CANADA, A TYPICAL EACB OF AMEIMCAN ABOEIGINES. 87 



sense of the term, dialects. In their coiTucil house ou the Graud Eiver, the chiefs of the 

 Mohawks, Oneiclas, Ouaudagas, Cayngas, and Seuecas, speak each iu their own language 

 and need no interpreter. Nevertheless, the differences are considerable ; and a Seneca 

 wonld scarcely find the language of a Mohawk intelligible to him iu ordinary con- 

 versation. But the separation of the Tuscaroras from the Iroquois on the Mohawk 

 River had been of long duration, and their language differs much more widely from the 

 others. 



The Mohawk language was adopted at an early date for communicating with the 

 Indians of the Six Nations. The New Englaud Company, established in 1649, under favour 

 of the Lord Protector, Cromwell, " for the propagation of the Gospel in New England," 

 was revived on the restoration of Charles II, under a royal charter ; and with the eminent 

 philosopher, Robert Boyle, as its first governor, vigorous steps were taken for the religious 

 instruction of the Indians. The correspondence of Eliot, " the Apostle of the Indians," 

 with the first governor of the company, is marked by their anxiety for the conijiletion of 

 the Massachusetts Bible, which, along with other books, he had translated for the benefit 

 of the Indians of New England. The silver communion service, still preserved at the 

 reserve on the Grand River, presented to the ancestors of the Mohawk nation, by Queen 

 Anne, is an interesting memorial of the early efforts for their Christianization. It bears 

 the inscription : "A. R., 1*711. The gift of Her Ma,jesty, by the grace of God, of Great 

 Britain, France and Ireland, and of her plantations in North America, Queen : to her 

 Indian Chappel of the Mohawks." The date has a special interest in evidence of the 

 transforming influences already at work ; for it was not till three years later that the 

 Tuscaroras were received into the confederation,, and the Iroquois became known by their 

 later appelation as the Six Nation Indians. In accordance with the efforts indicated by 

 the royal gift, repeated steps were taken for translating the Scriptures and the Prayer 

 Book into their languag•(^ In fa letter of the Rev. Dr. Stuart, missionary to the Six 

 Nations, dated iTYl, he describes his introduction to Captain Brant, at the Mohawk village 

 of Canajoharie, and the aid received from him in rcAising the Indian Prayer Book, and 

 iu translating the Gospel of St. Mark, and the Acts of the Apostles into the Mohawk lan- 

 guage. The breaking out of the revolutionary war arrested the printing of these trans- 

 lations. The manuscripts were brought to Canada in 1781, and placed in the hands of 

 Colonel Clause, the Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This gentleman subse- 

 quently carried them to England, where they were at length printed. A more recent 

 edition of the Mohawk Prayer Book, prepared under the direction of the Rev. Abraham 

 Nelles, a missionary of the New England Company, with the aid of a native catechist, 

 issued from the Canadian press in 1842. The Indian text is accompanied with its Eno-lish 

 equivalent on the opposite page, and this Kaghyadouhsera ne Yoedereanayendagvyha, or Book 

 of Common Prayer, is still in use in the religious services of the Six Nation Indians at 

 their settlement on the Grand River. 



Some characteristics of the language, such as the absence of labials, are illustrated 

 below from the Mohawk Prayer Book. The one specially referred to constitutes not only 

 a distinctive difference from the old Huron speech, but affords proof of the latter being 

 the older form. " It is a fact," says Professor Max Miiller, in referring to his intercourse 

 with an intelligent native Mohawk, then a student at Oxford, " that the Mohawks never, 

 either as infants or as grown-iip people, articulate with their lips. They have no p, b, m. 



