Friends, and as our fellow citizen, you well know,
has informed me, that a delegation of five pru-
dent, judicious men, of religious character, have
been deputed by their brethren of that Society
in Maryland

to visit the Indian Tribes N. West
of the river Ohio, for the purpose of learning
their situation and disposition, and thence to
judge of the practicability of introducing among
them the simplest and most useful arts of civil
life. The result of their inquiries and observa-
tions they are to report on their return to the
Society.

The approbation of the President has been
asked and obtained. The object of this letter
is to communicate the same to you, and request
of you to afford the delegation all the protection
and countenance to which their respectable char-
acters and philanthropic views entitle them.
Most of the attempts at civilizing the Indians,
which I have heard of, have been preposterous.
We have aimed at teaching them religion and
the sciences, before we have taught them the
simple and essential labors of civil life.

I am very respectfully your most obedient
servant, TIM. PICKERING.

The delegation proceeded to the Indian coun-
try, but found the chiefs, the hunters and war-
riors of the tribes with whom they desired to
confer, much dispersed over the country, engaged
in their various pursuits, and consequently were