My dear Mr. Wheelock,—This day three weeks I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Occom. On their account, I have deferred my intended journey into the country all next week. They have been introduced to, and dined with the Daniel of the age, viz., the truly noble Lord Dartmouth. Mr. Occom is also to be introduced by him to his Majesty, who intends to favor their design with his bounty. A short memorial for the public is drawn, which is to be followed with a small pamphlet. All denominations are to be applied to, and therefore no mention is made of any particular commissioners or corresponding committees whatsoever. It would damp the thing entirely. Cashiers are to be named, and the moneys collected are to be deposited with them till drawn for by yourself. Mr. Occom hath preached for me with acceptance, and also Mr. Whitaker. They are to go round the other denominations in a proper rotation. As yet everything looks with a promising aspect. I have procured them suitable lodgings. I shall continue to do everything that lies in my power. Mr. S.[14] is providentially here,—a fast friend to your plan and his dear country.
"I wish you joy of the long wished for, long prayed for repeal, and am, my dear Mr. Wheelock,
"Yours, etc., in our glorious Head,
"George Whitefield."
[14] Mr. John Smith, of Boston.
We are now introduced to Mr. Wheelock's most valuable coadjutor, the son of Mark Hunking Wentworth,—another active and earnest friend:
"Bristol, [England,] 16th Dec., 1766.
"The Rev. Mr. Whitaker having requested my testimony of an institution forming in America, under the name of an Indian School, for which purpose many persons on that continent and in Europe have liberally contributed, and he is now soliciting the further aid of all denominations of people in this kingdom to complete the proposed plan, I do therefore certify, whomsoever it may concern, that the said Indian School appears to me to be formed upon principles of extensive benevolence and unfeigned piety; that the moneys already collected have been justly applied to this and no other use. From repeated information of many principal gentlemen in America, and from my own particular knowledge of local circumstances, I am well convinced that the charitable contributions afforded to this design will be honestly and successfully applied to civilize and recover the savages of America from their present barbarous paganism.
"J. Wentworth,
"Governor of New Hampshire."
The annals of philanthropy unfold few things bolder or more romantic in conception, or grander in execution, or sublimer in results than this most memorable, most successful pilgrimage. The unique, but magnetic, marvelous eloquence of this regenerated son of the forest, as he passed from town to town, and city to city, over England and Scotland, engaged the attention and opened the hearts of all classes—the clergy, the nobility, and the peasantry. The names of the men and women and children, who gave of their abundance or their poverty, primarily and apparently to civilize and evangelize their wild and savage brethren across the sea, but ultimately and really to found one of the most solid and beautiful temples of Christian and secular learning, in the Western hemisphere, deserve affectionate and perpetual remembrance, along with those of their kindred, who in a preceding century dedicated their whole treasure upon Plymouth Rock.