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their two principal settlements, to Stockbridge, and met the Commissioners of the province. The Chiefs expressed a very strong desire, that their children might be instructed; but objected to the removal to Stockbridge, on the ground, that the affairs of the Mohawks there were left in the utmost confusion, that no regular school was established, and no thorough means taken for the education of their children. After reminding the Commissioners, how often the English had failed to fulfil their promises, and disappointed the hopes, which they had encouraged them to entertain, they requestthem to promise nothing, but what the government would certainly perform. The Commissioners agreed among themselves, that, in consequence of the utter incompetency of Capt. Kellogg, another instructer, a man of learning and skill, must be procured for the Mohawk school; and promised the Chiefs, that a regular school should be established for their children, and a competent instructer speedily procured. After this, the Chiefs declared their acceptance of the proposals made to them, of sending their children to Stockbridge for instruction, and of coming, a number of them, to reside there; and tendered a belt of wampum to the Commissioners, in confirmation of the agreement, which was accepted. On Thursday, Aug. 22, the Council was dissolved, and the Chiefs went home.

The Mohawks, at this time, discovered a very strong desire to promote the education of their children, and an unusual willingness to receive religious instruction; as did also a part of the tribe of the Oneiyutas, or Oneidas, residing at Onohohquauga, or Orohquauga, a settlement on the Susquehannah. The French, having been apprised of the efforts making by the English, in behalf of the Mohawks, were busily occupied in seducing them, and the other tribes of the Iroquois, to emigrate into Canada; and were actually erecting a chain of forts, extending from Canada, through New-York, Pennsylvania, and the wilderness beyond, to the Mississippi. Mr. Edwards, believing that, if the utmost good faith was not kept with the Mohawks, the whole plan of instructing them would be defeated; and regarding the period, as a most critical one for the welfare of the British Colonies; addressed a letter, on the subject of the Indians, to the Hon. Thomas Hubbard, Speaker of the House of Assembly. In this letter, he gave an account of the Council held with the Chiefs of the Mohawks, at Stockbridge, and their agreement to encourage the education of their children at that place; mentioned the interest felt in the subject by the Mohawks and the Oneiyutas, and by some of the Tuscaroras; stated the vast importance of the existing crisis, for securing the friendship of the Six Nations; recited the machinations of the French, to seduce them from the English interest, and their hostile movements in the west; pointed out the religious and literary instruction of the Indians, as the only means of securing their attachment to the British cause;

and detailed the measures necessary to be pursued at Stockbridge, to promote these great objects.*

When Mr. Edwards had removed his family to Stockbridge, he found himself exceedingly embarrassed, from the difficulty of procuring the land, necessary for his own immediate accommodation. When the town was first settled, it was granted to the Housatonnucks, except six portions, to the late missionary, the school-master, and four other settlers. These portions were now distributed among fourteen proprietors, and could be purchased, only at a very high price. He therefore presented a Petition to the General Court, at their session in October, 1751, asking leave to purchase the necessary lands, for his own accommodation-a homestead in the centre of the town, and a piece of wood-land in the outskirts. The Legislature granted him leave to purchase the homestead, and recommended to the English inhabitants, to provide the necessary wood-land for their minister.

On the tract of land, which he purchased, near the centre of the town, Mr. Edwards, soon after, erected a commodious dwelling, which is still standing.

* I regret that the length of this interesting letter renders its insertion impracticable.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

Letter to Sir W. Pepperell.-Letter to Lady Pepperell.—Letter to his father.-Arrival of Mr. Hawley.-Increasing importance of Indian Establishment.-Schemes of its enemies.-Firm stand taken by Mr. Edwards.-Letter to Mr. Oliver.-Letter to Commissioners.-Difficulties of the Mission.-Answer to Mr. Williams.-Letter to the people of Northampton.-Marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Burr.-Letter to Mr. Erskine.-Letter to Mr. Hollis.-Letter to Mr. Hubbard.

THE Indian establishment at Stockbridge, being gradually more and more known, excited more and more the attention, and interest, of the benevolent in England. Among these, Joshua Paine, Esq., of London, addressed a Letter to Sir William Pepperell, the Governour of the Province; requesting information, as to the proper plan of a school for Indian girls at that place. An extract from that letter was forwarded to Mr. Edwards from Sir William, through the Secretary of the Commissioners, with a request that he would write to Sir William on the subject. He accordingly addressed to him the following Letter.

"HONOURED SIR,

"Stockbridge, Nov. 28, 1751.

"WHEN I had the opportunity the last spring of waiting on your Excellency at your seat at Kittery, and was there gratified and honoured by the kind and hospitable entertainment of your house, I was favoured with some conversation with you, concerning the affairs of the Indians at Stockbridge, and the business of the mission here, to which I had then been invited. And you were then pleased generously to assure me of your good effices, in affording me any assistance in this employment, which you could render me, through your acquaintance and correspondence in London.

"I have lately been favoured with a letter from the Hon. Andrew Oliver, of Boston, wherein he was pleased to send me an Extract of a letter to you from Joshua Paine, Esq., of London, concerning a proper plan of a school for Indian girls in this place, and to propose to me to write to you on the subject of the said Extract. This encourages me to hope that a letter from me, on this subject, to your Excellency will be kindly received.

"With this hope, I would take leave to say, that I think that, as

the boarding-sohools here are now in their commencement, and are yet to receive their form and character, and that among a people hitherto unaccustomed to any method of instruction whatever, it is a great pity but that the method actually adopted should be free from the gross defects of the ordinary method of teaching among the English.

"One of these grand defects, as I humbly conceive, is this, that children are habituated to learning without understanding. In the common method of teaching, so far as my observation extends, children, when they are taught to read, are so much accustomed to reading, without any kind of knowledge of the meaning of what they read, that they continue reading without understanding, even a long time after they are capable of understanding, were it not for an habit of making such and such sounds, on the sight of such and such letters, with a perfect inattentiveness to any meaning. In like manner they are taught their catechism, saying over the words by rote, which they began to say, before they were capable of easily and readily comprehending them. Being long habituated to make sounds without connecting any ideas with them, they so continue, until they come to be capable of well understanding the words, and would perhaps have the ideas, properly signified by the words, naturally excited in their minds on hearing the words, were it not for an habitual hearing and speaking them without any ideas; so that, if the question were put in phraseology somewhat new, to which they have not been accustomed, they would not know what to answer. Thus it happens to children, even with regard to the plainest printed catechisms, even those, which have been contrived with great care and art, so that they might be adapted to the lowest capacities.

"I should therefore think that, in these boarding-schools, the children should never read a lesson, without the master or mistress taking care, that the child be made to attend to, and understand, the meaning of the words and sentences which it reads; at least after the child begins to read without spelling, and perhaps in some degree before. And the child should be taught to understand things, as well as words. After it begins to read in a Psalter, Testament or Bible, not only the words and phrases should be explained, but the things which the lesson treats of should be, in a familiar manner, opened to the child's understanding; and the master or mistress should enter into conversation with the child about them. Familiar questions should be put to the child, about the subjects of the lesson; and the child should be encouraged, and drawn on, to speak freely, and in his turn also to ask questions, for the resolution of his own doubts.

"Many advantages would arise from this method. By this means, the child's learning will be rendered pleasant, entertaining and profitable, as his mind will gradually open and expand with knowledge, and his capacity for reasoning be improved. His lesson

will cease to be a dull, wearisome task, without any suitable pleasure or benefit. This will be a rational way of teaching. Assisting the child's reason enables him to see the use, and end, and benefit of reading, at the same time that he takes pains from day to day to read. It is the way also to accustom the child, from its infancy, to think and reflect, and to beget in it an early taste for knowledge, and a regularly increasing appetite for it.

"So also, with regard to the method of catechizing children; beside obliging them to give the answers in the printed catechism, or in any stated form of words, questions should be asked them from time to time, in the same familiar manner, as they are asked questions commonly about their ordinary affairs, with familiar instructions, explanations, and rehearsals of things, intermixed; and, if it be possible, the child should be led, by wise and skilful management, into the habit of conversation on divine things, and should gradually be divested of that shyness and backwardness, usually discovered in children, to converse on such topics with their superiors. And when the printed catechisms are used, as I am far from thinking they ought to be entirely neglected, care should be taken, that the child should attend to the meaning of the words, and be able to understand them; to this end, not only explaining the words and sentences, but also from time to time varying the phraseology, putting the question in different words of the same sense, and also intermixing with the questions and answers, whether printed or not, some improvement or application, in counsels and warnings given to them, founded on the answers that have been given.

"Beside the things already mentioned, there are other things, which, as it appears to me, ought to be done, with regard to the education of children in general, wherein the common methods of instruction in New-England, are grossly defective. The teacher, in familiar discourses, might, in a little time, give the children a short general scheme of the Scriptural history, beginning with the creation of the world, and descending through the various periods of that history, informing them of the larger divisions, and more important events of the story, and giving them some idea of their connection one with another;-first, of the history of the Old Testament, and then of the New. And when the children had in their heads this general scheme, then the teacher might, at certain times, entertain them, in like familiar discourse, with the particular stories of the Scriptures, sometimes with one story, and then with another, before they can obtain the knowledge of them themselves, by reading; for example, at one time the story of the creation, at another time the story of the flood, then the dispersion of the nations, the calling of Abraham, the story of Joseph, the bringing of the children of Israel out of Egypt: And in the New Testament, the birth of Christ, some of the chief acts of his life, his death, his resurrection,

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