Excerpt from The Life of David Brainerd: Missionary to the Indians; Chiefly Taken From His Own Diary and Other Private Writings About the year 1740, several distinguished ministers in the city of New York and its vicinity; and among them, Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton of New York, Rev. Aaron Burr of Newark, and Rev. Jonathan Dickinson of Elizabethtown; communicated to the "Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge," "the deplorable and perishing state of the Indians in the provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania." In consequence of this representation, the Society charitably and cheerfully agreed to the proposal of maintaining two missionaries among them, to convert them to Christianity; and in pursuance of this design sent those gentlemen, and some others - both clergymen and laymen, a Commission to act as their Commissioners, or Correspondents, "in providing, directing, and inspecting the said Mission." "As soon as the Correspondents received their commission," to use their own language, "they immediately looked out for two candidates for the ministry, whose zeal for the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, and whose compassion for perishing souls would prompt them to such an exceedingly difficult and self-denying undertaking. They first prevailed with Mr. Azariah Horton to relinquish a call to an encouraging parish, and to devote himself to the Indian service. He was directed to Long Island in August, 1741, at the east end of which there are two small towns of Indians; and, from the east to the west end of the island, lesser companies settled at a few miles distance from one another, for the distance of more than a hundred miles. At his first arrival, he was well received by most, and cordially welcomed by some of them. Those at the east end of the island, especially, gave diligent and serious attention to his instructions; and many of them were led to ask the solemn enquiry, What they should do to be saved? A general reformation of manners was soon observable among most of these Indians. They were careful to attend, and serious and solemn while attending, upon both public and private instructions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.