Smith

Designs to take the journey with him. : Tam Yours ut ante E. Wueetocx.

THE SIX NATIONS. 325

MR. SMITH TO SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.

ze Lebanon January 18 A. D. 1763. ir

Though I have not the Honor of personal Acquaintance with you, yet the important and repeated services you have _ done Your Country, have long made me acquainted with Your Charecter, which shines with such distinguished Lustre in the Annals of Fame.

Yet I should not presume to give you this Trouble, was I not

moved and emboldened hereto, by an Affair of some Importance, the Execution of which depends much on Your Honours Approbation., _. This Necessity I hope your Candour will admit as a sufficient Excuse, for the Liberty a Stranger takes in writeing to you : and therefore without further Apology I beg Leave to lay the Affair before you.

I propose next Summer to take an excursion into the Mohawk Country as a Missionary; and being a stranger to the Indian Dialect, IT must of Consequence improve an Interpreter, having spent some Time here as a schoolmaster, (with that worthy Gentleman, and eminent Friend of Indians The Rev' M". Wheelock) I have contracted an intimate Acquaintance with Joseph who I understand is high in your affection and esteem, and has the Wisdom and Prudence to resign himself to your Direction and Conduct--as He is a promising Youth, of a sprightly Genius, singular Modesty, and a Serious Turn, I know of none so well calculated to answer my End as He is--in which Design He woud very Willingly and cheerfully engage shoud Your Honour consent to and approve of it.