Chapter 41

[581]Vide Harris’ Life of Charles I., p. 278.

[582]Bradford’s Letter-book.

[583]“’Tis not known when Conant came over. Nothing appears in any of the Plymouth documents to confirm Hubbard’s statement, that Conant was one of Lyford’s party at Plymouth. Though historians have adopted thatipse dixit, it rests on his word alone. But since Hubbard and Conant were afterwards neighbors and friends, he is likely to have been well informed.” Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 255, note.

[584]Elliot. Hubbard’s Hist. of New England, chap. 18.

[585]Hubbard, chap. 9. Palfrey, Elliot.

[586]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 286.

[587]Elliott, vol. 1, p. 139.

[588]Hubbard, chap. 17.

[589]Conant’s petition of May 28, 1671, in Mass. Hist. Archives.

[590]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 287.

[591]Planters’ Plea, chap. 9.

[592]Cited in Bradford, p. 251.

[593]Elliot, vol. 1, pp. 139, 140.

[594]Planters’ Plea, chap. 9. Johnson’s Wonder-working Providence. Belknap’s Biography, p. 249. Hubbard’s Hist.

[595]Ibid.

[596]Mather’s Magnalia, vol. 1, pp. 67, 68.

[597]Charlestown Records, Palfrey, Elliot, Everett’s Address.

[598]Wilson’s Pilgrim Fathers, p. 483.

[599]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 290.

[600]Colony Records. Cradock’s Letter in Young’s Chronicles.

[601]Prince; Hazard. Hubbard’s Hist. Memoir of J. Endicott, Salem, 1847.

[602]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 342.

[603]This is filed in the State-House in Boston, and is printed in Colony Laws, in Hutchinson’s Call, and in Hazard. Bancroft.

[604]Palfrey, Wilson.

[605]Bancroft, vol. 1, pp. 342, 343.

[606]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 291.

[607]Young’s Chronicles, Prince, Mass. Hist. Coll.

[608]Bacon’s Works, vol. 2.

[609]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 346.

[610]Prince’s Chronicles, p. 247.

[611]Ibid.

[612]Cited in Elliot, vol. 1, p. 142. “In a subsequent letter this is reiterated thus: ‘We especially desire you to take care that no tobacco be planted under your government, unless it be some small quantity for mere necessity, for physic, or the preservation of health; and that the same be taken privately by old men, and no other.’” Ibid.

[613]Young’s Chronicles, p. 141. Hazard, vol. 1.

[614]Bancroft.

[615]Ibid., vol. 1, p. 345.

[616]History of the English Puritans, American Tract Society, N. Y., 1867.

[617]Hist. of the English Puritans,ut antea.

[618]Hume, Hist. of Eng., vol. 2, p. 253.

[619]Perry, Eccl. Hist., vol. 1.

[620]Mass. Col. Rec., vol. 1. Palfrey.

[621]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 293.

[622]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 293. Mather’s Magnalia.

[623]Higginson’s New England Plantation. Palfrey.

[624]Bradford, p. 263. Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 294.

[625]Mather’s Magnalia.

[626]Ibid., vol. 1, p. 68. Palfrey, vol. 1, pp. 294, 295.

[627]Hutchinson’s Coll., 24, 25. Hubbard, Bancroft.

[628]Mather’s Magnalia,ut antea. “Ungrateful country of my birth, thou shall not possess even my lifeless bones.”

[629]Mather’s Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 74. Uhden, pp. 63, 64.

[630]Elliot, vol. 1, p. 150.

[631]They landed on the 24th of June, 1629. Uhden, Hutchinson.

[632]Higginson’s New England Plantation, pp. 123, 124.

[633]Bradford, pp. 263, 264.

[634]Bradford, pp. 263, 264.

[635]In allusion to the wide-spread charge of Brownism, and bigoted exclusion of all other sects from Christian fellowship.

[636]Bradford, pp. 264, 265.

[637]Bradford, p. 245.

[638]Higginson’s New England Plantation. Gott’s letter to Bradford; cited in Bradford, pp. 265, 266.

[639]Palfrey.

[640]Ibid., Bradford, Gott, etc.

[641]Gott’s Letter to Bradford.

[642]Morton’s Memorial, p. 146. Hubbard, Prince.

[643]See the Covenant in Neale’s History of New England, vol. 1, pp. 141-143. The subordinate church officers were not chosen till later. See Bradford’s Letter-book.

[644]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 298.

[645]Uhden’s New England Theocracy.

[646]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 348.

[647]Mather’s Magnalia.

[648]Ibid., vol. 1, p. 72.

[649]Ibid., Morton, Prince, Young, Cheever.

[650]Young’s Chronicles, p. 288.

[651]Mass. Col. Rec., vol. 1, p. 408.

[652]Mass. Col. Rec., vol. 1, p. 408.

[653]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 350.

[654]See theipsissima verbaof the charter, Mass. Hist. Col.

[655]Hutchinson’s Hist. of Mass., vol. 1, p. 13. Bancroft, Grahame.

[656]Ibid.

[657]Ibid. Young’s Chronicles, p. 88.

[658]Hutchinson, Winthrop, Palfrey, Bancroft.

[659]Ibid.

[660]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 302.

[661]Cited in Hutchinson, in Winthrop, vol. 1, pp. 359, 360, and in Bancroft.

[662]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 310.

[663]Ibid.

[664]Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 107.

[665]See Winthrop’s Life, by R. C. Winthrop, Boston, 1866. Mather’s Account, Hutchinson’s Sketch, Palfrey, etc., etc.

[666]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 303.

[667]Ibid. Elliot, Wilson.

[668]Winthrop’s Hist. of New England, vol. 1, p. 332.

[669]Mass. Hist. Col. Palfrey, Prince, Mather.

[670]Ibid.

[671]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 303.

[672]Ibid.

[673]Hume, Hist. Eng. Mather, Prince.

[674]Archæologia Americana, vol. 3, 47,et seq.From this work most of the above facts have been cited.

[675]Formerly the “Eagle;” she was a naval vessel, and carried twenty-eight guns. She had been recently bought by the Company. Palfrey.

[676]Winthrop’s Hist. of New England.

[677]Elliot, vol. 2, pp. 16, 17.

[678]The most common orthography isArabella, but later writers almost unanimously reject this spelling, which is founded on the often erring authority of Mather in the Magnalia, and of Josselyn, and accept that of John Winthrop in his Diary, of Johnson in the “Wonder-working Providence,” and of Dudley’s Epistles. All of these men were personally intimate with Mrs. Johnson, and they must have known her name. See Winthrop, p. 1, note.

[679]Mather, Winthrop, Palfrey, Elliot, Hutchinson, etc., etc.

[680]Hist. of the Result of the American Colonies, vol. 1, p. 58.

[681]Winthrop’s Diary.

[682]This address is said to have been drawn by Mr. White. Palfrey.

[683]Elliot.

[684]Elliot.

[685]Winthrop’s Diary, p. 31.

[686]Ibid.

[687]Ibid., Palfrey, Bancroft.

[688]Winthrop’s Journal, p. 32.

[689]Dudley’s letter to the countess of Lincoln, cited in Hutchinson.

[690]Hubbard, Mass. Col. Rec., Archæol. Am.

[691]Ibid.

[692]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 350.

[693]Hubbard, p. 133.

[694]Ibid. Prince, Winthrop.

[695]Ibid.

[696]Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 77.

[697]Winthrop, vol. 1, p. 34.

[698]Palfrey, Bancroft, Archæol. Am.

[699]Ibid. Mass. Hist. Col.

[700]Dudley’s Letter to the Countess of Lincoln. Prince’s Chronology.

[701]Winthrop’s Hist. of New England. Hutchinson.

[702]Ibid.

[703]Shawmut, or the Settlement of Boston, p. 2.

[704]Drake’s Hist. of Boston.

[705]Ibid. Elliot.

[706]Drake’s Hist. of Boston. Elliot.

[707]“Blackstone retained nothing in America of his ministerial character but his canonical coat. He devoted himself to the cultivation of the six or seven acres of land which he retained in his possession, and planted, it is said, the first orchard of apple-trees in New England. He left Boston because he was annoyed by its strict sectarian laws. Banishing himself again to the wilderness, he settled in a place now called Cumberland, on the banks of the Pawtucket river. Here he built a house in the midst of a park, planted an orchard near it, and divided his time between study and labor. He called his retreat “Study Hill,” and resided there until his death in May, 1675.“He was a man of a kind and benevolent heart; and when he went to Providence to preach, as he did occasionally, notwithstanding his disagreement in opinion with Roger Williams, he would carry with him some beautiful apples as a present to the children, who had never seen such fruit before. Indeed, the kind called Yellow Sweetings were first produced in his orchard; and the older inhabitants, who had seen apples in England, had never before seen that sort.” Shawmut, or the Settlement of Boston, p. 27.

“He was a man of a kind and benevolent heart; and when he went to Providence to preach, as he did occasionally, notwithstanding his disagreement in opinion with Roger Williams, he would carry with him some beautiful apples as a present to the children, who had never seen such fruit before. Indeed, the kind called Yellow Sweetings were first produced in his orchard; and the older inhabitants, who had seen apples in England, had never before seen that sort.” Shawmut, or the Settlement of Boston, p. 27.

[708]Elliot, vol. 1, p. 152.

[709]Bancroft, p. 359. Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 313.

[710]Hutchinson, Prince, Hubbard.

[711]Ibid. Charlestown Records.

[712]Mass. Col. Rec., Bancroft.

[713]Bancroft, Story, Palfrey. See the Charter, in Massachusetts Hist. Col.

[714]Winthrop, Hutchinson, Hubbard.

[715]Seechap. 19, pp. 245et seq.

[716]Bradford, Winthrop, Hubbard.

[717]On the 19th of Oct.

[718]Winthrop, Hutchinson.

[719]See the charter.

[720]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 359.

[721]Ibid.

[722]Ibid., p. 360.

[723]Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 360.

[724]Bancroft, vol. 1, pp. 360, 361.

[725]Uhden’s New Eng. Theocracy, p. 68. Dexter’s Congregationalism.

[726]Ibid., p. 71.

[727]Ibid., Bancroft.

[728]Ibid. Vide Cambridge Platform.

[729]Vide the Cambridge Platform, 1648. “This Confession of Faith belongs, indeed, to a later period, but it expresses throughout the principles of the early colonists unchanged.” Uhden, p. 68.

[730]Wilson’s Pilgrim Fathers, pp. 487, 488.

[731]Winthrop’s Journal.

[732]Elliott, vol. 1, pp. 155, 156.

[733]Longfellow’s Courtship of Miles Standish. See, also, Banvard and Thatcher.

[734]Elliot, vol. 1, p. 154. Winthrop, Bradford, Prince.

[735]Ibid., p. 68. Banvard, Thatcher, Morton.

[736]Elliott, vol. 1, p. 68. Banvard, Thatcher, Morton. This was in 1630.

[737]Winthrop’s Journal.

[738]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 329.

[739]Ibid.

[740]Bradford, p. 294.

[741]Winthrop’s Journal.

[742]Bradford, p. 295.

[743]Ibid.

[744]Winthrop’s Journal.

[745]Palfrey, vol. 1, p. 330.

[746]Elliot, vol. 1, p. 155.

[747]Magnalia, vol. 1, p. 103.

[748]Ibid., p. 97.

[749]Orations, N. Y., 1855.

[750]Winthrop’s Hist., vol. 1, p. 97.

[751]Ibid., p. 76.

[752]Eliot spent the first years of his transatlantic life as a preacher at Roxbury. Here he was engaged with Weld and Richard Mather in compiling the first book published in New England—“The Psalms in Metre”—which appeared in 1640. In 1645, he became deeply interested in the work of evangelizing the Indians, “those ruins of mankind.” Into this labor he threw his whole heart; and he never relinquished it until God called him home; for he believed with the psalmist, that Jehovah was perpetually saying, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.”Going into the wilderness, he preached his first Indian sermon in October, 1646, in a wigwam at Nonantum, near Watertown. He had already familiarized himself with the aboriginal languages; and since the New England tribes—loosely estimated at a united membership of forty thousand—were a part of the Algonquin race, whose tongues were similar, this acquisition was not as difficult as it might seem. Eliot had the happiness to witness several conversions as the result of his first essay; and from that moment he worked on with a resolution and self-abnegation above all earthly praise. The “Apostle,” as he soon came to be called, at once commenced several translations. Two catechisms were done into the Indian dialects. A primer, the Psalms, and Baxter’s Call, followed; and finally, an Indian Bible, a marvellous monument of patience, industry, and faith, appeared in 1663. Of course, this work necessitated money. Eliot appealed for aid. The English Parliament granted, in 1649, a special sum for the promotion of the gospel among the aborigines. Large collections were made throughout England for the same purpose; and even infant Boston contributed twenty-five hundred dollars in its poverty. The zeal of Eliot and the funds of the godly were not in vain expended. A number of Indians were hopefully converted, and these were colonized into separate towns. The chief seat of the “praying Indians” was Natick, settled by them in 1651. There Eliot erected his headquarters; and he gave his converts “the same advice as to government that Jethro gave to Moses; so they assembled, and chose their rulers of hundreds, fifties, and tens, and proclaimed, ‘that God should rule over them.’” Their houses were Indian cabins, built of bark, except the meeting-house, which was fashioned after the churches of the pale-faces. In this latter building Eliot had a bed and a room. Natick then contained one hundred and fifty-two persons. Eliot saw that civilization was necessary for his duskyprotégés, both as a bond of union and as a fulcrum for his gospel lever. He knew also that responsibility educates. So he was careful to induct into offices of honor and responsibility those of his converts who seemed the most trusty, energetic, and intelligent. Such commissions were highly esteemed by the Indians, and sometimes they performed their official duty with amusing formality. On one occasion, a native magistrate named Hihoudi, issued the following warrant, directed to an Indian constable: “I, Hihoudi, you, Peter Waterman. Jeremy Wisket,—quick you take him, fast you hold him, straight you bring him before me. Hihoudi!”Natick was a nucleus settlement. Soon a number of supplementary colonies were grouped about it, and these embraced, some sixty, some seventy, some eighty, “praying Indians,” all provided with churches, schools, and the rude initial apparatus of civilization. In 1674, there were eleven hundred Christian Indians who were possessed of fixed homes within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. And Eliot enumerated twenty-five hundred more to Boyle, as settled in Plymouth, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. The usual exercises were praying, reading the Bible, and preaching—sometimes by a white teacher, sometimes by a native missionary. Then all united in singing; and we are told that “sundry could manage to do so very well.” After this, some were catechized. Then, says Eliot, “if there was any act of public discipline—as divers times there was, since ignorance and partial barbarism made many stumblers—the offender was called forth, exhorted to give glory to God, and urged to confess his sins.” King Philip’s war partially paralyzed these efforts of Eliot and his compeers; it robbed them of the sympathy of the whites, and roughened their path; but they persevered; and even after Eliot’s decease, in 1690, God put it into the hearts of some to carry on his work, and efforts continued to be made towards the evangelization of the natives as far down as the year 1754. At that time the Rev. Mr. Hawley was “set apart” for that special work, in the “Old South Church,” in Boston, and Deacon Woodbridge and Jonathan Edwards were enlisted in the same good cause. Roger Williams had been an active co-worker with Eliot, and a little later the Mayhews gleaned their rich harvest at Martha’s Vineyard. Indeed, the Mayhews were so successful that on the single little island where they labored, six meetings were held in as many different places every Sabbath, and there were ten native preachers, who, according to the testimony of Thomas Mayhew, were of “good knowledge and holy conversation.”But the missionaries did not find it plain sailing. Besides the incessant jealousy between the whites and the aborigines, they had to encounter the natural repugnance of the Indian to desert the blind faith of his fathers and accept the God and Saviour of the white men. Massasoit, spite of his friendship for the whites, lived and died a strict unbeliever. Philip, his son, was equally obstinate, saying on one occasion, after listening to an exhortation from Eliot, and placing his hand on a button on the Apostle’s coat: “I care no more for the gospel than I care for that button.” The Narragansetts went so far as to prohibit preaching within their borders. Yet still the missionaries went on, and, with God’s blessing, they harvested many souls, long before good Bishop Berkeley launched his noble but abortive scheme for the conversion of the red men. Those readers who are desirous of studying this subject in detail, are referred to Sparks’ Life of Eliot; Mayhew’s Indian experiences; Mansell’s recent reprint at Albany of tracts concerning Eliot’s Indian missions; R. Williams’ Key; Hubbard’s Hist.; Mather’s Magnalia; Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Col., etc., etc.

Going into the wilderness, he preached his first Indian sermon in October, 1646, in a wigwam at Nonantum, near Watertown. He had already familiarized himself with the aboriginal languages; and since the New England tribes—loosely estimated at a united membership of forty thousand—were a part of the Algonquin race, whose tongues were similar, this acquisition was not as difficult as it might seem. Eliot had the happiness to witness several conversions as the result of his first essay; and from that moment he worked on with a resolution and self-abnegation above all earthly praise. The “Apostle,” as he soon came to be called, at once commenced several translations. Two catechisms were done into the Indian dialects. A primer, the Psalms, and Baxter’s Call, followed; and finally, an Indian Bible, a marvellous monument of patience, industry, and faith, appeared in 1663. Of course, this work necessitated money. Eliot appealed for aid. The English Parliament granted, in 1649, a special sum for the promotion of the gospel among the aborigines. Large collections were made throughout England for the same purpose; and even infant Boston contributed twenty-five hundred dollars in its poverty. The zeal of Eliot and the funds of the godly were not in vain expended. A number of Indians were hopefully converted, and these were colonized into separate towns. The chief seat of the “praying Indians” was Natick, settled by them in 1651. There Eliot erected his headquarters; and he gave his converts “the same advice as to government that Jethro gave to Moses; so they assembled, and chose their rulers of hundreds, fifties, and tens, and proclaimed, ‘that God should rule over them.’” Their houses were Indian cabins, built of bark, except the meeting-house, which was fashioned after the churches of the pale-faces. In this latter building Eliot had a bed and a room. Natick then contained one hundred and fifty-two persons. Eliot saw that civilization was necessary for his duskyprotégés, both as a bond of union and as a fulcrum for his gospel lever. He knew also that responsibility educates. So he was careful to induct into offices of honor and responsibility those of his converts who seemed the most trusty, energetic, and intelligent. Such commissions were highly esteemed by the Indians, and sometimes they performed their official duty with amusing formality. On one occasion, a native magistrate named Hihoudi, issued the following warrant, directed to an Indian constable: “I, Hihoudi, you, Peter Waterman. Jeremy Wisket,—quick you take him, fast you hold him, straight you bring him before me. Hihoudi!”

Natick was a nucleus settlement. Soon a number of supplementary colonies were grouped about it, and these embraced, some sixty, some seventy, some eighty, “praying Indians,” all provided with churches, schools, and the rude initial apparatus of civilization. In 1674, there were eleven hundred Christian Indians who were possessed of fixed homes within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. And Eliot enumerated twenty-five hundred more to Boyle, as settled in Plymouth, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. The usual exercises were praying, reading the Bible, and preaching—sometimes by a white teacher, sometimes by a native missionary. Then all united in singing; and we are told that “sundry could manage to do so very well.” After this, some were catechized. Then, says Eliot, “if there was any act of public discipline—as divers times there was, since ignorance and partial barbarism made many stumblers—the offender was called forth, exhorted to give glory to God, and urged to confess his sins.” King Philip’s war partially paralyzed these efforts of Eliot and his compeers; it robbed them of the sympathy of the whites, and roughened their path; but they persevered; and even after Eliot’s decease, in 1690, God put it into the hearts of some to carry on his work, and efforts continued to be made towards the evangelization of the natives as far down as the year 1754. At that time the Rev. Mr. Hawley was “set apart” for that special work, in the “Old South Church,” in Boston, and Deacon Woodbridge and Jonathan Edwards were enlisted in the same good cause. Roger Williams had been an active co-worker with Eliot, and a little later the Mayhews gleaned their rich harvest at Martha’s Vineyard. Indeed, the Mayhews were so successful that on the single little island where they labored, six meetings were held in as many different places every Sabbath, and there were ten native preachers, who, according to the testimony of Thomas Mayhew, were of “good knowledge and holy conversation.”

But the missionaries did not find it plain sailing. Besides the incessant jealousy between the whites and the aborigines, they had to encounter the natural repugnance of the Indian to desert the blind faith of his fathers and accept the God and Saviour of the white men. Massasoit, spite of his friendship for the whites, lived and died a strict unbeliever. Philip, his son, was equally obstinate, saying on one occasion, after listening to an exhortation from Eliot, and placing his hand on a button on the Apostle’s coat: “I care no more for the gospel than I care for that button.” The Narragansetts went so far as to prohibit preaching within their borders. Yet still the missionaries went on, and, with God’s blessing, they harvested many souls, long before good Bishop Berkeley launched his noble but abortive scheme for the conversion of the red men. Those readers who are desirous of studying this subject in detail, are referred to Sparks’ Life of Eliot; Mayhew’s Indian experiences; Mansell’s recent reprint at Albany of tracts concerning Eliot’s Indian missions; R. Williams’ Key; Hubbard’s Hist.; Mather’s Magnalia; Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Col., etc., etc.

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