Pioneers and Founders - Charlotte Yonge 3 стр.

In John Eliots time, there was all to hope; and the community of Englishmen with whom he lived, though stern, fierce, intolerant, and at times cruel in their intolerance, did not embarrass his work nor corrupt the Indians by the grosser and coarser vices, when, in his biographers words, our Eliot was on such ill terms with the devil as to alarm him with sounding the silver trumpets of Heaven in his territories, and make some noble and zealous endeavours towards ousting him of his ancient possessions.  The Pilgrim Fathers had obtained their land by fair purchase, i.e. if purchase could be fair where there was no real mutual understanding; and a good deal of interest had been felt in England in the religious state of the Red men.  The charter to the colony had enforced their conversion on the settlers, and Dr. Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells, declared that but for his old age and infirmities he would have headed a mission to America for the purpose.  Had he done so, perhaps something systematic might have been attempted.  As it was the new colonists had too severe a struggle with their own difficulties to attend to their heathen surroundings, even though the seal of their colony of Massachusetts represented an Indian with the label in his mouth, Come over and help us.  A few conversions had taken place, but rather owing to the interest in the White mens worship taken by individual Indians, than to any efforts on the part of the settlers.

Sixteen years, however, passed without overt aggression, though already was beginning the sad story that is repeated wherever civilized man extends his frontiers.  The savage finds his hunting-ground broken up, the White mans farm is ruined by the game or the chase, the luxuries of civilization excite the natives desires, mistrust leads to injury, retaliation follows, and then war.

In 1634, only two years after Eliots arrival, two gentlemen, with their boats crew, were killed on the Connecticut river, and some of the barbarities took place that we shall too often have to noticeattacks by the natives on solitary dwellings or lonely travellers, and increasing anger on the part of the colonists, until they ceased to regard their enemies as fellow-creatures.

However, the Pequots were likewise at war with the Dutch and with the Narragansets, or river Indians, and they sent a deputation to endeavour to make peace with the English, and secure their assistance against these enemies.  They were appointed to return for their answer in a months time; and after consultation with the clergy, Mr. Dudley and Mr. Ludlow, the Governor and Deputy-Governor, decided on making a treaty with them, on condition of their delivering up the murderers of the Englishmen, and paying down forty beaver and thirty otter skins, besides 400 fathoms of wampum, i.e. strings of the small whelks and Venus-shells that served as current coin, a fathom being worth about five shillings.

It surprises us that Eliots name first appears in connection with the Indians as an objector to this treaty, and in a sermon too, at Roxbury; not on any grounds of injustice to the Indians, but because it had been conducted by the magistrates without reference to the people, which was an offence to his views of the republican rights to be exercised in the colony.  So serious was his objection deemed, that a deputation was appointed to explain the principles on which Government had acted, and thus convince Mr. Eliot, which they did so effectually that he retracted his censure in his next sermon.

Probably this was what first awakened John Eliots interest in the Red-skins; but for the next few years, in spite of the treaty, there was a good deal of disturbance on the frontier, and some commission of cruelties, until the colonists became gradually roused into fury.  Some tribes were friendly with them; and, uniting with these the Mohicans and river Indians, under the conduct of Uncas, the Mohican chief, seventy-seven Englishmen made a raid into the Pequot country and drove them from it.  Then, in 1637, a battle, called the Great Swamp Fight, took place between the English, Dutch, and friendly Indians on the one hand, and the Pequots on the other.  It ended in the slaughter of seven hundred of the Pequots and thirteen of their Sachems.  The wife of one of the Sachems was taken, and as she had protected two captive English girls she was treated with great consideration, and was much admired for her good sense and modesty; but the other prisoners were dispersed among the settlers to serve as slaves, and a great number of the poor creatures were shipped off to the West India Islands to work on the sugar plantations.

Those who had escaped the battle were hunted down by the Mohicans and Narragansets, who continually brought their scalps in to the English towns, and at last they were reduced to sue for peace when only 200 braves were still living.  These, with their families, were amalgamated with the Mohicans and Narragansets, and expelled from their former territory, on which the English settled.  An annual tribute of a length of wampum, for every male in the tribe, varying according to age and rank, was paid to the English, and their supremacy was so entirely established that nearly forty years of peace succeeded.

Eliots missionary enterprise, Mather allows, was first inspired by the remarkable zeal of the Romish missionaries, by whom he probably means the French Jesuits, who were working with much effect in the settlements in Louisiana, first occupied in the time of Henri IV.  Another stimulus came from the expressions in the Royal Charter which had granted licence for the establishment of the colony, namely, To win and incite the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian faith, in our Royal intention and the Adventurers free profession, is the principal end of the Plantation.

That the devil himself was the Red mens master, and came to their assistance when summoned by the incantations of their medicine men, was the universal belief of the colonists, in corroboration of which the following story is given:The Indians in their wars with us, finding a sore inconvenience by our dogs, which would make a sad yelling if in the night they scented the approaches of them, they sacrificed a dog to the devil, after which no English dog would bark at an Indian for divers months ensuing.

In the intended contest Mr. Eliot began by preaching and making collections from the English settlers, and likewise he hires a native to teach him this exotick language, and, with a laborious care and skill, reduces it into a grammar, which afterwards he published.  There is a letter or two of our alphabet which the Indians never had in theirs; though there were enough of the dog in their temper, there can scarce be found an R in their language, . . . but, if their alphabet be short, I am sure the words composed of it are long enough to tire the patience of any scholar in the world; they are Sesquipedalia verba, of which their linguo is composed.  For instance, if I were to translate our Loves, it must be nothing shorter than Noowomantamoonkanunonush.  Or to give my reader a longer word, Kremmogkodonattootummootiteaonganunnnash is, in English, our question.

The worthy Mr. Mather adds, with a sort of apology, that, having once found that the demons in a possessed young woman understood Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he himself tried them with this Indian tongue, and the demons did seem as if they understood it.  Indeed, he thinks the words must have been growing ever since the confusion of Babel!  The fact appears to be, that these are what are now called agglutinate languages, and, like those of all savage tribes, in a continual course of alterationalso often using a long periphrastic description to convey an idea or form a name.  A few familiar instances will occur, such as Niagara, thunder of water.

The worthy Mr. Mather adds, with a sort of apology, that, having once found that the demons in a possessed young woman understood Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he himself tried them with this Indian tongue, and the demons did seem as if they understood it.  Indeed, he thinks the words must have been growing ever since the confusion of Babel!  The fact appears to be, that these are what are now called agglutinate languages, and, like those of all savage tribes, in a continual course of alterationalso often using a long periphrastic description to convey an idea or form a name.  A few familiar instances will occur, such as Niagara, thunder of water.

This formidable language Mr. Eliotthe anagram of whose name, Mather appropriately observes, was Toilsmastered with the assistance of a pregnant-witted Indian, who had been a servant in an English family.  By the help of his natural turn for philology, he was able to subdue this instrument to his great and holy end,with what difficulty may be estimated from the sentence with which he concluded his grammar: Prayer and pains through faith in Christ Jesus will do anything.

It was in the year 1646, while Cromwell was gradually obtaining a preponderating influence in England, and King Charles had gone to seek protection in the Scottish army, that John Eliot, then in his forty-second year, having thus prepared himself, commenced his campaign.

He had had a good deal of conversation with individual Indians who came about the settlement at Roxbury, and who perceived the advantages of some of the English customs.  They said they believed that in forty years the Red and White men would be all one, and were really anxious for this consummation.  When Eliot declared that the superiority of the White race came from their better knowledge of God, and offered to come and instruct them, they were full of joy and gratitude; and on the 28th of October, 1646, among the glowing autumn woods, a meeting of Indians was convoked, to which Mr. Eliot came with three companions.  They were met by a chief named Waban, or the Wind, who had a son at an English school, and was already well disposed towards them, and who led them to his wigwam, where the principal men of the tribe awaited them.

Mr. Eliot prayed in English, and then preached on the 9th and 10th verses of the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, where the prophet is bid to call the Breath of God from the four winds of heaven to give life to the dry bones around.  It so happened that the Indian word for breath or wind was Waban, and this made a great impression, and was afterwards viewed as an omen.

The preacher worked up from the natural religion, of which this fine race already had an idea, to the leading Christian truths.

The sermon lasted an hour and a quarter, but the Indians are a dignified and patient people, prone to long discourses themselves, and apt to listen to them from others.  When he finally asked if they had understood, many voices replied that they had; and, on his encouraging them to ask questions, many intelligent inquiries were made.  The whole conference lasted three hours, and Mr. Eliot was invited to come again, which he did at intervals of about a fortnight, and again with good promise.

In one of these meetings they asked, very reasonably, why the English called them Indians, a question it could not have been easy to answer.  The Powaws, or priests, began to make some opposition, but Waban was continually going about among the people, repeating portions of the instructions he had received, and teaching his friends to prayfor some had at first supposed that the English God might not be addressed in the native tongue, but only in English.

After some little time, he thought the Indians ripe for being taught to live a settled life, and obtained for his congregationthe praying Indians, as they were commonly calleda grant of the site of his first instructions.  The place was named Rejoicing,in Indian, a word that soon got corrupted into Nonantum; and, under Mr. Eliots directions, they divided their grounds with trenches and stone walls, for which he gave them tools to the best of his ability.  They built wigwams of a superior construction, and the women learnt to spin; there was a continual manufacture of brushes, eel-pots, and baskets, which were sold in the English towns, together with turkeys, fish, venison, and fruits, according to the season.  At hay and harvest times they would hire themselves out to work for their English neighbours, but were thought unable or unwilling to do what sturdy Englishmen regarded as a fair days work.

A second settlement of praying Indians followed at Neponset, around the wigwam of a Sachem named Cutshamakin, a man of rank much superior to Waban.  He had already been in treaty with the English, and had promised to observe the Ten Commandments, but had unhappily learnt also from the English that love of drink which was the bane of the Indian; and while Mr. Eliot was formally instructing the family, one of the sons, a boy of fifteen, when learning the fifth commandment, persisted in saying only honour thy mother, and, when admonished, declared that his father had given him fire-water, which had intoxicated him, and had besides been passionate and violent with him.  The boy had always been a rude, contumacious fellow, and at the next lecture day Mr. Eliot turned to the Sachem, and lamented over these faults, but added that the first step to reforming him would be for his father to set the example by a confession of his own sins, which were neither few nor light.

The Sachems pride was subdued.  He stood up and openly declared his offences, lamenting over them with deep sincerity.  The boy was so touched that he made humble confession in his turn, and entreated forgiveness.  His parents were so much moved that they wept aloud, and the board on which Cutshamakin stood was wet with his tears.  He was softened then, but, poor man, he said: My heart is but very little better than it was, and I am afraid it will be as bad again as it was before.  I sometimes wish I might die before I be so bad again!

Poor Cutshamakin! he estimated himself truly.  The Puritan discipline, which aimed at acting on the conduct rather through the conscience and feelings than by means of grace, never entirely subdued him, and he remained a fitfully fierce, and yet repentant, savage to the end of his life.  His squaw must have been a clever woman; for, being publicly reprimanded by the Indian preacher Nabanton, for fetching water on a Sunday, she told him after the meeting that he had done more harm by raising the discussion than she had done by fetching the water.