Between-the-logs was appointed the ambassador, and a small escort of eight warriors, commanded by Skootash, the principal war chief of the nation, was selected to accompany him. Two speeches were sent by the Crane, one to be delivered privately to his own people, and the other publicly to the British Indians.

The Wyandot embassy arrived at Brownstown in safety, and the following morning a general council assembled to hear the message from their uncle. The multitude was prodigious, and Elliott and McKee, the British agents, were present. We have been told, that Between-the-logs arose in the midst of this host of enemies, and delivered with unshaken firmness the following speech from the Crane, which had been entrusted to him.

Brothers, the red men, who are engaged in fighting for the British king, listen! These words are from me, Tarhé, and they are also the words of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnese, and Senecas.

'Our American father has raised his war pole, and collected a large army of his warriors. They will soon march to attack the British. He does not wish to destroy his red children, their wives, and families. He wishes you to separate yourselves from the British, and bury the hatchet you have raised. He will be merciful to you. You can then return to your own lands, and hunt the game, as you formerly did. I request you to consider your situation, and act wisely in this important matter; and not wantonly destroy your own people. Brothers, whoever feels disposed to accept his advice will come forward and take hold of this belt of wampum, which I have in my hand and offer to you. I hope you will not refuse to accept it in the presence of your British father, for you are independent of him. Brothers, we have done, and we hope you will decide wisely.'

Not a hand moved to accept the offered pledge of peace. The spell was too potent to be broken by charms like these; but Roundhead arose, and addressed the embassy.

'Brothers, the Wyandots from the Americans, we have heard your talk, and will not listen to it. We will not forsake the standard of our British father, nor lay down the hatchet we have raised. I speak the sentiments of all now present, and I charge you, that you faithfully deliver our talk to the American commander, and tell him it is our wish he would send more men against us, for all that has passed between us, I do not call fighting. We are not satisfied with the number of men he sends to contend against us. We want to fight in good earnest.'

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Elliott then spoke. My children; as you now see that my children here are determined not to forsake the cause of their

British father, I wish you to carry a message back with you. Tell my wife, your American father, that I want her to cook the provisions for me, and my red children, more faithfully than she has done. She has not done her duty. And if she receives this as an

insult, and feels disposed to fight, tell her to bring more men, than she ever brought before, as our former skirmishes I do not call fighting. If she wishes to fight with me and my children, she must not burrow in the earth like a ground hog, where she is inaccessible. She must come out and fight fairly.'

To this, Between-the-logs replied. Brothers, I am directed by my American father to inform you, that if you reject the advice given you, he will march here with a large army, and if he should find any of the red people opposing him in his passage through this country, he will trample them under his feet. You cannot stand before him.

'And now for myself, I earnestly entreat you to consider the good talk I have brought, and listen to it. Why would you devote yourselves, your women, and your children, to destruction? Let me tell you, if you should defeat the American army this time, you have not done. Another will come on, and if you defeat that, still another will appear, that you cannot withstand; one that will come like the waves of the great water, and overwhelm you, and sweep you from the face of the earth. If you doubt the account I give of the force of the Americans, you can send some of your people, in whom you have confidence, to examine their army and navy. They shall be permitted to return in safety. The truth is, your British father deceives you. He boasts of the few victories he gains, but he never tells you of his defeats, of his armies being slaughtered, and his vessels taken on the big water. He keeps all these things to himself.

'And now, father, let me address a few words to you. Your request shall be granted. I will bear your message to my American father. It is true, none of your children appear willing to forsake your standard, and it will be the worse for them. You compare the Americans to ground hogs, and complain of their mode of fighting. I must confess, that a ground hog is a very difficult animal to contend with. He has such sharp teeth, such an inflexible temper, and such an unconquerable spirit, that he is truly a dangerous enemy, especially when he is in his own hole. But, father, let me tell you, you can have your wish. Before many days, you will see the ground hog come floating on yonder lake, paddling his canoe toward your hole; and then, father, you will have an opportunity of attacking your formidable enemy in any way you may think best.'

This speech terminated the proceedings of the council. All the Indians, except the Wyandots, dispersed, and they secretly assembled to hear the message sent to them by their own chief.

Governments frequently preserve their forms, long after essential changes occur in their institutions, and the Turkish edicts are yet dated from the Imperial stirrup, although the successors of Amurath have long since exchanged the camp for the seraglio. The Crane's message was a peremptory mandate, evincing in its manner, that

the time has been, when sterner authority was exercised by the Wyandot chiefs, than they would now assume, or the warriors obey.

The Wyandots were directed to quit Skorah [the term in the Huron dialect for British] immediately.

This message was faithfully delivered to the Wyandots, and produced its full effect upon them. They requested Between-the-logs to inform the Crane, that they were in fact prisoners, but that they had taken firm hold of his belt of wampum, and would not fire another gun. They promised, that on the advance of the American army, they would quit the British troops, as soon as it was safe to take that decisive measure. And such in fact was the result. When General Proctor left the country, his Wyandot allies abandoned him, a few miles from the mouth of the river Tranche, and retired into the forest. Thence they sent a message to General Harrison, imploring his mercy.

In a note, the North American Review adds as follows:

Every Indian speech is accompanied by its appropriate belt, which is deposited with the chief speaker. These belts constitute the records of the tribe. They are formed of wampum, which is small beads manufactured from shells for this purpose. These beads are strung upon sinews, and are then united into a belt. The beads are generally white, blue, or black, and a symbolical meaning is attached to their distribution. The memory is aided by the faculty of association, and the speeches are repeated at stated intervals, and thus preserved for posterity. We have seen a very ancient belt of the Wyandots, and heard the speech repeated in a language, bearing little resemblance to that now spoken by them.

The facts connected with this deportation of the Wyandots and the embassy from the Crane, we have received from Mrs. Walker, a respectable half Wyandot woman, and her two sons, Isaac and William. The former is the public interpreter at Upper Sandusky, and the latter is the teacher of the Missionary school at that place. Both are intelligent and well educated, and both are men of integrity. They and their mother were with the Wyandots of Brownstown, and were taken across the Detroit river. And they were present at the great council, where Between-the-logs delivered his speech.

We are also indebted to Mr. Stickney, then the United States agent for the Wyandots, for his account of the transaction. And we may add, that the general facts respecting the capture of these people were known to us at the time; and that we were present when the ambassador received his instructions; and we heard the Crane, when he made his report to General Harrison of the result.

For the subsequent conversion to Christianity, the pious life, and happy death of this eminent chief, Between-the-logs, our read

ers may consult the Methodist Magazine, Vol. X, for 1827; in which they will find, too, an excellent steel plate engraved portrait of this chief; and also of Ma-nun-cue, another Christian chief, and preacher, of the same tribe, who is yet living.

CHARACTERISTICS.—THE CONFERENCE OF 1784.

[WE return our thanks to the Rev. Thomas Ware, for the very interesting, though brief, sketch which we give below. Mr. Ware is one of the oldest American itinerant ministers now living. We are pleased to perceive that he still writes so clear and firm a hand, and assure him that his sketch' has not only given us very little trouble,' to fit it for the hands of the printer,-but has afforded us much gratification. We wish we could get from him, or some other of our fathers,' similar sketches of the twenty or more' other worthies of '84, 'who had nearly equal, and some of them, in some respects, paramount claims' to Asbury, and Tunnell, and Gill, and Pedicord: -names which shall be ever dear to us, and embalmed in our latest memory.

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We saw, some time since, a Circular addressed to the Clergy and Laity of the Prostestant Episcopal Church of the United States, soliciting from them materials for the compilation of Annals' of the American Protestant Episcopal Church. In the language of that Circular, we too say, there are yet surviving a few venerable ones both among the ministers and members of our Church, who are living chronicles of our past ecclesiastical history. To procure from them, as far as may yet be practicable, such facts connected with the Church and its concerns, as ought to be preserved for the benefit of the future historian, is surely an object important to us all, and one which, if not speedily effected, must soon be placed beyond our reach for ever. We repeat our settled conviction of the necessity of greater efforts to gather together such scattered fragments of our earlier history, which diligence and care, under some suitable direction, may yet snatch from oblivion. Our hoary headed fathers are fast falling around us, and such materials are daily becoming more and more scarce, or more inaccessible. We do not presume, indeed, to offer ourselves for the arduous task of historians. Yet it would afford us great pleasure to be made humble instruments in collecting materials, and laying these up in this Magazine and Review, as in a common repository, from which some future historian may draw. And as specimens of the mode of effecting this, easily for the writers, conveniently for us, and pleasingly and profitably even for present readers, we refer again to the interesting Letters on Methodism in Charleston, S. C., (by

the Rev. James O. Andrew,) which appeared in our number for January 1830; to the article on the History of Methodism in Washington county, Ohio, (by the Rev. Samuel Hamilton,) in our number for October 1830; and now to the following Characteristics, by the Rev. Thomas Ware.]

For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review.

DEAR BRETHREN,-I forward to you a short extract from my Journal, which you may, if you think worth while, give a place in the Quarterly Review: otherwise you may lay it aside, without offence.

In the spring of 1784, I attended my first Conference. At this Conference, which was held in Baltimore, there were a goodly number of itinerants; and although there were but few on whose heads time had begun to snow, yet many appeared to be wayworn and weatherbeaten into premature old age.

The whole number of Methodist itinerants in America, at that time, was 83: stations and circuits, 64;-and members, 14,988. I doubt if there has ever been a Conference held by us at which there were an equal number, in proportion to the whole, so dead to the world, and indeed so gifted and enterprising, as were the preachers of 1784. They had much to suffer in that early period of our history, and especially through our revolutionary struggles.

Amongst those pioneers, Asbury stood chief, by mutual consent. There was something in his person, his eye, his mien, and in the music of his voice, that interested all who saw and heard him. He was naturally witty and satirical; but grace and good sense predominated; so that he never let himself down beneath the dignity of a man, and a man of God. In prayer, he excelled. And had he been equally eloquent in preaching, he would have excited universal admiration. On hearing him the first time, you would not fail to be disappointed. From his prayer, your expectations would be raised to the highest pitch. And although he always preached well, yet the sermon fell so far below the prayer, in a natural flow of thought and expression, so expansive and appropriate, that you would not fail to notice and regret the falling off, when the text came to be discussed. Perhaps we may in part account for this by a remark made by the late Freeborn Garrettson, in preaching his funeral sermon. Mr. Asbury, said the venerable Garrettson, prayed the best, and he prayed the most, of any one I ever knew. His long and constant travels prevented his preaching as often as some others; but he could find a throne of grace, if not a congregation, upon the road.

Next to him, in the estimation of thousands, stood the placid Tunnell, the philosophic Gill, and the sentimental Pedicord. And it were hard to tell to which of those primitive missionaries the preeminence could justly be given. Tunnell and Gill were both defective in physical powers. Pedicord was surcharged with the dew of