BULL. 30] 



MISSIONS 



883 



tribes. The powerful Wampanoag, Nar- 

 raganset, and Mohegan rejected all mis- 

 sionary advances, and King Philip scorn- 

 fully told Eliot that he cared no more for 

 his gospel than for a button upon his coat. 

 Most of Eliot's work fell to the ground 

 with the breaking out of King Philip's 

 war in the following year. The colonists 

 refused to believe in the friendship of the 

 converts, and made such threats against 

 them that many of the Indians joined the 

 hostiles and afterward fled with them to 

 Canada and New York. The "praying 

 towns" were broken up, and the Indians 

 who remained were gathered up and held 

 as prisoners on an island in Boston har- 

 bor until the return of peace, suffering 

 nuich hardship in the meantime, so that 

 the close of the war found the two races 

 so embittered against each other that for 

 some time it was impossible to accom- 

 plish successful results. Of the 14 pray- 

 ing towns in 1674 there were left only 4 

 in 1684. Eliot remained at his post until 

 his death in 1690, in his 86th year, leav- 

 ing behind him as his most permanent 

 monument his great translation of the 

 Bible into the Natick (Massachuset ) lan- 

 guage, besides a grammar and several 

 minor w'orks in the language (see Bible 

 translations, Eliot Bible) . Daniel Gookin, 

 whose father had been official Indian 

 superintendent, was Eliot's coadjutor in 

 the later mission period. Eight years af- 

 ter Eliot's death the Indian church at 

 Natick had but 10 meml)ers, and in 1716 

 it became extinct, as did the language 

 itself a generation later. 



Among Eliot's co-workers orsuccesssors 

 in the same region the best known were 

 Samuel Danforth, sr, from 1650 until his 

 death in 1674; Rev. John Cotton, who 

 preached to the Indians of both Natick 

 and Plymouth from 1669 to 1697, being 

 " eminently skilled in the Indian lan- 

 guage " ; his son, Josiah Cotton, who con- 

 tinued his father's work in the Plymouth 

 juri.'idiction for nearly 40 years; Samuel 

 Treat, who worked among the Nauset 

 Indians of the Cape Cod region from 1675 

 until his death in 1717, and translated the 

 Confession of Faith into the language; 

 Grindal Rawson, about 1687 to his death 

 in 1715, the translator of ' Spiritual Milk ' ; 

 and Samuel Danforth the younger, who 

 labored in e. Massachusetts from 1698 to 

 his death in 1727, and was the author of 

 several religious tracts in the native lan- 

 guage. These and others were commis- 

 sioned and salaried by the society organ- 

 ized in 1649. 



About 1651 Rev. Abraham Pierson, 

 under the auspices of the same society, 

 began preaching to the Quinnipiac Indians 

 about Branford, w. Connecticut, and con- 

 tinued until his removal about 1669, when 

 the work was undertaken by a successor. 



but with little result to either, the Indians 

 showing "a perverse contempt," not- 

 withstanding presents made to encourage 

 their attendance at the services. A few 

 years later Rev. James Fitch was com- 

 missioned to work among the Mohegan, 

 and succeeded in gathering a small con- 

 gregation, but found his efforts strongly 

 opposed by Uncas and the other chiefs. 

 The mission probably came to an end 

 with King Philip's war. Efforts were 

 continued at intervals among the tribal 

 remnants of s. New England during the 

 next century, partly through the society 

 founded in 1649 and partly by colonial 

 appropriation, but with little encouraging 

 result, in consequence of the rapid de- 

 crease and demoralization of the Indians, 

 the only notable convert being Samson 

 Occom (q. V.) . The English society with- 

 drew support about 1760. A last attempt 

 was made among the Mohegan by Miss 

 Sarah L. Huntington in 1827, and con- 

 tinued for several years, chiefly by aid of 

 governmental appropriation (De Forest). 

 In 1734aCongregationalist mission was 

 begun among the Mahican in western 

 Massachusetts by Rev. John Sergeant, 

 under the auspices of the Society for the 

 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 

 Parts. By hard study and constant asso- 

 ciation he was soon able to preach to 

 them in their own language, into which 

 he translated several simple devotional 

 works. In 1736 the converts were gath- 

 ered into a regular mission town, which 

 was named Stockbridge, from which cen- 

 tral point the work was extended into 

 Connecticut and New York, and even as 

 far as the Delaware r. In 1743 Rev. 

 David Brainerd, who had been working 

 also among the Mahican at the village of 

 Kaunaumeek, across the New York line, 

 brought his congregation to consolidate 

 with that of Stockbridge. Mr Sergeant 

 died in 1749, and after a succession of 

 briefer pastorates the work was taken up, 

 in 1775, by his son. Rev. John Sergeant, 

 jr, who continued with it until the end 

 of his life. The westward advance of 

 white settlement and the demoralizing 

 influence of two wars accomi)lished the 

 same result here as elsewhere, and in 

 1785 the diminishing Stockbridge tribe 

 removed to New Stockbridge, N. Y., 

 on lands given by the Oneida. Their 

 leader in this removal was the edu- 

 cated Indian minister Samson Occom. 

 Mr Sergeant himself followed in the next 

 year. The mission was at that time sup- 

 ported by the joint effort of American 

 and Scotch societies, including the cor- 

 poration of Harvard College. In 1795 

 the settlement consisted of about 60 fam- 

 ilies, mostly improvident, unacquainted 

 with the English language, and "in their 

 dress and manners uncivilized" (Abo- 



