Samuel Kirkland served as missionary to the Oneidas 1766-1808. New England missionaries also served Onoquaga, or Oquaga, a mixed community of Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and Mohawks on the Susquehanna River near the New York-Pennsylvania border. Both Kirkland and the Onoquaga missionary Aaron Crosby reported an appalling lack of understanding of Christian beliefs and a great amount of syncretism at the latter settlement. Kirkland blamed the situation on lack of competent interpreters. Kirkland, Journal for 1773, pp. 6-7, Kirkland Papers, Hamilton College; Aaron Crosby to Samuel Kirkland, January 25, 1774, Kirkland Papers, Hamilton College.