He had already commenced studying, and he continued under tuition. until 1748. Then he became a teacher, and afterward a preacher among his own people. Mr. Wheelock sent him to England in 1766 and gave him a letter of recommendation containing the following sketch of his life:

The Reverend Mr. Samson Occom, of Mohegan, came to live with me soon after he emerged out of gross Paganism, and was a Member in my Family and under my Instruction for several Years before he went to keep a school on Long Island, in which he continued for some Years; and at the same time officiated as public Teacher of the Indian Tribe at Montauk, on Long Island, till he received Ordination by the Hands of Suffolk Presbytery ou said Island: Since which he has been employed in several Missions to various Tribes of Indians to good Acceptance. All which Time I have kept up my Acquaintance with him, and, so far as I have known or heard, he has behaved himself becoming his Christian and Ministerial Character. Ever since he left my House he has been under great Disadvantages, and his Abilities have been much starved for want of suitable Support for himself and numerous Family, which has obliged him to labor with his Hands, and for many Years was without polite Conversation, while he lived among Indians, and in want of a Library. Notwithstanding all which, he appears to me to be well accomplished and peculiarly turned to teach and edify his savage Brethren; and he hath also preached in New York, Boston, and other polite Towns among the English to good Acceptance. By the best Judges he is said to be an excellent Speaker in his own Language. His Influence is very great among the Indians, and if it should please God to spare his Life, there is reason to hope he may be eminently useful as a Missionary among them.'

The appearance of the Reverend Mr. Occom in England attracted much notice, and his sermons were heard by crowded audiences in the principal cities. He is said to have preached between three and four hundred times during his visit, which extended from February, 1766, to July, 1767. On his return he resumed preaching among his people, and came to be acknowledged as a leader. During his ministry a number of Mohegans began to pay some attention to tillage and to keep sheep and cattle. In 1786 Mr. Occom led the Brothertown Indians to the lands given them for a residence within the present town of Marshall, Oneida County, N. Y. His death occurred in 1792, and it is recorded that "the Mohegan preacher died, as he had lived, in the faith and practice of the Christian religion."

David Fowler, a Montauk youth, was one of those who entered Mr. Wheelock's school in its earliest years, and was eminently successful in his work in the school-room and on the farm.2 In 1761 the Scotch commissioners at Boston desired Mr. Wheelock to fit Fowler out to accompany Mr. Occom to the Oneidas and to support him on a mission there for a term not exceeding four months. He was to bring back a few Indian boys. The mission seems to have been accomplished prosperously, and he afterward labored for this tribe with a fair degree of success. In 1765 Mr. Wheelock says of him," He is serious, active, a good scholar, and well acquainted with farming. He is like to bring the

Wheelock: A Brief Narrative of the Indian Charity School in Lebanon, in Connecticut, New England, Founded and Carried on by that Faithful Servant of God, the Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock, p. 24. 2 Ibid., p. 33. 3 Ibid., p. 39. + Ibid., p. 31.

Oneidas to cultivate their lands." A letter of Fowler recounts the difficulties which surrounded his little school, arising from the degradation and roving disposition of the people. He is said to have preserved his Christain character unblemished to the end of his life (1812).

Dr. Wheelock gives the following account of seven other Indian school-masters:

Joseph Wolley and Hezekiah Calvin are both Delawares. Joseph appears eminently pious, and teaches a school at Onohoquage, which is increasing. He appears earnestly desirous to bring his poor savage brethren to the knowledge of Christ. Hezekiah is a sober, well-behaved youth, and teaches a school among the Mohawks. They are all good scholars in English, Latin and Greek, and write a very good hand.

Abraham primus, Abraham secundus, Peter, Moses, and Johannes. These five are all Mohawks, and were well accomplished for school-masters, but because they were rather too young to have the full management of schools they were appointed to be under the more special direction of the missionaries, who by the earnest desire of the poor heathen, soon found it necessary to place them all in schools. In this station they have behaved well. These youths had under them one hundred twenty-seven Indian children last September, who have made such surprising proficiency that they will need bibles immediately.

Joseph Brant,2 a Mohawk, was in Mr. Wheelock's school for some time previous to 1761, being then about nineteen years of age. He was engaged when leaving the school as an interpreter to Rev. C. J. Smith, a missionary to the Mohawks, but was drawn into the war with Pontiac, · which occurred soon afterward. He visited England at the commencement of the Revolutionary War, and returning was an ally of the British and an officer in their army. In due time he became the chief of his tribe, and ever sought to improve its condition by bringing intellectual, moral, and religious instruction within their reach, by encouraging the arts of peace, and by checking intemperance. His efforts for improve. ment and his tendencies toward an intellectual life and a religious influence, doubtless awakened by his early instruction and nourished by his intercourse with many intelligent whites, have been summarized as follows:

His early advantages of education were limited, but of these he evidently made the best use. Probably, being connected by the alliance of his sister with Sir William Johnson, he may have attended some of the missionary schools in the Mohawk Valley previous to his being sent by the baronet to Moor's Charity School under the care of the elder Dr. Wheelock. But as he had already, though at so early an age, been upon the war-path in two campaigns, his opportunities of study could not have been great-to say nothing of the reluctance with which an ardent youth, looking with delight upon the pride, pomp, and circumstances of glorious war, and impatient of military renown, might be expected to confine himself to the dull and quiet pursuits of the schoolroom. Still, he acknowledged in after life that he had derived great and lasting advantages from the instructions of Dr. Wheelock. The

Wheelock: A Brief Narrative of the Indian Charity School in Lebanon, in Connecticut, New England, Founded and Carried on by that Faithful Servant of God, the Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock, p. 38. 2 Stone: Life of Joseph Brant, Vol. II. p. 488.

wars of Pontiac a third time called him to the field; but the campaign was no sooner ended than he was again engaged in literary pursuits under the direction of the missionaries. The influence of his sister in the administration of the Indian department called him more directly into active public life on the death of Sir William Johnson, although he had been much employed in the transaction of business with the Indians previous to that event. These avocations had of course deprived him of much time which might otherwise have been devoted to study; and when upon him had devolved the chieftainship of the whole confederacy of the Six Nations, it may well be imagined that the official claims upon his attention were in themselves sufficient to occupy unremittingly the most active mind. Then followed the protracted conflict of the American Revolution, requiring, from his position and the side he espoused, the exercise of all his energies, physical and intellectual. But his return to his books the moment that the great contest was ended, the progressive improvement in the style of his letters and the fruits of his labors in the translations he produced, are circumstances proving his perseverance amidst the most harassing cares and perplexities of his after life, and that he had a natural taste for literature and was zealous in the acquisition of knowledge. His solicitude was great for the thorough education of his children, and he had himself not only projected writing a history of his own people, but had it in contemplation himself to acquire the knowledge of the Greek language, that he might be enabled to read the New Testament in the original, and thus make a more perfect translation of the Greek Scriptures in the Mohawk tongue.

From 1776 to 1789.-Among the exigent problems that confronted the leaders of the American Revolution none was more pressing than the Indian question. There was no doubt that Great Britain would endeavor to secure the alliance of all the tribes, and with their assistance she might reasonably hope to subdue the colonies.

So early as June 1, 1775, the Continental Congress received a petition from that part of Augusta County, Va., lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, expressing "fears of a rupture with the Indians on account of Lord Dunmore's conduct," and praying that commissioners be sent by Virginia and Pennsylvania to meet the Indians at Pittsburgh, and the matter was referred to the delegates from those colonies. The 30th of the same month letters and speeches from the Stockbridge Indians were laid before Congress and read. A committee on Indian affairs, with General Schuyler as chairman, had been constituted before this (June 17), and on the 12th of July, 1775, its report was adopted. In brief, the report set forth that the friendship of the Indian nations was a subject of the utmost importance; that there was too much reason to believe that they would be incited and aided to commit acts of hostility against the colonies; that the greatest vigilance and prudence should be exercised to gain, confirm, and retain the friendly disposition of the Indians; that as the Indians were dependent on the colonies

for arms, ammunition and clothing, commissioners to superintend Indian affairs should be appointed. For this purpose the colonies were divided into three departments, northern, middle and southern.

On July 13, 1775, Congress

"Ordered, That a talk be prepared for the Indian nations so as to suit the Indians in the several departments."

The commissioners were at once appointed, and that the necessity for immediate action was felt is shown by the fact that in August following they made a treaty with the Six Nations, the minutes of which were submitted to Congress September 14, and, excepting one provis ion, which was postponed but subsequently agreed to, ratified by that body in November.

In January, 1776, the matter that had been postponed in the preceding November was considered and disposed of by ordering the impor tation, at the expense of the colonies, of goods for the Indian trade to the value of £40,000 sterling, to be divided equally among the three departments and sold by the commissioners, under certain regulations, to licensed traders who were obliged to sell goods to the Indians according to a tariff of prices fixed by the commissioners. To maintain trade and friendly intercourse with the Indians was regarded as being of prime importance, in order to avert military disaster to the cause of the colonies.

March 4 following it was resolved that Indians should not be employed as soldiers in the colonial armies until a formal consent of their respective tribes thereunto had been given, nor then without the express approbation of Congress.

April 10, 1776, the commissioners were directed to employ a minister, a schoolmaster, and a blacksmith for the Delaware Indians in response to a request of those Indians presented by White Eyes, one of their chiefs.

As appears by a resolution of the same date some discontent had been manifested by the Indians in the middle department, and the commissioners were instructed to ascertain and report the cause and proper remedy therefor, and in the meantime to use their utmost endeavors to prevent hostilities. The following, in substance, was the plan adopted at that day by Congress to compose Indian troubles: "That disputes which shall arise between any of the white people and the Indians in their dealings (if the latter will consent), be determined by arbitrators chosen one by each of the parties and one by the commissioners of Indian affairs, or when they are absent by the agent in the department where the Indian party resides." Adherence to this wise policy of our Revolutionary fathers would have saved this nation thousands of lives and millions on millions of treasure.

In the same month it was directed that none except those licensed should be allowed to trade in the Indian country; and that care should be taken by the agents to prevent the traders from charging exorbitant prices for goods.

In the summer of 1776 a white man was murdered by the Indians near Pittsburgh. The commissioners were instructed to discover the offenders and demand their punishment by the Indians, which being granted Congress would not regard the offense as a national act, i. e., an act for which the tribe was responsible except in so far as it required the tribe to mete out punishment to the murderer. Difficulties continued to multiply, especially in the middle department, and it was shrewdly sus pected that they were fomented by the Indian traders with a view to pecuniary gain, as well as by British emissaries. Congress transmitted to the commissioners of the middle department an extract from a speech of an Indian chief on the subject, and passed a resolution concluding as follows:

And as it may possibly happen, that the persons concerned in the Indian trade, in order to engross to themselves, or to the traders of their own State, the whole of the said Indian trade, and by false suggestions endeavor to poison the minds of the said Indians, and render them inimical to any other State, and to involve such State in an Indian war, that it be therefore recommended to the assemblies and conventions of the several States from which trade is carried on with the Indians, that they take the most effectual measures to prevent the traders of their respective States from pursuing a practice so dangerous to the peace of the United States.

Indians who were friendly to the colonies complained that they did not always receive good treatment from their friends, and September 10, 1776, Congress "Resolved, That it be recommended to the inhabitants of the frontiers, and to the officers at all the posts there, to treat the Indians who behave peaceably and inoffensively with kindness and civility and not to suffer them to be ill used or insulted." On the same date, as it might "be a means of conciliating the friendship of the Canadian Indians, or at least preventing hostilities from them," Congress directed that $500 be paid to Dr. Wheelock, president of Dartmouth College, to maintain the Indian youth there under his tuition. In 1781, July 31, Congress directed the payment of £137 "currency of New Jersey, in specie, for the support and tuition of three Indian boys of the Delaware Nation now at Princeton College."