if pate ib te iyi anal i uit Hi : ie h Hs : Af Mite! atte 5. Heit aris ha ides Hl istaity Tasca i ae qieS ty i i cribs bat ts ij MA a : : : pect Seprcaccorproortset prreice . et scat fetheieeee ee # pitt yasnatee! ; nesnte wind aseiead abbinies #25 SURF at eto or a a Biogas eam = setesteliteirs eset tin Saat se reo ior ay zt rece STULL ota a8 Hi deem i sci batena: Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. University of Illinois Library ig ?7> 4 > + a! ff, TRE st 4 = z wis - 4 Db by 8 : PVR : 3 i “ SEP 12 1980 MAY 15 1994 L161—H41 CENTRAL CIRCULATION BOOKSTACKS _ The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was borrowed on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. TO RENEW CALL TELEPHONE CENTER, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN FEB 03 1993 $2 pees is ’ r ae AN k& & Sa When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date. L162 REV. ASHER WRIGHT. OUR LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS INDIANS BY MRS. HARRIET S. CASWELL TfL live, this accursed system of robbery and shame in our tre«:‘ment of the Indians shall be reformed, —ABRAHAM LINCOLN. BOSTON AND CHICAGO Congregational Sundav-School and ublishing Society COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCTETY,. Dedicated to Che Froquois and His Friends 396138 - eo? ee ed PREFACE. FEW hours’ ride from the nearest railroad station in a pt wagon not the easiest, over a road not the smoothest, meeting with narrow escapes as to mud holes and deep ruts, and you will find yourself upon the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. You might as well be west of the Rocky Mountains for any indica- tions of the pale face that you see here. Indians in the homes, on the roads, working on the farms, and building houses; Indian chil- dren with ball clubs, snow snakes, and arrows; Indian babies upon the backs of their mothers; Indian corn bread boiling in the kettles under the trees; Indians here, there, andeverywhere. The straight black hair and shining black eyes that mark the race everywhere meet you here. You hear the curious intonations of the strange language all about you, and yet you are only thirty miles south of Buffalo and five hundred miles from New York City. As you ride through the Reservation you note many farms of which Indian owners may well be proud and others of which they should be ashamed. You will see corn, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, and other products of the farm in better condition than those of the neigh- boring white man; and you will see the crops of others sadly choked with weeds and perishing for want of care. The owners of these last expect to live next winter upon the corn and beans and potatoes of their more industrious neighbors. Would that for white man and for Indian the ancient law might be enforced, “Tf a man will not work, neither shall he eat,” A few years ago the old Mission church was rapidly falling into decay. Now you hear the progressive sound of the hammer and saw. This church building, which the Indians are repairing with V eS vi LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. their own hands, was erected thirty-five years ago through the efforts of Father Gleason. Have this people been taught the trade of the carpenter, the mason, the paper hanger? No. And yet they can design and build a house, plaster and paint it, and when out of repair make it over as good as new. This Mission church is the prettiest church in this part of the country. The walls have been delicately tinted and ornamented, the pulpit and seats re- modeled, and this, with the painting and other repairs, has all been done by Indians. The only exception is the “ graining,’? which was the work of a white man, who, having once plied his trade in plain sight of those sharp eyes, will never more be needed in Indian land. Why are Indians of all tribes natural mechanics? How is it that they use all trades without instruction in any? What a blessed movement in Indian affairs is this experiment in indus- trial education now carried on at Hampton, Carlisle, Santee, and at Lawrence, Kansas ! You decide to spend the Sabbath. It proves to be the rededica- tion of the newly repaired church. It is a highly satisfied looking congregation that fills the freshly painted seats. The remodeled pulpit is occupied by the missionary and his Indian interpreter. Upon the same platform a fine choir of young men give us musical selections accompanied by the cornet played by one of the Indian brass band. The cabinet organ is admirably managed by an Indian maiden. The music is soul-inspiring. The sermon upon the text, ‘‘ The glory of the Lord filled the temple,” describes the experience of the Israelites under similar circumstances. The preacher believes that the time has come when this Indian church, having fulfilled the conditions, may expect the glorious experience of the builders of old. The sermon is well adapted to their needs and very practical, especially when the hearers are exhorted not to defile the house of God by the use of tobacco within its sacred walls. The people bear this sharp thrust at their fayorite weed with their usual dignified composure, spre” js aja ee PREFACE. vii Having lifted the curtain a moment to take a glance at the present condition of these Indians, let us turn back to the begin- ning of a life which for more than half a century is to be closely interwoven with every dark thread and every bright thread of their history. Pha Rue Y ae i i Wea ‘ee wo | INTRODUCTION. ISHOP WHIPPLE says: ‘‘ The Indian is not an idolater. His universe is peopled with spirits. He recognizes the Great Spirit; he believes in a future life. I have never known one instance where the Indian was the first to violate plighted faith. Thirty years ago our Indian system was at its worst; it was a blunder and a crime. It established heathen almshouses to graduate savage paupers. In my boyhood a sainted mother taught me to defend the weak. I believed that these wandering red men were children of one God and Father and that he loved them as he loved us. I vowed that, God being my helper, I would never turn my back on the heathen at my door. I have tried to keep this vow.” However stolid and impassive an Indian may look, do not assume that he is stupid. While Bishop Whipple was visiting an Indian mission, the people were holding a scalp dance quite near. The bishop was indignant. He went to the head chief and said : — ‘¢ Wabasha, you ask me for a missionary; I give him to you. I visit you, and the first sight is this brutal scalp dance. I knew the man whom you have murdered. He had a wife and children; his wife is crying for her husband, his children are asking for their father. Wabasha, the Great Spirit hears his children cry. He is angry. Some day he will ask, ‘Wabasha, where is your red brother?’ ” The old chief smiled, drew his pipe from his mouth, blew a cloud of smoke upward, and said :— ‘White man go to war with his own brother in the same coun- try; he kill more men than Wabasha can count in all his life. ix a ae se: tthe, x LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. Great Spirit smiles and says, ‘He good white man; he has my Book; I love him very much; I have good place for him by-and- by.’ The Indian is a wild man; he has no Spirit-Book. He kill one man; he have a scalp dance; Great Spirit is mad, and says, ‘Bad Indian! I will put him in a bad place by-and-by.? Wabasha don’t believe it.” No, the Indian is not stupid. He is keenly observant, and quick to note absurdity in an argument or inconsistency in a life. He has his opinions upon the problems of the day, and when you get at his thought you are startled at its relevancy. This statement will, I think, be verified in these glimpses of our everyday life among the Senecas, and that which the Senecas have told me about the Iroquois in general. I have been urged to publish these reminiscences as a tribute to the rare ability and devotion of two missionaries, and also to throw a side light upon the history and character of a fast-vanish- ing race. The Iroquois, long before the white man knew this country, had established his headquarters in New York State. He called it the ‘‘ Long House,” and Lake Erie, the *‘ front door,” was guarded by the Senecas. The Iroquois represented a powerful confederacy of six nations: the Senecas, Tuscaroras, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks. This last nation guarded the ‘rear door” of the ‘‘ Long House,’’ the Hudson River. The history of this curious confederacy told by an Indian as received from his ancestors will be read with peculiar interest. If this simple story of everyday life among the once formidable Iroquois open the eyes of any reader to brighter and hitherto un- appreciated phases of Indian character; if it incite a throb of interest in this unfortunate race; if the record of these heroic lives, willingly given for their redemption, shall inspire one young Christian to carry to the Indian the tidings of his divine inherit- ance, — these pages will have accomplished their purpose. eongglae Ill. ives VI. VII. CONTENTS. THE CHILD:— Adoption.—The Little Runaway. — A. Child Prayer Meeting. — The Sampler THE MAIDEN : — Boarding School. — Essays. — Teaching School. — Local Catechism.— A New Correspondent. — The Unseen Lover : THE BRIDE:—The Wedding Journey.—-Old Log Mission House. — Reception by the Indians. — The Gift of Tongues. — Missionary Diet : : THE YOUNG MISSIONARY. — The Horse and Saddle- bags. —‘‘ Miss Bishop! he can’t mad!’ — Deacon Fish Hook’s Opinion. — The Cholera. — Translating the Scriptures.— The Mission Church. — ‘*‘ White Man’s Bread.” — The Light of the Mission. — The First Letter. — Experiences 4 3 ; ‘ ‘ THE FosTER MOTHER: — Catherine King. — Martha Hoyt. — Asher Wright Two-Guns.— Louisa Jones. — Henry Morrison. — Phinie Sheldon VISIT TO VERMONT:— The Canal Boat.— Indian Children. — The Inverted Album WHITE CapTivEsS: — Old White Chief. — Mary Jemison. —The Old Indian Burial Ground PAGE 21 27 35 45 51 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. PAGE VIII. INDIAN CHARACTERS: — Young-King. — Chief In- gs fant.— Fish Hook tf OBO Te eS i IX. THE SEVEN YEARS’ TROUBLE: —The White Man’s hit Treaty. — Removal. — Touching Tribute. — A Bit of : Yellow Paper. — The Indian Revolution . : - 13 A. X. A BOSTON GIRL AMONG THE INDIANS: —‘“ Auntie ie Wright.” — Dogs and Babies at Church. — Boarding with an Indian Chief. — Teaching School. — Tests of Courage. — Dividing the Log. — ‘‘ Pray, father! ”? — The Lace Sleeves. — Clean Mouths and Clear Brains. — An Indian Martyr.— Adopted into the Tribe. — Taken Home PP oe eC XI. THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM: — “‘ Great many goods.” — Narrow Escape. — ‘‘ Be very stingy of me!’”—Our Johnny.—The Little Bird. — “See! vn See!? — The Stolen Baby. —The Revival. —Indian Fi Child’s Prayer.— ‘TI looked mad!” — Children’s Letters. — Blue Sky. — A Novel Gift el oie XII. By THE Way:—The Old-fashioned Chaise. — Peter Twenty-Canoes. —The Young Infidel. — A Combina- tion Plenic Waren et sania) tsa =) bee Pyne bint . XIII. AMONG THE PAGANS:— The Wonderful Box. — Story of Logan. — Mrs. George Washington. — John Hudson. —John Logan.— Moses Crow. — Grand- mother Destroytown. — A Day Among the Pagans. § — Mr. Porcupine. — Moses Cornplanter. — Mrs. Big Kettle. — Mrs. Black Snake. — Mrs. Johnny John. — The Bottomless Buggy. — Industrial Education. + — The Pagan Prophet. — Feasts and Dances . . 151 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE THE MYSTERIOUS PasT:—Origin of Good and Evil. — Before Columbus.— Two Hundred Years Ago.— Indian Funerals. — The Long House. — Wampum Belt. — The Calumet.— Who were the Kah-gwas? — The Frogs. — Looking into the Future . - 229 INDIAN ELOQUENCE . 2 via RY FH nS ‘A WEDDING LIKE WHITE PEOPLE” . : Hangent | EXTRACTS FROM MRS. WRIGHT’S LETTERS +202 LAST MESSAGES . : ; : : : : oe TESTIMONIES : . . F ‘ SANs i - 805 CONCLUSION e . . . . ° . «molt IF I live; this accursed system of robbery and shame in our treatment of the Indians shall be reformed. — ABRAHAM LINCOLEN. TREAT him not as an American Indian, but as an Indian American. When the significance of this designation is practi- cally accepted there will be a very radical revolution in Indian American affairs. —- COMMISSIONER MORGAN. EVERY human being born upon our continent, or who comes here from any quarter of the world, whether savage or civilized, can go to our courts for protection—except those who belong to the tribes who once owned this country. The cannibal from the islands of the Pacific, the worst criminal from Europe, Asia, or Africa can appeal to the law and courts for his rights of person and property — all, save our native Indians, who above all should be protected from wrong. —GOVERNOR HORATIO SEYMOUR. Mrs. Laura M. WRIGHT. QUR LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. I. THE CHILD. N the fine old town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, on the morning of July 10, 1809, an event of considerable interest occurred in a certain family of wide-awake boys and girls —the grandchildren, in fact, of that well-known Vermont pioneer, Willard Stevens. For on this morning they welcomed into 2 their circle the latest ‘‘ new baby,” Laura Maria Sheldon. As the months went by this Green Mountain baby grew and thrived. She became the constant companion of her next older brother, Charles, until the arrival of baby Henry, when she divided between the two the wealth of love in her little warm heart. The strong tie of affection which united these three lives in childhood remained unbroken through seventy years of peculiar and varied experience. 3 4 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. When Laura was two years old the family moved to Windsor, and five years later to Barnet. It was from Laura’s grandfather, the historic Willard Stevens, that the early Scotch settlers bought the land which was afterward incorporated into this lovely, picturesque town. Here resided an older sister, who, faithful to the Stevens line, had married a second cousin, bearing the name of the pioneer Willard. At the request of this sister, Mrs. Willard Stevens, Laura, at seven years of age, became an inmate of her family, and received from her the watchful care and thorough training of the old-time Puritan mother. Soon after Laura had reached her eighth birthday, the bridge crossing the river which ran through the village was carried away by a flood. At the head of a waterfall eighty feet high a plank was thrown across the stream for the use of men who were obliged to go to their work on the other side. Here a party of Indians encamped one day upon the opposite bank, and our little Laura, filled with desire to know some- thing about these curious people, and to see how they lived, and to become acquainted with their strange ways, gave her family a terrible fright by crossing the plank, and investigating for herself a new phase of life. Thus began with this child an absorbing interest in the Indians, which never abated. THE CHILD. 5 Laura’s most intimate friend at this time was Harriet Sprague Wright, now Mrs. Moore, of Barnet, Vermont, to whom we are indebted for the Indian incident, and who also furnishes the following : — ‘* When I was about eight years old, and Laura ten, she proposed that we girls have a prayer meeting. She and Betsey Gill and I met in a ‘playhouse,’ as we called it, and Laura took charge of the meeting. She opened the exercises by prayer, and called on us to follow. Betsey, who was six years old, offered a prayer, but I, like a foolish child, only laughed, for which Laura, with flashing eyes, reproved me.” One other glimpse of this child, at the age of eleven years. She sits in the ‘‘ family room,” by the capacious fireplace, and spends the long winter evenings in the intricate task of manufacturing the b old-time ‘‘ sampler.” ‘‘ Her eyes,” says her brother Henry, ‘‘ were black; so was her hair. The neigh- bors called her ‘handsome.’ She was a good student, although by nature a little stubborn, causing her teacher some trouble at times, but not for long.” Let us look over the shoulder of this dark-eyed, industrious maiden and see what the small fingers have wrought. The piece of canvas about the size of a pocket handkerchief reveals at first sight a variety of colored silks finely woven into the material. She is now deftly stitching in small stars and crosses 6 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. by way of final adornment. ‘This new religion,” they said in their wrath, ‘¢must be bad, since those who embraced it could be so dishonest, so unjust, so cruel.” Those who made this resolve have passed away, but their children to some extent hold the same prejudice against Christianity, and it has caused marked division between the two parties from that day to this. Mr. and Mrs. Wright, however, were always consulted with as much confidence by the pagan leaders as by their own Christian flock. Nearly forty years after this stormy period, Mr. Henry Silverheels, who well remembered those sad days, stood over the open grave of his beloved mis- sionary, Mr. Wright, and gave this simple, touching testimony : — ‘There was a time when we had lost every foot of land we had in this state. Our chiefs had yielded to temptation, and been bribed by wicked men to sell our homes, and it was only a question of time when we should be driven away from all that was dear to et ee ee OOS ee 7 ak 78 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. us. Mr. Wright, fully understanding the situation, went to a prominent member of the Ogden Land Company, and induced him to use his influence with the company to consent to a compromise, by which the Allegheny and Cattaraugus Reservations were restored to us. Thus it is that we owe our present comfortable homes to Mr. Wright’s love and care for us. Let us remember him with gratitude and try to live as he lived, for the honor of God and the good of our fellow men.” On ‘a bit of yellow paper is the following in Mrs. Wright’s handwriting, written during this period of trial : — CATTARAUGUS RESERVATION, December 31, 1846. The Lord’s mercies have been infinite towards me, although L have been an unworthy sinner. I desire, this last day of the year, in reviewing all the past, to acknowledge the unceasing goodness of God towards me, and I would ask his grace to help me to con- secrate myself anew to his service. ‘‘ Oh, the depths!” my soul exclaims while reviewing my whole life, and oh, my ingratitude and sin! O Lord, grant me help to serve thee better, to walk humbly before thee, and in such a manner that I may always feel the preciousness of Christ and his salvation. Leave me not to myself, lest I basely and presumptuously dishonor thy name, and ruin my own soul. Oh, may I lay myself at thy feet and quietly await the accomplishment of all thy holy will and pleasure con- cerning me, evermore. Amen. LAURA M. WRIGHT. During the two years following the removal of the Buffalo Indians to the Cattaraugus Reservation, it required divine wisdom and patience and skill to THE SEVEN YEARS’ TROUBLE. 79 adjust the unhappy exiles to new conditions. The church work was necessarily interrupted. In 1848 the Indian nation underwent a revolution, and substituted a republican government for the government by chiefs. Ata convention held at the Cattaraugus Reservation, the delegates in a very firm manner abrogated the old government and proclaimed a new order of things after the manner of the founders of our own gov- ernment. By this new arrangement the supreme judiciary is composed of three judges designated as ‘‘ peace- makers.” ‘The legislative powers of the nation are vested in a council of eighteen, chosen by the uni- versal suffrages of the nation; but nothing is binding unless ratified by three quarters of all the voters and three quarters of all the mothers in the nation. One provision of this constitution exhibits a degree of national frugality well worthy of imitation by those gentlemen in our own Congress, who spend so much of the ‘‘ dear people’s”’ money in talking about their rights and interests. The Seneca Constitution declares that the compensation of members of the council shall be one dollar each, per day, while in session, but no member shall receive more than twenty-six dollars during any one year! With such a provision there will be no danger of their council becoming ‘‘ dilatory.” The following are the reasons given for changing 80 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. their form of government and adopting a constitu- tional charter :— We, the people of the Seneca nation of Indians, humbly invoking the blessing of God upon our efforts to improve our condition, and to secure to our nation the demonstration of equitable and wholesome laws, do hereby abolish and annul our form of government by chiefs, because it has failed to answer the purpose for which all governments should be created. 1. It affords no security in the enjoyment of property. 2. It provides no laws regulating the institution of marriage, but tolerates polygamy. 3. It contains no provision for the. poor, but leaves the destitute to perish. 4. It leaves the people depending on foreign aid for the means of education. 5. It has no judiciary nor executive departments. 6. It is an irresponsible, self-created aristocracy. 7. Its officers are absolute and unlimited in signing away the people’s rights, but indefinite in making regulations for their benefit or protection. We cannot enumerate the evils growing out of a system so defective, nor calculate its overpowering weight on the progress of improvement. But to remedy these defects we proclaim and establish a THE SEVEN YEARS’ TROUBLE. 81 constitution, or charter, and implore the government of the United States, and the state of New York, to aid us in providing us with laws under which progress shall be possible. INDIAN BABY FRAME. The Indian mother has certainly invented the most convenient method of carrying and lullabying her baby. All babies are nearly of the same size, and nobody needs to be told how long or how wide a baby frame should be made. It is a straight board, sometimes with side vieces, and always with a hoop over the head from which to suspend a curtain for the protection of the little eyes from the sun, and to keep the child from harm should the baby frame fall. The child is envel- oped in a blanket and laced to the frame, which is carried upon the back of the mother by a strap which comes over the forehead, and with much less fatigue than inherarms. The baby is kept in the frame most of the time through infancy, and it is astonishing how contented it remains in its little prison. While the mother works in the field she hangs her baby on a low limb of a tree where it is rocked by the wind. When busy in the house she suspends it on a nail, or places the BABY FRAME. frame in a corner; sometimes she hangs it where she can swing it to and fro as she passes, singing as she goes the following lullaby, which loses much in the translation :— Swinging, swinging, lullaby, Sleep, my little one, sleep; It is your mother watching by; Swinging, swinging, she will keep Her little one, lullaby. Swinging, little one, Baby, baby, do not weep, Sleep, sleep, little one, And thy mother will be near, Little baby, lullaby. 82 X. A BOSTON GIRL AMONG THE INDIANS. HE missionary work upon the Cattaraugus Res- ervation was divided, Mr. and Mrs. Wright bd having charge of the ‘‘ upper mission station,” and Mr. Bliss and family the ‘‘lower mission station.” This family, with whom Mr. and Mrs. Wright worked in delightful harmony several years, was succeeded by the late Father Gleason, whose works still follow him among the Choctaws, Mohegans, and Senecas. Mr. Wright and Father Gleason were both college classmates of my father, Dr. Joseph S. Clark, of Boston, Massachusetts, and thus it came to pass that while yet in my teens the call came to join these devoted workers upon the Cattaraugus Reservation, and under commission of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, to learn how to be a missionary. Miss Mary Kent, of Grantville, Massachusetts, was commissioned at the same time. Dr. and Mrs. Treat, Dr. A. C. Thompson, and my father were our companions on the journey. We can reach California to-day in less time than it took us then to go from Boston to this Indian Reservation on 83 84 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. Lake Erie’s shore. We arrived at the railroad station nearest to the Reservation on Friday. As the lower Mission House was near the church, the whole party was entertained there over the Sabbath. Father Gleason and an Indian met us at the station. Mrs. Treat and myself were placed in the care of Nicholson H. Parker, the United States interpreter for these people, a tall, powerful Indian, who drove us over the nine miles through the woods to the Mission House. I remember that we were rather afraid of him, although he treated us with the utmost kindness, and wus in his manners ‘‘ every inch a gentleman.” I shall never forget the consecration meeting in Father Gleason’s study that evening. Dr. Treat’s prayer was a great comfort and inspiration to the young girl and her companion, just starting out in missionary life. ‘The musical tones and rare expres- sion with which Dr. Thompson repeated that entire hymn, ‘‘ Oh, could I speak the matchless worth!” linger with me yet. Missionaries were present at this meeting from other Indian reservations, forty, fifty, and even sixty miles away. They had come this dis- tance in rough lumber wagons at great inconvenience, to see these secretaries of the American Board and to welcome the new missionaries from Boston. During the evening I became interested in the sweet, careworn face of a lady sitting a little apart AMONG THE INDIANS. 85 from the others. I did not know that she was Mrs. Wright. With closed eyes and bowed head she seemed lost to present surroundings in absorbed com- munion with God. - When, later in the evening, I was presented to her, she took both my hands in her own, looked at me earnestly for a moment, and said : — ‘¢ Poor child! so young and so inexperienced! You ought to be at home with your mother. How little you dream of the life which is before you!” I had felt greatly attracted to her during the meet- ing, but these words chilled me, and I said, ‘‘Is there then no work here which a young Christian can do?” She hastened to comfort me. ‘‘If you are really one of the Lord’s consecrated ones, you will find work enough here. And who knows? your youth and inexperience may be used by God where our wisdom fails.” This was my introduction to Mrs. Wright, whose story we have followed as a child, maiden, and mis- sionary wife through forty-four years. A friendship was soon established between us which steadily gath- ered strength and sweetness to the last. The lower mission station was surrounded by a magnificent grove of maple, black walnut, and pine of wonderful growth. We used to call this station ‘the bird’s nest.’”’ Sunday morning we all went to the Mission church, a plain wooden building seating 86 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. about two hundred people. When we entered the church, Father Gleason was already in the pulpit with an Indian hymn book in one hand and the bell rope in the other, selecting hymns for the service, ringing the bell with all his might to call in the slow-moving Indians, and singing at the top of his voice the old hymn,— 3 “‘The voice of free grace cries, e Escape to the mountain.’ ” This bell, by the way, was a present to the Christian In- dians from Dr. Hawes’ church, Hartford, Connecticut. Our seats faced the two doors of entrance and we had an opportunity to watch the people as they gath- ered. With dignity and reverence they entered the sacred house. The men took seats on one side, and the dogs which had followed them in curled up under their feet. The women occupied the other side of the church; many of them wore blankets and carried papooses on their backs. One of these mothers thus laden took a seat beside me. She gave her blanket a peculiar hitch, and the baby came over her shoulder into her lap. I sprang to catch the child, but found my fears were groundless. Although I saw this per- formance repeated hundreds of times in the seventeen years that I spent with this people, no child ever met with an accident, the baby seeming to understand how to slide safely over the shoulder in response ‘NOILVLS YUAMOT ‘ASOOL] NOISSTIIL AMONG THE INDIANS. 87 to the mother-hitch of the blanket. And so in time the audience consisted of men and dogs, women and babies, missionaries and teachers. Father Gleason never acquired the Seneca language. He preached and read the Scriptures through an inter- preter, Mr. Henry Silverheels, a tall Indian of com- manding presence, who used much more time in Indian than the missionary did in the English. A sermon of fifteen minutes’ length in English occupied three quarters of an hour in delivery. I shall never forget the singing. The weird, plain- tive Indian airs were too suggestive of the sad fate of this strange race, and after the first verse of the first hymn, I could control my feelings no longer, and yielded to a burst of sobs. The Indians decided that the young missionary from the ‘‘land of the rising sun” (Boston) was homesick, and although at the time there was no indication by look or manner that this strange outburst had been observed by them, they told me afterward that their hearts went out in great sympathy to the young girl so far from her mother. At intervals during the service, certain dogs became uneasy, and wandered about, even upon the steps of the pulpit. Then Father Gleason, giving Silverheels a long sentence to interpret, started after them with his cane and drove them out of the house, coming back to the pulpit somewhat out of breath, but in sea- 88 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. son to proceed with the next division of his discourse. The service was very long. After a while a baby began to cry; the mother made no attempt to quiet the child. Another baby followed suit, and still another, until several babies were crying at once. Then the dogs began to howl; and with the crying babies and howling dogs the good missionary was obliged to terminate his sermon and let us go home. The day after this first Sabbath, Drs. Treat and Thompson, Mrs. Treat, my father, and other visitors, took their departure on their way to a missionary meeting farther west, and I was left alone among strangers. For a little time I was overcome by this thought, and the responsibility which I had taken of becoming a messenger of God to this people. I found a quiet corner in the Mission House and yielded to my feelings. After a time the tempest was stilled, - and the message came to my heart, ‘‘ Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest;” ‘¢] will strengthen thee.” The loving devotion of Mrs. Gleason and_ her daughters and the overflowing spirits and good cheer of Father Gleason were a great help to me in those days. The missionaries decided to place me in a settle- a AMONG THE INDIANS. 89 ment seven miles from the Mission House, upon the shore of the lake. I was placed in the family of an Indian chief to board, and my kingdom was a little schoolhouse in the woods. The house of the chief was old and loosely built. The window of my room opened upon the lake and it was not uncommon for the snows of winter to drift in upon my bed and upon the floor. The chief with whom I boarded was a man of education and culture. He had the remarkable gift of interpreting as a whole any address or sermon — which might be given to the people by some orator or distinguished preacher visiting the Reservation who could not manage the ordinary interpretation sentence by sentence. He had rare power of memory, and could repeat word for word any discussion or conver- sation. ‘There were certain Indian men in the family whose business it was to wait upon him. He was never known to black his boots or harness a horse or attend to the slightest detail of the house or farm, which consisted of some two hundred acres. He spent his time reading, writing, visiting among white people many miles away, and looking after the inter- ests of his tribe. His wife, a white lady, was de- votedly attached to him. Her strong affection never wavered a moment from the time she married him, at the age of fifteen, until the hour of his death. She never regretted the step she had taken, although 90 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. disowned by parents and friends for doing it. It was a comfort to her, however, surrounded as she was by Indians, to have the companionship of one of her own race. She had a large family of children who attended my school in the woods. One other inmate of this family was the aged mother of the chief, who did not speak a word of English and was never reconciled to his marriage with a white woman. It may be said that as to the white wife, this was the skeleton in the family, and many a time the missionary teacher was obliged to make peace between the two. As soon as the children could lisp the word ‘¢mamma”’ the old grandmother commenced to teach them the Indian language and to use all her influence to instill into their minds Indian beliefs, Indian super- stitions, and the Indian religion. They were all bright children and not easily influenced in these matters. The daughters, as wives of white men, are now hap- pily settled in life among people of their mother’s race. The first morning, when I started to go to the little schoolhouse in the woods, I was appalled by the sight of a herd of cattle outside the door. There were horses, colts, cows, calves, pigs, and dogs. I went back and said to the chief :— ‘¢T have always lived in a city, and have not been accustomed to seeing animals loose in the streets. I 999 . am afraid to pass them alone. Will you go with me AMONG THE INDIANS. oie With great courtesy he accompanied me to the schoolhouse. I said :— ‘¢ Will you come for me at noon and go home with me?” I shall never forget the expression of his face as he turned and said to me, ‘‘ You have come a long way to live with us, and to teach these Indians the Jesus Way. NowI want to say something to you. If you are afraid of anything, you can never win these Indians to the Jesus Way, for they despise a coward. If you wish to have any influence over them, you must be very brave.” ‘¢ But,” I said, ‘‘I am not brave. I am afraid of spiders and mice and snakes and dogs and _ these- animals on the road. What shall I do?” and I recalled with a shudder the experience of the night before, when I discovered a family of mice keeping house in my straw bed. ‘¢The one thing for you to do,’ said he, ‘‘is to hide your fear. Never show it in the presence of the people. I will come for you this noon if you ask me to, but knowing that you wish to win these people to your religion I thought it wise to tell you this.” I said, ‘‘Do not come for me this noon. If I am not brave at heart, I will, at least, be brave out- wardly.” He left me alone in the little schoolroom. It was a sacred moment with me, for there in the 92 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. solitude of those woods I asked from One who never fails us, strength to do the work, give the message, win this people, and be delivered from physical fear. My little flock began to gather. I soon found that I was to have a company of all ages, from the child three years old to married men and women. With my ignorance of the Indian language and their igno- rance of the English the situation was peculiar. It occurred to me many times during those first weeks to wonder of what use my education would be to me, shut up in a little schoolhouse in the woods on an Indian reservation. But I soon learned that I needed. all the education that I had received, added to all the wit, wisdom, and common sense I could command, to master the situation. Books were of very little use. While I taught them English they taught me Indian, and I was soon able to make my own schoolbooks, which gave them the rudiments of the many things I wished them to know, and prepared them for a better understanding of the ordinary schoolbook when they should have sufficient English at their command. I think I have never been happier than during those two years in that secluded neighborhood of Indians, whom I loved, and who loved me, and where in every home I was a welcome and favored guest. It was their joy to help carry out my wishes in every respect as far as they possibly could. Life in the woods with AMONG THE INDIANS. 93 these children of nature, although so different from the city life to which I had been accustomed, seems even now a delightful dream. At first they tested me in different ways as to my courage, knowledge, and ability. One night I sat in the deserted schoolhouse writing a letter home. I had heard no footstep but my attention was arrested suddenly by a hissing sound. I turned and saw an animal entirely new to me. The malicious expression of the eyes terrified me. It was an opossum. My first impulse was to leap upon the table and scream ; then the thought flashed into my mind, ‘‘ This is a test of your courage and you are being watched”; so I turned back and went on writing; but the letter written with shaking hand gave evidence of my fear. Then I heard a shout, and from under the windows of the little schoolhouse three men leaped up and said, ‘She is n’t afraid! she isn’t afraid!” and the opossum was carried away. Soon after this I was asked to go through a certain lonely ravine, which some of the Indians believed to be inhabited by witches; and when I expressed my willingness to pass through this place, and I did it, though with much trembling, — not through any fear of witches, but of snakes, — they again pronounced me very brave. One day while my school was in session, three men 94 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. came to the door and said, ‘‘ We want you to come out into the woods and tell us what to do.” I immediately followed them, again trembling in- wardly through fear that I should not be equal to the emergency. On the way I asked, ‘‘ What is it?” ‘¢ Well,” said the leader, ‘‘ we have been cutting down a very large tree. We have cut off the branches, and it belongs to two of us, and we each want an equal amount of the wood to carry away ; and we want to know exactly where to cut this big tree, which is very large at the bottom and very small at the top, so that he will have as much wood as I shall have.” As I followed these men to the woods, I ransacked my brain for an illustration in mathematics which might help to tell them where to strike the vital point of that tree, but without avail. Even though I knew by figures where the cut should be made, if they could not be made to understand the figures, they would never feel satisfied that it was the right place. How was I to know just where to divide this tree and to prove to them, in their ignorance of all mathematical rules, that I was right? And here the lesson which I was learning in all these days was again emphasized. This was one of the little things, the everyday items of life, in which I might have wisdom from above if I would but ask; but while I lifted my heart in earnest petition for this AMONG THE INDIANS. 95 wisdom, not a ray of light came to me until we reached the woods. Here was the long log. There were a couple of Indian ponies hitched to a tree; there were ropes with which each was to drag away his own section, and close by was a fallen tree. Like an inspiration a plan came to me. I said : — ‘¢Cut the upper branches from that fallen tree, so far (indicating the measure) ; tie a rope to the log; let your horses draw it over the fallen tree; stop them when it balances.” They obeyed directions, and when at last the long pine log rested and balanced upon the fallen tree, I said, ‘‘ Cut it there.” They saw at once that the division must be equal if the log were perfectly balanced, and a shout rent the air: ‘‘ This lady from the ‘land of the rising sun,’ she knows everything.” And during that one hour an influence was gained over those young men which under ordinary circumstances might not have been gained in years. My duties in this settlement were not confined simply to teaching, but included the duties of pastor and pastor’s wife. I visited the sick, ministered to the dying, helped the friends of the dead to prepare them for burial, and occasionally conducted a burial service. During a blessed revival of religion in my school a number of the young people were converted, among 96 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. others a frail young girl who was greatly distressed about her father, a backslider. I missed her from school one day, went to her home, and found her very ill with pneumonia. Day after day during the week I was by her bedside, and I knew that she must die. The one thought in her mind during all those days of suffering was the spiritual condition of her father. One day she said to me: — *¢ Do you think I shall die?” I said, ‘* Yes, dear; you will soon be with Jesus.” The cold sweat was already on her brow. | ‘¢ How soon do you think it will be?” ‘¢ Well, you may live an hour, and the time may be less.” She said, ‘‘ Please call my father.” He was outside the house in great sorrow, for he loved this child devotedly. When he went into the room she said : — ‘¢ Father, I want you to take me out by the brook. I want to hear it sing once more.” He took her in his arms and carried her out beside the little brook running by their house. She beckoned me to follow. ‘¢ Father,” said she, ‘‘I am going to leave you. I am going home to Jesus, and when I get there I want to tell him that my father prays. I want you to pray now, father.” AMONG THE INDIANS. AGE ‘¢T cannot do it, my child,” said he. ‘I have not prayed for years.” ‘¢ Pray just once, father, so I can tell Jesus as soon as I see him, ‘ My father prays.’”’ The man could not resist the pleading of the child and began to pray. His heart was melted as he poured out the story of his sins before God. He seemed to forget the child in his arms, but I had been watching her, and while this honest prayer of peni- _ tence was going forth from the heart of the returning prodigal, her spirit winged its way to tell the glad news, ‘*‘ My father prays!” One day I was called to the cabin of a pagan family who had utterly resisted all efforts to win them to the Jesus Way. One of the daughters had been per- mitted to come to the school, but seemed thus far unaffected by Christian influences. I had missed her from her accustomed seat, but as they lived quite a distance from the schoolhouse I had not been to look her up. One day the mother came to me and said : — ‘‘ My daughter is dying. We have made her grave- clothes. She has seen them all and is satisfied with them.” It was a great comfort to the Indians in their last hours to be permitted to see the clothes in which they were to be buried. ‘‘ But there is one thing,” she 98 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. continued, ‘‘ which we cannot make. She wants a pair of lace sleeves like those she has seen you wear.” Some flowing lace sleeves, after the fashion of the day, had been embroidered for me by my mother, and I had occasionally worn them, to the great delight of the Indians, who are very fond of embroidery. The mother said : — ‘¢ We cannot make these sleeves for her. Can you do it?” I said, ‘‘ Yes, I can do it; and I will do it upon one condition.” ‘¢ What is it?” said she eagerly. ‘¢'That I may embroider the sleeves by the side of your daughter’s bed, and that I may be allowed to say to her just what I please.” ‘¢PDo you mean,” said she, ‘‘to talk to her about the Jesus Way?” ‘¢ Yes, that is what I mean. I want to prepare her to meet her God.” ‘+ It cannot be, > said the pagan woman; and she turned away sorrowfully. This was hard for me, but I believed that through the pleading of the daughter I should in the end be allowed to have my own way. The daughter was in consumption, and would probably linger for some time. I must wait. In two days the mother returned and said :— AMONG THE INDIANS. 99 ‘‘ My daughter gives me no peace. She wants the sleeves for her burial.” I said, ‘¢ She shall have them upon my conditions.” ‘¢Ts there no other way?” said she. ‘¢ No other way,” I replied. ‘¢Then it shall be as you say,” said the mother. I had already sent by mail for the necessary ma- terials that I might be ready for this opportunity, and at once went home with the mother. From that time I spent one hour each day by the bedside of the young girl, embroidering the lace, while she watched every stitch taken with the keenest interest. During that hour the room was filled with pagan women, also watch- ing with fascinated eyes the progress of the embroi- dery, and I need not add that not one moment of the hour was lost in giving to this dying girl the message of the gospel, while her pagan friends were obliged to listen to the same truths. The result was that the dear child died a triumphant death through faith in Christ, and the women commenced from that time to attend the Mission church and to hear the regular preaching of the Word. We have reason to believe that they have all joined the redeemed throng on the other side. The young men and women in my school were addicted to the free use of tobacco, to which the young men added fire water. The floor often looked 100 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. as though afflicted with the smallpox. The only clean place in the whole room was the space about my desk, which they were all careful not to pollute. As soon as they could understand me, I made a rule, and printed it in large letters upon the blackboard. It was the first rule I had made in this school : — DO NOT SPIT UPON THE FLOOR. ‘¢What shall we do?” said the young people. ‘¢We cannot swallow this juice; it will kill us.” Tobacco is a very sacred herb with the Indians, and they are so fond of it that I knew it was useless to fight against the habit after the usual methods; so I said : — ‘¢T have this floor scrubbed every three days. It takes a great deal of strength to do it, and it is very hard for me to see it soiled so quickly, and that is why I make this rule. I will tell you what you can do. When you come to the door of the schoolhouse take the tobacco out of your mouths and put it away some- where, and during recess while you are out of the room you can have it again. In this way we will keep the floor of our schoolhouse white and clean.” It was very hard for them at first, but they per- severed ; and finding that they sometimes forgot the quid even at recess, I said: — AMONG THE INDIANS. 101 ‘¢ Would it not be a good plan to keep your mouth as clean as the floor?” One of them said, ‘‘I did not think I could get along without it one hour, and now sometimes it is not in my mouth during the whole day. I am willing to give it up, and have a clean mouth.” Then I helped them draw up a pledge to give up tobacco and fire water, which was signed by all. the older pupils of the school. This was the first tem- perance society, and the people were greatly inter- ested in it. We held temperance meetings and had temperance addresses and discussions by the young people both in Indian and English, in which the parents took great delight. One of these young men was induced to join a company of white men to go ‘‘rafting,” as they called it, upon the Alleghany River. These raftsmen, who were addicted to the free use of liquor, finally observed that the young Indian never tasted it. They asked him the reason. He said he belonged to a tem- perance club and had solemnly promised never to taste it again. They laughed him to scorn, and said :— ‘¢ We will soon teach you, you miserable redskin, how much such a promise is worth.” But in vain they tempted him. He would not yield. They were furious, and resolved to conquer his will 102 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. by heroic measures. One day they handed him a glass of whiskey, but when he declined as usual they pushed him into the river. He swam to the edge of the raft, and taking hold of it begged them to let him come on board. They said :— ‘6 Yes, if you will take the whiskey.” He replied, ‘* I cannot break my promise.” Then they unloosed his fingers from the edge of the raft, and pushed him awzy from it. He was getting exhausted and sank; rising to the surface again he clung once more to the raft. ‘¢ Will you take the whiskey?” said the men. ‘¢T cannot break my promise,” said the Indian. Again they loosened his hold upon the raft, and again he sank, to rise no more. I do not think the men intended to murder him, for they were too intoxicated to realize their cruelty or to plan such a crime; but in the sight of God, that young Indian was a martyr to the truth. When the Indians wish to confer a very great honor upon a missionary, they adopt him into the tribe and give him an Indian name. I shall not soon forget the day when this honor was conferred upon me. A mass meeting was called and preparations made for a great feast. There were many kettles of boiling o-nooh- gwah —a stew of corn, beans, potatoes, turnips, car- AMONG THE INDIANS. 103 rots, onions, etc., with a plentiful supply of salt pork. I was placed upon a rude platform where every one of those piercing black eyes could watch me. An old sachem stood by my side talking in Indian, while the audience responded at intervals in an exclamatory affirmative. His speech, being interpreted, was as follows : — | ‘¢Our sister, we believe you to be our friend, and we now proceed to adopt you into our nation. We shall call you from this time forth Go-wah-dah-dyah-seh (She pushes us ahead). ‘¢ We give you an Indian mother and father, sisters and brothers. If they are sick, you must nurse them ; if they are in trouble, you must comfort them; if they have good fortune, you must rejoice with them; if they are poor, you must give them money; and they must do the same by you.” These relatives were then separately brought for- ward and introduced to me. I had many opportunities in the months and years following to fulfill my obliga- tions to them, and I am glad to testify that from them I have always received the affection and kindness which they give to one who really belongs to them. After the speech I was invited to partake of the feast, — the o-nooh-qwah, — which was served in wooden bowls and eaten with large wooden spoons or ladles. 104 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. After two years of this delightful missionary serv- ice it occurred to my father and mother that they ought to see where and how their young daugh- ter was living; and so they took a journey to the Reservation. ‘They came to my Indian home. I had never written to them the details as to my accommo- dations, simply telling them about the missionary work. While the privations and inconveniences of the life seemed hardly worth noticing to the enthusiastic young girl, to my parents, fresh from city privi- leges, they seemed unendurable. And within an hour I was told to pack my trunk and go home with them. My mother said : — ‘¢T shall never sleep another night, thinking of the life you are living here.” In vain I remonstrated, in vain I set before her my love for the people and their love for me. I. was taken home, and kept there until dear Mrs. Wright wrote to my mother, ‘‘ If you will intrust your daugh- ter to my care, she shall become a member of my family, and live under the shelter of the Mission House.” This new arrangement took me nine miles away from my first field of labor and I found myself among new environments and more comfortably situated ; but the attachment to my ‘ first love’ never waned. AMONG THE INDIANS. 105 The Missionary Board soon invited me to become a general missionary having the whole Reservation as my field. And so it came to pass that my days were spent with Mrs. Wright visiting from house to house, hold- ing meetings, and carrying the glad message in all directions among these people. I was furnished with horses, wagon, saddle, and in fact whatever was needed to aid in the general missionary work ; and the restof my life on this Reservation was one of constant companionship with her who gave me the devotion of a mother, and to whom I returned the loyal affection of a daughter. In all the happy years that followed we were seldom separated, and the lessons which the young girl learned from this noble, consecrated woman have influenced all my later life. FIREFLY, firefly, bright little thing, Light me to bed and my song I will sing, Give me your light as you fly o’er my head, That I may merrily go to my bed. Give me your light o’er the grass as you creep, That I may joyfully go to my sleep. Come, little firefly —come, little beast! Come, and I[’ll make you to-morrow a feast. Come, little candle that flies as I sing, Bright little fairy bug— night’s little king — Come and I[’]] dance as you guide me along, Come, and I’li pay you, my bug, with a song. — Translation of a song by Indian children at play. XI. THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. SENECA MISSION, June 10, 1854. Dear Husband,— How I wish I could see you this morning! What a blessed thing is entire confidence between husband and wife! What a comfort to know that though ever so widely sepa- rated, our hearts are the same, and we have no corroding fears of change there! You will think I am getting quite sentimental, and perhaps it will do me good to revive some such feelings. I some- times think we have too much of real life, and need a little romance to quicken our sensibilities. I am thankful to subscribe myself, your loving wife, LAURA M. WRIGHT. T pleased God to bring this devoted missionary, Mrs. Wright, into deeper experiences of real life and richer experiences of his grace. The summer following the short absence of Mr. Wright which furnished the wife another opportunity, as seen by the above letter, to give him a glimpse of her loyal, loving heart, was a season of extreme destitution and suffering throughout the Reservation. Mr. and Mrs. Wright, always active in seeking out and relieving the wants of the distressed, were appalled at the amount of sickness prevailing about them, and at their inability to extend adequate relief to the afflicted Indians, many of whom were actually dying of starvation. Early and late through these sad days, they labored on, 109 110 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. imploring pecuniary aid from such friends as they could reach. Before winter they painfully realized that still greater suffering must ensue. Then they sent out more earnest appeals to the far and near. The cry for help reached the ears, the heart, and the pocket of a member of the Society of Friends, Philip Thomas, who had previously manifested a generous interest in the work. Encouraged by promises of aid from this good man, Mr. and Mrs. Wright received into their own family ten sick and starving Indian children, thus assuming in addition to their other labors a load of care equal to their utmost capacity. Is it possible for those who live in luxury and ease, and general unresponsibility, to comprehend such a. sacrifice? Thus began that flourishing institution, the THomas OrpHan Asylum, for destitute Indian children, which is now so conspic- uous an ornament upon the Cattaraugus Reservation. This institution, an invaluable blessing to the whole Six Nations of the Iroquois, stands to-day as one of the many memorials of two consecrated lives. But of those who take such pride in the fine buildings, fitted with all modern conveniences, the cultivated acres and the lovely grounds, where one hundred Indian children are comfortably sheltered and trained to be self-sup- porting men and women, how many look back with grateful remembrance to this self-sacrificing, noble ‘qSU AA ‘SIT pue ‘apy Jo owog oy, ‘NOLLVLS Uudd ‘ASNOH NOISSTPL My i 4 i sail i ! aye | | | Wi N : Mh Li a er . * é * wa é 4 bt 0 pt ag ee . yu ~. «a ee = THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. lil man and woman, but for whose indefatigable labors, wise forethought, and judicious management there would be no refuge for the forsaken Indian child to-day ! How was it done? Philip Thomas, who represents that sect which has yet to make the first mistake in its management and treatment of the Indian, gave a generous start to this move which appealed so strongly to his judgment and charity, and which was to be under the guidance of Mr. and Mrs. Wright, in whose wise management he had unbounded confidence. Be- nevolent people in Buffalo and surrounding towns, through the efforts of the missionaries, were induced to follow suit. Then Mr. Wright went to Albany, and enduring much hardship there, at length obtained a small appropriation from the state. The next step was to secure a piece of land from the council of the Seneca nation, upon which a building might be erected. Through the unwearied efforts of these same mission- aries, from whose vocabulary the words ‘‘ rest” and ‘¢ vacation” seem to have been wiped out, the build- ing was at last erected, and great was the joy when the little Indian waifs, already gathered at the Mission House, were transplanted to the new asylum, ofly a few rods away, to be cared for by a motherly matron, who was to teach the girls all housewifely arts, while the boys were trained upon the farm by a practical Christian farmer, 112 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. The building accommodated one hundred children, and as the family steadily increased in numbers, a neat schoolhouse was placed upon the grounds, and under the care of Christian teachers these children received the advantages of a district school. At the age of fifteen they were placed in the families of Christian people in neighboring towns, who promised to care for them as for their own. In a multitude of cases this promise was faithfully fulfilled. But the rapidly increasing family demands a larger appropriation, else these little waifs must return to the terrible life from which they have been rescued; and again the patient missionary assumes the (to his sen-. sitive nature) distasteful task of appearing before the legislature at Albany to solicit an increased appro- priation. While on this mission his courage is strengthened by daily letters from one who fully appreciates the difficulties of his position. SENECA MISSION, February 24, 1859. My dearest Husband,— You don’t know how I hate to have you away so long, but I feel perfectly willing you should go, if anything can be done for the Asylum, for I am confident that it must go down soon unless something can be done. I feel that I could make almost any sacrifice to save the institution, but you must not think that I am making any sacrifice. I am not. It is you, and it is for your sake that I am troubled. Go in God’s strength, believing that he who hears the young ravens when they ery will go with you and lead you in the right path and prosper your way before you. The hearts of all men are in God’s hand and he can influence them as he shall see best. I hope and trust bod THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 113 you will succeed. Be bold! Don’t feel faint-hearted in this cause, because you know it is one in which any one can be bold. I want to say a great deal to help you, but you are well acquainted with the best sources of encouragement. Your loving wife, LavuRA M. WRIGHT. In a few weeks Mr. Wright returned with the joyful intelligence that his petition had been granted, and the good work for the little ones was permitted to go on. A few incidents will suffice to show the need of such an institution and its blessed ministry to the Indian : — Upon one of her missionary tours, Mrs. Wright was startled by the screams of a child which seemed to come from the bank of the creek. MHastening to the spot, she discovered an old Indian woman in the act of drowning a little boy. She held him under the water until life was nearly extinct. After rescuing the child from the woman and restoring him to life, Mrs. Wright asked the reason for such cruelty. bd ‘¢f am his grandmother,” said the old creature. ‘¢His father and mother are dead, and I am tired of him!” Mrs. Wright wrapped the child in her shawl and drove to the asylum, where, after a warm bath and a bowl of bread and milk, he was tucked into a comfort- able bed for the first time in his desolate little life. The first English words which he tried to say were 114 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. ‘¢Great many goods!” (good things) and with many a laugh he was frequently heard shouting these words, as he ran through the house or about the grounds. An Indian mother, to whom life had brought nothing but suffering and hardship, resolved that her baby daughter should never travel the same hard road. Wrapping the babe in a small blanket, she walked to the nearest railroad, laid it upon the track, and went away. The engineer of the next train saw the bundle, and, stopping the train, picked it up, much surprised to find it alive. The baby was passed around among the passengers, until a lady, recognizing it as an Indian baby, offered to take it to the Indian res- ervation. She brought it to Mrs. Wright, who gladly placed it among the orphaned babes in the asylum. A wicked woman, whose child had been taken from her and placed in the asylum, stole it away one night. The child was wretched while traveling from place to place with her mother, who compelled her to beg. One night she escaped, and finding her way back to the asylum implored them to take her in. ‘* And if my mother comes again, oh! hide me, I beg you, and be very stingy of me!” One day Mrs. Wright saw a very strange-looking object before her on the road, which proved to be a THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 115 small boy, dressed in the cast-off clothing of a man. Mrs. Wright spoke to him kindly and drew from him the sad fact that he had no home, no friends, but was kicked about from one place to another, and was suf- fering from cold and hunger. His little body proved the truth of his words, for it was well covered with black and blue spots. She placed him in the asylum, where he was clothed and fed, and slept for the first time within his memory in a warm bed. His grati- tude to her was pathetic. Every time she entered the building he was sure to get near enough to take hold of her dress reverently, and say again and again in his own language, ‘‘I thank you! I thank you! I thank you!” A pagan Indian and his wife lived happily together in a log house on a clearing which they had made in the woods. Four bright-eyed little ones were given them, to whom they were tenderly attached. One pleasant spring morning the mother rose early, and commenced pounding corn in a large wooden mortar, for the breakfast of her husband and children. These mortars may still be seen standing at the doors of the Indian homes. While pounding the corn, a little bird, attracted probably by the broken bits of corn about, hovered near her, and finally lighted upon her head. This incident struck terror to her heart, 116 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. for the Indians believe it to be an omen of evil. After feeding the children she slung her basket upon her back, holding it in place by a large strap which she passed across her forehead, and started off on a journey of several miles to sell some beadwork and buy a few necessaries for her family. Toward night she returned, and before morning another little one was added to the group; but the Indian mother was very ill and knew that she must die. She said to a pagan neighbor who stood by her :— ‘¢ A few weeks ago Mrs. Wright was here. She told me about a wonderful Being who can take away our sins. I said to her that I would like him to take away my sins. Do you think that will help me, now that I must die?” The sympathizing neighbor, as benighted as she, could only answer, ‘‘I do not know; I cannot tell you;” but she walked three miles to bring the lady who knew about this wonderful Being who could take away sin. When they arrived, the spirit of the mother had returned to God. Mrs. Wright tried to comfort the mourning husband, and offered to take the chil- dren with her to the asylum. With wild eyes he gathered them into his arms, and rudely bade her to leave the cabin. With a yearning pity she obeyed, but begged him to come to her when he needed a friend. THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 117 The poor man sustained the double office of nurse and housekeeper until the falling of the autumn leaves reminded him that through the approaching winter he could not alone provide for the wants of his children. Then, with quivering lips he came to the Mission House and begged Mrs. Wright to take his little flock. The next day the asylum team stood by the door of the cabin; Mrs. Wright found the children clinging to one another, with swollen eyes, while the father walked the floor with the youngest in his arms. The suffering face gave evidence of the struggle within. The missionary solemnly promised him that his children should be most tenderly cared for, and tried to lead his mind to that Saviour who loved the little ones. He said not one word, but taking each child separately from the house, he placed it in the wagon, and when the last had been put out of his arms, he begged them all to be good and obey their new protectors. These children soon became much attached to their new home, and with simple faith accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. ‘The father frequently visited them, and was by their little hands led into the Jesus Way. One of the family in the asylum was a child de- serted by pagan parents, because of troublesome ail- ments. Everything possible was done to relieve the 118 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. child, but in vain. She was a patient sufferer for along time. She seldom spoke to us in English, but on the night of her death, arousing from a stupor in which she had lain for hours, she pointed with her little, emaciated finger to the wall, and with her face aglow with a radiance not of earth, exclaimed : — “See lisea.t ~ ‘¢ What do you see?” was asked. ‘¢ Christ! Christ!” and immediately the spirit of this lamb of the spiritual fold took its flight to the arms of the heavenly Shepherd. An Indian mother, a strong, healthy woman, who planted corn, carried heavy loads besides her baby upon her back, and supported a worthless husband, was taken suddenly ill. Nobody knew what was the matter; she was in great pain. While her husband was chafing her hands she cried out, ‘‘O Ben, Ben, I am dying! Don’t let my baby starve!” and in an instant she was quite dead. The baby began to scream violently. He strapped it upon his back and took the little three-year-old by the hand, and was about to start out to call the neighbors, the nearest of whom lived a quarter of a mile away. ‘¢No,” said the little girl, pulling back, ‘‘I shall stay by my mother.” The father lifted her upon the bed, and there the THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 119 child remained, keeping watch over the lifeless form until he returned. After the funeral the little girl was placed in the asylum, and became a great pet there. But the father would not part with the baby! Through cold and wet and wind and rain that child was always strapped upon his back. Many and many a time you might have seen him with his baby in the saloons in some white settlement carousing with drunken com- panions, or reeling home. Such exposure proved too much for the little thing and it began to look very thin and haggard. Its large, bright eyes shone with a painful luster. Finally, after a protracted season of intoxication, Ben brought the wasted baby to the asylum. It was almost starved to death; the sight of bread and milk made it nearly frantic. It had to be fed very carefully at first, but soon the little life, almost ex- tinct, was brought back. ‘The tiny creature began to put out its arms to every one who came near it with a happy smile. Ben managed to live without his baby a few weeks and then, growing desperate, resolved to sign the pledge if we would give him back his treasure. He promised fair, but we did not dare to trust him until he should continue in the good way a while. He thought this very cruel treatment and one night he 120 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. broke into the asylum, went softly upstairs, stole his baby, and departed for the Canada woods. When last heard from, Ben had reformed and was taking good care of his child. The school connected with the asylum was taught by a faithful missionary teacher. There came a time when, in answer to earnest prayer, the Spirit of God seemed hovering over that Indian school. One morn- ing the Bible lesson was upon the sufferings and death of Christ. Every little form was hushed into quiet, every eye was fixed in earnest inquiry upon the face of the teacher as she urged them to accept this won- derful Friend, who for love of them had given up his life. ‘¢Poor forsaken ones!” thought the teacher. ‘¢Was there ever a flock who needed the tender care of the Shepherd more than my motherless ones?” .For they had been left friendless and homeless in the wide world, to perish by the wayside, or, worse, to become educated to every crime by surrounding influences; it had indeed been a blessed work to gather them into this Indian Orphan Asylum, where they were not only clothed and fed, but daily taught the sweet truths of the gospel. The burden of these souls, a burden which God had THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. Lot lately rolled upon her heart with new power, was becoming almost more than she could bear; and in anguish of spirit she implored the Great Physician of souls to visit her Indian school. How her faith was strengthened when, during the exercises of the fore- noon, a girl of twelve years stood before her with a glow of softened feeling upon her face! ‘¢Teacher,” said she, ‘‘I prayed to Jesus this morning.” ‘¢Did you?” ‘¢ Yes; and Cora prayed with me.” ‘¢ What did you and Cora tell Jesus?” ‘s We said we wanted new, clean hearts that would love him.” ‘¢ And do you love him now?” ‘¢ Yes, ma’am;”’ with childlike simplicity. As each day witnessed new temptations to sin, over- come for the sake of pleasing Christ, their teacher felt that the good work had indeed commenced. She en- deavored to place herself more entirely under the direction of the Holy Spirit, that she might wisely and faithfully guide these precious souls. As the interest deepened, the exercises of the school were suspended during a part of one afternoon each week to hold a ‘‘ children’s meeting.” It was thought not best to admit the younger classes to the first meeting of this kind, for fear they might make nm — eS = TS)” 122 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. some disturbance. To tell the truth, the faith of this teacher was growing strong for her older pupils, but she had forgotten that her Saviour said, ‘‘ Suffer the little ones” ; and so they were sent away. How she was rebuked the next day as one of these same ‘little ones” clasped her teacher’s hand in both her own, and, looking into her face with earnest, thoughtful eyes, exclaimed in broken English, ‘* You can’t willing me to pray? I too little?” With tears of contrition she took the child upon her lap, saying, ‘‘ No, my child, you are not too little. Jesus will hear you; he has left some precious words on purpose for you.” From that time the teacher’s faith was strong for the lambs. They were no longer excluded from the prayer meeting; and soon their sweet child voices were heard in petitions like these: ‘‘ Dear Jesus, please give me new, clean heart.” And do you sup- pose He who took the little ones ‘in his arms and blessed them is deaf to such petitions as_ these? How delightful were the days and weeks that fol- lowed! The new love in those young hearts gave an earnest thoughtfulness to faces hitherto dull and listless. And while imparting useful knowledge to the mind, the constant prayer of the teacher was that the wants of each soul might. never be neg- lected. THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 128 And now these Indian children have entered upon the Christian life. Is there any change in their habits? Do their lives shine? We shall see. Stella Tallchief had naturally a quick temper. It was not an unusual thing during recitation to see her book taking wings in some unaccountable direction, because its owner had not thoroughly mastered her lesson. One day she came to her teacher and said, ‘‘I have been giving my heart to Jesus. I want to be a Chris- tian.” Her teacher pointed out some failings which she must overcome if she would please Christ — among others, her ungovernable temper. Stella ear- nestly entered into the struggle against her besetting sin, and by much fervent prayer she seemed to gain strength each day to resist. But one day, not being ‘fon guard,” she fell, and for a few moments was overcome by her old enemy. After school she seemed overwhelmed with a sense of her sin, and begged her teacher to pray for her, which she did. Then Stella fell upon her face, and, when her sobs somewhat sub- sided, in a broken voice offered this prayer : — ‘‘Q Jesus, I’m very wicked. Please make me good. Don’t make me good little while. Please make me good all the time. O Jesus, my heart very bad. Please give me clean heart, all washed white with 124 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. Jesus’ blood. Don’t give me clean heart little while. I want it clean all the time. O Jesus, make me love thee. Please don’t let me love thee little while. I want to love thee all the time.” One day Eva Sundown was left alone to sweep the schoolhouse. Having occasion to return, the teacher found the broom lying upon the floor and Eva sob- bing violently. ‘¢ Why, my dear child, what is the matter?” ex- claimed the teacher anxiously. ‘¢Oh,” sobbed the child, ‘‘I don’t love Jesus enough! I’m a very wicked girl.” ‘¢ What have you been doing, Eva?” asked the teacher gently. ‘¢T got mad at some girls in school to-day.” ‘¢ Did you strike them?” | Ob vidoe) ‘Why, Eva, what did you do?” ‘¢ I looked mad at them!” said the child with a fresh burst of sobs. ‘s Was that all?” asked the teacher, much relieved. ‘¢ All?” cried Eva, looking straight into the teach- er’s eyes; ‘‘ didn’t you tell me that Jesus looks in my heart, to see if I really love him? Well, I was very mad in my heart. That’s what made me look mad.” THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 125 There, in the schoolhouse, the teacher knelt with the penitent child, and asked Jesus to forgive the sin and cleanse the little heart from everything which could grieve him. A little while after, happy Eva was busily plying the broom, and singing : — ** Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so.” That God’s Spirit was working upon their hearts is manifest from the following letters from some of these Indian orphan children. The first one was written to a brother in the army : — I will write to you few lines. Dear boy, you must try to do right always. You must pray to God to keep you from sin. God will hear you when you pray to him with aright heart. Don’t be ashamed to do right. Go, doing good. God will help you if: you ask him. I want you to be Christian, and go to meet me in heaven, when you die. Try to please him little things. Brother, get ready to die, and God will take you to heaven to meet your sisters and mother. And now, brother, good-by. Do-all you can to please Jesus. With a heart filled with gratitude for what Jesus had done for her own soul, this dear child could not rest until others were enjoying the same rich blessing. Her anxiety for a young friend who seemed not quite decided to give up all for Christ led her to write the following note one day, during school hours : — Do you think that you love Jesus? I hope you do. I think that I love Jesus, but I want to love him better. ee a $a eR | adh, ‘ » i” i 126 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. Won’t you be a child of God? I want you to be a good girl. Maybe God will let us die to-night. Are you ready? Iam ready, for he has cleansed me. Now, won’t you be a Christian? Jam glad if you are trying to be Christ’s lamb. I pray for you; will you remember me? Here are other notes and letters which are self- explanatory : — I pray in earnest. I want to be Jesus’ lamb and follow him all the way to heaven. I pray very much for my brother who is not a Christian. I pray that I may not sin. I don’t left out any days in my praying. I pray in the morning and afternoon and at night every day. I love my pray meeting. It comes every week on Monday. I am happy—I cannot help it—Ising because I am happy. I shall meet my mother and sister in heaven. i did n’t want to love Jesus once, but my sister —she ask Jesus to make me want to love him—and so he did. I don’t want to be bad now, but sometimes Satan he tempt me to do wrong— and sometimes—I mind Satan. I feel bad then, but when I tell Jesus he forgives me, and I am happy in my heart again. I am thinking about my sins this week. They trouble me. I do not sleep. To-day I thought, ‘‘ Why, Jesus did forgive me sure!” TI want to do right in every little thing. I shall be a very wicked child if Jesus does not help me. You said you wanted us to tell the Jitt/est child about Jesus. I have been telling little Helen Yellow Blanket. I feel so happy to do something for Jesus. Is n’t be good to take us just as we are! I thought once —I don’t know enough to love Jesus. He does n’t care for that! The following is from an Indian orphan girl to the missionary pastor : — My dear Mr. Curtis,—Iam feeling pretty bad to-night. I can never be happy again until I ask your forgiveness. I did play and whisper in meeting to-day. [am very sorry. I-hope I shall never do such a wicked thing again. Will you forgive me? Will you THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 127 pray that I may do right? I find it hard. When I think, Now I will surely do right, there are more temptations before me. I am trying to-night to seek the Saviour with all my heart. Oh, I wish I was as good as you! I could be happy if I was half as good. Mr. Curtis, if you ever see me whispering in meeting again I want you to call my name right out in church. This will break me of it, I am sure. Will you try and forgive me? From your sorrowful little girl. Oh, the friends of blessed memory who led these pagan children to Christ! Mr. and Mrs. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Hall, Mr. and Mrs. N. H. Pierce; and those faithful missionary teachers, Misses Mary Kent, Cor- nelia Eddy, Katie Dole, Clara Dole, Sylvia Joslin, Mary Brown, and many others still held in grateful remembrance by those who were once sheltered in that happy Orphans’ Home. One day I visited the Indian Orphan School for the purpose of holding a prayer meeting with the boys. As we were about to open the meeting Blue Sky sud- denly left his seat and, seizing his bow and arrows, was leaving the room. I called, ‘‘ Blue Sky, wait a moment. Where are you going?” ‘¢Going away,” he replied, with Indian brevity. ‘* But why do you leave the meeting ?” ‘¢Can’t be Christian no more—Satan—he tempt me—too much. Give it up!” ‘¢Q Blue Sky,” I exclaimed, ‘‘ come back! Go into the little room, and while we pray, you think 128 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. about this question, and give me the answer when I come to you: Shall I give up Jesus and mind Satan? or shall I give up Satan and mind Jesus?” The boys prayed that Blue Sky might decide for Jesus. When I opened the door of the little room, he exclaimed, ‘‘Me—can’t give up Jesus—and mind Satan!” We sent this boy away to school, and in course of time received the following letter : — Dear Friends, —I like this place very well. I was homesick at first, but now I am happy. I have company now in my room — another boy. I read the Bible every day, night and morning, and when I get through with one chapter, then I kneel down and pray to our heavenly Father who takes care of me and keeps me from sin. It helps me— great deal. But when that boy came here and when we got into our room, I had a great trouble in my mind. I did not know what to do. I was afraid to read my Bible and pray before that boy. This thought was in my mind about fifteen minutes. At last I said to the boy, ‘‘ Do you ever pray?” He said, *‘ No!” IT had never seen him before; he is older than I am. When he said ‘‘ No!” I felt more afraid) I was a coward before God for fifteen minutes. Then God helped me. I made up my mind to keep right on just as I did before that boy came. I thought, ‘ This is my duty. I must show that I am on the Lord’s side, anyway! Then it came to me what we used to sing at the Orphan Asylum:— Never be afraid to speak for Jesus, Think how much a word can do. Never be afraid to own your Saviour, He who loves and cares for you. I thought about these words, and then I got the Bible off from the table and read a chapter in it. I said to the boy :— THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 129 “This is my way. I shall always do so. I shall read the Book and pray before we go to bed.” And so, when I got through reading, then 1 knelt down by the bed and I pray to our Father. And now I and that boy read the Bible every day—I pray. I feel happy now; but I came very near giving up to Satan. Wi-yu’s father and mother were pagans. She never heard a word about Jesus Christ until she came to the asylum. We were glad to take the children of pagans, even while both parents were living. One day Wi-yu (pronounced We-you) walked up to me and said: ‘* I want to give myself away to you.” I was much surprised, but looked into the little girl’s black eyes, and said: ‘*‘ Why does Wi-yu wish to give herself to me?” ‘‘ Because,” said she simply, ‘* lL love you.” After this, they all called Wi-yu my little girl. One day while Wi-yu sat by my side learning how to hem a pocket handkerchief neatly, I asked her if she loved Jesus, of whom I had been talking to her. ‘* No,” she said, ‘*I do not; but I want to. I want to be a Christian, but I’m too little.” ‘¢ But Jesus says, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me.’ ” ‘¢T don’t know how to go to him: I don’t know what to do,” said she. *¢ Wi-yu,” said I, ‘‘ you must give yourself away to him.” She looked at me in surprise. ‘¢ How can I do that?” she exclaimed. ** How did you give yourself away to me?” 130 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. ‘¢T came to you, and asked you to take me, because I love you.” ‘¢ Why do you love me, dear?” She hesitated a moment, and then answered: ‘‘I1 think it must be because you love me.” ‘¢ Yes, Wi-yu; that’s just the reason. Now, Jesus has been loving you all this time, while you have not been caring in the least for him.” She stopped sewing and sat very still a while, thinking. I did not saya word, because I knew the Holy Spirit was teaching her. At last she said : — ‘‘ Would Jesus be willing for me to give myself away to him just as I did to you?” ‘¢ Certainly, my dear child; that is exactly what he wants you to do. He wants all of you, too. He wants your little feet to run for him, your lips and tongue to speak for him, and your whole heart to love him.” After some more quiet thinking, Wi-yu knelt by my side and said: ‘* My dear Jesus, I give myself away to you. I give you my hands, my feet, my mouth. my tongue, and my heart; I give you all of myself. Please take me, dear Jesus.” She arose and said : — *¢ Do you think he heard me?” ‘¢T am sure of it,” said I; ‘‘ and you will find his answer in your little Testament.” ‘Together we found these precious words in her Indian Testament: ‘** Any THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 181 one that cometh unto me, I will not thrust aside.” Believing that Jesus meant just what he said, she from this moment knew that she was his own dear, saved child. A few days after this, I said to her: ‘* Wi-yu, after you had given yourself to me, did you try any harder to please me?”’ ‘¢Oh, yes!” said she, with a bright face, ‘I tried to please you in everything —even in the very little things.” ‘‘ Are you willing to do anything that will please Jesus?” ‘¢T think I am,” she answered. ‘¢ Will you tell the other girls that you are now trying to live a Christian life?”’ She hung her head and blushed. ‘‘ I am ashamed to tell them,” said she. ‘¢Were you ashamed to tell them that you had given yourself to me?” ‘¢Oh, no, indeed !” ‘¢ And yet, my Wi-yu, you are ashamed of Jesus, your most precious Friend, your wonderful Friend, who loves you so much, and who saves you from your sins! O Wi-yu! Wi-yu! Let us ask him now to forgive you and to help you please him, even in this.” We knelt, and Wi-yu said, with a voice choking with sobs: ‘*‘ Mv own dear Jesus, please forgive me 132 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. for being ashamed and afraid, and help me te tell them all that I have given myself away to you.” When we arose, she said, ‘‘ I can tell them now! I will tell everybody.” On her way to find her schoolmates, she met a minister who was visiting the Indians, and of whom she was very much afraid, because he was a stranger; but, mustering up all her courage, she looked up to him, and said: ‘‘I have given myself away to Jesus.” He was much surprised and touched as he thought of his own daughter at home, who knew so much more about Jesus than this Indian girl, and who had not yet begun to love him. He put his arm about our little timid Wi-yu, and said some very kind and helpful things to her. After this, she found it easier to tell them all, and even gained courage to write to her stern, pagan father, although she was quite sure he would be very angry with her. Here is a copy of the letter : — My dear Father, —I have given myself away to Jesus, and [ am not afraid nor ashamed to tell you of it. Your little Wi-yu. Her father was alone when this message reached him, and nobody knows what he thought; but the very next Sabbath he walked several miles to the Mission church, and heard the missionary preach about this same Jesus to whom his little daughter had given her- THE INDIAN ORPHAN ASYLUM. 133 self; and after that he kept coming, until he too became a Christian man, to the great joy of our Wi-yu. Thus this Indian girl learned the most precious lesson that can ever be learned: how to give herself away to Jesus, how to trust him wholly, and how to obey him cheerfully and lovingly, no matter what he wishes her to do. XII. BY THE WAY. HE arrival of the mail was an event of intense interest at the mission, but a letter from David G. Eldridge, of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, telling us that the gift of an old-fashioned chaise was on the way, by canal, to the Reservation, caused great excite- ment. ‘Is it possible,” said Mrs. Wright, ‘‘that at last my poor head is to be protected from sun and wind and rain and snow during our long drives!” Mr. Wright dampened our ardor somewhat by a sug- gestion that the new vehicle might not take kindly to the mud holes of the Indian roads. When the chaise reached Buffalo some one had to go after it with a horse, as the last thirty miles of its journey were to be taken by land. Several Indians volunteered to do this, so curious were they to see ‘‘a wagon with two wheels and a cover.” The successful candidate returned with the chaise in due time, and solemnly admonished all within the sound of his voice to have nothing to do with this ‘‘evil invention of the white man.” ‘The mode of har- nessing a horse to the chaise differing from ordinary 135 136 LIFE AMONU THE IROQUOIS. harnessing, the bewildered charioteer found himself ‘‘ looking into the sky” several times on the way home. When Mrs. Wright and I were about to take our first chaise ride, we were particular to have the straps securely adjusted, lest we too should find ourselves suddenly ‘‘ looking into the sky.” At the start we were followed by an admiring crowd, but after a while in the solitude of the woods we were free to exult in the happy exchange of the hard, springless seat of the rickety, open wagon for the soft cushions and protecting cover of our New England chaise. Alas! our exultation was short-lived. With the cus- tomary plunge into a mud hole stretching entirely across the road, Ruhama made safe passage to the other side; but the unlucky chaise remained in the center of that black sea, stuck fast, its thills thrown upward like imploring arms, its occupants ‘‘ looking into the sky!” Ruhama stopped and, regarding us a moment in dignified surprise, began to nibble the surrounding bushes. After a somewhat prolonged discussion of ‘‘ the way out” we were forced to sub- mit to the inevitable, and, descending into the black sea, with some difficulty we brought the uplifted thills to a horizontal position, drew out the heavy chaise, attached it to the patient beast, and turned our faces homeward, passing through other holes with becoming BY THE WAY. Tt caution. Arriving at the Mission House, we were glad to exchange our mud-soaked garments for something more respectable and comfortable. Peter Twenty-Canoes was the great-grandson of a man who owned ‘‘ many canoes”; yet this descend- ant was shiftless in the extreme. His love for fire water was his greatest affliction. King Alcohol led the man into a multitude of scrapes, and left him to find his way out as best he could. One day, being overcome by an unusual spasm of industry, Mr. Twenty-Canoes borrowed a scythe, and resolved to work out a while. Alas! he couldn’t begin without his dram, which resulted in a fall upon the scythe, cutting open one side of his face, and en- tirely taking off his nose! It was a blessed accident te him, however, for it led to his reformation. The ingenuity of our Indian was now taxed to its utmost to supply the very important feature which he had lost. While visiting at the Mission House one day, he observed some adhesive plaster with which Mrs. Wright was dressing a wound. ‘‘That’s the thing for me!” said Mr. Twenty- Canoes, with considerable energy. We gave him a small piece, which he immediately formed into a re- spectable nose, and fastened upon his face. The man was jubilant, and no longer walked among his - 138 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. fellow creatures noseless. This manufactured article was at times in quite a dilapidated condition, but on gala days it was fresh and new. Mr. Twenty-Canoes was fond of variety ; consequently, no two noses were of the same shape and size, which gave a refreshing diversity to the expression of his countenance. This Indian was fond of exhibiting his little stock of English upon every available occasion. He scented a polysyllable a long way off, and brought it to bear upon his conversation in a way quite remarkable. He wrote me a note one day, in which he endeavored to express his appreciation of my worth to his peo- ple : — Miss C.: Respected Sir, — Task to know how long commence school again on our district. I ought not to been so negligence with my boy, and I had been recommend it, that you are mostly confidence missionary as than any others among Indians, that is to your capacity to instruct the Indians in the way to the morality, life, and perseverance for human intelligence. I know you will not afail and omission too much inform me the set time to com- mence school on our ‘neighborhood. Your respectable friend, TWENTY-CANOES. Mr. Twenty-Canoes kindly volunteered at one time to write a ‘*‘ begging paper” for an old woman to take to white people, and thereby obtain the necessaries of life. As the poor creature made her first effort with the missionaries, | had an opportunity to copy the manuscript verbatim, BY THE WAY. 139 BEGGING PAPER. To all whom it may concern the bearer of Sally Silverheels which she is very old of age unable her to care of herself had no family to see her supported whosoever to do this thing to rendered unto or attribute towards the needy and indeficient the god will bless you for your great bounty of charity such thing as provision and she will be very thankfully to you give to her that article little money or clothing or anything. TWENTY-CANOES. Twenty-Canoes was once asked to assist in drawing up a Temperance Constitution. Of the ten articles, I have space for only three : — 1. This sogiety shall always be open in prayer by some benevo- lent religious person. 2. If any member shall become intoxication, and accident occur, or death attack him in spirit condition, the society shall not be responsible for such person. 3. We shall assistance the sick, and furnish Doctor, and in case any member become mortality, furnish all necessary purposes for the funeral. I had a Bible class of thirty young men. One of these had received a good education, and possessed an unusual degree of mental culture. He went into business in Buffalo and fell into bad company. From Buffalo he went to Chicago, only to pursue. the same downward course. All this while the prayers of his mother and the missionaries followed him until the Lord directed his steps home to the Reservation for a vacation. He was very hard and even bitter toward all Christians. He was impelled to come into the old Bible class every Sabbath, where he would combat 140 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. every religious truth uttered, in order to destroy its force upon the minds of others. He spoke freely of his own disbelief in the Bible and everything of the kind, quoting from infidel authors. A position was offered him in New York. He came to the Mission House and told me this. ‘¢ Tt will be your ruin,” said I. ‘¢ Why?” he asked indignantly. ‘* My boy, you are like a poor boat out on the rest- less ocean with no compass or rudder. You will be drifted about just as your master, the devil, shall choose.” He started to his feet, his eyes flashing. ‘* You want me to be a Christian,” said hé. ‘*How can I be a Christian when I believe nothing of your re- ligion? I will not deceive you. I have not a par- ticle of feeling. JI could die calmly this moment. It would be mockery to accept a Saviour of whom L feel no need — in whom I do not believe even intel- lectually.” My heart went out in great pity as I looked at him, but it was time for our weekly missionary meeting, held in the Mission Home. Mrs. Wright was calling me even then. As I turned to leave him I said : — ‘You are going away. I shall not have another opportunity to ask a favor of you. Grant me this one to-night. Go into the prayer meeting with me.” BY. THE WAY. 141 He laughed and exclaimed, ‘‘ What a ridiculous idea !” ‘¢ Never mind,” said I; ‘* go with me to-night.” ‘¢ Well, just to please you, I will do it,” said he. Great was the surprise of the missionary band to see the young infidel in that sacred spot. He took a chair, tipped it back against the wall, and prepared to be an amused spectator. I was so overwhelmed with the sense of his condition that I knelt immediately and prayed for a young friend who boasted of his want of feeling, and I entreated the Lord to strike conviction to that heart even then. Others followed in the same strain until the poor young man could hold up his head no longer, but buried his face in his hands. As soon as the meeting was over he vanished. I saw no more of him for several days, and supposed he had gone to New York. One afternoon he appeared at the Mission House and said, ‘*‘I want to see you alone.” His face was haggard, his eyes wild, as though sleep had been a stranger to them. He walked back and forth a few times, trying to control his voice, and finally said :— ‘¢7] have had no peace in my mind since the night of the prayer meeting; no peace night or day. I cannot sleep. Tell me how you found the Saviour, for I must find him or lose my reason.” 142 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. Oh, the mighty power of the Holy Spirit to con- vict a stony heart! I pointed him to Jesus as well as I could. ‘¢ Oh, yes,” he said, as I told the story of my own conversion ; ‘‘it was easy for you to come to Jesus ; but you never knew sin as I have.” ‘¢ But, my boy, he saves the chief of sinners.” I then read the passage proving that although his sins were as scarlet they could be white like snow. ‘¢ But you don’t know,” said he, ‘‘ to what depths of sin I went in Buffalo and Chicago. I drank and I gambled. Oh, I have been a terrible sinner ! ”” ‘¢ Yet there is mercy for you,” I said, as I con- tinued giving him messages from God’s own Word, knowing well that this was too solemn an occasion to use words of myown. At last he knelt with me and surrendered all to Christ. ‘* My heart, my hands, my feet, my all, just as I am,” he cried, and found peace in believing. Great joy came to him then. The great love of Christ seemed wonderful to him. ‘¢ Why have I waited so long,” he exclaimed, ‘‘ so long, and wasted all these years, when they might have been given to Jesus?”’ He was only twenty-one years of age. That night when he went home his mother had retired and was asleep. He burst into her room and roused her with these words : — aa BY THE WAY. 145 ‘¢Q mother, mother, I have found the Savionr!” What sweeter sound could have greeted the ears of the praying mother? He knelt by her bed, she threw her arms about him, and together they talked and prayed until the day dawned. When he told me of this afterward he said : — ‘¢T saw a look in my dear mother’s tired eyes the next morning that I never saw there before.” The next Monday evening he attended our prayer meeting at the Mission, and here in broken accents confessed that conviction entered his soul even while we were in prayer. It occurred to the missionaries that it might promote good fellowship between the Indian and white man to hold a social picnic together. Invitations were sent to prominent people in Buffalo and other cities to become the guests of the Indians upon this occasion. The president of the day was Henry Two-Guns, a stepson of Red Jacket; the vice-president, Dr. Peter Wilson ; the marshal, Nicholson H. Parker, brother of General Ely Parker. The brass bands were entirely composed of Indians. Nathaniel Thayer Strong, known to the Indians as ‘‘Chief Honondeuh,” was elected orator. As he had a fine command of English he was asked to speak in that language. Words are inadequate to describe 144 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. the condition of mind with which we listened to the following outburst addressed to our guests : — Ladies and gentlemen: In some respects the pres- ent occasion is extraordinary. Never before did the white man with his women and children meet the red man with his women and children in a social picnic. It is an occasion to make our hearts glad, and I would like for a moment to present the past condition and relationships of the two nations in contrast with the present. As we all know, the red men were the first occupants of this soil. In 1647 the Confederacy of the Six Nations of the Long House was able to raise thirty thousand warriors. War and the sports of the chase were the pursuits of the red man. Their clothing was made of the skins of the animals they killed in the chase; their food was the flesh of wild animals; the corn and beans and squashes were raised by the women, and the labor of the lodge was all performed by them. The possessions of the Iroquois had ex- tended far to the south and west, and their name was a terror among all the surrounding nations. They roamed from river to river and from valley to plain in pursuit of the buffalo, the bear, and the elk; they darted across our lakes and rivers in their light canoes to find the beaver and the otter and to take their furs. BY THE WAY. 145 At appointed seasons they returned to the council fires of the Six Nations for the transaction of public business, and to keep the annual feasts. More than a hundred years afterward (in 1776) we find them greatly reduced in numbers, only about twelve thou- sand, though their customs are the same. Ladies and gentlemen, let us look at the white man in the same periods. In 1647 they had only three hundred all told who were capable of bearing arms. They had a system of government and written laws. Their religion was founded upon the Bible; they knew the value and use of money; they knew that land was better than money, and they made every effort to obtain it. The white man bought it of his red brother and paid him little or nothing. He bought our furs too at his own price. In 1776 the white man numbers two hundred thou- sand. Forests have fallen before the woodsmen; the game has retreated until both have nearly disappeared. The land of the red man became cultivated. The white man built cities, towns, villages; he built churches, colleges, academies, and common schools. You have made canals and railroads, and your electric telegraph sends the news with the speed of thought. This is wonderful. The red man cannot comprehend it. Your commerce extends over the world. Your ships are on every sea; your steamers 146 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. are on every river. In two hundred years your population has increased from six thousand to three millions. Allow me-to ask what price did the red man receive for all this broad domain? Allow me to read you a public document : — ‘‘ By these presents we do for ourselves and our successors, ratify, confirm, grant, and submit unto our most sovereign lord, King George, by the grace of God King of Great Britain, defender of the faith, all the land lying between ” — here follows a description of the premises, including lakes, rivers, etc., of our land — never paying a cent for it! Ladies and gentlemen, you see from this that your forefathers wronged the red man, and took advantage of his ignorance. The red man has a long history of wrongs and grievances ; though unrecorded by the hand of man they are written in the great Book of Remembrance kept by the Great Spirit, and he will inquire into this at your hands by-and-by, and he will do justice to his red children. « Ladies and gentlemen, I appeal to you whether we are not entitled to your sympathy, whether we have not claims upon your assistance, while we try to raise ourselves from the condition in which ignorance and prejudice have sunk our nation. The red man is aware of his condition — he feels it deeply —he feels BY THE WAY. 147 an alien from the Commonwealth. There are no monuments to commemorate the deeds of our fore- fathers, but there are the mighty rivers and the eternal hills which we have named. Ladies and gentlemen, the Six Nations of the Iro- quois are now represented before you. The president of the day is a Seneca, the vice-president on his right is a Cayuga, and on the left you see an Onondaga. In this audience are representatives of the Mohawk and the Oneida. One of your own poets has said that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. Here is a band of musicians delighting us with their sweet strains, composed entirely of the descendants of Senecas and Tuscaroras; and I doubt not they have gratified even civilized ears. Ladies and gentlemen, you perceive we are changed. We have schools and books and churches, and are fast adopting the customs of white men. For these improvements we are indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Wright and other missionaries of the American Board.» Great is our debt of gratitude to these per- severing and devoted men and women. If you will but extend to us the right hand of fellowship, we shall abundantly reward your efforts, and you will at least see among us a state of cultivation and refinement. The missionaries have not made a great noise by blowing of the trumpet, but quietly and 148 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. peaceably they have gone about among us doing good, and may they live to see fulfilled their most cherished hopes, and answered their fervent prayers ! SENECA INDIAN NAMES. HALFTOWN. TWENTY-CANOES. SILVERHEELS. WHEELBARROW. CORNPLANTER. LONGFINGER. BLUE SKY. BLACK SNAKE. SUNDOWN. DESTROYTOWN. TALLCHIEF. BIG KETTLE. RED JACKET. PORCUPINE. CORNFIELD. GREYBEARD. YELLOW BLANKET. GREEN BLANKET. STEEP ROCK. FisH Hook. DEER Foor. CASTILE SOAP. Bia TREE. GHASTLY DARKNESS. IT must be acknowleged that much of the romance of the ancient Indian character has passed away. The wigwam of so much his- toric interest has vanished, and the Indian has become reconciled to a sheltering roof. They used to say: — ‘Tt is a shame to cover the top of our wigwam so that the Good Ruler cannot look down upon his children in their home life.” For the same reason the top of the head was never covered. “Tt is a shame,” said they, ‘‘to conceal the thoughts passing through the brain from the Good Ruler who is our Great Father.” The time-renowned skins and fur are replaced by broadcloth and calico. Venison is supplanted by beef and pork. Formerly a hoe in the hand of an Indian brave was a terrible disgrace; now a hoe in the hand of an Indian woman is quite unfashionable. ~~ ¢ t bape § a er ree = vi y' XII. AMONG THE PAGANS. HUS far we have followed Mrs. Wright in her everyday life among the Christian Indians. Not all, however, who belonged to the ‘‘ Christian party ” were believers in Christ. Many who called themselves Christians had simply ceased to believe in paganism through having lost faith in Handsome Lake, the pagan prophet. About one third of this Indian nation, how- ever, still held to the old pagan belief. These lived in settlements by themselves apart from the missionaries and Christian Indians, and faithfully observed the old rites, including all the feasts and dances. Many of these rites are observed there to this day. The dance house was located at New- town, the stronghold of paganism. The people of this settlement were so prejudiced against Chris- tianity that they resisted every effort to win them to the Jesus Way. The pagan leaders declared that the Name should never be spoken there. Two men were required to locate their cabins on each side of the entrance to this settlement, and turn 151 152 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. back any one who came to bring the white man’s religion. Mrs. Wright’s heart yearned with unspeakable anxiety over these souls who thus condemned them- selves to the darkness of ignorance and pagan super- stition. They must be reached. But how? Many plans were discussed, and much earnest prayer offered that a way might be opened —and it was opened, quite unexpectedly, and not in the least according to our planning. While on a trip home to Boston I attended the Sunday-school in West Newton, then under the care of Mr. B. F. Whittemore. The children had decided to purchase a new organ, and were about to consign a small melodeon to the cellar of the church. I asked for it to use among the Indians. The request was cheerfully granted, and soon after I returned to the Reservation with my prize. One Sabbath afternoon Mrs. Wright and I started with the old Mission horse and wagon for Newtown, the stronghold of paganism. In the back of the wagon was the little melodeon given by the Sunday- school children. We drove three miles and ascended the long steep hill to the pagan settlement. The men at the top came out and said : — ‘¢ You cannot come here. We do not wish to hear anything about your Jesus Way.” AMONG THE PAGANS. Toa As we turned to go down the hill, the men noticed the box in the back of our wagon and their curiosity was excited. This was what we had anticipated, for although he holds himself under such perfect con- trol, the Indian has as much curiosity as the white man. ‘¢ What is in that box?” said one of them. ‘¢ That is a most wonderful box,” I replied. ‘* You never saw so wonderful a box.” | ‘¢ Open it,” said he, ‘‘ and let us look into it.” I said, ‘¢ I will if you will let us pass by and go to the dance house.” ‘¢ We cannot let you do that,” said he with a dark look. ‘¢ Then we must go home,” I said. ‘¢ But you will open the box first.” ‘* No,” said I, ‘* I cannot open the box here. I will open the box only at the dance house.” ‘¢ Wait!” he said, and ran to the dance house and consulted the pagan leaders. ‘¢ They have,” said he, ‘‘ in their wagon a wonder- ful box which they will not open unless permitted to pass in and come to the dance house.” | After long consultation the pagan chiefs decided to let us come, that the wonderful box might be opened before all. the people there assembled. And so the offering of the Sunday-school children opened the way 154 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. for us to reach these pagans. We immediately took the instrument from the wagon and set it up on the eround. I had brought a stool with me and sat down and began to play. ‘They had never heard such sounds before. Indians are naturally fond of music and they were captivated by the sweet tones of this little instru- ment. Mrs. Wright and I, hoping by means of the musical missionary to reach them, had prepared some Indian hymns which contained the simple truths of the gospel. We sang one of these hymns. They listened in breathless silence, and shouted, ‘* The wonderful box speaks! It speaks! Let it speak again!” Wesang another hymn. ‘They cried, ‘‘Ah- soh! ah-soh!” (Another! another!) After a while we closed the melodeon, put it into the wagon, and started for home. They followed us in crowds, crying, — ‘* Will you come again, and bring the wonderful box, and sing to us?” We said, ‘‘ Yes; we will come next Sunday.” What were these pagans doing when we passed the guard and came to the dance house? Perhaps I should say here that the pagan dance house is a building about forty feet long by thirty feet wide. There is an immense fireplace at each end. Seats are arranged around the sides, one tier above an- other. The house will accommodate about four AMONG THE PAGANS. 155 hundred people. ‘The only furniture upon the floor of the house is a long low bench. When about to have a dance the people arrange themselves upon these tiers of seats. When the house is full a man comes in with an Indian drum, seats himself upon the low bench in the center of the hall, and begins to beat the drum. Soon another man comes in, with a turtle- shell rattle. The turtle is a sacred animal with these Indians, and always used in their religious festivities. The animal is killed, the legs cut off, the inside re- moved, and the shell filled with pebbles; the neck is drawn out and tightly wound with catgut, furnishing the handle of the instrument. While the first man beats the drum, the second man shakes the turtle-shell rattle, and a third man joins them with a squash rattle. ‘Three men now take their places beside these, who commence to sing the weird Indian songs. This Indian orchestra now being complete, the Indian maidens come from the sides and form a line around them and commence to dance to the measured and monotonous beat of the Indian drum, the shaking of the rattles, and the sudden shrieks of the singers. It is difficult to describe the step of this dance. They do not lift their feet from the floor, but shove them with a certain peculiar movement in perfect time to the music. When this circle is complete the mothers descend from the seats at the side and form a second 156 LIFE AMONG THE InOQUOIS. ring, dancing around the first with the same peculiar movement. When that line is complete the fathers form a third circle with the same movement. The fourth circle is now formed by the young warriors, who, with wild shrieks, and tomahawks brandished in the air, leap around the other three circles. At this time it becomes very exciting and those who are left upon the benches shout with delight. The performers are dressed in gala attire, plentifully ornamented with beads, brooches, and feathers. The young warriors have painted their faces. The scene is exciting and frightful to a stranger. Outside upon the ground there are various games in progress, and here and there the Indian kettle in which their favorite soup is being prepared for the feast hangs over the fire. The next Sabbath we went again to this pagan settlement, and received a warm welcome, with eager requests to open the wonderful box and sing. This we did for several Sabbaths, always singing the simple truths of the gospel. Had we spoken one ? word about the ‘‘ Jesus Way,” we should have been obliged to leave at once. But we were only too glad to be permitted to sing the glad tidings to this people. The Missionary Board had built a schoolhouse near this settlement with the hope that the people would ye? AMONG THE PAGANS. 157 allow their children to go to school, but so far its very existence had been ignored. One Sabbath, after singing several hymns, we said: ‘¢ Next time we shall go to the schoolhouse over there in the woods.” They were very indignant, and with angry faces declared that we must not go, because they could not follow us there. We said, ‘* We shall go there next Sabbath with the wonderful box, and you can do as you please about following us.” So on the next Sabbath, when they ran to greet us as we ascended the hill, we kept on our way toward the schoolhouse. They shouted to us to stop there by the dance house, but we shook our heads and passed on. This was more than they could bear, and they followed us in crowds to the schoolhouse, packed it full, and stood upon the outside peering in at the low windows. Again we sang the hymns. Mrs. Wright said : — ! ‘¢ Tt is now time to hold meetings with these people, and I will open this one with prayer.” I said, ‘‘ You do not know what will happen if you do this.” She answered quietly, ‘‘ God will take care of us.” She knelt in prayer. When these people saw that woman on her knees, there was a strange hush for a 158 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. moment, and then in a body they started for the door ; those who could not get out by the door quickly leaped through the windows, and when she arose from her knees we were alone. ‘There was no one to be seen in any direction. I put my fingers upon the keys of the little instrument, and as soon as the sounds floated out upon the air they rushed in, and again filled the house. It was a moving audience that we had for several Sabbaths. If we did anything but sing they left us, but the wonderful little box could always bring them back again. | At last one Sabbath Mrs. Wright said, ‘*‘ Would you like to hear the story of how this earth was made?” ‘¢'Yes, yes!” they shouted. Then she told them the story as given in Genesis. She spoke of the earth as being round. Mr. Corn- planter arose, and said in Indian : — ‘¢Stop! You have made a great mistake. This earth is flat and rests upon the back of the great sacred Turtle. How could he hold it if it was round? It would certainly roll off. I should suppose,” he continued, ‘‘that one need only look from _ these windows to know that this earth is flat.” She did not contradict him but went on with the story. She spoke of the great and good God as creating all things. Mr. Longfinger arose and said: ‘¢ Stop! stop!” Ny aN ANS RE ‘ ‘ , Ubi * WS J tf é : ae TW Nea! ww / VERTIS oad THE MEDICINE DANCER. ee! adr : Y AMONG THE PAGANS. Lay ‘¢ What is it, brother? ” said she. ‘¢ You have insulted Ha-wen-ni-yu, the Good Ruler.” ‘¢ How have I insulted him?” asked she calmly. ‘¢'You say he made all things. He never made anything evil that would hurt his children. He never made bad people, or the cruel animals that would destroy us, or the poisonous herbs that would kill us. Ha-wen-ni-yu made only good people, the beautiful trees and flowers, and the herbs that we use when we are sick, and the animals that are useful to us.” ‘Well, Longfinger,” said Mrs. Wright, ‘‘ who did make all these things that we do not like?” ‘¢' The Evil-Minded, his brother, made them,” said the man. The next Sunday, when we came to the school- house, after the usual songs the people asked for _ another story. Mrs. Wright resolved then and there to tell them the story of Christ. But knowing the consequences if they realized this, she used no names at the beginning. She told the story of a beautiful babe, who was born in an Oriental country. She described the surroundings. She told them about the wicked king, the shepherds, the wise men, and the wonderful star. She told them about the childhood of Christ; his three years of loving service for the people ; how he healed the sick, made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, and at last she told 60 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. of his cruel death and that he was the Son of God. They listened intently. After she sat down old Sil- verheels arose and said : — ‘¢ That is a story of great interest, but it is a shame that the white man should have murdered a son of the Good Ruler, Ha-wen-ni-yu. It is a dreadful thing. I am glad that we Indians had nothing to do with it. It is none of our affair. We would not have killed him; we would have treated him well. The white men who killed the son of Ha-wen-ni-yu ought to be terribly punished. The Great Ruler will punish them. He will be revenged onthem. You must make amends for this great crime yourselves.” Then she told them that this was the Christ of the Indians too, of whom we had sung to them these many Sabbaths. ‘The leaders were very angry, and said :— ‘< You shall never come here again.” The young people, who had been growing more and more attached to us, said, ‘‘They shall come here again. We want to hear more about this Jesus Way.” The leaders said, ‘‘ If they come here again, we will _ throw them from the top of the cliff upon the rocks in the river below.” The young people said, ‘‘ You shall not harm them, for we will protect them,” AMONG THE PAGANS. 161 This discussion grew more and more exciting, re- sulting in long speeches on both sides, which kept us in that house until two o’clock in the morning. Neither of us said one word through the whole of it. I sat at the melodeon and Mrs. Wright by my side. Although we realized our danger, we were enabled to maintain a calm exterior. When at last the meeting broke up the young men went out with us, and stood about our wagon until we were ready to start. We began to dread the long, dark, dangerous way home through the woods, through mud holes, over broken bridges, through streams which we had to ford. We need not have trembled, for the angel of the Lord was even then encamped round about us to protect us from evil. Twelve of these young Indian pagans had secured pitch-pine torches and were making preparations to go with us. A picture for an artist! Two lone women, the old Mission horses and wagon, the dense forest on either side, the young Indians in a variety of indescribable costumes, with their long hair streaming in the wind, running before, behind, and on either side, holding high the torches and singing the Christian songs taught them by us. They placed themselves about us as we started and followed us all the way home, giving us their protection and the light of the torches, 162 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. From that time until there was no more danger this bodyguard with their pine torches always ran beside us on our way home, when we had held an evening meeting in the pagan settlement. At Christmas time we had the audacity and faith to ask for the use of the pagan dance house in which to hold a Christmas festival. This produced the most profound excitement. The leaders declared that those sacred walls should never be so disgraced. ‘The young men said we should be admitted. The old men would not give up the key to the house. The young men took it by force, and, following our directions, secured two large hemlock trees and placed them in each end of the house, and invited us to fill them and defended us while doing it. Boston friends sent me at that time two hundred dollars in money, and several boxes of valuable arti- cles for this occasion. Every pagan of the settle- ment was remembered with some useful present. With a part of the money we bought provisions and gave them a great dinner. We noticed that as soon as the doors of the dance house were thrown open to the people, the angry leaders were ready to enter with the rest and to accept the valuable gifts which we had prepared for them. ‘There was only one moment of friction during the day, and that was when a young clergyman whom we had inyited to come insisted AMONG THE PAGANS. 163 upon offering prayer. We knew well how hard it would be for these pagan leaders to endure this, and so we interfered and begged the good man to allow us to sing a prayer, which was perfectly satisfactory to all parties. Of course the little melodeon, which had been the means of opening the door to this great opportunity, was placed in the center of the hall, and by the grate- ful young people, who loved it as a human being, was gorgeously decorated with hemlock boughs and a profusion of red berries. This festival gave us great power in that com- munity, and although the leaders declined to enter the Jesus Way, their bitter opposition to us was much modified. Through the blessed offering of the Sunday-school children, the little melodeon, we were able to enter another pagan neighborhood called, because of a di- lapidated plank road, the Plank Road neighborhood. Here we ventured to take possession of an empty log house, where we invited the people to meet us every Thursday evening and hear about the ‘‘ Shining Jesus Way.” Of course they came at first simply to see the wonderful box and to hear the music; but we asked that through this means they might receive light. | 164 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. One Thursday evening the weather was intensely cold and the snow so deep that our courage nearly failed us; but the thought of those poor, benighted ones impelled us to go forward in the work ; and so the two steady missionary horses, Roxana and Ruhama, — named for two of Mrs. Stowe’s characters who went about doing good, — were attached to the sleigh and brought to the door. The missionary sleigh was simply a long box upon runners. This box was well filled with straw, upon which we sat, because less ex- posed to the cold than upon boards laid across the top. ‘The melodeon was first placed carefully in the sleigh; then came our missionary bag, our companion on all excursions. This bag contained straps, bits of rope, twine, hammer and nails, a gimlet, a buggy wrench, bread, chalk, medicine, a teaspoon, Indian hymn books and Indian Testaments, matches and candles, lint and linen bandages, adhesive plaster, bright picture papers, a tin horn, cookies and sugar- plums to keep the babies quiet while we talked with the mothers. This seems a strange medley, but in many places, far from human habitations, our bag was invaluable. Upon this particular Thursday evening, being fully equipped as I have described, we started for our log house in the woods. It was a terrible night for the horses on account of the icy roads. We were really AMONG THE PAGANS. 165 suffering from the cold when we drove up to the house. *¢ No light!” said I. ‘¢ Perhaps,” said Mrs. Wright, ‘‘ Castile has no oil. I have brought a small can with me and we will fill the lamp.” Castile Soap was the name of the Indian who pre- tended to take care of our house and have it lighted and warm for us every Thursday. I use the word pretended significantly for, alas! Castile had failed us this time, as many a time before. After securing our horses we were obliged to climb a rail fence and jump into the snow upon the other side, which was not pleasant. We reached the door, shivering uncomfort- ably ; it was fastened. Our missionary bag yielded a key. Once within the house you might suppose our troubles at an end. Far from it. There was not a dry chip upon the premises with which to kindle a fire. Outside under the snow we found a few sticks of green wood. ‘These we placed in the stove and by pouring oil over them succeeded in forcing a blaze — an example not to be followed under ordinary circum- stances. Having no. beil, we resorted, as usual, to our powerful tin horn, which made the woods resound with its shrill note, and from various directions our pagan friends assembled. To our great surprise Logan came with them. Now Logan was a powerful chief 166 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. among the pagans, and had been decidedly opposed to us. The fierce scowl and flash of his eye boded no good. Mrs. Wright and I inwardly asked for heavenly guidance and proceeded with the meeting. We sang and prayed and talked. Finally Chief Logan arose. I wish I could describe this man, but such a face as his beggars description. You might imagine him, scalping knife in hand, looking upon his victim as he looked upon us that night. ‘You white women!” said he, ‘* you who come here and disturb us in the religion of our fathers, I wish you would let us alone.” This was said with great emphasis. ‘*I suppose you are good enough in your way. You visit the sick and you take care of the poor. All that is well enough. But you break up our dances. I wish you would let us alone! We like your singing, but we don’t want your meetings. We do not like your praying and talking. Now I am resolved what to do. You want these children to go to school. If you do not stop your meetings, these children shall never go to school. Now, there is a bargain. Stop your meetings, and we will let these children go to school; go on with your meetings and these children will never know anything and you will be to blame.” This logic caused a smile to quiver upon my lips, but, noting an additional touch of fierceness in his AMONG THE PAGANS. 167 manner, and a quick flash of the eye, I subsided into an attitude of grave attention. ‘¢ Now,” continued Logan, ‘‘ I have resolved that if you keep on coming here with your meetings” (always alluding to our meetings as to some commodity taken with us or left, at pleasure), ‘‘ I will turn your horses’ heads home the very next time you come to the top of. that hill out there. J shall do it!” (Great emphasis.) Do you hear?” he shouted. ‘¢ Yes, brother,’ we said calmly. We sang a hymn as though nothing had happened, appointed another meeting there, and passed out without a word. The next Thursday evening, as we were slowly climbing that same steep hill, whom should we find standing at the top but Logan. ‘¢ Where are you going?” said he. *¢’To hold our usual meeting, Logan.” He took our horses by the bridles; we were quite helpless as to human aid, but we had learned that we could depend upon the Master whom we served for protection. The face of our deluded opponent was very dark, and he seemed possessed by a demon. The road where he stopped us was very narrow. Had he attempted to turn us there the consequences would have been serious. Suddenly Logan let go the bridles, and plunging down the embankment at our side, disappeared. Why had he left us? Was it to 168 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. bring others to assist him in his wicked designs? ‘‘Q ye of little faith, wherefore will ye doubt?” We held the meeting with nothing to molest us. Late in the evening we drove home, passing the place of our encounter with some dread lest evil awaited us there, for we were alone, two defenseless women. We sang hymns of praise on our way, and late at night arrived safe at home. But we never knew why there came such a sudden change into the mind of our enemy at that moment. Again we said, as we had said many a time before, ‘‘ The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” Chief Logan had a cousin bearing the illustrious name of George Washington. This man quarreled with his wife about some trifle, and without further ceremony drove her from the home where for so many years she had boiled his corn and cooked his venison. An angry pagan prides himself upon a stony heart. Appeals fail to move him. She went forth sadly and feebly. She did not know that she was looking upon her home for the last time. She did not know that through this great sorrow the Saviour whom she had rejected so many years was bringing her to himself. She went to the house of Logan, and with a great pain in her heart longed for death. Little did this stricken woman expect to meet her Lord in the house of this gospel hater. AMONG THE PAGANS. 169 One day, not long after our unpleasant encounter with Logan in the woods, we heard a feeble knock at the Mission door. Upon opening, these words greeted us in a trembling voice : — ‘¢Pity me! Do not thrust me aside. Let me lean upon you for [ am in trouble.” The face of the young girl was very sad as she stood at the Mission door. She was the only daughter of George Washington, who had driven his sick wife from her home. The trembling voice and haggard face of the girl contrasted strangely with her pic- turesque dancing costume, heavily ornamented with silver brooches and beads. ‘The poor child had been dancing at a feast all night. ‘*T am afraid,” she said, ‘‘ that my mother is dying. My father will not see her. She wants you.” » The sick woman was miles away, the roads in a wretched condition, but as soon as possible we were at her side. ‘¢My mind is in great agony,’ said the poor creature with difficulty. ‘*Can you help me? I have always been a pagan, but sometimes I have secretly attended your meetings. I have heard you sing and pray and tell about that wonderful Being who came to take away sin. The last time I was there you taught us how to say these words in our own language, ‘Christ died for all.’ ‘The blood of Jesus Christ 170 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. cleanseth us from all sin.’ ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ ‘¢ Now in my trouble,” she continued, ‘‘ these words are ever before me, but I am afraid of God. I want to hide. I am in danger. My mind is very dark. Will you tell me more?” We told her the story of Jesus in her own lan- guage, as to a little child. When we finished there was a new light in those troubled eyes and_ she said : — ‘¢] believe; I need him; I take him! I need him more than any other sinner in the whole world.” She closed her eyes and seemed to be taking into her -soul the message of forgiveness and release from the burden of sin. ‘There was silence in the little room as we lifted our hearts to God that this benighted mind might at the eleventh hour receive the illumi- nation of the Holy Spirit. At last she opened her eyes, from which shone a new light, the light of peace. ‘¢] shall die soon,” she said. ‘‘I beseech you, promise me that you will take my body away from this place, and give it a Christian burial. I do not wish any pagan ceremonies over me.” She asked us to sing a hymn, which translated reads thus : — AMONG THE PAGANS. 171 Jesus, I come to thee, pity me! pity me! I am a poor sinner, oh, pity me! As thou art merciful, Thrust not aside my soul; Pity me, for I am a poor sinner. Only thy precious blood Is able to give me relief. According to thy mercy, According to thy lovingkindness Wash me in thy blood. I am a poor sinner, But thou art able to save me. About half an hour after we left the house Logan came in. He was told of our visit, of the singing, talking, and praying. He was told of Mrs. Washing- ton’s request as to a Christian burial. The man was furious. He cursed us again and again. He walked back and forth, threatening vengeance. He called upon the Evil-Minded to bring upon our heads every curse that the ‘‘ House of Torment” could furnish. ‘¢ What!” said he, *‘ praying in my house? These walls have never known a stain like that before.” He cursed his pretty wife, who shrank from him in fear. He cursed even the sick woman. ‘¢Tf it had not been for you,” he said, ‘‘ this would not have happened. A Christian burial indeed! You will be buried as I say.. If they lay a finger on your dead body, they will arouse an Indian tempest such as they never dreamed of.” Viz LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. The sick one was too much terrified to speak. A pagan woman came to the bedside. ‘¢ What are you thinking of?” said she. ‘* Don’t you know your father and your mother and all your forefathers had a pagan burial? Are you so heartless as to disgrace their dust in this way? Don’t you want to go to the ‘Happy Home beyond the Setting Sun,’ where they are? Oh, how lonesome you will be among the white folks, and your own relations away off where you cannot reach them!” The dancing girl threw herself beside her mother and begged her not to leave her all alone in this world and the next too. The persecuted one tried to speak, but in the exhaustion caused by these trying scenes she could only murmur the words of the hymn, ‘* Jesus, I come to thee, pity me!” The next morning we went again to the house of Logan, quite unconscious of the storm we had caused the day before. A frightened look upon the face of the young wife enlightened us. Chief Logan was there, but simply ignored our presence. His wife dared not ask us to sit down. We quietly ministered to the wants of the sick one. She whispered : — ‘¢Be cautious; the man who hates you and your religion is here.” Logan was suddenly called from the room. Then the women told us all. AMONG THE PAGANS. Vis ‘¢ Will Jesus indeed receive my soul if I am buried with pagan ceremonies?” asked the dying woman. ‘s Do you cast yourself entirely upon him?” ‘¢Yes, yes!” she exclaimed. ‘I believe I do.” ‘¢Then he accepts you. He knows your desire; you may tell him all about it. You may talk with him all the time in your mind and he hears you. These pagans refuse to answer your prayer about your body. Jesus hears and answers your prayer about your soul, and that is safe.” She was quite satisfied. Again we sang and prayed with her and repeated the sweet promises of Jesus. We told her about heaven, expecting every moment to be confronted by Logan; but the Lord in mercy held him back that this trembling disciple might be com- forted. And very soon her spirit took its flight to that land where there shall be no more night, for the glory of God and of the Lamb is the light thereof. We were powerless to carry out her wishes, and she received a pagan burial. Several months later some mysterious impulse moved Chief Logan to appear at the Mission break- fast table one morning and utter these words : — ‘¢T have got through fighting you. You may go on with your meetings if you will. I shall never oppose you again.” 174 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. Overcome by surprise we hardly answered him; but he kept his word. He did not attend the meetings himself, but he permitted others to do so without persecution. One lovely spring morning a messenger came for us to go as quickly as possible to Logan. He was near death and greatly desired to see us. Although we went with all possible haste, death entered this dwell- ing before us. ‘Those who were with him told us that he watched for us with great anxiety to the last. He wanted to hear more of the ‘‘ Shining Jesus Way.” The words of Christ which he heard during that one evening when he came to silence us had followed him from that day until the day of his death. John Hudson, a leader among the pagans, was awakened to search after the real truth. He was a man of great natural ability; like Paul he was very zealous in preaching and teaching his false doctrine. He was one of our bitter opposers, but at one time was induced to listen to us as we talked most earnestly to him of Christ, his life, his sufferings, his death on the cross. With great emphasis he replied : — ‘¢T do believe in Ha-wen-ni-yu — the Great Ruler ; I pray to him every day; but it has never been revealed to me that Ha-wen-ni-yu has a son, and I AMONG THE PAGANS. 175 can never, never pray to him or believe in him whom you call his Son, Jesus Christ.” But the Spirit of God was at work upon this man’s heart, and gradually light broke in upon his darkened mind. Finally he came into one of our meetings among the pagans and told his feelings; but that which we longed to hear most from his lips, his faith in Christ as his Saviour, we heard not. With a proud, defiant manner he stood there and declared that he was ready now to defend the Christian party and embrace the Christian religion. Nothing is impossible with God, and at last in answer to much earnest prayer among the missionaries and Indian brethren of the church, the truth in all its radiance shone clearly into the benighted mind of John Hudson, and he came forth trusting only and trusting wholly in Christ’s righteousness for his sal- vation. He came daily to the Mission House for conversation upon the new religion, and many a night was spent by Mr. and Mrs. Wright in earnest con- versation with this man upon the subject now so dear to his heart. He would sit with the Indian Testament in his hand asking questions until two and three and sometimes four o’clock in the morning. His wife continued in strong opposition to the Christian religion. After having remained a whole week with us in the beginning of his new life, he 176 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. started for his home several miles away. He was somewhat troubled with forebodings as to what kind of a reception he should meet from his family, with whom his path in life for the future must lie in a separate direction unless they should follow him. While walking through the woods it occurred to John that he would tell his new friend, Jesus, of his difficulties, and ask for strength to endure the trial before him. With the simplicity of a little child pleading with an earthly parent, he knelt down and asked that his family might receive him kindly and that there might be no collision between them on account of the great change in him, but that they might be induced also to enter the Shining Jesus Way. Strengthened and refreshed, he went home. His wife and family received him in a very different spirit from what he had anticipated. He told them the history of the change in his views and feelings, and to his grateful surprise met with no opposition. But the faith of John Hudson was soon to be sorely tested. The other pagan leaders, his friends, used every argument to draw him back to his former faith, but he remained firm, and in reply to all their entreaties that he would not leave his children, the pagans, he said : — AMONG THE PAGANS. 177 ‘“Tf you are my children, you must follow your father.” This exasperated them, and they withdrew from him in indignation, and began to devise ways and means to torture their former beloved father. The first step was to erect a new dance house directly in his neighborhood. John expressed his feelings upon this matter to his family, and earnestly entreated them to have nothing to do with this dance house; but there is a custom among the Indians that the uncles and aunts shall have as much authority over the children as the fathers and mothers. John Hudson had one son who was his pride and delight, whom he was gradually winning to look upon his new faith with favor. The son listened to the counsels of his father, and determined to abide by them and give up the pagan dances. During the absence of his father from home at one time, his aunt used all the inducements in her power to bring the young man back to the dances. He yielded to her authority, and by her command assisted in the work of the house with his father’s oxen. While’ drawing a very heavy stick of timber one of the oxen fell down and died instantly. When the father came home and learned that his son had been won back to the dances, and that one of his valuable oxen had died in the work of building the dance house, he was not in an enviable frame of * 178 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. mind. He had not yet commenced his spring work. How was he to prepare the ground for his crops? His Indian temper was well roused, and he was de- termined to give vent to his feelings as soon as he could reach these relatives. But suddenly this thought came into his mind: ‘Is not this a temptation of the Evil One that he may stir me up and get the victory over me if he can?” He went into the deep woods and prayed that God would strengthen him to endure this trial in a Chris- tian spirit and enable him to trust Him for his daily bread. He also prayed that this new dance house in his neighborhood might never be completed. There, in the depths of the forest, upon his knees, this con- verted pagan made a resolution that no word or look should escape him when he met the people who had brought this trouble upon him, which should indicate that he had cherished any unpleasant feelings about his misfortune. God heard John Hudson’s prayer. That dance house was never completed. The timbers yet lie upon the ground, gradually becoming a part of the sur- rounding soil. One day we met John Logan! on the hill at the pagan settlement. He said in English: ‘‘ You know my wife blind. I leave her. Last night had a dream. 1Not Chief Logan. AMONG THE PAGANS. 179 Dreamed a man came to my house — took my wife away; felt anxious—followed on to see her fate; took her long distance —could not find her some- time. After a while I found her; she was hid in a cave — very little sun, very little light— could not see sun—could not see moon nor stars; she sat there lonely. Others sat there too—very sad, very gloomy. Man came to my wife and said ‘ Where’s your husband?’ She said, ‘Don’t know — gone away —left me because I’m blind.’ I felt very bad to find her in such a place. I waked up. I think about my dream: no sun—that means evil; afraid I have done wrong — afraid great trouble coming to me and to my wife — afraid I ought to take your religion and go back to my wife.” We asked him to come to the Mission House and talk with us about the new religion. The next day he came, and asked permission to put to us a few ques- tions for instruction. These were given in his own language : — 1. When we die do our souls lie in the ground all the time until our bodies are raised up? 2. What tribe does God belong to? 38. What language does God speak? 4. What road shall we take to go to heaven? At last he was persuaded to stop asking questions, and give himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. We urged 180 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. him to come to one of our meetings among the pagans, to commit himself there, and show which side he was on. When the opportunity was given him he sprang to his feet and owned that he had been too proud to accept Christ or to pray to him. ‘¢ Now,” said he in his own language, ‘‘I am going to pray before you all.’”” His embarrassment was so great that when he knelt he seemed to fall upon the floor all in a heap. He cried out: — ‘*Q God, you know what a poor sinful creature I am. I don’t know how to pray. Nobody ever heard me pray, but I’m going to try now, and I hope you will teach me how, so it will please: you to hear and answer me. O God! forgive my sins and help me now truly to believe on Jesus Christ.” In the course of the meeting he arose again and said, ‘* Now you shall hear my voice. You all know I am a great sinner. God knows it. But I have deter- mined to repent. A little while ago I did not know anything about the gospel, but the more I heard the = more I believed there was something in it that we have not got, that we pagans did not know anything about ; and now at this time I want you to hear me say I do believe this gospel, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of sinners. I have repented of my sins and now I want to give them up. I here resolve I will never drink another drop of whiskey in all my AMONG THE PAGANS. 181 life; I repent of that. I repent too of my disobe- dience to my mother; I will never disobey her again. When she reproves me I will never answer back. I want to become like Christ. I have been in the habit of going to the dances every Sabbath day. I never got any good there but a great deal of harm. When I come to these meetings I hear something that makes me better.” A woman arose: ‘‘I have never been to one of your meetings before. My child has been in your Sunday-school. He said to me, ‘ Mother, why don’t you go to the meeting? I wish you would go, mother.’ I said, ‘My child, I am a pagan.’ ‘ But, mother,’ said he, ‘ will you go once to please me?’ When my child said that it went like a knife to my heart; it made me weep and tremble. I could not get over it. Something kept saying to me, ‘You must go! you must go!’ Iresolved to come and tell you my feel- ings, and confess my sins, and ask you to lead me into the Shining Jesus Way.” A LITERAL TRANSLATION OF A SENECA INDIAN HYMN. Ye people! Ye miserable ones! Receive The mercy of Jesus. Come! Receive it! Why will you die? Life is free to you, Receive it! receive it! 182 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. A long time ago—he has waited for you, Come! Receive That which is so much to be coveted, Which he brings you, Come! Receive it! He is ready to heal you Of the sin that is killing you. Receive him! Come! Receive him! In our missionary rounds one day, Mrs. Wright and I found one of the most extreme cases of suffering I ever witnessed among the Indians. We entered a log house about ten feet square. The one room of the house contained three beds and the family, of about a dozen people, none of whom were especially neat in their habits. When we entered they were holding a consultation upon some matter which perplexed them. Our eyes followed dark glances directed to a certain corner of the room, and rested upon a helpless man lying upon the straw. I can never forget the look of wistful entreaty with which he regarded us. This man was unable to move a hand or an arm or to sit up a moment. “He had lain in the corner of this wretched log hut for three months, not even a blanket between that bruised and aching body and the little straw upon the floor. One hand was decaying and dropping off; mortification had reached the second joint of one of the fingers. The least jar of the arm was painful to him. The hand and arm were so AMONG THE PAGANS. 183 swollen that you could hardly have told what they were, and as black as the stove. The other hand and arm, in sympathy with this one, were paralyzed. Upon questioning him he told us that when he was taken sick he had a wife, who had forsaken him; all his friends had forsaken him. They were afraid of his disease. He was famishing for want of food. Three months before his friends brought him to this hut, laid him in the corner on the floor, and left him. Ever since, these people had been trying to get rid of him. Sometimes, when he begged hard enough, they put a piece of bread in his mouth, and sometimes when he wept and prayed they gave him a little water. They were now consulting together because one had pro- posed to put him out in the woods and let him die there. ‘¢T have begged these people,” said he, ‘‘ to go to the missionaries and tell them my condition; but we are pagans and they would not go to you. All these days I have lain here and listened for your footsteps, and hoped that you would come to this house. This morning I said, I shall be dead when they come here. This afternoon they are resolving to put me in the woods.” We promised these cruel people that if they would let him remain there until we could find a place we would move him away and take care of him. This 184 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. was easier said than done. We were several miles from home, but we canvassed that neighborhood until dark trying to rent a shanty where we could lay our patient. They said :— ‘¢He is poison; we dare not let him in.” These choice shanties which we could not rent for love nor money were simply rough boards or logs carelessly put together. Finally one man relented, and for a liberal consideration consented to let us have a shed attached to his house ; but it was too late to move the poor man that night. The next morning the old Mission horse started for the pagan settlement with a mixed load; a mattress, bedquilts, sheets and pillowcases, a cook stove, a bag of meal, some pork, a bag of potatoes, a tin dish or two, some boards to nail over the top of the shed to keep the patient from being deluged with rain. While looking up bedding Mrs. Wright’s face wore rather a perplexed expression for one moment. ‘¢How can I spare these bedclothes!” she ex- claimed. ‘‘I never was so short of bedding since I came to the Mission. I actually cannot supply the beds for my family comfortably now.” ‘¢ Never mind, auntie dear! The Lord will provide.” ‘‘Of course he will!” she exclaimed. ‘‘ Why did I doubt for a moment?” Jt was not strange that she should feel perplexed, AMONG THE PAGANS. 185 for this was not the first time, nor the second, nor even the third, within two weeks, that we had been obliged to share the clothing upon our beds with the suffering. Oh, what a happy, expressive face, what shining, orateful eyes, greeted us from the miserable corner as we told the poor man we had come to take him away! It was Sabbath morning, but this was surely Sabbath day work. There were several men standing about watching us curiously ; we asked them to make a litter and carry him to the shed which we had prepared for him. They said : — ‘¢ We cannot touch him; we cannot carry him. We shall be poisoned.” My soul was so filled with indignation at that moment that I felt like shaking the dust from my feet and leaving them forever. Here was adilemma. We began to think that we should have to carry the man ourselves, when—oh, what joy!—we saw a wagon passing by containing four of our dear Indian breth- ren of the church. How good their faces looked to us at that moment! How quickly they understood our trouble! How promptly they leaped from the wagon, prepared the litter, and under our instructions drew a blanket gently under the afflicted one and lifted him slowly and carefully upon the mattress, which was arranged upon the litter, and gently carried him to the 186 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. shed which we had hired! With all their care the poor creature groaned with pain at every step. Was it possible that these dear Christian brethren had only a few years before been sunk in the same darkness, superstition, and hardness of heart in which we found these cruel pagans ? A week later and our patient lying in a shed, seven feet by nine, upon a bedstead covered by a com- fortable mattress, was much better and very happy. His hand was properly dressed, his system strength- ened by nourishing food, and his sister had consented to become his nurse. This kind of treatment he had never received from his pagan friends. It won him to believe that there must be something in the blessed religion of Jesus, and he delighted to have one of us sit in a chair by the bed and tell him of this won- derful Friend, and sing our hymns, and always offer a prayer by his bedside. When we attempted to set up our stove in this little shed we discovered that there was no chimney; so we made a hole in the side of the house and put the pipe through. It rained, and the rain came pouring through the roof. We induced a man to lay slabs upon the roof. The wind blew through cracks in the sides of the room, upon which we tacked pieces of old oilcloth. Upon the side opposite the bed I saw a long shelf covered with straw. AMONG THE PAGANS. 187 ‘¢ This,” thought I, ‘‘ will make a nice place for the dishes and medicines.” I commenced pulling down the straw, but my hand was arrested by three indig- nant, motherly hens, each of which anticipated a fine brood of chickens very soon. ‘¢ Let them stay,” said the sick man; ‘* they will be company for me.” Well, we took care of Moses Crow in that shed one month. That is to say, we went to see him every day, carrying nourishing food to eat, and washing and dressing that terrible hand. This superstitious, igno- rant pagan entered the ‘‘ Shining Jesus Way,” and found the great love broad enough and deep enough even for him. Almost the first words we heard every day were, ‘‘ Tell me more about my won- derful Friend.” At last the owner of the shed declined to let us have it any longer, and we were obliged to look up another house two miles away, where he was moved with less agony than at the first. One day Moses said to me, ‘‘ My friend, do you think I could learn to read?” *¢T think you could,” I said. ‘* But how? I have no hands with which to hold the book.” *¢ T will make a book,” said I, ‘‘ that you can read without hands.” 188 LIFE AMONG THE IROQUOIS. During that week I printed the English alphabet in large letters upon a big sheet of paper which we used in publishing the Bible and hymn books. This was tacked on the side of the room at the foot of his bed. One chart succeeded another as Moses advanced in the art of learning to read both in English and in his own language. JI used to wish that the boys and girls who did not care for school, or books, could see the wistful eagerness with which this poor creature studied his lesson each day. What would he not have given for one small privilege of the schoolboy ! One day Moses Crow asked us to invite some of the Indian brethren of the church to his bedside. He had something to tell them. When we were gathered there he said :— ‘¢ Brothers, I want to tell you that I believe in Jesus Christ as my Saviour.” How this public confession touched our hearts! One brother said : — ‘¢ Moses, do you give up paganism ?” ‘¢ Wholly,” said he. ‘¢ How did you come to give it up?” ‘¢ Well,” said Moses, ‘‘ this was it. These kind friends who have taken care of me told me of Jesus and their religion. As I lay here all alone so many hours I began to compare it with my pagan religion. I remembered how cruel my pagan friends had treated AMONG THE PAGANS. 189 me in my great trouble. I thought, What could have made these strangers take me in my trouble from that dreadful place, and make me comfortable and take care of me? I said it must be their religion. I said, I want a religion that will make anybody do such a thing as this. They told me many stories about their wonderful friend, Jesus, and what he did and what he said. Then [ got to thinking about him, and I kept growing more and more interested. One day I said to myself, ‘I will think about my pagan religion to- day, and compare it with this.’ It had vanished away! I could not find it anywhere. This blessed gospel of Jesus had taken its place and filled all my soul.” ‘¢ Moses,” said another brother, ‘* what will you do with all your past wicked life and the many sins you have committed ?” ‘