohawk village, is a school supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which Mr. Brandt informed me consisted of about twenty children, with their schoolmaster William Hess. These schools present every encouraging prospect of further, and most extensive usefulness, but will fail in those expectations which have been raised at their establishment, if they are left without the active superintendence, and watchful care of a devoted, resident missionary.

Every friend of Christian missions must rejoice in the opening of a way for preaching the Gospel, not only among the Mohawks, and Oneida Indians, but also among the Onondaga, and Seneca Tribes, on the Grand River. These last, have lived hitherto in the darkness of heathenism; but having observed the children of the former improved by education, they have lately solicited the establishment of schools among them, that their children may have the same advantages. These Indians, with the Cayugas', who are the most numerous of the six nations, on the above station, keep many feasts, and particularly one at the time

INDIAN SACRIFICE AND CEREMONIES. 289

of planting their corn. A dog is killed, at this season of the year as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit, and being all assembled on the occasion, one of the chiefs delivers a solemn address. He usually begins, by observing that they were all placed on the earth by the Great Spirit, and that their forefathers celebrated the like ceremonies, and after enumerating, perhaps, some of their war exploits, he implores the assistance of the Great Spirit, asking Him to command the sun to shed his rays on the corn that is planted, that it may take root, and grow up, so that they may gather in the fruits of the earth. During the time of this address, the fire is consuming the sacrifice, and as the flame ascends, he occasionally pours incense on it, which arises as a perfume, from a preparation that they make of aromatic herbs, dried, and pulverized. The chiefs of these heathen nations lately met in council, to deliberate on the subject of education, and particularly requested Mr. Brandt to use his influence with those who had encouraged and defrayed the expenses of educating the Mohawk children, to make known the wish of the different tribes, located with the Mohawks, and the Oneidas, to have their children educated

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290 INDIAN SACRIFICE AND CEREMONIES.

in like manner. That a great and effectual door is opened for the improvement, and preaching of the Gospel among the six nations, can admit of no rational doubt.-The field is extensive.-May the great Lord of the Harvest send forth labourers into this vineyard.

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ENGLAND. DEATH OF ONE OF THE PASSENGERS.ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. REMARKS ON MISSIONS.

LEAVING the Grand River, I proceeded in company with Mr. Brandt, to visit the Mississaugah Indians, who, in their conversion to Christianity, during the time of their encampment at Davis's Hamlet, became desirous of forming a Settlement, on some fertile flats by the River Credit. We arrived here on July the 21st, and found them living in bark huts, and tents, to the number, it was stated, of two hundred and five souls, waiting to occupy the twenty log houses, which were then building by contract of the Provincial Government, and nearly finished. A more seasonable and humane assis

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