Reply of the Indians of the Five Nations to an invitation in 1744 by the Commissioners from Virginia to send boys to William and Mary College:

“You who are the wise must know, that different nations have different conceptions of things… Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces; they were instructed in your sciences; but when they came back to us… (they were) ignorant of every means of living in the woods… neither fit for hunters, warriors, or counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer… and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them.”

(Drake: Biography and History of the Indians of North America, in Rogoff 1990:42) Quoted by Terry Wrigley