Believing that some account of the measures pursued by the Society of Friends, towards the Indian natives, may prove an auxiliary in the cause of humanity, and probably interest the serious and benevolent mind in behalf of the aborigines of our country, whom we consider as children of one universal parent, who is no respecter of persons, but regards with equal care all nations, whether of a fair complexion or a tawny skin; I am, therefore, induced to believe that every thing relating to their history may prove interesting to posterity, when they shall be told that such a race of men, who may then have passed away, once inhabited this populous country. And having acquired considerable knowledge of some of the Indian tribes, and of the progress some of them have made in the arts of civilized life, I am induced to offer a concise view of the friendly intercourse that has subsisted between the society of Friends and the aborigines of our country, from the time the illustrious William Penn, and some of his cotemporaries first landed on the American shores, and exhibited to the world, the singular spectacle of establishing a new model of government, amidst a mixture of persons of different nations, and different civil and religious opinions, surrounded by savage tribes of Indians, without recourse to any coercive measures—which has since been the wonder and admiration of mankind.

His great treaty, too, with the Indians, was also made without the solemnity of an oath, and has been immortalized as the only treaty, so made, that has never been broken.

In most of the histories, in which we can trace the character of the Indian nations, we find them to abound either with romantic tales, or scenes of cruelty and barbarity, calculated to excite prejudice in the mind of the reader; but in this will be found the conciliating language of peace and mutual friendship, and a disposition on the part of the Indians, to exchange the tomahawk and scalping knife, for the plough and the hoe, and peacefully betake themselves to the innocent employments of the pastoral and agricultural life.

Although the author has spent but a small portion of time in a personal residence among this people, in comparison with many others, yet he can acknowledge, that the short time devoted to that service embraced some of the happiest moments of his early life. For, although deprived of the social comforts of society, and far removed from all the near and tender connexions of his youthful days, yet from a full conviction of the rectitude of the work, and the incalculable good, under the divine blessing, that might finally result to that people, the wilderness was often made as it were an Eden, and the desert as the garden of the Lord. “Joy and gladness was found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”

During the author’s residence among the natives, as well as on several visits since that period, he had a fair opportunity of noticing the gradual improvement of the Indians, in some of the arts of civilized life, by which he is enabled to furnish, he trusts, well authenticated accounts of the benefits which have resulted to that people from the benevolent exertions of the society of Friends. And, although these exertions may appear to be limited in their operation towards a reform, yet when we take into view the numerous tribes of Indians within and circumjacent to the United States, there is reason to hope, that the instruction already afforded to several tribes, and the advancement they have made in some of the most useful arts of civilized life, will have a stimulating influence on their more distant brethren.