ALGONQTJIAN LANGUAGES. 



157 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



of them as can speak English, find themselves 

 vastly accomodated for the entertaining and 

 communicating of Knowledge, beyond what 

 they were before. And it is hoped, That 

 by good English Schools among the Indians, 

 and some other fit methods, the grand Intention 

 of Anglicising them would be soon accom- 

 plished. The Truth is, when we sit down and 

 count the cost, we much suspect our Ability to 

 go through the Cost of printing the Bible ; and 

 yet supporting the anual espences which must 

 be born on other Accounts, or else the Evan- 

 gelical work among the Indians fall to the 

 ground. That which adds a very great weight 

 unto the Scale we are upon, is this: The 

 Indians, though their number and their dis- 

 tance be now so small, do considerably differ in 

 their Dialect. The former Editions of the 

 Bible were in the Natick Dialect. But if it be 

 done in the Noop Dialect, which would best 

 suit the most valuable body of our surviving 

 Indians, those on the Ifain, and at Nantucket 

 would not understand it so well as they should. 

 The Books written by two eminent Preachers 

 in their Tongue, the Indians complain of a Dif- 

 ference in them that is considerable. Their 

 Language is also continually changing; old 

 words wearing out, and new ones coming on. 

 And a discreet person whom we lately employd 

 in a visitation of the Indian Villages, inserts 

 this as one article of his Report, about this 

 particular matter. 



"'There are qaany words of Mr. Elliott's 

 forming which they never understood. This 

 they say is a grief to them. Such a knowledge 

 in their Bibles, as our English ordinarily have 

 in ours, they seldom any of them have ; and 

 there seems to be as much difficulty to bring 

 them unto a competent knowledge of the Scrip- 

 tures, as it would be to get a sensible acquaint- 

 ance with the English Tongue.' 



"Tour Commissioners in general were not 

 acquainted with the Letters that went from 

 certain particular G-entlemen here, which gave 

 the Representation that has sollicited your 

 excellent charity to run into that Chanel of a 

 i^'ew Edition for the Indian Bible. We there- 

 fore thought it our Duty to throw in our own 

 Representation on the other side, that so the 

 more consumat Wisdom and Judgment of the 

 Corporation may weigh all things, and proceed 

 thereupon to their final Resolutions. When 

 those are made known unto us, what ever they 

 shall be, we shall think it our Duty to fall in 

 with them, and pursue them to the uttermost. 



"Being always Tour Honor's (and the Com- 

 ■ pany's) most faithfull most sincere and humble 

 Servt. 



"That none of the Ministers who belong to 

 our number, Sign with us, is owing to their 

 Indisposition upon weighty Reasons, to think 

 it proper for them to declare themselves per- 

 emptorily one way or other on the subject."— 

 "The foregoing Representation, the original 

 was written by Mr. Cotton Mather. Mr. Brom- 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



field had it of his Brother Fitch, who gave it 

 him to shew Mr. Sergeant, which he did in the 

 Council-Chamber QMlt''., 1710. I accidentally 

 heard Mr. Sergeant and Foster talking upon it, 

 ask'd it of them, and Copied it out. S. S."— 

 Samuel Sewall's Letter Book, in the Collections 

 of the Massachusetts Historical Society, sixth 

 series, vol. 1, pp. 400-403. 



Thename Yirginiceov Virginian y^as wrongly 

 applied, by several European writers of the 

 seventeenth century, to Mr. Eliot's version of 

 the bible in the Massachusetts Indian language, 

 and the error has been repeated in many cata- 

 logues and other works. The same term was 

 also used in the polyglot collections of the 

 Lord's prayer or Oratio Dominica published by 

 Andreas Miiller in 1680, Benjamin Motte in 1700, 

 Johann Ulrich Krause in 1712, John Chamber- 

 layne in 1715, and by others. The assignment 

 of this version of the Lord's prayer to Virginia 

 did not pass without criticism from a New 

 England scholar. Paul Dudley, the attorney- 

 general of the province of Massachusetts, wrote 

 to John Chamberlayne soon after receiving his 

 work, as follows : 



" Tou shall now allow me as a N. E. man to 

 Expostulate with you concerning one of your 

 versions of the Lord's prayer, viz. that which 

 you call Virginice. 



"First Ihavenoe [knowledge] that anything 

 of that nature was done either by or in that 

 colony. 



"2. The Whole Bible (besides other small 

 Religious pieces) was Translated by famous 

 M'' Eliot into the Indian Language, and upon 

 Examination I find yours to be literatim the 

 same and it must be taken from Mr. Eliot's 

 bible, for the Viginia Indians, the Albany In- 

 dians at 'Kew Tork or the Mohawks and our 

 Indians of this province use very difi'erent 

 Dialects and hardly understand one another, 

 and therefore if I had happened to have been 

 with you when you had Entitled that Transla- 

 tion it should not have run Firgrmice [but] Indice 

 ut inter Indos Novanglise loquitur Ex versione 

 Johannis Elioti." The above extract of Dud- 

 ley's letter has been furnished by Dr. George 

 H. Moore. 



Copies : Nine of these (nos. 5, 9, 13, 15, 32, 35, 

 40, 47, and 51) contain the original dedication to 

 the Hon. Robert Boyle, printed on a single leaf, 

 which was inserted in the few presentation 

 copies sent abroad. Several others (nos. 1, 6, 12, 

 24, 26, 36, 50, and 53), of which no particular de- 

 scriptions have been obtained, perhaps contain 

 the dedication also. The copies issued for the 

 use of the Indians are without it. 



(1) Library of the Faculty of Advocates, 

 Edinburgh. No description has been obtained 

 of this copy. See the Catalogue of the Printed 

 Books in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates 

 (Edinburgh, 1867), vol. 1, p. 494. 



(2) Library of the American Antiquarian 

 Society, Worcester, Mass. In modern morocco 

 binding by F. Bedford (about 1873) . At the end 



