it most of them were
sent out in the year 1812.

CHAPTER VI.

AN APOSTOLIC JOURNEY IN THE UNITED STATES.

From the first throb of his Christian life, the heart of Mills beat
like a soldier's. He called out the recruits, captained the forces,
and died in service--a hero! In his student days he had a compelling
influence upon his classmates, and even then showed signs of
generalship in his faculty of organizing. The establishment of the
Foreign Mission School was largely consequent upon his suggestions;
in the formation of the American Board he was one of the foremost
personal instruments.

Studies finished, his heart firm in his lofty purpose, highborn
schemes began their struggling claim for his attention. The world
with all its lands stretching their help-beckoning fingers, was
persuading him. Over the home land, his and ours, he turned his
penetrating glance. He saw occasion for vast concern, and here was
his first response. To go first, opening the way for others through
the tangled wilderness, was his design, his master-plot. That "divine
ferment" at Williams College worked the good of home, as well as of
foreign, missions.

Having chosen a companion-spy, the Rev. John Schermerhorn, soon after
his graduation in 1812, he went to view a goodly land, which he
desired to have the people of God go up and possess. This tour was
undertaken under the patronage of the Connecticut and Massachusetts
Home Missionary Societies. Heretofore these societies had prayed and
wept over young missionaries sent to the uncivilized wilds of Western
New York! The plan of Mills and Schermerhorn was to travel through
the wide territory lying between the great lakes and the Gulf of
Mexico, to learn the moral condition of the inhabitants, and scatter
what good they might.

The map of this region, as published in Morse's school atlas of 1823,
is curiously different from the maps of the present day. The state
and territorial lines have been altered, those green, pink, and
yellow blanks have become densely freckled and wrinkled, by the dots
of cities and towns, and by the complicated tracery of railroads.

These travelers did not telegraph their intended arrival, nor sleep
and dine their way to their journey's end, on the "Flyer," and then
rest in some palatial hotel at last. Each mounted his horse, taking
with them by way of baggage all that was necessary for the
trip,--tent, provisions, clothing and Bibles. They plodded through