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his intention. With three others he met the Indians for the first time, 28 October, 1646. Waaubon,* whose name signified wind," a wise and grave man, though no Sachem, with five or six Indians met them at some distance from their wigwams, and bidding them welcome, conducted them into a large apartment, where a great number of the natives were gathered together, to hear this new doctrine." After prayers, and an explanation of the ten commandinents, Mr. Eliot informed them "of the dreadful curse of God that would fall upon all those that brake them: He then told them who Jesus Christ was, where he was now gone, and how he would one day come again to judge the world in flaming fire."

After about an hour spent in this manner, the Indians had liberty to ask any questions in relation to what had been said. Whereupon one stood up and asked, How he could know Jesus Christ ?-Another, Whether Englishmen were ever so ignorant of him as the Indians?—A third, Whether Jesus Christ could understand prayers in Indian ?-Another, How there could be an image of God, since it was forbidden in the second commandment ?—Another, Whether, according to the second commandment, the child must suffer, though he be good, for the sins of its parents ?-And lastly, How all the world became full of people, if they were all once drowned in the flood? The second meeting was upon 11 November, following. Mr. Eliot met the Indians again, and after catechising the children, and preaching an hour to the congregation, heard and answered, among others, the following questions.-How the English came to differ so much from the Indians in their knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, since they had all at first but one father?-Another desired to know, How it came to pass that sea water was salt and river water fresh ?—And another, That if the water was higher than the earth, how it happened that it did not overflow it?

The third meeting took place soon after, namely, on 26 of the same month, but was not so well attended. The powwows and sachems had dissuaded some, and by threats deterred others from meeting upon such occasions. Still there were considerable numbers that got attached to Mr. Eliot, and in a few days after, Wampas, "a wise and sage Indian,” and two others, with some of his children, came to the English. He desired that these might be educated in the Christian faith. At the next meeting all the Indians present "offered their children to be catechised and instructed by the English, who upon this motion resolved to set up a school among them."

Mr. Eliot, notwithstanding his zeal, seems well to have understood, that something beside preaching was necessary to reform the lives of the Indians; and that was, their civilization by education. It is said that one of his noted sayings was, The Indians must be civilized as well as, if not in order to their being, Christianized.§ Therefore, the request of the Indians at Nonantum was not carried into effect until a place could be fixed upon where a regular settlement should be made, and the catechumens had shown their zeal for the cause by assembling themselves there, and conforming to the English mode of living. In the end this was agreed upon, and Natick was fixed as the place for a town, and the following short code of laws was set up and agreed to:-I. If any man be idle a week, or at most a fortnight, he shall pay five shillings.-II. If any unmarried man shall lie with a young woman unmarried, he shall pay twenty shillings.— III. If any man shall beat his wife, his hands shall be tied behind him, and he shall be carried to the place of justice to be severely punished.IV. Every young man, if not another's servant, and if unmarried, shall be compelled to set up a wigwam, and plant for himself, and not shift up * Wauban, Magnalia, iii. 196.

Day-breaking of the Gospel in N. Eng., in Neal, i. 223.
Hutchinson, Hist. Mass. i. 163.

+ Ibid.

and down in other wigwams.-V. If any woman shall not have her hair tied up, but hang loose, or be cut as men's hair, she shall pay five shillings. VI. If any woman shall go with naked breasts, she shall pay two shillings.-VII. All men that wear long locks shall pay five shillings.VIII. If any shall kill their lice between their teeth, they shall pay five shillings.

In January following another company of praying Indians was established at Concord; and there were soon several other places where meetings were held throughout the country, from Cape Cod to Narraganset.* Of these, Mr. Eliot visited as many and as often as he was able. From the following passage in a letter which he wrote to Mr. Winslow of Plimouth, some idea may be formed of the hardships he underwent in his pious labors. He says, "I have not been dry night nor day, from the third day of the week unto the sixth, but so travelled, and at night pull off my boots, wring my stockings, and on with them again, and so continue. But God steps in and helps."t

The chiefs and powwows would not have suffered even so much ground to have been gained by the gospel, but for the awe they were in of the English power. "Nor is this to be wondered at," says the very good historian, Mr. Neal, “for if it be very difficult to civilize barbarous nations, 'tis much more so to make them Christians: All men have naturally a veneration for the religion of their ancestors, and the prejudices of education‡ are insuperable without the extraordinary grace of God.”

"The Monhegin Indians were so jealous of the general court's obliging them to pray to God, that Uncas, their sachem, went to the court at Hartford to protest against it. Cutshamoquin, another sachem came to the Indian lecture, and openly protested against their building a town, telling the English, that all the sachems in the country were against it. He was so honest as to tell Mr. Eliot the reason of it; for (says he) the Indians that pray to God do not pay me tribute, as formerly they did; which was in part true, for whereas before the sachem was absolute master of his subjects; their lives and fortunes being at his disposal; they gave him now no more than they thought reasonable; but to wipe off the reproach that Cutshamoquin had laid upon them, those few praying Indians present, told Mr. Eliot what they had done for their sachem the two last years, leaving him to judge whether their prince had any reason to complain." They said they had given him 26 bushels of corn at one time, and 6 at another; that, in hunting for him two days, they had killed him 15 deers; broke up for him two acres of land; made him a great wigwam; "made him 20 rods of fence with a ditch and two rails about it ;" paid a debt for him of 3£. 10s. "One of them gave him a skin of beaver of two pounds, besides many days works in planting corn altogether; yea, they said they would willingly do more if he would govern them justly by the word of God. But the sachem swelling with indignation, at this unmannerly discourse of his vassals, turned his back upon the company and went away in the greatest rage imaginable; though upon better consideration, himself turned Christian not long after."

Mr. Experience Mayhew met with similar occurrences many years after. Upon a visit to the Narragansets, he sent for Ninigret, the sachem, and desired of him leave to preach to his people; but the sachem told him to go and make the English good first, and observed, further, that some of the English kept Saturday, others Sunday, and others no day at all for worship; so that if his people should have a mind to turn Christians, they +Magnalia, iii. 196.

*Neal, i. 226-230.

This word, when applied to the education of the Indians among themselves, is to be understood in an opposite sense from its common acceptation: thus, to instruct in superstitions and idolatry, is what is not meant by education among us.

could not tell what religion to be of. Ninigret further added, that Mr. Mayhew might try his skill first with the Pequots and Mohegans, and if they submitted to the Christian religion, possibly he and his people might, but they would not be the first.*

In the meanwhile, Mr. Eliot had translated the whole BIBLE into Indian, also BAXTER'S CALL, Mr. Shepherd's SINCERE CONVERT, and his SOUND BELIEVER,‡ besides some other performances, as a Grammar, Psalter, Primers, Catechisms, the PRACTICE OF PIETY, &c.§

It is amusing to hear what our old valued friend, Dr. C. Mather, says of Eliot's Bible. "This Bible," he says, "was printed here at our Cambridge; and it is the only Bible that ever was printed in all `America, from the very foundation of the world." The same author observes that "the whole translation was writ with but one pen, which pen had it not been lost, would have certainly deserved a richer case than was bestowed upon that pen, with which Holland¶ writ his translation of Plutarch."

It was long since inquired, "What benefit has all this toil and suffering produced? Is there a vestige of it remaining?-Were the Indians in reality bettered by the great efforts of their friends?" "Mr. Eliot," says Dr. Douglass, "with immense labor translated and printed our Bible into Indian. It was done with a good pious design, but it must be reconed among the Otiosorum hominum negotia: It was done in the Natick [Nipmuk] language. Of the Naticks, at present, there are not 20 families subsisting, and scarce any of these can read.-Cui bono !"**

By the accounts left us, it will be perceived, that for many years after the exertions of Eliot, Gookin, Mayhew and others, had been put in operation, there was no inconsiderable progress made in the great undertaking of Christianizing the Indians. Natick, the oldest praying town, contained, in 1674, 29 families, in which perhaps were about 145 persons. The name Natick signified a place of hills. Waban was the chief man here, "who," says Mr. Gookin, "is now about 70 years of age. He is a person of great prudence and piety: I do not know any Indian that excells him."

Pakemitt, or Punkapaog, (" which takes its name from a spring, that riseth out of red earth,") is the next town in order, and contained 12 families, or about 60 persons. It was 14 miles south of Boston, and is now included in Stoughton. The Indians here removed from the Neponset. Hassanamesit is the third town, and is now included in Grafton, and contained, like the second, 60 souls. Okommakamesit, now in Marlborough, contained about 50 people, and was the fourth town. Wamesit, since included in Tewksbury, the fifth town, was upon a neck of land in Merrimack river, and contained about 75 souls, of five to a family. Nashobah, now Littleton, was the sixth, and contained but about 50 inhabitants. Magunkaquog, now Hopkinton, signified a place of great trees. Here were about 55 persons, and this was the seventh town.

There were, besides these, seven other towns, which were called the new praying towns. These were among the Nipmuks. The first was Manchage, since Oxford, and contained about 60 inhabitants. The

+ See book ii. chap. iii. p. 57, ante. Magnalia, b. iii. 197. Ibid.

*Neal's N. England, i. 257. Moore's Life Eliot, 144. Philemon Holland was called the translator general of his age; he wrote several of his translations with one pen, upon which he made the following verses:

With one sole pen I writ this book,
Made of a grey goose quill;

A pen

it was, when I it took,

And a pen I leave it still.

Fuller's Worthies of England.

**Douglass, Hist. America, i. 172, note. See also Halket, Hist. Notes, 248, &c.

Douglass wrote about 1745.

second was about six miles from the first, and its name was Chabanakongkomun, since Dudley, and contained about 45 persons. The third was Maanexit, in the north-east part of Woodstock, and contained about 100 souls. The fourth was Quantisset, also in Woodstock, and containing hundred persons likewise. Wabquissit, the fifth town, also in Woodstock, (but now included in Connecticut,) contained 150 souls. Pakachoog, a sixth town, partly in Worcester and partly in Ward, also contained a hundred people. Weshakim, or Nashaway, a seventh, contained about 75 persons. Waeuntug was also a praying town, included now by Uxbridge; but the number of people there is not set down by Mr. Gookin, our chief authority.

Hence it seems there were now supposed to be about 1150 praying Indians in the places enumerated above. There is, however, not the least probability, that even one fourth of these were ever sincere believers in Christianity. This calculation, or rather supposition, was made the year before Philip's war began; and how many do we find who adhered to their profession through that war? That event not only shook the faith of the common sort, but many that had been at the head of the praying towns, the Indian ministers themselves, were found in arms against their white Christian neighbors.

At the close of Philip's war, in 1677, Mr. Gookin enumerates "seven places where they met to worship God and keep the sabbath, viz. at Nonatum, at Pakemit, or Punkapog; at Cowate, alias the Fall of Charles River, at Natik and Medfield, at Concord, at Namekeake, near Chelmsford." There were at each of these places, he says, 66 a teacher, and schools for the youth." But notwithstanding they had occupied seven towns in the spring of 1676, on their return from imprisonment upon the bleak islands in Boston harbor, they were too feeble long to maintain so many. The appearance of some straggling Mohawks greatly alarmed these Indians, and they were glad to come within the protection of the English; and so the remote towns soon became abandoned.

We have seen that 1150 praying Indians were claimed before the war, in the end of the year 1674, but not half this number could be found when it was proclaimed that all such must come out of their towns and go by themselves to a place of safety. Mr. Gookin says, at one time there were about 500 upon the islands; but when some had been employed in the army, and other ways, (generally such as were indifferent to religion,) there were but about 300 remaining. Six years after that disastrous war, Mr. Eliot could claim but four towns! viz. "Natick, Punkapaog, Wamesit, and Chachaubunkkakowok."

Before we pass to notice other towns in Plimouth colony, we will give an account of some of the most noted of the praying Indians.

Wauban we have several times introduced, and will now close our account of him. He is supposed to have been originally of Concord, but at the time Mr. Eliot began his labors he resided at Nonantum, since Newton. At Natik, or Natick, he was one of the most efficient officers until his death.

When a kind of civil community was established at Natik, Wauban was made a ruler of fifty, and subsequently a justice of the peace. The following is said to be a copy of a warrant which he issued against some of the transgressors. "You, you big constable, quick you catch um Jeremiah Offscow, strong you hold um, safe you bring um, afore me, Waban, justice peace."*

A young justice asked Wauban what he would do when Indians got drunk and quarrelled; he replied," Tie um all up, and whip um plaintiff, and whip um fendant, and whip um witness."

* Allen's Biog. Dict. art. WABAN.

We have not learned the precise time of Wauban's death,* but he was certainly alive in the end of the year 1676, and we think in 1677. For he was among those sent to Deer Island, 30 Oct. 1675, and was among the sick that returned in May, 1676; and it is particularly mentioned that he was one that recovered.

Piambouhout was the next man to Waubon, and the next after him that received the gospel. At the second meeting at Nonantum he brought a great many of his people. At Natik he was made ruler of ten. When

the church at Hassanamesit was gathered, he was called to be a ruler in it. When that town was broken up in Philip's war, he returned again to Natik, where he died. He was one of those also confined to Deer Island; hence he lived until after the war. The ruling elder of Hassanamesit, called by some Piambow, was the same person.

John Speen was another teacher, cotemporary with Piambo, and like him was a "grave and pious man." In 1661, Timothy Dwight of Dedham sued John Speen and his brother Thomas, for the recovery of a debt of sixty pounds, and Mr. Eliot bailed them. This he probably did with safety, as John Speen and "his kindred" owned nearly all the Natik lands, when the Christian commonwealth was established there. This valuable possession he gave up freely, to be used in common, in 1650. Notwithstanding "he was among the first that prayed to God" at Nonantum, and "was a diligent reader," yet he died a drunkard; having been some time before discarded from the church at Natik.

Pennahannit, called Capt. Josiah, was "Marshal General" over all the praying towns. He used to attend the courts at Natik; but his residence was at Nashobah.

Tukapewillin was teacher at Hassanamesit, and his brother, Anaweakin, ruler. He was, according to Maj. Gookin, "a pious and able man, and apt to teach." He suffered exceedingly in Philip's war; himself and his congregation, together with those of the two praying towns, "Magunkog and Chobonekonhonom," having been enticed away by Philip's followers. His father, Naoas, was deacon of his church, and among the number. They, however, tried to make their escape to the English soon after, agreeably to a plan concerted with Job Kattenanit, when he was among Philip's people as a spy; but, as it happened, in the attempt, they fell in with an English scout under Capt. Gibbs, who treated them as prisoners, and with not a little barbarity; robbing them of every thing they had, even the minister of a pewter cup which he used at sacraments. At Marlborough, though under the protection of officers, they were so insulted and abused, "especially by women," that Tukapewillin's wife, from fear of being murdered, escaped into the woods, leaving a sucking child to be taken care of by its father. With her went also her son, 12 years old, and two others. The others, Naoas and Tukapewillin, with six or seven children, were soon after sent to Deer Island. Naoas was at this time about 80 years old.

Oonamog was ruler at Marlborough, and a sachem, who died in the summer of 1674. His death "was a great blow to the place. He was a pious and discreet man, and the very soul, as it were, of the place." The troubles of the war fell very heavily upon his family. A barn containing corn and hay was burnt at Chelmsford, by some of the war party, as it proved afterwards; but some of the violent English of that place determined to make the Wamesits suffer for it. Accordingly about 14 men armed themselves, and under a pretence of scouting, went to the wigwams of the Wamesits, and ordered them to come out. They obeyed without * Dr. Homer, Hist. Newton, says he died in 1674, but gives no authority. We have cited several authorities, showing that he was alive a year later, (see b. iii. pp. 10 and 79.) + Piam Boohan, Gookin's Hist. Col. 184.-Piambow, his Hist. Praying Indians.

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