INDIANS. 



229 



those plans which were adopted at the Academy 

 for meliorating their state, and, in the terms of 

 the charter, ' To propagate and advance the 

 Christian and Protestant religion among them.' 

 For a series of years every attempt failed, in 

 the way of effecting any permanent change, or 

 producing any substantial good among this 

 degraded portion of our fellow-men ; for after 

 the Company had incurred a heavy expense, 

 they reverted to their migratory habits of life, 

 and again fell under the influence of the Roman 

 Catholic priests. Nor has the more recent 

 plan of the Establishment, as recommended to 

 the Society at home, by the Board of Comis- 

 sioners in the province, been attended with 

 much better success towards civilizing and 

 raising the Indians in the moral scale of being. 

 The principle that was adopted, of apprenticing 

 their children, at an early age, to different 

 settlers, I found was not generally approved 

 by the Indians themselves, nor has the plan 

 proved beneficial to their morals. Under these 

 circumstances, the New England Company 

 have resolved upon breaking up the establish- 

 ment, and would seek, in the application of 

 their funds, for further good than they have 

 heretofore met with among our Red brethren 

 of the wilderness. 



