[FN-1] See close of the Appendix.

[FN-2] The note referred to, is as follows:—"I took the character of Brant in the poem of Gertrude from the common histories of England, all of which represented him as a bloody and bad man, (even among savages,) and chief agent in the horrible desolation of Wyoming. Some years after this poem appeared, the son of Brant, a most interesting and intelligent youth, came over to England; and I formed an acquaintance with him, on which I still look back with pleasure. He appealed to my sense of honor and justice, on his own part and on that of his sister, to retract the unfair assertion which, unconscious of its unfairness, I had cast on his father's memory. He then referred to documents which completely satisfied me that the common accounts of Brant's cruelties at Wyoming, which I had found in books of travels, and in Adolphus's and similar histories of England, were gross errors; and that, in point of fact, Brant was not even present at that scene of desolation. . . . I ascertained, also, that, he often strove to mitigate the cruelty of Indian warfare. The name of Brant, therefore, remains in my poem, a pure and declared character of fiction." This is something like knocking a man down, and then desiring that he would regard the blow as purely a phantasy of the imagination.

During his sojourn in London, the young chief seems to have paid considerable attention to the public institutions, particularly those of a humane and benevolent character. He was introduced by Mr. Butterworth to the British and Foreign School Society; and in his diary mentions an interesting visit to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Other objects of interest or curiosity, which attracted his attention, were noted in his diary, a small fragment of which only remains among his papers. The following entry is not very flattering to British beauty:—

"Thursday Evening, 16th May, 1822, I went to Mr. C. A. Tulk's, M. P. party, to hear a little music. There were twenty-two ladies—one only pretty—Casweighter, said to be the best violin player in Europe, and Solly, celebrated for the guitar and piano. I met a gentleman well acquainted with my father—formerly of the Queen's Rangers."

But his attention to other matters did not lead him to forgetfulness of the moral wants of his people. The war between the United States and Great Britain, the principal seat of which was in the vicinity of the Mohawks' territory, had had a most unhappy effect upon their social condition. Their farms had been neglected, their buildings had suffered from the same cause, as also had their church and schools. It is likewise probable, that after the decease of Thayendanegea, in the absence of a directing master mind, there had been but little advance in the work of public instruction before the war; and it was the design of young Brant, on his return to Canada, to resuscitate and extend the schools among his nation. For this purpose he procured an appropriation, in 1822, from the New-England Corporation for the civilization of Indians, which had been chartered as far back as 1662. After his return to Grand River, the young chief entered zealously upon the work, as appears from an active correspondence maintained for several years with the officers of that institution. The following extracts, from a mass of his letters, are given, not only as examples of his epistolary style, but for the purpose of showing the extent and nature of the exertions he was making, and the prospects of good which were opening upon him:—

"John Brant, (Ahyouwaeghs) to James Gibson.

"Mohawk Village, Grand River, U. C. }
19th June, 1824. }

". . . I have attended to the subject of your letters with the greatest satisfaction, and I hope that the report I am now about to make to you, will be equally satisfactory to the humane and benevolent members of the New England Corporation. I set out with observing that the appointed teacher conducts himself in every point of view corresponding to our expectations. The children are particularly taught religious and moral duties; the hours of prayer are rigidly attended to; and on the Sabbath the scholars attend divine service. Cleanliness is strictly enforced, and all laudable means are resorted to in order to excite a liberal spirit of emulation. Corporeal punishment is discountenanced, except in cases of flagrant indifference. Upon the whole, I have the pleasure of announcing, through the medium of you, Sir, to the Corporation, that the donation so liberally applied, will, in my opinion, be attended with the most salutary effects. It is an agreeable sight to observe the rising generation of the aborigines employed in acquiring knowledge, and in a spirit of true worship attending divine service on the Sabbath. . . .

"One of our tribes, the Oneidas, [FN] are very anxious to have a school established for them. The chiefs have assured me that not less than thirty children would attend the school if established. . . ."