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THE map on the first page represents the Choctaw and Chickasaw country and some portions of the surrounding states, with the names and location of the several missionary stations, to which the attention of the friends of missions have been directed with much interest during the last thirteen years; where hundreds of heathen children and adults have been taught to read the word of God, and hundreds more have been hopefully converted to God by the preaching of the missionaries, and which are now becoming desolate by the emigration of the Choctaws to their new country lying between the Arkansas and Red rivers, and west of the Arkansas territory.

The following statements are collected principally from communications of the missionaries.

Extent of Country and Number and Origin indefinite. They have no conception of a

of the Choctaws.

The Choctaw country extends from the Tombigby river on the east to the Mississippi river on the west, and from the Chickasaw country on the north to the settlements of the state of Mississippi on the south, which also extend far up on the west. Its extreme length is about 150

miles, and its breadth about 140. Its average extent is much less, embracing about 7,000,000 acres. Their territory was formerly much larger.

The number of the Choctaws is estimated at about 20,000. Great inroads have been made on their number by sickness and other causes. Thirty years ago they probably amounted to 30,000.

Some of the Choctaws have a tradition

that they with the Chickasaws, Chokchumas, and Creeks, emigrated from some country far to the west, and settled in their present territory by the direction of a great prophet or leader. Others believe that they were created out of the ground at a place in their country called Nunih Waia about four or five generations ago. They are divided into two clans, which embrace the whole tribe. Members of the same clan never intermarry, so that the husband and wife always belong to different clans, and the children belong to the clan of the mother.

Religious Traditions and Opinions.

It is difficult acquiring any definite knowledge respecting their traditions, Neither they nor the Indians generally have any of that accuracy themselves in respect to events and dates which they have been represented as having. Their statements are very vague, and those of different individuals are contradictory. Since their intercourse with the whites they have forgotten much that they once knew. They are also very reluctant and perhaps ashamed to divulge their traditions and opinions.

They obviously, however, once had some knowledge respecting the events recorded in Genesis. They retain some faint idea of a superior Being; but of his nature, mode of existence, and attributes, their notions were, and, until enlightened by Christian instruction, are now, extremely vague and

Being purely spiritual. The human soul is not in their apprehension strictly a spirit. Nor have they any word in their language to denote a spiritual existence.

They anciently regarded the sun as a god, and ascribed to him the power of life and death and their success in war.

The dwelling of this superior Being they supposed to be somewhere on high. The representation of the Choctaws is, that when the Creator had made the earth, and its inhabitants (the red people,) and had given them their civil regulations, he returned to his place above, and they saw and heard nothing more of him.

They do not appear to have acknowledged that a superintending Providence directed their concerns and controlled all events. In prosperity they exercised no gratitude to him for benefits received, nor in distress, did they apply to him for relief. In time of drought, they applied to their rain-makers, who, being well paid, would undertake to make rain. When the earth was surcharged with water, they would apply to their fairweather makers for sunshine; and in sickness, to their doctors for cure; without

acknowledging or even appearing to feel their dependence on the great Ruler of all things.

They supposed that this Being prescribed no form of religious worship, and made no revelation of his will. There appears to be no evidence that they ever offered sacrifices or engaged in any worship. They appear to have been emphatically "without God in the world." When the inquiry has been made, "Did you ever think of God?" They answer, "How can we think of him, of whom we know nothing?" And when the question has been repeated, "Before the missionaries came, did the Choctaws think and talk about God?" the answer universally has been, that they never thought nor talked upon such subjects. A few aged men state, that since they have heard the gospel from the missionaries, they have sometimes attempted to acknowledge their dependence on the Father of mercies, and seek his favor by supplication, but that until their arrival, they knew nothing of the duty of prayer. Nor do they know that

prayer, as an expression of love and confidence toward their Maker and Benefactor, was ever practised by their forefathers. And that they never did pray, would be the natural conclusion from their belief, that their Creator, at their formation, required from them no kind of homage.

Not regarding the superior Being as a lawgiver, they had no idea of the moral turpitude of sin, as against God, and no word that signifies it; and it was very difficult to give them any notion of it.-The present generation of Choctaws believe that the soul, which they call shilup, survives the body; but they do not appear to think, that its condition is at all affected by the conduct in this life.

When a member of a family died poles were set in the ground around the grave with hoops and vines hung upon them, to aid the soul in its ascent. Around these the surviving members of the family assembled at sunrise, mid-day, and sunset, for thirty days, uttering an inarticulate but distressful cry. At the end of thirty days the neigh bors were assembled, the poles were pulled, and the mourning was ended with feasting and drunkenness. They had a class of men among them denominated bone-pickers, who used, after the body of the deceased had lain awhile in an appropriate place, to assemble and pick the flesh from them, and put the bones in a bone-house. They began to bury their dead about forty years ago. Witchcraft formerly was believed in by the Choctaws, and occasioned great terror and the loss of many lives. Most of the sickness was attributed to it, and those supposed to occasion sickness in this manner were often murdered. They had a kind of doctors who were applied to and were believed to be able to counteract the power of the witch and restore the patient.

Establishment and Progress of the Mission.

The Choctaws were heathens, and all of them, with the exception of a very few partly of white extraction, utterly ignorant of the Christian religion, and of books, and acquainted with very few of the arts and conveniences of civilized life. They had few good laws and no efficient government for protecting life or property. They were generally indolent, much addicted to drunkenness, and consumed much of their time in dances, ball-plays, and other scenes of noisy and corrupting amusement.

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The Rev. Mr. Cornelius, the late Secre tary of the Board, visited their nation dur ing the winter and spring of 1817-8, met the Indians in council, and opened the way for the establishment of a mission; and the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, with Mr. L. S. Williams, both of whom had been engaged in commencing the mission at Brainerd, among the Cherokees, arrived at the place since called Elliot, in remembrance of the Rev. John Elliot, named the Apostle to the Indians, on the 27th of June, 1818. It was then an unbroken forest. They were joined soon by other helpers, and proceeded to erect the necessary buildings, and were enabled, though severely afflicted with sickness, and tried in other ways, to open the school with 10 scholars, on the 19th of the next April. The school increased to more than 50 before the close of the year.

In the early stages of the mission the Choctaws manifested much interest in its success and several of the chiefs made very liberal donations of money and cattle to aid it. They also gave in behalf of the nation an annuity due to them from the gov ernment of the United States, amounting to $6,000 a year for sixteen years, beginning with the year 1821. This is a far more liberal grant than any other tribe of Indians, and probably than any other heathen people ever made for introducing schools and the institutions of the gospel among them. Surely it should not be said that the Indians are irreclaimably attached to their savage habits, when they will voluntarily give so much for a knowledge of the habits of civilized men.

Other stations were occupied and schools opened at them as soon as circumstances would permit; at which the Board have furnished the gratuitous services of 33 men and 33 women, whose average term of labor has been more than six years each. Of the men employed, five were preachers, twelve seven were mechanics, and one was a phywere school-teachers, eight were farmers,

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Two other stations, Bethany and Boketunneh, were occupied for a short period, but no schools were opened at them.

Besides those pupils mentioned in the foregoing table as attending the schools at the several stations, large numbers of youths and adults, within the last three or four years especially, have been instructed by the missionaries, or under their direction, in various Indian villages, and principally from books in their own language. The whole number reported as having been instructed, during the year ending August, 1830, is 528; of whom 278 were taught at the stations, and 250 in the Indian villages. Of the whole 299 were full-blood Choctaws and 229 of mixed blood. Of those at the stations 177 were males and 101 females; and 176 on an average were boarded in the mission families. The average number attending on instruction was 194; 67 were new scholars; 17 left school with a good common education; 36 read in spelling lessons, 36 in English reading lessons, 63 in the English Testament, 58 in English Reader; 90 spell, and 245 read in Choctaw only; 126 read in both Choctaw and English; 51 studied arithmetic, 64 geography, 22 grammar; 57 composed in English, 12 in Choctaw only, 11 in Choctaw and English; and 137 wrote.

The mission has thus furnished board, tuition, books, and clothing, in part, to scholars boarded, during the thirteen years which the mission has been in operation, to an amount equivalent to 1500 scholars for one year; which at $75 a year for each, would amount to $112,500: and it has furnished tuition and books to scholars not boarded, to an amount equivalent to 1000 scholars for one year.

Sabbath schools have been taught at all the stations. At one school of less than 30 scholars 5,055 verses of the Bible in English and 1614 in Choctaw were committed to memory in 1831, with 208 stanzas of English and 187 of Choctaw hymns. The progress of the other schools was similar.

In addition to this, the Choctaw language has been acquired by several of the teachers and missionaries, its orthography settled, and the words first reduced to writing by them. Seven distinct books of an elementary and instructive character, among which are a book of hymns, an abridgment of the Gospels, and a book on the Old Testament history, have been prepared by them in this language, and printed, amounting to 10,000 copies, and 1,180,000 pages.

The civilization of the tribe has advanced rapidly. Strict laws have been made against the introduction of intoxicating liquors, and till recently were vigorously enforced. Intemperance received a great check. The first year after the station at Mayhew was formed, 20 murders were committed within a few miles of it in consequence of intoxication, and in 1825 ten lives were lost from the same cause. Dur

ing the years 1828 and 1829 only one death occurred in consequence of intoxication, and that was by accidental drowning. The people are more industrious, are better fed, better clothed, have better houses and farms, and a general desire prevails to have their children educated, and to obtain household furniture and the implements of husbandry. Witchcraft and the corrupting scenes of pole-pulling, are almost unknown; the Christian form of marriage has been extensively introduced, and the general improvement is declared to be very striking.

Organization and Enlargement of the Churches.

The first Christian church among the Choctaws was organized at Elliot, the last Sabbath in March, 1819, including only the members of the mission family. Churches were organized at Mayhew, Bethel, Goshen, and Emmaus soon after those stations were occupied. Few persons, however, were added to any of them. Much seriousness prevailed in the schools and among the hired laborers at Mayhew during the winter and spring of 1824, and two natives, three white men, and two black women joined the church. Again in the early part of the year 1827 much religious inquiry prevailed at the same station, and in June nine persons, two of whom were natives, joined the church. During the fall of 1828 a more deep and anxious attention to religious instruction commenced in the vicinity of Mayhew and in the western district, and during the next year and a half, spread to all parts of the nation. Meetings became large, the most solemn attention was paid to instruction, the stoutest warriors trembled and wept, and many appeared brokenhearted and penitent and began to rejoice in Christ. Nearly 400 persons have since united with the churches. Ten were added to the church at Elliot. The Mayhew church, embracing the converts residing near Mayhew, Aiikhunna, and Yoknokchaya, has received on examination, since it was organized in May, 1821, 284 members; of whom eight were of African descent, twenty whites, and 256 Choctaws; 27 of whom have been either excommunicated, or are now under suspension for misconduct. The church at Goshen has received about fifty, and that at Emmaus about forty; only four or five of whom have apostatized. The remainder stand firm, and most of them give very encouraging evidence of genuine piety. All the young and middle aged in these two churches can read in the Choctaw books, or are learning to read, and many write. The whole number of persons belonging to the churches in the Choctaw nation, at the close of the year 1831, under the care of the Board, exclusive of the mission families, and those who are under censure, was about 360. The number of children baptised is 244.

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BRIEF MEMOIR OF MRS. ELIZABETH H. S. HERVEY, WIFE OF REV. WILLIAM HERVEY, AMERICAN MISSIONARY AT BOMBAY.

THE biographical sketch of Mrs. Hervey here given is intended rather to present a view of her religious character and feelings, than a detail of the incidents of her life. It is copied, with considerable abridgment, from the Oriental Christian Spectator.

Mrs. Elizabeth H. S. Hervey was the eldest || education was strictly religious and her characdaughter of Deacon Jacob and Mrs. Martha Smith. She was born in Hadley, Mass. Jan. 26th, 1798. Her ancestors in the line of both her parents were all professors of religion as far back as her information concerning them extended. Most of them were distinguished for their intellectual and moral worth; but all that will be given concerning any of them here is a remark or two respecting her paternal grandmother. She was a woman of superior intellect and extraordinary piety-was a devoted member of the church for seventy years, and died in the full possession of her mental faculties and of a lively faith in Christ in the 1024 year of her age. Before her decease, the writer of this sketch has heard it said, she could reckon, besides one son, more than twenty of her descendants who were ministers of the gospel. Mrs. H. was the fifth of her descendants who had devoted their lives to the service of Christ among the heathen.

ter irreproachable in the view of those who look only "on the outward appearance," she was far from the "righteousness of God," till some time in the winter of 1817; when it pleased the Lord to convince her of the native enmity of her heart against himself, and to bring her off from all reliance on her own works to a simple trust in the merits of Christ for justification. She was among the first fruits of a religious revival that took place in Hadley in the winter of that year. In the ensuing autumn she made a public profession of her faith in the Redeemer, by uniting with the Congregational church in her native place. About this time she commenced a journal in which, from time to time, she wrote the exercises of her heart till within a few days of her embarkation for India. Soon after her union with the church, she began to be disciplined in the school of affliction. For about a year and a half she was deprived of health, and more than once was brought so low that all hope of her recovery was given up both by herself and her friends. From this sickness Mrs. Hervey never

chronic disease which terminated her life. Some extracts from her journal, written about this period will show how deep were her convictions of sin, and how severe was the Christian warfare which she maintained against it.

Mrs. Hervey received her education in her native village, where she enjoyed the advantages of a respectable academy. In infancy she was dedicated to God in the ordinance of bap-entirely recovered; and it probably ended in a tism by her parents. But they were not among those who believe baptism to be regeneration. Hence she was early taught that a radical change of heart was essential to salvation; and that she must experience this before she could perform any service acceptable to God. She was the subject of frequent serious impressions in her earlier years, and habitually maintained the practice of secret prayer. But though her VOL. XXVIII.

April 2, 1818. This day is set apart by our rulers as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. An important day to the people of God. All have cause to bow low

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