ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES. 



177 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



onely some few? and they answered to this 

 question with multitude of voyces, that they 

 all of them did understand all that which was 

 then spoken to them." He then replied to a 

 number of questions which they propounded to 

 him, "borrowing now and then some small 

 helpe from the Interpreter whom wee brought 

 with us, and who could oftentimes expresse our 

 minds more distinctly then any of us could." 

 Three more meetings were held at this place 

 in November and Decemher of the same year, 

 accounts of which are given by the Rev. Thomas 

 Shepard in the tract entitled The Day-Break- 

 ing, if not the Sun-Rising of the Gospell with the 

 Indians in New-England, London, 1647. 



In the meantime (November, 1646), the gen- 

 eral court of Massachusetts had passed an order 

 for the appointment of a committee to pur- 

 chase lands for an Indian settlement on the site 

 where these meetings were held, "for y« in- 

 curagm* of y^ Indians to live in an orderly way 

 amongst us ... & further, to set downe 

 rules for their impve? & enioying thereof." 

 The place was called Nonantum or Noonato- 

 menbyMr. Eliot, "which signifies in English re- 

 joicing." The word I^onantum, according to Dr. 

 Trumbull, means literally "I rejoice," or "am 

 well-minded." The form Noonatomen (or No- 

 nantamun) is plural, " We rejoice." This was 

 the first Indian mission established in New 

 England. ' The Indians of Concord, when they 

 heard of these things, requested Mr. Eliot to 

 visit and teach them too, which he did when- 

 ever he had an opportunity. They also ob- 

 tained permission from the English to begin a 

 mission settlement of their own, in January, 

 1647. Mr. Shattuck, in his History of Concord, 

 as quoted in Francis's Life of John Eliot, 

 doubts whether there was, as has often been 

 stated, any definite grant of land to the In- 

 dians, either at Concord or Nonantum. He 

 thinks "they lived by sufferance on lands 

 claimed by the English, prior to their gather, 

 ing at Natick." Another mission was also be- 

 gun at Neponset, about four miles south of 

 Eoxbury, among the Indians of Dorchester, at 

 the request of their sachem Cutshamoquin, who 

 had formerly given Mr. Eliot so little encour- 

 agement. Here he set up a second lecture, 

 which was continued for several years with the 

 lecture at Nonantum. 



la 1647 the Indians commenced to fence in the 

 grounds of their new settlement and to build 

 a stone wall, for the making of which Mr. Eliot 

 provided them with shovels, spades, mattocks, 

 and crows of 'iron, "and to encourage their 

 slothfulnesse, promised to give a groat or six- 

 pence a rod, if they would thus farre attend 

 their own good, and work for themselves." 

 They "call upon me," he writes, September 

 24th, 1647, "to help them with tools faster then 

 I can get them, though I have now bought 

 pretty store, and they (I hope) are at work. 

 The women are desirous to learn to spin, and 

 I have procured wheels for sundry of them, and 

 ALG 12 



Eliot (J.) — Continued. 



they can spin pretty well. They begin to grow 

 industrious, and find something to sell at mar- 

 ket all the yeer long." In March the minis- 

 ters of Boston visited the ' ' Indian Lecture " 

 at Nonantum, for the purpose of inspecting the 

 new undertaking. Several months later Mr. 

 Eliot accompanied Mr. Wilson aud Mr. Shep- 

 ard on a visit to Yarmouth, where he improved 

 the opportunity by preaching "to the poore 

 Indiansin these remote places about Cape Cod." 

 According to Mr. Shepard's account of this 

 journey, "We first found these Indians (not 

 very farre from ours) to understand (but with 

 much difficulty) theusuall language of those in 

 our parts, partly in regard of the different dia- 

 lect which generally varies in 40. or 60. miles, 

 and partly and especially in regard of their not 

 being accustomed unto sacred language about 

 the holy things of God, wherein Mr. Eliot ex- 

 cells any other of the English, that in the In- 

 dian language about common matters excell 

 him: I say therefore although they did with 

 much difficulty understand him, yet they did 

 understand him, although by many circumlo- 

 cutions and variations of speech and the helpe 

 of one or two Interpreters, which were then 

 present," Before the end of the year Mr. Eliot 

 went on a journey up the country towards 

 Merrimack river, for the purpose of preaching 

 to the Indians in that neighborhood. Further 

 particulars of these visits are given in Shep- 

 ard's Clear Sun-shine of the Gospel breaking forth 

 upon the Indiansin New-England, London, 1648. 

 In the summer of 1648 Mr. Eliot made four 

 visits to the western Indians, who lived about 

 forty miles from Eoxbury, and induced Shawa- 

 non, "the great Sachym of Nashawog, " to 

 listen to his preaching. He also visited some 

 of the southern Indians at Tihtacutt or Titacut. 

 In one of his letters he remarks: "There is a 

 great fishing place upon one of the Falls of Mer- 

 rimack River called Pautucket, where is a 

 great confluence of the Indians every Spring, 

 and thither I have gone these two yeares in. 

 that season, and intend so to doe next Spring 

 (if God will.) . . . This last Spring I did 

 there meet old Papassaconnaway, who is a 

 great Sogamore, and hath been a great Witch 

 in all mens esteem . . . and a very poli- 

 tick wise man. The last yeare he and all his 

 sonnes fled when I came, pretending feare that 

 we would kill him : But this yeare it pleased 

 God to bow his heart to heare the word. . . . 

 There is another great fishing place about 

 threescore miles from us, whether I intend 

 (God willing) to go next Spring, which be- 

 longeth to the forenamed Papassaconnaway; 

 which journey, though it be like to be both 

 difficult and chargeable for horse and men, in 

 fitting provisions, yet I have sundry reasons 

 which bow and draw my heart thereunto." In 

 another place he writes: "Some of Sudbury 

 Indians, some of Concord Indians, some of 

 Mestic Indians, and some of Dedham Indians, 

 are ingenious, and pray unto God, and some- 



