PAPERS RELATING TO THE SIX NATIONS.
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oe opened for their improvement therein. Some attempts have also been already made among theOnoidas, and not without some encouraging Prospect that their Lives and Manners may be soonformed to rules of decency, civility and religion.—Some endeavors have also been used by yourMemorialists the last spring to introduce Missionaries and School-Masters among the Onondagas andTuscaroras, which proposal they appeared to approve ; but suspended their full determination tocomply with it; till they could have the concurrence of their Brethren of other Tribes therein.
And your Memorialist, being now informed that all the Nations are summoned to meet upon thepresent public occasion, has judged it seasonable to improve the same for the purposes aforesaid, andespecially as he hopes he may have the advantage of your countenance and Influence, therein;which he doubts not your compassion towards those miserable Creatures will constrain you cheerfullyto afford to the utmost of your power if you shall think the Plan well devised to attain the endproposed. And he has therefore sent the Rev d Ebenezer Cleaveland 1 and M r Allen Mather onpurpose to solicit your favour and assistance in this matter, by recommending to them the designof sending Missionaries and School-Masters among their several Tribes ; or by any other ways ormeans, which your great wisdom and prudence shall dictate—relying on your Candour and theNature of the Cause to excuse the freedom and boldness herein assumed by him, who is with highestEsteem and Respect, May it please your Excellencies,
Your most obedient and most humble servant
Dated at Lebanon October 16 th A. D. 1768. Eleazer Wheelock .
CAVEAT OF TWO N. E. MISSIONARIES .
AGAINST HIS MAJESTY’S ORDERS TO SIR WM. JOHNSON .
To the Hon ble Sir William Johnson Superin 1 of the Six Nations &c.
Your Excellency having receiv’d a Letter lately from the Rev d D 1 ' E. Wheelock as also seen hisInstructions for propegateing the Gospel among the Ind ns &c. Pursuant wherunto These are humblyto desire & importune your Excellency, That in as much as your Excellency hath been pleasedmore publicly, & privately to manifest an approbation, & goodliking to the D rs plan, and laudabledesign of propegateing the glorious Gospel among the Ind ns , under your Excellencies Superinten-dency : so your Excellency would please Still to countenance, & encourage the truely noble design.And in order to prosecute the same to effect, that your Excellency (as a tender Father to theseperishing Indians) would be pleased, of your most generous & benevolent disposition, so to befriendtheir cause, as to prevent their setting themselves off from their Lands ; therby to frusterate theafors d design of propegateing the Gospel among them, which undoubtedly will be the Sad conse-quence of their so doing, that this effect may not hap’en, your Excellency is humbly desir’d torestrict the Bounds of the respective Provinces, that they may not be extended So far North &west, as to cut off the Lands & Inheritances of the Natives : but that they possess & enjoy them fortheir own private Temporal use ; and that more Sacred benefit of propegateing the knowlege of thegreat Saviour of the world among them , that so, by the Grace of God, they may have a further
1 Rev. Ebenezer Cleaveland was born at Canterbury, Conn., in the year 1726. He studied at Yale College . While atborne, during a vacation in 1744, he attended a dissenting meeting for which he was brought to an account on his return. Hepleaded that he was, with his parents, a member of the church. This excuse would not be received and he was expelled.This extreme proceeding called forth much public indignation. He received his degree in 1749, and died minister of Glouces-ter, July 4th, 1805, aged 79 years.— Allen.