JOHN ELIOT, 
 
 THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN TRACT SOCIETY. 
 
 Those who are accustomed to read in the public papers 
 of the extent, the power and the wealth of the American 
 States, seldom reflect, if indeed all are aware of the fact, 
 that, between two and three hundred years since, the land 
 now covered by large and flourishing cities, rivalling in 
 population many of the principal towns of Europe, and as full 
 of animation and bustle, was by far the greater part nothing 
 but woods and swamps,—the hunting-grounds of the savage 
 Indian tribes, and dotted by their wigwams, rude, smoky 
 huts scarcely capable of keeping out the wind and the rain; 
 or it presented immense pathless plains, called prairies, 
 something like the Steppes of Russia, where in summer the 
 grass grew with rank luxuriance, but in winter were desti¬ 
 tute of vegetation, hid under a thick mantle of snow, and 
 presenting hardly any symptoms of life. The few who 
 traversed these inhospitable and all but interminable wilds, 
 hardly escaped with life, from the piercing keenness of the 
 wind, which, arresting the course of the blood, almost 
 completely checked its circulation; or if good spirits and 
 an abundance of fit clothing enabled any such to success- 
 
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 John Eliot. 
 
 fully cope with the elements, the howls of bears and wolves 
 must have kept up a constant alarm, not diminished by the 
 tales so everywhere current of attacks from these fierce ani¬ 
 mals, maddened by hunger, and frequently fatal to the forlorn 
 traveller Yet it was to shores of desolation and to these 
 barren wilds that many persons resorted, not from the love 
 of excitement nor in the pursuit of gain, but to find that 
 liberty which was denied to them at home, and which they 
 justly prized beyond every other earthly blessing,—the 
 liberty of worshipping the great God according to the dic¬ 
 tates of their consciences, undeterred by human tyranny, 
 unawed by the threats and the presence of Kings and 
 Bishops and High-Commission Courts. 
 
 During the greater part of the reign of the two first 
 Stuarts, as well as in the preceding one of Elizabeth, the 
 Puritans, as they were termed, had met with most unjust 
 and severe treatment for scrupling in the exercise of many 
 of the rites and ceremonies of the Established Church of 
 England, which they considered unscriptural and therefore 
 unlawful. They were for their Nonconformity heavily fined 
 and imprisoned; some were banished, and some suffered 
 even death. Happy did numbers deem themselves when, 
 by permission or connivance, or in spite of strict prohibition 
 and search, they could quit their otherwise most dearly- 
 beloved England, for the wild and then all but uninhabited 
 countries of North America, there to enjoy those rights 
 which God had given them, but of which they were cruelly 
 deprived by the laws of man. The history of these heroic 
 and excellent men, of whom it may truly be said the world 
 at that time was not worthy, is full of interest and instruc¬ 
 tion, and is in no danger of being forgotten; for the Ame¬ 
 ricans of the New-England States justly pride themselves 
 on being their descendants, and keep their names in grate¬ 
 ful remembrance. Many of them were persons of great 
 talents and learning, of undoubted piety, and manifested 
 ardent love for their brethren. Their preachers were re¬ 
 markable for simplicity and integrity,—for untiring energy, 
 and a solemn sense of responsibility to the great Judge of 
 all as to the discharge of their duties. This led to many 
 
John Eliot. 
 
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 acts, on their parts, of self-denial and zealous disinterested¬ 
 ness ; they watched for souls, knowing they were to give an 
 account. Among the most pure and single-hearted, as well 
 as devoted of these, was John Eliot, generally known as 
 the Apostle of the Indians, whose life we proceed briefly to 
 sketch, as presenting a bright example of what the con¬ 
 straining love of Christ can effect for the promotion of the 
 everlasting interests of men,—of those even considered as 
 the most unpromising, if not the most degraded of their 
 kind. 
 
 John Eliot was born in England in 1604, the year after 
 James the First came to the throne of these realms. Of 
 his early life we have very meagre accounts ; but he appears 
 to have been sent to the University of Cambridge when of 
 the proper age for admission; and we may be assured, from 
 the tenor of his after life and the many proofs he gave of 
 his being a sound and ripe scholar, that his college life was 
 not spent in idleness,—that he was a conscientious and 
 painstaking student,—and that the glory of God, shewn by 
 an earnest desire to be useful to man, was his grand and 
 constant aim. In the year 1631, being then about the age 
 of twenty-seven, he came to New England, a recently char¬ 
 tered colony, and to which those who are reverently and 
 fondly called “ the Pilgrim Fathers,” had not many years 
 before directed their steps. He was in company with seve¬ 
 ral others of like minds and feelings with himself,—men 
 who had hazarded their lives and sacrificed their best 
 earthly prospects for the name and cause of the Lord Jesus, 
 —•who had cheerfully endured hardness as his faithful sol¬ 
 diers, and were still ready to spend and be spent in his 
 service. They crossed the Atlantic in the chill and stormy 
 month of November ; and on their arrival could have found 
 few of the comforts and none of the luxuries of life,—the 
 conveniences to which, more or less, all of them had been 
 accustomed. A naked beach—an untilled and, in many 
 parts, a barren soil at the commencement—a waste and 
 howling wilderness as they advanced. The axe of the pio¬ 
 neer had then levelled few obstructions—the rough places 
 had yet to be made plain—the houses and fort, more for 
 
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 John Eliot. 
 
 shelter and protection than for ornament or even comfort, 
 had been hastily erected—fierce beasts were ready to leap 
 the enclosures at night, and to slaughter the cattle, if not 
 themselves—and the wild and barbarous Indian sounded 
 the war-whoop continually, to the ears of the settlers the 
 most dreaded cry that could be uttered. It was only the 
 most unshaken courage, founded on strong religious prin¬ 
 ciple, and upheld by a conviction that they were in the 
 direct path of duty, that could have sustained the souls of 
 these men under such fearful privations and trials; but 
 they felt assured that God was their ever-present help in 
 times of trouble, and their trust did not go unrewarded. 
 Fearing Him, they had no other fear; for his sake, they 
 bore, and had patience, and fainted not. 
 
 Whilst Eliot’s brethren in the ministry were earnestly 
 and faithfully labouring in their appointed calling among 
 the settlers, and thus laying the foundation of many churches 
 existing and flourishing to this day, his heart yearned 
 towards the poor benighted aborigines, the men of the 
 soil, the heathen and too much despised native Indians. 
 He anxiously desired to win them to Christ, and he deter¬ 
 mined to devote himself, heart and soul, with all his powers 
 of body and mind, to this great work. Twelve months 
 after his arrival in the colony, he had been appointed as 
 minister to a congregation of English settlers at Roxbury, 
 near Boston, the capital of the Massachusetts province. 
 Without at all neglecting these his more immediate friends 
 and flock, he at once entered on his favourite work of evan¬ 
 gelizing the heathen settlers near. About twenty tribes 
 of these were scattered up and down amongst the colony, 
 and to them, as a man, a brother, a disciple of Christ, he 
 resolved on going; but the attempt was arduous, and in 
 ordinary hands almost sure to fail. Eliot, however, was 
 not an ordinary man. He had strong enthusiasm, without 
 which nothing that is great or good has ever yet prospered. 
 He had an unconquerable spirit, overflowing love, and, 
 what was of equal consequence, wisdom, so as to shape his 
 means to the necessary ends. He well knew that mere 
 feelings would lead to no useful result; prudence was in- 
 
John Eliot. 
 
 5 
 
 dispensable; and that there were certain preliminaries to 
 be gone through ere he could enter on his office. One of 
 these was learning the language spoken by the Indians, 
 and this was a task of much and peculiar difficulty; for it 
 was a spoken, not a written language. The natives had 
 no books; there was neither grammar nor dictionary to 
 consult; and of the rules, all were alike ignorant. His 
 method of acquiring the language, perhaps the only one 
 he could have successfully adopted, was to take an Indian, 
 who spake (not much, it must be presumed) the English 
 tongue, into his family. From constant and unreserved 
 conversation with him, Eliot learned at length to speak, to 
 preach in, and even to make a grammar of his language. 
 
 The Indian language is perhaps unlike any other in the 
 world, and its appearance on paper is the strangest ima¬ 
 ginable. Its great peculiarity is in the extraordinary 
 length of its words. Thus we have a word of twenty-seven 
 letters, which signifies in English “ our loves,” and another 
 of forty-three letters, meaning “ our question.” This last 
 word contains seventeen syllables. There are, however, 
 not so many letters in their alphabet as in ours. “But,” 
 says old, quaint Cotton Mather, “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. One would 
 think they had been growing ever since Babel unto the 
 dimensions to which they are now extended.” Yet we 
 are informed Eliot quickly mastered the language, so true 
 is the adage that “ where there is a will, there is a way;” 
 so earnest was he in his work — so desirous that none 
 should perish through his neglect. How does his example 
 shame many placed under far more favourable circum¬ 
 stances, who yet seem not to consider that their talents of 
 knowledge, of time, of opportunity, are given, or rather 
 lent to them, for the noblest purposes, that of doing good 
 to all within the sphere of their influence, and that the 
 Lord will at length reckon with all his servants as to the 
 mode in which they have employed them ! 
 
 The means of communication having thus been acquired, 
 Eliot went forth on his heroic enterprize, with more exalted 
 
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 John Eliot . 
 
 and far purer feelings than ever conqueror led forth his 
 hosts from one victory to another. His aims were high, 
 but his heart was single. It was not to win himself a 
 name, but to save souls; for them Christ had shed his 
 blood, and he was an ambassador to beseech them to come 
 and reconcile themselves to God. Yet fourteen years had 
 elapsed from his settlement at Roxbury, ere he ventured 
 publicly to address his heathen neighbours. The inter¬ 
 vening time, besides the accustomed labours of his ministry, 
 had been spent in diligent preparation; for he had been 
 mindful of the apostolic command, to approve himself as 
 a workman that needed not to be ashamed, and he had 
 also sent messages to them announcing his intentions on 
 their behalf. 
 
 At length, on 28th October, 1646, at a spot a few miles 
 from his own house, and accompanied by three friends, 
 who were also anxious to labour in the same cause, Eliot 
 commenced his ministrations among the Indians. He has 
 given us a simple but graphic narrative of his proceedings 
 at this time, too long for insertion here, but of which the 
 following is an abstract. Having, on approaching the set¬ 
 tlement, met some of the chiefs, who received them very 
 courteously, “and,” as he says, “with English salutations,” 
 they proceeded to the largest wigwam, or habitation, where 
 they found “ many men, women and children gathered 
 together from all quarters.” They prayed first in English, 
 and then finding that the discourse in the Indian tongue 
 was likely to be well understood, Mr. Eliot preached for 
 an hour and a quarter on the leading truths of religion, 
 very judiciously commencing with its first principles as set 
 forth in the Ten Commandments. He then proceeded to 
 the elementary truths of the Gospel, urging to a reception 
 of Christ, and to repentance “ for several known sins 
 wherein they live.” Questions to them and by them were 
 then put and answered. Three hours thus were spent in 
 the happiest manner. A strong desire was expressed by all 
 to see them soon again; and after promising a speedy re¬ 
 union, and distributing some trifling tokens of regard—apples 
 to the children and tobacco to the men—-they separated. 
 
John Eliot. 
 
 7 
 
 The life of this excellent man was from this time mainly 
 devoted to the Indian work. By his exertions many were 
 brought to the knowledge of God in Christ, and walked 
 worthy of their Christian profession. He had sufficient 
 influence with the local government to obtain land, whereon 
 an Indian town was built. A church was soon erected in 
 it, and Eliot, with his Indians, laboured with their own 
 hands to rear the edifice. He, with other ministers, re¬ 
 gularly preached to them. His care for their welfare never 
 intermitted. It has been already mentioned that he com¬ 
 piled a grammar of the language, and it is regarded, even at 
 the present day, as a wonderful monument of his learning 
 and perseverance. But he laid his friends of the forest 
 under a yet more lasting obligation, by translating for their 
 use the whole Bible,—a most astonishing work for one 
 man, especially when we recollect his other almost cease¬ 
 less labours for their benefit. He expressed much anxiety 
 that this work should be completed before his death. It 
 was his legacy—the most precious he could leave—to the 
 people of his love and care. 
 
 At length, worn by years, by labours and by privations, 
 this apostolic man drew to the close of his earthly pilgrim¬ 
 age, going to the grave like a shock of corn in its due 
 season, full of days and of honours, at the great age of 
 eighty-six. He was laid in the tomb, mourned by the 
 whole colony; especially lamented by those to whom he 
 had peculiarly, and with such intense cordiality, devoted 
 himself. The Indians revered him as an oracle, whilst they 
 loved him as a father. He made them members of civil 
 society, whilst he at the same time brought them to the 
 knowledge of the Saviour. His own maxim was, “ Up and 
 be doing, and the Lord will be with thee,” and no man ever 
 made it more self-applicable. He was at first opposed by 
 the interested among the tribes, the sachems and the priests, 
 who trembled for their influence or their gains. But their 
 threats, and at times ill-usage, had no power to deter him 
 in his work. “ I am about the work of the great God, and 
 my God is with me,” was his constant reply, and God 
 caused his enemies at length to be at peace with him. To 
 
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 John Eliot. 
 
 civilize and convert, he would spend days and weeks with 
 the roaming tribes, accustoming himself to all their priva¬ 
 tions, putting up with their hard and scanty fare, exposed 
 at times shelterless to the heavy dews of night and the 
 attacks of ravenous beasts. But Eliot’s purpose was too 
 steadfast to be moved by outward things. He was singu¬ 
 larly disinterested in all that relates to monetary affairs, 
 and would even give all his salary at once to a case of dis¬ 
 tress. And yet the righteous man was not forsaken; and 
 as he ever placed his burden upon the Lord, he was cared 
 for, and all needful things were added to him. His memory 
 still flourishes in the land of Massachusetts ; and as the 
 honoured instrument of turning many to righteousness, he 
 will shine among the stars of the firmament for ever. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 E. T. WHITFIELD, AGENT TO THE SOCIETY, 178, STRAND. 
 Price One Halfpenny; 5d. per dozen; or 3$. per hundred. 
 
 1854. 
 
 C. Green, Printer, Hackney.