ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES. 



155 



Eliot (J.)— Continued. 



souls, of whom some true believers, some learn- 

 ers, and some are still infants, and all of tliem 

 beg, cry, entreat for bibles, having already en- 

 joyed that blessing, but now are in great want. 

 . . . TVeare at the 19th chap, of the Acts; and 

 when we have impressed the new testament, 

 our commissioners approve of my preparing 

 and impressing also the old." The new testa- 

 ment was jinished at the press in the autumn 

 or winter of 1681, and closely followed by the 

 impression of the metrical psalms, which were 

 completed in 1682. Some copies of the book 

 may then have been bound for immediate use, 

 because, according to Mr. Eliot's letter written 

 two years before, the Indians were begging, 

 crying, and entreating for bibles, of which they 

 ■were in "great want." Dr. TrnmbuU, how- 

 ever, supposes that " few copies, if any," were 

 " made up separately." 



The printing of the old testament was be- 

 gun in 1682, after the metrical psalms had been 

 finished. On the 15th of March, 1682-3, Mr. 

 Eliot wrote to Boyle : " The great work, that I 

 travel about, is, the printing of the old testa- 

 ment, that they may have the whole bible. 

 They have had the whole, in the first impres- 

 sion, and some of the old they still have, and 

 know the worth and use of it ; and therefore 

 they are importunately desirous of the whole. 

 I desire to see it done before I die, and I am so 

 deep in years that I cannot expect to live 

 long: besides, we have but one man {viz. the 

 Indian printer) that is able to compose the 

 sheets, and correct the press, with understand- 

 ing. For such reasons, so soon as I received 

 the sum of near iOl. for the bible work, I pres- 

 ently set the work on foot ; and one tenth part, 

 or near is done : we are in Leviticus. I have 

 added some part of my salary to keep up the 

 work, and many more things I might add, as 

 reasons of my urgency in this matter." Three 

 months later, on the 21st of June, 1683, he 

 wrote again: "Your hungry alumns do still 

 cry unto your honour for the milk of the word 

 in the whole book of God, and for the bread of 

 life, which they have fed upon in the whole 

 bible, and are very thankful for what they have, 

 and importunately desirous to enjoy the whole 

 book of God. . . . My age makes me im- 

 portunate. I shall depart joyfully, may I but 

 leave the bible among them, for it is the word 

 of life ; and there be some godly souls among 

 them, that live thereby. The work is under 

 great incumberments and discouragements." 

 On the 27th of November, 1683, in another let- 

 ter to Boyle, he wrote: "Although my hasty 

 venturing to begin the impression of the old 

 testament before I had your honour's (fiat) may 

 have moved (as some intimate) some disgust, 

 yet I see that your love, bounty and charity, 

 doth still breath out encouragement unto the 

 work, by supplies of 460Z. unto the work, for 

 which I do return my humble thankfulness to 

 your honour, and take boldness to intreat favour 

 for two requests. First, I pray, that you would 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



please to accept an apology for my haste. I ana 

 deep in years, and sundry say, if I do not pro- 

 cure it printed while I live, it is not within the 

 prospect of human reason, whether ever, or 

 when, or how, it may be accomplished. . . . 

 My second humble request is, that you would 

 please to draw a curtain of love over all my 

 failures, because love will cover a multitude of 

 transgressions. The work goeth on now, with 

 more comfort, though we have had many im- 

 pediments, partly by sickness of the workmen, 

 for it is a very sickly and mortal time with us, 

 as also the rigour of the winter doth now ob- 

 struct us. The work goeth on, I praise God; 

 the sabbath is sanctified in many places, and . 

 they have still fragments of their old bibles, 

 which they make constant use of." The pro- 

 gress of the work is related in another letter to 

 Boyle, dated April 22, 1684 : " The last gift of 

 4:001. for the reimpression of the Indian bible 

 doth set a diadem of beauty upon all your 

 former acts of pious charity, and commandeth 

 us to return unto your honours all thankful ac- 

 knowledgments, according to our abilities. It 

 pleased the worshipful Mr. Stoughton, to give 

 me an intimation, that your honours desired to 

 know the particular present estate of the pray- 

 ing Indians; as also, when Moses's pentateuch 

 is printed, to have some copies sent over, to 

 evidence the real and good progress of the 

 work. . . . As for the sending any num- 

 bers of Moses's Pentateuch, I beseech your 

 honours to spare us in that; because so many 

 as we send, so many bibles are maimed, and 

 made incomplete, because they want the five 

 books of Moses. We present your honours 

 with one book, so far as we have gone in the 

 work, and humbly beseech, that it may be ac- 

 ceptable, until the whole be finished ; and then 

 the whole impression (which is two thousand) 

 is at your honours command. Our slow pro- 

 gress needeth an apology. We have been much 

 hindered by the sickness this year. Our work- 

 men have been all sick, and we have but few 

 hands, one Englishman, and a boy, and one 

 Indian ; and many interruptions and diversions 

 do befal us ; and we could do but little this 

 very hard winter." • 



The old testament appears to have been com- 

 pleted in the autumn of 1685. A brief address 

 was then prepared, ' ' To the Honourable Robert 

 Boyle Esq: Governour, And to the Company, 

 for the Propagation of the Gospel to the In- 

 dians in New-England, and Parts adjacent in 

 America," dedicating to them "this second 

 Edition of the Holy Bible " in the ludian lan- 

 guage, "much corrected and amended." This 

 dedication, dated "Boston Octob. 23. 1685," 

 and signed by William Stoughton, Joseph Dud- 

 ley, Peter Bulkley and Thomas Hinckley, was 

 printed on one side of a single leaf, and inserted 

 after the first title in the few presentation 

 copies sent abroad. A contemporary reference 

 to the bible is found in a letter from Samuel 

 Sewall to Stephen Dummer, written from Bos- 



