North of the Mexican country certain alphabets were invented by the European priests for the purpose of furthering the introduction of Christianity among the Amerinds. Of these the Micmac is a good example.[51] They were not drawn from pictographs, and were used only for teaching the Bible. In that field they did not serve to preserve Amerind history, traditions, and legends. After long contact with Europeans there was invented but one alphabet, and he who accomplished this was a half-breed. In 1821, George Gist (or Guess), whose native name was Sequoyah, a Cherokee, who spoke little if any English, but whose father was a Dutch peddler and whose mother was of mixed blood, produced an alphabet, or, more correctly speaking, a syllabary, which was immediately adopted by his tribe, and enabled them to record their traditions, sacred formulæ, prayers, etc., which to-day form a valuable portion of the information we possess of these Amerind people. Many of the symbols were adapted from our alphabet, an old spelling-book having found its way into Sequoyah’s hands, but it was the forms which were utilised, the sounds they represented being usually different. By means of this syllabary the members of the Cherokee tribe were able to learn in a few hours to write words, and the system is used to this day. The endeavour to prove the descent of the Amerinds from one of the numerous foreign sources that have from time to time been advocated has at least resulted sometimes in the accumulation or reproduction of some interesting material. Lord Kingsborough became so infatuated with the idea that the Amerinds were the Lost Tribes of Israel that he attempted to prove it in a number of splendid volumes, which also contain admirable fac-similes of some old Amerind manuscripts.[52] He spent his fortune on this work, and through a business dispute with the merchants who furnished the paper he was thrown into Dublin Jail, where, unfortunately, he died. To explain the methods employed in the ruder attempts at recording, the map made by Lean Wolf, a Hidatsa, who once made a trip from Fort Berthold to Fort Buford, Dakota, with the ambition of stealing a horse, is a good example. In the illustration the returning horse-tracks indicate that he was successful and rode home. 1 is Lean Wolf himself; 2, the Hidatsa lodges; 3, Lean Wolfs tracks on his outward course; 4, government buildings at Fort Buford; 5, several Hidatsa lodges whose occupants intermarried with Dakotas; 6, Dakota tipis; 7, small square, a white man’s home, with a cross indicating that he had married a Dakota woman; 8, horse-tracks; 9, the Missouri River and tributaries. [Illustration: LEAN WOLF’S MAP, HIDATSA]