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PART I.

LETTERS ON THE CHICKASAW MISSION.

AFTER a delightful visit of many weeks, to their uncle and aunt Pelham, Jerome Claiborne and his sister Delia returned home. They were received by their fond parents with great affection; and their brothers and sisters were so much overjoyed, that they made the house ring with their shouts of gladness.

Mrs. Summers and her daughters expressed almost as great pleasure, at their return, as Mr. and Mrs. Claiborne. The first meeting of the Missionary Society they attended, was greatly enlivened by Delia's account of the method pursued by her cousin Cornelia and Miss McEllroy, at the missionary working meetings they had attended in the neighborhood of her uncle Pelham. Be

fore she and Jerome had related all they could remember of the Choctaw mission,

the following letters were received from their cousin, giving an account of what had been done in the Chickasaw nation, by missionaries, before and after the Missionary Society of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia formed a union with the American Board of Missions.

LETTER I.

My dear cousins, Jerome and Delia,-I am now seated at the same little writing-desk upon which you used to write your compositions while with us, to prepare a sketch of the mission to the Chickasaw Indians, to be read at the next.meeting of your Missionary Society.

The Chickasaw tribe occupy the northern part of the State of Mississippi. The Missionary Society of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia commenced a mission to these Indians in January, 1821. The Rev. Mr. Stuart was appointed their first missionary and superintendent. He was ac

companied by two families, who were employed by the same Society, with instructions to aid in opening a farm, erecting buildings, and other necessary labor prepar

atory to the establishment of schools, meetings, &c. &c. The site of the station, afterwards named Monroe, was then a wilderness. Many were the difficulties and discouragements encountered and overcome by Mr. Stuart and his associates in the infancy of the mission, but Providence so far smiled upon their labors, that in the spring of 1822, they opened a school with seventeen Chickasaw children, which soon increased to twenty-five.

About the time the school commenced, a mechanic and a farmer, with their families, from South Carolina, joined Mr. Stuart; and in the following November, the Rev. Hugh Wilson, with his wife and sister, arrived. New plans were then devised and adopted, to extend more widely the influence of the establishment.

The Rev. William C. Blair, from Ohio, was added to the number of missionaries, in January, 1823, who took charge of the school, which had been limited by the Synodical Society to thirty scholars. In the course of a few months, however, the missionaries were authorized to receive fifty, if the Chickasaws were desirous of intrusting so many children to their care. After this enlargement, Mr. Wilson was associated with Mr. Blair in the school. It was conduct

The

ed upon the Lancasterian system. children admitted, were from six to sixteen years of age; were thought to be very interesting by their teachers, and to have made commendable progress in their learning. The missionaries have experienced less trouble at this station, so far as discipline is concerned, than at some of the schools in the Cherokee and Choctaw nations, of which you have already heard so much.

If you are at a loss about the situation of Monroe, I will remind you, that it is about fifty miles north of the missionary station at Mayhew, in the Choctaw nation. Mr. Stuart has been very happy in gaining the affection and confidence of the Chicasaws, and the blessing of God has followed his ministerial labors.

When the church at that station was organized, in June, 1823, it consisted only of the mission family, and a black woman, named Dinah, who was the first fruits of missionary labor there, that had come to their knowledge at that time. The missionaries met with much to encourage them, from that period. The following year, four more converts were added to their number, and in 1825, five more were received. Since then, the church has been blessed

with several showers of divine grace. In the spring of 1827, a revival was enjoyed at Monroe, which continued through the summer, and the greater part of the following winter. During this revival, there were many striking instances of the power of the Gospel displayed in the conversion of many who had been exceedingly vile. It was truly interesting, to see the mercy of God following abandoned white men in their flight from the restraints of a civilized and Christian community, and overtaking them there, transforming them, and making them a blessing to the people, to whom they were before a curse.

Within the last seven years, more than eighty converts have been added to this little church in the Chickasaw wilderness, whose conduct hitherto has been more exemplary than is usual in most churches of equal numbers. About two-thirds of the members of the church are of African descent; these mostly understand English; and on that account are more accessible than the Chickasaws. The last mentioned class manifest an increasing attention to the means of grace, and since the commencement of the present year, more of the full Indians have been constant in their attendance upon religious meetings, than at any

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