At this period and for about a century preceeding, the prevailing habit of intemperance among the Iroquois was the fruitful source of their domestic trouble, this in connection with their political disasters seemed to threaten the speedy extinction of their race. A temperance reformation, universal and radical, was the main and ultimate object of the mission which he assumed, and upon which he chiefly used his influence and eloquence through the remainder of his life. To secure a more speedy reception of his admonitions, he clothed them with divine sanction, to strengthen their moral principles, he enforced anew the precepts of the ancient faith; and to insure obedience to his teachings, he held over the wicked the terrors of eternal punishment. Going from village to village among the several nations of the league, with the exception of the christainized Oneidas and Tuscaroras, continuing his visits from year to year, preaching the new doctrine with remarkable effect. Many abandoned their dissolute habits and became sober and moral men; discord and contentions gave place to harmony and order, and vagrancy and sloth to ambition and industry. The origin of this project has at times been ascribed to Cornplanter as a means to increase his own influence, but this is not only improbable but is expressly denied. The motives by which Handsomelake claimed to be actuated were entirely of a religious and benevolent character, and in pursuance of the injunctions of his spiritual guides. At the time of his supernatural visitation, about the year 1800, Handsomelake resided at the village of Cornplanter, on the Alleghany river in the State of Pennsylvania. As he explained the case to his brethren, having lain ill for a long time he had given up all hope of recovery and resigned himself to die. When in the hourly expectation of death, three spiritual beings in the form of men, sent by the Great Spirit, appeared before him, each carried in his hand a shrub bearing different kinds of berries, which, having been given him to eat, he was by their miraculous virtue immediately restored to health. They afterward revealed to him the will of the Great Spirit upon a variety of subjects, and particularly in relation to the prevailing intemperance, commissioning him to promulgate these doctrines among the league, causing him to see realities of the evil-minded, and to behold with his mortal eyes the punishment inflicted upon the wicked, that he might with more propriety warn his people of their impending destiny. He was also permitted to behold the realm and felicities of the Heavenly residence of the virtuous. With his mind thus prepared, and stored with divine precepts, and with his zeal enkindled by the dignity of his mission, Handsomelake at once commenced his labors.