number were constituted members by the liberality of the Ladies of their respective Congregations. The example is worthy of general imitation. By the contribution of a few cents each, the Ladies of any Church may accomplish the threefold object, of gratifying their own benevolent feelings, manifesting appropriate affection for their Pastor, and rendering important aid to the cause of Indian Missions.

The computation we have given, in relation to the Monthly Concert, it would be an easy task to apply to Auxiliary Societies, to the efforts of pious females in constituting their Pastors Life Members of the Society, and to various other resources. It would not be difficult to point out the facility with which the requisite funds might be supplied, for sending forth Mission after Mission, until a competent establishment shall have been formed in every Indian Tribe on our Continent. To accomplish so important an object, nothing is required but unison in feeling and in effort. The Churches possess the means, and it is in the power of one or two influential men in each Church, to bring those means into a concentrated and efficient operation.

Your Managers cannot conclude their report without a distinct and grateful recognition of the blessing of God upon their arduous and complicated labours. Under the smiles of his superintending Providence, many valuable improvements have been made at your various Missionary Establishments; a protracted and desolating war, in the vicinity of one of your Stations, has been brought to a close; one Mission Family has been conveyed to its destined field; two promising Missionary Schools have been instituted; about forty Indian Children have been added to the fifteen or twenty previously admitted into the Schools under your care; two Missionary Churches have been regularly organized; four Indian Chiefs have abandoned their heathen rites, and publicly professed their faith in Christ; a number of other Chiefs have renounced the principles and customs of their pagan ancestors, and are

living apparently in the belief and under the influence of the Gospel; and in your five Mission Families, inhabiting different climates; and embracing, if you include hired men and Indian children, at least one hundred and fifty members, not a single death has taken place to cast a gloom over the auspicious occurrences of the year. In these signal marks of the Divine favour, your Managers discover enough to excite their undissembled gratitude, and to prompt them to increased exertions in behalf of the benighted and perishing pagans.

That the American Savage is capable of being both civilized and christianized, can no longer be questioned. The problem is already solved. Successful experiment has placed the subject beyond a doubt. Your Managers, would, therefore, call upon the professors of religion and the friends of human happiness, throughout the community, to combine their efforts in this benevolent and glorious work.

Upon the people of this country rests a responsibility, in relation to the Indian Tribes, of deep and tremendous import. "Sovereigns," says an intelligent traveller, "from time immemorial, of the interminable forests, which overshadow this vast Continent, this injured race have gradually been driven, by the white usurpers of their soil, within the limits of their present precarious possessions." "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." Alas! shall the sword of avarice, or the strong arm of civilized power, still pursue this unhappy people? Shall the unceasing and relentless force of emigration drive them from forest to forest, until the last unpitied remnant, struggling for existence, shall fall on the verge of the

UNION MISSION..

Rev. Mr. Vaill to the Domestic Secretary,

January 1, 1823.

DEAR SIR-It may be expected that we should give the Board some account of the state of the Indians. Since the peace they have been scattered in different directions, for the purpose of hunt ing. By the war they have become poor. The restoration of peace, and the opportunity of trade, which was never greater, has led them to bestir themselves, and it has been a busy fall. They have taken an immense number of deer: some imagine never so many in one season. Their scattered situation has prevented our seeing the chiefs together in council since the war closed. The people, in passing to and from their encampments, call to see us so that not a day has passed, since the peace took place, but that more or less have been with us, and, first and last, probably not less than three hundred children: still, owing either to indifference or to prejudice, they do not tell us the cause why they do not bring forward their children. When they are asked, Do you not mean to leave this child? they reply, after we have got through with this hunt, or after we have seen such and such relations. A very fine girl was here the other day, who had been a prisoner among the Cherokees. We called on the interpreter to ask her brother if he had any thing against her staying if she had a mind. He answered that he would encourage her to stay, and went immediately to their lodge to inquire. He brought back this reply:-" Her friends have looked upon her all one as dead; they now look upon her as alive again— they have not all seen." She says "she must see friends before she can live with us." Brother Chapman, in his visits among different parties, has been treated with every mark of friendship. Some have said, we shall bring our children soon: others, we mean to come and settle near you. It is probable that some change in

the location of their principal village is to take place shortly; for it may be said, in truth, that in no time have the Osages been in a more unsettled state than the present. Still we have not the same kind of fear as we had during the war; for then, when they talked of a removal, it was to some distant country: now there is a prospect of the different villages being located nearer to each other, and near to this mission; and this prospect arises from the fact that the Indian trade will be maintained on Grand River in future.

While, therefore, the external situation of the nation is brightening; while there appears to be a very friendly feeling towards this family, there is an unaccountable backwardness about committing their children to our hands.

These, Sir, are some of the many facts relative to this people. Already have we had cause for humiliation in not being able to accomplish the views of the Society, and our own views also. But we need all this, and much more. learning more and more to commit our work to the Lord, and labour in humble reliance on his Providence and Grace.

We are

Severity of the Season.

Tuesday, Dec. 3.-The weather, for two days, has been excessively cold. This has come upon us unexpectedly, and deranged our business. Thermometer 6 degrees below Zero. Resolved to set apart the 25th inst. as a day of thanksgiving.

Wednesday, Dec. 4.-Thronged with Indians. We are surprised to see their little ones entirely naked, without seeming to feel the cold.

Friday, Dec. 6.-Mr. Alsop, the millwright, has failed very fast, and is now attacked with severe sickness. The ab

sence of our Physician, in this crisis, makes us feel the worth of the blessing which this mission have enjoyed.

Saturday, Dec. 7.-The cold is abated. Another hired man, lately from Missouri, is laid aside by sickness.

Lord's Day, Dec. 8.-" For where your treasure is there will your heart be also." From these words we have been addressed by Brother Pixley.

Captured Children.

An Indian, with his wife, came to inquire about his captive children, taken from them last September by the Choctaws. He had sent to Col. Arbuckle to know if they could be obtained. Brother Vaill having previously made the inquiry at Fort Smith, informed them that the Colonel had sent to the Choctaw Camp for the captives, but that the enemy had conveyed them away where they could not be obtained at that time.

Monday, December 9.—The Indian appeared this morning, having his face blacked, and his wife with earth on her head. They were crying long before the dawn of day. Being asked to eat, they replied no, we are poor, and we feel unhappy. The Osages never eat while the signs of sadness are upon them. "Except they wash, they eat not." Sometimes they pass the whole day in voluntary abstinence. Stephen Van Rensselaer, one of our Osage youth, has begun to learn the blacksmith's trade.

Saturday, Dec. 14.-Brother Wm. C. Requa arrived from Harmony with Mr. VOL. IV.

M'Arthur, the second millwright. They were hindered about two weeks, in consequence of being obliged to return to Harmony, the distance of ten miles, at one time, to look up three strayed horses; at another, to mend their wagon. Although the cold has been excessive, yet they have been carried through the fatigueing journey in health and safety.

Emigration from the Missouri.

Monday, Dec. 16.—Another company of emigrants from Missouri to Arkansaw passed here. The number removing to the country below us is considerable. It is rapidly filling up with white population, and would be settled still faster were it not feared that the Choctaws would possess the land. It is to be regretted them the Word of Life, the Sabbath, and that the emigrants do not bring with other institutions of religion. Surely they need the faithful labours of Domestic Missionaries.

This day Brother Wm. C. Requa took charge of the school, in place of Brother Spaulding.

Tuesday, Dec. 17.-Brethren Pixley and Chapman set off this morning to visit the Indians near Mr. Choteau's. Voted that Brother Spaulding aid Brother Fuller in the business of the farm.

Application for ordinance of Baptism.

wife arrived, who came seventy miles to Thursday, Dec. 19.-A man and his visit us, and to obtain baptism for their

infant; but as neither were members of any Christian church, we were constrained to deny them this ordinance. On their way last summer, while removing from Missouri, they stopped near us, where the mother learned to read. She became thoughtful and somewhat serious, but she is ignorant of the nature and design of the ordinances. May the great Head of the Church send Christian teachers into this territory. There is a famine of the word.

Friday, Dec. 20.-Had a visit from Waho bek-keh, the fourth chief in the village. He has lately lost his wife. This morning he arose before light, and having blacked his face, poured forth his complaints in cries and sobbings. The Indians

near Mr. Choteau's went eastward on a hunt. Brother Pixley accompanied them, and Brother Chapman returned to our station.

Saturday, Dec. 21.-The weather exceedingly cold. The rain is now freezing on the trees, and loading every spire of grass. The millwright is still confined to his bed. Most of our hired men who have lately arrived have been complaining. Some ascribe their ill health to their fatigue on their journey. Others were sick before they left Missouri.

Day of Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, Dec. 25.-Observed this day as a season of thanksgiving and praise. Have recounted some of the mercies of God towards this mission, particularly his loving kindness in preserving us from the fury of savages, and permitting us to pursue our labours without molestation. We have sung psalms unto him, and talked of all his wondrous works.

Important Regulations.

Thursday, Dec. 26.-Met for the special purpose of attending to the resolulutions of our late Missionary meeting.

Resolved, That whenever a member of this Mission receives donations from friends, the value of the same ought to be reported as personal expenses, so far as they are appropriated to his or her

own use.

Resolved, That the season of secret devotion in the morning commence at five o'clock, till the first of March next.

Resolved, That we consider ourselves as given up with entire devotement to Christ; under him with equal devotement to the Board, and under them with the same devotement to this familyconsequently we are sacredly bound to submit ourselves, in every case not involving moral guilt, to the decision of the family.

Friday, Dec. 27.-Resolved, That the clerk collect all the regulations of this family, in a book prepared for the pur

pose.

Resolved, That all the members of this family meet semi-annually on the first

Tuesday evenings in January and July, for the purpose of attending to the regulations.

Saturday, Dec. 28.-After a season of more than a week, in which the earth has been literally covered with ice, the weather begins to moderate. Our stock in the range have suffered for the want of food. Except in such a season, they live comfortably on the cane and the bottom. For our working cattle and horses we have provided fodder, and shall as soon as practicable lay up for the whole stock, as farmers do in the East.

Reflections on the close of the year. Tuesday, Dec. 31.-At the close of this year, we would call to mind the goodness of God in providing for all our wants. Though we were once reduced to straits, yet we have not suffered. The last year has also been remarkable for health in this family; for though some have been subject to indisposition, yet scarcely any have been stretched upon beds of sickness. While those who have come from a distance have been dangerously ill, our own little number have been preserved. God has also increased our numbers, blessed us with many rich and precious blessings, and crowned the year with his goodness. Oh! that his goodness might lead us to greater diligence in the good

work before us.