Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/46

26 for twenty Indian youth, who, on a level with the English, might pursue a complete academic course, for which they should be prepared by a “Dame's school,” and by “Master Corlet's Grammar School.” The attempt was earnestly made and carried through its various stages, with but slender and wholly unsatisfactory results. That work of marvellous toil and holy zeal, Eliot's Indian Bible, was printed in that consecrated college hall. The excellent Robert Boyle and the beloved and gentle Bishop Berkeley both bore labors and sacrifices in planning colleges for the Indians, — alike in vain.

Dartmouth College took its start as “Moors' Charity School for Indians,” for the education of their youth and of missionaries to them. The motto on the college seal is Vox clamantis in Deserto. A very remarkable list is still preserved of subscriptions made in its behalf from two hundred places in Great Britain, chiefly gathered by the preaching there of an ordained Christian minister, Sampson Occum, an Indian. President Wheelock gave his devoted labors to the school and college, and once had twenty-one Indian boys under instruction. But the missionaries sent forth from the college were not welcome or successful, and the whites soon monopolized the advantages of the institution. In each of these enterprises some malign agency came in to thwart all well-intended purposes.

In view of all these royal covenants and solemn avowals made in the interest of the red men, and of all these associated and individual efforts through costly outlays and devoted sacrifice to serve and help and save them, no one can fairly affirm that the European colonists from the beginning until now have failed to recognize the ordinary claims of a common humanity which the aborigines had upon them. We certainly have to take note of the fact that the best feelings and purposes towards the Indians were cherished in anticipation of what would and ought to be the relations of the whites as Christians, when brought