The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) / or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence

by Benson John Lossing

For years the pious Eliot *** had been preaching the gospel among the New England tribes;

* The number of Indians in New England at that time has been variously estimated. Dr. Trumbull, in his History of the United States (i., 36), supposes that there were thirty-six thousand in all, one third of whom were warriors. Hutchinson (i., 406) estimates the fighting men of the Narragansets alone at two thousand. Hinckley says the number of Indians in Plymouth county in 1685, ten years after Philip's war, was four thousand. Church, in his History of King Philip's War, published in Boston in 1716, estimated the number of Indian warriors in New England, in the commencement of that war, at ten thousand. Bancroft (ii., 94) says there were probably fifty thousand whites and hardly twenty-five thousand Indians in New England, west of the Piscataqua; while east of that stream, in Maine, were about four thousand whites and more than that number of red men.

** I copied this and the annexed marks of Philip's chief captains, from an original mortgage given by the sachem, to Constant Southworth, on land four miles square, lying south of Taunton. The mortgage is dated October 1, 1672. It was drawn up by Thomas Leonard, and is signed by himself, Constant Southworth, and Hugh Cole. It was acknowledged before, and signed by, John Alden. * This interesting document is in the possession of that intelligent antiquary, S. G. Drake, Esq., of Boston, to whose kindness I am indebted for these signatures. No. 1 is the sign of Munashum, alias Nimrod; No. 2, of Wonckom-pawhan; No. 3, of Captain Annawan, the "next man to Philip," or his chief warrior.

*** John Eliot, usually called the Apostle of the Indians, was minister of Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was born in Essex county, England, in 1604, and came to America in 1631. Educated thoroughly at Cambridge University, he soon obtained great influence among the settlers. Touched by the ignorance of the Indians respecting spiritual things, his heart yearned to do them good, and for many years he labored assiduously among them, with great success. He founded, at Natick, the first Indian church in America, in 1660. The next year he published the New Testament in the Indian language, and in a few years the whole Bible and other books. He died May 20th, 1690, aged about eighty-six. The venerable apostle was buried in the Ministers' Tomb ** in the first burying-ground at Roxbury, which is situated on the east side of the great avenue across the Neck to Boston. The residence of Eliot was opposite the house of Governor Thomas Dudley, on the other side of the brook. Dudley's mansion was taken down in 1775, and a redoubt was erected upon the spot. The site is now occupied by the Universalist church. Reverend Dr. Putnam, of Roxbury, is the fifth pastoral successor of the apostle in the first church. The remains of his predecessors all lie in the Ministers' Tomb. The commissioners of the Forest Hills Cemetery have designated the heights on its western border as the Eliot Hills, and there the citizens of Roxbury are about to erect a beautiful monument to the memory of the apostle, Daniel Gookin, whose signature is given above, was the friend of, and a zealous co-worker with, Mr. Eliot. He came to Virginia, from England, in 1621. He went to Massachusetts with his family in 1644, and settled in Cambridge. He was soon called to fill civil and military offices, and in 1652 was appointed superintendent of the Indians. This office he held until his death, in 1687, at the age of seventy-five years. Gookin wrote an historical account of the New England Indians, and was the firm friend of the red man through life. His remains are in the old burying-ground at Cambridge. Lieutenant Gookin of our Revolutionary army was his lineal descendant.

* Alden was a passenger in the May Flower, and one of the immortal forty-one who signed the instrument of civil government, given on pages 437 and 438, vol. I, of this work, where also is the signature of Southworth.

** In 1724-5, a citizen of Roxbury, named William Bowen, was made prisoner by the Turks. The people of his town raised a sum of money sufficient for his ransom. Before it could be applied they received intelligence of his det±. The money was then appropriated to the building of a tomb for the ministers of the church.

Enlightenment of the Indians.—Sassamon.—Rising of the New England Tribes.—Daniel Gookin.

no pains were spared to teach them to read and write; and in a short time a larger proportion of the Massachusetts Indians could do so than, recently, of the inhabitants of "Russia. * Churches were gathered among the natives; and when Philip lifted the hatchet, there were four hundred "praying Indians," as the converts were called, who were firmly attached to the whites; yet Christianity hardly spread beyond the Indians on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, and the seven feeble villages around Boston. Philip, like Red Jacket of our days, opposed meddling with the religion of his fathers, and, two years before the war, boldly and openly, at the head of seven hundred warriors, boasted of his own and their attachment to the ancient belief.