APPENDIX.

A. Report p. 13.

SPEECH to the Chiefs of the SIX NATIONS, left with the Indian Agent, and by him communicated to these tribes assembled at Buffaloe, June 1, 1820.

BROTHERS,

The Great and good God has brought me and my son thus far on our long journey, to visit you and others of your red brethren. We ask you to unite with us in offering him praise and thanksgiving for his goodness.

Brothers, I regret that I cannot stay to meet you at your great Council fire, where we might speak together face to face. The reasons why I cannot be with you, I have communicated to your friends; Mr. Parrish, and Mr. Hyde, who, in my behalf, will explain them to you. I leave with them also copies of my commission, from your fathers in Scotland, beyond the great Ocean, and from your father the President of the United States. These papers will inform you of the objects I have in view in visiting you and your brethren, who live within the United States.

Brothers, Your father, the President of the United States, with whom I have conversed on the present state of the Indians, who live under his jurisdiction, and with many pious Christians, also, far and near, are thinking of you for good, and are now engaged in devising together the best means to promote your welfare. We perceive that your numbers and your strength are diminishing; that from being a numerous and powerful people, spread over a wide and fertile country, in which was plenty of game for your support, you have become few and feeble; that you possess but small tracts of land, compared with what your fathers possessed, and that your game, on which you formerly depended for your support, is gone. We see that there is no place on earth where you and

your brethren can go, and dwell together, unmolested, in the state in which your fathers lived. We see that you cannot, many years longer, live in any part of the United States, in the hunter-state. The white people will push their settlements in every direction, and destroy your game, and take away your best lands. You have not strength to defend yourselves, were you disposed to make war with the white people. They have become too powerful to be resisted or restrained in their course. In these circumstances, your father, the President, and the good white people, extensively, feel for you. We perceive that you are cast down and discouraged, that you are perplexed and know not what to do. Your situation, and that of your red brethren generally, has lately excited an unusual interest. I am authorised to say to you, that the American nation, the civil as well as the religious part of it, are now ready to extend to you the hand of sincere friendship; to aid you in rising from your depressed state, and in the best ways which can be devised, to save you from that ruin which seems inevitable in your present course, and to cause you to share with us in all the blessings, both civil and religious, which we ourselves enjoy. We fully believe from the recent events of Providence. that God has great blessings in store for you, and the rest of your red brethren in our country, if you will accept them; and that you may yet "see good days, according to the days wherein you have seen evil." This is our most ardent desire. Let not then your spirits sink within you. Hope in God, who is able to save and to bless you. Trust in him and he will not leave you, but will be the health of your countenance, a refuge from all your troubles; a present help in time of need.

Brothers, I have many things to say to you, which I cannot say now, on account of my feeble health, and the hurry of my departure. I intend to write your friends, Mr. Parrish and Mr. Hyde, from Detroit. They will communicate to you what I may I hope God will preserve us to meet on my return. Brothers Farewell,

write.

Buffaloe, May 31, 1820.

JEDIDIAH MORSE,

The Rev. Jabez B. Hyde, who at this time resided among the Seneca Indians near Buffaloe, having communicated the foregoing speech to the Council when assembled, and witnessed the effect, addressed to me at Detroit, the following letter:

Rev. and dear Sir,

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Buffaloe, Seneca Village, June 7th, 1820.

Your communication was heard with a deep interest by the Council. After the Council, the Chiefs of the christian party, called on me to desire me (as they heard I should write to you,) to express their remembrance of you with grateful affection, and to assure you of their ardent desire, that God would preserve and prosper you in your labors of love for their people, and safely return you to them, and your friends. They also desired, if you should have an opportunity, that you would send them as early notice as you could, when they might depend on seeing you on your return, that they might have opportunity to notify all their villages.

We have had an interesting Council. The Gospel, externally, has greatly prevailed.

Yours with esteem,

JABEZ B. HYDE.

Rev. Dr. Morse.

On my arrival at Buffaloe, on my return, August 8th, I found that a Council, of a part of the Six Nations was in session, to transact business of their own; and though they had no previous notice of my coming, I concluded it best to attend the Council, and know if they were prepared to say any thing on the subject, which I had submitted to their consideration. I found them convened in their Council House, in very decent order, arranged in two parties, the Christian party on my right hand, Capt. Pollard at their head; the Pagan party on the left hand, with the celebrated Red Jacket, at their head.

Capt. Pollard, a Seneca Chief, first spoke, in substance as follows:

FATHER,

We thank the Great Spirit for preserving you during your journey. If we had had more notice of your coming, we should have been better prepared to answer the speech you left us to consider. We suppose our Great Father, the President, appointed you to come and see us, to enquire into our situation, because he had confidence in you. We readily give you all the information we

can.

Father, We are convinced, such is our situation, that we must have the Gospel. Without it we shall fall to pieces, and come to ruin.

The Reservation on which we live, is small. We have no hunting grounds. We cannot live as we formerly did. It is grateful to our hearts, therefore, to hear the proposal of our Father the President, which you have made to us, we grasp it with eagerness. We have begun, and are now moderately advancing to the accomplishment of what he wishes, as you may see from a view of our fields, our cattle, &c.

As to dividing our lands into farms, and holding them as individual property, as among the white people, we think it will not do for us. Holding our lands in common, as we now do, keeps us together. As Indians want goods of white people, and buy them on credit, we fear difficulties would arise in collecting these debts, according to your laws, and our lands would be taken to pay them.

Father, As to the plan of removing to some other part of the country, and leaving our present habitations, we have no idea of it, and are at present determined to remain here. In this determination, we and our brethren on the other side are agreed. Houses for religious worship, and for schools are built among us for our use, and when once built, they remain.-Now listen to the Pagans on the other side.

RED JACKET'S SPEECH.*

I will be short. I understood that the time of your return would be appointed, and that we should have had notice of it. But you have come unexpectedly. We have not yet made up our minds on the subject you have proposed to us. We intend to call a great and general Council of our brethren from a great distance, and to take up the subject submitted to our consideration, which we think a great and serious one. We will send the result of our great Council, when it is adopted, to the President. By this we mean no disrespect to you. We regard it as a favor in the President, that he has sent you to us. Our Council will not be held in private, but publicly, before the Congressman (meaning Mr. Tracy, who was present.)

The Great Spirit made us of copper color, and gave us a different language from that of the white people. All animals, as well as men, differ from each other in their forms and natural dispositions.

Observe, it is one thing for white people to attend worship-and another to be industrious. They can be industrious.

We are in two parties, and our party wish that one course may be pursued by both.

FATHER,

CUSIC, a Tuscarora Chief then rose and said :

I was not here when you passed through on your way to the west. I was, however, informed of it, and thank the Great Spirit for your safe return. The Tuscaroras received the Gospel thirty years ago. We were among the first to receive Agriculture. We have a school, and a small church, sixteen members only, but sincere.

* Red Jacket was not well-and being called on suddenly, was not prepared, as he intended to have been. These are probably the reasons why his speech is so short, desultory, and abrupt.