A MOMENTARY leisure, in the midst of many engagements, enables me to sketch another letter while seated in the room of the Convention now in session, for the purpose of forming a Constitution for the "State of Jefferson." I necessarily pass by incidental details; removal to the Platte, several Sabbaths' labors, organization of one more quarterly meeting conference, and several societies, arrangements for receiving lots in both the towns of Denver and Auraria, on which, it is hoped, temporary houses of worship will yet be erected before Winter; also some matters of a different character; severe disease for a time prevailing at Gregory Diggings, with considerable mortality; the death of one man by the sudden falling in of an earthen roof; several cases of accidental shooting, one within the last hour, of designed, from a revolver in the hands of a prominent and talented bloat, though taking effect upon an unintended person--some abatement from the moral picture of society I have before drawn--quite a sudden run of mule-stealing; the safe preservation, thus far, of our own, by an armed protection every night; with all that succession of stirring incidents which keep up a perpetual frontier excitement.

     This is the sixth day of the session of the Convention. Soon after assembling, it was found that about one-half of the members were opposed to the effort for a State Government at present. As a compromise, it was proposed and agreed to go on and form a State Constitution, which should be submitted to a vote of the people on the first Monday in September, and at the same time should be submitted a

memorial to Congress for admission as a Territory, leaving the sovereign people to adopt the one or the other, and Congress, of course, to reject both if they choose. The effort for a State I think premature, and there are, in my judgment, insuperable barriers to its present success, independent of the smallness of their population; a Territory, I think, they ought to have at once, the wants of the people, the numbers here, and the growing importance of the community fully justify the measure. The opposition to Territorial organization, by the " State-men," arises in a great degree from the large number of broken-down politicians and disappointed office-hunters already here, who, they fear, with good cause, may be forced upon them in the shape of Territorial officers.

     The Convention is composed of men who, in point of talents and moral worth, will compare not unfavorably with deliberative bodies in the States. There was some "noise and confusion" in the organization, but not more, not so much as is often witnessed in older bodies--not more than might have been expected from a body of men assembled for the first time, recently brought together from different sections, most of whom had in fact never seen each other before. There has been no shooting, stabbing, fist-fighting, nor serious broil, though revolvers and dirks are a part of the usual equipage of the country, needlessly so. The proposed organization embraces portions of Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Utah. About one hundred and twenty delegates are in attendance, representing parts of all these Territories, except the last named. The Convention will probably close its labors to-day. I am their Chaplain.

      The mining interest continues unabated. New discoveries are still said to be made, and numbers are called away from the occupied diggings to fields of yet richer promise. Large reports have recently reached us from the waters of the Colorado, in the South Park, say about one hundred miles from this place. The interest is increased by the statement that a company of prospecters, Mexicans and

others, had recently been driven out by the Utah Indians, using no violence, but simply forbidding mining operations in what they claim as their country. This has only led to higher expectations, and five hundred are said to be already in the South Park. This unsettled state of things, this running to and fro, will probably continue till time shall have developed the real seats as well as the extent of the golden deposits.

     About two weeks have now passed since our second encampment upon the bank of the South Platte, now upon the west side, a few miles below Denver. My days are spent mostly in the town and my nights in camp. An opportunity is afforded of tasting the garden vegetables raised here. We have green peas, beans, radishes, etc., and I have seen a fair prospect of melons at the foot of the mountains. A supply of the short-lived Summer vegetables may be raised in fertile spots on the river and at the mountain base, but the latter at least will require irrigation.

     A word with regard to the route to the mines. Mr. Greeley, in his published report, gives a most gloomy account of his route, and he seems to regard it as the only one, as he speaks of no other. He says in substance: "Nearly every pound of provisions has to be hauled from Missouri River, some seven hundred miles distant, over roads which are mere trails, crossing countless unbridged water-courses, always steep banked and often miry, at times so swollen as to be utterly impassable by teams. Part of this distance is a desert, yielding grass, wood, and water only at intervals of several miles, and then very scantily." This is discouraging enough, but the misfortune is, Mr. G. got on the wrong road, simply because the Express Company took him there, and they were making a vain effort to establish a new route to serve local interests. Even they soon had to abandon it and betake themselves to the Platte route. If, in his next trip, Mr. G., instead of stopping at Leavenworth, will come up to Plattesmouth or Oreapolis, or, if he prefer it, to Omaha or Nebraska City, we pledge ourselves

to "show him a nearer way," inside of six hundred miles from Missouri River--my figures make it five hundred and fifty-eight from Plattesmouth--with plenty of wood and water from Platte River, not one troublesome stream to cross, and as fine a natural road as perhaps the world can furnish of the same length, with sufficient grass, and fuel enough, at least by prudent foresight, to avoid that most odious and disgusting resort, the use of "buffalo chips," in preparing food. We went through without using a chip, and could do it again and again.

     There is a third route from Kansas City and Independence, by the Santa Fe road to the crossing of Arkansas River, and thence up that stream, affording, I doubt not, to persons starting from Lower Kansas, and places in that region, a pleasant and good passage. But for those who come up the Missouri River, and for those who pass overland from the States further east, I have no hesitancy in saying, the Platte route is the route. The choice of starting-points may be had among the towns above named. We crossed at Plattesmouth, and should do so again.

     COVENTION (sic) Rooms, AURARIA, K. T., AUGUST 6, 1859.

REV. J. P. DURBIN, B. D., CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

     DEAR BROTHER,--Having now spent some time within the bounds of our present field of labor, visited all the prominent points, and made myself acquainted with the state of things here, I think it best to send you a second quarterly report, anticipating somewhat the regular order of time.

     My last informed you of my appointment, preparations, and being on the Plains on our way out. By the blessing of God we arrived in due season. The first portion of our time after arrival was spent upon the South Platte and Cherry Creek, in Denver City, Auraria, and the country around. Thence we removed our camp to the base of the mountains, and spent some weeks in the mining places up the mountains, and in the towns, and among the scattered population at their base. Eight days since we again returned to the region of the Platte, where we now remain. The present population of the mining district is variously estimated at from fifteen to twenty-five thousand. I incline to the larger number. This population is mainly embraced within an area of fifty miles square, two-thirds of whom are in the mountains. We found an inviting field and an eager demand for ministerial supply. The work being beyond the capacity of one man, I have, under the authority intrusted me by the Bishop, divided it, organizing two separate mission fields

     1. DENVER CITY AND AURARIA MISSION--Embracing the two places indicated in the name, with the country along the South Platte on both sides, the country up Cherry
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Creek, the towns at the base of the mountains, and the Bowlder Diggings in the mountains. We have organized in this field a quarterly meeting conference, consisting of the preacher in charge, three stewards, and one leader. The membership, so far as ascertained and enrolled, is twenty-two. The mission is under the charge of Rev. J. Adriance, of our Conference, who accompanied me out by appointment from Bishop Scott. His post-office address is Denver City, Kansas Territory.

     2. ROCKY MOUNTAIN MISSION--Embracing all the mining region in the mountains except Bowlder Diggings. Here we have organized a quarterly meeting conference, consisting of two local preachers, an exhorter, and three stewards; we have also formed one society of fifty-seven members, including probationers just received. I have employed Rev. G. W. Fisher to take charge of this mission. Address, the same as above.

     We have traveled, preached, administered the sacrament, held social religions exercises, and, at intervals, have privately sought out our membership as largely as practicable. Our organization of societies and classes is necessarily partial and imperfect. But a small portion of our actual membership in the country is, as yet, enrolled. These are to be completed, and others made at the several preaching-places. There is present need of the labors of at least two more preachers, but they are not at hand; and by the time they could reach here from the States, the mining season would be almost past, and with it the most favorable season for labor. The question, however, of further immediate supply will be submitted to the Bishops at the meeting of the General Mission Committee. Meanwhile the brethren named will, with local aid, supply the work.

     I have nothing to say here about the mining operations in this district. One thing is certain, the enterprise will not be abandoned till pushed to its furthest practical test. This may require a term of years. Should the mines prove permanently remunerative, and should other discoveries be

made, a large mining community will be located here, and probably a State Government formed at no remote period. Should the mines ultimately fail, still there will have been for years a heavy population here demanding the bread of life, and among them many of our own Church members. So that, in any event, a large field of missionary enterprise is here opened up, calling for the watch-care and guardianship of the Church; and a field which, in the event of success, will be highly remunerative. The larger portion of our membership is now in the mines, but this will in the nature of things be fluctuating. We expect the principal seat of our permanent labors to be in Denver and Auraria, and in the towns and settlements at the base of the mountains.

     Liberal offers are made by the several town companies of lots for church buildings and aid in their erection. We are taking measures to secure them.

     CAMP, NEAR DENVER CITY, K. T., AUGUST 3, 1859.

     A RESIDENCE of some length upon the frontier, employed as it has been, has afforded some facilities for observing the actual effect of missionary labors upon the inhabitants of different colors, castes, and condition. Extensive changes in condition and character have been witnessed, and the influence exerted by missionary effort upon these several transitions has been carefully noted. I now sum up the result of all my personal observation in one single thought: the deepened and increased conviction that "the missionary cause is the cause of God;" a conviction resting not solely in promises, but in proofs; in results actually worked out and sufficient to fix the seal of Divine approbation upon the missionary enterprise. A few closing suggestions upon the condition of our frontier population, and the missionary work among them, may not be out of place.

     The work of Indian missions is a great and glorious work. Actual results establish this, despite all the hinderances (sic) that have intervened.

     I know full well that the aboriginals of our country are poetically represented as "a doomed race--fading away before the breath of the white man," as though there were something pestilential in the very approach of our race to their borders. Not so. There is a pestilence; but it is a moral one. They are "fading away" before the white man; but it is before his oppression, his cruelty, his contaminating vices. It is vain to plead Anglo-Saxon destiny;

it is impious, thus incidentally, to claim Divine sanction to violence and wrong.

     The policy adopted by our Government in transferring the indian tribes east of the Mississippi to the west, however desirable to the whites who envied them in the possession of their lands, was extremely severe upon the Indians themselves. Great numbers perished, as already seen, in the removal or soon after. A fearful decrease in numbers followed, especially in the large tribes. But all experience shows, that when left for any number of years unmolested, under the fostering care of the Government and the aid of missionary labors, the tendency is reversed and an actual increase is seen.

     But scarcely are they settled in their new homes, till the avarice and cupidity of our people are directed to the new lands assigned them. The treaties have conveyed the right to the soil in perpetuity. Terms have been used to express to their minds, in the strongest manner possible, the completeness of their title, and the assurance that they should never again be disturbed. They are told that in their new home they shall have "all the land, and all the trees, and all the stone, and all the buffaloes, and all the elks, and all the deer, as long as the sun shines, and leaves grow on the trees, and water runs down hill." But in a little time they are forced or persuaded into new treaties, and another removal, and subjected anew to the same hardships and exposure.

     The guardianship of the Government is necessarily extended over the Indian tribes; but this has been exerted in a manner that has prevented, rather than encouraged vigorous efforts for improvement. The common occupancy of their lands, with no individual rights to the soil, has discouraged labor; while the system of annuity payments has led to a

feeling of dependence, and to habits of idleness and profligacy. Their hardy manhood has not been developed, and they have been taught no lessons of self-reliance.

     Add to this the extremely-pernicious influences to which they have always been subjected in the example of the most abandoned whites, and not unfrequently of United States agents and officers stationed among them; men who seek there an unlimited range of licentiousness and crime, which could not be tolerated in white society. Combine these, and some idea may be formed of the debasing influences to which Indian virtue and progress have been subjected; a test, perhaps, quite trying enough for the constancy of those claiming to be civilized.

     It is not denied that the policy of our Government toward the Indian tribes has been well-intended, and in many respects liberal. Expenditures have been freely made. But then, these efforts have been ill-directed and subject to a thousand caprices. Instead of good and tried men in the agencies, there have been constant changes, only filling the places of one set of novices and blood-suckers with another of the same character. Every new incumbent must show his competence by striking out some new theory, which at once ignores all the lessons of former experience. The funds, appropriated for their benefit, are either fraudulently pocketed or frittered away in idle experiments; so that little actual advancement is made through Government efforts.

     To meet and to resist all this tide of corruption and debasement, the only available influence brought into exercise has been that of missionary instruction and labor. True, these have not always produced the desired results, baffled and thwarted as they have been by intervening obstacles; but enough has been done to establish the missionaries and their work in the confidence of the Indian tribes. They look upon the missionary as their friend and protector. No better evidence of this is needed than the

inveterate hatred always found existing toward the missionaries among the class of whites just referred to, who find their fiend-like purposes of lucre or of lust interfered with by the kind, protecting care of the missionary. Enough has been done to demonstrate to the Government, and to the world, the salutary effects of these labors. What Indian tribes have made most progress in agriculture, education, and morals? What tribes have made the nearest approach to civilized life, and are now advancing most rapidly? Invariably those that have been favored with steady, faithful, persevering missionary labor. No valuable advancement has been made without this.

     Still, the most interesting and important aspect of Christian missions among the Indian tribes remains; that which most thrills the Christian heart. It is the positive religious benefit conferred; the number of immortal souls purchased by the blood of the Redeemer, that have been converted and saved through Christian instrumentality; the thousands upon thousands that have already landed safely, and the thousands more that are on the way. It is too late to doubt the reality and permanency of the work of grace upon the Indian's heart, or the adaptedness of the Gospel to Indian character. Just as well may the question be raised in reference to our own people or any other in Christendom.

     And suppose we yield the ground assumed, unwarrantably, I think, that the Indians are "a doomed race," soon to be extinguished, is there not a still stronger motive presented to Christian philanthropy, to seize as many as possible of the devoted remnant as they pass and plant them as jewels in the crown of the Redeemer? The appeal to the sympathies and efforts of the Christian world is strengthened, not impaired, by the reflection.

     Let not, then, the case of our aboriginal inhabitants be

abandoned as hopeless. Let them not be given up. While other and inviting fields even among our antipodes are eliciting our interest and effort, still let the pleading voice of our predecessors upon this free soil be beard upon our borders; though it be but the last wail of a people passing away into deep, long oblivion. I would fain plead earnestly. Let the Indian still have our prayers and our labors.

     A suggestive word here, in reference to the Indian policy of our Government, may not be out of place from one who has not been wholly an inattentive observer. That changes might be made, of a beneficial character to the Indians themselves, and, at the same time, lessening the immense burden borne by the Indian Department, can not, I think, be doubted.

     A short time previous to my second removal to the frontier, I had a traveling interview with the late lamented Hon. Samuel W. Parker, then a member in Congress from Indiana. The conversation turned largely upon the policy of our Government toward our Indian tribes. I expressed some views on the subject, founded upon personal observation and experience. Colonel P. desired me to write out and publish them in some one of the secular papers. I did so in some detail in a series of numbers. The policy proposed was, in its leading features, the same as that since adopted in the late treaty with the Wyandotts, and is equally applicable to all other tribes in a like stage of advancement. A few prominent features I here repeat, limiting their application, however, to those tribes whose present condition is such as to admit of the proposed changes

     1. Let the lands now held in common be equitably divided among all the members of each tribe, and henceforward held in severalty; with such temporary guards and restrictions on the power of alienation as may be necessary to protect the young and incompetent from fraud or imposition. And let these rights be confirmed irrevocably.

     2. Let the system of annuity payments be discontinued, and the entire amount of the funds of each tribe be, with their own consent, applied to useful public objects within the tribes; a large proportion being permanently invested for the maintenance of an educational system under the direction of the Missionary Societies of the different Churches now actually laboring among the Indians, with a strict accountability for the proper expenditure of all funds intrusted to them.

     3. Let the laws now in existence be strictly enforced to prevent the introduction of ardent spirits; and when they are defective let others be enacted.

     4. Let no man be appointed to office in the Indian country whose character is such as to disqualify him for white society. Let the places be filled by honest, capable, exemplary men; and, when found to be such, let them be continued in office, that the benefit of experience and confidence of the tribes be not forfeited.

     5. So soon as a sufficient number of tribes is prepared for the measure, let them be formed into a separate, independent State, and admitted to the Confederacy, with all the rights, privileges, and liabilities of other States.

     Without these, or some similar regulations, no fair test can be made of the practicability of improving Indian character and condition, or of the extent of their capabilities. My firm judgment is, that the privileges of citizenship might now safely be granted to some four or five of the leading South-Western tribes, say, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Creeks, amounting to near one hundred thousand, and a State at once organized. If memory is right, there is a clause in the early treaties with some of these tribes, guaranteeing this whenever the tribe shall be prepared for it. Should objections be made on the ground of present unfitness, and tendency to amalgamation, I have only to point the objector to the hybrid races that are now being admitted to citizenship in the Territories of the South-West, less loyal, less qualified, less virtuous, and
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with whom amalgamation would be far more revolting than with our better class of Indians.

     Not inferior in its claims upon the continued attention and fostering care of the Church is the mission-field presented by our white settlements in newly-formed Territories on the frontier.

     In every newly-formed Territory there is a period of struggle. Lands are unpaid for; houses are unbuilt; farms are not made; no income is realized, and the little pecuniary means brought into the country is daily becoming exhausted in obtaining from a distance indispensable supplies. Exposure produces sickness, and often the man and his family are prostrated the first year. Crops, on new soil, are always precarious. Unanticipated hardships and privations are encountered, which, had they been foreseen, would have effectually prevented a removal. Often has my heart wept with them, as I saw the indications of "better days" gone by.

     But they are there now. Poverty disables some from returning to their former homes; pride, or manliness, forbids it in others. They resolve to stay and weather the storm through; but could their former friends just look in upon them in their changed condition; the rude, comfortless dwelling; the coarse, scanty fare; the tattered wardrobe; the unclad, unschooled children; their very inmost sympathies would be stirred.

     This is no overdrawn picture. This stage is actually passed through in every new settlement. This is the way that States are made and Conferences are formed in our country. I have been familiar with such scenes all my life. In one such, now a garden spot of the Union, more than half a

century ago, I took my earthly existnece (sic). In another, a little west, I witnessed a repetition; and now, well-nigh a thousand miles still west of that spot, I am surrounded by the same scenes. Thus rapidly is our border transferred.

     But how comforting, under such circumstances, is the approach of the minister of the Cross! How precious the means of grace and ordinances of God's house! What so well calculated to produce contentment, and cheerfulness, and courage? Oft have I exclaimed, when surrounded by such scenes, and yet enjoying the privilege of a wilderness sanctuary,

     The actual results of labor in this field have already been sufficiently presented as illustrated in the Territories that have occupied our attention. The same results are found elsewhere Only let it continue and spread; let it widen and deepen. Let the now struggling brethren of the frontier be sustained; and let every new Territory formed be the object of immediate care and effort, till able to sustain the work among themselves and to aid in rolling the evangelical tide still further onward.

     The mighty chasm is about to be filled; the hitherto disjointed portions of our Republic upon the shores of the two oceans are about to be united by a chain of living beings; the mountain recesses are to teem with humanity, and the desert vales between are to swarm with active, moving myriads. O, if amid the busy din of worldly excitement a pleading voice can be heard, let it be raised in their behalf! Let them have "your Gospel." Let the standard of the Cross be planted in every vale, and upon every mountain summit, till a "chain of living voices" from sea to

sea shall unite in the loud acclaim, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!"

     And, now, a closing word with the reader. Near ten years of itinerant life, embracing a portion of my best days, has been spent in the work of frontier missions, a work unsought, undesired by me, till the providence of God, through the constituted authorities of the Church, indicated the path; suspended for a time, when secession wrested my field from its lawful and proper connection; resumed again, at the same bidding, when a new and necessitous field was opened up, and continued to the present hour.

     Some hardships have been undergone, some privations encountered, some bereavements endured; but of these I will not speak. Once in my missionary life, I learned a lesson from a brother that has never been forgotten. While seated at table at one of the Presbyterian missions in the Indian country, one present referred to a remark lately made in a speech before the American Board: "Privations and difficulties," said the speaker, "talk of these being endured by us! We never lost a single dinner by our labors in the cause of Christ." It was added that this remark would not literally apply to the company present. "Better men have suffered more," was the calm reply of a brother missionary whose life had been spent in the work. "I looked upon it and received instruction."

     The fields of labor embraced in my several successive appointments, and, to a great extent, actually traveled over and occupied, have covered a large area, including all the region between Texas on the south and the extreme Territorial settlement in Nebraska on the north, and reaching from the State lines on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west.

     The country up Red River has been traversed to a point seven hundred miles from its mouth. The region upon the Arkansas has been explored eight hundred miles up; that upon the Missouri one thousand, while the tributaries, Kansas and Great Platte, have been followed, the one to the junction where it takes its name, and the other to its mountain sources.

     Nearly every military post has been visited, and almost all the mission stations of every denomination. The lands of every tribe of Indians on the western frontier, and many of the tribes beyond, have borne the impress of my feet, and more or less intercourse has been had with them all. The white settlements have been explored in their infancy and watched in their progress; and an acquaintance has been formed with all the phases and circumstances of frontier life.

     In the course of these labors, the valley of the Mississippi, from the States east, near or remote, to the Territories west, has been crossed twenty-three times, by different routes and modes of travel, besides the amount of traveling in the Territories themselves. The number of miles traveled over in the time is probably not less than sixty thousand, in about five thousand of which my family have participated in their necessary removals.

     The Gospel, meanwhile, has been proclaimed to devout worshipers in the churches; to statesmen in legislative halls; to delegates in Territorial conventions; to promiscuous crowds in courtrooms and hotels; to soldiers in barracks, and to camps of armed men; to the thoughtless and dissipated in saloons; to emigrants in coralle, and to miners upon the mountain sides; to savages around their council-fires, and to slaves upon the cotton plantations of the South.

     Great and unanticipated changes have taken place within this period. New communities have been organized, and

lands which, when first I passed over them, would not, I supposed, for half a century, if ever, be the abodes of white men, are now teeming with population. The border has been transferred a thousand miles westward. An empire has sprung up, and more than a hundred thousand white inhabitants are found where, less than a score of years ago, I preached to Indians only, save the few whites officially tolerated among them.

     Three entire Conferences west of the State lines have sprung up, and contingent provision is made for a fourth, in the formation of each of which it has been my privilege to bear a part.

     I have witnessed much of the outbreakings of sin, and have seen some violence and bloodshed. Many of the contacts of life have been rugged. The scene has often been stormy, and the skies sometimes deeply overcast.

     I have seen and marked the workings of Christianity in its personal effects upon the great and small, the statesman, the military officer, the common soldier, the white settler and his family, the miner, the Indian, the African slave, and the prisoner awaiting his doom under the law. I have seen its power exhibited in living and dying examples.

     Shall I forbear to add--I have, I humbly trust, realized its supporting power under all life's changes, and often experienced that

     Nor have its Divine consolations been wanting, when, to human appearance, it has seemed that there might be but a "step between me and death."

     The result of all is strengthened conviction of the power and divinity of our holy religion, increased love for that system of religion that is provided for all, adapted to all, offered to all, with a growing and burning desire, if the

Lord will, to penetrate yet further into the "regions beyond," and still to plant the standard of the Cross upon some new soil.

     Itinerancy! with all thy toils, "I love thee still."

     Life thus far may have been spent unprofitably; it has not been spent idly or inactively. "Chief of sinners"--"least of saints "--" not meet to be called" a minister of the Lord Jesus--sums up the experience of the past and the present. "Patient continuance in well-doing" is the purpose for the future.

     Happy! should I fall at home, surrounded by loved ones, or on some vale, or in some mountain gulch, alone, unseen, unwept. Happy! if I may but fulfill my mission and meet the "well-done" of the Judge. Happy! yea, thrice happy,

     Neither personal feelings nor sense of duty will allow me to close without a brief tribute to the moral and religious worth of the three young men who successively have, by appointment of the Bishops, accompanied me upon my different fields of labor--Revs. Henry C. Benson, James S. Griffing, and Jacob Adriance. More fortunate selections could not have been made. In the very intimate relations necessarily sustained by us, our intercourse has been confidential and our cooperation cordial. We have consulted, labored, prayed, wept, and rejoiced together. Cheerfully have they borne their part, and often have they lightened, by participation, my own burdens. Never have I witnessed in any of them the slightest deviation from strict moral integrity or entire devotion to his calling.

     They are still in the active field. The first, after nearly a  score of years of active service, is now traveling a district in California as presiding elder; the second is still toiling

on the plains of Kansas, and the third is yet laboring with the miners of the Rocky Mountains.

     It can hardly be that we all shall meet again on earth. They may "increase"--" I must decrease." May the God of all grace preserve them; and, in the great day of final reckoning, may they each return "with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him!"

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