EDINBURGH: WAUGH AND INNES; W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN; AND WHITTAKER AND CO. LONDON. MDCCCXXXIV. PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. HAVING had the satisfaction of first making known to the British Public the Memoirs of Mrs. Huntington, the Rev. Pliny Fisk, and the Rev. Levi Parsons, it is with much pleasure I bring before them another specimen of American Biography, not less interesting and instructive. Two of the former (Fisk and Parsons) occupied the important sphere of missionary labour, and both died in the glorious service. The subject of the present volume was not thus engaged. But he was equally active and zealous in promoting the preaching of the gospel both at home and abroad. At one time he visited the Indians bordering on the United States, with the view of introducing Christian teachers among them. An account of this visit will be found in the following pages. He was afterwards employed as Secretary to the American Education Society, and traversed at different times a large portion of the States, travelling many thousand miles in explaining the design and promoting the objects of that institution. |