"But the difficulty, after all, remains, of obtaining suitable persons
to carry forward our plans--of making our young men feel that they ought
to turn away from the millions, in the populous nations of Asia, and go
among our scattered tribes. Here is our whole ground of discouragement.
So far as conversions are concerned (and these are the great objects of
a missionary's labor), none of our missions have been more successful
than those among the Indians; and if we had a hundred men of the spirit
and activity of David Brainerd, or Eliot, I should have the strongest
expectations that all our Indian tribes would be converted without great
delay. But we have no prospect of obtaining them. I fear there are few
such in our churches.
"I think that the mission of Mackinack has been a very successful one,
especially in exerting an extensive religious influence, and being, as
you justly remark, 'the nucleus of Christianity in the north-west.' How
far the recent changes in the arrangements of the American Fur Company
are going to affect its importance in these respects and others, I
cannot say, but our Committee are by no means disposed to relinquish it,
while there is a hope of doing sufficient good there to justify the
keeping up of the requisite establishment.
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