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in such numbers, as to call for more systematic and extended measures."

Such was the origin of the Foreign Mission School, which was located in Cornwall, in the State of Connecticut. This institution was received under the care of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in the autumn of 1816, and holds an interesting place in the history of their operations. In 1819 this institution contained thirty two pupils; and these of different nations, languages, and tongues, under heaven-some from the Sandwich Islands, some from the Society Islands, some from Asia, together with seventeen aboriginal Americans, and six young persons from our own country; all enjoying the fostering care of the churches, forming an important object of their prayers, and destined, we trust, 66 to shine as lights" in the "dark places of the earth."

The Board continued to bestow upon the school its patronage and watchful care until 1826, when a Committee was appointed "to examine into all its concerns, and report their opinion respecting the course which Providence shall seem to render judicious and necessary. The result was, "that the continuance of the school is not expedient." "The design of giving a good education to young men of heathen "birth and parentage, in order that they may aid in evangelizing their countrymen, can now be executed more favorably at several Missionary

stations, than at any place in a Christian country."

Although the facts and reasons developed in the course of their investigations left no doubt on the minds of the Committee, as to the proper course to be pursued, " yet," they say, "they do not furnish any occasion to regret the establishment of the school, and the continuance of it to the present time. This seminary was an intermediate cause of the Mission to the Sandwich Islands; and had it been the cause of no other good, this would be matter of joy and exultation through all future ages. But it has done good in many other ways. It was at one period a strong proof to the more intelligent Cherokees and Choctaws, of the benevolent feeling entertained by the whites toward the Indians. It had a powerful tendency to excite kind feelings toward the heathen generally, in the minds of many among ourselves. It gave opportunity for the display of native talent, in a high degree interesting to all friends of human improvement. It attracted the attention of many to Missionary exertions, who would otherwise have remained ignorant of them. And its indirect influence has been salutary in various respects." God has been pleased, in a remarkable manner, to bless this seminary with the influences of his Holy Spirit. Of the heathen youth who have enjoyed its privileges, nearly if not quite half became hopefully pious at Cornwall.

Mr. Mills lived to see this school organized;

and, until the last, continued to take a deep interest in its prosperity, and doubtless to offer up fervent prayers for its success. It has been intimated by some who were acquainted with his plans, that had he been permitted to live, it was his purpose to have accompanied Obookiah on his Mission, and to have lived and died in Hawaii. But "the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne." Obookiah died, in the 26th year of his age, on the 17th of February, 1818, while a member of the Foreign Mission School, greatly beloved by all who knew him, and a splendid instance of the power of grace upon the heart of a heathen.

CHAPTER V.

His Missionary Tours into the western and southern sections of the United States.

Ir is yet to be shown, that abetting the cause of God abroad, diminishes our zeal for the cause at home. It is a maxim founded on actual experience, that the more you do for the heathen, the more will be done at your own doors. "When once warmed by the animating spirit of Missions, good men will naturally think of the destitute among themselves. When once their selfish stupor is broken, every object within their reach will feel the benign effect." No where are the men to be found who have done half so much at home, as those who have accomplished the most abroad. Never has Britain achieved any thing like so much for the destitute within her own geographical limits, and especially for her Irish neighbors, as since she began to weep over the ignorance, and superstition, and death of Hindostan, China, and Africa. And if we survey the exertions of the American church, where do we find the most

extended, the most judicious, the most persevering, and the most hopeful measures in behalf of the Indians on our own continent, if not among those who have shown the deepest zeal for foreign Missions ?

It affords unfeigned pleasure to be enabled to record, that the very individual whom we have seen so indefatigably employed in projecting plans for evangelizing the heathen in distant lands, is the individual to whom all are disposed to yield the palm for his exertions in favor of the destitute on our western frontier.

Mr. Mills completed his theological studies at Andover in the autumn of 1812, and about the same time began to make preparations for a Missionary tour through the western and southern sections of the United States. Very little was known of the reality and extent of the moral desolation of this rising portion of our country, until the "nakedness of the land" was actually surveyed, and the heart-rending report reached the ears of the churches through the instrumentality of this indefatigable Missionary. Such was his impression of the importance of this service, that he performed two separate tours through this part of our country; the first in the years 1812 and 1813; and the last in the years 1814 and 1815. It is not known that the first of these expeditions originated with himself more than with his worthy companion, the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, of the Dutch Reformed Church.

The last, in which he was accompa

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