182 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 



Eliot (J. ) — Continued. 



signed "J. E.," Mr. Eliot writes of the In- 

 dians: "God hath in mercy raised up sundry 

 among themselves to a competent ability to 

 teach their Countrymen. Many have heen sent 

 forth by the Church this Winter to divers 

 places, and not without good success. ... I 

 fintle it necessary for me to instruct them (as in 

 Principles of 4^rt, so) in the way of communi- 

 catmg the good knowledge of God, which I 

 conceive is most familiarly done by way of 

 Dialogues ; an Essay whereunto I do here pre- 

 sent unto you : purposing, if the Lord will, and 

 that I live, to do more of the like kinde here- 

 after." In the preface he remarks: "These 

 Dialogues are partly Historical, of some things 

 that were done and said ; and partly Instruct- 

 ive, to shew what might or should have been 

 said, or that may be (by the Lords assistance) 

 hereafter done and said, upon the like occasion. 

 . . . For sundry weighty Eeasons I desire and 

 endeavour, that our Learned Indians should 

 learn at least the English Tongue ; our Indian 

 Churches holding Communion with the English 

 Churches, must perform that Service in the 

 English Tongue. If the Lord give life, and 

 length of dayes, I may hereafter put forth these 

 or the like Dialogues in the Indian Tongue." 

 The following extract is from page 14: "At 

 first this [m]atter of praying to God was a lit- 

 tle thing, like a Cloud in the West of the big- 

 ness of a mans hand, but now the Cloud is 

 great and wide, and spreadeth over all the 

 Country. Nop and Nantuket, and Paume- 

 nuk Islands, Mahshepog, and many parts of 

 the main Land, to the utmost bounds of this 

 Country Eastward. And Y Yestward, not onely 

 all the Massachusets pray, but also a great 

 part of Nipmuk." In 1671, the second Indian 

 church in Massachusetts was organized at Has- 

 sanamesitt. The Logick Primer, in Indian and 

 English, which was printed in 1672, was also 

 prepared by Mr. Eliot for the instruction of the 

 native teachers. 



On the 22d of August, 1673, Mr. Eliot wrote 

 to the Rev. Increase Mather: "There be 

 (through the grace of Christ) six churches 

 gathered, according to the order of gathering 

 churches among the English, one at Natick, 

 one at Hassanemeset, 28 miles to the west, one 

 at Mashpege 20 miles east of Plymouth, two 

 at Martyn's Yineyard, and one at Nan- 

 tucket. . . . All are furnished with officers, 

 saving the church at Natick, and in modesty 

 they stand off, because so long as I live, they 

 say, there is no need ; but we propose (God will- 

 ing) not always to rest in this answer. . . . 

 We have schools; many can road, some write, 

 sundry able to exercise in publick, are sent by 

 the church to teach ic new praying places and 

 who live remote from the churches and some 

 or other of them doe every lecture day, at Na- 

 tick, exercise their gifts two or three on a day, 

 and I moderate." 



The Indian missionaries sent out from Mr. 

 Eliot's school of logic and theology at Natick, 



Eliot (J.) —Continued. 



in the winter of 1670-71 and in the three fol- 

 lowing years, for the purpose of preaching the 

 gospel to the pagan tribes in the western part* 

 of the colony, were the means of gathering 

 nine more towns in the Nipmuck country. 

 These towns were situated from forty to sev- 

 enty miles west and southwest of Boston. 

 Their names were Manchage, Chabanakong- 

 komun, Maanexit, Quantisset, Wabquissit, 

 Pakachoog, Waeuntug, Weshakim aud Qua- 

 bang. In July, 1673, and again in September, 

 1674, Mr. Eliot visited most of these new 

 places, in company with Mr. Daniel Gookin, 

 the official superintendent of the Indians. Th& 

 object of the journey was to confirm the new 

 converts in the Christian religion, " to settle 

 teachers in every town, and to establish civil 

 government among them, as in other praying 

 towns." At this period the fourteen principal 

 towns of praying Indians under Mr. Eliot's, 

 supervision, within the jurisdiction of Massa- 

 chusetts colony, were supposed to contain 1,100' 

 souls, of which about 145 were at Natick. In 

 Plymouth colony, and on the islands of Nan- 

 tucket, Martha's Yineyard and Chappaquid- 

 dick, the number of converts under the care of 

 Mr. Eichard Bourne and Mr. John Cotton was 

 estimated at nearly 2,500. Mr. Eliot's cate- 

 chisms and translations were probably used 

 by all these Indians. On the 19th of Novem- 

 ber, 1674, the death of Mr. Danforth deprived 

 Mr. Eliot of his colleague at Hoxbury. Dur- 

 ing the next fourteen years he was without a 

 helper in that church. 



The disastrous war with Philip, sachem of 

 Pokanoket and of all the Wampaooags, began 

 in the latter part of June, 1675. Cotton Mather 

 relates of this sachem that when Mr. Eliot 

 once offered to preach to him and his people, 

 "the Monster entertain'd it with Contempt 

 and Anger, and after the Indian Mode of join- 

 ing Signs with Words, he took a Button upon 

 the Coat of the Keverend Man, adding. That 

 he cared for his Gospel, just as much as he 

 cared for that Button." The Narragansetts, 

 who were Philip's allies, had also refused ta 

 listen to the teachers sent by Mr. Eliot. But 

 after this war began, "the Lord Jesus," as- 

 Gookin remarks, ' ' before the expiration of 18 

 months, destroyed the body of this Nairagan- 

 sett nation, that would not have him to reign 

 over them." The severest effects of the war 

 were felt by the inhabitants of Massachusetts 

 colony, and by Mr. Eliot's Indian converts. 

 The situation of the old praying towns was 

 such, "tliat the Indians in them might have 

 been improved as a wall of defence about the 

 greatest part of the colony." But the advice 

 and pleadings of Mr. Eliot in their behalf re- 

 ceived but little attention. Both he and Mr. 

 Gookin were publicly insulted and reviled for 

 taking their part. The English, in their ani- 

 mosity against all Indians without excep- 

 tion, "could with difficulty be restrained from 

 involving in one common destruction the whole 



