THISTY YKABS A HUNTEB. 



times attending no school at all. Several of the 

 earliest pnpils in the mission schools are now heads 

 of families, well informed, industrious, frugal, tem- 

 perate and religious, and in good circumstances. 

 Some are interpreters, some teachers of schools, and 

 others engaged in transacting the business of the 

 nation. 



You can, sir, best judge of the influence of the 

 gospel in promoting worldly prosperity, when you 

 have fully completed the census which is now being 

 taken. When you count up the framed houses, 

 aad barns, the horses, cattle, sheep and 'hogs, the 

 acres of improved land, with the wagons, buggies 

 and sleighs, clocks and watches, and the various 

 productions of agriculture, you can easily conceive 

 the difference between the present, and thirty years 

 ago. I suppose there was not then a framed build- 

 ing of any description, and scarcely a log house, 

 properly so called, no teams, no roads, no ploughed 

 land, and but small patches of corn, beans and 

 squashes. What an astonishing change ! 



As to the capacity of Indian children for improve- 

 ment, my own impression is that there is no essen- 

 tial difference between them and white children. 

 The fact that Indian children usually make slow pro- 

 gress in studying English books, can be accounted 

 for in three ways : 1. They generally have little 

 or no assistance from their parents at home. 2. They 

 are irregular in their attendance on schools, for 

 want of order and discipline on the part of parents. 

 3. Being ignorant of the English language, it is a 



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