tion. They said no Missionary should be permitted to settle on their lands; and declared, that as soon as any building was begun, they would "take their axes, and hew it down." Under these circumstances, it was judged expedient to suspend the building, at least until the violence of the opposition should have been, in some measure, allayed. It was also agreed, that Mr. Thayer should remove his family to a small settlement, beyond the boundary of the Reservation, and within four or five miles of the Indian village; and that he should meet with the Christian party on the Sabbath, for the purpose of directing their worship, and communicating religious instruction. This course was punctually, and, it is believed, beneficially pursued, through the summer. In the autumn, the Christian Chiefs becoming more solicitous for the instruction of their children, and finding the opposition still unabated, urged the Teacher to open a School in the Settlement in which he lived. As an inducement to the measure, and an evidence of their solicitude on the subject, they pledged themselves to furnish for the School a considerable quantity of meat, and upwards of one hundred bushels of grain. A suitable house having been procured, and the necessary preparations for receiving the children into the Family completed, the Mission School was opened on the 14th of January. Fourteen promising children, between seven and fourteen years of age, were formally surrendered to the care and authority of your Teacher. Two others were added on the 5th, and one on the 17th of February. The whole were received at the hands of the Chiefs, under the express stipulation, that they were neither to be taken from the School, nor permitted to visit their friends, excepting in the regu lar vacations. On their subsequent visits, the Chiefs appeared to be highly gratified with the regulations and progress of the School. They endeavoured to impress upon the minds of the children, the value of their VOL. IV. present privileges, and the importance of being affectionate to each other, obedient to their Teachers, and diligent and persevering in their efforts to imbibe correct habits, and to acquire useful knowledge. 22 In his latest communication, the Teacher observes, "We have now sixteen pleasant and interesting scholars-ten boys and six girls-apparently happy and contented, and making as good improvement as could reasonably be expected." While your Managers are gratified with the promising appearance of this School, they are likewise happy to learn that the opposition of the pagan party is gradually subsiding. The Teacher has already been visited by some of that party, and has received a message from their Chiefs, inquiring whether their children also could be admitted into the School. EDUCATION OF HEATHEN YOUTH. It was mentioned in the last Report, that a young man of the Tuscarora Tribe had been sent by your Managers to the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall in Connecticut. We have now the pleasure to state, that he is still at that School, conducting himself with propriety, and pursuing his education with diligence. He is apparently pious; and as he possesses studious habits, and is not deficient in talents, there is reason to hope that he may, eventually, be qualified for the Missionary service. In a letter of November last, the Rev. Mr. Dagget, Principal of the Seminary, observes-" I have the pleasure to say, that your Beneficiary, Guy Chew, continues to merit our approbation and esteem, by his amiable conduct and application to study. He is now attending to reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, and the abridgment of Lectures upon Rhetoric." In another communication, dated on the 18th of April, Mr. Dagget adds, "your Beneficiary continues to maintain a very amiable character. He is diligent in his studies, and gives evidence, we think, of piety. It is expected that he will soon make a public profession of his faith in Christ. He will, I trust, obtain such an education as will render him respectable and useful in his rive important assistance from its efforts. nation." At the request of the Seneca Chiefs, the Board have recently authorized your Missionary to send one of their young men to the same School. The youth who has been selected for the purpose is a nephew of one of the principal Chiefs. He is about seventeen years of age: can read and write; and is represented as intelligent, active, and anxious to acquire an education to qualify him for distinguished usefulness in his Tribe. He will probably arrive at the School at the close of the Spring vacation. Other young men, at our various Missionary stations, will be selected for the same destination as soon as suitable can didates can be found, and the state of our funds will admit. The day, it is hoped, is not distant, when many of the Indian Tribes on our Western Borders shall be furnished with Legislators, Teachers, and Missionaries, gathered from their own kindred, directing their national concerns, and announcing to them the glad tidings of the Gospel, in their native tongue. To accomplish this, it will require that a fund be especially provided for the object. A Committee of the Board is charged with the duty of devising means for raising such a fund; and it is believed, that as the list of your Beneficiaries shall be enlarged, the efforts and the success of the Committee will be proportionably increased. AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. One hundred and forty-five Auxiliary Societies have been duly recognized in our former Reports. Your Managers have now the pleasure to add to this number, twenty more, making the present number one hundred and sixty-five. The "Female Clothing Society of the City of New-York" has been recently formed. It is the plan of the Institution, that only a part of its funds shall be appropriated to the purchase of materials for clothing, and that the residue shall be paid into your Treasury. The character and the Missionary zeal of its members justify the expectation that your managers will, in future, de The appointment of Mr. Peter Kanouse, a Licentiate of the Presbytery of Jersey, as an Agent for organizing Auxiliary Societies and other purposes, was mentioned in the last Report. He was prevented, by various circumstances, from commencing his tour until the 6th of July. He proceeded to Albany, and thence to Buffalo; and returned to his residence in New-Jersey in the month of November. During his journey he visited many of our Auxiliaries, formed six new Societies, received, in public collections and individual donations, six hundred and sixty-eight dollars, and visited our three Missionary Stations on the Western borders of this State. In his report, Mr. Kanouse remarks—“ I feel it my duty to acknowledge the kind reception I generally met with on the part of both Clergymen and Laymen, and their cordial co-operation in promoting the object of your Society. Whether the amount received will meet the expectations of the Board, I cannot tell. Some parts of the country over which I travelled, would, it is presumed, have contributed more, could I have found it practicable to spend more time among them. From other places where the prospect of success seemed to invite, I obtained nothing. Particularly was this the case in many of the most populous and wealthy towns on my route; all of which had been visited, just before my arrival, by Agents from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions." In the month of January, the Rev. Wm. M'Lean, of Cleaveland, in Ohio, was recommended to the Board as a person well calculated for the duties of a travelling Agent. A Commission was forwarded to him on the 1st of February, with instructions to proceed through the Southern States as far as the season would permit. The Board are just informed, that Mr. M'Lean was on a journey to Upper Canada when their communications arrived at Cleaveland, and that on his return he was prevented, by sickness in his family and the advanced state of the season, from accepting his appointment. Mr. Charles Hyde, a Licentiate of the Presbytery of Jersey, received a Commission in the month of March, with instructions to proceed through the States of New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Mr. Hyde is still occupied in fulfilling the duties of his commission. BOARDS OF AGENCY. It was stated at the last meeting of the Society, that the Managers had appointed Boards of Agency at Pittsburgh, Cincin nati, and Louisville-the first embracing the Synod of Pittsburgh; the second, the Synod of Ohio; and the third, the Synod of Kentucky. From the first and third, no official information has yet been received. It is, however, understood, that the Board at Louisville was organized early in the last summer; and its first Annual Report is daily expected. The Board of Agency at Cincinnati was organized in the month of May. Several communications have been received from its Secretary; and your Managers feel highly gratified with the prompt and spirited co-operation which it has already afforded, and which it promises in future. A Board of Agency has lately been appointed for St. Louis, in the State of Missouri. The Commission was sent forward on the 10th of March, embracing the names of his Excellency Governor M'Nair, the Hon. Nathaniel B. Tucker, the Rev. Salmon Giddings, Col. Robert Quarls, and Messrs. Stephen Hempstead, Thomas Forsythe, Wm. P. Hunt, John Schackford, and Edward Tracy, Esq'rs. Your Managers anticipate much benefit from a Board of Agency established at this important point. COMMISSIONERS FOR EXPLORING THE INDIAN COUNTRY. The renewed appointment of the Rev. Mr. Lesslie, of the Ohio Mission Church, and the Rev. Mr. Giddings, of St. Louis, as Commissioners for exploring the Indian Country on the Banks of the Missouri, was reported at your last Annual Meeting. A communication was subsequently received from Mr. Lesslie, declining his appointment, in consequence of the indisposition of his family. Mr. Giddings accepted his Commission, and commenced his exploring tour on the 22d of April. From Chariton, where he remained to fulfil some previous appointments, until the 15th of May, he proceeded in company with Major O'Fallon, the Indian Agent, who was returning from the seat of Government with the Indian Deputation mentioned in our last Report. In the course of his journey, Mr. Giddings visited the three Sections of the Pawnees, and the Mahaw and Otto Tribes, and selected a site for an extensive Missionary Establishment in the vicinity of Council Bluffs. He was prevented, by incessant rains and high freshets, from extending his journey to the Kanzas Tribe, and from visiting, on his return, your Missionary Family at Harmony. He was every where received and treated, by the Indians, with hospitality and friendship. His journey, however, was peculiarly fatiguing and perilous. He never travelled a day without being thoroughly wet, either by rain, or by swimming the rivers; and, at times, his clothes were not dry for several days in succession. Yet, under the smiles of a kind Providence, he was preserved through the whole tour without suffering an hour of sickness, and was permitted, after an absence of fourteen weeks, to return in good health to his family and the people of his charge. In his long and interesting journal, Mr. Giddings has furnished the Board with much valuable information in relation to the Indians he visited-their population, local position, habits, character, and history-and the face, climate, and productions of the country they inhabit. In the course of the last winter a letter was received from Mr. Giddings, communicating information which he had lately received from some of the Indian Tribes on the banks of the Mississippi, and recommending that their country be explored in the course of the present season. A Commission for this purpose was immediately forwarded to him, and he is 172 AMER. MISS. REGISTER.-STATE OF THE TREASURY. now, it is believed, occupied in fulfilling Individual Donations, its duties. AMERICAN MISSIONARY REGISTER. In the course of the last year, your Managers, finding their expenditures increased, their funds exhausted, and their Treasurer largely in advance, were convinced of the necessity of adopting new and efficient measures to enable them to redeem the credit and sustain the operations of the Institution. They were also persuaded, that no system could be devised which would combine the efforts and resources of the Christian public to a sufficient extent, unless it embraced a plan of giving a wider diffusion to Missionary Intelligence, and especially to such as relates to the labours and designs of your Society. They, therefore, assumed, as their own, the publication entitled the AMERICAN MISSIONARY REGISTER. To bring this work within the reach of almost every family in the community, they reduced its size to thirtytwo pages a month, and its price to the moderate sum of one dollar and a half a year. The work, as issued in the name and for the benefit of the Society, commenced in January. The number of Subscribers was then less than eight hundred. About six hundred have since been received; and your Managers are induced to hope, that as many thousands will, ere long, be added to its list of patrons. For such an accession, they look, under the smiles of Providence, to the zealous co-operation of their Auxiliary Societies, and the efficient influence of the Clergy and other friends of the Missionary cause. RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES. Of the Treasurer's statement, which will be annexed to this Report, we here present the following summary : RECEIPTS. To constitute Ministers Members for Life, To constitute other persons Avails of Needlework, Fines collected of Grand Jurors, Collected by Agents, From Government, to aid in [JUNE, 669 86 471 00 $90 00 168 00 27 31 51 59 3 62 3 50 10 50 45 00 1 50 1.00 5 00 4 50 18 42 20 00 224 40 774 00 108 75 900 00 6 50 2877 80 Total Receipts, $ 12,409 93 EXPENDITURES. From Auxiliary Societies, 333 37 2365 24 761 29 $15 23 150 00 1083 76 $ 15,372 88 $ 15,372 88 By this summary, it will be seen that your receipts have again fallen far short of your expenditures. Your Managers have been compelled to dispose of the remainder of your stock, amounting to about two thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight dollars; and there is now a balance due to your Treasurer of two thousand nine hundred and sixty-three dollars-making a deficiency, in the receipts of the year, of five thousand eight hundred and forty dollars. Notwithstanding this unfavourable state of your funds, your Managers will neither cherish the feelings nor adopt the language of despondency. In the spirit of their last Report, they still retain their confidence in the liberality and good faith of the several sections of the Church under whose patronage this Society was established. They cannot indulge the suspicion, that their fellow-christians will permit the Institution to languish, or its devoted Missionaries to suffer in the wilderness, for want of pecuniary support. So long as their expenditures continue to be regulated by a due regard to usefulness and economy, they feel constrained to believe, that, however widely, under the guidance of Providence, they extend their operations, they will be borne out, by the munificence of the religious community, in their work of faith, and their labour of love. RESOURCES, AND CONCLUSION. By the statement of Receipts already given, it will be seen that our funds, however inadequate to our necessities, have been derived from more than twenty sources. To one of these-contributions at the Monthly Concert of Prayer-the attention of the Society was particularly called in our last Report. It was then computed, that, if each of the two thousand congregations, constituting your nominal patrons, should contribute five dollars at every Monthly Concert, you would be furnished, from this single source, with an annual revenue of sufficient amount to form six or eight extensive Missionary Establishments, and to transmit the necessary supplies to those already formed. Let it now be added, that, had these Congregations contributed the average amount of only one dollar a month, and had you been cut off from every other resource, your Managers would have been enabled to meet every demand with promptitude, and to report at the present time, either a balance of several thousand dollars in your Treasury, or another Mission Family on the way to the Western Wilderness. Soon after your last Annual Meeting, letters on this subject were addressed to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and the General Synods of the Reformued Dutch and the Associate Reformed Churches. Recommendations were promptly sent down, by these Judicatories, to their respective Congregations, urging the importance of taking up collections at the Monthly Concert, and transmitting the amount to your Treasury. As the result of this measure, the Board are happy to state, that the Congregations thus contributing to your funds, have considerably more than doubled in number; and your Managers cannot but hope, that a large proportion, if not the whole of the Churches, will soon adopt a measure so warmly recommended by the highest Ecclesiastical authorities, and so well calculated to promote the interests of the Missionary cause. It appears, by the present Report, that you have now on your Records one hundred and sixty-five Auxiliary Societies. Although the number is comparatively respectable, yet, were a Missionary spirit every where sufficiently excited, it would rapidly increase, until every Congregation should furnish you with an Auxiliary Institution. Of the Auxiliaries already formed, sixty-one have contributed in money, and thirty-four in clothing, provisions, and mechanic and agricultural utensils. From the remaining seventy, your Managers regret to state, neither remittances nor communications have been received during the year which has now closed. In the course of the year, fifteen Clergymen and thirteen Laymen have been added to the list of life members of your Society. Of the former, the greater |