H2 LIFE AMONQ THE INDIANS.
CHAPTER XV 11.
REMOVAL OF THE WYANDOTTS PROl'OSKb
I WAS returned to the mission in 1824, with Rev. Mr. Hooper for a colleague.
A plan had been projected for removing the In¬ dians west of the Mississippi, and this was a source of great uneasiness and perplexity, both to the mission¬ aries and the natives. After years of toil and suf¬ fering, we had succeeded in gathering a few Iambs into the fold of the heavenly Shepherd, and how could we bear to see them scattered abroad again ^ If they should be suffered to remain on their reserva¬ tions, and receive proper treatment from the white population, we did not entertain a doubt but that ultimately they would become completely civilized and Christianized. But their removal to distant re¬ gions must greatly peril, if it did not utterly destroy that hope.
The Indians were utterly opposed to a removal; and our chiefs addressed an earnest remonstrance to the War Department upon the subject. In their com¬ munication they reminded the Secretary that at the treaty of Fort Meigs they were most sacredly prom¬ ised, that if they would cede all their lands, except the present reservations, they would never be spoken