PREFACE. 



We live in a day when the most distant parts 

 of the earth are opening as the sphere of Mis- 

 sionary labours. The state of the heathen 

 world is becoming better known, and the sym- 

 pathy of British Christians has been awakened, 

 in zealous endeavours to evangelize and soothe 

 its sorrows. In these encouraging signs of the 

 times, the Author is induced to give the follow- 

 ing pages to the public, from having traversed 

 some of the dreary wilds of North America, 

 and felt deeply interested in the religious in- 

 struction and amelioration of the condition of 

 the natives. They are wandering, in unnum- 

 bered tribes, through vast wildernesses, where 

 generation after generation have passed away, 

 in gross ignorance and almost brutal degra- 

 dation. 



Should any information he is enabled to give 

 excite a further Christian sympathy, and more 

 active benevolence in their behalf, it will truly 



