Boston, more than a year elapsed without results. After further correspondence he sent to Dr. Erskine, in September, 1763, a duplicate of his memorial, which was favorably acted on at a general meeting of the Society, Nov. 23, 1763; and on March 13, 1764, a commission issued to thirteen persons,1 nominated by Wheelock, as correspondents in the colony of Connecticut "to receive donations from well-disposed persons, and to employ the same in promoting Christian knowledge in such manner as shall be directed by the donors; otherwise in promoting the great and good design of propagating our holy religion among the Indians." These gentlemen met at Wheelock's house, July 4, 1764. All were present but Fish and Gaylord; they accepted the commission, and were organized, with Mr. Williams as president, Mr. Jonathan Huntington as treasurer, Mr. Wheelock as secretary, Mr. Whitaker as accountant (afterwards replaced by Mr. Samuel Huntington), and Mr. Salter as clerk (afterwards replaced by Mr. Whitaker). The result proved the wisdom of this step, as for a time "all opposition, far and near, seemed to subside;" and in the following September Wheelock reported that no missionaries were preparing to go among the Indians, except at his school.

While this was depending, in May, 1763, it was intimated to Wheelock from Governor Fitch and others that the Connecticut authorities were more favorably inclined to grant him a charter. But he answered, that having applied to the Scotch society for recognition as its correspondent, he preferred to await the result. The principal reason, however, of his reluc tance to accept this offer was the hope of favorable action by the king upon the plan before mentioned, in regard to which he observed strict secrecy on this side the water. Feeling, nevertheless, the urgent need of present official countenance of some kind in obtaining donations, he did at that session

1 These were Jonathan Huntington, Esq., of Windham; Elisha Sheldon, Esq., of Litchfield; Mr. Samuel Huntington, attorney of law, at Norwich; Rev. Messrs. Solomon Williams, of Lebanon; Nathaniel Eells, of Stonington; Joseph Fish, of Stonington; Samuel Moseley, of Windham; William Gaylord, of Norwalk; Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon; Benjamin Pomeroy, of Hebron; David Jewett, of New London; Richard Salter, of Mansfield; Nathaniel Whitaker, of Norwich. The Scotch society proposed to add Dr. Joseph Bellamy and President Clapp; but Wheelock objected to them as too far away and as too much occupied to be likely to attend to the business.

(May, 1763) apply to the Connecticut Legislature for a "brief" of authority to solicit contributions under supervision of the provincial authorities. The following is the substance of the application:

"The greatest objection made by gentlemen abroad against contributing further to the support of it is, that it has never had the public countenance of the Government where they reasonably suppose it is best known.

"Your memorialist, therefore, humbly prays this Honorable Assembly will take it into their Consideration and Grant him the liberty of a Brief to ask the Charitable contribution of Good people, through this Government for the incouragement & Support of sd School, & that the money so collected may be put into such hands as the Honble Assembly shall see fit to appoint to be improved for that purpose; or that in their Great Wisdom they will propose some other method to shew the publick countenance of this Government, whereby the aforesaid objection may be effectually obviated."

The brief was granted, and printed and circulated throughout the province. Six persons of character-one in each countywere named to receive the gifts and pay them over to the provincial treasurer, and three others as a committee to order and regulate disbursements to Wheelock for the use of his school. An outbreak of hostilities among the Indians prevented any decided success from this measure, so much so that at a collection taken in Windsor nothing was received but a bullet and a flint. The matter fared little better in other places, though hopes were still cherished of better success at Thanksgiving, when Governor Fitch consented to mention it in his proclamation; but very little seems ever to have come from it.1

The charity scholars now numbered twenty-five, and Wheelock was much straitened for means. In December of the same year (1763) Whitefield wrote from New York to Dr. Erskine to send £200 or £300 to Wheelock's school, "or the fat is all in the fire." Early in January, 1764, he preached a sermon for the school in New York and took up a collection. He enlisted also the sympathy of the Earl of Stirling, who volunteered to head a subscription. By these means Whitefield gathered for the school £120, New York money. In February, 1764, he met Wheelock at Norwich, and, it is supposed, again visited the school. In April Wheelock reported himself to him as being £200 in debt. Later in the year, Whitefield made several other

1 There is credited in the accounts for 1765 £33 L. M. from this source.

collections for him, and in September sent him £100, given by a rich merchant of Philadelphia, Israel Pemberton by name, who undertook also to send out a number of narratives, in hope of tapping new sources of supply.

In May, 1764, hearing nothing favorable from his friends in England, and the commission from the Scotch society not having yet reached him, Wheelock applied to the Connecticut Assembly for the Act of Incorporation which he had been given to understand they were disposed to grant the previous year.1 But the favorable disposition of the Legislature apparently passed away, and no progress was made. A quarrel between Occom and Rev. David Jewett, of New London, who held an appointment as missionary under the London society, seems to have been improved to prevent it.

In November, 1764, the school had in all about thirty scholars, of whom twenty-two were on charity, including fifteen Indians. Of these, ten were now ready to be returned as schoolmasters. Anticipating this, and not willing that the school should dwindle, Wheelock, in addition to his ordinary cares, had some time before begun to cast about for

recruits.

In February of the same year he had written to General Gage (to whom he had been favorably introduced by his cousin, Anthony Wheelock, of New York), desiring him "in his next expedition against the Indians to spare from the sword fifteen or twenty likely Indian children," and send them to him. In August he took Occom and Fowler from Mohegan and sent them on a new mission to Sir William, who was reported to have just returned from a tour on the shores of Lake Erie, bringing parties of Indians from the remote tribes. The purpose of the mission was to arrange for the reception of the schoolmasters and obtain new pupils. But on reaching New York, Occom and Fowler were detained by Whitefield, to whom they had been accredited, and turned back. He wrote that he could "by no means forward" them, that it was the hunting season and the Indians by this time dispersed, and that it was besides quite wrong to take Occom from Mohegan. He characterized it as an

1 The corporators proposed by Wheelock were: Rev. Messrs. Benjamin Pomeroy, of Hebron; Timothy Pitkin, of Farmington; Nathaniel Whitaker, of Norwich; Charles Jeffrey Smith, missionary; and himself.

"imprudent scheme," and likely to injure Wheelock and make it impossible for him to obtain help for him in future. Wheelock was greatly disappointed, and thought very hard of Whitefield; it nearly caused an estrangement between them.

Towards the last of October the attempt was renewed by sending out Kirkland, then in his senior year in college, and Joseph Woolley. They were commended to Sir William1 as desirous to acquire the language of the Mohawks and Senecas, and in the mean time to teach among them and, if possible, to procure ten or fifteen likely youth for the school. Sir William received them handsomely. Woolley was settled by Kirkland in a school at Onohoquaga, where he spent the winter; and Kirkland, after remaining six weeks at Johnson Hall, pushed on in January alone with two Seneca Indians to Canadasega, a town of the Senecas, twenty-three days' journey-upwards of two hundred miles-beyond Johnson Hall. The snow was four feet deep and very dry, and he travelled on snow-shoes with his pack on his back. He there remained a year and a half alone among the savages, and endured terrible sufferings and dangers.2

On Nov. 30, 1764, three more Mohawks arrived at the school, who were named William (major), William (minor), and Elias; in March, 1765, Peter and David, Oneidas; and in June three

1 See the letter in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 217.

2 See a thrilling account of them in Sparks' Biographies.

Samuel Kirtland (or Kirkland, as he later spelled it) was the son of Rev. Daniel Kirtland, pastor of the Third Congregational Church of Norwich, parish of Newert, now in the town of Lisbon, Conn. He was born Dec. 1, 1741, and joined the school Oct. 31, 1760, when nearly nineteen. In 1762 Wheelock sent him to Princeton, where he was supported in part to the extent of £10 a year — by a club of gentlemen in Boston, headed by one William Davis. Though absent in the Indian country, he received his degree as of his own class in 1765. Beginning in 1761 with the short trial mission to the Mohawks, followed by the arduous experience of a year among the Senecas, he settled finally with the Oneidas, and devoted his life to the Six Nations. He labored under Wheelock's patronage, supported mainly by funds passing through the latter's hands, until 1770, when, Wheelock's removal to New Hampshire rendering that arrangement inconvenient, he came under the immediate patronage of the Boston boards of the London and Scotch societies, from which, with the help for a time of Harvard College and of a handsome annuity from John Thornton, he long derived his support. He spent his life among the Indians, exercising great influence over them for good, — greater than any other missionary, and greater, probably, than any other white person ever did, except Sir William Johnson. During the Revolution the societies' remittances of course stopped, and for a while he was driven from his post. The Boston correspondents

Mohawk girls. William major was a half-breed, reputed a natural son of Sir William Johnson himself, and nephew of Joseph Brant. Soon after his arrival Wheelock wrote to Sir William commending the youth, and enclosing a specimen of his penmanship. In June, 1766, he wrote, "William major (as we call him for distinction) is of a very good genius, and capable of making a very likely man; but his pride and the violence of his temper have sometimes rendered him troublesome, and obliged me to use severity with him, of which my son can inform you. Perhaps a line or message from you might be of special service to him."1

Brant himself is responsible for the following anecdote, which, it may be, relates to the occasion referred to. William was one day ordered by Wheelock's son Ralph to saddle his horse. The lad refused, alleging that as he was a gentleman's son, the performance of such a menial office would be out of character.

"Do you know what a gentleman is?" inquired young Wheelock.

"I do," replied William. "A gentleman is a person who keeps race-horses and drinks Madeira wine; and that is what neither you nor your father do. Therefore saddle the horse yourself."2

William was eventually sent home to his father, Feb. 16, 1767, as being "too proud and litigious."

About the 1st of Dec., 1764, Wheelock despatched his son Ralph and Mr. Whitaker to Boston with a memorial to Governor Bernard. Receiving the allowance from the Warren fund, they of the London society appealed to Congress in 1776 to assume his support for the time, with that of Mr. Crosby at Onohoquaga, and of Mr. Sergeant at Stockbridge.

Kirkland was employed by Congress in various important negotiations, and rendered most valuable services, which were recognized in many ways by both State and Continental authority. Besides other services he acted in 1779 as brigade chaplain with General Sullivan on his expedition to the Susquehanna. In 1788 the State of New York and the Indians gave him a large tract of land near Oneida, on which, in 1793, he founded and endowed the academy which became Hamilton College. In 1797 the Scotch society finally withdrew its support. Kirkland died Feb. 28, 1808, aged sixty-six. He married, in 1769, Wheelock's niece, Jerusha Bingham. Their eldest son—named after their English benefactor, John Thornton-graduated at Harvard College in 1789, and was president of that institution from 1810 to 1828. The second son, George Whitefield, graduated at Dartmouth in 1792. [See Sprague's Annals, Amer. Pulpit, i. 623; Life of Kirkland by his grandson, Rev. S. K. Lothrop, Sparks' Series; Amer. Archives, Series V., vol. i. pp. 902-903; Ibid., iii. 1583, etc.]

1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 332.

2 Stone's Life of Brant, i. 23, 183; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 223.