path: root/79004-0.txt

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79004 ***
Transcriber’s Note: There are two Chapter VIIs.




                                   LIVES
                                  OF THE
                       CHIEF FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

    The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let
    him not leave us, nor forsake us.

                                                       1 Kings 8:57.

                                 VOL. III.




                                 THE LIFE
                                    OF
                                JOHN ELIOT:

                              WITH AN ACCOUNT
                      OF THE EARLY MISSIONARY EFFORTS
                                   AMONG
                        THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND.

                            BY NEHEMIAH ADAMS,
                  PASTOR OF ESSEX STREET CHURCH, BOSTON.

        _Written for the Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, and
                approved by the Committee of Publication._

                                  BOSTON:
                   MASSACHUSETTS SABBATH SCHOOL SOCIETY,
                       Depository, No. 13 Cornhill.
                                   1847.

         Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847,
                          BY CHRISTOPHER C. DEAN,
       In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.




ADVERTISEMENT BY THE PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.


The substance of this book is a Lecture delivered in 1842, before
the Young Men’s Missionary Association of Boston. On application of
the Publishing Committee, the author has consented to enlarge it for
publication, as one of the Series of the Lives of the New England Fathers.




SEAL OF THE MASSACHUSETTS (OR SALEM) COLONY.


[Illustration: SIGILLVM:GVB:ET:SOCIET:DE:MATTACHVSETS:BAY:IN:NOVA:ANGLIA]

TRANSLATION.

Seal of the Governor and Colony of Massachusetts Bay in New England.




LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT.




INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

    Missionary object of the Pilgrims. Seal of Massachusetts
    Colony. Reasons with the Pilgrims for leaving Holland. Extract
    from the Royal Charter of the Plymouth Colony. Charter of
    the Salem Company. Thoughts on this Continent as a field for
    Missionary efforts. Account of the landing at Plymouth, and the
    first meeting with the Indians. First Missionary efforts among
    them. Manners and habits of the New England Indians. Numbers in
    the various tribes. Reflections on the Missionary character and
    efforts of the Pilgrims. The May-flower.


A prominent object with the Pilgrim fathers in coming hither, was, to
preach the Gospel to the Indians of this Continent.

Many popular orators and writers represent them, as it were, following
and worshiping a goddess of liberty. But it was not for the mere liberty
of believing and doing what they pleased that they braved the ocean and
the perils of this wilderness. Two great motives influenced them. For the
liberty of worshiping God according to their own consciences, they “went
out not knowing,” as the event proved, “whither they went.” But this was
not all; they had a missionary object in coming here.

It is an interesting fact that the original seal of the Colony of
Massachusetts Bay, who arrived and settled at Salem in 1628, had on it a
North American Indian, with these words proceeding from his mouth, “Come
over and help us.” This device on the seal of their colony published to
the world the fact that they regarded themselves as foreign missionaries
to North America. This was also the case with their brethren of the
Plymouth Colony, who arrived eight years before.

The Pilgrims had fled to Holland, from the persecutions of the English
Church. In the account of their residence in Holland we find some records
which establish beyond a doubt the fact of their missionary intentions in
coming to these shores. Governor Bradford, in his History of Plymouth,
speaking of the Pilgrims while yet in Holland, says, “This year, (1617,)
Mr. Robinson and his Church begin to think of a remove to America, for
several weighty reasons, as (1.) The difficulties in Holland discouraged
many from coming to them out of England, and obliged many to return. (2.)
By reason of these difficulties with the licentiousness of the youth,
and temptations of the place, many of their children left their parents,
some of them becoming soldiers, others taking to foreign voyages, and
some to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief
of their parents, and fear lest their posterity through these temptations
and examples should degenerate, and religion die among them. (3.) From an
inward zeal and great hope of laying some foundation or making way for
propagating the kingdom of Christ to the remote ends of the earth, though
they should be but as stepping stones to others.”

They obtained letters patent from the crown authorizing them to settle
in North Virginia. The following is an extract from the Royal Charter,
and is of the same purport with the third reason assigned by Governor
Bradford for their removal to America. The Royal Charter says,—“We have
thought it fit, according to our kingly duty—to second and follow God’s
holy will, by which means we may with boldness go on to the settling of
so hopeful a work which tendeth to the reducing and conversion of such
savages as remain wandering in desolation and distress, to civil society
and Christian religion.”

It is well known that the Colonists who received this Charter, and sailed
for North Virginia, were driven into the waters of Cape Cod, and thus
unintentionally landed and settled at Plymouth.

The Charter of “the Colony of Massachusetts Bay,” who settled a few years
after at Salem, says, “To win and incite the natives of that country to
the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind
and the Christian faith, is, in our royal intention and the adventurer’s
free profession, the principal end of the plantation.”

The Committee of the “Massachusetts” Company, in their letter dated
at Gravesend, and addressed to Mr. Endicott, the leader, and afterward
the Governor, of the Massachusetts or Salem Colony, say, “For that the
propagating the Gospel is the thing we profess above all in settling this
plantation, we have been careful to make plentiful provision of good
ministers.”[1]

It is interesting to think of this Continent as having been the object
of missionary zeal and efforts with the pilgrim fathers. The place which
this continent occupies on the globe is peculiar and interesting. The
numerous nations of the old world are crowded together in one hemisphere,
and this continent is the prominent object of the other. It did not seem
presumption to the pilgrims to believe that God laid its deep foundations
by itself, in the midst of the oceans rolling between it and the rest of
the globe, for some purpose as singular as its position. In the writings
of ancient poets there are remarkable allusions to this continent, when
as yet it was undiscovered. Seneca, a Latin writer, who lived at the
beginning of the Christian era, has in his “Medea” this declaration:
“The time will come in remote years when the ocean will unloose the
present boundaries of nature, and a great country will appear. Another
Typhis will discover new worlds, and Thule will no longer be the limit
of the earth.”[2] Homer and Horace had sung of Islands west of Africa,
the Atlantides, which were “the Elysian fields.” Hanno, the Carthaginian
general and great navigator, had sailed from the pillars of Hercules,
(the straits of Gibraltar,) westward, thirty days. Some suppose that he
must have seen America, or some of the neighboring islands.[3] Columbus
verified the dreams and surmises of the world; the Cabots pursued his
sublime discoveries, and they, with their Bristol crews, long accustomed
to Icelandic fisheries, found this continent. New adventurers carried
home some of the native Indians; and, at length, a new Continent,
inhabited by wild men, became the subject of intense interest to the
civilized world. Our pious forefathers, while yet in the old world,
fancied that they heard the Macedonian cry from the Indians here, and
it quickened their flight, as they say, “to follow Christ into a waste
howling wilderness.”

Having been driven into the waters of Cape Cod, instead of North
Virginia, and making a safe harbor on Saturday, the Pilgrims fell
on their knees and blessed the God of heaven. The Sabbath came; the
Mayflower riding at anchor, and the exploring party in the shallop, kept
the first Sabbath of the Lord which, perhaps, had ever been recognized in
this region, since God rested from his works.

“Monday,” says Prince, in his New England Chronology, “the people go
ashore to refresh themselves;—the whales play round about them, and the
greatest store of fowl they ever saw. But the earth here a company of
sand hills, and the water so shallow near the shore, they were forced
to wade a bow-shot or two to get to land, which being freezing weather,
affecteth them with grievous coughs and colds, which after proves the
death of many. When they had marched a mile southward, they see five
or six savages whom they follow ten miles till night, but could not
overtake them, and lodge in the woods. The next day they come to a place
of graves, then to some heaps of sand, when they dig into them, and
find several baskets full of Indian corn, and take some, for which they
purpose to give the natives full satisfaction as soon as they could meet
with any of them.” Two days after, they returned to borrow more corn; the
ground had frozen a foot deep, but they made up their corn, says Governor
Morton, to ten bushels; the next day some of the party, having spent the
night there, dug again into some little hillocks, but they found that
instead of being cornhills they were graves. By the overruling providence
of God, the corn which they had thus borrowed with such good intent to
repay, furnished them with seed for the ensuing spring. Here we have the
first scene of their approach to the wild objects of their pious and
benevolent endeavors.

During the month of February, after their arrival, the colony were
afterwards informed that the Indians assembled all their Powwaws, or the
conjurers of the country, to curse them with their horrid ceremonies and
incantations. They held their assembly for this purpose in a dark and
dismal swamp.

On the morning of March 16th, however, they say a savage boldly came
alone along the houses straight to the rendezvous, and surprised them
with calling out, “Welcome, Englishmen! Welcome, Englishmen!” It seems
that he had learned some broken English from the fishermen of Nova
Scotia. He said that his name was Samoset, that he was sagamore or lord
of a country “a day’s sail thence with a great wind,” or five days land
travel. He told them that four years ago all the inhabitants of the place
where they then were, (now Plymouth,) died of an extraordinary plague;
that there was neither man, woman, nor child remaining. At night they
lodged and watched him. A few days after he returned with an Indian
named Squanto, whom a man by the name of Hunt had carried to Spain with
nineteen others, and who by some means went to England, and lived in
Cornhill, London, with Mr. John Slanie, merchant. He could speak a little
English, and thus he was extremely useful to the colonists in assisting
them to trade and make treaties with the surrounding Indians. They
endeavored to conciliate the natives, but wisely mingled intimations that
they were prepared to resist them if attacked.

The treacherous tribe of Narragansett Indians, with five thousand
fighting men, who at first made a treaty with the settlers, showed signs
on one occasion of hostility. Canonicus, their chief Sachem, sent a
bundle of arrows, tied with a snake’s skin, which Squanto told them meant
a challenge. Governor Bradford and his Council sent them word that if
they had rather have war than peace, they might begin when they would;
they had done the Indians no wrong, nor did they fear them; nor would
the Indians find them unprepared. Then, with some wit, the Governor sent
them, by another messenger, the snake’s skin filled with powder and
bullets; but they refused to receive it, and sent it back.

Thus, after various alarms, and treaties, the pilgrims had fortified
themselves in the country, and individuals among them had begun the pious
work of instructing some of the young Indians in the Christian religion.

In 1621, one year after the arrival at Plymouth, Elder Robert Cushman
sent word to his friends in England that many of the Indians, especially
the younger of them, were teachable; that if the Colony had means they
would bring up hundreds of them to labor, and learning, and that young
men in England who desired to further the Gospel among these poor
heathen, would do well to come over and spend their estates, time, and
labor, in so doing.

During the few first years after the settlement at Plymouth, several of
the natives gave evidence of conversion, and instances of happy death
occurred among them. But the hardships and trials incident to a removal
into this wilderness delayed the systematic and general efforts of the
settlers to convert the Indians. Individuals, however, were laboring
among them with success. In 1636, the Plymouth Colony enacted laws to
provide for the preaching of the Gospel among the Indians, and ten years
after, the Massachusetts Colony passed a similar act.

In 1675, it was ascertained that the whole number of Indians in New
England, beginning as far east as the St. Croix River, was about fifty
thousand. Of these, about twelve thousand were in the neighborhood of the
Massachusetts and the Plymouth Colonies.

At the settlement of this country there were five principal nations,
or sachemships, of Indians, in this part of New England, viz, 1. The
Pequots; 2. The Narragansetts; 3. The Pawkunnawkuts; 4. The Pawtucketts;
5. The Massachusetts. Each of these nations included several tribes,
governed by sagamores.

The Pequots formerly had 4000 warriors; in 1674, 300.

The Narragansetts formerly had 5000 warriors; in 1674, 1000.

The Pawkunnawkuts formerly had 3000 warriors; in 1674, nearly extinct.

The Pawtuckets formerly had 3000 warriors; in 1674, 250.

The Massachusetts formerly had 3000 warriors; in 1674, 300.

The _Pequots_ inhabited the most southerly parts of New England, their
country for the most part fell under the Connecticut jurisdiction. Their
principal sachem lived at or near New London, called, in their language
Pequot.

The _Narragansetts_ occupied Rhode Island, and other islands in
Narragansett bay.

The _Pawkunnawkuts_ inhabited the region of the Plymouth Colony,
and their sachem held sway over the Sagamores of Nantucket, Martha’s
Vineyard, and neighboring places. A few years before the arrival of the
Pilgrims, a great number of this nation of Indians as before stated, were
swept away by a plague, and thus the way was opened for the entrance of
the Pilgrims.

The _Pawtuckets_ lived to the north, and northeast of the Massachusetts
Indians. They were almost wholly destroyed by the plague just mentioned.

The _Massachusetts_ Indians dwelt principally about the parts of
Massachusetts bay which were first settled by the English, and bordering,
some of them, on the region of the Pawkunnawkuts. They were very numerous
and powerful. Their chief sachem held rule over many petty chiefs. This
people was also visited by the plague in 1612-13, which destroyed the
most of them, and prepared the way for the English settlers.

This fact has often brought to mind these words of David: “We have heard
with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in
their day, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with
thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people and cast
them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword,
neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm,
and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them.”

An early New England writer[4] says, that he had not been able to learn
accurately the nature of the disease or plague which depopulated the
Indian tribes in the remarkable manner already described; but that he had
“discoursed” with some old Indians, who told him that the patients were
“all over exceedingly yellow,” and this they described by showing him a
yellow garment which the bodies of the victims resembled in color, both
before and after death. There is a tradition that a Frenchman, who not
long before this plague, had fallen into their hands by shipwreck, told
them, as some of the surviving shipmates reported, just before he died
by their hands, that “God was angry with them for their wickedness, and
would not only destroy them all, but would also people their country with
men who would not live after their brutish manners.” Those infidels then
blasphemously replied, that God could not kill them; which blasphemous
mistake was confuted by an horrible and unusual plague, whereby they were
consumed in such vast multitudes, that our first planters found the land
almost covered with their unburied carcases, and they that were left
alive were smitten into awful and humbler regards of the English by the
terrors which the Frenchman’s prophecy had imprinted on them.

When the Pilgrims in Holland thought of coming to this country, some of
them hesitated for several reasons, and among others through their fear
of the savages, who they heard were “cruel, barbarous, and treacherous,
being most furious in their rage, and merciless where they overcome, not
being content only to kill and take away life, but delight to torment men
in most bloody manner that may be, flaying men alive with the shells of
fishes, cutting off the points and members of others by piecemeals, and
broiling them on the coals, and causing men to eat the collops of their
flesh in their sight whilst they live; with other cruelties horrible
to be related.”[5] Some were therefore in favor of settling in Guiana,
in South America. But they feared the jealousy of the Spaniards, and
finally concluded to settle within the jurisdiction of the company of
Virginia, where the English, in 1607, had made a settlement. In this way,
they supposed that they could also have better access to the savages,
“to reduce them to civil society, and the Christian religion.” But God
brought them by a way they knew not, having first in part cut off the
heathen nations to bring them in.

The May-flower sailed from Holland, September 6, 1620, for the Hudson
River. But they were driven into the waters of Cape Cod, and it was a
current belief that the shipmaster was bribed by the Dutch to change her
course, because the Dutch wished to settle in the region for which the
Pilgrims embarked. But some of the best authorities deny this, and say
that the change of their course was accidental.

There is so much connection between climate and characters that we may
reasonably suppose it to have been the intention of Providence to plant
the Pilgrims in this cold region, and on this hard soil, that they might
be and do that which is proved to have been their high destiny to be and
to accomplish. Whereas, had they settled in a warmer and more enervating
latitude, we cannot believe that such a New England as we now behold
would have arisen; it would have been easier for the settlers to have
borne the imposition of slavery from the mother country, whereas here
in Massachusetts the sturdy vigor and independence which were borne and
nourished on this rocky and sandy soil, grew impatient of slavery, and
soon threw it off, and hence in part the present difference between
the North and the South, in some of the essential elements of natural
prosperity. God brought the Pilgrims into these bays and harbors, and to
this northern soil, because here the qualities necessary to their future
usefulness and greatness as a nation could be most successfully developed
and strengthened. Instead of reducing the savages to slavery as they
might have done had the institution of slavery been fastened upon them
in southern regions, they “reduced the savages to civil society, and the
Christian religion.” Let us return for a moment to the landing of the
Pilgrims.

When the May-flower had cast anchor, the Pilgrims fitted up the little
shallop which they had brought in their vessel, and coasted the Cape for
about a month to determine on the best place for landing and settlement.
Having at length fixed on a place, the shallop, with the exploring
party came to anchor on Saturday, the 9th of December, corresponding to
December 20, New Style. The Sabbath dawned upon them, but the exploring
party remained on board, notwithstanding the inmates of the May-flower
were still at anchor, waiting to know the result of the exploration. How
beautiful and striking was the coincidence of their arriving at Plymouth
on the eve of the Sabbath. What a Sabbath it must have been to them. Not
only was their comfortless and perilous voyage in a crowded vessel, and
their anxious search for a landing place now over, but their persecutions
in the old world, their oppressive treatment from the Established Church
for not conforming to rites and practices which they could not observe,
had now come to an end. Now they had found a new world where they
might believe and worship as they pleased. Now they would no longer be
taxed for the support of worship in which they had no share. Now their
ministers would no longer be ill-used or nick-named, for not conforming
to unscriptural practices; now they would not be obliged to keep Lent,
and Ash-Wednesday, Candlemas, Christmas, and All-Saints’-day, in a manner
repugnant to their consciences. As they looked on this great wilderness,
free from all corruptions of man in the worship of God, and pure in that
respect as the virgin snows that covered the evergreens, and sheeted
the old sand wastes, and shone on the distant hills, they could breathe
freely, as they said in the words which indicate the essential spirit of
their faith, God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him
in spirit and in truth. The world has never seen such a sight, before
or since, as that shallop and the May-flower in Plymouth Bay, with the
progenitors of this great and glorious New England; fleeing from the old
world, arriving at this new world and keeping Sabbath at anchor in these
waters. What has ever happened to be likened to it since the time when
Noah and his family sailed away from the old world, which had corrupted
itself before God, and transplanted the religion of the true God for a
new beginning? It would have been interesting to have heard the prayers,
and songs of praise, and words of Scripture, with which they kept the
Sabbath in their floating Bethels. We notice here that Puritan regard for
the Sabbath which has ever characterized New England, and on which her
safety so much depends. How natural it would have been for the voyagers
to have leaped ashore at the first moment of their arrival in the
harbor which they had concluded to make their home. How many passengers
now in similar circumstances, would deny themselves the pleasure of
exchanging the wearisome confinement on ship-board, for the excitement
and satisfaction of exploring their new home? But the Pilgrims would not
begin the work of their settlement, of removing any of their effects from
the vessel, on the Lord’s day, and since the time when God rested from
his work on the Sabbath, there has not been a more sublime act of rest
and of worship, than was observed by that Pilgrim band.

All this was in accordance with their character and intentions as a
missionary band, and for its relation to this view of their character we
have dwelt at large upon this incident in their history.

It cannot be impressed too deeply upon our minds that our forefathers
did not come here merely to “enjoy their liberty,” not merely to flee
from persecution, not to increase their worldly estate; they came here,
among other good reasons, as they expressly declare, to extend the
kingdom of Christ, and the Royal Charter professed that the royal object
in granting it was that they might reduce such savages as they found
wandering in desolation and distress to civil society and the Christian
religion. Does any one cherish a feeling of reverence and love for
these pilgrims in view of their sacrifices and efforts to found these
institutions which we possess, who yet feels no interest in the work
of propagating the gospel to the ends of the earth? Let him consider
that a company of Christian missionaries going from this land and
settling in India, or Africa, or Oceanica, may be the founders of just
such institutions as we enjoy, among the people to whom they are sent.
Let every missionary consider that in distant years he may be justly
regarded as a pilgrim-father to some portion of the earth for whom he
may have done as much as the New England Pilgrims have done for New
England. The object of Christian missions is to re-produce and multiply
our Christian institutions in heathen and pagan lands. The opportunity
of laying foundations in heathen wilds, similar to those which the
Pilgrims laid here, has not come to an end. Many a missionary bark may
yet be, essentially, a May-flower to distant parts of the earth. Some
islands which were filled with savages as barbarous as our Indians, have
had their independence recognized by Christian nations, and have taken
their place among the nations of the earth; and that band of American
missionaries who left these shores for the Sandwich Islands in 1820,
and who went round Cape Horn singing the old hymn in the tune of Melton
Mowbray,

    “Head of the church triumphant,
      We cheerfully adore thee,” &c.,

and who planted the Gospel on those islands, will no doubt in after
times have their names enshrined by a grateful posterity in those distant
seas. The little schooner which the Rev. John Williams, the martyr of
Rarotonga, built with his own hand, to visit the islands of the Harvey
group, was a real “May-flower.” Prophetic visions of the effects of the
Gospel we see fulfilled on these shores and around the globe. Here,
emphatically, “instead of the thorn has come up the fir-tree, and instead
of the brier the myrtle-tree.” In what way can we cherish the memory of
our Pilgrim fathers better than to keep alive in us and our children that
zeal to spread the Christian religion and Christian institutions, which
was one of the strong impulses that bore them across the flood? As the
missionary spirit was the native air in which the pilgrim faith was born
and nurtured, we may believe that the same spirit will most effectually
cherish those institutions and laws which are the fruit of their wisdom.
That spirit is a sincere desire to see the glory of God promoted in the
world, a willingness to make efforts and sacrifices “that his way may be
known on earth, his saving health among all nations.”

“The May-flower”! That name must have been proposed by some gentle
wife, or by some sweet child, to the man who built that favored vessel!
She was, in her seasonableness, more than a _May-flower_; she was the
Crocus among the eternal snows and the dreary winter of this western
savage world. In the selection of her for the great mission which
she accomplished, angels might have said to her, as they came to be
ministering spirits to those in her who were to be, in more than one
sense, “heirs of salvation,” as Gabriel said to Mary, “Hail, thou that
art highly favored—the Lord is with thee!” The name of this vessel is one
of those instances, of which we see so many in the word, the providence
of God, in which “the beauty of the Lord our God” appears in connection
with his acts of renown. To the cold eye of reason that name was only
a mercantile accident; the eye of faith is willing to be accounted
visionary while it sees in it that same hand which, after the deluge,
selected the rainbow instead of a periodical tempest, or a Dead Sea, as
the memorial of a covenant with the earth.

The painting of the Landing of the Pilgrims, by Weir, justly represents
some of the pilgrim company as of cultivated and even polished appearance
and manners; they were not the offscouring of the earth. They were
men and women of whom, in their day, the world was not worthy. For
scholarship, intelligence, and moral worth, the Pilgrims and their
associates in the old countries would have been ornaments to the land
which chased them away. The reader will find this illustrated in a
satisfactory manner in the Life of the Rev. John Cotton, by the Rev.
A. W. M’Clure, in the first two volumes in this series of the Lives of
eminent N. E. Puritans.




CHAPTER II.

    Description of the Indians. Their manners, habits, mode of
    life, &c. Efforts to convert them, previous to Eliot’s labors.


Some account of the manners and habits of the Indians, as our forefathers
and their successors found them, will be necessary that we may appreciate
the labors and self-denial which were required of those who instructed
these sons of the forest in religion and civilization. A correct
knowledge of their original condition dispels the romantic associations
which many have with the name of a North American Indian. The lowest
degradation had been reached by these savages. The laws of a people are
a true picture of the people, and some of the laws which the Indians
enacted when they began to be civilized, reveal the misery and filthiness
from which they began at last to be recovered. This will be illustrated
as we proceed.

We will speak first of the personal appearance of the Indian.

Their skin was of a tawny color, a yellowish, dark complexion. Their
form and limbs were well proportioned, and it was seldom that a crooked
person was found among them. Their hair was long, black, and coarse,
without curling; their eyes black, without lustre. In their general
appearance they were so much like the Moors of Africa, that many have
supposed them to have come originally from that part of the world.

They had many wives, but one of them was chief in her husband’s regard.
They put away their wives, and the wife also left her husband when
offended with him.

Their revengeful disposition is proverbial. The relatives of an injured
or murdered Indian regarded his wrong as done to them, and they sought
satisfaction in the death of the offender, or in the payment of wampum,
(or shells,) which passed with them for money.

They were an idle race, especially the men. Tillage was chiefly performed
by the women, though to but little extent. The women also carried
burdens, as in removing from place to place. They also prepared the food.

Their wigwams were made with slim poles fixed in the ground, bent, and
fastened at the top with the bark of trees. The best of them were made
tight and warm with the whole barks of trees, pressed when green by a
heavy weight of timber. A common sort of bulrushes woven together, made
mats for the covering of the poorer houses. The houses varied in size,
from twenty to forty feet square, and some were from sixty to a hundred
feet long, and thirty feet broad. In the smaller houses a fire was
kindled in the centre, but in the larger, several fires were made for the
convenience of the inmates. A hole in the top of the house served the
place of a chimney, and on the top of the house a mat was suspended, to
serve the purpose of a ventilator to the smoke, being set to the windward
side. Their bedsteads were made of rude boards split from the tree, and
raised about a foot from the ground, covered with skins, or with mats of
woven grass, or bulrushes.

Their principal food was a kind of pottage in which it would be
difficult to say what article prevailed. Indian corn, kidney beans, all
kinds of flesh and fish, cut in small pieces with the bones, many kinds
of roots, artichokes, ground-nuts, squashes, oak acorns, walnuts, and
chestnuts, were boiled together. The nuts being dried, and powdered, were
used as flour to thicken the mess. They made a cake of parched corn,
which they called nokake. This they took with them in their travels, and
is said to have been so hearty a kind of food, that they subsisted on it
many days in their wanderings from place to place.

Their household utensils corresponded in simplicity to their food, and
mode of cooking. The pots were made of clay, in the shape of an egg
without the top. They were glad to receive pots of metal, as the earth
of which they made their brittle vessels was scarce and dear. They used
a kind of wood which was not liable to split, for dishes, spoons, and
ladles. Their water pails were made of birch bark, folded square, with a
handle or bail. Some of them held two or three gallons, and they could
make one of them in the space of an hour. They wrought pictures of birds,
beasts, fishes and flowers of divers colors in their baskets, which were
made of corn husks, silk grass, and wild hemp.

They formerly used no drink but water, though they soon learned from the
settlers the manufacture and use of cider. When they became acquainted
with intoxicating drinks, they showed a violent love for them, by which
their savage passions and propensities were fearfully excited.

Their clothing was, at first, of skins, and some had mantles of birds’
feathers, twilled together. Even the most barbarous of them were decent
in covering their persons, and were never seen naked in public.

One of their principal remedies in sickness was, to put the patient, and
sometimes several patients together, in a rude stone house, which they
would heat by building fires round it, and having thus put the sick into
a violent perspiration, they would plunge them into a neighboring brook.

They divided time into sleeps, and moons, and winters. It is a curious
fact that they called the Constellation, Charles’ Wain, by the same name
with the English, the Bear. Like the early eastern nations, they seem to
have pondered the face of the heavens, and to have made figures of the
stars.

Their money consisted of shells, or strings of shells, the black
being double in value to the white. The _mints_ of their money seem to
have been at Block Island, and Long Island, upon whose sandy flats and
shores, these welk shells were chiefly found. It was called wompompeague,
or, wompeague, and by contraction, wompum, or, wampum. They redeemed
captives, paid tribute, made satisfaction for wrongs, and murders, and
purchased peace of their more powerful neighbors, with strings of this
wampum.

Their weapons were bows and arrows, clubs, tomahawks, made of wood like a
pole axe, with a sharp stone in the head. They used targets or shields of
bark.

They formerly smeared their skin with bears’ grease, but when the English
swine afforded them lard, they used it as a substitute, and thus having
anointed themselves, they painted their faces with vermilion, or red,
and powdered their heads. Sometimes they painted one half of the face
black, and the other white, and so, with various colors, deformed their
visages, the women, especially, doing this, and the warriors thereby
making themselves hideous in battle. Widows, mourning for their husbands,
painted their faces wholly black. The men preparing for war put their
hair in a roll, and surmounted it with turkey’s or eagle’s feathers, with
other fantastic and showy decorations.

They took great pleasure in dancing, the men only dancing, and they
singly, (except in the war dance,) with uncouth and antic gestures and
movements of the whole body, the spectators singing or whooping. The
dancer took off his ornaments one by one as he danced, and gave them away
to those who looked on, and when he had given away all that he had upon
him, and was weary, another would succeed him, and thus succeeding each
other they would spend the nights of a whole week together, sleeping by
day. At such dancings accompanied with revelings, chiefly held after
harvest, they were addicted to many evil practices.

They were a hospitable race. Strangers were furnished with the best food
and lodging, and were served before themselves.

Their government was for the most part monarchical, the chief sachem or
sagamore making his will the law, though there were chief men associated
with him as counselors. In some of the tribes the influence of the head
men was greater than in others, making the government a mixture of
monarchy and aristocracy.

They had no idols made with hands, but being ignorant of the true God,
they adored natural objects; the sun, the moon, the earth, fire, and
other things. They supposed that every thing in nature has a god in it,
or belonging to it, but fire they believed to be itself a god. They
believed that there was one god in the southwest, who was the chief deity.

The Indians had priests or powows, or, powaws, who were conjurers, who,
with horrid rites and incantations, told their fortunes, advised them
in their affairs, yelled over them in their sick and dying moments, and
performed religious worship with terrific noises and actions,

    “Like stabled wolves or tigers at their prey,
    Doing abhorred rites to Hecate.”

The Indians believed in the immortality of the soul, that the good are
admitted to a splendid entertainment, and the wicked wander in agony
forever, and that there is no resurrection of the body for good or bad.

As to the origin of the Indians, Roger Williams has well expressed the
truth on the subject, in his Key into the language of the Indians of New
England.[6]

“From Adam and Noah that they spring, it is granted on all hands. But for
their later descent, and whence they came into these parts, it seems hard
to find, as to find the well-head of some fresh stream which running many
miles out of the country to the salt ocean, hath met with many mixing
streams by the way.”

Mr. Williams gives many particulars of their manners and customs; some of
which are here added.

Their nokake, or nokehick, parched meal, was carried by each man on a
journey, or in war, in a basket, fastened to his back, or in a hollow
belt. With a spoonful of this meal, and a spoonful of water from the
brook, Mr. Williams says he has many a time made a good supper. This
parched meal, boiled with water, he says, is the wholesomest diet they
have. _Nawsaump_ was a kind of meal pottage unparched, and from this the
English derived their _samp_, or Indian corn, broken and boiled, and
eaten, hot or cold, with milk or butter; “which are mercies beyond the
natives’ plain water, and which is a dish exceeding wholesome for the
English bodies.”

Tobacco was in general use among them, and was the only plant which the
men cultivated, the women attending to the rest. The following remark, by
Mr. Williams, is in good illustration of former views and feelings with
regard to the use of spirituous liquors. “I never see any take tobacco
so excessively as I have seen men in Europe; and yet excess were more
tolerable in them, because they want the refreshing of beer and wine,
which God had vouchsafed Europe.”[7]

They made up a fire, when they were lying down to sleep, summer and
winter. “Their fire,” says Williams, “is instead of our bed clothes. And
so themselves, and any that have occasion to lodge with them, must be
content to turn often to the fire, if the night be cold; and they who
first wake must repair the fire.”

Bad dreams they considered as threatenings from God; and when they
happened to them, they would engage in prayer at all times of the night.
An Indian once dreamed that the sun, whom they worship as a god, darted
a beam into his breast. This he took for an admonition of his death. He
called his friends and neighbors together, and prepared some refreshment
for them; but himself remained awake, and fasting, for ten days and
nights in great humiliation and distress.

“The women nurse all the children themselves; yet a rich or high woman
maintains a nurse to tend the child.”

“They have amongst them natural fools, either so born, or accidentally
deprived of reason.”

“The toothache is the only pain which will force their stout hearts to
cry. I have never heard any cries among them like those of men in the
toothache. In this pain they use a certain root dried, not much unlike
our ginger.”

“They are most skillful in cutting off the heads of their enemies in
fight. I know the man, yet living, who pretended to fall from his own
camp to the enemy, proffered his service in the front with them against
his own army. He drew them out to battle, keeping in front; but, on a
sudden, shot their chief leader and captain, and, in a trice, fetched off
his head, and returned immediately to his own again. His act was false
and treacherous; yet herein appear policy, stoutness, and activity.”

“Their desire of and delight in news, is great as the Athenians. A
stranger that can relate news in their own language they will style him
manittoo, a god.”

In hearing news they sit in a circle, two, three, or four deep. “I have
seen near a thousand in a round where English could not well near half so
many have sitten.”

They frequently inquired “Why came the Englishmen hither?” The
explanation most commonly believed among themselves at first was, that
the English wanted fire-wood, and so removed to these parts, as the
Indians remove when they have used up the wood around them.

They kept the time of the day and the night with great accuracy, by
observing the sun, moon, and stars. Living abroad in the fields and
sleeping much out of doors, even the young children were expert in
telling the time. The Indians were punctual in their promises as to
time. Mr. Williams says they once charged him with lying for not being
punctual, though necessarily delayed.

English travelers were struck with the paths which the bare and tough
feet of the Indians had made in stony places. One writer says that he
has known many of them to run between eighty and a hundred miles in a
summer’s day, and return within two days. He says they were so thoroughly
acquainted with the interior of the country by means of hunting, that
they have guided travelers forty miles without any path. They coveted
horses above other beasts, preferring the ease of riding even to the
comfort of milk and butter from the cow. On meeting with one another in
travel, they were very happy and joyful; and striking fire, with stones
or sticks, took tobacco, and set down to talk. It was quite rare to
meet an old man or a lame man with a staff, their constitutions being
generally robust.

The English settlers were greatly struck with the purity of the air
and of the water in New England.[8] But as New England is about twelve
degrees south of England, the greater cold of this region is explained,
Mr. Williams thinks, by the fact that main lands and continents are
colder than islands. “England’s winds are sea winds, which are commonly
more thick and vapory, and warmer winds. The northwest wind, which
occasioneth New England cold, comes over the cold, frozen land, and
over many millions of loads of snow. And yet the pure wholesomeness of
the land is wonderful, and the warmth of the sun such in the sharpest
weather, that I have often seen the natives’ children run about stark
naked in the coldest days, and the Indian men and women lie by a fire in
the woods in the coldest nights; and I have often been out myself such
nights without fire, mercifully and wonderfully preserved.”

It is observed by many writers that the Indians had a considerable
mixture of sadness in their disposition. Though nature here was profuse
in wild animals for food, and fish, and fowl, and fruits, the savages
were subject to much suffering from causes which they had no knowledge
to understand nor skill to prevent. Their superstitions joined with
their savage vices made them afraid. It would seem also, in noticing
the proofs of this disposition to melancholy, that the coming event of
their disappearance as a race had cast its shadow upon their spirits. Mr.
Williams says that they dislike cloths inclining to white, “but preferred
to have a sad color, without any whitish hairs, suiting with their own
natural temper, which inclines to sadness.”[9]

In the spirit with which our forefathers came hither, seeking the
conversion of the red race, good men from time to time pursued different
measures for their spiritual good. But while other men deserve great
praise for their zeal and industry in this benevolent work, it was
reserved to JOHN ELIOT to gain for himself the name of the Apostle to the
Indians. The way in which he obtained it will now appear, and also some
account of his life and character, with further notices respecting the
Indians.

Though individuals had incidentally labored among the Indians for their
spiritual good before the Apostle Eliot began his efforts to give them
the Gospel, and some useful impressions had been made on some of their
minds, the first systematic efforts for their conversion were made by
him. Roger Williams’ narrative was printed in London, in 1643. Eliot
began to preach in the Indian tongue in 1646. Mr. Williams says,

“Many solemn discourses I have had with all sorts of nations of them,
from one end of the country to the other, so far as opportunity, and the
little language I have, could reach.

“I know there is no small preparation in the hearts of multitudes of
them. I know their many solemn confessions to myself, and one to another,
of their last wandering conditions.

“I know not with how little knowledge and grace of Christ the Lord may
save; and therefore neither will despair, nor report much.

“Two days before the death of Wequash, the Pequot captain, as I passed
up to Quunnihticut (Connecticut) river, it pleased my worthy friend,
Mr. Fenwick, whom I visited at his house in Saybrook fort, at the mouth
of that river, to tell me that my old friend Wequash lay very sick. I
desired to see him, and himself was pleased to be my guide two miles
where Wequash lay.

“Amongst other discourses concerning his sickness and death, in which he
freely bequeathed his son to Mr. Fenwick, I closed with him concerning
his soul. He told me that some two or three years before, he had lodged
at my house, where I acquainted him with the condition of all mankind,
and his own in particular; how God created man and all things; how man
fell from God, and his present enmity against God and the wrath of God
against him till repentance. Said he, your words were never out of my
heart to this present; and, said he, ‘Me much pray to Jesus Christ.’ I
told him so did many English, French, and Dutch, who had never turned
to God nor loved him. He replied in broken English: ‘Me so big naughty
heart: me heart all one stone!’ Savoring expressions using to breathe
from compunct and broken hearts, and a sense of inward hardness and
unbrokenness. I had many discourses with him in this life; but this was
the sum of our last parting, until our general meeting.”[10]

We now come to the history of the man by whom the work of converting and
civilizing the Indians was carried out with the most signal success.




CHAPTER III.

    John Eliot. Birth and Education. Associated with Rev. Thomas
    Hooker. Arrives at Boston. Settles in Roxbury. Anecdote.
    Discovery of Spot Pond. Marriage. Christian and Ministerial
    character. His zeal for common School Education. Notices of his
    personal character. His Congregational Sentiments. Remarks upon
    them. Mr. Eliot’s children. His prayers. His preaching. Infant
    Baptism.


John Eliot was born in Nasing, Essex, England, in the year 1604. All that
is known of his parents is, that they were eminently pious, to which Mr.
Eliot bore testimony, when he wrote in after life these words: “I do see
that it was a great favor of God unto me to season my first years with
the fear of God, the word, and prayer.”

He was educated in England at the University of Cambridge, and was
distinguished for his love of the languages, in which he attained
uncommon skill, especially in Hebrew and Greek. There is a connection
between this fact and his labors in New England in acquiring the Indian
tongue and translating the Bible and other books into it.

The Rev. Thomas Hooker, afterwards the first Pastor of the Church
in Cambridge, New England, who afterwards removed with his Church to
Hartford, Connecticut, had been silenced for his conscientious scruples
at certain rites and observances in the Church of England, after
exercising the ministry four years. At the suggestion and request of
distinguished individuals, he established a school in the town of Little
Braddow, near Chelmsford, in the county of Essex, England. Mr. Eliot
was an usher in this school. In this school several individuals were
trained up who became eminently useful. Mr. Eliot wrote an account of
this school; and says of it, and of his connection with the family of Mr.
Hooker, “To this place was I called through the infinite riches of God’s
mercy in Christ Jesus to my poor soul; for here the Lord said unto my
dead soul, Live; and, through the grace of Christ, I do live, and I shall
live forever. When I came to this blessed family, I then saw, and never
before, the power of godliness in its lively vigor and efficacy.”

By the influence of Mr. Hooker, Mr. Eliot was led to devote himself to
the Christian ministry. Seeing the corruptions of the Church of England,
and the oppressive spirit of those in authority towards all who would
not conform to the ceremonies and practices of the Established Church,
he resolved that he would go to America, that he might preach the gospel
without restraint.

He came to Boston in November, 1631, in the ship “Lyon,” with Governor
Winthrop’s lady and children, and sixty others. There was then no
minister at the Church in Boston, Rev. Mr. Wilson, their pastor, having
gone to England to settle his affairs. Mr. Eliot joined the Church at
Boston, and preached to them a part of a year, till the return of Mr.
Wilson, when the Church wished to make him colleague and teacher with
Mr. Wilson. But he had engaged with several individuals, in England,
that if they should remove to America, he would be their minister. They
came the year after his arrival, and settled at Roxbury; and having
formed a Church there, secured the services of Mr. Eliot. He was then
twenty-eight years old, and he continued as Pastor of the Church in
Roxbury nearly sixty years. His meeting-house was on the hill where the
present meeting-house of the First Church in Roxbury (unitarian) now
stands. Cotton Mather has preserved an anecdote connected with this hill,
illustrating the art which Mr. Eliot had at spiritualizing. Going up
the hill to his meeting-house, in his old age, with much feebleness and
weariness he said to the one who led him, “This is very like the way to
heaven, ’tis up hill; the Lord by his grace fetch us up.” Spying a bush
near him he instantly added, “And truly there are thorns and briars in
the way too!” which instance, Mather says, “I would not have singled out
from the many thousands of his occasional reflections, but only that I
might suggest unto the good people of Roxbury something for them to think
upon when they are going up to the house of the Lord.”[11]

In February of the year after his arrival, Mr. Eliot is mentioned as
one of the company who, with the governor, made an excursion into the
vicinity of Boston, and discovered a pond to which they gave its present
name of “Spot Pond.”[12] This pond has of late been a prominent candidate
for the privilege of supplying this city with water.

In 1632, Mr. Eliot was married to the pious young lady to whom he was
betrothed in England, and who came to America by appointment the year
after Mr. Eliot’s arrival. We shall have occasion to speak of her in the
sequel of this history.

In the exercise of the Christian ministry, Mr. Eliot was remarkable
for a deep sense of the great responsibleness of his work. It made him
humble; he seemed to have a peculiar fear of the temptations incident to
his profession, and to be deeply impressed with the weight of its duties.
His brethren in the ministry were struck with this characteristic of his
ministerial deportment.

He bestowed much labor and diligence upon his preparations for the
pulpit. It is said that when he listened to a discourse which seemed
to have had care and attention bestowed upon it, he was accustomed
to express his approbation and thanks to the preacher. But while his
discourses showed him to be a student, he placed a higher value on
spiritual gifts in preaching than upon the greatest accomplishments of
art or labor. He frequently exhorted young preachers to make Christ
prominent in their discourses and in all their ministrations.

He had an elevated sense of the meaning and privilege of
church-membership. With affection, but also with plain and faithful
words, he never ceased to rebuke the inconsistencies of professors of
religion. Mather says of him, “He would sound the trumpet of God against
all vice with a most penetrating liveliness, and make his pulpit another
Mount Sinai, for the flashes of lightning therein displayed against the
breaches of the law given from that burning mountain. There was usually a
special fervor in the rebukes which he bestowed on carnality. When he was
to brand the earthly mindedness of Church members and the allowance and
indulgence which they often give themselves in sensual delights, he was a
right Boanerges. He spoke as many thunderbolts as words!”

He paid particular attention to the young people of his charge, gave them
instruction in public and private with the help of catechisms composed by
him especially for their use. It was his familiar habit, when he visited
a family, to call the young around him and lay his hands on their heads
with words of kindness and prayer.

He showed his love of learning in his zeal for the establishment of
common schools. The grammar School at Roxbury owed much to his care. At
the meeting of a Synod in Boston, he made the schools of the country a
special subject of prayer, beseeching God that he would cause them to be
established everywhere, that schools might flourish, that every member
of the Synod might go home to procure and encourage a good school in his
town; and that before they should die, they might be so happy as to see a
good school established in every part of the country.

“God so blessed his endeavors that Roxbury could not live quietly
without a free school in the town, and the issue of it has been one thing
that has almost made me put the title of Schola Illustris upon that
little nursery; that is, that Roxbury has afforded more scholars first
for the College and then for the public than any town of its bigness,
or, if I mistake not, of twice its bigness in all New England. From the
spring of the school at Roxbury, there have run a large number of the
streams which have made glad the whole city of God. I persuade myself
that the good people of Roxbury will forever scorn to begrudge the cost,
or to permit the death of a school which God has made such an honor to
them; and thus the rather because their deceased Eliot has left them a
fair part of his own estate for the maintaining of the school in Roxbury;
and I hope, or at least I wish that the ministers of New England may be
as ungainsayably importunate with their people as Mr. Eliot was with his
for schools which may seasonably tinge the young souls of the rising
generation. A want of education for them is the blackest and saddest of
all the bad omens that are upon us.”[13]

One result of his interest in schools was that many individuals were
raised up under his eye who became ministers of the gospel, and some of
them were eminently useful.

He was so engrossed in the affairs of his ministry that he hardly paid
sufficient attention to his worldly affairs, never being anxious about
his support, depending wholly on the temporary and voluntary offerings
of his people, which varied with the times. Dr. Dwight, in his Travels
in New England and New York,[14] relates an anecdote to illustrate his
generous and somewhat improvident disposition and habits. “The parish
treasurer having paid him his salary, put it into a handkerchief, and
tied it into as many hard knots as he could make to prevent him from
giving it away before he reached his own house. On his way he called on a
poor family, and told them that he had brought them some relief. He then
began to untie the knots, but finding it a work of great difficulty, he
gave it to the mistress of the house, saying, ‘Here, my dear, take it, I
believe the Lord designs it all for you.’”

Like many other ministers, he owed much to the care which his wife took
of him and his worldly affairs. She of course did not commend him for
such reckless acts of charity as the one just named. One day some cattle
stood before their door. His wife, to try him, asked him to whom they
belonged, and though they were his own, he did not know them.

His influence upon his brethren in the ministry seems to have been
eminently spiritual. He once said in a company of them, “The Lord Jesus
takes much notice of what is said and done among his ministers when they
are together. Let us pray before we depart.” His advice to some who
complained of the conduct of Church members towards them, was, “Bear,
forbear, forgive.” On one occasion he came into a meeting of ministers
who had met as referees on some difficulties between two parties. A large
bundle of papers lay on the table, containing the correspondence and
other documents relating to the quarrel. He put them all into the fire,
and said, “You need not be astonished at what I have done, for I did it
on my knees before I came here.”

He loved to attend upon the ministry of his brethren when they lectured
during the week. It used to excite surprise, that, with his many labors
and studies, he could find so much time to do this. His appearance in
the house of God as a hearer was noticeable, being always wakeful and
watchful, turning the pages of a Bible to find the texts referred to by
the preacher, and on returning to his home, he would preach the sermon
over again to those who walked with him.

He is mentioned as remarkable for the value which he seemed to set on the
Sabbath, and for the high spiritual enjoyment which its return brought
with it. Of every Sabbath it might almost be said with regard to his
enjoyment of the sacred hours, “That Sabbath was a high-day.”

He was eminently a man of prayer, setting apart whole days for special
supplication and communion with God, to which he frequently added
fasting. When he had any special difficulty in his private, or in public
affairs, he devoted himself to special, secret prayer for some time
together, on the principle related of another, “That when we would have
any great things to be accomplished, the best policy is to work by an
engine which the world sees nothing of.” When he heard any special news
he would sometimes say, “Brethren, let us turn all this into prayer.”
When he paid a visit to a family with which he was familiar, he would
sometimes say, “Come, let us not have a visit without a prayer; let us
pray down the blessing of heaven on your family before we go.”

A pious woman, afflicted with a wicked husband, complained to him that
she was greatly troubled by the bad company which her husband brought
with him into the house, and asked him what she should do. He said to
her, “Take the holy Bible into your hands when they come, and you will
soon drive them away.” The experiment is said to have been successful.

One day walking in his garden with a friend, he began to pluck up the
weeds. His friend pleasantly said to him, “Sir, you tell us we must be
heavenly-minded,” as though he would draw from Mr. Eliot some remarks on
the consistency of heavenly-mindedness with attention to things about us.
Mr. Eliot replied, “It is true; and this is no impediment unto that; for
were I sure to go to heaven tomorrow, I would do what I do to-day.”

He went into a merchant’s counting room, where he saw his mercantile
books on the table, and some books of devotion on the shelf. Upon which
he said, “Sir, here is earth on the table, and Heaven on the shelf. Pray
don’t sit so much at the table as altogether to forget the shelf.”

Preaching once on holiness in all manner of conversation, he said, “In
the morning if we ask, Where am I to be to-day? our souls must answer, In
heaven. In the evening if we ask, Where have I been to-day, our souls may
answer, In heaven. If thou art a believer thou art no stranger to Heaven
while thou livest; and when thou diest, Heaven will be no strange place
to thee: no, thou hast been there a thousand times before.”

He would say to students, “I pray look to it that you be morning birds.”

A few years before his death, he pressed his people to obtain another
pastor, and said, “’Tis possible you may think the burden of maintaining
two ministers may be two heavy for you; but I deliver you from that
fear; I do here give back my salary to the Lord Jesus Christ, and now,
brethren, you may fix that upon any man that God shall make a pastor
for you.” But his Church kindly and generously told him that they
should count his very presence worth a salary, when he should be so
superannuated as to do no further service for them.

He was an abstemious man, and yet far from being morose or censorious,
but when invited to a large dinner, it is said that while he eat but very
little he would indulge in pleasant and grateful remarks with respect to
the plenty with which God had furnished his people in this wilderness.
Having been invited at a stranger’s house to take some drink, which he
was told was wine and water, he replied, “Wine! ’tis a noble, generous
liquor, and we should be humbly thankful for it; but, as I remember,
water was made before it,” and water was his drink, to a degree which was
far from being common even in those days.

He was greatly displeased with the increasing attention in his day
among the men to the wearing of the hair, the length of it growing to
effeminacy, and false hair frequently being added, when there was no
necessity for it to cover the head. He finally despaired of changing or
checking the custom, and said, “The lust is become insuperable.”

It is said of him that no man ever had fewer enemies than he, but still
there were those who privately disliked him, and he charged his wife in
her visits among the people to do good in a special manner to any whom
she found disposed to speak against him, or to entertain unkind feelings
towards him. Having once displeased a hearer by something in a sermon,
the man abused him publicly by words and by printing something to his
injury. The man soon after was wounded. Mrs. Eliot had considerable skill
in medicine and the treatment of wounds, and Mr. Eliot sent her to cure
the man, which she did, and upon his recovery the man called to thank
her, but she took no reward, and Mr. Eliot kept him to dine, and took no
notice of his evil conduct, whereupon the man was deeply affected and
subdued.

He had much tact and wit in suiting his benedictions to the conditions
and circumstances of different people.

In the days of affliction he showed exemplary resignation to the will
of God. He followed to the grave two or three of his sons, who were
ministers of the Gospel. But his patience and submission under these
trials are spoken of with great commendation.

His love for the Hebrew tongue is seen in the following enthusiastic
words: “O that the Lord would put it into the heart of some of his
religious and learned servants to take such pains about the Hebrew
language as to fit it for universal use! Considering that above all
languages spoken by the lip of man, it is most capable to be enlarged,
and fitted to express all things, and motions, and notions that our human
intellect is capable of in this mortal life, considering also that it is
the invention of God himself; and what one is fitter to be the universal
language, than that which it pleased our Lord Jesus to make use of when
he spake from heaven unto Paul!”

In the government of his family, it is said that there might have been
seen a perpetual mixture of a Spartan and a Christian discipline, and
that whatever decay there might have been in family religion generally,
the people ‘knew how that he would command his children and his household
after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord.’

He was remarkable for the efforts he employed to instruct the children,
making catechisms for them having reference to any prevailing errors.
The effect of this is certified in a remark of Cotton Mather, that it is
a well-principled people that he has left behind him. “As when certain
Jesuits were sent among the Waldenses to corrupt their children, they
returned with much disappointment and confusion, because the children of
seven years old were well-principled enough to encounter the most learned
of them all; so, if any seducers were let loose to wolve it among the
good people of Roxbury, I am confident they would find as little prey
in that well instructed place as in any part of the country. No civil
penalties would signify so much to save any people from the snares of
busy heretics, as the unwearied catechising of our Eliot has done to
preserve his people from the gangrene of ill opinion.”[15]

It is said of Mr. Eliot that he was not only an evangelical minister, but
a Protestant and a Puritan. “He was a modest, humble, but very reasonable
non-conformist unto the ceremonies which have been such unhappy apples of
strife in the Church of England; otherwise the dismal thickets of America
had never seen such a person in them.”

Mr. Eliot was strongly attached to the Congregational form of Church
order. He spoke of it as the special gift of Christ to his people who
followed him into the wilderness with an earnest zeal for communion with
Him in a pure worship. He regarded Congregationalism as a happy medium
to “rigid Presbyterianism” on the one hand, and “leveling Brownism” on
the other, the liberties of the people not being disregarded, nor the
authority of the elders rendered insignificant, but a due balance kept
between them both. He regarded the Platform of Church Discipline “as
being the nearest of what he had yet seen to the directions of heaven.”

By this it is not to be understood that Mr. Eliot as a true
Congregationalist, supposed that any form of Church government was
imposed by Christ or the Apostles upon the Christian Church, as being
in any way essential to the existence of a true Church of Christ. With
regard to the appointment of any special form of Church Government, it
would seem that there is a wise silence in the New Testament. The genius
of Christianity forbids an adherence to any form of ecclesiastical
order as essential to the existence of a Church of Christ. This truth
was declared by Christ at Jacob’s well to the Samaritan woman. The Jews
insisted on Jerusalem as the place where men ought to worship. The
Samaritans as strenuously maintained that acceptable worship could be
performed only in their mountain.

Christ said, The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor
yet at Jerusalem worship the Father; that is, no place in preference to
another shall be essential to acceptable worship. God is a Spirit, and
they that worship him need not restrict themselves to any hallowed place,
but may worship him any where acceptably, if they worship Him in spirit
and in truth.

But if so great a change was allowed as the abolition of sacred places,
which once were essential to acceptable worship, and notwithstanding all
that had been done to make men feel that Jerusalem and the Temple were
the places to which the true worshipers must of necessity resort, it
follows that no forms, any more than places, are essential to the true
worship of God. We may infer what form of Church government prevailed
under the Apostles, though different readers of the New Testament will
draw different inferences. This shows that no form is prescribed as
being essential, otherwise we should not have been left in the dark in
so important a subject. The body of Moses and the place of his sepulchre
were hidden, because as we generally suppose the Israelites would have
paid an idolatrous reverence before such a shrine as the tomb of their
illustrious leader, and in the Jewish Church the solemn farce of a Holy
Sepulchre would have been enacted, in anticipation and in countenance of
the subsequent follies which have been connected with the Sepulchre of
Christ. We may say of any supposed form of Church government as being in
any way essential, as is said of the body of Moses, and for a similar
reason, “The Lord buried it,” and “no man knoweth of its sepulchre to
this day.”

Our preference for the Congregational form of Church government is
not properly founded on any prescriptions in the New Testament, but on
our convictions that this form is most accordant with the genius of
Christianity and of republican institutions. But so surely as we insist
on Congregationalism as having any “divine right,” or authority, and we
seek to propagate Congregationalism with such convictions, we are as
surely High Churchmen and Puseyites as can any where be found. To insist
on the absence of all forms and on the perfect simplicity of worship,
with a sectarian spirit, shows as great an attachment to _a form of
worship_ as though we urged the adoption of all the ceremonies of the
Cathedral. We may be as bigoted in favor of simplicity as of any thing
else, and a Quaker and a Congregationalist may be as much a formalist
and a Churchman as any other. At the same time we may believe that the
Congregational form of government is nearer to the Spirit of the New
Testament than any other, and this is what Mr. Eliot probably meant when
he said that Congregationalism was nearest in his view to the directions
of heaven.

The influence which was exerted upon the mind of Thomas Jefferson, and
which he exerted in the framing of the Constitution, by observing, as he
did, an illustration of democracy in a Congregational Baptist Church in
Virginia, is well known.[16]

We ought to carry out the true Puritan doctrine of liberty of
conscience by not despising any who choose to worship under a different
form and order from our own. It is an interesting illustration of the
noble spirit in our Puritan institutions that all sects have liberty
here to worship God with any forms or in any manner they please; and he
who tries to hinder them any further than by convincing them, or feels
sourly towards them in the enjoyment of their liberty of conscience
and religious preferences, has not yet learned all that he may of the
nature and spirit of religious liberty. But if we profess to be in the
true succession from the Puritans and Pilgrims as to doctrine and Church
order, let us not mix any of those things with our worship from which
the Pilgrims fled to this wilderness, that they might be rid of them.
We can live peaceably and freely in the midst of such corruptions and
not be persecuted. They could not. Let us not abuse our liberty, by
turning again to those beggarly elements of human appointments in Church
government and worship which corrupt the religion of Christ. Let us
not begin to do so by cultivating the spirit of bigoted attachment to
our simple order and forms, for thereby we as truly violate the spirit
of Christianity as though we insisted on a multitude of ceremonies and
a hierarchy, as essential to a Church. He who says “No Church without
simplicity in worship,” and he who says, “No Church without a Bishop,”
are two extremes which meet. At the same time, we shall be the degenerate
sons of men who made such sacrifices for purity in worship as did the
Pilgrims, unless we adhere to our simple and beautiful mode of Church
government and worship as preferable to any other.

The practice of examining persons who seek admission to the Church, was
much insisted on by Mr. Eliot. The relation of their experience he says,
“is an ordinance of wonderful benefit. The devil knows what he does when
he thrusts so hard to get this custom out of our churches. For my part I
would say in this case, Get thee behind me Satan; thou givest an horrible
offence to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us keep up this ordinance with all
gentleness; and where we see the least spark of grace held forth, let us
prize it more than all the wit in the world.”

Mr. Eliot had six children, a daughter and five sons. The daughter
became exemplary for her piety and matronly deportment. His first son,
John, was “a lively, zealous, acute preacher, not only to the English at
New Cambridge,[17] but also to the Indians thereabout.” He died early,
and upon his death-bed uttered many remarkable things. The third child,
Joseph, was pastor of the Church in Guilford, Conn. The fourth child,
Samuel, was a candidate for the ministry, but died young. The fifth
was Aaron, who also died very young. The last was Benjamin, who became
his father’s assistant in the ministry at Roxbury, but died before his
father. Of these six children, Mr. Eliot said, “THEY ARE ALL EITHER WITH
CHRIST, OR IN CHRIST.”

Mather speaks of the singular and surprising successes of Mr. Eliot’s
prayers; ‘for they were such that in our distresses we still repaired
to him under that encouragement.’ “He is a prophet, and he shall pray
for thee, and thou shall live.” He mentions the following fact. They
who are displeased at David’s imprecations against his enemies, may see
in it that a good man may pray for the destruction of the incorrigibly
wicked, when great and good ends will be accomplished by it, leaving
it submissively to the appointments of the all-wise God. A good man
never ventures to pray in this manner, except when he is under a strong
influence, drawing him very near to God with holy freedom and boldness.
At such times his feelings are eminently pure; and it is in such times
that good men feel impelled to pray for the removal of those who oppose
God, and hinder others in their salvation. No doubt if there were more of
ardent piety, there would be more of righteous indignation against the
obstinate opposers of religion, and we should find ourselves better able
to understand the feelings and language of David, when praying against
the enemies of his throne and of the God who ruled by him. That language
will come into more familiar use by the people of God, in their nearest
approaches to him, as they go forth with their King and Saviour in his
conflicts with his enemies.

The fact to which the allusion has been made was this:

There was a pious gentleman of Charlestown by the name of Foster, who,
with his son, was taken prisoner by the Turks. The news being spread
in this vicinity, the good people offered up many prayers for his
deliverance. But it was reported that the prince, within whose authority
he was a prisoner, had resolved that during his reign, no captive should
be set free. The friends and acquaintances of this man then concluded
that his captivity was hopeless. Soon after, Mr. Eliot on some public
and solemn occasion, used these direct and forcible petitions. “Heavenly
Father! work forth deliverance of thy poor servant, Foster; and if the
prince which detains him, will not, as they say, dismiss him so long as
himself lives, Lord, we pray thee to kill that cruel prince; kill him,
and glorify thyself upon him.” Soon after the prisoners returned and
brought news that in consequence of the untimely death of the prince they
had been set at liberty.

There was one thing which seems to have pressed very heavily on the mind
and heart of Mr. Eliot in his ministerial office. It was the care of a
Church. “He looked upon it,” says one, “as a thing no less dangerous
than important, and attended with so many difficulties, temptations, and
humiliations, as that nothing but a call from the Son of God could have
encouraged him unto the susception of it. He saw that it was no easy
thing to feed the souls of such a people, to bear their manners with
all patience, not being by any of their infirmities discouraged from
teaching of them, and from watching and praying over them, to value them
highly as the flock of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood,
notwithstanding all their miscarriages, and in all to examine the rule
of Scripture for the warrant of whatever shall be done, and to remember
the day of judgment wherein an account must be given of whatever shall be
done, having in the meantime no expectation of the riches and grandeurs
which accompany a worldly domination.” This seemed to be characteristic
of the spirit with which Mr. Eliot discharged his duties as the pastor of
a Church.

An observation of Rev. Samuel Ward has been quoted as applicable to him:
“In observing I have observed and found that divers great clerks have had
but little fruit of their ministry, but hardly any truly zealous men of
God, though of lesser gifts, but have had much comfort of their labors in
their own and bordering parishes, being in this likened by Gregory to the
iron on the smith’s anvil, sparkling round about.”

Mather says, “The Lord Jesus Christ was the load-stone which gave a
touch to all the sermons of our Eliot; a glorious, precious, lovely
Christ, was the point of heaven to which they still verged unto.” It is
said, that though he printed many books or pamphlets, his heart seemed
to be in none of them so much, as in his ‘Harmony of the Gospels, in the
holy History of Jesus Christ.’ It was a standing piece of advice with him
to young ministers, “Pray let there be much of Christ in your ministry.”
On hearing a sermon in which the Saviour had been made prominent, he
would say, O, blessed be God, that we hear Christ so much and so well
preached in poor New England.

On coming out of the meeting-house where he had been listening to a
sermon, he said to the preacher, “Brother, there was oil required for the
service of the sanctuary; but it must be beaten oil; I praise God that
I saw your oil so well beaten to-day; the Lord help us always by good
study to beat our oil that there may be _no knots in our sermons left
undissolved_, and that there may a clear light be thereby given in the
house of God.” Still it is observed that he looked for something more
than mere study in a sermon; he required those things in it which would
make the hearer feel that the Spirit of God was in the sermon and with
the preacher, and he was once heard to complain, “It is a sad thing when
a sermon shall have that one thing, The Spirit of God, wanting in it.”

He had eminently spiritual views of the duty and privilege of infant
baptism. On giving the Rev. Cotton Mather the Right Hand of Fellowship
at his ordination, he said to him, “Brother, art thou a lover of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Then I pray, feed his lambs.” He was careful to have
the lambs pass under the “Lord’s tything rod.” One Mr. Norcott, a truly
pious man, published a book against the baptism of infants, which being
circulated in Boston and the vicinity, Mr. Eliot answered it in a brief
publication, beginning with these words: “The book speaks with the voice
of a lamb, and I think the author is a godly though erring brother; but
he acts the cause of a roaring lion, who by all crafty ways, seeketh to
devour the poor lambs of the flock of Christ.” He then speaks “in the
behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.”

On one occasion, speaking of the Saviour’s directions to Peter, John
21:15, he observed, That _the care of the lambs is one third part of the
charge over the house of God_.

The title of one of Mr. Eliot’s publications, “The Divine Management
of Gospel Churches, by the Ordinance of Councils, constituted in order
according to the Scriptures, which may be a means of uniting those two
holy and eminent parties, the Presbyterians and the Congregational,”
shows that a plan of union between these two sister denominations is not
wholly of modern origin.

But reserving many things respecting Mr. Eliot’s character and opinions
for another place in this book, let us now look at him in that remarkable
work to which God appointed him among the Indians of this vicinity.




CHAPTER IV.

    Nonantum. Mather’s description of the natives. The Lost Tribes
    of Israel. Specimen of Indian words. Eliot’s first religious
    exercise at Nonantum. Indian Questions. Second visit to
    the Indians. Indian Questions. Eliot’s reflections on his
    interviews. Anecdotes.


The old turnpike road to Worcester, in Brighton, leaves Nonantum hill
on the left, and a private road conducts to the summit of the hill which
is crowned by two mansions.[18] The scenery from that hill has a rare
combination of still life and of the busy world. The Charles River, seen
from a distant part of the hill, meanders to the sea; the quiet, classic
scenes of Cambridge are before the eye; soft undulations of hill and
dale, winding roads and aboriginal woods, and the quiet waters of the
estuary, impress the mind with sensations of repose which are pleasantly
broken by the distant noise of travel upon the bridges, the sudden
whistle of the locomotive, and an impressive view of the neighboring
city. That hill, extending as far as Watertown, and Newton, was once the
favorite residence of the Indians, in this vicinity,[19] and thither
Eliot, the pastor of the neighboring Church in Roxbury, directed his way,
to give the Indians the word and ordinances of the Gospel in their own
language.

Cotton Mather says, “The natives of the country now possessed by the
New Englanders, had been forlorn and wretched heathen ever since their
first herding here; and though we know not how these Indians first became
inhabitants of this mighty continent, yet we may guess that probably the
devil decoyed these miserable savages hither, in hopes that the gospel
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ would never come here to destroy
or disturb his absolute empire over them. But our Eliot was in such
ill-terms with the devil, as to alarm him by sounding the silver trumpets
of heaven in his territories, and make some noble and zealous attempt
towards ousting him of his ancient possessions here. There were, I think,
twenty several nations, if I may call them so, of Indians, upon that spot
of ground which fell under the influence of our Three United Colonies;
and our Eliot was willing to rescue as many of them as he could from that
old usurping landlord of America, who is, by the wrath of God, the prince
of this world.”[20]

Some of the interest and zeal which many of the first planters and their
successors felt with regard to the Indians, was owing to their belief
that they were the Ten Tribes of Israel. Cotton Mather enumerates “some
small reasons,” as he calls them, which led the English to suspect that
they might be Israelites. He adds, “They have, too, a great unkindness
for our swine;”—but he does not seem to place much reliance on that
coincidence with the Jewish antipathy to swine, for he adds, “but I
suppose that is because our swine devour their clams, which are a great
dainty with them.”

This supposition that the North American Indians are the Ten Tribes of
Israel, has seemed even more probable to many modern writers than it did
to the first settlers of the country. Mr. Catlin, in his interesting and
valuable work on the North American Indians, mentions many curious facts
in the history, manners and customs of the present race of red men, in
favor of this supposition. But there are so many theories on the subject
of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and it is so easy for an ingenious mind to
discover or invent resemblances, that neither this theory nor any other
on the same subject has ever obtained general belief.

It was to a people of rude speech and fierce countenance that Mr. Eliot
endeavored to give a knowledge of the Gospel and the institutions of
civilized life. His first labor of course was to acquire their language.
It was the language of the Massachusetts Indians to which he applied
himself. He found an old Indian who could speak English, took him into
his family, and by finding out one word, and expression, and sentence
after another, he soon was able to converse in that tongue, and finally
understood it so well that he reduced it to rules, and made an Indian
grammar. One glance at this language will show that it must have been
no easy task for a stranger to learn it well enough to converse in it.
Some of the words are of enormous length, one of them sometimes filling a
whole line. The word for “our loves,” is _noowoomantammoorkanunornash_.
“Our question” is _Kummogkodonnattootummooetiteaongannunnarash_. “One
would think,” says Mather, “that these words had been growing ever since
Babel unto the dimensions to which they are now extended.” Another remark
of his on this subject, though it may seem to us to be somewhat in a
trifling mood, was undoubtedly written with sober feelings, considering
the prevalent superstitions of those times—superstitions with regard to
which we greatly err if we suppose them to have been, in those times,
peculiar to America.[21] “I know not,” this writer adds, “what thoughts
it will produce in my reader, when I inform him that once finding that
the demons in a possessed young woman understood the Latin and Greek
and Hebrew languages, my curiosity led me to make trial of this Indian
language, and the demons did seem as if they did not understand it.”

The reason of the great length of these Indian words is understood to
be, that instead of having separate words for pronouns and adjectives,
the noun or verb expresses them by adding syllables to itself. Mather,
who was ready at anagrams and puns, says that the name _Eliot_ read
backwards, is _t o i l E_, and he thinks that the name corresponds well
with the toil of reducing such a language to a grammar. At the close of
his Grammar Eliot wrote these words: “Prayers and pains through faith in
Christ Jesus, will do any thing.”

We have from Eliot’s own pen a narrative, called “A true relation of our
beginnings with the Indians.” It was published in London, in 1647, under
this title, “The Day breaking, if not the Sun-rising, of the Gospel, with
the Indians in New England.”

In October, 1646, Eliot, with a few others, having sought the blessing
of God, went to Nonantum, for the purpose, as he says, of making known to
the Indians the things of their peace. As they approached the wigwams,
five or six of the Chiefs met them with English salutations and bid
them welcome. The principal wigwam had been previously prepared for the
meeting, and many of the Indians were assembled. Eliot and his companions
then began with prayer in the English language, not being sufficiently
acquainted with the Indian tongue to make suitable religious impressions
at first with it upon the minds of the Indians, and besides they wished
to let the Indians see that they felt the duty in hand to be serious and
sacred, and they had a desire, moreover, as missionaries to offer up a
united supplication to God, “with the same request and heart sorrowes,”
in that place where God was never wont to be called upon.

It was an affecting sight, as we may suppose, to Eliot and his friends,
when they ceased from prayer and looked upon the company of Indians
sitting in silence, with a mixture of curiosity and seriousness and
wildness in their faces. To such an audience Eliot preached in the Indian
tongue from Ezekiel 37:9. “Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind,
Thus saith the Lord, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon
these slain that they may live.”

It is a curious fact that the name of the man[22] in whose wigwam they
were assembled was Waban, and Waban is the Indian name for the wind, so
that it seemed to Waban that the message was sent to him, and it proved
a means in his conversion. The text from which Mr. Eliot preached on
this occasion, was not one which his hearers could at first understand,
and therefore some have expressed surprise at the selection of it. But
in reply to this, it may be asked, what passage of the Word of God
would have been immediately intelligible to those ignorant hearers?
Besides, the text seems to have been chosen by Mr. Eliot for a purpose
which is certainly proper on special occasions, viz., as a warrant and
encouragement to his own soul and that of his helpers, in preaching in
that valley of dry bones. Yet, after suitable religious impressions had
been made, and the hearers had felt their lost and wretched state, and
their need of divine power, in reflecting upon the text it must have
seemed to the hearers peculiarly appropriate to the occasion and to their
condition.

An hour and a quarter was occupied in the discourse. Mr. Eliot gave the
Indians first a brief exposition of the ten commandments, showing the
wrath and curse of God against those who break the least one of them. The
subject was then applied, and the law having been brought to do its work
in their hearts, and their sins being pointed out to them, as Mr. Eliot
says, with much sweet affection, Jesus Christ was preached to them as the
only Saviour. He told them who Christ was, and what he did, and whither
he had gone, and how he will come again to judge the wicked and burn
the world. The creation and fall of man, the greatness of God, heaven
and hell, the pleasures of religion and the miseries of sin were then
explained in language and with illustrations suited to their capacity.

The sermon being finished, Mr. Eliot proposed some questions to them,
and first inquired whether they understood what had been said, and
whether all or only some of them understood it? A multitude of voices
exclaimed that they all understood every thing which had been spoken.
Leave was then granted them to put questions, and it is interesting
to notice the first questions which these children of the wilderness
proposed. The first questions were,

“What is the cause of thunder?”

“What makes the sea ebb and flow?”

“What makes the wind blow?”

But there were some questions proposed by them which Mr. Eliot says some
special wisdom of God directed them to ask, as, for example,

_How may we come to know Jesus Christ?_

Mr. Eliot told them that if they could read the Bible they would see
clearly who Jesus Christ is, but inasmuch as they could not then read, he
desired them to remember what he had told them out of the Bible, and to
think much and often upon it, when they lay down on their mats in their
wigwams and when they rose up, and to go alone in the fields, and woods,
and muse on it, and so God would teach them.

He told them that if they would have help from God in this thing, they
must begin to pray, and though they could not make long prayers as the
English did, yet if they did but sigh and groan, saying, “Lord, make me
to know Jesus Christ for I know him not,” and if with all their hearts
they persisted in such prayers, they might hope that God would help them.
But they were especially to remember that they must confess their sins
and ignorance to God and mourn over them and acknowledge how just it
would be in God to withhold from them any knowledge of Christ, on account
of their sins.

This instruction was communicated to them by Mr. Eliot through the Indian
interpreter whom he had brought with him, but he says he was struck with
the fact that a few words from the Preacher had much greater effect than
many from the interpreter.

One of them asked, whether Englishmen were ever at any time so ignorant
of God and Jesus Christ as they themselves?

Another put this question: Whether if the father be naught and the
child good, will God be offended with that child? because in the second
commandment it is said that he visits the sins of the fathers upon the
children.

They were told in reply to this that every child who is good will not be
punished for the sins of his father, but if the child be bad, God would
then visit his father’s sins upon him, and they were bid to notice that
part of the second commandment which contains a promise to the thousands
of them that love God and keep his commandments.

One of them asked, How is all the world now become so full of people, if
they were all once drowned in the flood? This led to the story of the ark
and the preservation of Noah.

Mr. Eliot then proposed some questions to them, for example, Whether they
did not desire to see God, and were not tempted to think there is no God
because they could not see him?

Some of them answered, They did desire to see Him if it could be, but
they had heard from Mr. Eliot that he could not be seen, and they did
believe that though their eyes could not see him, he was to be seen with
their soul within.

Mr. Eliot endeavored to confirm them in this impression, and asked them
if they saw a great wigwam or a great house, would they think that
racoons or foxes built it? or would they think that it made itself? or
that no wise builder made it, because they could not see him who made it?

Knowing that the doctrine of one God was a great stumbling block to
them, Mr. Eliot asked them if they did not think it strange that there
should be but one God, and yet this God be in Massachusetts, and in
Connecticut, in Old England, in this wigwam, and the next, and every
where at the same time?

One of the most sober of them replied that it was indeed strange, as
every thing else they had heard preached was strange, and they were
wonderful things which they never heard of before, but yet they thought
“it might be true, and that God was so big every where.” Mr. Eliot
illustrated the truth by the light of the sun, which, though it was but
a creature of God, shed its light into that wigwam, and the next, in
Massachusetts and Old England, at once.

He inquired of them if they did not find something troubling them within
after the commission of murder, theft, adultery, lying; and what would
comfort them, and remove that trouble of conscience when they should die
and appear before God?

They replied that they were thus troubled, but they could not tell what
they should say about it, or what would remove this trouble of mind,
whereupon Mr. Eliot enlarged upon the evil of sin and the condition of
the soul which is cast out of the favor of God.

Having spent three hours in this interview, Mr. Eliot asked them if
they were not weary, and they said, no. But thinking it best to leave
them with an appetite, Mr. Eliot concluded the meeting with prayer, but
before he departed the principal Indian expressed a desire for more land
to build a Town upon, and Mr. Eliot promised to speak for them to the
General Court, “that they might possess all the compass of that hill upon
which their wigwams then stood.”

In the second visit which Mr. Eliot made to the Indians at Nonantum, he
began to catechise the younger children. He framed three questions only,
that their memories might not be overloaded. The questions and answers
were these:

1. Who made you and all the world. Ans. God.

2. Who do you think should save you and redeem you from sin and hell?
Ans. Jesus Christ.

3. How many commandments hath God given you to keep. Ans. Ten.

By the time that the questions reached the smaller children, they had
learned the answers perfectly, from hearing the others repeat them, and
the parents had become familiar with them, and they were requested to use
this _Shorter_ Catechism of three questions, in teaching their children,
against the next visit.

The substance of Mr. Eliot’s address to the Indians on this occasion was
this: “We are come to bring you good news from the great God Almighty,
Maker of Heaven and earth, and to tell you how evil and wicked men may
come to be good, so that while they live they may be happy, and when they
die may go to God and live in heaven.”

He then endeavored to give them just impressions concerning God, his
power, greatness, and goodness, his will, what he required of all men,
even of the Indians, in the ten commandments, the dreadful punishment of
all who break one of these commandments, the anger of God at sin, and
yet his compassion for sinners in sending Christ to die for wicked men.
He taught them that if they would repent and believe, God would love the
poor miserable Indians, but that the wrath of God would burn against all
who neglected so great salvation as was now offered to them by those
whose only desire was their salvation.

The power of these words was manifestly felt by one of the Indians, who
at the thought of his sins and of the danger to which they exposed him,
wept aloud, yet without affectation, but striving to conceal his emotions.

Perhaps in no way can we communicate religious instruction in a more
simple and effectual way to the young who may read this book, than to
record here the questions and answers which Mr. Eliot has preserved in
his several interviews with the Indians. Other writers who lived at that
time have also recorded questions and answers which they heard. But it
will not be necessary to state the times, or places, or the hand by which
they were recorded.

An old man rose up after Mr. Eliot had finished his sermon, and asked
whether it was not too late for such an old man as he, who was near
death, to repent or seek after God.

This question affected Mr. Eliot and his companions with compassion. They
told him what is said in the Bible about those who were hired at the
eleventh hour, and drew a parallel to his case by describing a son who
had for very many years been disobedient, and afterwards penitent, and
the feelings of his father towards him.

Question. How came the English to differ so much from the Indians in
the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, seeing they all had at first one
father?

Question. How may we come to serve God?

Question. How comes it to pass that the sea water is salt and the land
water fresh?

Answer. This is one of the wonderful works of God. As strawberries are
sweet and cranberries sour, by the appointment of God, so was it in
this case. To this was added some account of natural causes and effects
in connection with this subject, “which they less understood, yet did
understand somewhat, as appeared by their usual signs of approving what
they understand.”

Question. If the water is higher than the earth, how comes it to pass
that it doth not overflow all the earth?

The missionary took an apple and illustrated the shape of the earth, the
motion on its axis, and round the sun; then showed them how God made
a great hollow ditch for the waters, which was so deep as to hold the
waters by the attraction of gravitation, so that notwithstanding their
convexity, they could not overflow the earth.

During a recess in this interview, the Indians were busily employed in
discussing these several subjects among themselves, their minds being
evidently excited by them, through the effect of new ideas upon subjects
which were new or had always been incomprehensible to them. Being
afterwards asked if they wished to propose any further questions, one
asked,

If a man has committed some great sins, (stolen goods, &c.,) and the
Sachem does not punish him, and he is not punished, but he restores the
goods, what then? is not all well now? meaning to ask whether restoration
made sufficient amends to the law of God.

He was told that though men be not offended at such sins, yet God is
angry. The holiness of God was here illustrated. Such a sinner should
seek forgiveness as much as any other sinner through the blood of Christ.

Upon hearing this answer, the Indian who proposed the question drew back
and hung down his head, with an appearance of great sorrow and confusion,
and finally broke out saying, “Me little know Jesus Christ, or me should
seek him better.” Mr. Eliot comforted him by telling him that as it is
early dawn at first when there is but little light, but the sun rises
to perfect day, so it would be with him and his people with regard to a
knowledge of the favor of God if they would seek Him.

One of the Indians who had received religious impressions in his
acquaintance with the colonists, said he would propose this question. A
little while since he said he was praying in his wigwam to God and Jesus
Christ, that God would give him a good heart; that in his prayer another
Indian interrupted him and told him that he prayed in vain, because that
Jesus Christ could not understand what Indians speak in prayer; he had
been used to hear Englishmen pray, and so could well enough understand
them, but Indian language in prayer he was not acquainted with. His
question therefore was, “Whether God and Jesus Christ did understand
Indian prayers?”

At the close of one interview, Mr. Eliot prayed for above fifteen minutes
in the Indian tongue, that they might feel that Christ understood such
prayers. The Indians stood about him in grotesque figures, some of them
lifting up their eyes and their hands to accompany the prayer, and one of
them holding a rag to his eyes and weeping violently, and after prayer
retiring to a corner of the wigwam to weep in secret; which one of Mr.
Eliot’s companions observed and spoke with him, and found him to be
deeply affected with a sense of his guilt.

Mr. Eliot makes several useful observations in view of his first two
visits to the Indians.

1. None of them slept in sermon or derided God’s messenger.

2. That there is need of learning in ministers who preach to Indians
more than to gracious Christians, in order to answer their philosophical
questions.

3. That there is no need of miraculous or extraordinary gifts in seeking
the conversion of the most depraved of the human family.

4. If Englishmen despise the preaching of faith and repentance and
humiliation for sin, the poor heathens will be glad of it, and it shall
do good to them.

He adds to this, The Lord grant that the foundation of our English woe
be not laid in the ruin and contempt of those fundamental doctrines
of faith, repentance, humiliation for sin, but rather relishing the
novelties and dreams of such men as are surfeited with the ordinary food
of the Gospel of Christ. Indians shall weep to have faith and repentance
preached, when Englishmen shall mourn, too late, that are weary of such
truths.

5. That the deepest estrangement of man from God is no hindrance to his
grace, nor to the Spirit of grace. What nation or people ever so deeply
degenerated since Adam’s fall, as these Indians, and yet the Spirit of
God is working upon them.

“It is very likely if ever the Lord convert any of these natives, they
will mourn for sin exceedingly, and consequently love Christ dearly; for
if by a little measure of light such heart-breakings have appeared, what
may we think will be when more is let in?”

“They are some of them very wicked, some very ingenious. These
latter are very apt and quick of understanding, and naturally sad and
melancholy, (a good servant to repentance) and therefore there is the
greater hope of heart-breakings if ever God brings them effectually home,
for which we should affectionately pray.”

Mr. Eliot says, “It is wonderful to see what a little leaven and that
small mustard-seed of the Gospel will do, and how truth will work when
the spirit of Christ hath the setting of it on, even upon hearts and
spirits most incapable.” The night after the Indians had heard the Gospel
preached for the third time, an English youth lodged in Waban’s tent. He
said that Waban instructed his companions with regard to the things which
they had heard that day, and prayed with them, and that he awoke several
times that night and began to pray and speak to one and another of the
Indians of the things which they had heard. Mr. E. says, This man, being
a man of gravity and chief prudence, a counsel among them, although no
Sachem, is like to be a means of great good to the rest of his company,
unless cowardice or witchery put an end, as usually they have done, to
such hopeful beginnings.

Two young Indians being at an Elder’s house one Sabbath evening, having
been previously affected under Mr. Eliot’s preaching, one of them began
to confess to the elder how wicked he had been, and declared that God
could never look upon him with love. The elder opened to him in a
familiar manner the truth of God’s love to the guilty, his willingness to
pardon the vilest through the redemption made by Christ, and illustrated
his instructions by the discourse of Christ to the Samaritan woman at
Jacob’s well, and how Christ forgave her though she was living in sin at
the moment when he began to speak to her. Whereupon the young man began
to weep bitterly, and the other youth, his companion, disclosing his own
guilt, burst out into loud weeping in which they both continued for half
an hour.

An old man told Mr. Eliot at one of the meetings that he was fully
purposed to keep the Sabbath, but still he was in fear whether he should
go to heaven or hell. This was a case in which reliance on good works
gave as usual no peace to the conscience. It led Mr. Eliot to speak fully
of the way of justification by Christ without works, “as the remedy
against all fears of hell.”

Mr. Eliot was interested in the fact that some of the Indians who seemed
to receive the Gospel most readily, and feel its power, were able to use
“gracious expressions,” as he calls them, which he was confident they had
not heard from him, nor from his assistants. He gives a specimen of them
with the corresponding Indian words:

    Amanaomen Jehovah tabassen metagh. Checheson Jehovah kekowhogkow.
    Take away, Lord,  my stony  heart.   Wash,    Lord,    my soul.

“What are these,” he says, “but the sprinklings of the spirit and blood
of Christ Jesus on their hearts? and ’tis no small matter that such dry,
barren, and long accursed ground should yield such kind of increase in so
small a time. I would not readily commend a fair day before night, nor
promise much of such kind of beginnings, in all persons, nor yet in all
of these, for we know how the profession of many is but a mere paint, and
their best graces nothing but mere flashes and pangs which are suddenly
kindled, and as soon to go out, and are extinct again; yet God doth not
usually send his plough and seeds-men to a place but there is at least
some little piece of good ground, although three to one be naught; and
methinks the Lord Jesus would never have made so fit a key for their
locks unless he had intended to open some of their doors, and so to make
way for his coming in.”

At the fourth meeting with the Indians, the children having been
catechised, and the vision of the dry bones, which seems to have
impressed Mr. Eliot from the first in speaking to the Indians, being
explained, they offered all their children to the English to be educated
by them.

At this time one of them being asked, What is sin? he answered, A naughty
heart. He did not seem to feel that sin consists only in outward acts.

One of them complained that some of the Indians reviled him and the more
serious Indians, calling them rogues, and otherwise insulting them for
cutting off their long locks and arranging their hair in a modest manner,
for, Mr. Eliot says, “since the word hath begun to work upon their hearts
they have discerned the vanity and pride which they placed in their hair,
and have therefore, of their own accord (none speaking to them that we
know of) cut it modestly.” They said that some Indians who had heard the
news of the great attention to religion among them, would come from a
distance and stay with them three or four days, and one Sabbath, and then
they would go from them, (implying that they did not like the Sabbath),
but as for themselves, they said they were fully purposed to keep the
Sabbath.

Some of the Indians who heard the Gospel, despised and rejected it. So it
has always been and is now, wherever the Gospel is preached. Some have
their hearts opened to attend to the things of their peace, and others
are hardened. Mr. Eliot’s assistant, learning that some Indians had
discouraged and threatened others with regard to their attendance on the
preaching, spoke to them on one occasion about the temptations of Satan.
After sermon they proposed these questions:

1. Some Indians say we must pray to the devil for all good, and some to
God; may we pray to the devil or no?

2. What does _humiliation_ mean, which we hear used so often by the
English?

3. Why do the English call us Indians, for before they came here we had
another name?

4. What is a spirit?

5. May we believe in dreams?

6. How did the English come to know God so much, and we so little?

At the close of this interview they said that their great desire was to
have a town and to learn to spin.

They believed in the existence of an evil spirit, whom they called
CHEPIAN, and who they thought corresponded to the devil in Scripture.
They gave the following account of their way in which conjurers or Powows
were made: Whenever an Indian had a strange dream in which Chepian
appeared to him as a serpent, he would make it known to the rest, and for
two days the Indians would dance and rejoice for what the serpent had
told him, and he then became a Powow, or one whom the devil favored with
his communications. The reader will notice the identity of the form in
which they made the devil to appear to them, with the form in which he
appeared to our first parents.




CHAPTER V.

    Nonantum granted to the Indians by the General Court. First
    Indian Laws. Eliot’s and Shepard’s account of the progress of
    the Gospel among the Indians. Concord Indians. Their laws.
    Nonantum. Questions and anecdotes. Cape Cod Indians. The Synod
    at Cambridge, 1648, examine the Christian Indians. “Who made
    Sack?” Anecdotes and Questions. Order of the General Court,
    1647. Regard for the Sabbath. Power of conscience. Questions.
    Burial of a child. Settlement of Natick. Questions.


The Indians were desirous of obtaining a grant of land for a permanent
settlement, that they might enter upon civilized life. They had bartered
their principal places to the English. The General Court purchased of
some of the planters, who had bought it of the Indians, the place where
their meeting was held, and gave it to them. The Indians inquiring what
the name of the place should be they were told it should be Noonatomen
(afterwards Nonantum) which signifies _rejoicing_, “because they did
rejoice at the word of God, and God did rejoice over them as penitent
sinners.”

The following is a specimen of their first laws:

1. If any man be idle a week, or at most a fortnight, he shall pay five
shillings.

3. If any man shall beat his wife, his hands shall be tied behind him,
and he shall be carried to the place of justice to be severely punished.

4. Every young man, if not another’s servant, and if unmarried, shall
be compelled to set up a wigwam, and plant for himself, and not live
shifting up and down to other wigwams.

5. If any woman shall not have her hair tied up, but hang loose or be cut
as men’s hair, she shall pay five shillings.

7. All those men that wear long locks, shall pay five shillings.

Most of the facts above narrated are contained in a piece written by Mr.
Eliot, entitled The Day Breaking if not the Sun Rising of the Gospel with
the Indians in New England. It was printed in London, “by Richard Cotes,
for Fulk Clifton, and are to be sold at his shop under Saint Margaret’s
Church, on New-fish Street Hill, 1647.”

The same printer in 1648, issued another piece, written by Mr. Thomas
Shepard, minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, at Cambridge, in New
England, called, “The Clear sun-shine of the Gospel breaking forth
upon the Indians of New England; or, An Historical Narrative of God’s
Wonderful Workings upon sundry of the Indians, both Chief Governors and
common people, in bringing them to a willing and desired submission to
the Ordinances of the Gospel; and framing their hearts to an earnest
inquiry after the knowledge of God the father and of Jesus Christ the
Saviour of the world.” This piece was dedicated by Stephen Marshall,
Jeremy Whitaker, Edmund Calamy and nine others, in England, “to the Right
Honorable the Lords and Commons assembled in High Court of Parliament,
That in you the Representatives of this nation, England might be stirred
up to be Rejoycers in and advancers of these promising beginnings.” They
looked upon the success of the Gospel among the Indians as a fulfillment
in part of the promise of God the Father to the Son, “Ask of me, and I
will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possession.” Psalm 2. They remind the Parliament
that “God makes man’s will of sin serviceable to the advancement of the
riches of his own grace. The most horrid act that was ever done by the
sonnes of men, the murther of Christ, God made serviceable to the highest
purposes of Grace and mercy that ever came upon his breast. Hee suffered
Paul to be cast into prison to convert the Jaylor, to be shipwrackt at
Milita to preach to the barbarous. So he suffered their (the Pilgrims’)
way to be stopp’d up here, (in England) and their persons to be banished
hence, that hee might open a passage for them in the wilderness, and make
them instruments to draw soules to him, who had been so long estranged
from Him. The end of the adversary was to suppresse, but God’s to
propagate, the Gospel, as one saith of Paul, his _blindnesse gave light
to whole world_. ‘Cœcitas Pauli totius orbis illuminatio.’ Acts 9:9. It
was a long time before God let them (the Pilgrims) see any further end
of their coming over than to preserve their consciences, cherish their
Graces, provide for their sustenance. But hee let them know it was for
some farther arrand that he brought them here, giving them some Bunches
of Grapes, some clusters of Figs in earnest of the prosperous successe
of their endeavours upon these poor out casts. If the first fruits bee
specimens, what will the whole harvest bee? When the East and West shal
sing together the song of the Lamb.”

Mr. Shepard says that the news of what had been done for the Indians
at Nonantum, by the preaching of the Gospel, had reached the Concord
Indians, and their Sachem was so much affected by it, that he made
application to have the Gospel and its ordinances made known to them.
“They craved the assistance of one of the chiefe Indians of Noonanetum
(Nonantum,) a very active Indian, to bring in others to the knowledge of
God.”

Mr. Eliot had already expressed his views[23] on the subject of a native
ministry in these words,—“Nor doe I expect any great good will bee
wrought by the English, (leaving secrets to God,—although the English
surely begin and lay the first stones of Christ’s Kingdom and Temple
amongst them) because God is wont ordinarily to convert Nations and
peoples by some of their owne country men who are nearest to them, and
can best speake, and most of all pity their brethren and countrimen.”

A native ministry among the Indians began, in an informal way, much
earlier than we have seen it begin among other heathen nations. The North
American Indians, though sunk in superstition and wickedness, retained
much more of intellectual strength, were more shrewd, and sooner became
fit to teach their countrymen than has been the case elsewhere in the
history of modern missions. No doubt the climate had much to do with the
vigor of mind which the Indians have exhibited. They were far removed
from the effeminateness of Eastern nations, and though indolent in their
dispositions and habits, their minds when roused by the truth of the
Gospel, rose to greater intellectual efforts than have been commonly seen
in tribes exposed to the enervating influences of warmer latitudes.

Some quotations from the introduction by Calamy and others, to Mr.
Shepard’s piece above referred to, will show the spirit of those good
men, as well as confirm the fact that the Gospel had done wonders in a
short time among the Indians. It was published in 1648, two years after
Mr. Eliot had begun his labors with them.

They tell the readers of the effects which the Gospel had wrought among
the Indians. “They set up prayers in their families morning and evening,
and are in earnest in them. And with more affection they crave God’s
blessing upon a little parched corn, and Indian stalks than many of us do
upon our greatest plenty, and abundance. God is making good that promise,
Zeph. 2:11. I will famish all the gods of the earth, (which he doth by
withdrawing the worshipers, and throwing contempt upon the worship,) and
men shall worship me alone, every one from his place, even all the isles
of the heathens.”

They call upon the people of England to read and ponder this remarkable
narrative of the work of grace among the North American Savages. “Let
these poor Indians stand up incentives to us, as the Apostle set up
the Gentiles a provocation to the Jews; who knows but God gave life to
New England to quicken Old, and hath warmed them that they might heat
us; raised them from the dead, that they might recover us from that
consumption, and those sad decays which are come upon us.”

“This small Treatise is an Essay to that end, an Indian Sermon; though
you will not hear us, possibly when some rise from the dead you will hear
them. The main Doctrine it preacheth unto all is to value the Gospel,
prize the ministry, loath not your manna, surfeit not of your plenty,
be thankful for mercies, fruitful under means: Awake from your slumber,
repair your decays, redeem your time, improve the seasons of your peace,
answer to cals, open to knocks, attend to whispers, obey commands; you
have a name you live, take heed you be not dead, you are Christians in
shew, be so in deed: least as you have lost the power of religion, God
take away from you the form also.”

“And you that are ministers learn by this not to despond, though you see
not present fruit of your labors; though you fish all night and catch
nothing. God hath a fulness of time to perform all his purposes. And the
deepest degeneracies and the widest estrangements from God shall be no
bar or obstacle to the power and freeness of his own grace when that time
is come.”

“And you that are merchants, take incouragement from hence to scatter
beams of light, to spread and propagate the Gospel into those dark
corners of the earth; whither you traffick you take much from them; if
you can carry this to them, you will make them an abundant recompense.
And you that are Christians indeed, rejoice to see the Curtains of
the Tabernacle inlarged, the bounds of the Sanctuary extended, Christ
advanced, the Gospel propagated, and souls saved. And if ever the love
of God did centre in your hearts, if ever the sense of his goodness hath
begot bowels of compassion in you, draw them forth towards them whom God
hath singled out to be the objects of his grace and mercy; lay out your
prayers, lend your assistance to carry on this day of the Lord begun
among them. The Parents also and many others being convinced of the evil
of an idle life, desire to be employed in honest labor, but they want
instruments and tools to set them on work, and cast garments to throw
upon those bodies that their loins may bless you whose souls Christ hath
cloathed. Some worthy persons have given much; and if God shall move
the heart of others to offer willingly towards the building of Christ a
Spiritual temple, it will certainly remain upon their account when the
smallest rewards from God shall be better than the greatest layings out
for God.”

It will be perceived that this is an appeal in behalf of foreign
missions. We will consider some of the facts which Mr. Shepard relates,
and to which this appeal is an introduction.

“The awakening of the Indians in our Towne,” says Mr. Shepard, “raised a
great noyse among all the rest round about us, especially about Concord
side, where the Sachim and one or two more of his men hearing of these
things, and of the preaching of the Word, and how it wrought among them
here, came therefore hither to Noonanetum, (Nonantum,) to the Indian
Lecture, and what the Lord spake to his heart wee know not, only it
seems he was so farre affected as that he desired to become more like to
the English, and to cast off those Indian wild and sinfull courses they
formerly lived in; but when divers of his men perceived their Sachim’s
mind, they secretely opposed him herein, which opposition being known,
he therefore called together his chief men about him, and made a speech
to this effect unto them, viz.: That they had no reason at all to oppose
those courses the English were now taking for their good, for saith hee,
all the time you have lived after the Indian fashion, under the power and
protection of higher Indian Sachims, what did they care for you? They
onely sought their owne ends out of you, and therefore would exact upon
you and take away your skins, and your kettles, and your wampam from you
at their own pleasure, and this was all that they regarded: but you may
evidently see that the English mind no such things, care for none of your
goods, but onely seek your good and welfare, and instead of taking away
all, are ready to give to you.”

The effect of this speech seems to have been happy. The Indians sought
the assistance of a discreet and active Indian at Nonantum, “in making
certain lawes for their more religious and civill government, and
behaviour.” It will interest the reader to observe the fruit of this
half civilized legislator’s advice and labors. Mr. Shepard gives us the
“Conclusions and Orders made and agreed upon by divers Sachims and other
principall men amongst the Indians at Concord, in the end of the eleventh
moneth, An. 1646.”[24] The following are a good specimen of the whole:

1. Every one that shall abuse themselves with rum or strong liquors,
shall pay for every time so abusing themselves twenty shillings.

2. There shall be no more Powwowing amongst the Indians. And if any shall
hereafter Powwow, both he that shall Powwow, and he that shall cause him
to Powwow shall pay twenty shillings apiece.

3. They do desire that they may be stirred up to seek after God.

4. They desire they may understand the wiles of Satan, and grow out of
love with his suggestions and temptations.

5. That they may fall upon some better course to improve their time than
formerly.

6. That they may be brought to the sight of the sin of lying, and
whosoever shall be found guilty herein, shall pay for the first offence
five shillings, the second ten shillings, the third twenty shillings.

7. Whosoever shall steale any thing from another, shall restore fourfold.

8. They desire that no Indian hereafter shall have any more but one wife.

9. They desire to prevent the falling out of Indians, one with another,
and that they may live quietly one by another.

10. That they may follow after humility, and not be proud.

11. That when Indians doe wrong, they may be liable to censure by fine or
the like, as the English are.

12. That they pay their debts to the English.

13. That they doe observe the Lord’s day, and whosoever shall prophane
it, shall pay twenty shillings.

14. This order refers to the disgusting practice of eating vermin
gathered from their persons; “and whosoever shall offend in this case
shall pay for every louse a penny.”

15. They will weare their haire comely as the English do, penalty five
shillings.

16. They intend to reforme themselves in their former greasing
themselves, penalty five shillings.

17. They do all resolve to set up prayer in their wigwams, and to seek
God both before and after meate.

20. Whosoever shall play at their former games shall pay ten shillings.

22. Wilful murder shall be punished by death.

23. They shall not disguise themselves in their mournings, as formerly;
nor shall they keep a great noyse by howling.

25. No Indian shall take an Englishman’s canooe without leave, penalty
five shillings.

26. No Indian shall come into any Englishman’s house, except he first
knock; and this they expect from the English.

27. Whosoever beats his wife, shall pay twenty shillings.

28. If any Indian shall fall out with and beate another Indian, he shall
pay twenty shillings.

29. They desire they may be a towne, and either to dwell on this side the
Beare swamp, or at the East side of Mr. Flint’s Pond.

These orders were put into form by Captain Simon Willard, of Concord,
whom the Indians chose to be their Recorder. They were very solicitous
that what they agreed upon might be faithfully preserved without
alteration. The narrative of these conclusions and orders is signed by
Thomas Flint, and Simon Willard.[25]

Mr. Shepard says that on the 3d March, 1647, he and the Rev. Messrs.
Wilson of Boston, Allen, of Dedham, and President Dunster, and many
Christian friends, attended the Indian Lecture at Nonantum. “On which
day,” he says, “perceiving divers of the Indian women well affected,
and considering that their soules might stand in need of answer to
their scruples as well as the mens, and yet because we knew how unfit
it was for women so much as to ask questions publicly immediately by
themselves, wee did therefore desire them to propound any questions they
would be resolved about by first acquainting either their Husbands or the
Interpreter privately therewith; whereupon we heard two questions orderly
propounded; which because they are the first ever propounded by Indian
women in such an ordinance that ever wee heard of, and because they may
bee otherwise useful, I shall therefore set them down.”

The first question was proposed by the wife of one Wampooas, a serious
Indian, and was to this effect:

“Do I pray when my husband prays, if I speak nothing as he doth, yet if
I like what he says, and my heart goes with it?”

The second was by the wife of one Totherswampe, viz., “Whether a husband
should do well to pray with his wife, and yet continue in his passions
and be angry with his wife?”

Mr. Shepard says, he had “heard few Christians when they begin to look
towards God, make more searching questions than these Indians.”

An old Indian had an unruly, disobedient son. He asked, “What should one
do with him, in case of obstinacy and disobedience, and that will not
hear God’s word, though his father command him, nor will not forsake his
drunkenness, though his father forbid him.”

Rev. Mr. Wilson was much moved at this question, “and spake so terribly
yet so graciously as might have affected a heart not quite shut up, which
this young desperado hearing, (who well understood the English tongue,)
instead of humbling himself before the Lord’s Word, which touched his
conscience and condition so neare, hee was filled with the Spirit of
Satan, and as soone as ever Mr. Wilson’s speech was ended, he brake out
into a loud contemptuous expression. ‘So!’ saith he; which we passed by
without speaking againe, leaving the Word with him, which wee knew would
one day take its effect one way or other upon him.”

In 1647, Messrs. Eliot, Wilson and Shepard, were sent for to Yarmouth, to
arbitrate in some difficulties, by means of which “not only that bruised
Church, but the whole Towne” was restored to peace. “But Mr. Eliot, as
hee takes all other advantages of time, so hee took this, of speaking
with, and preaching to the poore Indians in these remote places about
Cape Cod.”

The Indian dialect varied in forty or sixty miles, and on this account,
and because the Indians at Cape Cod “were not accustomed to sacred
language, about the holy things of God, wherein Mr. Eliot excels any
other of the English, who in the Indian language about common matters
excell him,” it was difficult to make them understand, yet by the help of
one or two interpreters, they succeeded.

There was a Sachem among them of a very furious spirit, whom the English
for that reason called Jehu. He promised to attend the preaching on the
day appointed, and to bring his men with him, but that very morning he
sent his men to sea for fish, and although he came late to hear the
Sermon, his men were absent. Yet he feigned that he did not understand
what was said, though the others said that he did understand, and Mr.
Eliot by privately questioning him found out that he did. He heard,
however, “with a dogged look, and a discontented countenance.” How
curious the uniform resemblance of the human heart in different classes
of hearers in every age and place, under the preaching of the Gospel. Who
in preaching has not seen a face answering to this Jehu’s face, and the
heart of man to that of this man?

It was found on this visit to the Indians of Cape Cod, that there
was some tradition among them of the Gospel having been preached in
those parts before. An aged Indian told the ministers that the very
things which Mr. Eliot had taught them as the Commandments of God, and
concerning God, and the making of the world by one God, they had heard
from some old men now dead. A French ship was wrecked upon that coast
many years before, and among the passengers and crew was the Frenchman
who, the Indian tradition said,[26] while the Indians were putting him to
death, told them that God was angry with them for their sins. Mr. Shepard
speaks of “the French preacher cast upon those coasts many years since.”
This man may have been a French Catholic Priest, on his way to the French
possessions in Canada.[27]

The presence of this preacher among them will account for a dream which
one of the Indians related to Mr. Shepard and his companions, as having
occurred to him some time ago. The tradition of what the preacher had
said, and the account of his appearance was strongly impressed upon
his imagination,[28] as we may suppose, without resorting to any other
explanation of the dream which nevertheless is curious and interesting.

He said that two years before the arrival of the English, there was a
great mortality in that region, and one night when he was much disturbed
and broken of his rest, he dreamed that he saw many men arrive upon the
coast, dressed in such clothes as the English wear. Among them there was
a man wholly in black, with a thing in his hand which he now saw was an
Englishman’s book; that the man in black stood on a place higher than the
rest, with the English around him, before a great number of the Indians.
This man told the Indians that God was _moosquantum_, or angry with them,
and would kill them for their sins. He said, that he himself then stood
up, and asked the man in black what God would do with him and his Squaw
and Papooses. The man would not answer him the first nor the second time,
but the third time he proposed the question, the man smiled upon him, and
told him that he and his papooses would be safe, and that God would give
them victuals and other good things.

Strange as it may seem, this dreamer who seemed thus to have had his
dream fulfilled, would not come to the sermon till it was nearly
finished, and then finding that the man in black was yet speaking, “away
he flung,” and was seen no more by the ministers till the next day.
Whether Satan, or fear, or guilt, or the world prevailed, Mr. Shepard
says he could not say.

The next year this writer says, he was much surprised in attending
an Indian Lecture at Nonantum, to see so many Indian men, women, and
children, in English apparel, so that they were scarcely known from the
English people. Partly by gifts, and partly by their own labors, some of
them had obtained means by which they were even handsomely dressed.

June 9, 1648, was the first day of the Synod’s meeting at Cambridge.
The forenoon was spent in hearing a sermon preparatory to the work of
the Synod, and the afternoon was occupied in hearing an Indian Lecture.
“There was a great gathering of Indians from all parts to hear Mr. Eliot,
which we conceived not unseasonable at such a time; partly that the
reports of God’s worke begun among them might be seen and believed of the
chief who were then sent, and met from all the churches of Christ in this
country, who could hardly believe the reports they had heard concerning
these new stirs among the Indians, and partly hereby to raise up a
greater spirit of prayer, for the carrying on the work begun upon the
Indians among all the churches and servants of the Lord Jesus. The sermon
was spent in showing them their miserable condition without Christ, out
of Ephes. 2:1, that they were dead in trespasses and sinnes, and in
pointing unto them the Lord Jesus who onely could quicken them.”

After sermon, opportunity was given for the Indians to ask questions.
Some of them were these:

What countryman was Christ, and where was he born?

How far off is that place from us here?

Where is Christ now?

How may we lay hold on Christ, and where, he being now absent from us?

Mr. Shepard continues, “But that which I note is this, that their
gracious attention to the Word, the affections and mournings of some
of them under it, their sober propounding of divers and spirituall
questions, their aptnesse to beleeve and understand what was replyed
to them; the readiness of divers poore naked children to answer openly
the chief questions in the Catechism, which were formerly taught them,
and such like appearances of a great change upon them did marvellously
affect all the wise and godly ministers, magistrates and people, and did
raise their hearts up to great thankfulnesse to God; very many deeply and
abundantly mourning for joy to see such a blessed day, and the Lord Jesus
so much known and spoken of among such as never heard of him before: So
that if any in England doubt of the truth of what was formerly writ; or
if any malignant eye shall question and vilifie this work, they will now
speak too late, for what was here done at _Cambridge_, was not set under
a Bushell, but in the open Sunne; and what _Thomas_ would not beleeve by
the reports of others, he might be forced to beleeve by seeing with his
own eyes, and feeling Christ Jesus thus risen among them with his own
hands.”[29]

An old Indian came to Mr. Eliot’s house, as Mr. Eliot told Mr. Shepard,
and Mr. Eliot told him that because he brought his wife and children to
meeting so constantly, he would give him some clothes, for it was cold
weather, and the old man was quite destitute. He did not understand this
term which Mr. Eliot used for clothes, and enquired of Mr. Eliot’s Indian
domestic, and when he understood that it was clothing which was promised,
he broke out with much feeling, saying, “God is merciful:”—“a blessed,
because a plainhearted, affectionate speech,” says Mr. Shepard, “and
worthy of Englishmen’s thoughts when they put on their clothes; to think
that a poor blind Indian that scarce ever heard of God before, that hee
should see not only God in his clothes, but mercy also in a promise of a
cast off worne sute of clothes, which were then given him, and which he
now daily wears.”

Mr. S. says that “Mr. Edward Jackson one of our Towne, constantly
attended Mr. Eliot’s Lectures, and took down the questions and answers,
and having sent me his notes, I shall send you a taste of some of them,”
viz.:

1. Why are some so bad that they hate those men that would teach them
good things?

2. Was the devil or man made first?

3. If a father prays to God to teach his sons to know him, and he doth
teach them himself, and they will not learn to know God, what should such
fathers do? This question was put by an old man that had rude children.

4. A Squaw asked this question: Whether she might not go and pray in some
private place in the woods, when her husband was not at home, because she
was ashamed to pray in the wigwam before company?

5. How may one know wicked men, who are good, and who are bad?

6. To what nation did Jesus Christ come first unto, and when?

The following question illustrates the old saying, that a child or fool
may ask a question which a philosopher cannot answer. It relates to the
solemn and fearful subject of the dissolution of the body and soul. Who
has not, at least in his earlier years, puzzled himself with questions
about the passage of a departing spirit from the chamber of death? The
question referred to was this:

7. If a man should be inclosed in iron a foot thick, and thrown into the
fire, what would become of the soul? Could the soul come out thence or
not?

8. Why did not God give all men good hearts, that they might be good?

9. If one should be among strange Indians that know not God, and they
should make him to fight against some whom he ought not to fight against,
and he should refuse, and for his refusal they should kill him, what
would become of his soul in such a case? This question was asked by a
“stout fellow,” whose mind was interested in religion, and was connected
with the notion of the Indians that all their valiant men have a reward
after death. He seemed to think that his refusal to fight in the case
supposed, might prejudice his chance of reward hereafter.

10. How long is it before men believe who have the word of God made known
unto them?

11. How may we know when our faith is good, and our prayers good prayers?

12. Why did not God kill the devil, that made all men so bad, God having
all power?

13. If we be made weak by sin in our hearts, how can we come before God
to sanctify the Sabbath?

An amusing incident took place at one of the public meetings. A drunken
Indian cried out, “Mr. Eliot, who made sack? Who made sack?” This, it
will be perceived, was a cavil about the “origin of evil.” It is said
that “he was soon snib’d by the other Indians, who cried out that it was
a papoose question. Mr. Eliot seriously answered him; which hath cooled
his boldness ever since.”

The man who took down these questions says that “he had some occasion to
speak to Waban, (one of the chief men at Nonantum,) about the time of
sun-rising, and staying about half an hour, as he came back by one of the
wigwams, the man of that wigwam was at prayer, at which he was so much
affected that he stopped under a tree to listen; and these passages of
Scripture came to his mind while listening to the voice of devotion from
the wigwam: ‘All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the
Lord.’ ‘O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.’”

He says that he had seen an Indian call his children in from the field
where they were gathering corn, when he asked a blessing upon the food
before them, “with much affection, having but a homely dinner to eat.”
Mr. Shepard adds, “I wish the like hearts and wayes were seen in many
English who professe themselves Christians, and that herein and many the
like excellencies they were become Indians, excepting that name, as he
did, in another case, except these bonds.”

The following is the substance of an order passed by the General Court at
Boston, May 26, 1647, concerning the Indians.

“Upon information that the Indians dwelling among us, and submitted
to our government, being by the ministry of the Word brought to some
civility, are desirous to have a course of ordinary judicature set up
among them:

“It is ordered, therefore, by authority of this Court, that some one
or more of the magistrates, as they shall agree among themselves,
shall, once every quarter, keep a Court at such place where the Indians
ordinarily assemble to hear the Word of God, and may then hear and
determine all causes civill and criminall, not being capitall, concerning
the Indians only; and that the Indian sachims shall have libertie to
take order in the nature of summons or atachments, to bring any of their
own people to the said Courts, and to keep a Court of themselves every
moneth, if they see occasion, to determine small causes of a civill
nature, and such smaller criminall causes, as the said magistrates shall
refer to them: and the said sachims shall appoint officers to serve
warrants, and to execute the orders and judgements of either of said
Courts, which officers shall from time to time bee allowed by the said
magistrates in the quarter Courts, or by the Governour: And that all
fines to bee imposed upon any of the Indians, in any of the said Courts,
shall goe and bee bestowed towards the building of some meeting-houses,
for education of their poorer children in learning, or other publick use,
by the advice of said magistrates, and of Master Eliot, or of such other
elder, as shall ordinarily instruct them in the true Religion. And it is
the desire of this court that the said magistrates, and Master Eliot,
or such other elders as shall attend the keeping of the said Courts,
will carefully indeavour to make the Indians understand our most usefull
Lawes, and the principles of reason, justice, and equity, whereupon
they are grounded; and it is desired that some care may be taken of the
Indians on the Lord’s dayes.”

Mr. Shepard speaks of his brother Eliot as a man “whom, in other
respects, but especially for his unweariednesse in this work of God,
going up and down among them, and doing them good, I think we can never
love nor honor enough.” Mr. Eliot says, “That which I first aymed at was
to declare and deliver unto them the law of God, to civilize them; which
course the Lord took by Moses, to give the law to that rude company,
because of transgression, Galatians 3:19, to convince, bridle, restrain,
and civilize them, and also to humble them. But when I first attempted
it they gave no heed unto it, but were weary, and rather despised what
I said. A while after God stirred up in some of them a desire to come
into the English fashions, and live after their manner, but knew not how
to attain unto it; yea, despaired that it should ever come to passe in
their dayes; but thought that, in 40 yeears more, some Indians would be
all one English, and in an hundred yeears all Indians hereabout would so
bee: which when I heard, (for some of them told me they thought so, and
that some wise Indians said so,) my heart moved within me, abhorring that
wee should sit still and let that work alone, and hoping that this notion
in them was of the Lord, and that this mind in them was a preparation
to embrace the law and Word of God; and therefore I told them that they
and wee were all one save in two things, which make the only difference
betwixt them and us: First, wee know, serve, and pray unto God, and they
doe not. Secondly, we labor and work in building, planting, clothing
ourselves, &c., and they doe not; and would they but doe as wee doe in
these things they would bee all one with Englishmen. They said they did
not know God, and therefore could not tell how to pray to him nor serve
him. I told them if they would learn to know God, I would teach them;
unto which they being very willing, I then taught them, (as I sundry
times had indeavored afore,) but never found them so forward, attentive,
and desirous till this time; and then I told them I would come to their
wigwams and teach them, their wives and children, which they seemed very
glad of; and, from that day forward, I have not failed to doe that poore
little which you know I doe.”

Mr. Eliot says that he found the usual opposition to religion among
Indians which he found among white men. The Indians of “Dorchester Mill,”
for example, would not, at first, regard his instructions; “but the
better sort of them perceiving how acceptable this was to the English,
both to magistrates, and all the good people, it pleased God to step in
and bow their hearts, to desire to be taught to know God.” “The _Linn_
Indians,” Mr. Eliot said, “are all naught save one.” This was owing to
the opposition of their sachem.

A sober Indian going up into the country with two of his sons, prayed
as he used to do at home, and talked to the Indians about God and Jesus
Christ; whereupon they mocked, and called one of his sons Jehovah, and
the other Jesus Christ.

The Nonantum Indians early began to observe the Lord’s day. They fined
every violator of the Sabbath ten shillings. One Sabbath morning the
sachem’s wife went to fetch water, when, meeting with other Indian
women, she fell into worldly conversation with them, but they reproved
her. She insisted that it was not improper, but the other women informed
the native Indian preacher who was to address them that day, and he
discoursed to them upon the sanctification of the Sabbath, and in his
discourse related what he had heard about the sachem’s wife. After sermon
they had much conversation on the subject, in which the sachem’s wife
insisted that, inasmuch as her conversation was in private, and early
on the Sabbath morning, there was no harm in it; and then she retorted
upon the preacher by telling him that he had sinned much more than she
in giving occasion to so much talk about this subject on the Sabbath.
The whole matter was, by common consent, referred to Mr. Eliot for his
arbitration.

Towards evening, on another Sabbath, two strangers came to Waban’s tent
(Nonantum); and when they came in, they told him that, about a mile
off, they had chased a racoon into a hollow tree, and that if he would
send his servants to fell the tree, they might catch him, which Waban,
in his desire to entertain the strangers with fresh game, accordingly
did. Whereupon the Indians were much displeased, and this case was, by
request, made the subject of discourse on the next lecture day.

Another case was this. “Upon a Lord’s day their public meeting holding
long, and somewhat late when they came at home, in one wigwam the fire
was almost out, and therefore the man of the house, as he sat by the
fireside, took his hatchet and split a little dry piece of wood, which
they reserve on purpose for such use, and so kindled his fire, which,
being taken notice of, it was thought to bee such a worke as might not
lawfully bee done upon the Sabbath day, and therefore the case was
propounded the lecture following for their better information.”

A great improvement was soon visible among them in their treatment of
their wives. A man who had offended in this respect was brought before
the assembly at a time when the governor and many of the colonists
happened to be present. The man being publicly accused of beating his
wife, made no defence, but confessed his sin, and being kindly admonished
and instructed, he turned his face to the wall and wept; “and such
was the modest, penitent, and melting behaviour of the man that it
much affected all to see it in a barbarian, and all did forgive him;
onely this remained, that they executed their law notwithstanding his
repentance, and required his fine, to which he willingly submitted, and
paid it.”

The power of conscience among them is illustrated by Mr. Eliot in the two
following anecdotes.

The son of a sachem, 14 or 15 years old, had been intoxicated; and being
reproved by his father and mother for disobedient and rebellious conduct,
he despised their admonition. Before Mr. E. heard of it, he had observed
that on being catechised, the fifth commandment being required of him, he
reluctantly said, “Honor thy father,” but left out “mother.”

George, the Indian, who asked, in a public meeting, “Who made sack?”
killed a cow, and sold it at the college for a moose. President Dunster
was unwilling that he should be directly charged with it, but wished Mr.
Eliot to inquire of him as to the crime. But being brought before the
assembly, he freely confessed his sin.

The Indians were never weary of asking questions in the public meetings.
An old Powaw once demanded, Why, seeing the English had been in the land
twenty-seven years, they had never taught the Indians to know God till
now? He added, many of us have grown old in sin, whereas had you begun
with us earlier, we might have been good.

The answer was that the English did repent that they were not more
earnest at the first to seek their salvation, but the Indians were never
willing to hear till now, and as God has now inclined their hearts to
hear, the English were striving to redeem the time.

Another question was of deep interest. One of them said, That before he
knew God, he thought he was well, but since, he had found his heart to be
full of sin, and more sinful than it ever was before; and that this had
been a great trouble to him; that at that day his heart was but little
better than it was at first, and _he was afraid it would be as bad as it
was before, and therefore he sometimes wished that he might die before
he should be so bad again_! Now, said he, my question is, Is this wish
a sin? Mr. E. says this question was evidently the result of his own
experience and seemed to be sincere.

Another question was this:

Whither do our little children go when they die, seeing they have not
sinned?

This led to an exposition of the depravity of man’s nature, and of the
part which it is hoped dying infants have in the redemption made by
Christ, and the covenant relation of the children of believers, which
last doctrine Mr. Eliot says, “was exceedingly grateful unto them.”

The whole assembly at one time united and sent a question to Mr. Eliot by
his man, as their united question, viz:

“Whether any of them should go to heaven, seeing they found their hearts
full of sin, and especially full of the sin of lust?” At the next lecture
held at “Dorchester mill,” occasion was taken to preach to them from
Matt. 11:28, 29. “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,”
&c., when the justifying grace of Christ to all who are weary and sick
of sin was fully and earnestly set forth. But at this time they repeated
their fearful apprehension that “none of them would go to heaven.”

A question which uniformly troubled all who began to think of embracing
religion was this:

“If we leave off Powawing and pray to God, what shall we do when we are
sick?” For though they had some knowledge of the medicinal qualities in
certain roots and herbs, they of course had no knowledge of the human
system, and hence no skill in applying their remedies, but relied on
the antics and unearthly gestures and incantations of their Powaws to
make the medicines take effect. Mr. Eliot expressed the desire that
the Lord would stir up the hearts of some people in England to give
some maintenance towards a school or academy, wherein there should be
“Anatomies, and other instructions that way.” Mr. E. had himself showed
them an anatomy, the only one he says the English had ever had in the
country. By a course of instruction in medicine Mr. E. believed that he
could most effectually, and perhaps, in the only way, “root out their
Powaws.”

The Indians proposed this question to Mr. Eliot:

“What shall we say to some Indians who say to us, What do you get by
praying to God, and believing in Jesus Christ? You go naked still,
and are as poor as we. Our corn is as good as yours; and we take more
pleasure than you; if we saw that you got any thing by praying to God, we
would do so.”

Mr. E. answered to them on this point as follows: “First, God gives two
sorts of good things; 1. little things, which he showed by his little
finger, (‘for they use and delight in demonstrations;’) 2. great things,
(holding up his thumb). The little mercies he said are riches, clothes,
food, sack, houses, cattle, and pleasures, all which serve the body for
a little while, and in this life only. The great mercies are wisdom, the
knowledge of God, Christ, eternal life, repentance and faith; these are
for the soul, and eternity. Though God did not give them so many little
things, through the knowledge of the Gospel, he gave them the greater
things which are better. This he proved by an illustration: when _Foxun_,
the Mohegan Counselor, who is counted the wisest Indian in the country,
was in the Bay, I did on purpose bring him unto you; and when he was
here, you saw he was a fool in comparison of you, for you could speak of
God, and Christ, and heaven, &c.; but he sat and had not one word to say
unless you talked of such poor things as hunting, wars, &c.”

He also told them that they had some more clothes than the wicked
Indians; and the reason why they had so few, was because they had so
little wisdom; but if they were wise to obey God’s commands, for example,
“Six days shalt thou labor,” they would have clothes, houses, cattle, and
riches, as the English have.

Many questions and cases of dispute arose out of their old practice of
gaming, to which they were greatly addicted. The irreligious Indians
demanded the old stakes of some who had been convinced of the sin of
gaming, and had declined to pay their forfeits. The winners however,
insisted on being payed. Mr. Eliot had no little trouble in settling the
matters of casuistry and conscience which thus occurred. But he took this
method in many cases. He prevailed on the creditor to accept one half of
his demand, having first showed him the sinfulness of gaming. He then
told the debtor in private that God requires us to fulfill our promises
though to our hurt, and then asked him if he would pay half. In this
way such cases were many of them settled, for the creditors refused Mr.
Eliot’s proposition, that whoever challenged a debt incurred by gaming
should go before the Governor with his demand.

The demand upon Mr. Eliot for agricultural and other implements soon
increased beyond his ability to supply them. The women were desirous of
learning to spin; wheels were procured for them. The men began to supply
the English market all the year round, in the winter with brooms, staves,
eel-pots, baskets, and turkies; in the spring with cranberries, fish, and
strawberries; in the summer, with whortleberries, grapes and fish; and in
the autumn, with cranberries, fish and venison. Some of them worked with
the English in haying time, and harvest; but it was hard work for them
with their old habits of indolence. “Old boughs,” says Mr. Eliot, “must
be bent a little at once; if we can set the young twigges in a better
bent, it will bee God’s mercy.”

Mr. Eliot fell in with a Narragansett Sachem, and having spoken to him
on the subject of religion, asked him if he did not believe such things?
The Sachem seemed averse to answer, and Mr. E. asked him why he had not
profited more by the instructions of a Mr. Williams, their teacher? He
answered that the Indians did not care to learn of him, because he is no
good man, but goes out and works upon the Sabbath day. “I name it,” says
Thomas Shepard, “not to show what glimmerings nature may have concerning
the observation of the Sabbath, but to show what the ill example of the
English may do, and _to show what a stumbling-block to all religion the
loose observation of the Sabbath is_.”

In a few years Mr. Eliot says a visible improvement had taken place in
many of the domestic habits of the Indians, indicating an advancement
in the principles and sentiments of civilization. Not only were they as
a general thing respectably clothed, but the common wigwams at Nonantum
equalled those of Sachems in other tribes, and instead of herding
together in one room they made divisions and apartments in their houses
from feelings of propriety and modesty.

Questions relating to the plurality of their wives perplexed them, and
gave occasion for the same judicious decisions on this delicate and
trying subject which are now made by our wise and discreet missionaries
in lands where the same practice exists. While some good men are in favor
of driving the ploughshare at once among the roots of this and every
other evil in the institutions and customs of corrupt society, it is
found impracticable to do so, by those who see the complicated nature
of these practices, without occasioning still greater evils. Remedial
measures are in operation among the converts from heathenism and paganism
by which caste and polygamy and other social evils will in time, but not
in a day or year, be done away. The process of cure was more rapid among
the Indians, than it is among the Oriental tribes, for reasons connected
with the character of the people, the ascendency which religion soon had
among them, and the absence of opposing influences in the government of
the tribes.

The text from which Mr. Eliot preached his first sermon at Nonantum,
(“Prophesy to the wind,” &c.) and which made Waban, whose name
translated, is, the wind, had produced a decided effect on him, and he
became useful in diffusing the knowledge of the Gospel to other tribes,
at Concord, at places on the Merrimack, and elsewhere. He remained
steadfast in the faith, and never ceased to think that the Word of God
was directed specially to himself in that first sermon of Mr. Eliot,
though Mr. E. says that he had no design in the coincidence between the
text and the Indian’s name.

Mr. Eliot once preached to the Indians from these words, Ephes. 5:11,
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” &c. One of
the questions proposed after sermon was this:

What do Englishmen think of Mr. Eliot, because he comes among wicked
Indians to teach them?

Another question was as follows:

Suppose two men sin. The one knows he sinneth, and the other doth not
know sin, will God punish both alike?

Another asked, Suppose there should be one wise Indian that teacheth
good things to other Indians, whether should not he be as a father or
brother unto such Indians he so teacheth in the ways of God?

One of the Indians at Nonantum had a child sick of consumption. When it
was dead some of the Indians came to one of the English and asked him the
proper manner of burial. Whereupon the father procured some pieces of
board and nails, and made a decent coffin; and about forty of the tribe
went with the body to the grave. There having laid the body in the earth,
in a solemn and suitable manner, without any howlings, or heathenish
rites, or savage gesticulations, they made up the mound, and then of
their own accord, for it was not the English custom, they assembled for
prayer near the grave, and requested one of their number, a serious
Indian by the name of Totherswamp, to pray with them, which he did, “with
such zeal and variety of gracious expressions, and abundance of tears,
both of himself and most of the company, that the woods rang again with
their sighs and prayers.”

Thomas Shepard says, “I know that some will think that all this work
among them is done and acted thus by the Indians to please the English,
and for applause from them; and it is not unlikely but ’tis so in many,
who doe but blaze for a time; but certainly ’tis not so in all, but that
the power of the Word hath taken place in some, and that inwardly and
effectually, but how far savingly time will declare. Some may say that
if it be so, yet they are but few that are thus wrought upon. Be it so;
yet so it hath ever been, many called, few chosen, and yet withal, I
believe the calling in of a few Indians to Christ, is the gathering home
of many hundreds more, considering what a vast distance there hath been
between them and God so long, even dayes without number; considering
also, how precious the first fruits of America will be to Jesus Christ,
and what seeds they may be of harvests in after times; and yet if there
was no great matter seen in those of grown years, their children,
notwithstanding, are of great hopes, both from English and Indians
themselves, who are therefore trained up to schoole, where many are very
apt to learne, and who are also able readily to answer to the questions
propounded, containing the principles and grounds of all Christian
religion in their own tongue. I confesse it passeth my skill to tell
how the Gospel should be generally received by these American natives,
considering the variety of languages in small distances of places; onely
hee that made their cares and tongues can raise up some or other to
teach them how to heare, and what to spake; and if the Gospel must ride
circuit, Christ can and will conquer by weake and dispicable meanes,
though the conquest perhaps may be somewhat long.”[30]

Mr. Eliot wrote an interesting letter to a friend in England, dated
Roxbury, this 12th of Nov. 1648, and sent it _by the way of Virginia, and
through Spain_.

He says that the Indians used to abhor the remembrance of their
dead friends, but that now they had begun to receive profit from the
recollection of their dying counsels, and hope from their confidence in
the safety of the pious dead. The woman who asked the question, whether,
when her husband prayed, if she prayed in her heart, but did not speak,
yet her heart liked what he said, it was prayer; called her two grown
up daughters to her when she was dying and said to them: “I shall now
die, and when I am dead, your grand-parents and uncles will send for
you to come live among them and promise you great matters, and tell you
what pleasant living it is among them. But do not believe them, and I
charge you never hearken unto them, nor live among them; for they pray
not to God, keep not the Sabbath, commit all manner of sins, and are not
punished for it. But I charge you live here, for here they pray unto God,
the Word of God is taught, sins are suppressed and punished by laws, and
therefore I charge you live here all your days.” Soon after it came to
pass as she had said, and the case was propounded to Mr. Eliot, and the
father-in-law opposed the removal of the children, on the ground of their
mother’s charge.

The settlement of Natick took place in the following way. Many Indians
in the country were desirous of hearing the Gospel, but they would not
remove into the neighborhood of the English, “because they had no tools
or skill, or heart to fence their grounds,” and so their corn was spoiled
by the English cattle, and the English refused to pay for it, because the
Indians would not build fences. “Therefore,” Mr. E. says, “a place must
be found (both for this and sundry other reasons) somewhat remote from
the English;—but I feare it will bee too chargeable, though I see that
God delighteth in small beginnings that his name may be magnified.”

There was a great fishing place at the falls of the Merrimack where
the Indians assembled every spring, and Mr. E. visited them. They put a
question to him after one of his sermons, which all who are interested in
the conversion of the heathen often find occurring to them with painful
interest. “If it be thus as you teach, then all the world of Indians are
gone to hell, to be tormented forever, until now a few may go to heaven
and be saved; is it so?”

In the letter which went so far in getting to England, Mr. Eliot records
some further questions from his Nonantum Indians, viz:

How many good people were in Sodom when it was burnt?

Doth the devil dwell in us as we dwell in a house?

When God saith, Honor thy father, doth he mean three fathers, our father,
our Sachem, and our God?

When the soul goes to heaven, what doth it say when it comes there. And
what doth a wicked soul say when it cometh into hell?

If one sleep on the Sabbath at meeting, and another awaketh him, and he
be angry at it, and say it’s because he is angry with him that he so
doth, is not this a sin?

If any talk of another man’s faults and tell others of it when he is not
present to answer, is not that a sin?

Why did Christ die in our stead?

Seeing Eve was first in sin, whether she did die first?

Why must we love our enemies, and how shall we do it?

When every day my heart thinks I must die and go to hell for my sins,
what shall I do in this case?

May a good man sin sometimes? Or may he be a good man and yet sin
sometimes?

If a man think a prayer, doth God know it, and will he bless him?

Who killed Christ?

If a man be almost a good man and dieth, whither goeth his soul?

How long was Adam good before he sinned?

Seeing we see not God with our eyes, if a man dream that he seeth God,
doth his soul then see him?

Did Adam see God before he sinned? Shall we see God in heaven?

If a wicked man pray, whether doth he make a good prayer? Or when doth a
wicked man pray a good prayer?

Whether God did make hell before Adam sinned?

If two families dwell in one house, and one prayeth and the other not,
what shall they that pray do to them that do not?

Did Abimelech know Sarah was Abraham’s wife?

Did not Abraham sin in saying she was my sister?

Seeing God promised Abraham so many children, like the stars for
multitude, why did he give him so few? And was it true?

If God made hell in one of the six days, why did God make hell before
Adam sinned?

How shall I bring mine heart to love prayer?

If one man repent and pray once in a day, another man often in a day,
whether doth one of them go to heaven, the other not? Or what difference
is there?

I find I want wisdom, what shall I do to be wise?

Why did Abraham buy a place to bury in?

Why doth God make good men sick?

How shall the Resurrection be, and when?

Do not Englishmen spoil their souls to say a thing cost them more than it
did? and is not all one as to steal?

You say our body is made of clay; what is the sun and moon made of?

If one be loved of all Indians, good and bad, another is hated of all,
saving a few that be good, doth God love both these?

I see why I must fear hell and do so every day. But why must I fear God?

How is the tongue like fire, and like poison?

What if false witnesses accuse me of murther, or some foul sin?

What punishment is due to liars?

If I reprove a man for sin, and he answer, “Why do you speak thus angrily
to me? Mr. Eliot teacheth us to love one another?”—is this well?

Why is God so angry with murtherers?

If a wife put away her husband because he will pray to God and she will
not, what is to be done in this case?

If there be young women pray to God, may such as pray to God marry one
that will not pray to God, or what is to be done in this case?

Whether doth God make bad men dream good dreams?

What is salvation?

What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

If my wife do some work in the house on the night before the Sabbath, and
some work on the Sabbath night, whether this is a sin?

If I do a sin, and do not know it is a sin, what will God say to that?

Is faith set in my heart or in my mind?

Why have not beasts a soul as man hath, seeing they have love, anger,
&c., as man hath?

How is the Spirit of God in us, and where is it?

Why doth God punish in hell for ever? man doth not so, but after a time
lets them out of prison again. And if they repent in hell, why will not
God let them out again?

How shall I know when God accepts my prayers?

How doth Christ make peace between man and God? and what is the meaning
of that point?

Why did the Jews give the watchmen money to tell a lie?

If I hear God’s word when I am young, and do not believe, but when I am
old I believe, what will God say?

In wicked dreams doth the soul sin?

Doth the soul in heaven know things done here on earth?

Doth the soul in heaven remember what it did here on earth before he died?

If my heart be full of evil thoughts, and I repent and pray, and a few
hours after it is full again, and I repent and pray again; and if after
this it be full of evil thoughts again, what will God say?

Why did the earth shake at Christ’s resurrection?

What if a minister wear long hair, as some other men do, what will God
say?

If a man will make his daughter marry a man whom she doth not love, what
will God say?

Why doth Christ compare the kingdom of heaven to a net?

Why doth God so hate them that teach others to commit sin?




CHAPTER VI.

    Letters respecting the Indians, from individuals in New
    England, to their friends in Old England. Speculations about
    the lost tribes of Israel. Remarks. Questions. Samuel Gorton,
    the Familist. Two Indians controvert his opinions. Interesting
    conversation. Labors of the Mayhews on Martha’s Vineyard.
    Covenant of the Indians of Martha’s Vineyard. Questions.
    Merrimack Indians. Accounts by the Mayhews of their labors.
    Questions.


Some of Mr. Eliot’s letters respecting the Indians were published in
London, with an appendix by Rev. “J. D.” As we are interested and
entertained occasionally by a supposed discovery of the lost tribes of
Israel, it may not be useless to give here some of the speculations and
reasonings of this good man, on this subject as relating to the North
American Indians. He begins his appendix with the following words:

“The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that love them,
saith the Psalmist; Ps. 111:3. The word which we, render _sought out_,
hath a mighty emphasis in it: ’Tis a word used sometimes to denote the
elaborate care of digging and searching into mines. And sometimes it’s
made use of to expresse the accurate labors of those who comment upon
writings. Indeed, there is a golden mine in every work of God; and the
foregoing letters to a gracious eye, are as a discovery of a far more
precious mine in America, than those gold and silver mines of India: For
they bring tidings of the unsearchable riches of Christ, revealed unto
poore soules in those parts.... I could not pass over so rich a mine
without digging....

“The general consent of many judicious and godly divines doth induce
considering minds to believe that the conversion of the Jews is at hand.
It’s the expectation of some of the wisest Jews now living, that about
the year 1650, Either we shall be Mosaick or else that themselves Jews
shall be Christians.... There may be at least a remnant of the generation
of Jacob in America, (peradventure some of the Ten tribes dispersions.)
And that those sometimes poor now precious Indians may be as the first
fruits of the glorious harvest of Israel’s redemption. The observation is
not to be slighted, (though the observer, Mr. Shepard, said it was more
cheerful than deep) that the first Text out of which Mr. Eliot preached,
was about the dry bones.... Why may we not at least conjecture, that
God by a special finger pointed out that text to be first opened, which
immediately concerned the persons to whom it was preached?”

He then states the reasons why the Indian tribes may be of Jewish
descent, viz:

“1. They have at least a traditional knowledge of God, as the Maker of
heaven and earth.

2. Whatever they attribute unto others, this they peculiarly attribute
unto God, viz: that all things, both good and evil, are managed by his
Providence.

3. Before they had received any instruction from the English, upon
observation of a bad year, or other ill success, they did meet and
weep as unto God, and on the other side, upon a good year, or good
success in any business, as of War, they used to meet and make a kind of
acknowledgement of thanks to God in it.

4. They are careful to preserve the memory of their families, mentioning
Uncles, Grandparents, &c. A thing which had a great tang of, and affinity
to, the Jews’ care of preserving the memorial of their Tribes.

5. Those of them who have been wrought upon, tell of some face of
Religion, wisdom and manners which long agoe their ancestors had, but
that it was lost.

6. The better and more sober of them delight much to expresse themselves
in parables, a thing peculiar to the Jews.

These and the like considerations prevail with me to entertain (at least)
a conjecture that these Indians of America may be Jews, especially of the
Ten Tribes. And therefore to hope that the work of Christ among them may
be as preparatory to his own appearing.”

Some of these reasons appertain with equal force to other tribes of the
earth who have been supposed by different writers to be remnants of the
house of Israel. While we should respect the interest and zeal of those
who study the providence of God, with a view to finding out his designs,
and to be prepared for the fulfillment of his promises, we should not
easily yield our confidence to any hypothesis which rests merely on
conjecture, or depends for support in reasons which apply equally well
to theories inconsistent with it. This is not the place to remark at
large on the interesting subject of the Jews and their conversion, but
the impression seems happily to be extending that the sooner we cease to
regard them as destined to a national conversion, and look at them as
sinners of the human family, like Mohammedans and Papists, and refrain
from efforts and a treatment which foster their spirit of separation and
their assumption of superior dignity and special claims to respect and
favor, the sooner we shall employ ourselves in efforts to address them in
a way which will be far more likely to humble their pride, and prepare
them to submit to the Gospel, than the somewhat adulatory and flattering
method of approaching them and speaking of them will ever be.

The improvement which the writer above named makes of Mr. Eliot’s letters
in the following exhortations is far more obviously correct than his
speculations about the origin and destiny of the Indians. He says the
work of grace among them should lead the people of England,

“First, To study and search into the works of the Lord, to see how he
counter plots the enemy in his designs; In making the late Bishops
persecuting of the godly tend to the promoting of the Gospel.

Secondly, To take heed of despising the day of small things.

Thirdly, To be ashamed of and bewail our want of affection to and
estimation of that glorious Gospel, and those great things of Christ,
which these poor Heathens upon the little Glymmerings and tasts so
exceedingly value and improve.

Fourthly, Doth not the observation of the preceding reports clearly
confirm the doctrine of the Sabbath, and the practice of prayer. O
tremble, ye Sabbath slighters and duty despisers, Christ hath witnesses
against you in America.... The converted Heathen in New England goe
beyond you, O ye Apostolic Christians in England.

Arise ye heads of our Tribes in Old England, and extend your help to
further Christ’s labourers in New England.

Rouse up yourselves, my Brethren! ye preachers of the Gospel, this work
concerns you. Contrive and plot, preach for and presse the advancement
hereof.

Come forth ye masters of money, part with your gold to promote the
Gospel. If you give any thing yearly, remember Christ will be your
Pensioner. If you give any thing into banke, Christ will keep account
thereof and reward it.”

The reader, it is to be hoped, will not be weary of the Indian questions,
which Mr. Eliot sent to his friends in England as often as he wrote to
them. These questions are not only curious, but they suggest valuable
thoughts and lead to profitable reflections.

If a man know God’s Word, said one of them at the Indian lecture, but
believe it not, and he teach others, is that good teaching? and if others
believe that which he teacheth, is that believing or faith? Upon this
question Mr. Eliot asked them how they could tell when a man knoweth
God’s Word, that he doth not believe it? They answered, When he doth not
do in his practice answerable to that which he knoweth.

If I teach on the Sabbath that which you have taught us, and forget some,
is that a sin? and some I mistake and teach wrong, is that a sin?

Do all evil thoughts come from the devil, and all good ones from God?

What is watchfulness?

What should I pray for at night, and what at morning, and what on the
Sabbath day?

What is true Repentance? or how shall I know when this is true?

How must I wait on God?

Shall we see Christ at the day of judgment?

When I pray for a soft heart, why is it still hard?

You said, God promised to go with Moses; how doth he go with us?

When such die as never heard of Christ, whither do they go?

When the wicked die, do they first go to heaven to the judgment-seat of
Christ to be judged, and then go away to hell?

Why doth God say, I am the God of the Hebrews?

When Christ arose, whence came his soul? When it was replied, From
heaven; they said, How then was Christ punished in our stead? or when did
he suffer in our stead, afore death, or after?

When I pray every day, why is my heart so hard still, even as a stone?

If one purposeth to pray, and yet dieth before that time, whither goeth
his soul?

Why must we be like salt?

Doth God know who shall repent, and who not?—why then did God use so much
meanes with Pharaoh?

What meaneth that ‘blessed are they that mourn’?

When I see a good example, and know that it is right, why do I not do the
same?

What anger is good, and what is bad?

Do they dwell in separate houses in heaven, or all together, and what do
they?

If a child die before he sin, whither goeth his soul? ‘By this
question,’ says Mr. E., ‘it did please the Lord to convince them of
original sin, blessed be his name.’

If one that prays to God sins like him that prays not, is not he worse?
‘And while,’ says Mr. Eliot, ‘they discoursed of this point, and about
hating wicked persons, one of them shut it up with this: They must love
the man and do him good, but hate his sin.’

Why do Englishmen so eagerly kill all snakes?

May a man have good words and deeds, and a bad heart, and another have
bad words and deeds, and yet a good heart?

What is it to eate Christ’s flesh, and drink his blood; what meaneth it?

What meaneth a new heaven and a new earth?

If but one parent believe, what state are our children in?

How doth much sinne make grace abound?

What meaneth that, We cannot serve two masters?

Can they in Heaven see us here on earth?

Do they see and know each other? Shall I know you in heaven?

If all the world be burnt up, where shall hell be?

Do they know each other in Hell?

What meaneth, that Christ meriteth eternal life for us?

What meaneth that, The woman brought to Christ a box of oyle, and washt
his feet with tears, &c.?

What meaneth that of the two debtors, one oweth much, another but little?

What meaneth God when he sayes, yee shall be my jewels?

If so old a man as I repent, may I be saved?

When we come to believe, how many of our children doth God take with us,
whether all, only young ones, or at what age?

What meaneth that, Let the trees of the wood rejoice?

What meaneth that, The Master doth not thank his servant for waiting on
him?

When Englishmen choose magistrates and ministers, how do they know who be
good men that they dare trust?

Seeing the body sinneth, why should the soul be punished, and what
punishment shall the body have?

If a wicked man prayeth and teacheth, doth God accept, or what saith God?

If a man be wise and his Sachem weak, must he yet obey him?

We are commanded to honour the Sachem, but is the Sachem commanded to
love us?

When all the world is burnt up, what shall be in the room of it? (By an
old woman.)

Mr. Eliot says, in a letter containing these questions,

    “You may perceive many of the questions arise out of such texts
    as I handle, and do endeavour to communicate as much Scripture
    as I can. The word of the Lord converteth, sanctifieth, and
    maketh wise the simple; sometimes they aske weaker questions
    than these, which I mention not; you have the best, and when
    I am about writing, I am careful in keeping a remembrance of
    them; it may be the same question may be again and again asked
    at several places and by several persons. The Lord teach them
    to know Christ, whom to know is eternal life. I shall entreat
    your supplications at the throne of grace, under the tender
    wing whereof I now leave you, being forced by the time, and
    rest,

    Your respectful and loving brother and fellow-laborer in the
    Indian work,

                                                        JOHN ELIOT.”

Samuel Gorton, charged with being a Familist and Antinomian, was
banished from Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The Familists
were an Anabaptist sect, founded in Holland, in 1555, by Henry Nicholas,
a Westphalian. They held that the essence of religion consists in the
feelings of divine love, (and hence they were called the Family of love,
and familists), that all other religious tenets, whether relating to
matters of faith or modes of worship, are of no consequence, and that
it is indifferent what opinions Christians entertain concerning God,
provided their hearts are filled with the emotions of piety and love.
They were confuted by Dr. Henry More, and by George Fox, the Quaker. A
proclamation was issued against them by Queen Elizabeth in 1580.

This Gorton in 1650 was in Rhode Island. Two of the Nonantum Indians
made a visit to Providence and Warwick, and spent a Sabbath and heard
Gorton and his followers explain their views, and afterwards had some
conversation with them.

Upon their return, on a lecture day, before the people had fully
assembled, these two Indians addressed a question to Mr. Eliot; and
the conversation which ensued is recorded by him as illustrating the
proficiency in Christian knowledge to which some of the Indians had
attained, and their ability to withstand false teachers.

The question was this: What is the reason that seeing those English
people, where they had been, have the same Bible that Mr. Eliot has, yet
do not speak the same things? Being asked the reason of his question,
they said, They had been at Providence and Warwick, and they perceived by
conversation with them that they differed from Mr. E.; they heard their
public exercises, but did not understand what they meant, though they
understood the English language well. Being asked what they said, they
replied, they said thus:

They (that is Mr. Eliot and his friends) teach you that there is a heaven
and a hell, but there is no such matter.

Mr. E. asked them what reason they gave for this assertion.

Because there is no other heaven but what is in the hearts of good men,
and no other hell but what is in the hearts of bad men.

_Mr. E._ What did you say to that?

_Indians._ We told them we did not believe them, because heaven is a
place where good men go when this life is ended, and hell is a place
where bad men go when they die, and cannot be in the hearts of man.

_Mr. E._ approving this answer. What else did they say?

_Indians._ They spake of Baptism, and said, they teach you that infants
must be baptized, but that is a very foolish thing.

_Mr. E._ What reason did they give?

_Indians._ Because infants neither know God nor baptism, nor what they
do, and therefore it is a foolish thing to do it.

_Mr. E._ What did you say to that?

_Indians._ I could not say much; but I thought it was better to baptize
them while they be young, and then they are bound and engaged; but if you
let them alone till they be grown up, it may be they will fly off, and
neither care for God nor Baptism.

Mr. E. commended this reply. What further did they say?

_Indians._ They spake of ministers, and said, they teach you that you
must have ministers, but that is a needless thing.

_Mr. E._ Why?

_Indians._ They gave these reasons: First, ministers know nothing but
what they learn out of God’s book, and we have God’s book as well as
they, and can tell what God saith. Again, ministers cannot change men’s
hearts, God must do that, therefore there is no need of ministers.

_Mr. E._ What did you reply?

_Indians._ I told them that we must do as God commands us, and if he
commands us to have ministers we must have them. And further, I told them
I thought it was true that ministers cannot change men’s hearts; but when
we do as God bids us, and hear ministers preach, then God will change our
hearts.

_Mr. E._ What else did they speak of?

_Indians._ They said, they teach you that you must have magistrates, but
that is needless.

_Mr. E._ What reason did they give?

_Indians._ They said, Because magistrates cannot give life, therefore
they may not take away life; besides, when a man sinneth, he doth not sin
against magistrates; and therefore why should they punish them? but they
sin against God, and therefore we must leave them to God to punish them.

_Mr. E._ What answer did you make?

_Indians._ I said to that as to the former, we must do as God commands
us. If God commands us to have magistrates, and commands them to punish
sinners, then we must obey.

In answer to the question, Why all who have the Bible do not speak the
same things. Mr. E. preached on that occasion from 2 Thes. 2:10, 11.
“Because they believed not the truth that they might be saved; for this
cause God shall send them strong delusions that they might believe a
lie,” &c.

The Rev. Thomas Mayhew, and his son the Rev. Experience Mayhew,
prosecuted the work of evangelizing the Indians of Martha’s Vineyard with
signal success. As the relations which they give respecting the Indians,
and the progress of the Gospel among them, correspond so nearly with the
foregoing narratives, it is not thought necessary to speak of them at
large. Some idea of the principles which were inculcated by the Mayhews,
and of the influence which they exerted upon the natives, may be derived
from the following covenant which Mr. Thomas Mayhew wrote for them, and
in which they all with free consent willingly and thankfully joined.

    COVENANT OF THE INDIANS OF MARTHA’S VINEYARD.

    “Wee, the distressed Indians of the Vineyard, (or NOPE, the
    Indian name of the Island,) that beyond all memory have been
    without the true God, without a Teacher, and without a Law, the
    very servants of sin and satan, and without peace, for God did
    justly vex us for our sins; having lately, through his mercy,
    heard of the name of the True God, the name of his Son Christ
    Jesus, with the holy Ghost, the Comforter, three Persons, but
    one most Glorious God, whose name is JEHOVAH; wee do praise
    His Glorious Greatness, and, in sorrow of our hearts, and
    shame of our faces, we do acknowledge and renounce our great
    and many sins, that we and our Fathers have lived in, do run
    unto him for mercy and pardon for Christ Jesus’ sake; and we
    do this day, through the blessing of God upon us, and trusting
    to his gracious help, give up ourselves in this Covenant, Wee,
    our wives and children, to serve JEHOVAH: And we do this day
    chuse Jehovah to be our God in Christ Jesus, our Teacher, our
    Lawgiver in his Word, our King, our Judge, our Ruler by his
    magistrates and ministers; to fear God Himself, and to trust in
    Him alone for salvation, both of Soul and Body, in this present
    Life, and the Everlasting Life to come, through his mercy in
    Christ Jesus our Saviour and Redeemer, and by the might of his
    Holy Spirt, to whom, with the Father and Son, be all Glory
    everlasting, Amen.”

Mr. Mayhew says, “I observed that the Indians, when they chose their
Rulers, made choyce of such as were best approved for their godliness,
and most likely to suppress sin, and encourage holiness. There was an
Indian that was well approved for his Reformation, that was suspected
to have told a plain Lye for his Gain; the business was brought to the
public Meeting, and there it was notably sifted with zeal and good
affection; but at length the Indian defending himself with great disdain
and hatred of such evil, proved himself clear, and praised God for it.”

He also relates the following anecdote:

“My Father and I were lately talking with an Indian who had not long
before almost lost his life by a wound his Enemies gave him in a secret
hidden way, the mark whereof he had upon him, and will carry it to his
grave. This man understanding of a secret Plot that was to take away his
Enemies life, told my Father and I, That he did freely forgive him for
the sake of God, and did tell this Plot to us that the man’s life might
be preserved. This is a singular thing, and who among the Heathen will do
so?”

Again: “_Myoxeo_ also lately met with an Indian which came from the
_Mayn_, (the mainland,) who was of some note among them. I heard that he
told them of the great things of God, the sinfulness and folly of the
Indians, the pardon of sin by Christ, and of a good life; and so they
were both affected, that they continued this discourse two half nights
and a day, until their strength was spent. He told him in particular how
a Beleever did live above the world, that he did keep worldly things
alwaies at his feet, (as he shewed him by a sign,) That when they were
diminished or increased, it was neither the cause of his sorrow or joy,
that he should stoop to regard them, but he stood upright with his heart
Heavenward, and his whole desire was after God, and his joy in Him.”

He says, “Within two or three weeks (1652) there came an Indian to me in
business, and by the way he told me that some Indians had lately kept a
day of Repentance to humble themselves before God in prayer, and that the
word of God which one of them spake unto for their Instruction, was Psal.
66: 7. ‘He ruleth by his Power forever, his eyes behold the nations, let
not the rebellious exalt themselves.’ I asked him what their end was in
keeping such a day? He told me these six things. ‘1. They desired that
God would slay the rebellion of their hearts. 2. That they might love God
and one another. 3. That they might withstand the evil words of wicked
men, and not be drawn back from God. 4. That they might be obedient to
the good words and commands of their Rulers. 5. That they might have
their sins done away by the Redemption of Jesus Christ. And Lastly, That
they might walk in Christ’s way.’”

In 1651, thirty Indian children were at school which began in November,
1651. “They are apt to learn,” says Mr. M., “and more and more are now
sending in unto them.”

“I was once,” says Mr. M., “down towards the further end of the Island,
and lodged at an Indian’s house, who was accounted a great man among
the Islanders, being the friend of the Sachem on the _Mayn_. At this
man’s house where I sate awhile, his son being about thirty years old,
earnestly desired me, in his Language, to relate unto him some of the
ancient stories of God. I then spent a great part of the night (in such
discourse as I thought fittest for them) as I usually do when I lodg in
their houses; what he then heard did much affect him. And shortly after
he came and desired to joyn with the praying Indians to serve Jehovah.”
He was persecuted for this; but he told Mr. M. “That if they should stand
with a sharp weapon against his breast, and tell him that they would kill
him presently if he did not turn to them; but if he would, they would
love him; yet he had rather lose his life than keep it on such terms.”

A Powaw once told Mr. M. that after he had forsaken his powawing, and
had begun to serve God, and to renounce his Imps, which he did in a
public manner, the Imps still remained with him tormenting him, so that
he could never be at rest, sleeping or waking. At a Lecture, sometime
after, he asked Mr. M. this question: If a Powaw had his Imps gone from
him, what he should have instead of them to preserve him? He was told if
he believed in Christ “he should have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in
him, which is a good and strong Spirit, and will so keep him safe, that
all the Devils in Hell, and Powaws on earth, should not be able to do him
any hurt; and that if he did set himself against his Imps by the strength
of God, they should all flee away like muskeetooes.” He replied, That
soon after he had believed he was not troubled with any pain as formerly
in his bed, nor dreadful visions of the night, but lay down with ease,
slept quietly, waked in peace, and walked in safety; “for which he is
very glad and praises God.”

Mr. Mayhew also relates a fact, like the one already given respecting the
feelings and conduct of the Christian Indians at the death and burial
of their children. The case already mentioned, it will be remembered,
occurred at Nonantum; this, at Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Mayhew says,

“I have observed the wise disposing hand of God in another providence
of his. There have not, as I know, any man, woman, or child, died, of
the meeting-Indians, since the meeting began, until now of late the Lord
took away Hiacoomes, his child, which was about five days old. He was
best able to make a good use of it, and to carry himself well in it,
and so was his wife also; and truly they gave an excellent example in
this also as they have in other things; here were no black faces for it
as the manner of the Indians is, nor goods buried with it, nor hellish
howlings over the dead, but a patient resigning of it to him that gave
it. There were some English at the burial, and many Indians to whom I
spake something of the Resurrection; and as we were going away, one of
the Indians told me he was much refreshed in being freed from their old
customes, as also to hear of the Resurrection of good men and their
children to be with God.”

One of the ‘meeting-Indians’ said that ‘if all the world, the riches,
plenty, and pleasures of it were presented without God, or God without
all these, I would take God.’

Another said, ‘If the greatest Sagamore in the land should take him in
his arms, and proffer him his love, his riches and gifts, to turn him
from his ways, he would not go with him from the way of God.’

One of them was heard, of his own accord, in complaining against head
knowledge and lip prayers, without heart holiness, loathing the condition
of such a man, saying, I ‘desire my heart may taste of the word of God,
repent of my sins, and lean upon the Redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ.’

The following is a letter from a good man in this country to a friend in
England, written about the year 1650.

    ‘The best News I can write you from _New-England_ is, the Lord
    is indeed converting the _Indians_, and for the refreshing of
    your heart, and the hearts of all the godly with you; I have
    sent you the Relation of one _Indian_ of two yeares profession,
    that I took from his owne mouth by an Interpreter, because he
    cannot speak or understand one word of _English_.

    THE FIRST QUESTION WAS;

    _Q._ How did you come first to any sight of sinne?

    _A._ His answer was, Before the Lord did ever bring any
    _English_ to us, my Conscience was exceedingly troubled for
    sin, but after Mr. _Mayhew_ came to preach, and had been here
    some time, one chiefe _Sagamore_ did imbrace the Gospel, and
    I hearing of him, I went to him, and prayed him to speake
    something to me concerning God, and the more I did see of God,
    the more I did see my sinne, and I went away rejoycing, that I
    knew any thing of God, and also that I saw my sinne.

    _Q._ I pray what hurt doe you see in sinne?

    _A._ Sin, sayth he, is a continuall sicknesse in my heart.

    _Q._ What further evill doe you see in sinne?

    _A._ I see it to be a breach of all Gods Commandements.

    _Q._ Doe you see any punishment due to man for sinne?

    _A._ Yea, sayth he, I see a righteous punishment from God due
    to man for sinne, which shall be by the Devills in a place like
    unto fire (not that I speake of materiall fire, saith he) where
    man shall be for ever dying and never dye.

    _Q._ Have you any hope to escape this punishment?

    _A._ While I went on in the way of _Indianisme_ I had no hope,
    but did verily believe I should goe to that place, but now I
    have a little hope, and hope I shall have more.

    _Q._ By what meanes doe you look for any hope?

    _A._ Sayth he, by the satisfaction of Christ.

    I prayed the Interpreter, to tell him from mee that I would
    have him thinke much of the satisfaction of Christ, (and so he
    told him) I prayed him to returne mee his Answer.

    _A._ I thanke him kindly for his good Counsell, it doth my
    heart good, sayd he, to heare any man speake of Christ.

    _Q._ What would you thinke if the Lord should save you from
    misery?

    _A._ If the Lord, said he, would save me from all the sinne
    that is in my heart, and from that misery, I should exceedingly
    love God, and, saith he, I should love a man that should doe
    mee any good, much more the Lord, if he should doe this for mee.

    _Q._ Doe you thinke that God will doe you any good for any good
    that is in you?

    _A._ Though I beleeve that God loves man that leaves his sinne,
    yet I beleeve it is for Christ’s sake.

    _Q._ Doe you see that at any time God doth answer your prayers?

    _A._ Yea, sayth he, I take every thing as an Answer of prayer.

    _Q._ But what speciall answer, have you taken notice of?

    _A._ Once my wife being three dayes and three nights in
    labour, I was resolved never to leave praying till she had
    deliverance, and at last God did it, and gave her a sonne, and
    I called his name _Returning_, because all the while I went on
    in _Indianisme_ I was going from God, but now the Lord hath
    brought mee to him backe againe.

    By this time Captaine _Gooking_ came to us, and he asked him
    this Question:

    _Q._ What he would thinke if he should finde more affliction
    and trouble in God’s wayes, than he did in the way of
    Indianisme.

    _A._ His answer was, when the Lord did first turne me to
    himselfe and his wayes, he stripped mee as bare as my skinne,
    and if the Lord should strip me as bare as my skinne againe,
    and so big _Saggamore_ should come to mee, and say, I will
    give you so big Wampom, so big _Beaver_, and leave this way,
    and turne to us againe: I would say, take your riches to your
    selfe, I would never forsake God and his wayes againe.

    This is a Relation taken by my selfe,

                                                    WILLIAM FRENCH.’

There was a great fishing place at one of the falls of the Merrimack,
where the Indians assembled in great numbers in the spring of the year,
and Mr. Eliot went to meet them. He hired a Nashaway or Lancaster Indian
to beat down a path for him from Roxbury through the woods, and to notch
the trees that he might find his way through. His Church were concerned
for his safety, on account of difficulties between two tribes through
which his path lay. A Sachem with twenty men did escort for him, and the
journey occupied three days. “It pleased God,” he says, “to exercise
us with such tedious rain and bad weather, that we were extreme wet,
insomuch that I was not dry night nor day from the third day of the week
to the sixth, but so traveled, and at night pull off my boots, wring my
stockings, and on with them again. My horse was tired, so that I was
forced to let him go without a rider and take one of the men’s horses,
which I took along with me. Yet God stept in and helped. I considered
that word of God, ‘Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’”

It is not surprising that the questions proposed by the Indians should
have excited so much interest among their English teachers, and the
friends in England to whom they were communicated. Should similar
questions be reported to us from a tribe of people among whom our
missionaries had effected an entrance, we should feel that there was
great promise of success among that people. It seems that many in England
doubted the practicability of converting the North American savages.
They were greatly surprised at the communications from Mr. Eliot; they
saw that nothing was too hard for the Almighty, that Christ could save
unto the uttermost, all who come unto God by him, that the Gospel was
suited to the nature of man in every condition, that the story of the
cross moved the heart of the savage as well as the civilized, and that
Mr. Eliot’s reflection after his first efforts in preaching at Nonantum
was true, “That there is no need of miraculous or extraordinary gifts in
seeking the salvation of the most depraved of the human family.”

The Sudbury, Concord, Lancaster, Medford, and Dedham Indians had all in a
few years received the Gospel from Nonantum. In visiting that interesting
spot we cannot but say, “From you sounded out the word of the Lord.”

A pious Indian from Martha’s Vineyard visited the Indians of Merrimack
weare. After he had been there, the Merrimack Indians stated this case to
Mr. Eliot, for an explanation. ‘If a strange Indian comes among us whom
we never saw before, yet if he pray unto God we do exceedingly love him.
But if my own brother, dwelling a great way off, come unto us, he not
praying to God, though we love him, yet nothing so as we love that other
stranger who doth pray unto God.’




CHAPTER VII.

    Natick. The Indians build a bridge. Scenery of Charles River.
    The Arsenal at Watertown. Indian names. Mrs. Sigourney’s Lines.
    Gov. Endicott’s Letter. Proceedings preparatory to forming
    an Indian Church. Confessions of several Indians. Indian
    Catechism. Number in the Indian Church at Natick. Eliot’s
    Indian Grammar. His Indian Bible. Remarks upon it. A copy sent
    to Charles II. Richard Baxter’s remark. Further observations on
    the Indian Bible. 14 places of praying Indians, in 1660. Mr.
    Bancroft’s testimony. Indian Youths at Harvard College.


We come now to another stage in the history of the Indian mission.

It has already been said that in 1650 Mr. Eliot obtained a grant of land
for the Indians, for the purpose of building houses and organizing a town
government. The place selected was called NATICK, which means _a place
of hills_. There the Indians began to build houses, each house having
a piece of land attached to it for agriculture. One large building was
erected to be the property of the town, the lower part to be used for a
school-room and place of worship, the upper room to be a place of deposit
for skins and articles of public property, with a bed for Mr. Eliot.

In one of his letters to friends in England, Mr. Eliot says,

“There is a great river which divideth between their planting grounds
and dwelling place, through which they easily wade in summer, yet in
the spring it is deep and unfit for daily passing over, especially of
women and children.” He proposed to the Indians that they should make a
foot bridge over it, which was accordingly built, and was ninety feet
long and nine feet high. When it was finished, Mr. Eliot called the
Indians together, prayed, and gave thanks to God, and taught them out of
a portion of Scripture. He then told them that as it had been hard and
tedious labor in the water, if any of them desired wages for their work
he would give it to them, yet considering the work was for their own use,
if they should do all that labor in love, he should take it well and
remember it.

They replied that they were far from desiring any wages for doing their
own work, and on the contrary were thankful for their employment,—at
which Mr. Eliot praised them for their readiness and ingenuity at such
work. This bridge is said to have lasted longer than one which the
English built about the same time at Dedham.

It would be interesting if we could identify some of the favorite
places of the Indians in this vicinity. It is pleasant to think that they
were often grouped together at that most charming point where the Charles
River bends round the arsenal at Watertown. No one who has stood on the
bridge at that place on a summer morning when the mists were rising
from the stream, or in the after part of the day, when the sun was in
the right position over the curving parts of the stream to make their
outlines brilliant as gold in the green meadow, can have failed to think
that had such scenery occurred to him in Italy or Scotland, he would have
found it celebrated in the works of the poet and painter. We have only
to take journeys about home to find in the part of the country where we
live, views and scenes both natural and historical of thrilling interest.
It is easy to imagine the light canoe borne rapidly along the winding
vales of the Charles River; we meet with Indian names in almost every
village which is watered by that interesting stream, as well as in other
places. Wrentham has its Nuckup hill; Norwich its Quenaboag and Shetucket
river; Auburn its Boggachoog brook; Lancaster its Weshakum ponds; and
Natick its Pegan plain.

The following lines by Mrs. Sigourney may appropriately be introduced
here.

    INDIAN NAMES.

    “How can the red man be forgotten, while so many of our states
    and territories, bays, lakes and rivers, are indelibly stamped
    by names of their giving?”

        Ye say, that all have passed away,
          That noble race and brave,
        That their light canoes have vanished
          From off the crested wave;
        That ’mid the forests where they roamed,
          There rings no hunter’s shout;
        But their name is on their waters,
          Ye may not wash it out.

        ’Tis where Ontario’s billow,
          Like Ocean’s surge is curled,
        Where strong Niagara’s thunders wake
          The echo of the world,
        Where red Missouri bringeth
          Rich tributes from the west,
        And Rappahannock sweetly sleeps,
          On green Virginia’s breast.

        Ye say their cone-like cabins,
          That clustered o’er the vale,
        Have fled away like withered leaves,
          Before the autumn gale;
        But their memory liveth on your hills,
          Their baptism on your shore,
        Your everlasting rivers speak
          Their dialect of yore.

        Old Massachusetts wears it
          Within her lordly crown,
        And broad Ohio bean it
          Amid her young renown;
        Connecticut hath wreathed it,
          Where her quiet foliage waves,
        And bold Kentucky breathes it hoarse,
          Through all her ancient caves.

        Wachuset hides its lingering voice,
          Within his rocky heart,
        And Alleghany graves its tone
          Throughout his lofty chart;
        Monadnock on his forehead hoar,
          Doth seal the sacred trust;
        Your mountains build their monuments,
          Though ye destroy their dust.

The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians of North
America, an account of which will be found in the appendix to this
volume, published a letter addressed to them by Governor Endicott, of
Massachusetts. It is interesting as a testimony to the advancement which
the Indians had made in religion and civilization, and as a specimen
of the personal interest which good rulers in former times took in the
promotion of the kingdom of Christ in the earth. The letter is here
printed as it is written, with the Introduction by the Society:

    “The next Letter you meet withall came from the present
    Governour of the _Massachusets_, directed to the President of
    our Corporation, and another of the Members thereof, which
    wee thought good to publish, that every Christian Reader may
    partake in the same consolation, wherewith he and we are
    comforted; and joyne with us in prayer to the Lord of the
    Harvest, that he would provide more Labourers to enter upon
    this soul-saving worke, and enlarge the hearts of all his
    people in this Nation towards the same.”

        “_Much honoured and beloved in the Lord Jesus_:

        I Esteeme it not the least of God’s mercies that hath
        stirred up the hearts of any of the people of God to be
        instrumentall in the inlarging of the Kingdome of his deare
        Sonne here amongst the Heathen _Indians_, which was one
        end of our comming hither, and it is not frustrated. It
        was prophesied of old, and now begins to be accomplished,
        _Psal._ 2:8. Neither can I but acknowledge the unspeakable
        goodnesse of God that gives us favour in the sight of our
        Countreymen to helps on with so large a hand of bounty, so
        glorious a work, provoked thereunto by your worthy selves,
        the chiefs Actors of so good a designe, let me (with leave)
        say confidently, you will never have cause to repent it;
        For the work is Gods and he doth owne it, the labour there
        hath been yours, and your Master will reward it. I think
        Religion and Conscience binde me to seek unto God for you,
        and to praise him with you, for what is already begun. The
        Foundation is laid, and such a one that I verily beleeve
        the gates of Hell shall never prevaile against. I doubt
        not but the building will goe on apace, which I hope will
        make glad the hearts of Thousands. Truly Gentlemen, had
        you been eare and eye-witnesses of what I heard and saw on
        a Lecture-day amongst them about three weeks since, you
        could not but be affected therewith as I was. To speak
        truly I could hardly refrain tears from very joy to see
        their diligent attention to the word first taught by one
        of the _Indians_, who before his Exercise prayed for the
        manner devoutly and reverently (the matter I not so well
        understanding) but it was with such reverence, zeale,
        good affection, and distinct utterance, that I could not
        but admire it; his Prayer was about a quarter of an houre
        or more, as we judged it; then he took his Text, and
        Mr. _Eliot_ their Teacher told us that were _English_,
        the place (there were some Ministers and diverse other
        godly men there that attended me thither) his Text was
        in, _Matth._ 13:44, 45, 46. [The kingdom of heaven is
        like unto treasure, &c. And to a merchant man, &c.] He
        continued in his Exercise full halfe an houre or more, as
        I judged it, his gravity and utterance was indeed very
        commendable; which being done Mr. _Eliot_ taught in the
        _Indian_ tongue about three quarters of an hour as neer
        as I could guesse; the _Indians_ which were in number men
        and women neer about one hundred, seemed the most of them
        so to attend him, (the men especially) as if they would
        loose nothing of what was taught them, which reflected much
        upon some of our _English_ hearers. After all there was a
        _Psalme_ sung in the _Indian_ tongue, and _Indian_ meeter,
        but to an _English_ tune, read by one of themselves, that
        the rest might follow, and he read it very distinctly
        without missing a word as we could judge, and the rest
        sang chearfully, and prettie tuneablie. I rid on purpose
        thither being distant from my dwelling about thirty eight,
        or forty miles, and truly I account it one of the best
        Journeyes I made these many years. Some few dayes after I
        desired Mr. _Eliot_ briefly to write me the substance of
        the _Indians_ Exercise, which when he went thither again,
        namely to _Naticke_, where the _Indians_ dwell, and where
        the _Indian_ taught, he read what he remembered of it first
        to their School-Master who is an _Indian_, and teacheth
        them and their Children to write, and I saw him write also
        in _English_, who doth it true and very legible, and asked
        him if it were right, and he said yea, also he read it unto
        others, and to the man himselfe, who also owned it. To tell
        you of their industry and ingenuitie in building of an
        house after the _English_ manner, the hewing and squaring
        of their tymber, the sawing of the boards themselves, and
        making of a Chimney in it, making of their ground-sells
        and wall-plates, and mortising, and letting in the studds
        into them artificially, there being but one _English_ man
        a Carpenter to shew them, being but two dayes with them,
        is remarkeable. They have also built a Fort there with
        halfe trees cleft about eight or ten inches over, about
        ten or twelve foot high, besides what is intrencht in the
        ground, which is above a quarter of an acre of ground, as
        I judge. They have also built a foot bridge over _Charles_
        Rivers, with Groundsells and Spurres to uphold it against
        the strength of the Flood and Ice in Winter; it stood
        firme last Winter, and I think it will stand many Winters.
        They have made Drummes of their owne with heads and brases
        very neatly and artificially, all which shews they are
        industrious and ingenuous. And they intend to build a
        Water-Mill the next Summer, as I was told when I was with
        them. Some of them have learnt to mow grasse very well.
        I shall no further trouble you with any more Relation at
        this time concerning them. But a word or two further with
        your patience concerning other _Indians_. The work of
        God amongst the _Indians_ at _Martins Vineyard_, is very
        hopefull and prosperous also. I mist of Mr. _Mayhew_ their
        Teacher, who was lately at _Boston_, and therefore cannot
        give you a particular account thereof at this present time;
        yet I cannot but acquaint you what other motions there
        are touching other _Indians_. There came to us upon the
        20th of this instant Moneth, at the Generall Court one
        _Pummakummim_ Sachem of _Qunnubbagge_, dwelling amongst or
        neer to the _Narragansets_, who offered himselfe and his
        Men to worship God, and desired that some _English_ may
        be sent from the _Massachusets_ Government to plant his
        River, that thereby he may be partaker of Government, and
        may be instructed by the _English_ to know God. We shall
        I hope take some care and course about it, and I hope we
        shall have more help to carry on that work also; For there
        are some Schollers amongst us who addict themselves to the
        study of the _Indian_ Tongue. The Lord in mercy recompence
        it into your Bosomes, all that labour of love vouchsafed
        to the poor _Indians_, which are the hearty prayers, and
        earnest desire of, much honoured,

        _Boston the 27th of the Eight. 1651._ Your loving Friend in
        all service of Christ.

                                                     JOHN ENDECOTT.”

The prudence and caution of Mr. Eliot in his proceedings with regard to
the formation of a Church among the Indians are not a little remarkable.
He says,

    “In way of preparation of them thereunto, I did this Summer
    call forth sundry of them in the dayes of our public Assemblies
    in Gods Worship; sometimes on the Sabbath when I could be with
    them, and sometimes on Lecture daies, to make confession before
    the Lord of their former sins, and of their present knowledg
    of Christ, and experience of his Grace; which they solemnly
    doing, I wrote down their Confessions: which having done, and
    being in my own heart hopeful that there was among them fit
    matter for a Church, I did request all the Elders about us to
    hear them reade, that so they might give me advice what to
    do in this great and solemn business; which being done on a
    day appointed for the purpose, it pleased God to give their
    Confessions such acceptance in their hearts, as that they saw
    nothing to hinder their proceeding, to try how the Lord would
    appear therein. Whereupon, after a day of Fasting and Prayer
    among ourselves, to seek the Lord, in that behalf, there was
    another day of Fasting and Prayer appointed, and publick notice
    thereof, and of the names of Indians were to confess, and enter
    into Covenant that day, was given to all the Churches about
    us, to seek the Lord yet further herein, and to make solemn
    Confessions of Christ his Truth and Grace, and further to try
    whether the Lord would vouchsafe such grace unto them, as to
    give them acceptance among the Saints, into the fellowship of
    Church-Estate, and enjoyment of those Ordinances which the Lord
    hath betrusted his Churches withal. That day was the thirteenth
    of the eighth month.

    When the Assembly was met, the first part of the day was
    spent in Prayers unto God, and exercise in the Word of God;
    in which my self first and after that two of the Indians
    did Exercise; and so the time was spent till after ten or
    near eleven of the clock. Then addressing our selves unto
    the further work of the day, I first requested the reverend
    Elders (many being present) that they would ask them Questions
    touching the fundamental Points of Religion, that thereby
    they might have some tryal of their knowledg, and better that
    way, than if themselves should of themselves declare what
    they beleeve, or than if I should ask them Questions in these
    matters: After a little conference hereabout, it was concluded,
    That they should first make confession of their experience
    in the Lords Work upon their hearts, because in so doing, it
    is like something will be discerned of their knowledg in the
    Doctrines of Religion: and if after those Confessions there
    should yet be cause to inquire further touching any Point
    of Religion it might be fitly done at last. Whereupon we so
    proceeded, and called them forth in order to make confession.
    It was moved in the Assembly by Reverend Mr. _Wilson_, that
    their former Confessions also, as well as these which they made
    at present, might be read unto the Assembly, because it was
    evident that they were daunted much, to speak before so great
    and grave an Assembly as that was, but time did not permit it
    so to be then: yet now in my writing of their Confessions I
    will take that course, that so it may appear what encouragement
    there was to proceed so far as we did; and that such as may
    reade these their Confessions, may the better discern of the
    reality of the Grace of Christ in them.”

He afterwards says,

    “In the year 52 I perceiving the grace of God in sundry of
    them, and some poor measure of fitnesse (as I was perswaded)
    for the enjoyment of Church-fellowship, and Ordinances of Jesus
    Christ, I moved in that matter, according as I have in the
    Narration thereof, briefly declared. In the year 53 I moved not
    that way, for these Reasons.

    I having sent their Confessions to be published in _England_,
    I did much desire to hear what acceptance the Lord gave unto
    them, in the hearts of his people there, who daily labour at
    the Throne of grace, and by other expressions of their loves,
    for an holy birth of this work of the Lord, to the praise of
    Christ, and the inlargement of his Kingdome. As also my desire
    was, that by such Books as might be sent hither, the knowledge
    of their Confessions might be spread here, unto the better and
    fuller satisfaction of many, then the transacting thereof in
    the presence of some could doe. These Books came by the latter
    Ships (as I remember) that were bound for _New England_, and
    were but newly out when they set saile, and therefore I had not
    that answer that year, which my soule desired, though something
    I had which gave encouragement, and was a tast of what I have
    more fully heard from severall this year, praised be the Lord.

    Besides there fell a great damping and discouragement upon
    us by a jealousie too deeply apprehended, though utterly
    groundlesse, _viz._ That even these praying _Indians_ were
    in a conspiracy with others, and with the _Dutch_, to doe
    mischief to the _English_. In which matter, though the ruling
    part of the People looked otherwise upon them, yet it was no
    season for me to stir or move in this matter, when the waters
    were so troubled. This businesse needeth a calmer season,
    and I shall account it a favour of God when ever he shall
    please to cause his face to shine upon us in it. Yet this I
    did the last year, after the Books had been come a season,
    there being a great meeting at _Boston_, from other Colonies
    as well as our owne, and the Commissioners being there, I
    thought it necessary to take that opportunity to prepare and
    open the way in a readinesse against this present year, by
    making this Proposition unto them; namely, _That they having
    now seen their confessions, if upon further triall of them in
    point of knowledge, they be found to have a competent measure
    of understanding in the fundamentall points of Religion; and
    also, if there be due testimony of their conversation, that
    they walke in a Christian manner according to their light, so
    that Religion is to be seen in their lives; whether then it be
    according to God, and acceptable to his people, that they be
    called up unto Church estate?_ Unto which I had I blesse the
    Lord, a generall approbation.

    Accordingly this year 54 I moved the Elders, that they would
    give me advice and assistance in this great businesse, and that
    they would at a fit season examine the _Indians_ in point of
    their knowledge, because we found by the former triall, that a
    day will be too little (if the Lord please to call them on to
    Church-fellowship) to examine them in points of Knowledge, and
    hear their Confessions, and guide them into the holy Covenant
    of the Lord. Seeing all these things are to be transacted in a
    strange language, and by Interpreters, and with such a people
    as they be in these their first beginnings. But if they would
    spend a day on purpose to examine them in their knowledge
    there would be so much the more liberty to doe it fully and
    throughly, (as such a work ought to be) as also when they may
    be called to gather into Church-Communion, it may suffice that
    some one of them should make a Doctrinall Confession before
    the Lord and his people, as the rule of faith which they build
    upon, the rest attesting their consent unto the same: And
    themselves (the Elders I mean, if the Lord so far assist the
    _Indians_, as to give them satisfaction) might testifie that
    upon Examination they have found a competency of knowledge in
    them to inable them unto such a work and state. And thus the
    work might be much shortned, and more comfortably expedited in
    one day. I found no unreadinesse in the Elders to further this
    work.

    They concluded to attend the work, and for severall Reasons
    advised that the place should be at _Roxbury_, and not at
    _Natick_, and that the _Indians_ should be called thither, the
    time they left to me to appoint, in such a season as wherein
    the Elders may be at best liberty from other publick occasions.
    The time appointed was the 13 of the 4 moneth; meanwhile I
    dispatched Letters unto such as had knowledge in the Tongue,
    requesting that they would come and help in interpretation,
    or attest unto the truth of my Interpretations. I sent also
    for my Brother _Mayhu_, who accordingly came, and brought an
    Interpreter with him. Others whom I had desired, came not. I
    informed the _Indians_ of this appointment, and of the end it
    was appointed for, which they therefore called, and still doe,
    when they have occasion to speak of it _Natootomuhteáe kesuk, A
    day of asking Questions, or, A day of Examination_. I advised
    them to prepare for it, and to pray earnestly about it, that
    they might be accepted among Gods people, if it were the will
    of God.

    It pleased God so to guide, that there was a publick Fast
    of all the Churches, betwixt this our appointment, and the
    accomplishment thereof: which day they kept, as the Churches
    did, and this businesse of theirs was a Principall matter in
    their Prayers.”

It will be useful, as well as interesting, to give some of the
“Confessions of Indians” which were made and considered in preparation
for their entering into the Church state.


CONFESSION OF TOTHERSWAMP.

    “Before I prayed unto God, the English, when I came unto
    their houses, often said unto me, Pray to God; but I having
    many friends who loved me, and I loved them, and they cared
    not for praying to God, and therefore I did not: But I thought
    in my heart, that if my friends should die, and I live, I then
    would pray to God; soon after, God so wrought, that they did
    almost all die, few of them left; and then my heart feared,
    and I thought, that now I will pray unto God, and yet I was
    ashamed to pray; and if I eat and did not pray, I was ashamed
    of that also; so that I had a double shame upon me: Then you
    came unto us, and taught us, and said unto us, _Pray unto God_;
    and after that, my heart grew strong, and I was no more ashamed
    to pray, but I did take up praying to God; yet at first I did
    not think of God and eternal Life, but only that the English
    should love me and I loved them: But after I came to learn
    what sin was, by the Commandments of God, and then I saw all
    my sins, lust, gaming, &c. (he named more.) You taught, That
    Christ knoweth all our hearts, and seeth what is in them, if
    humility, or anger, or evil thoughts, Christ seeth all that
    is in the heart; then my heart feared greatly, because God
    was angry for all my sins; yea, now my heart is full of evil
    thoughts, and my heart runs away from God, therefore my heart
    feareth and mourneth. Every day I see sin in my heart; one man
    brought sin into the World, and I am full of that sin, and I
    break Gods Word every day. I see I deserve not pardon, for the
    first mans sinning; I can do no good, for I am like the Devil,
    nothing but evil thoughts, and words, and works. I have lost
    all likeness to God, and goodness, and therefore every day I
    sin against God, and I deserve death and damnation: The first
    man brought sin first, and I do every day add to that sin, more
    sins; but Christ hath done for us all righteousness, and died
    for us because of our sins, and Christ teacheth us, That if we
    cast away our sins, and trust in Christ, then God will pardon
    all our sins; this I beleeve Christ hath done, I can do no
    righteousness, but Christ hath done it for me; this I beleeve,
    and therefore I do hope for pardon. When I first heard the
    Commandments, I then took up praying to God and cast off sin.
    Again, When I heard, and understood Redemption by Christ, then
    I beleeved Jesus Christ to take away my sins: every Commandment
    taught me sin, and my duty to God. When you ask me why do I
    love God? I answer, Because he giveth me all outward blessings,
    as food, clothing, children, all gifts of strength, speech,
    hearing; especially that he giveth us a Minister to teach us,
    and giveth us Government; and my heart feareth lest Government
    should reprove me; but the greatest mercy of all is Christ, to
    give us pardon and life.”


“TOTHERSWAMP

_The Confession which he made on the Fast day before the great Assembly
was as followeth:_

    I Confess in the presence of the Lord, before I prayed, many
    were my sins, not one good word did I speak, not one good
    thought did I think, not one good action did I doe: I did act
    all sins, and full was my heart of evil thoughts; when the
    English did tell me of God, I cared not for it, I thought it
    enough if they loved me: I had many friends that loved me,
    and I thought if they died I would pray to God: and afterward
    it so came to pass; then was my heart ashamed, to pray I was
    ashamed, and if I prayed not, I was ashamed; a double shame was
    upon me: when God by you taught us, very much ashamed was my
    heart; then you taught us that Christ knoweth all our hearts:
    therefore truly he saw my thoughts, and I had thought, if my
    kindred should die I would pray to God; therefore they dying,
    I must now pray to God; and therefore my heart feared, for I
    thought Christ knew my thoughts: then I heard you teach, _The
    first man God made was named_ Adam, _& God made a Covenant
    with him, Do and live, thou and thy Children; if thou do not
    thou must die, thou and thy Children_: And we are Children of
    _Adam_ poor sinners, therefore we all have sinned, for we have
    broke Gods Covenant, therefore evil is my heart, therefore
    God is very angry with me, we sin against him every day; but
    this great mercy God hath given us, he hath given us his only
    Son, and promiseth, That whosoever beleeveth in Christ shall
    be saved: for Christ hath dyed for us in our stead, for our
    sins, and he hath done for us all the words of God, for I can
    do no good act, only Christ can, and only Christ hath done all
    for us; Christ hath deserved pardon for us, and risen again,
    he hath ascended to God, and doth ever pray for us; therefore
    all Beleevers Souls shall goe to Heaven to Christ. But when I
    heard that word of Christ, Christ said _Repent and Beleeve_,
    and Christ seeth _who Repenteth_, then I said, dark and weak
    is my Soul, and I am one in darkness, I am a very sinful man,
    and now I pray to Christ for life. Hearing you teach that Word
    that the Scribes and Pharisees said _Why do thy Disciples break
    the Tradition of the Fathers_? Christ answered, _Why do you
    make void the Commandments of God?_ Then my heart feared that
    I do so, when I teach the Indians, because I cannot teach them
    right, and thereby make the word of God vain. Again, Christ
    said _If the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the
    ditch_; Therefore I feared that I am one blind, and when I
    teach other Indians I shal caus them to fall into the ditch.
    This is the love of God to me, that he giveth me all mercy in
    this world, and for them al I am thankfull; but I confess I
    deserve Hell; I cannot deliver my self, but I give my Soul and
    my Flesh to Christ, and I trust my soul with him for he is my
    Redeemer, and I desire to call upon him while I live.

    This was his Confession which ended, Mr. _Allin_ further
    demanded of him this Question, How he found his heart, now in
    the matter of Repentance?

    His answer was; I am ashamed of all my sins, my heart is broken
    for them and melteth in me, I am angry with my self for my
    sins, and I pray to Christ to take away my sins, and I desire
    that they may be pardoned.

    But it was desired that further Question might be forborn, lest
    time would be wanting to here them all speak.”

The following is the Confession of Waban, (or the wind,) the man in
whose wigwam Mr. Eliot preached to the Indians in the beginning of his
ministry among them, and who, from Mr. Eliot’s text, “Prophesy unto the
wind,” &c., supposed that the message of God was specially directed to
himself.


CONFESSION OF WABAN.

    “Before I heard of God, and before the English came into this
    Country, many evil things my heart did work, many thoughts I
    had in my heart; I wished for riches, I wished to be a witch,
    I wished to be a Sachem; and many such other evils were in my
    heart: Then when the English came, still my heart did the same
    things; when the English taught me of God (I coming to their
    Houses) I would go out of their doors, and many years I knew
    nothing; when the English taught me I was angry with them:
    But a little while agoe after the great sikness, I considered
    what the English do; and I had some desire to do as they
    do; and after that I began to work as they work; and then I
    wondered how the English come to be so strong to labor; then
    I thought I shall quickly die, and I feared lest I should die
    before I prayed to God; then I thought, if I prayed to God in
    our Language, whether could God understand my prayers in our
    Language; therefore I did ask Mr. _Jackson_, and Mr. _Mahu_,
    If God understood prayers in our Language? They answered me
    God doth understand all Languages in the World. But I do not
    know how to confess, and little do I know of Christ; I fear I
    shall not beleeve a great while, and very slowly; I do not know
    what grace is in my heart, there is but little good in me; but
    this I know, That Christ hath kept all Gods Commandements for
    us, and that Christ doth know all our hearts; and now I desire
    to repent of all my sins: I neither have done, nor can do the
    Commandements of the Lord, but I am ashamed of all I do, and
    I do repent of all my sins, even of all that I do know of: I
    desire that I may be converted from all my sins, and that I
    might beleeve in Christ, and I desire him; I dislike my sins,
    yet I do not truly pray to God in my heart: no matter for good
    words, all is the true heart; and this day I do not so much
    desire good words, as throughly to open my heart: I confess I
    can do nothing, but deserve damnation; only Christ can help me
    and do for me. But I have nothing to say for my self that is
    good; I judg that I am a sinner, and cannot repent, but Christ
    hath deserved pardon for us.”

    This Confession being not so satisfactory as was desired, Mr.
    _Wilson_ testified, that he spake these latter expressions with
    tears, which I observed not, because I attended to writing; but
    I gave this testimony of him, That his conversation was without
    offence to the English, so far as I knew, and among the Indians
    it was exemplar: his gift is not so much in expressing himself
    this way, but in other respects useful and eminent; it being
    demanded in what respects, I answered to this purpose, That his
    gift lay in Ruling, Judging of Cases, wherein he is patient,
    constant, and prudent, insomuch that he is much respected
    among them, for they have chosen him a Ruler of Fifty, and he
    Ruleth well according to his measure. It was further said, they
    thought he had been a great drawer on to Religion; I replyed,
    so he was in his way, and did prevail with many; and so it
    rested.


“CONFESSION OF WILLIAM, OF SUDBURY.

    I confess that before I prayed, I committed all manner of
    sins, and served many gods: when the English came first, I
    going to their houses, they spake to me of your God, but when I
    heard of God, my heart hated it; but when they said the Devil
    was my god, I was angry, because I was proud: when I came to
    their houses I hated to hear of God, I loved lust in my own
    house and not God, I loved to pray to many gods. Five years
    ago, I going to English houses, and they speaking of God, I did
    a little like of it, yet when I went again to my own house,
    I did all manner of sins, and in my heart I did act all sins
    though I would not be seen by man. Then going to your house, I
    more desired to hear of God; and my heart said, I will pray to
    God so long as I live: then I went to the Minister Mr. _Browns_
    house, and told him I would pray as long as I lived: but he
    said I did not say it from my heart, and I beleeve it. When
    _Waban_ spake to me that I should pray to God, I did so. But I
    had greatly sinned against God, and had not beleeved the Word
    but was proud: but then I was angry with my self, and loathed
    my self, and thought God will not forgive me my sins. For when
    I had been abroad in the woods I would be very angry, and would
    lye unto men, and I could not find the way how to be a good
    man: then I beleeved your teaching, That when good men die, the
    Angels carry their souls to God; but evil men dying, they go to
    Hell, and perish for ever. I thought this a true saying, and
    I promised to God, to pray to God as long as I live. I had a
    little grief in my heart five years ago for my sins: but many
    were my prides; sometime I was angry with my self, and pityed
    my self; but I thought God would not pardon such a proud heart
    as mine is: I beleeve that Christ would have me to forsake my
    anger; I beleeve that Christ hath redeemed us, and I am glad to
    hear those words of God; and I desire that I might do al the
    good waies of God, and that I might truly pray unto God: I do
    now want Graces, and these Christ only teacheth us, and only
    Christ hath wrought our redemption, and he procureth our pardon
    for all our sins; and I beleeve that when beleevers dy, Gods
    Angels carry them to Heaven; but I want faith to beleeve the
    Word of God, and to open my Eyes, and to help me to cast away
    all sins; and Christ hath deserved for me eternall life: I have
    deserved nothing my self: Christ hath deserved, all, and giveth
    me faith to beleeve it.”


“CONFESSION OF MONEQUASSUN, THE SCHOOLMASTER.

    I Confess my sorrow for all my sins against God, and
    before men: When I first heard instruction, I beleeved not,
    but laughed at it, and scorned praying to God; afterward,
    when we were taught at _Cohannet_ (that is the place where
    he lived) I still hated praying, and I did think of running
    away, because I cared not for praying to God; but afterwards,
    because I loved to dwell at that place, I would not leave the
    place, and therfore I thought I will pray to God, because I
    would still stay at that place, therefore I prayed not for the
    love of God, but for love of the place I lived in; after that I
    desired a little to learn the Catechisme on the Lecture daies,
    and I did learn the ten Commandements, and after that, all
    the points in the Catechisme; yet afterwards I cast them all
    away again, then was my heart filled with folly, and my sins
    great sins, afterwards by hearing, I began to fear, because of
    my many sins, lest the wise men should come to know them, and
    punish me for them; and then again I thought of running away
    because of my many sins: But after that I thought I would pray
    rightly to God, and cast away my sins; then I saw my hypocricy,
    because I did ask some questions, but did not do that which
    I knew: afterward I considered of my question, and thought I
    would pray to God, and would consider of some other Question,
    and I asked this Question, _How should I get Wisdom?_ and the
    Answer to it did a little turn my heart from sin, to seek after
    God; and I then considered that the Word of God was good; then
    I prayed to God because of the Word of God. The next Lecture
    day you taught that word of God, _If any man lack Wisdom, let
    him ask it of God, who giveth freely to them that ask him, and
    upbraideth no man_, _James_, 1:5. Then again a little my heart
    was turned after God, the Word also said, _Repent, mourn, and
    beleeve in Jesus Christ_: this also helped me on. Then you
    taught, _That he that beleeveth not Christ, and repenteth not
    of sin, they are foolish and wicked; and because they beleeve
    not, they shall perish_: then I thought my self a fool, because
    I beleeved not Christ, but sinned every day, and after I heard
    the Word greatly broke the Word. But afterward I heard this
    promise of God, _Who ever repenteth and beleeveth in Christ,
    God will forgive him all his sins, he shall not perish_; then I
    thought, that as yet, I do not repent, and beleeve in Christ:
    then I prayed to God, because of this his Promise; and then
    I prayed to God, for God and for Christ his sake: after that
    again I did a little break the Word of Christ. And then I
    heard some other words of God, which shewed me my sins, and
    my breakings of Gods word; and sometimes I thought God and
    Christ would forgive me, because of the promise to them that
    beleeve in Christ, and repent of sin, I thought I did that
    which God spake in the Promise. Then being called to confess,
    to prepare to make a Church at _Natick_, I loved _Cohannet_;
    but after hearing this instruction, _That we should not only be
    Hearers, but Doers of the Word_, then my heart did fear. And
    afterward hearing that in _Matthew_, Christ saw two brethren
    mending their Nets, he said, _Follow me and I will make you
    Fishers of men_, presently they followed Christ; and when I
    heard this, I feared, because I was not willing to follow
    Christ to _Natick_; they followed Christ at his Word, but I
    did not, for now Christ saith to us, _follow Me_: then I was
    much troubled, and considered of this Word of God. Afterward I
    heard another word, the blind men cried after Christ and said,
    _Have mercy on us thou Son of David_, but after they came to
    Christ he called them, and asked them, _What shall I do for
    you?_ they said, _Lord open our eyes_; then Christ had pity on
    them, and opened their eyes, and they followed Christ; when I
    heard this, my heart was troubled, then I prayed to God and
    Christ, to open mine eyes, and if Christ open my eyes, then
    I shall rejoyce to follow Christ: then I considered of both
    these Scriptures, and I a little saw that I must follow Christ.
    And now my heart desireth to make confession of what I know
    of God, and of my self, and of Christ: I beleeve that there
    is only one God, and that he made and ruleth all the World,
    and that he the Lord, giveth us al good things: I know that
    God giveth every day all good mercies, life, and health, and
    all; I have not one good thing, but God it is that giveth it
    me, I beleeve that God at first made man like God, holy, wise,
    righteous; but the first man sinned, for God promised him, _If
    thou do my Commandements, thou shalt live, and thy Children;
    but if thou sin, thou shalt die, thou and thy children_; this
    Covenant God made with the first man. But the first man did
    not do the Commandements of God he did break Gods Word, he
    beleeved Satan; and now I am full of sin, because the first
    man brought sin; dayly I am full of sin in my heart: I do not
    dayly rejoyce in Repentance, because Satan worketh dayly in my
    heart, and opposeth Repentance, and all good Works; day and
    night my heart is full of sin. I beleeve that Jesus Christ was
    born of the _Virgin Mary_; God promised her she should bear
    a Son, and his Name should be _JESUS_, because he shall
    deliver his people from their sins: And when Christ came to
    preach, he said, _Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven is at
    hand_; again Christ taught, _Except ye repent and become as a
    little child, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven_;
    therefore humble your selves like one of these little children,
    and great shall be your Kingdom in Heaven. Again Christ said,
    _Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden with sin,
    and I will give you rest: take up my Cross and Yoak, learn of
    me for I am meek, and ye shall find rest to your souls, for my
    yoak is easie and burden light_: these are the Words of Christ
    and I know Christ he is good, but my works are evil: Christ his
    words are good, but I am not humble; but if we be humble and
    beleeving in Christ, he pardons all our sins. I now desire to
    beleeve in Jesus Christ, because of the word of Christ, that
    I may be converted and become as a little Child. I confess my
    sins before God, and before Jesus Christ this day; now I desire
    all my sins may be pardoned; I now desire repentance in my
    heart, and ever to beleeve in Christ; now I lift up my heart to
    Christ, and trust him with it, because I beleeve Christ died
    for us, for all our sins, and deserved for us eternal life in
    Heaven, and deserved pardon for all our sins. And now I give
    my soul to Christ because he hath redeemed: I do greatly love,
    and like repentance in my heart, and I love to beleeve in Jesus
    Christ, and my heart is broken by repentance: al these things
    I do like wel of, that they may be in my heart, but because
    Christ hath all these to give, I ask them of him that he may
    give me repentance, and faith in Christ, and therefore I pray
    and beseech Christ dayly for repentance and faith; and other
    good waies I beg of Christ dayly to give me: and I pray to
    Christ for al these gifts and graces to put them in my heart:
    and now I greatly thank Christ for all these good gifts which
    he hath given me. I know not any thing, nor can do any thing
    that is a good work: even my heart is dark dayly in what I
    should do, and my soul dyeth because of my sins, and therefore
    I give my soul to Christ, because my soul is dead in sin, and
    dayly doth commit sin; in my heart I sin, and all the members
    of my body are sinful. I beleeve Jesus Christ is ascended to
    Heaven through the clouds, and he will come again from Heaven:
    Many saw Christ go up to Heaven, and the Angels said, even
    so he will come again to judg all the world; and therefore
    I beleeve Gods promise, That all men shall rise again when
    Christ cometh again, then all shall rise, and all their souls
    comes again because Christ is trusted with them, and keeps
    their souls, therefore I desire my sins may be pardoned; and I
    beleeve in Christ; and ever so long as I live, I will pray to
    God, and do all the good waies he commandeth.”


“CONFESSIONS OF ROBIN SPEENE.

    I was ashamed because you taught to pray to God, and I did not
    take it up; I see God is angry with me for all my sins, and
    he hath afflicted me by the death of three of my children,
    and I fear God is still angry, because great are my sins, and
    I fear lest my children be not gone to Heaven, because I am
    a great sinner, yet one of my children prayed to God before
    it died, and therefore my heart rejoyceth in that. I remember
    my Pawwawing [for he was a _Pawwaw_] my lust, my gaming, and
    all my sins; I know them by the Commandements of God, and God
    heareth and seeth them all; I cannot deliver my self from sin,
    therefore I do need Christ, because of all my sins, I desire
    pardon, and I beleeve that God calls all to come to Christ, and
    that he delivereth us from sin.”

“_His Second Confession._

    I have found out one word more: great are my sins, and I do
    not know how to repent, nor do I know the evil of my sins; only
    this one word, now I confess I want Christ, this day 1 want
    him; I do not truly beleeve nor repent: I see my sin, and I
    need Christ, but I desire now to be redeemed: and I now ask you
    this Question _What is Redemption?_ I answered him, by shewing
    him our estate by Nature, and desert, the price which Christ
    paid for us, and how it is to be applied to every particular
    person; which done, he proceeded in his confession thus: I yet
    cannot tell whether God hath pardoned my sins, I forget the
    word of God; but this I desire, that my sins may be pardoned,
    but my heart is foolish, and a great part of the Word stayeth
    not in my heart strongly. I desire to cast all my sins out of
    my heart: but I remember my sins, that I may get them pardoned,
    I think God doth not yet hear my prayers in this, because I
    cannot keep the Word of God, only I desire to hear the Word,
    and that God would hear me.”

“_His Third Confession._

    One word more I cal to mind, Great is my sin! this saith my
    heart, I have found this sin, when I first heard you teach,
    that all the world from the rising to the sitting Sun should
    pray to God, I then wondered at it, and thought, I being a
    great sinner, how shal I pray to God; and when I saw many come
    to the Meeting, I wondred at it: But now I do not wonder at
    that work of God, and therefore I think that I do now greatly
    sin: and now I desire again to wonder at Gods Works, and I
    desire to rejoyce in Gods good waies. Now I am much ashamed,
    and fear because I have deserved eternal wrath by my sins:
    my heart is evil, my heart doth contrary to God: and this I
    desire, that I may be redeemed, for I cannot help my self,
    but only Jesus Christ hath done al this for me, and I deserve
    no good, but I beleeve Christ hath deserved all for us: and
    I give my self unto Christ, that he may save me, because he
    knoweth eternal life, and can give it; I cannot give it to my
    self, therefore I need Jesus Christ, my heart is full of evil
    thoughts; and Christ only can keep my soul from them, because
    he hath paid for my deliverance from them.”


“CONFESSION OF ANTONY.

    Another who made his Confession is named _Antony_, upon whom
    the Lord was pleased the last Winter to lay an heavy stroke;
    for he and another Indian being at work sawing of Board, and
    finishing the Peece, they laid it so short, and the Rowl not so
    stedfast, insomuch that this man being in the Pit directing to
    lay the Piece, and the other above ordering thereof, it slipped
    down into the Pit upon this mans head, brake his neather Chap
    in two, and cracked his Skull, insomuch that he was taken up
    half dead, and almost strangled with blood; and being the last
    day of the week at night I had no word until the Sabbath day,
    then I presently sent a Chyrurgion, who took a discreet order
    with him; and God so blessed his indeavors, as that he is now
    well again, blessed be the Lord: and whereas I did fear that
    such a blow in their Labor might discourage them from Labor,
    I have found it by Gods blessing otherwise; yea this man hath
    performed a great part of the sawing of our Meeting-House, and
    is now sawing upon the School-house, and his recovery is an
    establishment of them to go on; yea, and God blessed this blow,
    to help on the Work of Grace in his soul; as you shall see in
    his Confession, which followeth.

    Before I prayed to God I alwaies committed sin, but I do
    not know all my sins, I know but a little of the sins I have
    committed, therefore I thought I could not pray to God, because
    I knew not al my sins before I prayed to God, and since I heard
    of praying to God: formerly when the English did bid me pray
    unto God I hated it, and would go out of their houses, when
    they spake of such things to me. I had no delight to hear any
    thing of Gods Word, but in every thing I sinned; in my speeches
    I sinned, and every day I broke the Commands of God. After
    I heard of praying to God, that _Waban_ and my two brothers
    prayed to God, yet then I desired it not, but did think of
    running away; yet I feared if I did run away some wicked men
    would kill me, but I did not fear God. After when you said unto
    me, pray, my heart thought, I will pray; yet again I thought,
    I cannot pray with my heart, and no matter for praying with
    words only: but when I did pray, I saw more of my sins; yet I
    did but only see them, I could not be aware of them, but still
    I did commit them: and after I prayed to God, I was still full
    of lust, and then a little I feared. Sometimes I was sick, and
    then I thought God was angry, and then I saw that I did commit
    all sins: then one of my brothers died, and then my heart was
    broken, and after him another friend, and again my heart was
    broken: and yet after all this I broke my praying to God, and
    put away God, and then I thought I shall never pray to God: but
    after this I was afraid of the Lord, because I alwaies broke
    my praying to God and then my heart said, God doth not hear my
    prayer. When I was sick, and recovered again, I thought then
    that God was merciful unto me. Hearing that word of God, _If
    you hear the Word of God, and be forgetful hearers, you sin
    against God_; then I thought God will not pardon such a sinner
    as I, who dayly did so, and broke my praying to God. When I
    heard the Commandements, I desired to learn them, and other
    points of Catechism, but my desires were but small, and I soon
    lost it, because I did not desire to beleeve: then sometimes
    I feared Gods anger because of al my sins; I heard the Word
    and understood only this word, _All you that hear this day, it
    may be you shall quickly die_, and then I quickly saw that God
    was very angry with me. Then God brake my head, and by that I
    saw Gods anger; and then I thought that the true God in Heaven
    is angry with me for my sin, even for al my sins, which every
    day I live, I do. When I was almost dead, some body bid me now
    beleeve, because it may be I shal quickly die, and I thought I
    did beleeve, but I did not know right beleeving in Christ: then
    I prayed unto God to restore my health. Then I beleeved that
    word, _That we must shortly appear before Jesus Christ_; then
    I did greatly fear lest if I beleeved not, I should perish for
    ever. When I was neer death, I prayed unto God, _Oh Lord give
    me life, and I will pray to God so long as I live_, and I said,
    _I will give my self, soul, and body to Christ_: after this,
    God gave me health, and then I thought, truly, God in Heaven is
    merciful; then I much grieved, that I knew so little of Gods
    Word. And now sometimes I am angry, and then I fear because I
    know God seeth it; and I fear, because I promised God when I
    was almost dead, that if he giveth me life, I will pray so long
    as I live; I fear lest I should break this promise to God. Now
    I desire the pardon of all my sins, and I beg faith in Christ,
    and I desire to live unto God, so long as I live; I cannot
    myself get pardon, but I dayly commit sin, and break Gods Word,
    but I look to Christ for pardon.”


“CONFESSION OF EPHRAIM.

    All the daies I have lived, I have been in a poor foolish
    condition, I cannot tell all my sins, all my great sins, I do
    not see them. When I first heard of praying to God, I could
    not sleep quietly, I was so troubled, ever I thought I would
    forsake the place because of praying to God, my life hath been
    like as if I had been a mad man. Last yeer I thought I would
    leave all my sins, yet I see I do not leave off sinning to this
    day; I now think I shall never be able to forsake my sins. I
    think sometimes the Word of God is false, yet I see there is
    no giving over that I might follow sin, I must pray to God; I
    do not truly in my heart repent, and I think that God wil not
    forgive me my sins: every day my heart sinneth, and how will
    Christ forgive such an one? I pray but outwardly with my mouth,
    not with my heart; I cannot of my self obtain pardon of my
    sins: I cannot tell all the sins that I have done if I should
    tell you an whol day together: I do every morning desire that
    my sins may be pardoned by Jesus Christ; this my heart saith,
    but yet I fear I cannot forsake my sins, because I cannot see
    all my sins: I hear, That if we repent and beleeve in Christ,
    all our sins shall be pardoned, therefore I desire to leave off
    my sins.

    This poor Publican was the last which made his Confession before
    I read them unto the Elders, and the last of them I shall now
    publish. I will shut up these Confessions with the Confession
    (if I may so call it) or rather with the Expression, and
    manifestation of faith, by two little Infants, of two yeers
    old, and upward, under three yeers of age when they died and
    departed out of this world.

    _The Story is this_,

    This Spring, in the beginning of the yeer, 1652, the Lord was
    pleased to afflict sundry of our praying Indians with that
    grievous disease of the Bloody-Flux, whereof some with great
    torments in their bowels died; among which were two little
    Children of the age above-said, and at that time both in one
    house, being together taken with that disease. The first of
    these Children in the extremities of its torments, lay crying
    to God in these words, _God and Jesus Christ, God and Jesus
    Christ help me_; and when they gave it any thing to eat, it
    would greedily take it (as it is usual at the approach of
    death) but first it would cry to God, _Oh God and Jesus Christ,
    bless it_, and then it would take it: and in this manner it lay
    calling upon God and Jesus Christ untill it died: The mother of
    this Child also died of that disease, at that time. The Father
    of the Child told me this story, with great wonderment at the
    grace of God, in teaching his Child so to call upon God. The
    name of the Father is _Nishohkou_, whose Confession you have
    before.

    Three or four daies after, another Child in the same house,
    sick of the same disease, was (by a divine hand doubtless)
    sensible of the approach of death, (an unusual thing at that
    age) and called to its Father, and said, _Father, I am going
    to God_, several times repeating it, _I am going to God_. The
    mother (as other mothers use to do) had made for the Child a
    little Basket, a little Spoon, and a little Tray: these things
    the Child was wont to be greatly delighted withal (as all
    Children will) therefore in the extremity of the torments,
    they set those things before it, a little to divert the mind,
    and cheer the spirit: but now, the child takes the Basket, and
    puts it away, and said, _I will leave my Basket behind me, for
    I am going to God, I will leave my Spoon and Tray behind me_
    (putting them away) _for I am going to God_: and with these
    kind of expressions, the same night finished its course, and
    died.

    The Father of this child is named _Robin Speen_, whose
    Confessions you have before, and in one of them he maketh
    mention of this child that died in Faith. When he related this
    story to me, he said, He could not tell whether the sorrow for
    the death of his child, or the joy for its faith were greater,
    when it died.

    These Examples are a testimony, That they teach their children
    the knowledg and fear of God, whom they now call upon; and also
    that the Spirit of God co-worketh with their instructions, who
    teacheth by man, more than man is able to do.”

    Mr. Eliot says, ‘I have now finished all that I purpose to
    publish at this time; the Lord give them Acceptance in the
    hearts of his Saints, to engage them the more to pray for them;
    and Oh! that their judgings of themselves, and breathings after
    Christ, might move others (that have more means than they
    have, but as yet regard it not) to do the like, and much more
    abundantly.’

A meeting of the Elders of the Churches was requested by Mr. Eliot, as
before stated, to give advice in view of these Confessions, and upon
further personal examination of some of the Indians, as to the next step
to be taken in organizing the Indian Church. But Mr. E. says,

    “There fell out a very great discouragement a little before
    the time, which might have been a scandall unto them, and I
    doubt not but Satan intended it so; but the Lord improved it to
    stir up faith and Prayer, and so turned it another way: Thus it
    was. Three of the unsound sort of such as are among them that
    pray unto God, who are hemmed in by Relations, and other means,
    to doe that which their hearts love not, and whose Vices Satan
    improveth to scandalize and reproach the better sort withall;
    while many, and some good people are too ready to say they
    are all alike. I say three of them had gotten severall quarts
    of strong water, (which sundry out of a greedy desire of a
    little gaine, are too ready to sell unto them, to the offence
    and grief of the better sort of _Indians_, and of the godly
    English too)[31] and with these Liquors, did not onely make
    themselves drunk, but got a Child of eleven years of age, the
    Son of _Toteswamp_, whom his Father had sent for a little Corne
    and Fish to that place near _Watertowne_ where they were. Unto
    this Child they first gave too spoonfuls of Strong-water, which
    was more then his head could bear; and another of them put a
    Bottle, or such like Vessel to his mouth, and caused him to
    drink till he was very drunk; and then one of them domineered,
    and said, _Now we will see whether your Father will punish us
    for drunkennesse_ (for he is a Ruler among them) _seeing you
    are drunk with us for company_; and in this case lay the Child
    abroad all night. They also fought, and had been severall times
    Punished formerly for Drunkennesse.

    When _Toteswamp_ heard of this, it was a great shame and
    breaking of heart unto him, and he knew not what to doe. The
    rest of the Rulers with him considered of the matter, they
    found a complication of many sins together.

    1 The sin of Drunkennesse, and that after many former
    Punishments for the same.

    2 A willful making of the Child drunk, and exposing him to
    danger also.

    3 A degree of reproaching the Rulers.

    4 Fighting.

    Word was brought to me of it, a little before I took Horse to
    goe to _Natick_ to keep the Sabbath with them, being about ten
    dayes before the appointed Meeting. The Tidings sunk my spirit
    extreamly, I did judge it to be the greatest frowne of God that
    ever I met withall in the work, I could read nothing in it but
    displeasure, I began to doubt about our intended work: I knew
    not what to doe, the blacknesse of the sins, and the Persons
    reflected on, made my very heart faile me: For one of the
    offendors (though least in the offence) was he that hath been
    my Interpreter, whom I have used in Translating a good part of
    the Holy Scriptures; and in that respect I saw much of Satans
    venome, and in God I saw displeasure. For this and some other
    acts of Apostacy at this time, I had thoughts of casting him
    off from that work, yet now the Lord hath found a way to humble
    him. But his Apostacy at this time was a great Triall, and I
    did lay him by for that day of our Examination, I used another
    in his room. Thus Satan aimed at me in this their miscarrying;
    and _Toteswamp_ is a Principall man in the work, as you shall
    have occasion to see anon God-willing.

    By some occasion our Ruling Elder and I being together, I
    opened the case unto him, and the Lord guided him to speak some
    gracious words of encouragement unto me, by which the Lord did
    relieve my spirit; and so I committed the matter and issue unto
    the Lord, to doe what pleased him, and in so doing my soul was
    quiet in the Lord. I went on my journey being the 6 day of the
    week; when I came at _Natick_, the Rulers had then a Court
    about it. Soon after I came there, the Rulers came to me with
    a Question about this matter, they related the whole businesse
    unto me, with much trouble and grief.

    Then _Toteswamp_ spake to this purpose, _I am greatly
    grieved about these things, and now God tryeth me whether I
    love Christ or my Child best. They say, They will try me; but
    I say, God will try me. Christ saith, He that loveth father,
    or mother, or wife, or Child, better than me, is not worthy of
    me. Christ saith, I must correct my Child, if I should refuse
    to doe that, I should not love Christ. God bid Abraham kill
    his Son, Abraham loved God, and therefore he would have done
    it, had not God with-held him. God saith to me, onely punish
    your Child, and how can I love God, if I should refuse to doe
    that?_ These things he spake in more words, and much affection,
    and not with dry eyes: Nor could I refraine from teares to
    hear him. When it was said, The Child was not so guilty of
    the sin, as those that made him drunk; he said, _That he was
    guilty of sin, in that he feared not sin, and in that he did
    not believe his counsells that he had often given him, to take
    heed of evill company; but he had believed Satan and sinners
    more then him, therefore he needed to be punished._ After other
    such like discourse, the Rulers left me, and went unto their
    businesse, which they were about before I came, which they did
    bring unto this conclusion, and judgement, They judged the
    three men to sit in the stocks a good space of time, and thence
    to be brought to the whipping-Post, & have each of them twenty
    lashes. The boy to be put in the stocks a little while, and the
    next day his father was to whip him in the School, before the
    Children there; all which Judgement was executed. When they
    came to be whipt, the Constable fetcht them one after another
    to the Tree (which they make use of instead of a Post) where
    they all received their Punishments: which done, the Rulers
    spake thus, one of them said, _The Punishments for sin are
    the Commandements of God, and the worke of God, and his end
    was, to doe them good, and bring them to repentance._ And upon
    that ground he did in more words exhort them to repentance,
    and amendment of life. When he had done, another spake unto
    them to this purpose, _You are taught in Catechisme, that the
    wages of sin are all miseries and calamities in this life, and
    also death and eternall damnation in hell. Now you feele some
    smart as the fruit of your sin, and this is to bring you to
    repentance, that so you may escape the rest._ And in more words
    he exhorted them to repentance. When he had done, another spake
    to this purpose, _Heare all yee people_ (turning himselfe to
    the People who stood round about, I think not lesse then two
    hundred, small and great) _this is the Commandement of the
    Lord, that thus it should be done unto sinners; and therefore
    let all take warning by this, that you commit not such sins,
    least you incur these Punishments_. And with more words he
    exhorted the People. Others of the Rulers spake also, but some
    things spoken I understood not, and some things slipt from me:
    But these which I have related remained with me.

    When I returned to _Roxbury_, I related these things to our
    Elder, to whom I had before related the sin, and my grief: who
    was much affected to hear it, and magnified God. He said also,
    That their sin was but a Transient act, which had no Rule, and
    would vanish. But these Judgements were an ordinance of God,
    and would remaine, and doe more good every way, then their sin
    could doe hurt, telling me what cause I had to be thankfull for
    such an issue: Which I therefore relate, because the Lord did
    speak to my heart, in this exigent, by his words.”

This difficulty being thus settled, the time came for the meeting of the
Elders. Mr. Eliot observes,

    “When the assembly was met for Examination of the _Indians_,
    and ordered, I declared the end and Reason of this Meeting,
    and therefore declared, That any one, in due order, might have
    liberty to propound any Questions for their satisfaction.
    Likewise, I requested the Assembly, That if any one doubted
    of the Interpretations that should be given of their answers,
    that they would Propound their doubt, and they should have
    the words scanned and tryed by the Interpreters, that so all
    things may be done most clearly. For my desire was to be
    true to Christ, to their soules, and to the Churches: And
    the trying out of any of their Answers by the Interpreters,
    would tend to the satisfaction of such as doubt, as it fell
    out in one Answer which they gave; the Question was, _How
    they knew the Scriptures to be the word of God?_ The finall
    Answer was, Because they did find that it did change their
    hearts, and wrought in them wisedome and humility. This Answer
    being Interpreted to the Assembly, my Brother _Mahu_ doubted,
    especially of the word [_Hohpoóonk_] signifying _Humility_, it
    was scanned by the Interpreters, and proved to be right, and
    he rested satisfied therein. I was purposed my selfe to have
    written the Elders Questions, and the _Indians_ Answers, but
    I was so imployed in propounding to the _Indians_ the Elders
    Questions, and in returning the _Indians_ Answers, as that
    it was not possible for me to write unlesse I had caused the
    Assembly to stay upon it, which had not been fitting; therefore
    seeing Mr. _Walton_ writing, I did request him to write the
    Questions and Answers, and help me with a Copy of them, which
    I thank him, he did, a Copy whereof I herewith send to be
    inserted in this place, on which, this only I will animadvert,
    That the Elders in wisdome thought it not fit to ask them in
    Catechisticall method strictly, in which way Children might
    Answer. But that they might try whether they understood
    what they said, they traversed up and downe in Questions of
    Religion, as here you see.

                            POSTSCRIPT.

    Let the Reader take notice, That these questions were not
    propounded all to one man, but to sundry, which is the reason
    that sometime the same Questions are propounded againe and
    againe. Also the number Examined were about eight, namely,
    so many as might be first called forth to enter into
    Church-Covenant, if the Lord give opportunity.”

We have a Catechism, entitled “The Examination of the Indians at Roxbury,
the 13th day of the 4th month, 1654.” The following are some of the
questions and answers.

    _Q._ Have not some Indians many Gods?

    _A._ They have many Gods.

    _Q._ How doe you know these Gods are no Gods.

    _A._ Before the English came we knew not but that they were
    Gods, but since they came we know they are no Gods.

    _Q._ How doe you know the word of God is Gods word?

    _A._ I believe the word that you teach us, was spoken of God.

    _Q._ Why doe you believe it?

    _A._ Therefore I believe it to be the word of God, because when
    we learn it, it teacheth our hearts to be wise and humble.

    _Q._ Whether are not your sins, and the temptations of
    _Hobbomak_ more strong since, then before you prayed to God?

    _A._ Before I prayed to God, I knew not what Satans temptations
    were.

    _Q._ Doe you know now?

    _A._ Now I have heard what Satans temptations are.

    _Q._ What is a temptation of the Devill in your heart, doe you
    understand what it is?

    _A._ Within my heart there are Hypocrisies, which doe not
    appear without.

    _Q._ Whether doe not you find this a principall temptation
    from the wickednesse of your heart, to drive you away from
    Christ, and not to believe the gracious Promises in Jesus
    Christ? Or whether when you find wickednesse in your heart, you
    are not tempted that you cannot believe?

    _A._ My heart doth strongly desire to goe on in sin, but this
    is a strong temptation, but Faith is the work of Jesus Christ.

    _Q._ What doe you believe about the immortality of the soule,
    and resurrection of the body? doth the soule dye when the body
    dyeth?

    _A._ I believe, when the body of a good man dyeth, the Angels
    carry his soule to heaven, when a wicked man dyeth, the Devills
    carry his soule to hell.

    _Q._ How long shall they be in that state?

    _A._ Untill Christ cometh to Judgement.

    _Q._ When Christ cometh to judge the world, what then shall
    become of them?

    _A._ The dead bodies of all men shall rise againe.

    _Q._ Whether shall they ever dye any more?

    _A._ Good men shall never dye any more.

    _Q._ Whether doe you believe that these very bodies of ours
    shall rise againe?

    _A._ This body which rots in the earth, this very body, God
    maketh it new.

    _Q._ Who is Jesus Christ?

    _A._ Jesus Christ is the Son of God, yet borne man, and so
    both God and man.

    _Q._ Why was Christ Jesus a man?

    _A._ That he might dye for us.

    _Q._ Why is Christ Jesus God?

    _A._ That his death might be of great value.

    _Q._ Why doe you say, Christ Jesus was a man that he might dye,
    doe onely men dye?

    _A._ He dyed for our sins.

    _Q._ What reason or justice is there, that Christ should dye
    for our sins?

    _A._ God made all the world, and man sinned, therefore it was
    necessary Christ should dye to carry men up to Heaven. God hath
    given unto us his Son Jesus Christ, because of our sins.

The Question being put to another for further Answer, his Answer was,
_That God so loved the world, that he gave his onely begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life_.

    _Q._ When you heare that _Adam_ by his sin deserved eternall
    death, and when you hear of the grace of God sending Jesus to
    save you, which of these break your heart most?

    _A._ Pardon of sin goeth deepest.

With regard to the formation of the church, one writer says;

    “This great and solemne work of calling up these poor Indians
    unto that Gospel light and beauty of visible Church-estate,
    having now passed through a second Tryall: In the former
    whereof, they expressed what experience they had found of
    Gods grace in their hearts, turning them from dead works, to
    seek after the living God, and salvation in our Saviour Jesus
    Christ. In this second they have in some measure declared how
    far the Lord hath let in the light of the good knowledge of God
    into their soules, and what tast they have of the Principles
    of Religion, and doctrine of salvation. Now the Question
    remaineth, _What shall we further doe? And when shall they
    enjoy the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in Church-estate?_

    “The work is very solemne, and the Question needeth a solemne
    Answer. It is a great matter to betrust those with the holy
    priviledges of Gods house, upon which the name of Christ is so
    much called, who have so little knowledge and experience in
    the wayes of Christ, so newly come out of that great depth of
    darknesse, and wild course of life; in such danger of polluting
    and defiling the name of Christ among their barbarous Friends
    and Countrey-men; and under so many doubts and jealousies of
    many people; and having not yet stood in the wayes of Christ
    so long, as to give sufficient proof and experience of their
    stedfastnesse in their new begun profession. Being also the
    first Church gathered among them, it is like to be a pattern
    and president of after proceedings, even unto following
    Generations. Hence it is very needfull that this proceeding
    of ours at first, be with all care and wearinesse guided, for
    the most effectuall advancement of the holinesse and honour of
    Jesus Christ among them.

    “Upon such like grounds as these, though I and some others
    know more of the sincerity of some of them, than others doe,
    and are better satisfied with them: Yet because I may be in
    a temptation on that hand, I am well content to make slow
    hast in this matter, remembring that word of God, _Lay hands
    suddenly on no man_. Gods works among men doe usually goe
    on slowly, and he that goeth slowly, doth usually goe most
    surely, especially when he goeth by counsell. _Sat cito si
    sat bene_,[32] the greater proof we have of them, the better
    approbation they may obtain at last. Besides, we having had
    one publick meeting about them already this summer, it will be
    difficult to compasse another, for we have many other great
    occasions, which may hinder the same, and it is an hard matter
    to get Interpreters together to attend such a work, they living
    so remote. The dayes also will soon grow short, and the nights
    cold, which will be an hindrance in the attendance unto the
    accomplishment of that work, which will most fitly be done at
    _Natick_.

    “But above all other Reasons this is greatest, that they
    living in sundry Towns and places remote from each other, and
    labourers few to take care of them, it is necessary that some
    of themselves should be trained up, and peculiarly instructed,
    unto whom the care of ruling and ordering of them in the
    affaires of Gods house may be committed, in the absence of such
    as look after their instruction. So that this is now the thing
    we desire to attend, for the comfort of our little _Sister that
    hath no breasts_, that such may be trained up, and prepared,
    unto whom the charge of the rest may be committed in the Lord.
    And upon this ground we make the slower hast to accomplish
    this work among them. Mean while I hope the Commissioners
    will afford some encouragement for the furtherance of the
    instruction of some of the most godly and able among them, who
    may be in a speciall manner helpfull unto the rest, in due
    order and season.

    “And thus have I briefly set down our present state in respect
    of our Ecclesiasticall proceedings. I beg the prayers of the
    good people of the Lord, to be particularly present at the
    Throne of Grace, in these matters, according as you have hereby
    a particular Information how our condition is. And for me also,
    who am the most unfit in humane reason for such a work as
    this, but my soule desireth to depend and live upon the Lord
    Jesus, and fetch all help, grace, mercy, assistance, and supply
    from him. And herein I doe improve his faithfull Covenant and
    Promises, and in particular, the Lord doth cause my soule to
    live upon that word of his, _Psal._ 37:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, wherein
    I have food, rayment, and all necessaries for my selfe and
    children (whom I have dedicated unto the Lord, to serve him in
    this work of his, if he will please to accept of them) and this
    supply I live upon in these rich words of gracious Promise,
    _verse_ 3. _Trust in the Lord, and doe good, dwell in the Land,
    and verily thou shalt be fed._

    “Herein also I find supply of grace to believe the conversion
    of these poor Indians, & that not only in this present season,
    in what I doe already see, but in the future also, further then
    by mine eye or reason I can see. Which supply of grace, I live
    upon in those words of his gracious Promise, which I apply
    and improve in this particular respect, _verse_ 4. _Delight
    thyselfe also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires
    of thy heart_.

    “Herein also I find supply of grace to believe, that they shall
    be in Gods season, which is the fittest, brought into Church
    Estate; faith fetching this particular blessing out of the
    rich Fountaine of those gracious words of Promise, _Commit thy
    way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to
    passe_.

    “Herein also my soule is strengthened and quieted, to stay
    upon the Lord, and to be supported against all suspitious
    jealousies, hard speeches, and unkindnesses of men, touching
    the sincerity and reality of this work, and about my carriage
    of matters, and supply herein. Which grace my soule receiveth
    by a particular improvement of that rich treasury of the
    Promise in these words, _verse_ 6. _And he shall bring forth
    thy righteousnesse as the light, and thy judgement as the noon
    day._ And herein likewise I find supply of grace, to wait
    patiently for the Lords time, when year after year, and time
    after time, I meet with disappointments. Which grace I receive
    from the commanding force of that gracious Promise, _verse_ 7.
    _Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, fret not thy
    selfe_, either for one cause, or another. Thus I live, and thus
    I labor, here I have supply, and here is my hope, I beg the
    help of prayers, that I may still so live and labour in the
    Lords work, and that I may so live and dye.”

In 1670, the number of men and women in full communion at Natick, was
between forty and fifty, and more than three hundred and fifty had
renounced their savage practices and open sins, and gave heed to the
instructions of the Gospel.

Their meetings were notified by the drum. In their assemblies they were
attentive and reverent. A native teacher commenced worship with prayer,
and the English Christians assisted in the business of instruction.
There, as at other times, and in other places among civilized people God
poured out his Spirit upon the young. Several cases of hopeful piety in
young children are mentioned. The most interesting of them have already
been given.

Mr. Eliot having made a grammar of the Indian tongue, and a catechism,
was proceeding with his Indian Bible. In 1649, he said it was his earnest
wish to translate some parts of the Scriptures for the Indians. He
probably labored at this work, at intervals, for twelve years, and he was
at least forty-five years of age when he began it.

It should be remembered that this work, unlike the same employment of our
foreign missionaries at their first arrival at new stations, was wholly
in addition to his labors as Pastor of another people,—the congregation
at Roxbury. It was of no direct use to him in his ministerial work, any
farther than investigation and study is always profitable to the mind.
It was a labor superadded to the cares and toil of his pastoral and
ministerial office.

A man who has a taste for languages is generally repaid for the labor
of acquiring them, by the stores of learning which they contain. Cato
learned Greek at the age of eighty, and the literary world mention
it to his praise. But here is a man learning a language which has no
literature. No tragic or heroic muse had left her inspired strains in
it. No beautiful old ballads or legendary songs repaid his labor,—no
Canterbury Tales, or Children in the Wood, or Chevy Chase, or Fairy
Queen, hymns of devotion, nor martial songs; the language could only
whoop and powaw; the great word, gathering subjunctives and adjuncts into
itself, like a crowded wigwam, was savagely ignorant of the graces, or
the concise, vigorous expressions of some barbarous tongues, and Eliot’s
researches into it were like digging, as the Plymouth settlers did, into
the mounds for corn, and finding nothing but skulls. But nothing could
repress the ardor of his benevolent mind. He was determined that the
Indians should have the word of God in their own tongue, and the work
drew near to its accomplishment.

But how could it ever be printed? His slender salary could not pay for
it; the planters could not subscribe an adequate sum. In a letter to
England in 1651, he says, with much sorrow, “I have no hope to see the
Bible printed in my days.”

The Society for Propagating the Gospel came to his help.[33] In
September, 1661, the New Testament in the Indian tongue was published at
Cambridge. Three years after this, the Old Testament was added, and the
whole Bible, with a Catechism and the Psalms of David in metre, was thus
given to the Aborigines of this desert, in their own tongue, in forty
years after the settlement of the country.

This was the first Bible printed on this Continent. It was printed at
Cambridge, by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson. A copy handsomely
bound, was sent to King Charles II., and the Rev. Richard Baxter says of
it, “Such a work and fruit of a plantation was never before presented
unto a king.” Two hundred copies, in plain and strong leather, were
immediately put in circulation for the use of the Indians. An angel would
almost have exchanged his heavenly joy for the happiness of Eliot, when
he visited Natick, and saw the Bible in the hands of the natives. Like
old Jacob, strengthening himself upon his dying bed, he might then have
said, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord;” or, like Simeon, “Now,
Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen
thy salvation.”

Douglass, in his History of America,[34] says, “Mr. Eliot with immense
labor translated and printed our Bible into Indian. It was done with a
good pious design, but it must be reckoned among the _otiosorum hominum
negotia_, (works of men of leisure). It was done in the Natick (Nipmuck)
language. Of the Naticks, at present, there are not twenty families
subsisting, and scarce any of these can read. _Cui bono?_” (To what
profit?)

Those who know how far Mr. Eliot was from being a man of leisure, will
smile at the suggestion that the translation of the Bible into the Indian
tongue was the work of an idle amateur. The disappearance of the race for
whom this translation was designed, so unexpected, and indeed so contrary
to the fond hopes of our forefathers, is very far from showing the
futility of Mr. Eliot’s pious labor. Many of the Indians were made wise
unto eternal life by the translated Bible. The good which it accomplished
was more than an equivalent for the labor which it cost.

Cotton Mather says, “Behold, ye Americans, the greatest honour that ever
you were partakers of. This Bible was printed here at our Cambridge,
and it is the only Bible that ever was printed in all America, from the
very foundation of the world. The whole translation he writ with but one
pen; which pen, had it not been lost, would have certainly deserved a
richer case than was bestowed upon that pen with which Holland writ his
translation of Plutarch.”[35]

The New Testament was published first, and then the whole Bible, Primers,
Grammars, Psalters, Catechisms, The Practice of Piety, Baxter’s Call,
Shepard’s sincere Convert and Sound Believer, soon appeared in the Indian
tongue, from the pen of Mr. Eliot.

By this time there were fourteen places of praying Indians under the
care of Mr. Eliot, and about eleven hundred souls who were apparently
converted. Natick, Stoughton, Grafton, Tewksbury, Hopkinton, Oxford,
Dudley, Woodstock (three villages), Uxbridge and Marlboro’, all had
communities of praying Indians.

Mr. Bancroft, in his History of the United States,[36] says, “No pains
were spared to teach them to read and write, and in a short time a larger
proportion of the Massachusetts Indians could do so, than recently of
the inhabitants of Russia.” The Indians of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard,
and Nantucket, amounting to about twenty-nine hundred, also were, by the
labors of the Mayhews and others, partly evangelized. Mr. Eliot says, in
1673, that there were six churches gathered among the Indians, one at
Natick, one at Grafton, one at Marshpee, two at Martha’s Vineyard, and
one at Nantucket. All these had religious teachers devoted exclusively to
them, except the church at Natick, of which Mr. Eliot says, “In modesty
they stand off, because they say that so long as I live, there is no
need.” They could not be prevailed upon to have another teacher even with
the advantages of his entire devotion to them, while Mr. Eliot was alive.

Cotton Mather says,[37] “The number of preachers to the Indians
increases apace. At Martha’s Vineyard, the old Mr. Mayhew and several
of his sons, or grand-sons, have done very worthily for the souls of
the Indians; there were fifteen years ago by computation about fifteen
hundred souls of their ministry, upon that one island. In Connecticut,
the holy and acute Mr. Fitch has made noble essays towards the conversion
of the Indians; but I think the sinner he has to deal withal, being
an obstinate infidel, gives unhappy rumor as to the successes of his
ministry. And godly Mr. Pierson has, if I mistake not, deserved well
in that colony upon the same account. In Massachusetts we see at this
day the pious Mr. Gookin, the gracious Mr. Peter Thacher, the well
accomplished and industrious Mr. Grindal Rawson, all of them hard at
work, to turn these poor creatures from darkness to light, and from Satan
unto God. In Plymouth we have the most active Mr. Samuel Treat laying out
himself to save this generation, and there is one Mr. Tupper, who uses
his laudable endeavours for the instruction of them.

“’Tis my relation to him[38] that causes me to defer unto the last place
the mention of Mr. John Cotton, who hath addressed the Indians in their
own language with some dexterity. He hired an Indian after the rate of
twelve pence per day, for fifty days, to teach him the Indian tongue; but
his knavish tutor having received his whole pay too soon, ran away before
twenty days were out; however, in this time he had profited so far that
he could quickly preach unto the natives.”

Two Indians from Martha’s Vineyard were entered at Harvard College.
Their names were Joel and Caleb. Joel was lost on his voyage from Boston
to Nantucket just before taking his degree. Caleb was graduated, but soon
died of consumption at Charlestown. His name now stands on the College
Catalogue in this form: “1665, Caleb Cheesehahteaumuck, Indus.” He
composed a Latin and Greek Elegy on the death of an eminent minister, and
subscribed them, “Cheesehahteaumuck, Senior Sophista.”




CHAPTER VII.

    Disturbance of Missionary efforts. Philip’s war. Removal of
    the Indians to Deer Isle. Return. Conclusion of the History
    of Missionary efforts among the Indians of this neighborhood.
    Reflections.


Civilization and the influence of the Gospel, however, had their limits.
The Narraganset Indians, situated between the Connecticut and Plymouth
Colonies, refused the Gospel, and the benevolent intentions of the
English. King Philip, the famous warrior of Mount Hope, (now Bristol)
whose name was terrible to our forefathers, scorned the doctrines of the
cross. Mr. Eliot once had an interview with him, explained the way of
salvation, and exhorted him to repent. The Indian chieftain rose, took
hold of Mr. Eliot’s button, and told him, that he cared no more for his
Gospel than he did for that button.

The Indians under Philip were growing jealous of English encroachments
upon their hunting fields. Petty depredations were made by the Indians
upon the English settlements, then followed a summons to court, which, in
process of time, became exceedingly annoying to proud, untamed savages.
They had bartered their lands for English implements and toys; the tools
and the toys were gone, and the savage could not be satisfied to abide
by a paper, call it treaty, bond, or contract, on which he had scratched
his mark. He sighed for his old domains; the waves of civilization were
coming round him like a flood; his people were artfully crowded by the
English into narrow inlets between the settlements, that they might be
watched on all sides.

King Philip was summoned to Court in 1674, for some offence committed by
his tribe. The informer was murdered by the angry savages. The murderers
were hanged by the English. The massacre of eight or nine of the English
at Swansey was the consequence. Philip wept when he heard that the blood
of a white man had been shed. The Colonists began to arm, and a universal
panic prevailed. The superstition of those days added much to the general
terror. Signs in the heavens were reported to have been seen, a scalp on
the disc of the moon in an eclipse; an Indian bow was imprinted on the
sky. Troops of horses were heard rushing through the air. The horrors of
an Indian war made their faces pale and their hearts faint. The scenes at
Bloody Brook, the burning of Lancaster, Medfield, Brookfield, Weymouth,
Groton, Marlborough, the ambushments rising on the congregation as they
returned from public worship, the massacre of wives and children at
home, and the scalping of husbands and brothers in the field, roused the
colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut to an exterminating
war.

It is easy to see that the communities of praying Indians could not
escape the influence of the general excitement against the Indians. Some
of them were accused, justly or unjustly, of favoring the designs of the
enemy. The Colonists were all the time afraid that the instinctive love
of war and carnage in the Indian bosom would break through the restraints
of religion, and that all which had been done for the Indians would be
only a qualification of them as more successful traitors and expert
butchers.

On the other hand, King Philip was jealous of the praying Indians. He
used every means of persuasion and fear to enlist them on his side. Their
situation was trying in the extreme. In the excited state of mind which
an Indian war created among the English, a war on the part of the savages
of stratagem, and treachery, it was natural that the Christian Indians
should be trusted and feared. Some of them enlisted with the English and
did good service, and some deserted to Philip.

In 1675, a number of the Christian Indians were brought to Boston on
a charge of being concerned in a murder at Lancaster. Mr. Eliot and
his friends interposed to save them, and succeeded in showing that the
accusation was false and malicious. In so doing, they incurred the
popular resentment, and were suspected and accused of bad motives and
treasonable conduct.

The feelings of the people were now so unreasonable that the worst
consequences to the praying Indians were apprehended. In this state of
things the General Court, as a means of protection to themselves and to
the Indians, passed an order that the Natick Indians should be removed to
Deer Island, in Boston harbor, between four and five miles from shore.
They came to the place called the Pines, near Cambridge, on Charles
River, and were thence conveyed by water to Deer Island. Mr. Eliot met
them at the Pines, and endeavored to soothe and cheer them. He was then
seventy years old. One might question whether he or the Indians suffered
most in their removal.

A party of Indians had fired a barn at Chelmsford. The English imputed
it to the praying Indians at Tewksbury. A party of the English went to
their wigwams, called them out and shot one lad, and wounded several
women and children. The murderers were tried, but the jury were overawed
by the public sentiment and cleared them. The Tewksbury Indians fled into
the wilderness; messengers were sent to them inviting them to return, but
they gave this answer: We are not sorry for what we leave behind, but
we are sorry that the English have driven us from praying to God, and
from our leader. We did begin to understand a little of praying to God.
When the winter season came, their sufferings forced them back to their
wigwams, and the English endeavored in various ways to atone for the
injuries they had suffered.

The Stoughton Indians, for some suspicion, were also removed to Deer
Island, and the whole number there amounted to five hundred. Mr. Eliot
and his friends visited them, and found them patient and meek, exhibiting
the true influence of the Gospel in a satisfactory degree. But they were
exposed to want and suffering of various kinds. The ill-treatment of
other communities of Indians followed in rapid succession, and it was in
vain that they sought in moments of contention, to repair the injuries
which they had inflicted. One party of Indians, for example, had been
taken by a Narraganset Sachem, and had escaped, and were wandering in
the woods, when an English scouting party met them, taking from them,
among other things, a pewter cup which Mr. Eliot had given them for their
communion service, and which they had kept and carried with them with the
reverence of a Jew for his sacred vessels of gold and silver. This party
were also carried to Deer Island.

Philip, the terror of the English Colonies on this continent, was
finally destroyed. The war subsiding, the Deer Island Indians, with the
permission of the General Court, and by the funds of the society in
England for propagating the Gospel, were removed to Cambridge, and were
permitted to choose their places of settlement. Some of them went to
the various falls of Charles River, some to Brush Hill in Milton, some
settled at Nonantum, and many of them went to Natick.

But the efforts to Christianize the Indians were never resumed with
the interest and zeal which were formerly felt. On the part of the
English, there was conscience of wrong, and on the part of the Indians a
remembrance of injustice, and thus a breach was made between them which
was never healed. Some of the Indians had been made slaves. King Philip’s
wife and son had been sold in the West Indies.[39] Mr. Eliot followed
with his prayers and efforts those of his Christian Indians who had been
sold into bondage. He wrote to the celebrated and honorable Robert Boyle
to use his efforts in redeeming some who had been left at Tangier.

By various means the praying towns had been reduced in 1684, to four.
The tribes have dwindled and finally disappeared, till a few years since
one poor hut in Natick, inhabited by a family of Indian and Negro blood,
and the gravestone of Daniel Takawambait in the stone wall, were the most
prominent of the memorials which they have left behind them. Fragments of
their language are imperishably associated with many places and scenes
throughout the land. The rural retreat, the new town, the gallant ship,
are emulous of their names; while the tavern sign, the bank note, the
omnibus, and the tobacconist, grace themselves with their faces and
implements. The New England poet, historian, and orator, draw thrilling
incidents from Mount Hope and Bloody Brook, and the Christian and the
philanthropist will enshrine the names of Nonantum and Natick. Westward
and still westward, the New England tribes have receded. Civilization has
had more repulsion and injury for the savage than Christianity has been
able to overcome. There is a law of progress in the affairs of nations
expressed in the prophetic language of the patriarch Noah; “God shall
enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” The savage
retreats before the civilized man, and while we mourn over the ruin of
individual tribes, we cannot but stand in awe of that resistless measure
of God’s providence by which he is forcing the Caucasian race to fill the
earth, and suffering uncivilized nations to melt away like the snow in
spring.

But that same vigorous faith which brought the Pilgrims here as
missionaries to the Indians, has followed the red man in his wanderings
over this vast continent. The names of David Brainard, Samuel Kirkland,
and Gideon Blackburn, are identified with the history of Indian missions.
The American Board has pursued the work of evangelizing them with much
success. The history of the Cherokees, the mountaineers of America, is
of itself a tale of romantic and thrilling interest. The sketches of the
present North American Indians by Mr. Catlin, in his valuable work, show
that a large field for missionary effort on this continent is yet spread
before the American churches.

When the workmen were digging for the foundation of some new houses at
the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets, in Boston, several years ago,
they found the skeleton of an Indian. He had been buried on his side,
reclining on his arm, and was found in that posture. Christian faith
and hope, mingled with a little fancy, would fain lead us to hail this
incident as a sign that the Indian race are not yet recumbent in hopeless
degradation; that though seemingly buried in the great wilderness, they
are buried in the posture of rising. Many interesting recollections, and
our natural feelings towards an oppressed people, make us wish that this
was more than fancy, and, as the Indian on the seal of the Massachusetts
colony had a passage of Scripture proceeding from his mouth, Come over
and help us, would we gladly put another passage into the mouth of that
resurrection Indian above mentioned, making him say, with prophetic
ecstasy, as he looks towards Nonantum and surveys the scenes of his
ancient, and apparently lost race, “Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in
dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out
her dead.”




CHAPTER VIII.

    Mr. Eliot’s avowal of republicanism, and his retraction of it.
    His connection with the controversy about Mrs. Hutchinson.
    Richard Baxter’s Testimony about Mr. Eliot. Roman Catholics
    instructing the Indians. Mrs. Eliot. Close of Mr. Eliot’s life.
    Conclusion.


Two events in the life of Mr. Eliot must necessarily be noticed in
giving a complete account of him. One is the publication and subsequent
retraction of a book called the Christian Commonwealth, and the other is
his connection with the controversy raised by that notorious woman, Mrs.
Anne Hutchinson.

Mr. Eliot wrote a book about the year 1650, called the Christian
Commonwealth. It was carried to England in manuscript and printed. In
1660, the Governor and Council of Massachusetts condemned this book
as being “full of seditious principles and notions in relation to all
established governments in the Christian world, especially against the
government established in their native country.”

Mr. Eliot wrote an acknowledgment of error as the author of the book,
and presented his recantation to the General Court. He speaks in it of
Cromwell and his friends as “the late innovators” in the government of
Great Britain, and of the monarchy as restored under Charles II., “as not
only a lawful but eminent form of government.” The book was suppressed,
and Mr. Eliot’s recantation was published through the colony.

This incident has been considered as reflecting on Mr. Eliot’s
character for discretion, or for decision. The book does not survive in
this country to speak for itself. The facts in the case seem to be that
during the success of Cromwell, Mr. Eliot composed his book in accordance
with what seemed to be the tendency in England towards a settled
republican form of government. But upon the restoration of Charles II.,
the provincial government of Massachusetts felt in duty bound to show
their allegiance to the crown by protesting against the sentiments
of a book which favored republicanism. How often it is the case that
success is regarded as settling the question of right. Had Cromwell’s
plan succeeded, the Massachusetts government would not have felt obliged
to condemn Mr. Eliot’s book. We may perhaps reflect upon him for not
maintaining and defending the principles of his book; but to have done
so would have been treason, seeing that monarchy had again become the
established form of government in the mother country. Mr. Eliot, perhaps,
felt that it was right for him to find reasons for that permanent change
in the government of Great Britain which in the providence of God seemed
to be at hand. When the event proved otherwise than he expected, loyally
being then so much a part of religion, and “the powers” in the government
of the mother country being, according to the received opinions of
Christians, and like all other powers “that be,” “ordained of God,” it
was a question with Mr. Eliot between decision and boldness, amounting to
a treasonable spirit, and submission to constituted authority. The ill
success of Cromwell no doubt made Eliot think that he had misinterpreted
the purposes of God. Men are apt to feel and reason in this manner.
If a colony, or province, or a number of men make insurrection, and
succeed in overthrowing the government, men call it a revolution, and
the independence of the new state or nation is acknowledged. If they do
not succeed, the attempt is called a plot, conspiracy, insurrection,
and the actors who in the event of success would have been “the fathers
of their country,” “the founders of a nation,” are gibbeted by their
generation, and regarded as traitors by the next, and by the world.
While a revolution is pending, a man may say many things as an observer
and theorizer, which, when events contradict them, he will do his best
to retract, or cover up. It cannot be wondered at, that, amid the
enthusiasm which attended the Restoration, and the implicit submission
of the Colonial government to the restored king, and influenced by the
loyal spirit of his times, Mr. Eliot should have deemed it a Christian
duty to confess and retract that which the providence of God seemed
to indicate was an error. He was not prepared to lift up a standard
against the government of Great Britain; the appeal which Cromwell and
his friends had made to the God of nations and of battles, had not been
answered in his favor, and Mr. Eliot was meek enough to yield submission
to that which, in the circumstances, seemed to be a Christian obligation.
What should he have done? Had he still believed that Cromwell was the
anointed of the Lord, and that Charles was the usurper, he should have
suffered any punishment rather than falsify his sentiments. It may be
charitably supposed, however, that the events of the Restoration changed
his opinion, and made him satisfied to be still a royalist. We have no
evidence in any part of his life, that Mr. Eliot was a time-server, or
coward; on the contrary, he was remarkable for decision of character and
independence.

In confirmation of what has now been said respecting Mr. Eliot’s
decision and firmness, we may allude to the part he took in opposing the
sentiments and influence of that notorious disturber of the churches in
his day, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. She was of the sect of Antinomians, who
abused the doctrines of free grace, maintaining that the law is of no use
or obligation under the dispensation of the Gospel, while the doctrines
they taught superseded the necessity of good works. Mrs. Hutchinson
pretended to immediate impressions from heaven as the rule of conduct,
saying that she knew God “spake to her, just as Abraham knew that it was
the command of Heaven to sacrifice Isaac.” The Governor, Vane, who was an
enthusiast, countenanced this woman, and Rev. Mr. Cotton, who took Mr.
Eliot’s place in the church at Boston, when Mr. Eliot removed to Roxbury,
was also infected by her influence so far as to oppose his colleague,
the Rev. Mr. Wilson, and the other ministers, who were generally opposed
to her. Had Mr. Eliot remained the teacher of the church in Boston, it
would have prevented that church from being divided as it was with regard
to Mrs. Hutchinson, through the influence of his successor, Mr. Cotton.
Mr. Eliot, with several other ministers, visited her, conversed with
her upon religious subjects to ascertain her sentiments and spirit, and
remonstrated with her for her bold denunciation of all the Plantation
except Messrs. Cotton and Wheelright. Mr. Eliot appeared as a witness
against her on her trial before the magistrates, and with Hugh Peters
and Mr. Weld, testified that she said to them that “Mr. Cotton preached
a covenant of grace, and the other ministers a covenant of works.” Mr.
Eliot added, “I do remember this also, that she said we were not able
and faithful ministers of the new covenant, because we were not like the
apostles before the ascension.” Mr. Eliot took occasion on this trial to
bear testimony against yielding to _impressions_ as a rule of faith and
duty. A passage from Mr. Hooker’s sermons was quoted in justification
of Mrs. Hutchinson’s statements. But Mr. Eliot who had been brought up
at the feet of Mr. Hooker, and knew his opinions well, insisted that
the construction given to the passage was contrary to Mr. Hooker’s mind
and judgment. His old friend, Gov. Winthrop, gently dissented from Mr.
Eliot’s strong testimony against impressions. Mr. Eliot said, “I say
there is an expectation of things promised; but to have a particular
revelation of things, as they shall fall out, there is no such thing in
the Scripture.” Gov. Winthrop replied, “We must not limit the word of
God.”[40] Mrs. Hutchinson was condemned and banished. Her end softened
the feelings of those who condemned her, and made them reflect upon
the inexpediency of proceeding so strenuously as they did against her.
Such feelings always arise in the minds of good men who have withstood
prevailing errors, not to make them regret the testimony they bore for
the truth, but to mourn over hasty and excessive zeal, when patience, and
perhaps a measure of neglect, might sooner have ended a controversy, or
have prevented it altogether. But it is easier for those who are removed,
by time or place, from the excitements of a controversy, to moralize
upon the best way of conducting it, than it would have been for them
to exercise the judicious temper which they recommend and praise, had
they themselves partaken in the strife. Mr. Eliot showed himself in this
controversy to be no fanatical enthusiast, and gave evidence that he was
a man of decision and courage.

The following characteristic letter was written by the famous Rev.
Richard Baxter to Dr. Increase Mather then in London. It was occasioned
by the receipt of Cotton Mather’s Life of Eliot.

    “DEAR BROTHER:

    I thought I had been near dying at 12 o’clock, in bed; but your
    book revived me. I lay reading it until between one and two. I
    knew much of Mr. Eliot’s opinions, by many letters which I had
    from him. There was no man on earth whom I honoured above him.
    It is his evangelical work that is the apostolical succession
    that I plead for. I am now dying, I hope, as he did. It pleased
    me to read from him my case, [_my understanding faileth, my
    memory faileth, my tongue faileth_,] (and my hand and pen,)
    _but my charity faileth not_. That word much comforted me. I
    am as zealous a lover of the New England Churches as any man,
    according to Mr. Noyes’, Mr. Norton’s, Mr. Mitchel’s, and the
    Synod’s model.

    I loved your father upon the letters I received from him.
    I love you better for your learning, labors, and peaceable
    moderation. I love your son better than either of you, for the
    excellent temper that appeareth in his writings.[41] O that
    godliness and wisdom (may) thus increase in all families! He
    hath honoured himself half as much as Mr. Eliot. I say but
    half as much; for deeds excel words. God preserve you and New
    England! Pray for

                   Your fainting, languishing Friend,

                                                        RI. BAXTER.”

    _August 3, 1691._

In contrast with the instructions which Mr. Eliot and other Protestant
missionaries to the Indians gave the children of the wilderness, Cotton
Mather alludes to the instructions given to the Indians in some parts of
the country by the Popish missionaries. He says,

    “By an odd accident there are lately fallen into my hands
    the manuscripts of a Jesuit, whom the French employed as a
    missionary among the western Indians, in which papers there
    are both a catechism, containing the principles which those
    heathens are to be instructed in, and cases of conscience
    referring to their conversations. The catechism, which is in
    the Iroquois language—with a translation annexed, has one
    chapter about heaven, and another about hell, wherein are such
    thick skulled passages as these.”

    _Q._ How is the soil made in heaven?

    _A._ ’Tis a very fair soil, they want neither for meats nor
    clothes; ’tis but wishing, and we have them.

    _Q._ Are they employed in heaven?

    _A._ No, they do nothing; the fields yield corn, beans,
    pumpkins, and the like without any tillage.

    _Q._ What sort of trees are there?

    _A._ Always green, full, flourishing.

    _Q._ Have they in heaven the same sun, the same wind, the same
    thunder that we have here?

    _A._ No, the sun ever shines; it is always fair weather.

    _Q._ But how are their fruits?

    _A._ In this one quality they exceed ours, that they are never
    wasted; you have no sooner plucked one, but you see another
    presently hanging in its room.

    Concerning hell, it thus discourses.

    _Q._ What sort of a soil is that of hell?

    _A._ A very wretched soil; ’tis a fiery pit in the centre of
    the earth.

    _Q._ Have they any light in hell?

    _A._ No. ’Tis always dark; there is always smoke there; their
    eyes are always in pain with it; they can see nothing but the
    devils.

    _Q._ What shaped things are the devils?

    _A._ Very ill shaped things; they go about with vizards on, and
    they terrify men.

    _Q._ What do they eat in hell?

    _A._ They are always hungry, but the damned feed on hot ashes
    and serpents there.

    _Q._ What water do they drink?

    _A._ Horrid water, nothing but melted lead.

    _Q._ Don’t they die in hell?

    _A._ No; yet they eat one another every day; but anon, God
    restores and renews the man that was eaten, as a cropt plant in
    a little time repullulates.

    One case of conscience is thus resolved by the Jesuit:

    _Q._ Whether an Indian stealing a hatchet from a Dutchman be
    bound to make restitution?

    _A._ If the Dutchman be one that has used any trade with other
    Indians, the thief is not bound unto any restitution; for it is
    certain he gains more by such a trade than the value of many
    hatchets in a year.

    In the History of the Early Jesuit Missions to the Indians
    of this country,[42] as well as in all other Jesuit missions,
    there is a degree of zeal and devotedness which is truly
    wonderful. This is not the place to discuss the motives of
    these men, nor the principle in human nature which leads to
    their self-sacrifice in the missionary work. The fruits of
    their work, however, show that they do not promulgate the
    Gospel of Christ in its simplicity, did we not know this by
    more direct evidence.

The wife of Mr. Eliot died three years before him, at the age of 84.
She had come to him across the ocean, a betrothed bride, when he had
found a home for her in this new world. During her residence here, “she
had attained unto a considerable skill in physick and chirurgery which
enabled her to dispense many safe, good, and useful medicines unto the
poor that had occasion for them; and some hundreds of sick and weak and
maimed people owed praises to God for the benefit which therein they
freely received of her.”[43]

She managed all the private affairs of her husband for him that he
might devote his whole time and strength to his arduous public labors.
She brought up his six children of whom he beautifully said, “they are
all in Christ, or with Christ,” and then she smoothed his passage to the
tomb by going before him, and making him more willing to depart. “That
one wife,” says Mather, “which was given to him truly from the Lord, he
loved, prized, cherished, with a kindness that notably represented the
compassion which he thereby taught his church to expect from the Lord
Jesus Christ; and after he had lived with her for more than half an
hundred years he followed her to the grave with lamentations beyond those
which the Jews, from the figure of a letter in the text,[44] affirm, that
Abraham deplored his Sarah with; her departure made a deeper impression
on him than what any common affliction could. His whole conversation with
her had that sweetness and that gravity and modesty beautifying of it,
that every one called them Zachery and Elizabeth.”[45]

The old gray haired apostle stood over her coffin, and said to the
concourse of people who had come to the funeral, “Here lies my dear,
faithful, pious, prudent, prayerful wife. I shall go to her, but she
shall not return to me.”

Lord Bacon[46] speaking of “marriage and single life,” tells us what
wives are to young men, and that “for middle age” they are “companions,”
and “old men’s nurses.” Men generally do not wait till old age before
they experience the exquisite tenderness and assiduity of woman in
their sickness. We all subscribe to the last couplet of the following
quotation, but not to the first:

    “O woman! in thine hours of ease
    Deceitful, coy, and hard to please.
    ...
    When pain and sickness wring the brow,
    A ministering angel thou.”

There is a beautiful passage in one of Steele’s papers in the Spectator.
It purports to be a letter to his wife. He says,

“It is impossible for me to look back on many evils and pains which I
have suffered since we came together, without a pleasure which is not
to be expressed from the proofs I have had, in those circumstances, of
your unmeasured goodness. How often has your tenderness removed pain
from my sick head! how often anguish from my afflicted heart! With how
skillful patience have I known you comply with the vain projects which
pain has suggested, to have an aching limb removed, by journeying from
one side of a room to another! how often, the next instant, traveled the
same ground again, _without telling your patient it was to no purpose to
change his situation_. If there are such beings as guardian angels, thus
are they employed. I will no more believe one of them more good in its
inclinations, than I can conceive it more charming in its form than my
wife.”

As Mr. Eliot became disabled by age for the ministerial work, he seemed
to have the earnest solicitude about a successor which Moses had when,
towards the close of his life, he “cried to the Lord” that he would “set
a man over the congregation.” Mr. Eliot more than once assembled the
people of the town to fast and pray with reference to a successor. The
Rev. Nehemiah Walter was by the unanimous vote of the people associated
with him in the pastoral office, after which it was with difficulty that
he could be persuaded to conduct any public religious service, saying,
“It would be a wrong to the souls of the people for him to do any thing
among them when they were supplied so much to their advantage.” The last
time that he preached is said to have been on the occasion of a public
fast, when he expounded the lxxxiii. Psalm, being, (as the caption has
it,) a complaint to God of the enemies’ conspiracies, and a prayer
against them that oppress the church. He concluded his exposition with
an apology, begging his hearers to pardon the poorness and meanness and
brokenness of his meditations, adding, “my dear brother here will by and
by mend all.”

He once expressed the fear that his old friends and neighbors, Messrs.
Cotton, of Boston, and Mather, of Dorchester, who had gone to heaven
before him, would suspect him to have gone the wrong way, because he
staid so long behind them.

Towards the close of his life his mind dwelt much on the coming of the
Son of Man, and whatever theme he began to converse upon, he soon fell
into a strain of remarks upon this subject. On one occasion some one
brought him intelligence of certain sad events whereby the Churches of
New England were much afflicted. His reply was, “Behold some of the
clouds in which we must look for the coming of the Son of Man.”

Mr. Walter coming in to see him on his dying bed, Mr. Eliot said,
“Brother, thou art welcome to my very soul. Pray retire to thy study for
me, and give me leave to be gone,” meaning that he should pray for his
speedy release.

Being asked how he did, he said, “Alas, I have lost every thing; my
understanding leaves me, my memory fails me, my utterance fails me; but
I thank God my charity holds out still; I find that rather grows than
fails.”

Speaking of the work in which he had been engaged among the Indians, he
said, “There is a cloud, a dark cloud, upon the work of the gospel, among
the poor Indians. The Lord revive and prosper that work, and grant that
it may live when I am dead. It is a work which I have been doing much and
long about. But what was the word I spoke last? I recall that word, _my
doings_! Alas! they have been poor and small, and lean doings; and I’ll
be the man that shall throw the first stone at them all.”

The Rev. Increase Mather had gone to England on business connected with
the ecclesiastical affairs of New England. Mr. Eliot wrote the following
letter to him, and it is the last writing of his of which we have any
account.

    “Reverend and beloved Mr. Increase Mather.

    I cannot write. Read Neh. 2:10. When Sanballat the Horonite,
    and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite heard of it, it grieved
    them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare
    of the children of Israel.

    Let thy blessed soul feed full and fat upon this and other
    Scriptures. All other things I leave to other men, and rest,

                          Your loving Brother,

                                                        JOHN ELIOT.”

One of Mr. Eliot’s last expressions was this, Welcome joy! His last
breath was spent in calling upon those who stood around his dying bed to
“Pray, Pray, Pray.” He died in the beginning of the year 1690, in the
eighty-sixth year of his age.

Before his death, Mr. Eliot had the pleasure of seeing several faithful
men raised up to labor among the Indians; among whom were Daniel Gookin,
James Noyce, Rowland Cotton, Peter Thacher, Grindal Rawson, Goddefred
Dettins, and M. Bondet. Mather says, “about the year 1700, through the
blessing of God in this one Massachusetts province, the Indians have
mostly embraced the Christian religion. There are I suppose, more than
thirty congregations of Indians, and many more than three thousand
Indians, in this one province, calling on God in Christ, and hearing of
his glorious Word.”

In writing these pages, I have before me a copy of Eliot’s Indian Bible,
to which are annexed his Psalms and Hymns, in the Indian tongue, and a
short Catechism. Here is the monument of John Eliot; and what monument of
earthly greatness is to be compared with it! The kings of the earth sleep
in the great cathedral; the beautiful, ivy grown, ruined abbey crowns
the sepulchre of the novelist and poet; the marble statue immortalizes
the name and deeds of the conqueror by land or sea. They are but the
grass that withereth, and the flower which fadeth, “but the word of the
Lord endureth forever.” “Endureth”? There is not one Indian on this
continent, or on the face of the earth, that can read this book. It can
never guide another soul to God. As you look upon its title page, written
in an unknown tongue, you see these words, Up-Biblum God, the Book of
God. How significant, we may say, the appearance of those words when we
consider the condition of the book bereaved of the race who once read it.
“Up-Biblum God.” Like the man-child of the woman clothed with the sun who
fled into the wilderness, and whose child was caught up unto God, and
to his throne, this book, having done its office here, is, in a certain
sense, caught up to God; and there it “endureth forever,” in the hearts
and souls of redeemed savages.

This book will never, of course, be reprinted, and copies of it are
becoming rare. But if we wished to send something to a desponding
missionary, or an example of condescension and love for souls to a
minister who despises and neglects his poor, humble people, no better
gift could be selected than a copy of Eliot’s Bible. What gentle rebuke,
what exhortation and encouragement, its long barbarous words would
speak oftentimes in the minister’s or missionary’s study. We might
appropriately inscribe on its cover the third reflection of Mr. Eliot
on returning from one of his visits to Nonantum, and send it to every
missionary station round the globe: “There is no need of miraculous or
extraordinary gifts in seeking the salvation of the most depraved of the
human family.”

The mention of this Bible may lead us to think of that half million of
wild Indians and that million and a half of partly civilized Indians
who now occupy the wilderness of the west. It bids us attempt their
conversion; it shows us that no difficulties are too mighty for the
Gospel to overcome, no discouragements too great for true Christian faith
and courage. The objects of our forefathers’ zeal and hope in coming to
these shores, are now beyond the Rocky Mountains. A wilderness still
invites our increasing missionary efforts, as a wilderness once invited
the labors of the Pilgrims. Wronged and driven away by the while man,
still they cry:

[Illustration: COME OVER AND HELP VS]




APPENDIX.


A.—See page 201.

(Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. 1732.)

“The following fabulous Traditions and Customs of the Indians of Martha’s
Vineyard, were communicated to BENJAMIN BASSET, Esq. of Chilmark, by
THOMAS COOPER, a half blooded Indian, of Gay head, aged about sixty
years; and which, he says, he obtained of his grandmother, who, to use
his own expression, was a stout girl, when the English came to the island.

The first Indian who came to the Vineyard, was brought thither with his
dog on a cake of ice. When he came to Gay Head, he found a very large
man, whose name was Moshup. He had a wife and five children, four sons
and one daughter; and lived in the Den. He used to catch whales, and then
pluck up trees, and make a fire, and roast them. The coals of the trees,
and the bones of the whales, are now to be seen. After he was tired of
staying here, he told his children to go and play ball on a beach that
joined Noman’s Land to Gay Head. He then made a mark with his toe across
the beach at each end, and so deep, that the water followed, and cut away
the beach; so that his children were in fear of drowning. They took their
sister up, and held her out of the water. He told them to act as if they
were going to kill whales; and they were all turned into killers, (a
fish so called.) The sister was dressed in large stripes. He gave them a
strict charge always to be kind to her. His wife mourned the loss of her
children so exceedingly, that he threw her away. She fell upon Seconet,
near the rocks, where she lived some time, exacting contribution of all
who passed by water. After a while she was changed into a stone. The
entire shape remained for many years. But after the English came, some of
them broke off the arms, head, &c. but the most of the body remains to
this day. Moshup went away nobody knows whither. He had no conversation
with the Indians, but was kind to them, by sending whales, &c. ashore to
them to eat. But after they grew thick around him he left them.

Whenever the Indians worshipped, they always sang and danced, and then
begged of the sun and moon, as they thought most likely to hear them, to
send them the desired favour; most generally rain or fair weather, or
freedom from their enemies or sickness.

Before the English came among the Indians, there were two disorders
of which they most generally died, viz. the consumption and the yellow
fever. The latter they could always _lay_ in the following manner. After
it had raged and swept off a number, those who were well met to lay it.
The rich, that is, such as had a canoe, skins, axes, &c. brought them.
They took their seat in a circle; and all the poor sat around, without.
The richest then proposed to begin to lay the sickness; and having in
his hand something in shape resembling his canoe, skin, or whatever his
riches were, he threw it up in the air; and whoever of the poor without
could take it, the property it was intended to resemble became forever
transferred to him or her. After the rich had thus given away all their
moveable property to the poor, they looked out the handsomest and most
sprightly young man in the assembly, and put him into an entire new
wigwam, built of every thing new for that purpose. They then formed into
two files at a small distance from each other. One standing in the space
at each end, put fire to the bottom of the wigwam on all parts, and
fell to singing and dancing. Presently the youth would leap out of the
flames, and fall down to appearance dead. Him they committed to the care
of five virgins, prepared for that purpose, to restore to life again.
The term required for this would be uncertain, from six to forty-eight
hours; during which time the dance must be kept up. When he was restored,
he would tell, that he had been carried in a large thing high up in the
air, where he came to a great company of white people, with whom he had
interceded hard to have the distemper layed; and generally after much
persuasion, would obtain a promise, or answer of peace which never failed
of laying the distemper.”

    “_Inscription copied from a grave stone at Gay Head._

       1     2     3
    YEUUH’WOHHOK’SIPSIN’

        4           5
    SIL’PAUL’NOHTOBEYONTOK’

                 6         7
    AGED’ 49: YEARS’NUPPOOP’TAH’

    AUGUST’24TH1787.

    EXPLANATIONS.

    1. Here.
    2. The body.
    3. Lies.
    4. Silas Paul.
    5. An ordained preacher.
    6. Died.
    7. Then, or in.”


B.—See page 41.

In connection with the remarks in the foregoing pages on the climate and
soil of New England, the following extract from a piece by Rev. John
Higginson of Salem, 1629, will be read with interest. It is taken from
the Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society, 1792.


NEW-ENGLANDS PLANTATION.

Or, a short and true DESCRIPTION of the Commodities and Discommodities
of that countrey. Written in the year 1629, by Mr. HIGGESON, a Reverend
Divine, now there resident. Whereunto is added a Letter, sent by Mr.
GRAVES, an Enginere, out of New-England. Reprinted from the third
edition, London, 1530.

Letting passe our voyage by sea,[47] we will now begin our discourse
on the shore of New-England. And because the life and wel-fare of every
creature heere below, and the commodiousnesse of the countrey whereat
such creatures live, doth by the most wise ordering of God’s providence,
depend next unto himselfe, upon the temperature and disposition of the
foure elements, earth, water, aire, and fire (for as of the mixture of
all these, all sublunary things are composed; so by the more or lesse
enjoyment of the wholesome temper and convenient use of these, consisteth
the onely well-being both of man and beast in a more or lesse comfortable
measure in all countreys under the heavens) therefore I will indeavour
to shew you what New-England is by the consideration of each of these
apart, and truly indeavour by God’s helpe to report nothing but the
naked truth, and that both to tell you of the discommodities as well as
of the commodities, though as the idle proverbe is, _travellers may lye
by authoritie_, and so may take too much sinfull libertie that way. Yet
I may say of my selfe as once Nehemiah did in another case: _Shall such
a man as I lye?_ No verily: It becommeth not a preacher of truth to be
a writer of falshod in any degree: And therefore I have beene carefull
to report nothing of New-England but what I have partly seene with mine
own eyes, and partly heard and enquired from the mouths of verie honest
and religious persons, who, by living in the countrey a good space of
time, have had experience and knowledge of the state thereof, and whose
testimonies I doe beleeve as my selfe.

First therefore of the earth of New-England and all the appertenances
thereof: It is a land of divers and sundry sorts all about Masathulets
Bay, and at Charles river is as fat blacke earth as can be seene any
where: and in other places you have a clay soyle, in other gravell, in
other sandy, as it is all about our plantation at Salem, for so our towne
is now named. Psal. 76:2.

The forme of the earth here in the superfices of it is neither too
flat in the plainnesse, nor too high in hils, but partakes of both in a
mediocritie, and fit for pasture, or for plow or meddow ground, as men
please to employ it: though all the countrey bee as it were a thicke
wood for the generall, yet in divers places there is much ground cleared
by the Indians, and especially about the plantation: And I am told that
about three miles from us a man may stand on a little hilly place and see
divers thousands of acres of ground as good as need to be, and not a tree
in the same. It is thought here is good clay to make bricke and tyles and
earthen-pot as need to be. At this instant we are setting a brick-kill
on worke to make brickes and tiles for the building of our houses. For
stone, here is plentie of slates at the Isle of Slate in Masathulets
bay, and lime-stone, free-stone, and smooth-stone, and iron-stone, and
marble-stone also in such store, that we have great rocks of it, and a
harbour hard by. Our plantation is from thence called Marble-harbour.

Of minerals there hath yet beene but little triall made, yet we are not
without great hope of being furnished in that soyle.

The fertilitie of the soyle is to be admired at, as appeareth in the
aboundance of grasse that groweth everie where, both verie thicke, verie
long, and verie high in divers places: But it groweth verie wildly with
a great stalke and a broad and ranker blade, because it never had been
eaten with cattle, nor mowed with a sythe, and seldome trampled on by
foot. It is scarce to bee beleeved how our kine and goates, horses and
hogges, doe thrive and prosper here and like well of this countrey.

In our plantation we have already a quart of milke for a penny: but the
aboundant encrease of corne proves this countrey to bee a wonderment.
Thirtie, fortie, fiftie, sixtie are ordinarie here: Yea Joseph’s encrease
in Ægypt is outstript here with us. Our planters hope to have more then
a hundred fould this yere: And all this while I am within compasse; what
will you say of two hundred fould and upwards? It is almost incredible
what great gaine some of our English planters have had by our Indiane
corne. Credible persons have assured me, and the partie himselfe avouched
the truth of it to me, that of the setting of 13 gallons of corne hee
hath had encrease of it 52 hogsheads, every hogshead holding seven
bushels of London measure, and every bushell was by him sold and trusted
to the Indians for so much beaver as was worth 13 shillings; and so of
this 13 gallons of corne, which was worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he made
about 327 pounds of it the yeere following, as by reckoning will appeare:
where you may see how God blessed husbandry in this land. There is not
such greate and plentifull eares of corne I suppose any where else to
bee found but in this countrey: Because also of varietie of colours, as
red, blew, and yellow, &c. and of one corne there springeth four or five
hundred. I have sent you many eares of divers colours that you might see
the truth of it.

Little children here by setting of corne may earne much more then their
owne maintenance.

They have tryed our English corne at New Plimmouth plantation, so that
all our several graines will grow here verie well, and have a fitting
soyle for their nature.

Our Governor hath store of greene pease growing in his garden, as good as
ever I eat in England.

This country aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great varitie
and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are here both bigger
and sweeter then is ordinary to be found in England. Here are store
of pumpions, cowcombers, and other things of that nature which I know
not. Also divers excellent pot-herbs grow abundantly among the grasse,
as strawberrie leaves in all places of the countrey, and plentie of
strawberries in their time, and pennyroyall, wintersaverie, sorrell,
brookelime, liverwort, carvell, and watercresses, also leekes and onions
are ordinarie, and divers physicall herbs. Here are also aboundance of
other sweet herbs delightful to the smell, whose names we know not, &c.
and plentie of single damaske roses verie sweete; and two kinds of herbes
that bare two kinds of flowers very sweet, which they say, are as good to
make cordage or cloath as any hempe or flaxe we have.

Excellent vines are here up and downe in the woods. Our Governour hath
already planted a vineyard with great hope of encrease.

Also, mulberries, plums, raspberries, corrance, chesnuts, filberds,
walnuts, smalnuts, hurtleberies, and hawes of whitethorne neere as good
as our cherries in England, they grow in plentie here.

For wood there is no better in the world I thinke, here being foure sorts
of oke differing both in the leafe, timber, and colour, all excellent
good. There is also good ash, elme, willow, birch, beech, saxafras,
juniper, cipres, cedar, spruce, pines, and firre that will yeeld
abundance of turpentine, pitch, tarre, masts, and other materials for
building both of ships and houses. Also here are store of sumacke trees,
they are good for dying and tanning of leather, likewise such trees yeeld
a precious gem called wine benjamin, that they say is excellent for
perfumes. Also here be divers roots and berries wherewith the Indians dye
excellent holding colours that no raine nor washing can alter. Also, wee
have materials to make sope-ashes and salt-peter in aboundance.

For beasts there are some beares, and they say some _lyons_ also;
for they have been seen at Cape Anne. Also here are several sorts of
deere, some whereof bring three or four young ones at once, which is
not ordinarie in England. Also wolves, foxes, beavers, otters, martins,
great wild cats, and a great beast called a molke as bigge as an oxe. I
have seen the skins of all these beasts since I came to this plantation
excepting lyons. Also here are great store of squerrels, some greater,
and some smaller and lesser: there are some of the lesser sort, they tell
me, that by a certaine skill will fly from tree to tree, though they
stand farre distant.


_Of the waters of_ New-England, _with the things belonging to the same_.

New-England hath water enough, both salt and fresh, the greatest sea in
the world, the Atlanticke sea, runs all along the coast thereof. There
are abundance of Ilands along the shore, some full of wood and masts to
feed swine; and others cleere of wood, and fruitful to bear corne. Also
wee have store of excellent harbours for ships, as at Cape Anne, and at
Masathulets Bay, and at Salem, and at many other places: and they are the
better because for strangers there is a verie difficult and dangerous
passage into them, but unto such as are well acquainted with them, they
are easie and safe enough. The aboundance of sea-fish are almost beyond
beleeving, and sure I should scarce have beleeved it, except I had seene
it with mine owne eyes. I saw great store of whales, and crampusse,
and such aboundance of mackerils that it would astonish one to behold,
likewise cod-fish in aboundance on the coast, and in their season are
plentifully taken. There is a fish called a basse, a most sweet and
wholesome fish as ever I did eate, it is altogether as good as our fresh
sammon, and the season of their comming was begun when wee came first
to New-England in June, and so continued about three months space. Of
this fish our fishers take many hundreds together, which I have seen
lying on the shore to my admiration; yea their nets ordinarily take more
than they are able to hale to land, and for want of boats and men they
are constrained to let a many goe after they have taken them, and yet
sometimes they fill two boates at a time with them. And besides basse wee
take plentie of scate and thornbacks, and abundance of lobsters and the
least boy in the plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them.
For my owne part I was soone cloyed with them, they were so great, and
fat, and lussious. I have seene some myselfe that have weighed 16 pound,
but others have had divers times so great lobsters as have weighed 25
pound, as they assure mee. Also heere is abundance of herring, turbut,
sturgion, cuskes, hadocks, mullets, eeles, crabbes, muskles, and oysters.
Besides there is probability that the countrey is of an excellent temper
for the making of salt: For since our comming our fishermen have brought
home very good salt which they found candied by the standing of the sea
water and the heat of the sunne, upon a rocke by the sea shore: and in
divers salt marishes that some have gone through, they have found some
salt in some places crushing under their feete and cleaving to their
shooes.

And as for fresh water, the countrey is full of dainty springs, and some
great rivers, and some lesser brookes; and at Masathulets Bay they digged
wels and found water at three foot deepe in most places: And neere Salem
thay have as fine cleare water as we can desire, and we may digge wels
and find water where we list.

Thus wee see both land and sea abound with store of blessings for the
comfortable sustenance of man’s life in New-England.


_Of the aire of_ New-England _with the temper and creatures in it_.

The temper of the aire of New-England is one speciall thing that
commends this place. Experience doth manifest that there is hardly a
more healthfull place to be found in the world that agreeth better with
our English bodyes. Many that have been weake and sickly in old England,
by comming hither have beene thoroughly healed and growne healthfull
strong. For here is an extraordinarie cleere and dry aire that is of a
most healing nature to all such as are of a cold, melancholy, flegmatick,
rheumatick temper of body. None can more truly speake hereof by their
owne experience then my selfe. My friends that knew me can well tell how
verie sickly I have bin and continually in physick, being much troubled
with a tormenting paine through an extraordinarie weaknesse of my
stomacke, and aboundance of melancholicke humors; but since I came hither
on this voyage, I thanke God, I have had perfect health, and freed from
paine and vomiting, having a stomacke to digest the hardest and coursest
fare, who before could not eat finest meat; and whereas my stomache could
onely digest and did require such drinke as was both strong and stale,
now I can and doe often times drink New-England water verie well; and
I that have not gone without a cap for many yeeres together, neither
durst leave off the same, have now cast away my cap, and doe weare none
at all in the day time: And whereas beforetime I cloathed my selfe with
double cloaths and thicke waistcoates to keep me warme, even in the
summer time, I doe now goe as thin clad as any, onely wearing a light
stuffe cassocke upon my shirt, and stuffe breeches of one thickness
without linings. Besides I have one of my children that was formerly
most lamentably handled with sore breaking out of both his hands and
feet of the king’s-evill, but since he came hither hee is very well ever
he was, and there is hope of perfect recoverie shortly even by the very
wholesomnesse of the aire, altering, digesting and drying up the cold and
crude humours of the body: And therefore I thinke it is a wise course for
al cold complections to come to take physick in New-England: for a sup of
New-England’s aire is better then a whole draught of Old England’s ale.

In the summer time, in the midst of July and August, it is a good deale
hotter then in Old England: And in winter, January and February are much
colder, as they say: But the spring and autumne are of a middle temper.

Fowles of the aire are plentifull here, and of all sorts as we have in
England, as farre as I can learn, and a great many of strange fowles
which we know not. Whilst I was writing these things, one of our men
brought home an eagle which hee had killed in the wood: They say they
are good meate. Also here are many kinds of excellent hawkes, both sea
hawkes and land hawkes: And my self walking in the woods with another
in company, sprung a patridge so bigge that through the heaviness of
his body could fly but a little way: They that have killed them, say
they are as bigge as our hens. Here are likewise aboundance of turkies
often killed in the woods, farre greater then our English turkies, and
exceeding fat, sweet, and fleshy, for here they have aboundance of
feeding all the yeere long, as strawberries, in summer al places are
full of them, and all manner of berries and fruits. In the winter time
I have scene flockes of pidgeons, and have eaten of them: They doe fly
from tree to tree as other birds doe, which our pidgeons will not doe in
England: They are of all colours as ours are, but their wings and tayles
are far longer, and therefore it is likely they fly swifter to escape the
terrible hawkes in this country. In winter time this country doth abound
with wild geese, wild ducks, and other sea fowle, that a great part of
winter the planters have eaten nothing but roast-meate of divers fowles
which they have killed.

Thus you have heard of the earth, water and aire of New-England, now it
may bee you expect something to bee said of the fire proportionable to
the rest of the elements. Indeede I thinke New-England may boast of this
element more then of all the rest: For though it bee here somewhat cold
in the winter, yet here we have plenty of fire to warme us, and that a
great deal cheaper then they sel billets and faggots in London: Nay, all
Europe is not able to afford to make so great fires as New-England. A
poore servant here that is to possesse but 50 acres of land, may afford
to give more wood for timber and fire as good as the world yeelds, then
many noble men in England can afford to do. Here is good living for those
that love good fires. And although New-England have no tallow to make
candles of, yet by the aboundance of the fish thereof, it can afford oil
for lampes. Yea our pine-trees that are the most plentifull of all wood,
doth allow us plenty of candles which are very usefull in a house: And
they are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no other, and
they are nothing else but the wood of the pine tree cloven in two little
slices, something thin, which are so full of the moysture of turpentine
and pitch, that they burne as cleere as a torch. I have sent you some of
them that you may see the experience of them.

Thus of New-England’s commodities: now I will tell you of some
discommodities that are here to be found.

First, in the summer season for these three months, June, July, and
August, we are troubled much with little flyes called musketoes, being
the same they are troubled with in Lincolneshire and the Fens; and they
are nothing but gnats, which except they bee smoked out of their houses
are troublesome in the night season.

Secondly, in the winter season for two months space, the earth is
commonly covered with snow, which is accompanied with sharp biting
frosts, something more sharpe then is in Old England, and therefore are
forced to make great fires.

Thirdly, the countrey being very full of woods, and wildernesses, doth
also much abound with snakes and serpents of strange colours, and huge
greatnesse: yea there are some serpents called rattle-snakes that have
rattles in their tailes, that will not fly from a man as others will, but
will flye upon him, and sting him so mortally, that hee will dye within a
quarter of an houre after, except the partie stinged have about him some
of the root of an herbe called snake-weed to bite on, and then hee shall
receive no harme: but yet seldom falles it out that any hurt is done by
these. About three years since, an Indian was stung to death by one of
them, but wee heard of none since that time.

Fourthly and lastly, here wants as it were good company of honest
christians to bring with them horses, kine, and sheepe, to make use
of this fruitfull land: great pitty it is to see so much good ground
for corne and for grasse as any is under the heavens, to ly altogether
unoccupied, when so many honest men and their families in Old England
through the populousnesse thereof, do make evry hard shift to live one by
the other.

Now, thus you know what New-England is, as also with the commodities and
discommodities thereof: Now I will shew you a little of the inhabitants
thereof, and their government.

For their governors they have kings, which they call Saggamores, some
greater, and some lesser, according to the number of their subjects.

The greatest Saggamores about us can not make above three hundred
men,[48] and other lesse Saggamores have not above fifteen subjects, and
others neere about us but two.

Their subjects above twelve years since[49] were swept away by a great
and grievous plague that was amongst them, so that there are verie few
left to inhabite the country.

The Indians are not able to make use of the one fourth part of the
land, neither have they any settled places, as townes to dwell in, nor
any ground as they challenge for their own possession, but change their
habitation from place to place.

For their statures, they are a tall and strong limmed people, their
colours are tawney, they goe naked, save onely they are in part covered
with beasts skins on one of their shoulders, and weare something before;
their haire is generally blacke, and cut before like our gentlewomen, and
one locke longer than the rest, much like to our gentelmen, which fashion
I thinke came from hence into England.

For their weapons, they have bowes and arrowes, some of them headed with
bone, and some with brasse: I have sent you some of them for an example.

The men for the most part live idely, they do nothing but hunt and fish:
Their wives set their corne and doe all their other worke. They have
little houshold stuffe, as a kettle, and some other vessels like trayes,
spoones, dishes, and baskets.

Their houses are verie little and homely, being made with small poles
pricked into the ground, and so bended and fastened at the tops, and on
the sides they are matted with boughs and covered on the roof with sedge
and old mats, and for their beds that they take their rest on, they have
a mat.

They doe generally professe to like well of our coming and planting here;
partly because their is abundance of ground that they cannot possesse
nor make use of, and partly because our being here will bee a meanes
both of relief to them when they want, and also a defence from their
enemies, wherewith (I say) before this plantation began, they were often
indangered.

For their religion they do worship two Gods, a good God and an evil God:
The good God they call Tantum, and their evil God whom they fear will doe
them hurt, they call Squantum.

For their dealing with us, we neither fear them nor trust them, for
fourtie of our musketeeres will drive five hundred of them out of the
field. We use them kindly; they will come into our houses sometimes by
half a dozen or half a score at a time when we are at victuals, but will
ask or take nothing but what we give them.

We purpose to learn their language as soon as we can, which will be a
means to do them good.


_Of the present condition of the Plantation, and what it is._

When we came first to Nehum-kek,[50] we found about half a score houses,
and a faire house newly built for the Governor, we found also aboundance
of corne planted by them, very good and well liking. And we brought
with us about two hundred passengers and planters more, which by common
consent of the old planters were all combined together into one body
politicke, under the same Governour.

There are in all of us both old and new planters about three hundred,
whereof two hundred of them are settled at Nehum-kek, now called Salem:
And the rest have planted themselves at Masathulets Bay, beginning to
build a towne there which wee do call Cherton, or Charles Town.

We that are settled at Salem make what haste we can to build houses, so
that within a short time we shall have a faire towne.

We have great ordnance, wherewith we doubt not but we shall fortifie
ourselves in a short time to keepe out a potent adversary. But that which
is our greatest comfort, and meanes of defence above all other, is, that
we have here the true religion and holy ordinances of Almighty God taught
amongst us: Thankes be to God, wee have here plenty of preaching, and
diligent catechizing, with strict and carefull exercise, and good and
commendable orders to bring our people into a christian conversation with
whom we have to doe withall. And thus wee doubt not but God will be with
us, and _if God be with us, who can be against us?_

[Here ends Master Higgeson’s relation of New-England.]


_A letter sent from New England, by Master GRAVES, Engynere, now there
resident._

Thus much I can affirme in generall, that I never came in a more goodly
country in all my life, all things considered: If it hath not at any time
been manured and husbanded, yet it is very beautifull in open lands,
mixed with goodly woods, and again open plaines, in some places five
hundred acres, some places more, some lesse, not much troublesome for
to cleer for the plough to goe in, no place barren, but on the tops of
the hils; the grasse and weeds grow up to a man’s face, in the lowlands
and by fresh rivers, aboundance of grasse and large meddowes without any
tree or shrubbe to hinder the sith. I never saw, except in Hungaria,
unto which I alwayes paralell this countrie, in all our most respects,
for every thing that is heare eyther sowne or planted prospereth far
better then in Old-England: The increase of corne is here farre beyond
expectation, as I have seene here by experience in barly, the which
because it is so much above your conception I will not mention. And
cattle doe prosper very well, and those that are bredd here farr greater
than those with you in England. Vines doe grow here plentifully laden
with the biggest grapes that ever I saw, some I have seen foure inches
about, so that I am bold to say of this countrie, as it is commonly said
in Germany of Hungaria, that for cattel, corne, and wine it excelleth. We
have many more hopefull commodities here in this country, the which time
will teach to make good use of: In the mean time wee abound with such
things which next under God doe make us subsist: as fish, foule, deere,
and sundrie sorts of fruits, as musk-millions, water-millions, Indian
pompions, Indian pease, beanes, and many other odde fruits that I cannot
name; all which are made good and pleasant through this maine blessing
of God, the healthfulnesse of the countrie which far exceedeth all parts
that ever I have beene in: It is observed that few or none doe here fal
sicke, unless of the scurvy, that they bring from aboard the ship with
them, whereof I have cured some of my companie onely by labour.


C.—See page 204.

See Morell’s poem on New England, Mass. Hist. Coll., 1792.


D.—See page 222.

The following letter to King Charles II. accompanied the presentation of
the New Testament in the Indian tongue. The letter was written and sent
by the Commissioners of the United Colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut and New Haven.

    “To the High and Mighty Prince, Charles the second, by the
    grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland,
    Defender of the faith, &c.

    “The Commissioners of the United Colonies in New England, wish
    increase of all happiness.

    “Most dread Sovereign,

    “If our weak apprehensions have not misled us, this work will
    be no unacceptable present to your Majesty, as having a greater
    interest therein, than we believe is generally understood,
    which upon this occasion we conceive it our duty to declare.

    “The people of these four colonies (confederate for mutual
    defence, in the times of the late distractions of our dear
    native country) your Majesty’s natural born subjects, by the
    favour and grace of your royal father and grandfather of
    famous memory, put themselves upon this great and hazardous
    undertaking, of planting themselves at their own charge in
    these remote ends of the earth; that without offence or
    provocation to our dear brethren and countrymen, we might enjoy
    that liberty to worship God, which our own conscience informed
    us was not only our right but duty; as also that we, if it so
    pleased God, might be instrumental to spread the light of the
    gospel, the knowledge of the son of God, our saviour, to the
    poor, barbarous heathen; which by his late Majesty, in some of
    our patents, is declared to be the principal aim.

    “These honest and pious intentions have through the grace of
    God and our kings, been seconded with proportionable success.
    For, omitting the immunities indulged by your Highness’s royal
    predecessors, we have been greatly encouraged by your Majesty’s
    gracious expressions of favour and approbation, signified unto
    the address made by the principal of our colonies; to which
    the rest do most cordially subscribe; though wanting the like
    seasonable opportunity, they have been till now deprived of the
    means to congratulate your Majesty’s happy restitution, after
    your long sufferings; which we implore may yet be graciously
    accepted, that we may be equal partakers of your royal favour
    and moderation; which hath been so illustrious, that to
    admiration, the animosities of different persuasions of men
    have been so soon composed, and so much cause of hope, that,
    unless the sins of the nation prevent, a blessed calm will
    succeed the late horrid confusions of church and state. And
    shall not we, dread sovereign, your subjects of these colonies,
    of the same faith and belief in all points of doctrine with
    our countrymen and other reformed churches, though perhaps not
    alike persuaded in some matters of order, which in outward
    respects hath been unhappy for us,—promise and assure ourselves
    of all just favour and indulgence from a prince so graciously
    and happily endowed?

    “The other part of our errand hither hath been attended with
    endeavours and blessing; many of the wild Indians being taught,
    and understanding, the doctrine of the christian religion,
    and with much affection attending such preachers as are sent
    to teach them. Many of their children are instructed to write
    and read; and some of them have proceeded further to attain
    the knowledge of the Latin and the Greek tongues, and are
    brought up with our English youth in university learning.
    There are divers of them that can and do read some parts of
    the scripture, and some catechisms which formerly have been
    translated into their own language: which hath occasioned the
    undertaking of a great work, viz. the printing the whole bible:
    which, being translated by a painful labourer among them, who
    was desirous to see the work accomplished in his days, hath
    already proceeded to the finishing of the new testament; which
    we here humbly present to your Majesty, as the first fruit and
    accomplishment of the pious design of your royal ancestors. The
    old testament is now under the press, wanting and craving your
    royal favour and assistance for the perfecting thereof.

    “We may not conceal, though this work hath been begun and
    prosecuted by such instruments as God has raised up here; yet
    the chief charge and cost, which hath supported and carried it
    thus far, hath been from the charity and piety of divers of
    our well affected countrymen in England; who, being sensible
    of our inability in that respect, and studious to promote so
    good a work, contributed large sums of money, which were to
    be improved according to the direction and order of the then
    prevailing powers; which hath been faithfully and religiously
    attended, both there and here, according to the pious
    intentions of the benefactors. And we most humbly beseech your
    Majesty, that a matter of so much devotion and piety, tending
    so much to the honour of God, may suffer no disappointment
    through any legal defect, without the fault of the donors,
    or poor Indians, who only receive the benefit; but that your
    Majesty be graciously pleased to establish and confirm the
    same; being contrived and done, as we conceive, in that first
    year of your Majesty’s reign, of this book was begun and now
    finished the first year of your establishment: which doth not
    only presage the happy success of your Highness’s government,
    but will be a perpetual monument, that by your Majesty’s
    favour, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was made known to
    the Indians; an honour whereof, we are assured, your Majesty
    will not a little esteem.

    “Sir, the shine of your royal favour upon these undertakings
    will make these tender plants to flourish, notwithstanding any
    malevolent aspect from those that bear evil will to this Sion;
    and render your Majesty more illustrious and glorious to after
    generations.

    “The God of heaven long preserve and bless your Majesty with
    many happy days, to his glory, the good and comfort of his
    church and people. Amen.”


E.—See page 182.

The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians has been
mentioned several times in this work.

About the year 1648, during the Protectorate of Cromwell, when the
Presbyterians and Independents had influence in England, a Society was
formed through the influence, it is believed, of Gov. Winslow, and called
the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in
North America.

It is somewhere stated respecting Cromwell that he had conceived a
very extensive scheme for the universal propagation of the Gospel,
borrowing the zeal and ingenuity of the Jesuits, and intending to meet
and counteract their efforts everywhere. This scheme perished with him
in his early death. Even the Society for Propagating the Gospel among
the Indians, &c., did not long survive the restoration of royalty in
1660. But during its existence under the Commonwealth it rendered aid
to Mayhew, Eliot, and others, the funds being applied here through the
Commissioners of the four Colonies.

The Society being dissolved at the Restoration of monarchy under Charles
II., an urgent application was soon made for another Society having the
same name and objects. The honorable and distinguished Robert Boyle was
President of the new Society. He had great wealth, and used it with
profuse liberality. The celebrated Bishop Burnet was his almoner in many
private as well as public charities. He distributed a thousand pounds
a year for several years before his death among the French refugees in
England. He also gave yearly, for a long time, the sum of three hundred
pounds for the propagation of the Gospel in North America. Mr. Eliot’s
letters to his noble benefactor, which may be found in the Collections of
the Mass. Hist. Society, will be read with interest.

The Indian School, at Cambridge, was supported by the funds of this
Society, and a building erected for it by the same. In 1665 there were
eight Indian youths in that school. Eliot’s Indian Bible was printed at
the expense of this Society, and cost £500, or not far from two thousand
dollars.

For a few years, the General Court of Massachusetts granted five hundred
dollars towards the object of this Society. At the suggestion of the
Society the Governor issued a request for contributions in its behalf to
the towns of the Commonwealth. About $1560 were collected.

This Society continues to this time. In 1800, its funds amounted to
$20.000. At present they are not far from twice that sum. It is in the
hands of members of the Unitarian denomination.[51]


F.

Letters of Mr. Eliot to Hon. Robert Boyle may be found in Mass. Hist.
Coll. 1792. Also two interesting letters from the same in Francis’ Life
of Eliot, pp. 250 and 267.


G.

See, for an account of the Missionary Labors of the Mayhews, Wilson’s
Memoirs of Eliot, pp. 273-9.


H.

See Wilson’s Memoirs of E., p. 290.


I.

Mr. Eliot’s Observations on forming the Indian Alphabet, do. do., p. 284.


K.

For an account of Rev. William Leverich, and some other laborers among
the Indians, see Wilson’s Memoirs, pp. 257-60, p. 278-99.


L.—See page 133.

The following petitions of Mr. Eliot have been copied for this work from
the Mass. State Papers. The first is a temperance document which has not
lost any pertinency or force by age.

    _Petition of John Eliot to the —— General Court concerning the
    Indians_,

    SHEWETH,

    That whereas the Indians have frequent recourse to English
    townes and especially to Boston where they too often see evil
    examples of excessive drinking with English who are too often
    disgraced with that beastly sin of drunkenness. And themselves
    many of them greatly delighting in strong liquors, not
    considering the strength and evil of them, and also too well
    knowing the liberty of the law which prohibiteth above half a
    pint of wine to a man that therefore they may without offence
    to the law have their half pint, and when they have had it in
    one place they goe to another and have the like till they be
    drunken. And sometime find too much entertainment that way by
    such who keepe no ordinary only desire theire trade though it
    be with the hurt and perdition of their soules. Therefore my
    humble request unto this honored Court is this, that there may
    be but one ordinary in all Boston who may have liberty to sell
    wine or any strong drink unto the Indians. And that whoever
    shall further them in their vicious drinking for theire own
    base ends who keep no ordinary may not be suffered in such a
    sinne without due punishment. And that at what ordinary soever
    in any other towne as well as Boston any Indian shall be found
    drunk, having had any considerable quantity of drink there,
    they should come under severe censure. These things I am bold
    to present unto you for the preventing of those scandalous
    evils which greatly blemish and interrupt their entertainment
    of the Gospel through the policy of Satan who counter worketh
    Christ with not a little uncomfortable success. And thus with
    my hearty desire of the gracious and blessed presence of God
    among you in all your weighty affairs, I humbly take leave and
    rest your servant to command in our Savour Christ,

                                                         JOHN ELIOT.

    this 23d of the 8th 1648.


M.—See page 134.

The next petition is exceedingly interesting.

    _To the Honorable the Governor and Council sitting at Boston
    the 13th of the 6th, 1675. The humble petition of John Eliot_,

    SHEWETH,

    That the terrour of selling away such Indians in the Ilands
    for perpetual Slaves who shall yield up themselves to your
    mercy is likely to be an effectual prolongation of the warre
    and such an exasperation of them as may produce we know not
    what evil consequences upon all the land. Christ hath said,
    “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” This
    [treatment] of them is worse than death. To put to death men
    that have deserved to die is an ordinance of God and a blessing
    is promised to it. It may be done in faith. The design of
    Christ in these last days is not to extirpate nations but to
    gospelize them. He will spread the Gospel sound the world
    about, rev. 11. 15. The kingdoms of the world have become the
    kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. His sovereign hand
    and grace hath brought the Gospel into these dark places of
    the earth. When we came we declared to the world, and it is
    recorded, yea we are instructed by our letters patent from the
    King’s majesty that the endeavour of the Indians conversion not
    their extirpation was one great end of our enterprize in coming
    to these ends of the earth. The Lord hath so succeeded his work
    as that (by his grace) they have the Holy Scriptures and sundry
    of themselves able to teach their countrymen the good knowledge
    of God. The light of the Gospel is risen among those who sat in
    darkness and in the region of the shadow of death. And however
    some of them have refused to receive the Gospel, and are now
    incensed in their spirits unto a warre against the English, yet
    by that good promise, Ps. 1:1-6, I doubt not but the meaning of
    Christ is to open the door for the free passage of the Gospel
    among them, and that the Lord will publish that word, v. 6. Yet
    have I set my king on my holy hill of Syon, though some rage at
    it. My humble request is if you would follow Christ his design
    in this matter to promote the free passage of religion among
    them and not destroy them. To send them away from the light
    of the Gospel which Christ hath graciously given them unto a
    place, a state, a way of spiritual darkness to the eternal
    ruin of their souls is as I apprehend to act contrary to the
    mind of Christ. God’s command is that we should inlarge the
    kingdom of Jesus Christ. Esay, 54:2. Enlarge the place of thy
    tent. It seemeth to me that to sell them away for slaves is
    to hinder the inlargement of his kingdom. How can a Christian
    [soule yield to act]—(these words are indistinct) in casting
    away their soules for which Christ hath with an eminent hand
    provided an offer of the Gospel. To sell soules for money
    seemeth to me a dangerous merchandize. If they deserve to
    dy, it is far better to be put to death under godly [rulers]
    who will take care if meanes may be used that they may die
    penitently. To fall away from all meanes of grace when Christ
    hath provided meanes of grace for them, is for us to be active
    in the destroying their soules when we are highly obliged to
    seek their conversion and salvation and have opportunity in our
    hands so to doe. Deut. 23:15, 16.[52] A fugitive servant from
    his Pagan master might not be delivered to his master, but be
    kept in Israel for the good of his soul. How much less lawful
    is it to sell away souls from under the light of the Gospel
    into a condition where their souls will be utterly lost, so
    far as appertains unto man. All men (of reading) condemned the
    Spaniard for cruelty upon this point for destroying men and
    depopulating the land. The country is large enough, here is
    land enough for them and us to, Prov. 14:28. In the multitude
    of people is the King’s honor. It will be much to the glory
    of Christ to have many brought in to worship his great name.
    I beseech the honored Council to pardon my boldnesse, and let
    the case of conscience be discussed orderly before the thing
    be acted. Cover my weaknesse and weigh the reason and religion
    that laboreth in this great case of conscience.


N.—See page 135.

The following petition of Mr. Eliot illustrates the kind interest which
he took in the common and private affairs of the Indians. I have copied
it from Mass. State Papers, (Indian Papers) 30. p. 15. 1639-1705.

    PETITION THAT TWO INDIANS MAY HAVE THEIR DUE.

    _The humble petition of John Eliot to this Honorable Court._

    First in the behalfe of Totherswompe unto whom one of Uncas his
    men doth owe 18 fathom of wampompeague for 6 beare skins and
    he cannot obtain justice with ease and therefore doth humbly
    intreat this honored Court to procure justice for him in this
    particular. Phoxon well knoweth his demand is just and true, as
    Thomas and Stanton can testify.

    The other is in behalf of Anonganisch, who lost 17 fathom
    which Uncas and his men tooke unjustly from him 3 years since
    when they fell upon the Indians by Mr. Winthrop’s plantation,
    and he saith that when his case was at this Court formerly
    heard The Governour promised him that he should have justice,
    and that doth embolden him to sue again in the case. The
    bringing them to doe justice doth so far cause them to honour
    and acknowledge God and therefore I humbly entreat your favour
    in furtherance of the same, and so commending all your weighty
    occasions to the blessing of the Lord.

                 Your worships servant in Jesus Christ,

                                                     JOHN ELIOT.[53]


O.—See page 48.

    THE CHURCH IN ROXBURY.

    (See Am. Quarterly Register, Vol. 8th.)

    THOMAS WELDE, the first Minister of Roxbury, was a minister in
    Essex, England. Refusing to conform to the requirements of the
    Established Church, he sought the quiet enjoyment of the rights
    of conscience in this country. He arrived in Boston, June 5,
    1632, and entered upon the pastoral office in Roxbury, at which
    time the Church was embodied. In 1641, he was sent as an agent,
    with REV. HUGH PETERS, to England for the Province and never
    returned.

    JOHN ELIOT became teacher of the Church in Roxbury, Nov. 5,
    1632. The next year he became colleague with Mr. Welde.

    SAMUEL DANFORTH was colleague with Mr. Eliot after Mr. Welde
    went to England. He continued in office 24 years.

    NEHEMIAH WALTER, born in Ireland, came to Boston at the age of
    16. Graduated at Harvard College, and was the third colleague
    of Mr. Eliot. He had so good knowledge of the French Language
    that he preached to a society of French Protestants while
    their Pastor was absent. Whitefield called him “the good old
    Puritan.” A well known publication of his is called, “The
    Wonderfulness of Christ.”

    THOMAS WALTER, his son, became colleague with his father, but
    died 7 years after.

    OLIVER PEABODY, son of the Missionary at Natick of the same
    name, succeeded Mr. Walter, but continued only 18 months, and
    died when on the eve of being married, aged 27.

    AMOS ADAMS, was Pastor at Roxbury 22 years and died of the
    epidemic which prevailed in the camp at Roxbury and Cambridge.
    The title of one of his published Sermons was, The only Hope
    and Refuge of Sinners.

    ELIPHALET PORTER succeeded him and continued in office 51 years.

    GEORGE PUTNAM, the present Pastor, was ordained colleague with
    him, July 7, 1830.

A Church was organized in Roxbury, Sept. 18, 1834, composed of Members of
Evangelical sentiments, and of the Orthodox Congregational denomination.
It took the name of “ELIOT CHURCH.”

Rev. John S. C. Abbott was ordained Pastor, Nov. 25, 1835.

Rev. Augustus C. Thompson was ordained Pastor, July 27, 1842.


P.—See page 51.

    ROXBURY “ELIOT SCHOOL FUND.”

    “Eliot School Fund had its origin in the donation of Rev. John
    Eliot, of Roxbury, well known as the Apostle to the Indians,
    who, in the year 1689, conveyed an estate of about seventy-five
    acres of land to certain persons and their heirs, as Trustees
    for ‘the maintenance, support and encouragement of a school and
    school master at that part of Roxbury, commonly called Jamaica
    or the Pond Plain, for the teaching and instructing of the
    children of that end of the town (together with such Indians
    and negroes as shall or may come to the said school) and to no
    other use, intent, or purpose whatever. This is the language of
    the deed.’ (The fund was afterwards increased by donations.)

    “The Eliot school fund consists (1840) of 89,699.94. The School
    also possesses some real estate, which yields an annual income
    of 8381.”

    Report of the Committee on the School Fund, Roxbury. Auditor’s
    Reports, 1831-1846.

The following are the principal of Mr. Eliot’s publications. It is
remarkable that no entire Sermon of his has been preserved.

Answer to Norcott’s book against Infant Baptism.

The Harmony of the Gospels in the Holy History of Jesus Christ.

The Christian Commonwealth.

The Divine management of Gospel Churches by the Ordinance of Councils,
constituted in order according to the Scriptures, which may be a means
of uniting those two holy and eminent parties, the Presbyterians and the
Congregational.

Indian Bible, Catechism, and Psalms of David in metre.

Baxter’s “Call to the unconverted,” translated into the Indian Tongue.

The Practice of Piety, translated into the Indian Tongue. This book was
written by Lewis Bayly, for some time Chaplain to James the First. In
1792, it had reached the _seventy-first_ edition. The author was promoted
to the see of Bangor, 1616. See Lib. Am. Biog. V. 245. Francis’ Life of
Eliot. BIOG. BRITAN. Art. BAYLY.

Thomas Shepard’s Sincere Convert, translated into the Indian tongue.

Thomas Shepard’s Sound Believer, translated into the Indian tongue.

Indian Primer.

This little book has been of great help to linguists by the division of
syllables in it for children, thereby giving learners of a larger growth
some insight into the formation of Indian words.




NOTE.


The following appropriate conclusion to this volume came to hand just as
the last pages were going to press.

    THE CHOCTAWS TO THEIR WHITE BRETHREN OF IRELAND.—A meeting for
    the relief of the starving poor of Ireland was held at the
    Choctaw agency, on the 23d ult. Maj. William Armstrong was
    called to the chair, and J. B. Luce was appointed secretary. A
    circular of the “Memphis committee” was read by Maj. Armstrong,
    after which the meeting contributed $170. All subscribed,
    agents, missionaries, traders and Indians, a considerable
    portion of which fund was made up by the latter. The “poor
    Indian” sending his mite to the poor Irish!

                                [_Arkansas Intelligencer, April 3_.]

[Illustration: THE END OF VOL III.]




FOOTNOTES


[1] See Laws of Mass. I., page 77, Sect. 8, 9.

“_Whereas one end in planting these parts was to propagate the true
religion unto the Indians_, and that divers of them are become subject
unto the English, and have engaged themselves to be ready and willing to
understand the law of God: It is therefore ordered that such necessary
and wholesome laws which are in force, and may be made from time to time,
to reduce them to civility of life, shall be once a year, if the times be
safe, made known to them by such fit persons as the general court shall
appoint.”

[2]

                    “Venient annis
    Secula seris, quibus Oceanus
    Vincula rerum, laxet, et ingens
    Pateat tellus, Typhis que novos
    Deteget orbes; nec sit terris
    Ultima Thule.”

            _Medea, Act. 3, v. 375._

[3] “America known to the Ancients.” Boston, 1773.

[4] Mather.

[5] Governor Bradford’s History of Plymouth.

[6] Mass. Hist. Soc., Coll. 1794., p. 206.

[7] Key, p. 213.

[8] See Appendix, B.

[9] See Appendix, C.

[10] Roger Williams’ Key, p. 26.

[11] Mag. B. III. Life of Eliot. Art. 1.

[12] Sparks’ Lib. Am. Biog. V. 9. Francis’ Life of Eliot.

[13] Mag. Book III., 499.

[14] Vol. III., p. 15.

[15] Book III. Art. IV.

[16] Jefferson’s “Notes on Virginia.”

[17] Newton. Dr. Homer, in his History of Newton says, “This son of
the apostle Eliot was the first minister of Newton. His abilities
and occupation in the ministry are said to be pre-eminent. Under the
direction of his father, he obtained considerable proficiency in
the Indian language, and was an assistant to him in the missionary
employment, until he settled at Newton. Even after his ordination there,
he imitated the manner of his father, devoting himself to the instruction
of the Indians, as well as his own flock. Accordingly he preached
statedly once in a fortnight to them at Pequimet, (Stoughton,) and
sometimes at Natick.”

[18] Now owned and occupied by Warren Dutton and Horace Gray, Esqrs.

[19] “The first place he began to preach at was Nonantum, near Watertown,
upon the south side of Charles River, about four or five miles from his
own house; where lived at that time, Wabon, one of their principal men,
and some Indians with him.” Gookin, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll, for 1792. Vol
I.

“The place where Eliot first began to preach to the Indians, was at
Nonantum, a hill at the northeast corner of Newton, nearly where Messrs.
Haven’s and Wiggin’s houses now stand.” Moore’s Life of Eliot.

[20] Mag. Book III., Part IV. See Appendix, C.

[21] He who thinks that a belief in witchcraft, &c., was a peculiarity of
New England, should look into Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials.

[22] He was not a Sachem, as frequently stated. See Mass. Hist., Col.
IV., 19.

[23] The Day Breaking &c., p. 15.

[24] Shepard’s Clear Sunshine, p. 39. Hist. Coll. Vol. IV. 3d series.
Shattuck’s Hist. Concord.

[25] Shepard’s Clear Sunshine, &c., p. 41.

[26] See page 19.

[27] See Bancroft’s History of the United States, Vol. I.

[28] See Sir Walter Scott’s “Demonology and Witchcraft,” Letter II.

[29] “Cleare Sunshine of the Gospel,” p. 46.

[30] Shepard’s “Cleare Sunshine.”

[31] See the Memorial of Mr. Eliot to the General Court, on this subject,
Appendix L.

[32] Fast enough, if well enough.

[33] See Appendix, E.

[34] I. 172. Note. 1715.

[35] Mag. II, 511. _Philemon Holland._ See Rees’ Encyc., Aiken’s Biog.
Mem. of Medicine. He was the _translator general_ of his age, a man
of incredible industry. In Fuller’s Worthies of England we learn that
Holland, having written several translations with one pen, made the
following stanza:

    “With one solo pen I writ this book,
      Made of a gray goose quill;
    A pen it was when I it took,
      And a pen I leave it still.”

A familiar story is told of Gibbon, in writing the “Decline and Fall,”
and that he presented the pen to the Duchess of Devonshire, who honored
it with a silver case. These stories are probably fabulous. The
contrivances which these men must have used to make one pen, or even one
quill, do so much work, would deserve the appellation above quoted from
Douglass, “otiosorum hominum negotia,” or, the notions of men who had
plenty of leisure.

[36] II. 94.

[37] Magnalia I, 516.—See Appendix, G.

[38] Cotton Mather’s mother was the daughter of Mr. Cotton.

[39] See Appendix, M.

[40] Mass. Hist. Coll. 1802.

[41] This testimony from Richard Baxter, in favor of the Mathers, is
valuable to those who have seen them decried by some modern writers.

[42] See Early Jesuit Missions, &c., by Wm Ingraham Kip.

[43] C. Mather.

[44] Mather’s allusion is probably this: In Gen. 23:2, where it is said
that Abraham came to weep for Sarah, a letter, smaller than the rest, in
the Hebrew word _to weep for her_ is believed by the Jewish critics to
intimate that his grief was somewhat composed; (—“_luctum Abrahæ fuisse
moderatum_.”—Poole’s Synopsis.)—ED.

[45] Magnalia I. 495.

[46] Essays, VIII.

[47] For the Journal of Mr. Higginson’s Voyage, see Hutchinson’s
Collection of Papers, page 32.

[48] That is fighting men.

[49] 1617.

[50] Or Naumkeag. Salem.

[51] See Smith & Choules’ Hist. Miss. 1832, Vol. II.

[52] “Thou shall not deliver unto his master the servant which is
escaped,” &c.

[53] Those who are interested in the subjects referred to in other
petitions of Mr. Eliot may find those petitions as follows:

Petition that the Indians may have more land, Mass. State Papers, 30,
page 31.

Petition in relation to exchange of land with the Indians, do. do. page
81.

Statement of John Eliot respecting lands, do. do. pp. 99, 100.

Complains of wrong done to the Nipmucks by the Narragansetts, do. do.
page 138.

Gookin’s and Eliot’s petition for lands for the Christian Indians, do.
do. p. 286.

There are also some original MSS. of Mr. Eliot’s in the Hutchinson papers
in the Library of the Mass. Historical Society, but they are somewhat
illegible and of no special pertinency to the present work.


*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79004 ***