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about which I would not dictate, even if it were in my power, I do not know that I have interfered more in any way than by urging our unknown and friends to pursue an honourable course so that others might think of them with pleasure and desire to enjoy their society at their new homes. This would also enable missionaries to defend them from slanderous & ill reports. I have ever been sorry therefore to hear any thing of a contrary nature. But if it is important for Cherokees themselves to go with an unblemished character, how much more important is it for their missionaries! For more than thirty years they have been labouring to secure the confidence of the Indians and to establish their own characters as honest men. How peculiarly important to retain that confidence; and preserve those characters free from suspicion! We may be considered ignorant, simple, or even foolish, yet, if esteemed honest and sincere, the common people will hear us gladly, and the gospel from our life will have effect. Yet let our qualifications, in other respects be what they may, if our unknown suppose us false dishonest men, all is lost. You cannot therefore be surprised at my endeavoring, by all proper means, to preserve the mission character from suspicion. It is for this purpose and this only, that I have been in unknown to