They laid their apprehensions before Sir James Craig, who in consequence issued his injunctions, in a letter to the overseer of the Post of Zoete Melk Valley, that no inhabitant, should in any shape molest the Hernhüters, on pain of incurring the heaviest displeasure of the government. The letter arrived on the very day they were assembled, and the poltrons on hearing it read, sneaked off, each to his own home; and the missionaries since that time, have continued to exer. cise their functions unmolested. The cause of the farmers hatred to these people, is, their having taught the Hottentots, the use of their liberty, and the value of their labour, of which they had long been kept in ignorance.

These worthy men, by the protection afforded them under the British government, and by its liberality, through General Dundas, in enabling them to enlarge their territory, had considerably extended their society of Hottentots, whom they not only instructed in the principles of the christian religion, but by example as well as precept, taught to feel, that their value in society, was proportioned to the benefits they were able to render to the community, by useful labour and the example of good conduct.

These men have clearly shewn to the world, by the effects of this institution, that there is not, among savages in general, that invincible aversion to labour which some have been inclined to suppose. Those indeed, whose daily subsistence depends on the chace, may contract a disposition to rambling, and to a frequent change of place, but the precarious supply of food obtained by hunting is not the reward of sluggish in dolence, but of toil, of lassitude, and anxiety. The fewer the wants that man has to gratify, the less inclination will he feel to exert his corporeal powers. In a mere savage state, if these wants could be supplied without any effort, the predominant pleasures of life would consist in eating and sleeping. The propensity to inaction can only be overcome by giving the labourer an interest in the product of his labour, by making him feel the weight and value of property. The (Dutch) colonists of the Cape pursued no such plan with regard to their conduct towards the Hottentots, having first held out the irresistible charm that spirituous liquors and tobacco are found to possess among all people in a rude state of society, they took the advantage of exchanging those pernicious poisons, for the only means the natives enjoyed of sub sisting themselves and their families.

None felt more sincere regret and uneasiness at that article in the treaty of peace, which ceded the Cape to its former owners, than these worthy missionaries. From the malignant spirit of the boors, they had every thing to apprehend. The friends of humanity, however, will rejoice to learn, that this asylum for an innocent and oppressed race of men, continues to receive the countenance, and protection of the present government; the two leading members of which, appear to be actuated by views and sentiments very different from those of the majority of the people, over whom they are appointed to rule. It is obvious, indeed, to every man of common understanding, that an institution so encouraged cannot fail to prove of infinite advantage to a colony where useful labour is so much wanted. If any example were capable of rousing the sluggish settlers, that of six hundred people being subsisted on the same space of ground, which every individual family among them occupies, for they had nothing more till very lately than a common loan farm of three miles in diameter, would be sufficient to stimulate them to habits of industry."

The good effects of an enlightened policy, and the bad consequences of its opposite, as it relates to a colony, are strikingly displayed in this interesting work.

The Cape being now in the hands of the British government, we may naturally expect, that the above mentioned important experiment in civilization will meet with due encouragement. It is intended to give in a future number an account of the early exertions of the Moravians among the Indians in the United States.

A Summary Account of the Means used after the Treaty of Greeneville in 1795, to promote the Civilization of the Indians, in some Parts of North America.

FROM the first settlement of Pennsylvania, the uniform attention of the society, called Quakers, to the interests of the aboriginal inhabitants, who had received the first emigrants from Europe with hospitality and kindness, has secured to their posterity a degree of confidence, peculiarly favourable to the success of measures calculated to promote those interests. The tribes who were found on the Delaware, gave the name of Onas (signifying a feather) to William Penn; and that appellation has ever since been not only applied to the succeeding governors of Pennsylvania, but also frequently to those of the same religious profession. The United Brethren (called Moravians) have also signalized themselves by their disinterested labours in the instruction and improvement of the natives of that country, as well as many others, in which they have formed settlements : nor has the important object wanted zealous advocates in other societies of different denominations; among which, the names of Mather, Mayhew, Elliot, Hopkins, the two Bainards, and many others, will be long honourably distinguished.

The difficulties which philanthropy had to encounter, were many and formidable, among tribes scattered over a vast extent of country; and who principally depended for clothing and sustenance on the labours of the chace. And although Indian population on the western shores of the Atlantic, is considered to have been rapidly on the decrease, for more than a century, this decrease has borne but a small proportion to the encroachments on their hunting ground, either by their regular cession to foreigners, or by the forcible possession of the frontier settlers, occasioning wars, which greatly diminished their numbers. These wars were industriously promoted by the French government, with which the establishment of their claims on the western waters, had long been a favourite object. The extinction in North America, of all connection with France, by the treaty

of 1763, was succeeded soon after by the rival pretensions of the British government of Canada, and of the other provinces, at that time dependent on Great Britain; and the reciprocal claims of the contending parties, as well as those of the Indians on both, for some years afterwards remaining unsettled, continued those obstacles to any systematic attempts to ameliorate the condition of the natives, which had long discouraged them, and were happily, in a considerable degree, removed by the treaty concluded at Greeneville, in 1795. By this treaty, the boundary between the United States and the Indians north-westward of the river Ohio, was settled; and certain posts or trading stations within the country reserved by the latter, allowed to the former.

Some of the impediments before alluded to, being thus diminished, the government of the United States immediately turned its attention to the important object of reconciling the Indian nations on its extensive frontier, to those habits of civilized life, which the contraction of their hunting grounds eastward of the Mississipi, rendered essential to their comforts; by exchanging the rifle and the tomahawk, for the implements of husbandry*. A law for promoting that object was passed May 19, 1796; and the president empowered to appropriate 15000 dollars annually to it. The writer of this Summary sincerely regrets, that although an unremitted attention to the business has been evinced by the establishment of various agencies in different parts, he is only able to furnish the information he will now introduce. The respectable agent in the Creek nation has communicated to his friend in Pennsylvania, the following intelligence:

Creek Agency, Jan. 22, 1809.

my

"YOUR favour of the 22d of October was received on the last of December; and my not acknowledging the receipt of it sooner, has been owing to a painful indisposition, which rendered writing difficult. This letter is the first fruit of recovery. Just after the period of our first acquaintance, (about thirteen years ago,) I was appointed, by the president of the United States, an agent for Indian affairs, south of the Ohio, and especially charged with the plan of civilization. I have ever since been occupied in this important concern.

* See Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. v. 341, 377, 800, &c.—Also Ramsey's Life of Ditto, 322, 394, &c.

I will not give you my opinion of the plan of the missionaries heretofore sent among the Indian tribes, or of their success; nor will I, to a man of your benevolent mind, attempt to contrast my humble occupation with the passing scenes of the civilized world: but I will tell you my plan, how I have pursued it, and my prospect of certain ultimate success.

"I began with the pastoral life, my charge being hunters. I recommended attention to raising stock, particularly cattle and hogs. Our climate suits both; and we abound, winter and summer, in grass reed, or cane. It is not so favourable to the propagation of horses, though we have great numbers of them. I next recommended agriculture and raising of fruit-trees, particularly the peach; then, domestic manufactures; then figures; and lastly, letters. I set examples in all things myself, and teach the objects of my care also by precept: I teach them morality; to be true to themselves; to respect their own rights, and those of their neighbours; and to be useful members of the planet they inhabit.

"On all fit occasions, I inculcate, above all things, an aversion to war, as the greatest curse which can afflict a nation; to be just; to be generous; and, particularly, to protect the stranger and traveller in their land. I leave the affairs of another world to be introduced by the Father of all worlds, or such of his benevolent agents as to his wisdom may

scem meet.

"Thus acting, I have prevailed on a fourth part of my charge to leave their clustered situation in the old towns, and move out, for the greater conveniency of raising stock, and employing good land in cultivation; to make fences; to plant fruit-trees; to raise and spin cotton, and, in several instances, to weave it: to depend on their farms for food; and, aided by the wheel and the loom, for cloathing: to seek, in their improvements, for the necessaries of life; and in hunting, for amusement only.

"For the first three or four years I experienced a continued rudeness of opposition. In the succeeding three or four, success was slowly progressive: but even during this period, I reaped scarcely any other than a harvest of ingratitude. At length, however, by persevering in the course I had adopted, I have brought the Indian mind to yield, though slowly and reluctantly, to the evidence of facts; and the plan is now no longer problematical.

"Several of the Indians have sowed wheat, planted fruittrees, and used the plough. Several of them have made