34 



BIBLIOG-RAPHY OF THE 



Fleming (J.) — Continued. 



Boston : Printed by Croclier & Brews- 

 ter, \ 47 Washington Street. | 1834. 



Pp. 1-101, 18^, Muskoki aud Englisb ; 500 

 copies printed. 



Copies seen : American Board of Comraission- 

 619, American Tract Society, Trumbull. 



Istutsi in naktsokr. Or ' the child's 



book. By Rev. John Fleming. Mis- 

 sionary of the American Board of Com- 

 missioners for I Foreign Missions. | 

 [Picture.] | 



Union : | Mission press : John F. 

 Wheeler, [ printer. | 1835. 



Title verso blank 1 1. Muskoki alphabet pp. 

 3-4, test (illustrated) in tke Muskoki language 

 pp. 5-24, 18°. 



Copies seen : Congress, Powell, Trumbull. 



A short sermon : [ also ; hymns, | in 



the Muskokeo or Creek language, j By 

 Kev. John Fleming, Missionary of the 

 American Board of Commissioners for 

 Foreign | Missions. | 



Boston : | printed for the board, by 

 Crocker & Brewster, I 47 Washington 

 Street, j 1835. 



Title verso blank 1 1. Muskokee alphabet pp. 

 3-4, text in Muskokee pp. 5-35, 18°. — Sermon 

 (John iii, 10), pp. 5-11.— Hymns, pp. 13-35. 



Copies seen: Boston Athonanim, Brinton, Con- 

 gress, E.inies, Pilling, Powell, Trumbull. 



Leclerc in 1867 sold a copy. No. 574, for 1 fr. 

 50, and in 1878 priced a copy. No. 2362, 10 fr. 

 Tlui Briuley copies, Nos. 5754 and 5755, sold for 

 75 cents each ; the Murphy copy, No. 2953, 

 for$l. 



[ ] The ; Maskoke semahayeta, | or | 



Muskokee teacher, j Cemo hayate. | 



Uulou: [ Mission Press: John F. 

 Wheeler, printer. | 1S36. 



Title verso blank 1 1. text pp. 3-54, 16°. 

 Primer in the Muskokee language. 



Copies seen : Congress. 



Mr. Fleming's works are printed in the Pick- 

 ering alph.abet. 



See Loughridge (R. M.) aud Wiiis- 



lett (D.) 

 See Loughridge (R. M.), Winslett 



(D.), aud Robertson (W, S.) 

 See Robertson (A. E. W^. ) 



See Robertson (W. S.) and "Winslett 



(D.) 



Mr. Fleming was born in 1800 in eastern Penn- 

 sylv.ania. He received his collegiate education 

 at Jefferson College, and his theological at 

 Princeton. Licensed to preach by the Hunt- 

 ington Presbytery October 15, 1832, he set out 

 for the Creek nation, and on Christmas day of 

 that jear landed from a sm.all steamboat .at Fort 



Fleming (J.) — Continued. 



Gibson. Ho has spent the remainder of his life 

 on the frontier among the Indians aud new set- 

 tlements of the West. 



Ho writes me as follows concerning his lin- 

 guistic work : 



Ayii, 'Nkbr., Novemher a, 1888. 



De.\r Siu : I entered upon my work among 

 the Creeks December 25, 1832, which, iu my 

 fifth year, was brought suddenly and unex- 

 pectedly to a termination through causes over 

 which I had no control. It was .sudden expul- 

 sion on the charge of abolition — that I was seek- 

 ing the liberation of the few slaves who were 

 within the bounds of the territory. The charge 

 was utterly without foundation, but the agent 

 gave credence to the ch.arge and ordered me out. 



As I said, I entered on my work thoie on the 

 23th of December, 1832. I was under appoint- 

 ment from the A. B. of F. Mis.sions in Boston, 

 and was the pioneer missionary, or the first ever 

 especially designated to the Muskogee nation. 

 The .acquisition of their language was the first 

 work that engaged ray attention. Securing a 

 young man who was familiar with the English, 

 I had to construct an .alphabet in which I 

 could reduce the language to writing, as it had 

 nev(5r been .as yet a wi'itten language. In this 

 I was greatly aided by the adoption, to a great 

 extent, of Pickering's system, aud I am sorry 

 that it was not subsequently retained by tlioso 

 who have followed me in that mission work. 

 Tho Muskogee Language is not a difiicult lan- 

 guage to acquire. It is remarkably regular iu 

 tho construction of its verbs, and having se- 

 cured the root of the verb, it can be run with 

 ease through its persons, moods, and tenses. 



I was enamored with the language, and to 

 secure its speedy' acquisition separated myself 

 from my family days aud weeks at a time, living 

 in families where I heard only their own Ian- 

 guage among themselves. To construct an elo- 

 montary book of .short words and simple sen- 

 tences, to meet the necessities of our little 

 school, was my first effort at book-making. 



To furnish hymns iu their own language for 

 use iu our Sabbath services was among my 

 earliest efforts to meet the wants of the people. 

 I had in this work an excellent assistant in tho 

 person of James Perryman, at the time a mem. 

 ber of my church. He was not a full-blood 

 Indian, but was an earnest and faithful worker 

 in the elevation of liis people. In addition to 

 the goodly number of hymns which I secured, 

 I wrote a short essay on creation and the re- 

 demption of tho world by Christ; and this 

 with tho hymns formed one book. Tho manu- 

 script of my elementary book was now ready 

 for publication, aud I sent all to Boston, where 

 they were printed — in how largo an edition I 

 can not now say — aud duly returned to me at 

 my mission in the Indi.an Territor3'. 



It was very soon after the return .of my 

 printed works from Boston that the calamity 

 to which I h.ave referred in tho beginning of 

 this short sketch of my mission life among the 



