them," to do them all the good they can, as a small atonement for the wrongs they have suffered at the hands of the whites.* It has pleased Divine Providence to accept the comparatively insignificant agency of his creatures in promoting the great cause of virtue and righteousness in the earth, and this agency can in nothing be more efficiently exerted than in the dissemination of truth. The contest among those engaged in this great work should be to convey simple and perspicuous views of the fundamental, easily comprehended principles of the Gospel, and not to gain converts to any particular sect. Several religious societies, with a zeal truly laudable, have exerted themselves to ameliorate their condition and some of these exertions have been crowned with great success. The introduction of schools among them is calculated most essentially to promote the diffusion of useful knowledge; it tends to remove the SOURCE of ignorance and error. Let those who have been active in this great cause, take courage and continue their important labours. The cloud which for some time appeared “no bigger than a man's hand," is increasing and will continue to augment, till it shall descend in copious and refreshing showers. Those who consider the attempts to civilize this race of men as hopeless, are invited to peruse the following short, unexaggerated description of one of their tribes, visited a few weeks since by the writer of this article.

The village of Tuscarora tribe of Indians is situate about three miles to the eastward of Lewiston, in the neighbourhood of the falls of Niagara; the tribe consists of about 300. They

*The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries are now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestick arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence, and to prepare them in time for that state of Society, which to bodily comforts, adds the improvement of the mind and morals. JEFFERSON.

hold a considerable body of land in this place and cultivate it extremely well. Their fields of wheat and Indian corn are nearly as good as those of the whites, and they are surrounded with most of the comforts of civilization. There is a missionary residing here, the Rev. Mr CRANE, from New-York, who is much and deserv、 edly beloved by them.-They have a school conducted on the Lancasterian plan, and the proficiency of the children in the elementary branches of knowledge is alike creditable to their teacher and themselves. Public worship is regularly kept up and generally well attended.

The writer of this, can, with truth, acknowledge, that few incidents of his life will be recollected with more pleasure, than his visit to the church of the Tuscarora Indians. The respectability, neatness and comfort, of their appearance, and the solemnity of devotional feeling, the devotion of the heart, which apparently pervaded the audience, furnished,indeed, a most delightful spectacle. There was no symptom of indecorum of conduct in one of the natives present, but all their behaviour became the place and occasion. To behold those who had been accustomed to every idolatry, and the evils connected with it, worshipping the only true God, and partaking of the consolations of genuine religion, furnished to the mind, in an eminent degree, pure and unalloyed delight. The Throne

on.

of Grace was addressed in humble, fervid terms, by the minister, and though the human heart is known only to Him who formed it; yet, if the poor Indians did not most devoutży join in the public prayer, appearances can in no instance be relied After which, a number of them rose & sung a hymn by note, in their native language, with great effect. It was a translation of an English hymn, set to the same music as the original., venerable Indian then took his stand by the side of the minister, and rendered his sermon into Indian,sentence by sentence. Their general charac ter in the neighbourhood is good, and their observance of the Sabbath, (in which the whites furnish them a bad example,) is truly commendable`

A

We took our leave of these interesting natives with feelings not easily described, and with wishes for their welfare at once ardent and sincere. In their journeyings through a world of sorrow, may they be protected and supported by Divine Providence, and solaced by the friendship of Christian friends; and when they bid adieu to terrestrial things, may they join the wise and good of all nations, in the eternal fruition of happiness beyond the grave.

From this conclusive evidence of the effects of culture on the savage mind, the friends of humanity may anticipate the fulfilment of the following prediction, made by a poet,† who, in point of original genius, is decidedly the first of the present age; "Qu Erie's banks, where tygers steal along,

And the dread Indian chants a dis

conditions they surrendered themselves prisoners.]

A 2d letter, dated Fort Claiborne, July 23d, says:

"It appears that Capt. Boyle, in his excursion to the Perdido a few days since, took several prisoners, five of whom were sent to this place, and put in the jail. The Sheriff conceiving that the civil authority had nothing to do with them, ordered them to be sent to Montgomery. Four men volunteered to guard them. The guard bound the prisoners, and set out from this place this morning." After being absent about three hours, the guard returned, and reported, that they had been attacked by a party in the woods, where they had stopped to get water:-That the party ordered them to retreat, and im-` mediately after sixteen or eighteen guns were discharged at the prisoners, and that one of the guard had musket balls shot through his clothes.

Some of our citizens this evening went to the fatal spot, where they found the five Indians lying dead, within eight yards of each other.This is a bloody transaction, and stained with. so much inhumanity, that I blush to think it was an act perpetrated among a people who have justly boasted of their humanity, and their strict observance of the rules of

war."

HORRID COMMERCE IN A LAND OF

FREEDOM.

IN the last Number was given a considerable part of an Oration delivered by Mr. Tyson before the

Protection Society of Maryland." The need of such a society on a large scale will be evident from the following Articles ;—

SLAVERY.

Notwithstanding all the fine phras-, ed speeches which we have so often heard uttered against the abominable practice of enslaving the black population of the world; notwithstanding the laws which have been enacted in this land of freedom to abolish this wicked custom, still even here it exists in all its native deformity. Scarcely a mail arrives that does not furnish some new account of outrages committed against this proscribed part of

the human family. The ties of nature are broken; the parent, sundered from his offspring, has to linger out his days in bondage. The moans of his wretchedness mingle with our shouts of LIBERTY, and together they are borne on the wings of the wind to distant nations, who do not fail of contrasting our professions of freedom with our works which produce slavery. Of late, the practice of kidnapping free Blacks for the purpose of transporting them to the south, to be sold as slaves, has become so frequent that the accounts of these outrages are passed over with all the sang froid imaginable. It is but rare that the perpetrators of this horrid crime are brought to punishment.-The temptations held out to the avaricious are so strong that an occasional exemplary sentence does not deter others from pursuing the same course to amass wealth.--The punishment for kidnapping ought to be DEATH, if any crime under Heaven ought to be thus punished.-Imprisonment for life certainly ought to be inflicted. As the law now stands, it is a mere dead letter. If it is enforced it does not destroy SLAVERY. It merely perverts the price of HUMAN BLOOD from the coffers of the speculator to those of the government. The law which authorises blacks to be sold for the benefit of the government, is a black page in our statute books that ought to be expunged. What! shall it be said that a nation, whose government is based on free dom, deals in human flesh with as little feeling as a jockey does in horses or horned cattle? Such is the fact, and a most disgraceful one it is too. Why not at once rather decapitate or imprison the wretches who bave brought these forlorn beings into bondage, and send the miserable blacks hence to the homes from whence they were purloined.

Who

can read the following and not shudder at the depravity of human nature?

Traffic in human flesh.-This disgraceful traffic, it seems, is carried ou in the southern states upon a most extensive scale, in defiance of all law, decency and religion, A late New-Orleans paper now before me,

contains the names of no less than eight vessels from the Atlantic states, which have entered at that port within a short time, with three hundred and seventeen slaves. Now and then a seizure is made, and the slaves are sold for the benefit of the United States. But let me ask, how does this better their condition? They are slaves still; and it is an even chance that they fall into the hands of a more cruel task master than the one who first tore them from their friends and families, and landed them on our shores. One hundred and thirtynine of these poor, ill-fated human beings, some sick and some well, are advertised for sale to the highest bidder, in one lot. Read the following description of them, and thank the Almighty that he did not make the colour of your skin black.-Post.

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AFRICAN NEGROES FOR SALE." ** WILL be exposed for sale, for cash, at the Sheriff's office, on Monday,the 20th of July,at eleven o'clock in the morning, 139 Negroes-to wit, 27 men, 46 boys, 43 women, and 2 infants, and 21 girls, fifteen of whom are sick, delivered to me by B. Chew, E. Lorrain, and W. Emerson, Esq'rs, agreeable to the act entitled" an act respecting slaves; imported into this state in violation of the act of Congress of the United States, approved on the 2d of March, 1807," and adjudged by the district court of the United States for the Louisiana district, to have been illegally imported in the brig Josefa 2d.

George W. Morgan, Shff. New Orleans, July 10.-Albany Register.

SLAVE TRADE.

It is generally believed in Europe, that the laws of the United States for. the prevention of the "trade in buman flesh," are very strictly executed. But we find mention made in the New-Orleans papers, of the capture of a vessel having "seventy-two slaves on board, belonging to merchants of this place, and insured by our underwriters," &c. How is all this? And a writer in POULSON's paper, asserts boldly, that "this illegal trade is countenanced by the Administration, in direct violation of the

statute laws of the Union." He adds that "imported slaves are sold by the officers of government, and the proceeds paid into the public treasury." Bold charges these! He adds further," John Lafitte, the pirate, informed me, that in 1813, he introduced into Louisiana, eighteen hundred Slaves; and Mitchel has depots along the Georgia and Carolina shores, for the reception of slaves he intends to be discovered by the public authorities, and then his agents in Savannah and Charleston become the purchasers."-Centinel.

Many Articles of a similar character might easily be collected from the Newspapers. Indeed Articles of this kind have become so common that we fear they are read by many with as little emotion or astonishment as the every day advertisements for the sale of English and West India goods. But that we may have a more correct view of this traffic, let it be supposed that the advertisements for the sale of human beings were taken, from a Gazette of Algiers or Tunis, and that the victims to be sold were white citizens of the United States; what would be the feelings of our government, and of our countrymen in general? Suppose moreover that the names of the victims should be given and among them the name of a Son of His Excellency James Munroe, President of the United States, and a Son of His Excellency John Brooks, Governor of Massachusetts! with what emotion, what sympathy, what indignation would the Advertisements be read! Shall we then have no feeling for our black brethren who are kidnapped and sold, as thieves steal and sell horses! These man thieves ought to be regarded as the most detestable beings of the human racewar makers only excepted.

Shall then a government which boasts of being a free government, or a government for the protection of liberty, participate in the crimes of manstealers? Shall such a government under the pretext of checking the abominable practice of kidnapping, take human beings from the hands of abandoned villains, and then sell them as slaves to the highest bidder! In this case, may we not boldly

affirm, that the partaker is as bad as the thief?"

What would be said of a parent who should take stolen horses from his sons, sell them at public auction, and convert the money to his own use! But how much more odious must it be in rulers thus to take human beings and sell them as slaves. What worse did the kidnappers do, or intend to do than this? With great propriety the Albany Register has said the law which authorises blacks to be sold for the benefit of the government, is a black page in our statute books that ought to be expunged." It may justly be added, that the barbarous sales under this black law are foul stains on our national character-Stains which can never be wiped away by all our boastings of freedom and independence, or of the blood which has been shed in the cause of liberty. In vain do we claim the character of a just and magnanimous nation while as a people we tolerate such atrocious acts of barbarity and injustice.

ORDINATIONS.

At Vassalborough, Me. Aug. 26 Rev. Thomas Adams was ordained Pastor of the Society in that place. Introductory Prayer by Rev. Fifield Holt, of Bloomfield; Sermon by Rev. Jonathan Cogswell, of Saco; Consecrating Prayer by Rev. D. Lovejoy, of Fairfax; Charge by Rev. E. Gillet, of Hallowell; Right Hand by Rev. B. Tappan, of Augusta ;-and Concluding Prayer by Rev. J. Peet, of Norridgewock.

In Hallowell, Me. on the 9th of Sept. Rev. Winthrop Morse, to the care of the Baptist Society in that place.

Installed at Robbinstown, Me. Sept. 9th, Rev. D. Lovejoy, as Pastor of the Congregational Society in that town.

OBITUARY.

Died in Boston, Samuel Bradford, Esq. Sheriff of the county of Suffolk.

Also, Sept. 19, Rev. Francis Anthony Matignon, D. D. a much respected Pastor of the Catholic Church.

At Brighton, Mrs. Nabby, the wife of Mr. Samuel Davis, aged 38.

Character of Mrs. Susanna Wright, who died Sept. 12, 1818, aged 77, relict of the late Rev. Phinchas Wright of Bolton

DIVINE providence appoints it as our duty to record the death of this eminent Christian. Her character may be exhibit ed to uncommon advantage for the imitation of her sex. Its leading traits would reflect honour on all christians.

She possessed the qualities of mind and heart, which formed her for an interesting and confidential acquaintance and friend. An improved understanding and a corrrect judgment, united with a social temper rendered her an object of respect and satisfaction in the circle of her friends. To these were added the sincerity, the candour, the freedom from disguise, the simplicity of manners, which strengthened her claims to general attention and confidence. "She opened her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness."

She had always a mantle of charity in readiness to spread over involuntary errours of speech, judgment, and conduct. It was at the same time Vol. VI. No. 11.

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a prominent excellence, that she showed an independence, a decision, a marked abhorrence in her expressions of detestation for duplicity and notorious wickedness. In this she has seldom been surpassed, and we could only consider it as flowing from a high sense of virtue and from conscious rectitude.

She filled with honour her station as the head of a family; "looked well to the ways of her household ;" and mingled firmness with mildness and condescension in domestic government.

She was "a lover of hospitality." No visitants ever retired from her presence and habitation but with a full belief that the professions of friendship she had uttered, and her tokens of solicitude for their welfare and happiness had come from the heart.

Her desire for the plain and unceremonious intercourse of ancient times with her constitutional feelings of sympathy and kindness, happily fitted her for the offices of good neighbourhood. with whom she lived, long bear grateful and respectful testimony to her affectionate

The people