202
PAPERS RELATING TO THE SIX NATIONS.
in some convenient Place, And the Settlement of three or four Towns round about it, I wouldremove with it, and bring Several Ministers with me of the best Character and take Care to peoplethe Place with Inhabitants of known Honesty, Integrity, and such as Love Indians, & will seek their•Interest, but whether the Letter reached you or not I never heard, or whether you thought it anymore than a sudden indigested thought I cant tell, however I should be very glad to hear if there beany Probability that such a Design may be Effected ; If your Hon 1 ' can find Leisure enough amidstyour weighty affairs to gratify me in the things which I have assumed the Boldness to request ofyou, you will Greatly oblige me and I hope the Nature of the affair and the assurances your Hon rhas given me of your Friendship towards it will be esteemed a sufficient excuse for me and that yourHon r will believe that I am with the most sincere Respect .
your most Obed 1 and most Hum ble Serv‘
REE. MR. WI-IEELOCK TO SIR WM. JOHNSON .
Sir, Your Honour has no doubt been informed of a Legacy of Sir Peter Warren of about Sevenhundred and fifty Pounds Sterling left in the hands of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, itbeing the Sum due to him from that Province, as his Commissions for their pay from the Crownfor taking Cape Breton some Years ago, and which he gave to be by them improved at Six p r Centfor the Education of the youth of the Six Nations. It has lain unimproved until last Fall, when Iwas in Boston , I was informed of it, and preferred a Memorial to the General Assembly there, andprayed for the use of it in this School, in answer to which they Voted as you have seen, that I shouldbe allowed for the support of Six Youth of the Six Nations, Twelve pounds lawful money for each, forone year, and accordingly I have now obtained the Boys, and they are under the best advantages ifthey have but the Wisdom to improve them.
But there is since in and about Boston a Society incorporated for Indian Affairs, which includesall the Scotish Commissioners, many more to the Number of Eighty, and they have lately found out,as I understand by Doc r Chauncy, that the method I am taking is not the best way to promoteReligion and Learning among the Six Nations, but a much likelier one is, by setting up English Schools among them, the Children to live with their Parents, and attend upon the School, theirParents to Support them &c, and that they design to apply for the use of said Legacy for thatpurpose, and let these Boys go where they will, but considering the insuccessfulness of schools setup thus among the little Tribes in these parts through their want of a due esteem of, and desirefor Learning, their savage roving disposition, their want of Government amongst themselves, theirPoverty, their proneness to imbibe prejudices against English masters, especially on acco* of a goodand necessary Government &c by which means they dont get so much Learning in seven years asthey do in this School in One, and that notwithstanding their Parents keep much at home, not havingdependance upon hunting for thier support &c. Gentlemen here are generally, if not universally ofOpinion that this method is by far preferable at least for the present till a Number of their ownsons are fitted for School Masters, &c.
Your Honour best of any man knows what methods have the greatest Probability of Successamong the Six Nations, and if you think with me that it is best to continue these Boys as they are,and will please to write your Mind to Govern 1 ' Bernard with the Reasons of it, I doubt not but as it