visionary and enthusiasts by men of more prosaic
and plodding temperament. He had not a liberal education, but was a
man of eminent intellectual powers and of intensely thoughtful habits,
and beside a deep religious experience, he had endeavored diligently
to fit himself for a missionary life, the self-denying labors of which
he ardently coveted. On examination Mr. Bacon was accepted.

"On the 8th of August, 1800, Mr. Bacon left Hartford on foot with his
pack upon his back, and on the 4th of September he was at Buffalo,
having walked most of the distance. On the 8th, he left on a vessel
for this city, which he reached after a quick and pleasant voyage on
the 11th. He was made welcome at the house of the commandant, Major
Hunt, where, I believe, his first religious services were held. Gen.
Uriah Tracy, of Litchfield, Conn., General Agent of the United States
for the Western Indians, was then here, and, together with the local
Indian agent, Jonathan Schieffelin, took an active interest in the
mission of Mr. Bacon. John Askin, Esq., the same liberal-minded
merchant, who so essentially befriended the Moravians twenty years
before, and Benjamin Huntington, a merchant here, formerly of Norwich,
Conn., rendered him valuable information and assistance. Learning from
these sources that the Delawares at Sandusky, were about to remove,
that the Wyandottes were mostly Catholics, and that there were no
other Indians 'south and west of Lake Erie,' among whom there was an
inviting field of labor, his attention was turned to the north, and,
with the advice of these judicious friends, on the 13th of September,
he took passage with General Tracy in a government vessel bound for
Mackinac, and went to Harson's Island, at the head of Lake St. Clair,
near which there was quite an Indian settlement. Although only forty
miles distant, he did not reach there until the 17th, being four days
upon the voyage. Jacob Harson or Harsing, as it was originally
spelled, the proprietor of this island, was an Albany Dutchman, who,
in 1766, on appointment of Sir Wm. Johnson, came to Niagara as Indian
blacksmith and gunsmith, and his original commission or letter of
appointment, written by Sir William, is now before me. On the breaking
out of the Revolution, finding Mr. Harson friendly to the Americans,
the British stripped him of his property and sent him, sorely against
his will, to this frontier. He established himself upon the island as
early as 1786, wh