Soldiers in King Philip's war. Containing lists of the soldiers of ...

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He was particularly impressed with the great opportunity presented
by the Indian tribes for the spread of the gospel of Christ. He
marked with great concern the general indifference of the English
to this opportunity for Christian work, but doubled his own
endeavors to achieve the great purpose. There is no more glorious
achievement in our annals, both for its heroic spirit and its vast
labor, than his mastering of the Indian language and his translation
of the Bible into the Indian tongue. In the meantime the Indians
in the neighborhood of the settlements had lived mostly at peace
with the English, who had bought their lands, peltry, and labor,
and paid in "truck," cheap clothes, fire-arms, "fire-water," etc., for
the most part carrying on with them a system of deception and
extortion which we in our reverence for the Puritans and Pilgrims
can hardly realize as possible. But we remember the confidence of
their religious purpose and their strong faith that God meant this
country for them, and to "give the lands of the heathen for their
inheritance ; " and they looked upon the Indians, as the Jews upon
the Gentiles of old, as necessary impediments to their onward course,
to be used for their own advantage, when possible, or to be pushed
aside at will. But all did not hold this opinion ; and there were
many among the leaders in all the colonies who from the first regarded
the rights of the Indians, and sought to help them ; and
many believed that they should be treated with justice under the
laws, their rights maintained, and their spiritual welfare secured by
the efforts of the Courts and the Churches.
Many letters had been written by the settlers to their friends in
England, about the Indians and their habits, and also of the remark-
able success of the French Jesuits in converting them to their re-
ligion ; all which had the effect of stirring up a strong sentiment in
England towards the evangelization of the Indians in New England
by the settlers. But greatest of all influences tending to this
purpose were the letters and tracts of Mr. Eliot. Several of the
tracts are still preserved, and No. 1 was reprinted in 1865 for
Joseph Sabin, New York. This "Tract I." was first printed in
1643, with the following title :
" New England's First Fruits in respect
C Conversion of Some }
First of the -] Conviction of divers >- of the Indians."
( Preparation of Sundry )
The remainder of the title referred to the " Colledge at Cam-
bridge," etc.
Later three other tracts appeared, viz. :
Tract II.* The Day breaking if not the Sun rising of the Gospel with
the Indians in New England. London, 1647.
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* Reprinted in Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. xxiv. 1-23.
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