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lished for the Indian tribe of Nonantum. The warrant of Mr. Justice Waban, 'You, you big constable, quick you catch um Jeremiah Offscow, strong you hold um, safe you bring um, afore me Waban, justice peace,' and his righteous judgment in the case, between the drunken Indians, 'tie um all up, and whip um plaintiff, and whip um fendant, and whip um witness,' have become equally well known, but the general good order and thrifty condition of the Natick Indians is proof enough of a wise administration of affairs. Even the ridiculous warrant is equaled in brevity by one from the English court. To the Marshal, or his deputy. By virtue hereof you are required to levy of the land of John Lamb to the value of £50: 18, (and 2sh. for this ex'on,) to satisfy the worshipfull Thomas Dudley for a judgment granted at the Court held at Boston the 6th month.'

In 1647, there was a synod which the Indians attended. A sermon was preached in the Indian language, and after it they had an opportunity to put any questions that suggested themselves.

In 1650, the Natick Indians urged Eliot to allow them to form a town. The Indian town was organized the 6th of August, 1651. The regular formation of a church was conducted with great caution, from conscientious fears lest the natives should be admitted to communion unprepared. Repeated examinations were had, some of them public. In 1660, an Indian church was formed.

In connection with these labors, Eliot undertook and accomplished others, designed to established his work on a lasting basis. He thought of making a translation of the Bible, at least as early as 1649. In 1651, he had begun it. In 1661, the New Testament was published in Indian, and the Old Testament in 1663. His labors for the Indians were the dearest objects of his heart. The result he hoped for was one that cheered his manly and benevolent soul to think upon. He looked to the direct effect of his own labors with the greatest solicitude, because, having few to aid him, he could not but feel how much the success of his objects depended on his own single arm alone. He had not merely to write, but to do much of the labor of printing also. In a letter written concerning a second edition of the Bible, which was published in 1685, he speaks of having only one person besides himself able to conduct the work. This was the Indian James, known as the Printer.

In speaking of this work, Edward Everett has said, 'Since the days of the Apostle Paul, a nobler, truer, and warmer spirit than John Eliot never lived; and taking the state of the country, the narrowness of the means, the rudeness of the age, into consideration, the History of the Christian Church does not contain an

example of resolute, untiring, successful labor, superior to that of translating the entire Scriptures into the language of the native tribes of Massachusetts, a labor performed under the constant burden of his duties as a minister and a preacher, and at a time when his spirits began to flag.'

But it seems to me that, vast as was the undertaking, and however common patience might have broken under so long and wearisome a labor, the literary toil of Eliot was not so great as his missionary labors. In these, while he had few of the pleasures of study or learning, he had quite as much tedious drudgery, and he had also to encounter danger, to endure excessive hardships, and what perhaps would be most trying of all, to withstand the attacks and calumnies of the English themselves. The feelings of many of the English were hostile to his efforts. When the natives were committing depredations on their property, burning their villages, and murdering families all about, the English could not enter with great sympathy into the feelings of Eliot. Besides this, Eliot had the pain of seeing his best efforts thwarted, in a hundred ways, and the labors of twice as many years as it took him to translate the Bible, undone in a moment, by some cruel or imprudent act on the part of his own countrymen. Such things will damp and dishearten one who fears no danger and never is tired with the severest labor.

For forty years, day after day, week after week, he continued his visits to the Indians, not merely preaching and holding 'talks' with them, but going about amongst them every where, as the earliest code of laws proves, in the midst of every thing loathsome and revolting. His feelings must have been bitter when at the end of the war he found that more than half those who had been numbered amongst the little body of his converts, had renounced the faith, and taken up arms against the English.

In 1675, several captive Indians were brought to Boston.-Eliot interested himself deeply in their behalf. His diary shows how warm was his sympathy. But the people looked at it with jealousy, and nothing but respect for Eliot could have prevented forcible interference. It was a sore trial for him to see men ruthlessly rooting out the truths he had planted, and to feel that, no one would again attempt to do what he had effected.

In 1675, is a note in his diary, 'soone after the warre wh. ye Indians brake forth, the history wr. off I cannot, I may not relate, the prophane Indians proved a sharpe rod to the English, and the English proved a very sharpe rod to the praying Indians.'

After the war was over, he records how the soldiers welcomed

our Indians (the praying Indians) wherever they met them, and 'led them to the ordinarys and made them drink, and bred them by such a habit to love strong drink, so that it was a terrible snare to us. They learned so to love strong drink that they spent all their wages and pawned all they had for strong drink,'' so that drunkenness increased, quarrelling and fiting,' &c. He then laments over the loss of their Bibles.

The translation of the Bible could not so severely tax all his energies, as these labors. It certainly was attended with none of the bitter discouragements he found in them.

Besides the Bible, Eliot translated many other books into the Indian language. Baxter's Call, and the Psalter, were published in 1664; the Indian Grammar, in 1666; several editions of Catechisms and Primers; the Sound Believer,' and some tracts, about the same time.

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Besides his Indian books, Eliot wrote and published several English ones; in 1665, the Communion of the Churches;' in 1672, the Logical Primer;' in 1678, the Harmony of the Gospels.' 'The Christian Commonwealth' was also written by Eliot-a work in some respects very remarkable, as it was above the mere imitation of Old Testament enactments, to which nearly all the Puritan lawgivers of that period were addicted, and provided in the matter of penalties for a system of precedents, founded on the harmony of any decision by the Supreme Council between the Divine and the Human-the spirit of the Gospel being the guide of all moral actions of man either toward God or man. It asserts the doctrine of a Higher Law-that no human enactment which conflicts with the laws of God in the conscience can bind men in their civil conduct.

For near eighty years Mr. Eliot labored for the Indians, and for his native people always beloved by all. His charity was so great people—always that his salary was often distributed for the relief of his needy neighbors, so soon after the period at which he received it, that before another period arrived his own family were straightened for the comforts of life. One day the parish treasurer, on paying the money due, which he put into a handkerchief, in order to prevent Mr. Eliot from giving away his money before he got home, tied the ends of the handkerchief in as many hard knots as he could. The good man received the handkerchief and took leave of the treasurer. He immediately went to the house of a sick and necessitous family. On entering he gave them his blessing, and told them God had sent them some relief. The sufferers, with tears of gratitude, welcomed

their pious benefactor, who, with moistened eyes, began to untie the knots in his handkerchief. After many efforts to get at his money, and impatient at the perplexity and delay, he gave the handkerchief and all the money to the mother of the family, saying, with trembling accents, 'Here, my dear, take it; I believe the Lord designed all for you.' Whenever he is spoken of by any of them, he is named in terms of more than common endearment.

His private journal is full of entries which indicate the character of the man-instead of recording outward events, such as earthquakes, shipwrecks, the weather, gossip, he thanks God that the £12 188. 9d., which they raised to buy Edward Stowell out of Turkish captivity, made up just the sum needed.' He speaks of the attempts made to reduce Southold and Southampton, 'because they stand for their liberty;' of the Sabbath-school; of the gracious gift of charity from the friends in Dublin for such as died in the warr;' of his visits to men, Indians and whites, in prison, and on the scaffold.

In his parish he always declined taking wine, quietly remarking that it was an ancient beverage undoubtedly, but he believed water was an older one. He utterly condemned the filthy use of tobacco. He preached and prayed against wigs and long hair, and censured many fashions of the day as ridiculous. Some of his biographers have set down his sements on these matters as well as on war, temperance, and the treatment of the natives, to his 'prejudices.' But they condemn themselves more than they censure him. He considered what was just, and thought of the follies of fashion as they indicated and affected character. For himself, he saved that he might be liberal. He never had but one dish at meal. He wore a leathern girdle. Notwithstanding his great private benevolence, with his small salary, he accomplished costly undertakings.

When he could not preach, at the close of his life, he said to the parish, 'I do here give up my salary to the Lord Jesus Christ, and now, brethren, you may fix that upon any man that God shall make a pastor.' But the society declined to receive it, saying they deemed his presence necessary, whatever sum was granted for his support.

'Mr. Eliot was peculiarly happy in domestic life. His wife was an excellent economist, and by her prudent management enabled him to be generous to his friends and hospitable to strangers. With a moderate stipend, he educated four sons at college.'

As a preacher, Eliot was very effective and popular. His manner was easy and pleasing, his voice sweet and clear, his style plain, and free from the conceit of the day. He always was earnest and spoke from the fullness of his own feelings.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION.

VIRGINIA-COLONIAL PERIOD.

VIRGINIA COMPANY.

The Virginia Company were the first to take steps relative to the establishment of schools in the English colonies of America. In a letter written to the authorities of the infant settlement at Jamestown, on November 18, 1618, they use these words: "Whereas, by a special grant and license from his Majesty, a general contribution over this realm hath been made for the building and planting of a college for the training up of the children of those infidels in true religion, moral virtue, and civility, and for other godliness, we do therefore, according to a former grant and order, hereby ratify and confirm and ordain that a convenient place be chosen and set out for the planting of a university at the said Henrico in time to come, and that in the mean time preparation be there made for the building of the said college for the children of the infidels, according to such instructions as we shall de er. And we will and ordain that ten thousand acres, partly of the land they impaled, and partly of the land within the territory of the said Henrico, be allotted and set out for the endowing of the said university and college with convenient possessions."

A week after the date of this communication, a ripe scholar in England, the Rev. Thomas Lorkin, subsequently distinguished as secretary of the English embassy in France, writes to an acquaintance: "A good friend of mine proposed to me within three or four days a condition of going over to Virginia, where the Virginia Company means to erect a college, and undertakes to procure me good assurance of £200 a year, and if I shall find there any ground of dislike, liberty to return at pleasure."

The offer, after due consideration, appears not to have been accepted, and nothing more was done until the reorganization of the company in April, 1619, and the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as its presiding officer.

*Prepared by Rev. E. D. Neil, in Office of Education, for a series of chapters on the Historical Development of Education in the United States, projected by the Commissioner (Henry Barnard).

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