uccessful teacher but an accomplished hymn-writer. The visit of "the
great Mohegan" to England in 1765, when he preached more than three
hundred times and raised some ten thousand pounds for Dartmouth College,
was perhaps the most striking incident of his career.

From this early chapter of Indian education we find it clearly proven
that individual red men were able to assimilate the classical culture of
the period, and capable, moreover, of loyalty toward the new ideals no
less than the old. The utter disregard of hygiene then prevalent, and
the further facts that industrial training was neglected and little or
no attention paid to the girls, would account to the modern mind for
many disappointments. However, most of the so-called "failure" of this
work is directly traceable to unjust laws, social segregation, frequent
wars, strong drink, and the greed of the whites for Indian lands, one or
all of which causes destroyed many promising beginnings and
exterminated whole tribes or drove them from well-established homes into
poverty and exile.

EARLY MISSION AND CONTRACT SCHOOLS

Beginning with the first years of the nineteenth century, practically
every religious denomination in America carried on more or less
educational work among the natives. In some cases the Indians themselves
contributed toward the expense of these schools, and in others the
United States Government gave meagre aid. As early as 1775 the
Continental Congress had appropriated five hundred dollars for the
support and education of youths at Dartmouth College. This was, however,
less an act of benevolence than of self-interest, since its avowed
object was to conciliate the friendship of those Indians who might be
inclined to ally themselves with the British during the struggle for
independence.

From the year 1819 to 1848 ten thousand dollars annually was distributed
by the Government among mission schools of various denominations, and in
the latter year there were one hundred and three such schools, with over
three thousand pupils. In 1870 the appropriation was increased to one
hundred thousand; and about 1873, during Grant's administration, already
described as marking a new era for the red man, the Government began to
develop a school system of its own, but did not therefore discontinue
its aid to the mission boards. On the contrary, such aid was largely
increased in the form of "contracts."

The usual rule was to pay a fixed sum (commonly $167