the Abnaki Language, in North America. 373 
ten Worridgewalk, now an important and flourishing town on the 
same spot where the Abnaki settlement formerly was. ‘The na- 
tural situation of the place is described, by an American writer, 
as “one of those beautiful prairies or spots of alluvial ground, to 
which nature seems to have invited the residence of man, as if 
to free him from toil, and to lavish upon him all the goods which 
spring from fertility, and all the pleasure which conversation with 
the finest scenes of a romantic solitude can afford. Above, the 
rapid of the Kennebec gave the unceasing music of a waterfall ; 
little islands below, studded the expanse at the confluence of the 
streams; and the horizon around rested on a gently waving line 
of hills. To Quebec was a distance of more than five days of 
painful travel, and it was a journey of two days to the dwellings 
of the English. The country around in every direction was a 
wilderness inhabited only by savages.” * 
In that village the author of this Dictionary, Father Sebastian 
Rasles, or Rale (for the name is written in both ways), a French 
Catholic missionary of the order of the Jesuits, took up his resi- 
dence. He began his work in the year 1691, after he had resided 
a year among the Indians, as appears by his memorandum prefixed 
to the Dictionary. His talents, learning, and commanding influ- 
ence over the natives, made him a formidable adversary to our 
ancestors; and his character has accordingly been portrayed by 
our earlier historians, with al! the strong coloring of religious and 
political prejudice. He has, however, in our own time, found a 
candid and learned biographer, and of the Protestant faith, who 
has endeavoured to rescue his memory from the imputations of 
his contemporaries, and to do justice to his merits. I allude to the 
interesting memoir of his Life, written by the Rev. Dr. Harris, 
and published in the ‘Collections of the Massachusetts Histori- 
* Gov. Lincoln’s Papers, published in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society, 
Vol. I. p. 331. 
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