CHAPTER IV.

The first year of his Mission.

ABOUT the middle of March, 1743, Brainerd proceeded again to New York. On the 15th of that month, he waited on the correspondents at that city; and, the week following, attended their meeting at Woodbridge, in New Jersey. Here he received his final directions.

His first destination had been to the Indians living near the Forks of the Delaware and on the Susquehannah; but this design was relinquished. The correspondents had learned that some contention subsisted between the white people and the Delaware Indians, concerning their lands; and apprehended that this would hinder, for the present, the reception and success of a missionary. They had, on the other hand, received some intimations from the Rev. Mr. Sergeant, missionary to the Indians at Stockbridge, that there was the most hopeful prospect of success for a missionary among the Indians of Kaunaumeek.

This place was situated about twenty miles east of

the city of Albany. Here Brainerd was appointed to labour; and was immediately dismissed by the correspondents, to attempt the instruction of these Indians. He arrived among them April 1, 1743, and continued his labours till April 6, 1744, when he was directed by the correspondents, as we shall hereafter see, to proceed to his original destination on the Delaware. His account of his situation, addressed, after he had left Kaunaumeek, to the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, is not a little melancholy.

'The place, as to its situation, was sufficiently lonesome and unpleasant, being encompassed with mountains and woods; twenty miles distant from any English inhabitant; six or seven from any Dutch; and more than two from a family that came some time since from the Highlands of Scotland, and had then lived, as I remember, about two years in this wilderness. In this family I lodged about the space of three months, the master of it being the only person with whom I could readily converse in those parts, except my interpreter; others understanding very little English.

'After I had spent about three months in this situation, I found my distance from the Indians a very great disadvantage to my work amongst them, and very burdensome to myself; as I was obliged to travel forward and backward almost daily on foot, having no pasture in which I could keep my horse for that purpose: and, after all my pains, could not be with the Indians in the evening and morning, which were usually the best hours to find them at home, and when they could best attend my instructions.

'I therefore resolved to remove, and live with or

near the Indians, that I might watch all opportunities, when they were generally at home, and take the advantage of such seasons for their instruction.

Accordingly, I removed soon after, and, for a time, lived with them in one of their wigwams; and, not long after, built me a small house, where I spent the remainder of that year entirely alone; my interpreter, who was an Indian, choosing rather to live in a wigwam, among his own countrymen.

This way of living I found attended with many difficulties and uncomfortable circumstances, in a place where I could get none of the necessaries and common comforts of life, (no, not so much as a morsel of bread,) but what I brought from places fifteen and twenty miles distant; and often was obliged, for some time together, to content myself without, for want of an opportunity to procure the things I needed.

'But, although the difficulties of this solitary way of living are not the least, or most inconsiderable, (and doubtless are, in fact, many more and greater to those who experience, than they can readily appear to those who only view them at a distance), yet I can truly say, that the burden which I felt respecting my great work among the poor Indians; the fear and concern that continually hung upon my spirit, lest they should be prejudiced against Christianity, and their minds embittered against me and my labours among them, by means of the insinuations of some, who, although they are called Christians, seem to have no concern for Christ's kingdom, but would rather (as their conduct plainly discovers) that the Indians should remain heathens, that they may with the more ease cheat, and so enrich themselves by

them; the burden, I say, the fear and concern which I felt, in these respects, were much more pressing to me than all the difficulties that attended the circumstances of my living.'

In the following extract of a letter which he wrote at this period to his brother John, then a student at Yale College, he unbosoms himself without reserve:

Kaunaumeek, April 30, 1743.

'MY DEAR Brother,

'I should tell you, "I long to see you," but that my own experience has taught me there is no happiness and plenary satisfaction to be enjoyed in earthly friends, though ever so near and dear, or in any other enjoyment that is not God himself. Therefore, if the God of all grace would be pleased to afford us each his presence and grace, that we may perform the work and endure the trials he calls us to, in a most distressing tiresome wilderness, till we arrive at our journey's end; the distance at which we are held from each other at the present, is a matter of no great moment or importance to either

of us.

want.

But, alas, the presence of God is what I

'I live in the most lonely melancholy desert, about eighteen miles from Albany; for it was not thought best that I should go to Delaware River, as I believe I hinted to you in a letter from New York. I board with a poor Scotchman: his wife can talk scarcely any English. My diet consists mostly of hastypudding, boiled corn, and bread baked in the ashes, and sometimes a little meat and butter. My lodging is a little heap of straw, laid upon some boards, a

little way from the ground; for it is a log-room, without any floor, that I lodge in. My work is exceeding hard and difficult: I travel on foot a mile and a half in the worst of roads almost daily, and back again; for I live so far from my Indians. I have not seen an English person this month. These and many other uncomfortable circumstances attend me; and yet my spiritual conflicts and distresses so far exceed all these, that I scarce think of them, but feel as if I were entertained in the most sumptuous manner. The Lord grant that I may learn to "endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ!"

As to my success here, I cannot say much as yet. The Indians seem generally kind and well-disposed towards me, and are mostly very attentive to my instructions, and seem willing to be taught. Two or three, I hope, are under some convictions; but there seems to be little of the special workings of the divine Spirit among them yet; which gives me many a heart-sinking hour. Sometimes I hope God has abundant blessings in store for them and me; at other times I am so overwhelmed with distress, that I cannot see how his dealings with me are consistent with covenant love and faithfulness; and I say,

66

"

Do

Surely his tender mercies are clean gone for ever.' But I already see I needed all this chastisement. "It is good for me" that I have endured these trials, and have hitherto little or no apparent success. not be discouraged on my account. I was under great distress at Mr. Pomroy's when I saw your last: but "God has been with me of a truth" since that: at Long Island and elsewhere.

'Let us also remember that we must, 66 through much tribulation," enter into God's eternal kingdom