before they had been visited by a Rev. Mr. Cram, a missionary from the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, whom they had rejected,-doubtless the missionary referred to in the annual report of the New York Missionary Society for 1802,-and their attitude was still one of profound distrust. Mr. Alexander remained and preached in Buffalo for a few months, but some misunderstanding arose about his compensation and he soon returned to New York. With him the Society had sent Jabez Backus Hyde as a teacher, and although the chiefs had refused to receive the missionary, some of them desired instruction for their children, and Mr. Hyde was invited to remain and establish a school. To this he consented and thus began a work of usefulness which he continued with marked success for nearly ten years, preparing the way for those later efforts, which finally resulted in establishing a permanent mission at the Buffalo Creek.

As early as 1798 the Society of Friends in the City of Philadelphia had sent some of their number to the Indians on the Alleghany, where they had been kindly received, bending their efforts more especially towards the ways of civilization, instructing their charges in agriculture and the simpler useful crafts that should ameliorate their condition and make them more self-helpful, extending these self-sacrificing endeavors at a little later day to those upon the Cattaraugus Reservation.

At this time the greater part of the Indians in Western New York, more than 2,000 in number, were settled in three or four villages on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, along the banks of Buffalo Creek and its branches and of Cazenovia Creek, four or five miles east of the village of Buffalo. The most central of these and the nearest to Buffalo was called Seneca village and was clustered near the council house, which stood about twenty rods from Buffalo Creek on its northwest bank, at a point now marked by the angle between Archer street and Seneca street, near the present street-car barn. Near by lived Seneca White and other well-known Indians, and their straggling cabins were scattered to the eastward on both sides of the Aurora road for a distance of a

mile or more. About four or five miles southeastward, in the vicinity of what is now called Lower Ebenezer, was the Onondaga "castle" or village, where Col. Thomas Proctor found twenty-eight "good cabins" at the time of the council of 1791. Here, too, was their council house, which stood on the southern bank of Cazenovia Creek. Some five or six miles northward from the Seneca village was the largest of these Indian villages, called Jack Berry's town, or more commonly Jackstown, which was a stronghold of the Pagan party, as was also a smaller cluster of cabins northeastward from Seneca, called Turkeytown.*

It is difficult to determine just where Mr. Hyde located his school, but it would seem to have been in the immediate vicinity of the council house of Seneca village. There is in the possession of the Buffalo Historical Society a manuscript "Account of the Seneca Indians and Mission," written by Mr. Hyde, and dated August 8, 1820, from which we learn something of the many difficulties and trials which beset his endeavor. His position had been a subordinate one and, so far from having derived any advantage from having accompanied the proffered missionary, the prejudices excited by Mr. Alexander became a serious embarrassment to his own introduction. After waiting some seven months he opened his school, and at the annual meeting of the Society, April 7, 1812, it was reported that "his conduct has been prudent and upright and he has succeeded in erecting a school house near the center of the Seneca settlement, where he now resides." Not only prudent and upright in his conduct, he was deeply conscientious in his devotion to duty, and there is something pathetic in the story of his brave struggle against constant discouragement. He says: "The war took place the next summer (1812), which threw everything into confusion on the frontier. Several times the school was interrupted, a

*My information as to these localities comes from Mrs. Martha E. Parker, who lived with her aunt, Mrs. Asher Wright, at the mission from 1836; and from Benjamin C. Van Duzee, the printer for the mission, who began his work there in 1841. Their recollection has been confirmed by MS. notes left by the late Orlando Allen. Mrs. Parker is now living (1903) at the Cattaraugus Reservation and Mr. Van Duzee resides at Hamburg. Both are well past eighty years of age.

few scholars attended, but were very irregular. After the war the school revived for a short time, but soon diminished, none of the first scholars persevered. During the six years that I professed to act as a school teacher, I had several sets of new scholars, and not one of them made proficiency that promised to be of any use to them. My heart was deeply affected at the prospect which forbid the hope that anything would ever be effected in this way."

From year to year he persevered despite all disappointments. Although commissioned by the Society only as a teacher, the thought of evangelizing the Indians took even a deeper hold upon him and shaped his course. Oftentimes he was ridiculed by those who thought such efforts as his own were but wasted with such a stolid people, but this stimulated him to renewed endeavor and "a full determination that the enemy would not always triumph." Of these earlier years he gives no record, but it is evident that the chiefs were not willing to receive other permanent workers than himself, although he had won their confidence and respect. He says: "The summer of 1817 Mr. Butrick lived with me I indulged the hope that his meek and affectionate manner would interest the Indians in his favour and influence them to listen to his instruction, but they stood aloof from him, and when I pressed them to attend to his instructions, they answered they would not have a minister stay among them."

In that year he received a visit from Rev. Timothy Alden, a missionary licensed by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, whose published letters give us occasional glimpses of those early days of the Seneca Mission:* "On Tuesday evening the 20th of August, 1817, we arrived at the Mission House occupied by Jabez Backus Hyde, who has had the care of the Indian School for five years in the Seneca village of Buffalo Creek, four miles from its entrance into the Lake. From all the intelligence I had been able to collect I had very little expectation of preaching to this part of the tribe, from the circumstance that my predecessors, the Rev. Messrs.

*"Account of sundry Missions performed among the Senecas and Munsees in a Series of Letters with an Appendix, by Rev. Timothy Alden, President of Allegheny College, New York. Printed by J. Seymour, 1827."

Cram and Alexander, some years ago, after a formal introduction to the chiefs in council, could have no permission to address the Indians on the subject of the Christian Religion. My reception, however, was far more favorable than I had anticipated. On Wednesday, in company with Mr. Hyde, we called on some of the natives, and particularly on King (Young King) and Pollard, two influential chiefs. The business of my mission was made known to them and they were pleased to express their approbation of the object. Pollard said that he was glad I had informed the chiefs of my wishes that they might have the opportunity to communicate them to their people. King and Pollard promised to give notice of the meeting which they preferred to have on the Sabbath, and Jacob Jamieson was engaged to interpret on the occasion. He had lately returned from Dartmouth College, where for about two years he had been a student, and is considered as one of the best interpreters to be found among the Senecas. At the time appointed we met at the school house in Seneca, as the village of Buffalo Creek is sometimes called, which was crowded with the tawney inhabitants, while a considerable portion stood without at the doors and windows. Ten chiefs were present, of whom one was the celebrated Sogweewautan, who is extensively known by the name of Red Jacket. Of the shrewd remarks which this famous orator has frequently made to missionaries with reference to ministers of the Gospel you have doubtless been apprised. As I did not call on him on the previous Wednesday it occurred to me that he might have thought himself neglected. It was grateful to me to learn that when Pollard informed him of my arrival and of my wish to preach to the Indians he expressed his unqualified approbation of the steps taken for my accommodation and offered nothing in the way of objections, as he had formerly done to those who had preceded me. The Indians are much attached to Mr. Hyde and his family, who have been of no small advantage to them by precept and example. The school, consisting of about thirty boys, is in as prosperous a state as could reasonably be expected, yet the indefatigable instructor is greatly disheartened at the tardy progress of his pupils. Mr. Hyde

has written a series of discourses involving in plain and intelligible language suited to the capacity of the natives, the leading historical and doctrinal parts of the Bible, a number of which he has delivered with the assistance of an interpreter to the Indians and much to their edification."

A year later, August 28, 1818, Mr. Alden wrote: "On the 14th of July we arrived at Mr. Hyde's habitation in the first village of the Buffalo Indians and repaired to the cabin of Captain Billy, one of the aged chiefs, and stated to him my wish to preach to his people. We agreed on the following Sabbath for addressing the Indians of this place and Captain Billy promised to see them informed of the meeting.. On the Sabbath, the 19th of July [1818], we met the Indians at Seneca agreeably to appointment. Billy, Pollard, Young King, Twenty Canoes and other chiefs were present. Red Jacket and several more were at Tonnewanta. Of Indians and squaws from all parts of the Buffalo reservation there was a larger collection than when I visited them last autumn. There were many more than could be accommodated in the Council House where we assembled together. I had an able interpreter in Thomas Armstrong, who, like Hank Johnson, was taken in infancy, adopted and brought up as a member of the tribe. After singing, Mr. Hyde read the Lord's Prayer in Seneca, which he had recently translated. This was the first time these Indians had heard it in their native tongue, as previously stated to them that their friend and teacher would repeat to them in their language the prayer which was taught us by Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Mr. Hyde has resigned the charge of the school which he had under his care for five years. He thought it would be advantageous to the Indians to suspend it for a season. They now begin to express their desire for its re-commencement. At the present time Mr. Hyde is busily employed in acquiring the Seneca, gradually preparing a Grammar of the dialect and translating into it the Gospel according to the Evangelist John. In this important labor he is assisted by Thomas Armstrong, with whom he was providentially brought to an acquaintance when greatly needed, but not knowing where to find one so competent.