The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, According to Saint Matthew . Ne Raorihwadogenhti ne Shongwayaner Yesus Keristus, Jenihorihoten ne Royatadogenhti Matthew (Bible in Mohawk) Hill, Henry A., translator Americana

First edition. Text in English and Mohawk on facing pages. 197, [1]pp. 12mo. First edition of Hill's translation; the work was re-issued entirely in Mohawk in 1836. Named Kenweneshon by the wolf clan of the Mohawk, Henry Aaron Hill (d. 1834) was the son of David Hill and Christiana Brant, the daughter of Joseph Brant. He served as interpreter at councils of the Six Nations and conducted services at the Mohawk chapel in Brantford. In the 1820s he began translating the gospels for publication. "Joseph Brant s Gospel of St Mark had been appended to an SPG Mohawk prayer-book printed in 1787, and John Norton s Gospel of St John had been published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804. Despite adverse comments on the quality of the translation, Norton, encouraged by the SPG, resumed the work of completing the gospels, and he enlisted Hill s aid. But Norton was tiring of the task and thought that the Mohawks themselves would prefer English bibles. The American Bible Society discovered in 1823 that Hill, with the support of John Brant [Tekarihogen], was already working on Luke, and proposed that he complete the four gospels . Hill proved to be a diligent worker. His Luke appeared in 1828 (the title page says 1827, but the printer in New York, Azor Hoyt, had much trouble in setting the work). Three hundred and fifty copies were sent to the Methodist mission on the Grand and fifty to Lower Canada. The Church of England, holding aloof from association with dissenters in bible societies, made little use of the translations done by its catechist. In turn, the American Bible Society s interest waned. The York Auxiliary Bible Society, formed in 1828, saw that some Mohawk scriptures were already available and began work on Ojibwa translations instead. The continued publication of Mohawk scriptures was therefore undertaken by the Young Men s Bible Society of New York, an auxiliary to the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Between 1831 and 1836 it sponsored translation of the rest of the New Testament, with the exception of 2 Corinthians. The bulk of the work was done by Hill, with corrections and completions (Hill died in 1834) by Brantford merchant John Aston Wilkes, Mohawk schoolmaster William Hess, and Elizabeth Kerr, née Brant. Hill s Isaiah, finished by Hess, was published by the American Bible Society in 1839, but that organization resisted pressure to proceed with the rest of the Old Testament. Hill was also the chief translator of a collection of psalms and hymns, which went through separate printings for its Methodist and Anglican users" (Dictionary of Canadian Biography). Darlow and Moule, 6801; Sabin 49844; Pilling, Proof Sheets 1782; Pilling, Iroquoian, p. 84 Library buckram. Foxing. Provenance: General Theological Seminary (blindstamps, bookplate and other markings) Text in English and Mohawk on facing pages. 197, [1]pp. 12mo