Thus it is shown that out of the whole Plantation of 229 Proprietors, but five men could be induced, by all the influence of the Minister and the Overseer, to sign in favor of having the present laws continued, and but eleven men out of the whole population of 312.  The signers to the memorial for a change of the laws are a majority of all the men, women and children belonging to the Plantation, at home and abroad.

Another document against the Indians who ask for their liberty, is the memorial of the Rev. Phineas Fish, the missionary.  Of the unassuming piety, the excellent character, and the sound learning of that reverend gentleman, I cannot speak in too warm terms.  I respect him as a man, and honor him as a devoted minister of the gospel.  But he is not adapted to the cultivation of the field in which his labors have been cast.  Until I read this memorial, I should not have believed that a severe expression could have escaped him.  I regret the spirit of that memorial, and in its comparison with that of the Indians, I must say it loses in style, in dignity and in Christian temper.

In this memorial, Mr. Fish urges upon the Legislature the continuance of the laws of guardianship as they now are, and especially the continuance of the benefits he derives from the property of the plantation.  What are the reasons he gives for this.  Do they not look exclusively to his own benefit, without regard to the wishes of the Indians?

He states, as the result of his ministry, twenty members of the tribe added to his church in twenty-two years.  This single fact proves that his ministry has failed of producing any effect at all proportioned to the cost it has been to the Indians.  Not from want of zeal or ability, perhaps, but from want of adaptation.  If not, why have other preachers been so much more successful than the missionary.  There never has been a time that this church was not controlled by the whites.  Mr. Fish now has but five colored members of his church, and sixteen whites.  Of the five colored persons, but one is a male, and he has recently signed a paper saying he has been deceived by Mr. Fish’s petition, which he signed, and that he does not now wish his stay any longer among them.

On the other hand, “blind Jo,” as he is called, a native Indian, blind from his birth, now 28 years of age, has educated himself by his ear and his memory, has been regularly ordained as a Baptist minister, in full fellowship with that denomination, and has had a little church organized since 1830.  The Baptist denomination has existed on the plantation, for forty years, but has received no encouragement.  Blind Jo has never been taken by the hand by the missionary or the Overseers.  The Indians were even refused the