"All the Bibles of the Christian Indians were burned or destroyed by these heathen savages. This one alone was saved; and from it a new edition, with improvements, and an entirely new translation of the New Testament, was undertaken. I saw at Roccsberri, about an hour's ride from Boston, this Old Testament printed, and some sheets of the New. The printing-office was at Cambridge, three hours' ride from Boston, where also there was a college of students, whether of savages or of other nations. The Psalms of David are added in the same metre.
"At Roccsberri dwelt Mr. Hailot, a very godly preacher there. He was at this time about seventy years old. His son was a preacher at Boston. This good old man was one of the first Independent preachers to settle in these parts, seeking freedom. He was the principal translator and director of the printing of both the first and second editions of this Indian Bible. Out of special zeal and love he gave me this copy of the first edition, for which I was, and shall continue, grateful to him. This was in June, 1680.
"Jasper Danckaerts."
[423] The Labadists' declaration of their orthodoxy and of their reasons for separating themselves from the national (Dutch Reformed) church was first issued in French, in 1669. Two editions of a Dutch translation were published: the first, "translated from the French by N.N.," at Amsterdam in 1671; the second, "translated from the French by P. Sluiter," at Herford in 1672, both by the same printer. Of the former, there is a copy in the library of Haverford College; of the latter, in the New York Public Library. Two editions in German are also known (Herford, 1671, 1672). The Latin, here referred to, is entitled "Protestatio Sincera Purae et Verae Reformatae Doctrinae Generalisque Orthodoxiae Johannis de Labadie," and is to be found in the book Veritas sui Vindex, seu Solemnis Fidei Declaratio Joh. de Labadie, Petri Yvon, Petri du Lignon, Pastorum, etc. [the Dutch and German have also the names of "Henry and Peter Sluiter, preachers," on the title-page] (Herford, 1672).
[424] Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678), a woman of prodigious learning, held in the highest esteem by literary contemporaries in Holland as well as other lands. She renounced her literary associations to affiliate herself with Jean de Labadie and his followers, shared their fortunes at Amsterdam, Herford, Altona, and Wieuwerd, where William Penn visited her in 1677; and died among them at Wieuwerd in 1678.
[425] The first building of Harvard College, the building "thought by some to be too gorgeous for a Wilderness, and yet too mean in others apprehensions for a Colledg" (Johnson, Wonder-Working Providence, p. 201), had partly tumbled down in 1677. The building now visited was the "New College," the second Harvard Hall, built with difficulty 1672-1682 and destroyed by fire in 1764. Edward Randolph, in a report of October 12, 1676, writes: "New-colledge, built at the publick charge, is a fair pile of brick building covered with tiles, by reason of the late Indian warre not yet finished. It contains 20 chambers for students, two in a chamber; a large hall which serves for a chappel; over that a convenient library." A picture of the building may be seen in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, XVIII. 318.
[426] Rev. Urian Oakes, minister of Cambridge, was at this time acting president, and was installed as president in the next month. There were apparently seventeen students in the college at this time who subsequently graduated, and perhaps a few others. The library no doubt contained more than a thousand, perhaps more than fifteen hundred books.
[427] The allusion is to the printing-office at Wieuwerd, which Dittelbach, Verval en Val der Labadisten (Amsterdam, 1692), p. 50, says was a very costly one. The Labadists had everywhere maintained their own printer, Loureins Autein going with them in that capacity from Amsterdam to Herford. As to the building occupied by the famous Cambridge press, Randolph mentions "a small brick building called the Indian colledge, where some few Indans did study, but now it is a printing house." Printing here was this year at a low ebb; nothing is known to have been printed but the second edition of Eliot's Indian New Testament.
[428] The case is that of Peter Lorphelin, accused in connection with the great fire of August 8-9, 1679, computed to have resulted in a loss of two hundred thousand pounds. Found guilty of clipping coin, he was punished as above; Records of the Court of Assistants, I. 145. No real evidence seems to have connected him with the fire.
[429] Doubtless Benjamin Eliot, youngest son of the Apostle, who assisted his father in his labors as pastor and as translator.