XII PREFACE. 



have explored the western wilds, and planted 

 their establishments over a tract of country, some 

 thousands of miles in extent. They have made 

 the savages of the wilderness tributary to the 

 comforts of civilized society ; and in many instan- 

 ces, they have exhibited a surprising fortitude, in 

 exposing themselves to hardship and to danger. 



The souls of the Indians are of more value 

 than their furs ; and to raise this people in the 

 scale of intellectual existence, to surround them 

 with the comforts of civilization, to rescue them 

 from the gloom of superstition, to mould their 

 hearts to christian kindness, and to cheer their 

 dying hour with a well founded hope of immortal 

 glory and blessedness, constitutes an aggregate of 

 good sufficient to call forth exertion for their re- 

 lief. The time is rapidly coming, when christian 

 benevolence will emulate the activity and perse- 

 verance, which have long been displayed in com- 

 mercial enterprizes ; when no country will remain 

 unexplored by the heralds of the cross, where im- 

 mortal souls are shrouded in the darkness of hea- 

 thenism, and are perishing for lack of vision, The 

 wandering and benighted sons of our own forests. 



