An extract from the twenty-first chapter, “Of Religion, the Soul, &c.” will furnish a specimen of the work.
“Manit Manittowock, God, Gods.
“Obs. He that questions whether God made the world, the Indians will teach him. I must acknowledge, I have received, in my converse with them, many confirmations of those two great points, Heb. 11:6. viz:
“1. That God is.
“2. That he is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him.
“They will generally confess that God made all; but then, in special, although they deny not that Englishman’s God made English men, and the heavens and earth there; yet their Gods made them, and the heaven and the earth where they dwell.
“Nummus quauna-muckqun manit. God is angry with me.
“Obs. I heard a poor Indian lamenting the loss of a child, at break of day, call up his wife and children, and all about him, to lamentation, and with abundance of tears, cry out, O, God, thou hast taken away my child! thou art angry with me: O, turn thine anger from me, and spare the rest of my children.
“If they receive any good in hunting, fishing, harvest, &c. they acknowledge God in it.
“Yea, if it be but an ordinary accident, a fall, &c. they will say, God was angry and did it.