that I have many times thought I could never more address an Indian upon religious matters.

"The solitary manner in which I have generally been obliged to live, on account of their inconvenient situation, has been not a little pressing. I have spent the greater part of my time, for more than three years past, entirely alone, as to any agreeable society; and a very considerable part of it in houses by myself, without having the company of any human creature. Sometimes I have scarcely seen an Englishman for a month or six weeks together; and have had my spirits so depressed with melancholy views of the tempers and conduct of Pagans, when I have been for sometime confined with them, that I have felt as if banished from all the people of God.

"I have likewise been wholly alone in my work, there being no other missionary among the Indians in either of these provinces. Other ministers, neither knowing the peculiar difficulties nor most advantageous methods of performing my work, have been able to afford me little assistance or support in any respect. A feeling of the great disadvantages of being alone in this work, has discovered to me the wisdom and goodness of the great Head of the church, in sending forth his disciples two and two, in order to proclaim the sacred mysteries of his kingdom; and has made me long for a colleague to be a partner of my cares, hopes, and fears, as well as labours among the Indians; and excited me to use some means in order to procure such an assistant, although I have not as yet been so happy as to meet with success in that respect.

"I have not only met with great difficulty in travelling to, and for some time residing among, the Indians far remote in the wilderness, but also in living with them, in one place and another, more statedly. I have been obliged to remove my residence from place to place; having procured, and after some poor fashion, furnished three houses for living among them, in the space of about three years past. One at Kaunaumeek, about twenty miles distant from the city of Albany; one at the Forks of Delaware, in Pennsylvania, and one at Crosswecksung, in New-Jersey. The Indians in the latter of these provinces, with whom I have latterly spent most of my time, being not long since removed from the place where they lived last winter; (the reason of which I mentioned in my Diary, March 24, and May 4;) have now no house at all of my own, but am obliged to lodge with an English family at a considerable distance from them, to the great disadvantage of my work among them; they being like children that continually need advice and direction, as well as incitement to their worldly business. The houses in which I have formerly lived are at great distances from each other; the two nearest of them being

more than seventy miles apart, and neither of them within fif teen miles of the place where the Indians now live.

"The Indians are a very poor and indigent people, and so destitute of the comforts of life, at some seasons of the year especially, that it is impossible for a person who has any pity on them, and concern for the christian interest, to live among them without considerable expense, especially in time of sickness. If any thing be bestowed on one, as in some cases it is peculiarly necessary, in order to remove their Pagan jealousies, and engage their friendship to Christianity, others, be there never so many of them, expect the same treatment. While they retain their Pagan tempers, they discover little gratitude, amid all the kindnesses which they receive. If they make any presents, they expect double satisfaction. Christianity itself does not at once cure them of these ungrateful tempers.

"They are in general unspeakably indolent and slothful.They have been bred up in idleness, and know little about cultivating land, or indeed about engaging vigorously in any other business. I am obliged to instruct them in, as well as press them to, the performance of their work, and take the oversight of all their secular business. They have little or no ambition or resolution. Not one in a thousand of them has the spirit of a man. It is next to impossible to make them sensible of the duty and importance of being active, diligent, and industrious in the management of their worldly business; and to excite in them any spirit and promptitude of that nature. When

I have laboured, to the utmost of my ability, to show them of what importance it would be to the christian interest among them, as well as to their worldly comfort, for them to be laborious and prudent in their business, and to furnish themselves with the comforts of life; how this would incline the Pagans to come among them, and so put them under the means of salvation;-how it would encourage religious persons of the white people to help them, as well as to stop the mouths of others, who are disposed to cavil against them, and how they might by this means pay others their just dues, and so prevent trouble from coming among themselves, and reproach upon their christian profession;-they have indeed assented to all I said, but been little moved, and consequently have acted like themselves, or at least too much so. Though it must be acknowledged, that those who appear to have a sense of divine things, are considerably amended in this respect, and it is to be hoped, that time will make a yet greater alteration upon them for the better.

"The concern I have had for the settling of these Indians in New Jersey, in a compact form, in order to their being a christian congregation, in a capacity of enjoying the means of grace; the care of managing their worldly business in order to

VOL. X.

44

this end, and to their having a comfortable livelihood; have been more pressing to my mind, and cost me more labour and fatigue, for several months past, than all my other work among

them.

6

"Their wandering to and fro in order to procure the necessaries of life,' is another difficulty which attends my work. This has often deprived me of opportunities to discourse to them. It has thrown them in the way of temptation; either among Pagans further remote where they have gone to hunt, who have laughed at them for hearkening to Christianity; or, among white people, more horribly wicked, who have often made them drunk; then got their commodities-such as skins, baskets, brooms, shovels, and the like, with which they designed to have bought corn, and other necessaries of life, for themselves and families, for, it may be, nothing but a little strong liquor; and then sent them home empty. For the labour, perhaps, of several weeks, they have thus got nothing but the satisfaction of being drunk once; and have not only lost their labour, but, which is infinitely worse, the impressions of some divine subjects that were made upon their minds before.--But I forbear enlarging upon this head. The few hints I have given may be sufficient to give thinking persons some apprehensions of the difficulties attending my work, on account of the inconvenient situations and savage manners of the Indians, as well as of their unhappy mode of living.

IV. "The last difficulty I shall mention, as having attended my work, is, what has proceeded from the attempts which some ill-minded persons have designedly made, to hinder the propagation of the gospel, and a work of divine grace among the Indians. The Indians are not only of themselves prejudiced against Christians, on the various accounts which I have already mentioned; but, as if this were not enough, there are some in all parts of the country where I have preached to them, who have taken pains industriously to bind them down in pagan darkness; neglecting to enter into the kingdom of God themselves, and labouring to hinder others.'

"After the beginning of the religious attention among the Indians in New-Jersey, some endeavoured to prejudice them against me and the truths I taught them, by the most base, unmanly, and false suggestions of things which had no foundation but in their own brains. Some particulars of this kind I formerly took notice of in one of the remarks made upon my Diary, concluded the 20th of November last; and might have added more, and of another nature, had not delicacy forbidden me to mention what was too obscene. But, through the mercy of God, they were never able, by all their abominable insinuations, flouting jeers, and downright lies, to create in the Indians those jealousies with which they desired to posses them;

and so were never suffered to hinder the work of grace among them. When they saw that they could not prejudice the Indians against me, nor hinder them from receiving the gospel, they then noised it through the country, that I was undoubtedly a Roman catholic; that I was gathering together, and training up the Indians in order to serve a Popish interest; and that I should quickly head them, and cut people's throats.' "What they pretended gave them reason for this opinion, was, that they understood I had a commission from Scotland. Whereupon they could with great assurance say, ' All Scotland is turned to the Pretender; and this is but a Popish plot to make a party for him here.' Some, I am informed, actually went to the civil authority with complaints against me; but only laboured under this unhappiness, that when they came, they had nothing to complain of, and could give no colour of reason why they attempted any such thing, or desired the civil authority to take cognizance of me, having not a word to allege against my preaching or practice, only they surmised that because the Indians appeared so very loving and orderly, they had a design of imposing upon people by that means, and so of getting a better advantage to cut their throats. With what temper they would have had the Indians appear, in order to have given no occasion, nor have left any room for such a suspicion, I cannot tell. I presume if they had appeared with the contrary temper, it would quickly have been observed of them, that they were now grown surly,' and in all probability were preparing to cut people's throats.'-From a view of these things, I have had occasion to admire the wisdom and goodness of God in providing so full and authentic a commission for the undertaking and carrying on of this work, without which, notwithstanding the charitableness of the design, it had probably met with molestation.

"The Indians, who have been my hearers in New-Jersey, have likewise been sued for debt, and threatened with imprisonment more since I came among them, as they inform me, than in seven years before. The reason of this, I suppose, was, they left frequenting those tippling houses where they used to consume most of what they gained by hunting and other means. These persons, seeing that the hope of future gain was lost, were resolved to make sure of what they could. Perhaps some of them put the Indians to trouble, purely out of spite at their embracing Christianity.

"This conduct of theirs has been very distressing to me; for I was sensible, that if they did imprison any one that embraced, or hearkened to Christianity, the news of it would quickly spread among the Pagans, hundreds of miles distant, who would immediately conclude that I had involved them in this difficulty, and thence be filled with prejudice against Christiani

ty, and strengthened in their jealousy, that the whole of my design among them, was to ensnare and enslave them. I knew that some of the Indians upon Susquehannah had made this objection against hearing me preach, viz. That they understood that a number of Indians in Maryland, some hundreds of miles distant, who had been uncommonly free with the English, were after a while put in jail, and sold. Whereupon they concluded, it was best for them to keep at a distance, and have nothing to do with Christians. The method I took in order to remove this difficulty, was, to press the Indians with all possible speed to pay their debts, and to exhort those of them that had skins or money, and were themselves in good measure free of debt, to help others that were oppressed. Frequently upon such occasions I have paid money out of my own pocket, which I have not as yet received again.

"These are some of the difficulties which I have met with from the conduct of those who, notwithstanding their actions so much tend to hinder the propagation of Christianity, would, I suppose be loth to be reputed Pagans. Thus I have endeavoured to answer the demands of the Hon. Society in relation to each of the particulars mentioned in their letter.-If what I have written may be in any measure agreeable and satisfactory to them, and serve to excite in them, or any of God's people, a spirit of prayer and supplication for the furtherance of a work of grace among the Indians here, and the propagating of it to their distant tribes I shall have abundant reason to rejoice, and bless God in this as well as in other respects.'

"June 20, 1746.

"DAVID BRAINERD.”

P. S. "Since the conclusion of the preceding Journalwhich was designed to represent the operations of one year only, from the first time of my preaching to the Indians in New-Jersey -I administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, a second time in my congregation, viz. on the 13th of July. At this time there were more than thirty communicants of the Indians, although divers were absent who should have communicated; so considerably has God enlarged our number since the former solemnity of this kind, described somewhat particularly in my Diary.. This appeared to be a season of divine power and grace, not unlike the former; a season of refreshing to God's people in general, and of awakening to some others; although the divine influence manifestly attending the several services of the solemnity, seemed not so great and powerful as at the former season.

"D. BRAINERD.”