History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

18G HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
to make music ; and before them the dark sons of
the forest, men, women, and children, a hundred
One of the best-taught natives preached.
or more !
His name is not chronicled, but we have his text
and homily, the treasures hid in a field, and the
merchantman seeking goodly pearls. When he
prayed he stood up, but gave his exhortation sit-
ting on a stool. He was dressed like the English,
and discoursed three quarters of an hour. Then
Eliot expounded for an hour. The governor and
Mr. Wilson briefly addressed the assembly through
an interpreter. Finally the schoolmaster, Mone-
quassun, deaconed off' a psalm, which the Indians
sang to an English tune cheerfully and "pretty
tunable," the governor writes.
After service the chief men consulted with Endi-
cott about a grist-mill they proposed to build.
Mr. Wilson speaks of the fair house, the fruit-
trees, of the goodly plain over the river toward
Dedham, their planting ground, and their bridge.
Civil aff'airs being arranged, Eliot sought to
gather the converts into church estate, a task need-
ing more time and patience than the former ; for
the churches, as well as the converts, must be sure
of their thorough preparation. Nor do we forget
the helpers in England who watched their progress
Sir Thomas Boyle co-operated. They gathered
funds to sustain Eliot and his coworkers. The
letters of Wilson, Shepard, Mayhew, and Eliot
were published and widely read; and the titles
of these little books reveal a growing confidence
in the good work : The Day Bri'iikimj, if not the
Snn-rising of f.Iie Gospel with the Iiidicnis ; The
dear See S/iiee of the Gosjiel; The Light appear-
ieij lenrr mill more uuto the perfeet Dcii/. These
tracN all'iird original information from the workers
themselves.
Waban and others became Cliristians at Nonan-
tum. Good Wampoas on his death-bed there said
to his friends, " I now shall dye, but Jesus Christ
callcth you that live to go to Natieke, that there
the Lord might rule over you, tliat ynu miglit
make a church, and have the Ordinances of (iod
among you."
October 13, 1652, the elders and messengers of
the cliurches met with Mr. Eliot and his dusky
no time for others, but the confessions of fifteen
were next spring published with the title. Tears of
Repentance, and widely read on both sides of the
Atlantic.
June 13, 1654, eight men from Natick went
to Koxbury for examination. Monequassun, the
school-teacher and chorister, was detained by sick-
ness, of which he died soon after.
In 1656 Daniel Gookin of Cambridge became
civil superintendent of all the Indians under Massachusetts
jurisdiction. This office brought him
into close relations with Eliot, and the two wrought
each in his sphere most lovingly ; one ordering
the civil matters of the natives, and the other their
religious. Roxbury and Cambridge were mutual
helpers in gosjDelizing the aborigines in yet another
way, as we shall soon see.
In the fall of 1658 a solemn fast was kejjt at
Natick, partly preparatory to church gathering,
partly also on account of excessive rains, hurtful
to their crops. The substance of the exhortations,
or sermons, by Waban and Nishokou is still extant.
At last the Natick church was gathered in 1660,
composed of those whose confessions had been
printed, with others ; but just when, and with how
many members, and under what circumstances, we
with unflagging interest. In 164-9 had been in- find no record.
corporated The Society for Propagating the Gospel In a letter of later date Eliot describes the
in New England. Men like Baxter, Caryl, and church usages of the Praying Indians. Their
practice was like the whites in the inchurching,
and after a church was established they received
menabcrs thus : " They were diligently examined
botli ])rivately and publickly in the catechism, their
blameless and pious conversation is testified to,
their names are publickly exposed as desiring to
make confession. When the teachers and chief
brethren judge them meet they are called publickly
to confess, confederate, and be baptized, both
themselves and their children, if not grown up.
All the Indian churches in 1673 were 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
willing) not always to rest in this answer."
In 1658 Mr. Eliot petitioned the General Court
for more land to be granted the plantation " out
of tlie common lands adjoining" ; four thousand
acres were given in a northerly and westerly direction.
This tract covered what is now South Fram-
friends at Natick. Five of the principal natives ingham, and the lands westerly and southwest of
told their religious ex])erieTicc, which was trans- Farm Pond, and on the northwest it touched Sudlated
for the visitors. The waning afternoon gave bury River near Merriam's Hill.