History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

in the Nonantum dialect, the same with the name
of the Indian chief ; and Waban was the first con-
vert under Eliot's ministry among this people.
The service on the occasion extended to three hours,
yet the Indians affirmed that they were not weary.
After the sermon one of the Indians asked whether
God could understand prayers in the Indian language
as well as in English. Another asked how
the Indians could be so different from the English,
if they all had one father. A third asked how the
world could be so full of people, if they were once
all drowned by the flood ; and a fourth, a very
aged man, inquired whether it was too late for so
old a man as he to repent and be saved. Some of
the sachems and conjurers were enemies to Mr.
Eliot's work, and threatened him with violence if
he did not desist. But he bravely replied : " I am
about the work of the great God, and he is with
me, so that I neither fear you, nor all the sachems
in the country. I will go on, and do you touch
me if you dare."
At the second and third meetings, Eliot was
accompanied by some of the magistrates and ministers
of the colony, adding dignity to the work
and the occasion. He began by questioning the
Indians on the truths already learned, and answer-
ing the questions wliich their curiosity dictated.
Mr. Ehot travelled extensively in this work,
making his missionary tours every fortnight, visited
NEWTOX. 219
\ all
the Indians in the colonies of Plymouth and
Massachusetts, and once preached the gospel to
the celebrated King Philip, who, it is said, rejected
it with disdain. He induced many of the Indians
to relinquish their wandering habits of life, and
lived to see no fewer than twenty-four of them
become preachers to their own people. In his
labors for the Indians he endured great hardships
and exposures. In one of his letters he says : " I
have not been dry, night or day, from the third
day of the week to the sixth, but so travelled ; and
at night, pull off my boots and wring my stockings
and on with them again, and so continue ; but God
steps in and helps."
The report of the success of these early efforts
in behalf of the aborigines of Massachusetts ex-
cited a strong sensation in England. The British
Parliament, then under the Protectorate, passed
an act, July 27, 1649, for the advancement of the
work. The preamble of the act runs as follows
" Whereas the Commons of England, assembled in
Parliament, have received certain intelligence from
divers godly ministers and others in New England,
that divers of the Heathen natives, through the
pious care of some godly English, who preach the
gospel to them in their own Indian language, not
only of barbarous have become civil, but many of
them, forsaking their accustomed charms and sor-
ceries and other Satanical delusions, do now call
upon the name of the Lord and give great testimony
to the power of God, drawing them from
death and darkness to the life and light of the glo-
rious gospel of Jesus Christ, which appeareth by
their lamenting with tears their misspent lives,
teaching their children what they are instructed
themselves, being careful to place them in godly
families and English schools, betaking themselves
to one wife, putting away the rest, and by their
constant prayers to Almighty God morning and
evening in their families, — prayers expressed, in
all appearance, with much devotion and zeal of
heart, — All which considered, we cannot but, in
behalf of the nation we represent, rejoice and give
glory to God for the beginning of so glorious a
propagation of the gospel among those poor hea-
then, which cannot- be prosecuted with that ex-
pedition as is desired, unless fit instruments be
encouraged and maintained to pursue it, schools
and clothing be provided, and many other necessa-
ries, kc." The act of which this preamble sets
forth the reasons, then proceeds to establish a cor-
poration of sixteen persons, to superintend the dis-
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