the Society; and seco they promote industry and agriculture mongst our children, which are objects of grit importance. The same plan is pursued in eschool; we reward them according to their erformance. With their school tickets the buy spelling books, Sunday-school hymn books, and small cheap books. These arrangements entirely preclude the necessity of using the rod.

United Foreign Missionary Society.

CATARAUGUS MISSION.

THE following account of the renunciation of paganism by an Indian chief is contained in a

letter from Mr. Thayer of the Cataraugus mission, published in the American Missionary Register.

For some days past I have been informed, that Captain Strong, the most influential chief of the pagan party at Cataraugus, was about to renounce paganism, and unite with the Christian party, and that he intended to place his children in the mission school. As the pagan chiefs had made great exertions to retain him, I had but little hope that an event so desirable would soon take place. But "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he will." We were not a little pleased yesterday to see this chief, with his wife and two children, enter our door accompanied by Mr. Johnson a Christian chief Mr. Johnson mentioned, that Captain Strong had now come to manifest his attachment to us and to the Christian party, by placing his children in the school Captain Strong then rose and spoke as follows:

"Brother, I am not a stranger to you; you have known my character and sentiments; you know me to have been opposed to missions; you have even heard me speak against them in the great council; you may be sur prised to see me come and ask you to take my children; you may think that I cannot be sincere, and that I do this to make difficulty. But I assure you that would not be like Indians. When I spoke against you I thought I was right; I now see I was wrong thought you were not my friend; I now believe you are my friend. And the appearance of the children in the school, and the conduct of my brothers, who have set their hearts to keep the Sabbath day, and listen to the voice of the Great Spirit, convinced me they are in the right way. Your friendly manners towards the Indians have removed my prejudices against you as a missionary, and satisfied me that you are the Indian's friend, and are sent by the Great Spirit to show us the right way. I now renounce the customs and habits of my fathers, to embrace those of Christians. I now desire to have my children entered according to the rules of the school, and as you receive others. I wish you to instruct them in those things you think for their good, and govern and do by them as you think best. I am satisfied they will be more happy with you, than they can be with me."

Mr. Johnson then said, "I have long known Captain Strong; he is my neighbor and friend; we have never differed but in one thing; we now see and think alike. I have long desired to see this day; I now see it, and am glad. Captain Strong is a descendant of the great man of our nation; Red Jacket and Black Snake are his connexions. His friends are universally pagans; he is the first and only son of his family who has forsaken their old ways for the Gospel. He is a sober, deep thinking man, and for judgment and penetration is allowed to surpass almost any man in the tribe. He has for some time past been in* clined to unite with the Christian party, but the influence of his friends has had a powerful weight on his mind. At length, being fully persuaded that he was acting contrary to his own and his children's interest and happiness, he rose in a public council, and to the disappointment and grief of his friends, declared to them his conviction of his error, and his deter. mination to put his children to school, and to keep the Sabbath day. Liberal offers and great exertions were made to dissuade him from his purpose, but in vain. He told them that his mind was firm, and that his leaving them and their habits was not because he was offended with their persons. No, he loved them. He loved their children. But he had taken this course to answer his own mind; and he hoped they would also soon feel the importance of discharging a duty to them. selves and to their children, which they now neglected."

SENECA MISSION.

WE Copy the following extracts from a letter published in the Western (Utica) Recorder of March 16th. It is said by the Editor to be from a very respectable source, and that the facts mentioned may be relied on as true. We shall wait with some solicitude for further intelligence.

MR. EDITOR,It is with extreme `regret that I have received the following intelligence in a letter from a respected correspondent at Buffalo.

"The mission establishment at Seneca is broken up. Complaint was made by the Pa gan Indians, and the Judge was compelled by the law to order them (the mission family) off. They have ten days to remove;-some of the Indian children will go up to Mr. Thayer's school at Cataraugus: some of the white pagans here united their efforts with Jacket's party, to effect this."

The law under which the above complaint was preferred was doubtless the one passed, a few years since, to prevent the residence of the whites on Indian lands. The law might have originated in honest intentions; but it is much to be lamented, that so unjust and unreasonable a latitude was given by the terms of it; I have it from one, who was then a mem ber of the Senate, that in its passage to become a law, it did not get the serious delibera tion of the Legislature, in reference to its action on the subject of Christian missions. A

ing efficacy, than in the case of Tschoop. Before his conversion he was distinguished by every act of outrage and sin, and had even crippled himself by his debaucheries; but now the lion was tamed, and the slave of sin and the devil became the child of God, and a preacher of righteousness to his countrymen. The account he once gave of his conversion will best elucidate the striking change wrought in him. "Brethren," said he, "I have been a heathen, and have grown old amongst them: therefore, I know how heathens think. Once a preacher came, and began to explain to us that there was a God. We answered, dost thou think us so ignorant as not to know that? Return to the place from whence thou camest. Then again another preacher came and said, You must not get drunk, nor steal, nor lie, &c. We answered, Thou fool, dost thou think us ignorant of this? Learn first thyself, and then teach the people to whom thou belongest to leave off these things: for who steal, lie, or are drunken more than thine own people?-And thus we dismissed him. After some time, Brother Rauch came into my hut, sat down and spoke nearly as follows:-'I am come to you in the name of the Lord of heaven and of earth; he sends to let you know that he will make you happy, and deliver you from the misery in which you lie at present. For this end he became a man, gave his life a ransom, and shed his blood for sinners, &c.' When he had finished his discourse, he lay down fatigued with his journey, and fell into a sound sleep. I thought, what kind of man is this? There he lies and sleeps: I might kill him, and throw him into the wood, and who would regard it? But this gives him no concern. However, I could not forget his words; they constantly recurred to my mind. Even when asleep, I dreamt of the blood of Christ shed for us. I found this to be widely different from any thing I had heard before, and I interpreted Rauch's words to the other Indians. Thus, through the grace of God, an awakening commenced among us. I say, therefore, brethren, preach Christ our Savior, and his sufferings and death, if you would wish your word to gain entrance among the heathen." Montgomery's Sketch of Moravian Missions.

This day makes up a complete year from the first time of my preaching to these Indians in New-Jersey. What amazing things has God wrought, in this space of time, for this poor people! What a surprizing change appears in their tempers and behavior! How are morose and savage Pagans, in this short period, transformed into agreeable, affectionate, and humble Christians! and their drunken and pagan howlings turned into devout and fervent praises to God! They "who were sometimes in darkness are now become light in the Lord.' May they 'walk as children of the light and of the day!' And now to Him that is of power to establish them according to the Gospel, and the preaching of Christ-to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ, for ever and ever, Amen.

At the close of this narrative, I would make a few general remarks upon what, to me, ap

I cannot but take notice, that I have in general, ever since my first coming among the Indians in New-Jersey, been favored with that assistance, which, to me, is uncommon, in preaching Christ crucified, and making him the centre and mark to which all my discourses among them were directed.

It was the principal scope and drift of all my discourses to this people, for several months together, (after having taught them something of the being and perfections of God, his creation of man in a state of recti. tude and happiness, and the obligations man. kind were thence under to love and honor him,) to lead them into an acquaintance with their deplorable state by nature, as fallen creatures; their inability to extricate and de. liver themselves from it; the utter insuffi. ciency of any external reformations and amendments of life, or of any religious performances, of which they were capable, while in this state, to bring them into the favor of God, and interest them in his eternal mercy; thence to shew them their absolute need of Christ to redeem and save them from the misery of their fallen state;-to open his allsufficiency and willingness to save the chief of sinners; the freeness and riches of divine grace, proposed without money and without price,' to all that will accept the offer; thereupon to press them without delay, to betake themselves to him, under a sense of their misery and undone state, for relief and everlasting salvation;-and to shew them the abundant encouragement the gospel proposes to needy, perishing, and helpless sinners, in order to engage them so to do. These things I repeatedly and largely insisted upon from time to time. Never did I find so much freedom and assistance in making all the various lines of my discourses meet together, and centre in Christ, as I have frequently done among these Indians.

I do not mention these things as a recommendation of my own performances; for I am sure, I found, from time to time, that I had no skill or wisdom for my great work; and knew not how "to choose out acceptable words" proper to address poor benighted pagans with. But thus God was pleased to help me, "not to know any thing among them, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' Thus I was enabled to shew them their misery without him, and to represent his complete fitness to redeem and save them.

This was the preaching God made use of for the awakening of sinners, and the propa gation of this work of grace among the Indians. It was remarkable, from time to time, that when I was favored with any special freedom, in discoursing of the ability and willingness of Christ to save sinners, and the need in which they stood of such a Savior; there was then the greatest appearance of divine power in awakening numbers of secure souls, promoting convictions begun, and comforting the distressed." David Brainerd.

AMERICAN INDIANS.

Indian manner of making Peace.

It must be understood that among these nations wars are never brought to an end but by the interference of the weaker sex The men, however tired of fighting, are afraid of being considered as cowards if they should intimate a desire for peace. It is not becoming, say they, for a warrior, with the bloody weapon in his hand, to hold pacifie language to his enemy. He must show to the end a determined courage, and appear as ready and willing to fight as at the beginning of the contest. Neither, say they, is it proper to threaten and to sue in the same breath, to hold the peace belt in one hand, and the tomahawk in the other; men's words, as well as their actions, should be of a piece, all good or all bad; for it is a fixed maxim of theirs, which they apply on all occasions, that good can never dwell with evil. They also think that a treaty produced by threats or by force, cannot be binding. With these dispositions, war would never have ceased among Indians, until the extermination of one or the other party, if the tender and compassionate sex had not come forward, and by their moving speeches persuaded the enraged combatants to bury their hatchets, and make peace with each other. On these occasions they were very eloquent, they would lament with great feeling the losses suffered on both sides, when there was not a warrior, perhaps, who had not lost a son, a brother or a friend. They would describe the sorrows of widowed wives, and, above all, of bereaved mothers. The pains of child-birth, the anxieties attending the progress of their sons from infancy to manhood, they had willingly and even cheerfully suffered; but after all these trials, how cruel was it for them to see those promising youths whom they had reared with so much care, fall victims to the rage of war, and a prey to a relentless enemy; to see them slaughtered on the field of battle, or put to death, as prisoners, by a protracted torture, in the midst of the most exquisite torments. The thought

of such scenes made them curse their own ex

istence, and shudder at the idea of bearing children. Then they would conjure the warriors by every thing that was dear to them, to take pity on the sufferings of their wives and helpless infants, to turn their faces once more towards their homes, families and friends, to forgive the wrongs suffered from each other, to lay aside their deadly weapons, and smoke together the pipe of amity and peace. They had given on both sides sufficient proofs of their courage; the contending nations were alike high minded and brave, and they must now embrace as friends those whom they had learned to respect as enemies. Speeches like these seldom failed of their intended effect, and the women, by this honorable function of peace-makers, were placed in a situation by no means undignified. It would not be a disgrace, therefore; on the contrary, it would be an honor to a powerful nation, who could not be suspected of wanting either strength or courage, to assume that station by which they would be the means, and the only means, of

preserving the general peace and saving the Indian race from utter extirpation.

Mode of intercourse between Nations.

A message of importance is generally sent on to the place of its destination, by an inferior chief, by a counsellor, or by the speaker, especially when an immediate answer is expected. In other cases, where for instance only an answer to a speech is to be sent, two capable young men are selected for the purpose, the one to deliver the message or answer, and the other to pay attention while his companion is delivering it, that no part be forgotten or omitted. If the message be of a private nature, they are charged to draw or take it under ground, that is, not to make it known to any person whatsoever, except to him to whom it is directed. If they are told to enter into the earth with the message or speech, and rise again at the place where they are to deliver it, it is to desire them to be careful not to be seen by the way by any person, and for that purpose to avoid all paths, and travel through the woods.

No chief pays any attention to reports, though they may carry with them the marks of truth. Until he is officially and in due form apprised of the matter, he will, if questioned on the subject, reply that he had not heard it. It will, until then, be considered by him as the song of a bird which had flown by; but as soon as he is officially informed, through a string of wampum from some distant chief or leading man of the nation, whose situation entitles him to receive credit, he then will say: "I have heard it;" and acts accordingly.

The Indians generally, but their chiefs more particularly, have many figurative expressions in use, to understand which requires instruction. When a nation, by message or otherwise, speaks to another nation in this way, it is well understood; but when they speak to white people after this manner, who have not been accustomed to such language, explanations are necessary.

A black belt with the mark of a hatchet made on it with red paint, is a war belt, which, when sent to a nation together with a twist or roll of tobacco, is an invitation to join in a war. If the nation so invited smoke of this tobacco and say it smokes well, they have given their consent, and are from that moment allies. If however they decline smoking, all further persuasion would be of no effect. Heckewelder.

MOUNT LEBANON.

Extract of a letter from Rev. Pliny Fisk to Rev. Cephas Washburn.

You would like perhaps to know how mount Lebanon looks. It is not, as I used to suppose, one mountain, but a multitude of mountains thrown together, and separated by very deep, narrow vallies, which seem to have been made merely for the sake of dividing the hills. There are more trees on mount Lebanon than on the hills of Judea, yet there is nothing which Americans would call a forest.