University of Virginia Library

Feby. ye 14th.

The famous Mr. John Eliot, having business with
my Uncle, spent the last night with us, a trulie worthie
man, who, by reason of his great labors among the
heathen Indians, may be called the Chiefest of our
Apostles. He brought with him a young Indian lad,
the son of a Man of some note among his People, verie
bright and comelie, and handsomelie apparrelled after
the Fashion of his Tribe. This lad hath a readie wit,
readeth and writeth, and hath some understanding of
Scripture; indeed he did repeat the Lord's Prayer in a
manner edifying to hear.

The worshipful Major Gookins coming in to sup
with us, there was much discourse concerning the
affairs of the Province; both the Major and his friend
Eliot being great sticklers for the Rights and Liberties
of the people, and exceeding jealous of the rule of
the Home Government, and in this matter my Uncle
did quite agree with them. In a special manner,
Major Gookins did complain of the Acts of Trade, as
injurious to the Interests of the Colonie, and which he
said ought not to be submitted to, as the Laws of England
were bounded by the four Seas, and did not justly
reach America. He read a letter which he had from
Mr. Stoughton, one of the Agents of the Colonie in
England, showing how they had been put off from

time to time, upon one excuse or another, without
being able to get a hearing; and now the Popish Plott
did soe occupie all minds there, that Plantation matters
were sadlie neglected: but this much was certain, the
Laws for the regulating of Trade must be consented
to by the Massachusetts, if we would escape a total
breach. My Uncle struck his hand hard on the Table
at this, and said if all were of his mind, they would
never heed the breach; adding, that he knew his
Rights as a free-born Englishman, under Magna Charta,
which did declare it the privilege of such to have a
voice in the making of Laws; whereas the Massachusetts
had no voice in Parliament, and Laws were
thrust upon them by strangers.

“For mine own part,” said Major Gookins, “I doe
hold our brother Eliot's Book on the Christian Commonwealth,
which the General Court did make haste
to condemn on the coming in of the King, to be a
sound and seasonable Treatise, notwithstanding the
Author himself hath in some sort disowned it.”

“I did truly condemn and deny the false and seditious
doctrines charged upon it,” said Mr. Eliot, “but
for the Book itself, rightly taken, and making allowance
for some little heat of Discourse and certain hasty
and ill-considered Words therein, I have never seen
cause to repent. I quite agree with what my lamented

Friend and Fellow-laborer, Mr. Danforth, said, when
he was told that the King was to be proclaimed at
Boston: `Whatever form of Government may be
deduced from Scripture, that let us yield to for conscience
sake, not forgetting at the same time that the
Apostle hath said, if thou mayest be free use it
rather.”'

My Uncle said this was well spoken of Mr. Danforth,
who was a worthie gentleman and a true friend to the
liberties of the Colonie; and he asked Rebecca to read
some ingenious Verses writ by him in one of his Almanacs,
which she had copied not long ago, wherein
he compareth New England to a goodly Tree or Plant.
Whereupon, Rebecca read them as followeth: —

After a little time, Rebecca found means to draw
the good Mr. Eliot into some account of his labors and
journies among the Indians, and of their manner of
life, ceremonies, and traditions, telling him that I was
a Stranger in these parts, and curious concerning such
Matters. So he did address himself to me verie kindly,
answering such questions as I ventured to put to
him. And first, touching the Powahs, of whom I had
heard much, he said they were manifestlie Witches,
and such as had familiar Spirits; but that, since the
Gospel has been preached here, their power had in a
great measure gone from them. “My old friend,
Passaconaway, the Chief of the Merrimack River
Indians,” said he, “was, before his happy and marvellous

conversion, a noted Powah and Wizard. I once
queried with him touching his sorceries, when he said
he had done wickedlie, and it was a marvel that the
Lord spared his life, and did not strike him dead with his
Lightnings. And when I did press him to tell me how
he did become a Powah, he said he liked not to speak
of it, but would nevertheless tell me. His grandmother
used to tell him manie things concerning the
good and bad Spirits, and in a special manner of the
Abomako, or Chepian, who had the form of a Serpent,
and who was the cause of sickness and pain, and of all
manner of evils. And it soe chanced that on one
occasion, when hunting in the Wilderness, three days'
journey from home, he did lose his way, and wandered
for a long time without food, and Night coming on, he
thought he did hear voices of men talking, but, on
drawing near to the place whence the Noise came, he
could see nothing but the Trees and Rocks; and then
he did see a Light, as from a Wigwam a little way off,
but, going towards it, it moved away, and, following it,
he was led into a dismal Swamp, full of water, and
snakes, and briers; and being in soe sad a plight, he
bethought him of all he had heard of evil Demons and
of Chepian, who he doubted not was the cause of his
trouble. At last, coming to a little knoll in the Swamp,
he lay down under a hemlock Tree, and being sorelie
tired, fell asleep. And he dreamed a Dream, which
was in this wise: —

“He thought he beheld a great Snake crawl up out of
the Marsh, and stand upon his Tayle under a tall maple
Tree; and he thought the Snake spake to him, and
bade him be of good cheer, for he would guide him
safe out of the Swamp, and make of him a great Chief
and Powah, if he would pray to him and own him as
his god. All which he did promise to do; and when
he awoke in the morning, he beheld before him the
maple Tree under which he had seen the Snake in his
Dream, and, climbing to the top of it, he saw a great
distance off the smoke of a Wigwam, towards which
he went, and found some of his own people cooking a
plentiful meal of Venison. When he got back to
Patucket, he told his Dream to his grandmother, who
was greatlie rejoiced, and went about from Wigwam to
Wigwam, telling the tribe that Chepian had appeared
to her grandson. Soe they had a great feast and
dance, and he was thenceforth looked upon as a Powah.
Shortly after, a woman of the tribe falling sick, he
was sent for to heal her, which he did by praying to
Chepian and laying his hands upon her; and at divers
other times, the Devil helped him in his enchantments
and witcheries.”

I asked Mr. Eliot whether he did know of any

women who were Powahs. He confessed he knew
none; which was the more strange, as in Christian
countries the Old Serpent did commonly find instruments
of his craft among the women.

To my query, as to what notion the Heathen had of
God and a future state, he said that, when he did discourse
them concerning the great and true God, who
made all things, and of Heaven and Hell, they would
readilie consent thereto, saying that soe their fathers
had taught them; but when he spake to them of the
destruction of the World by fire, and the resurrection
of the Body, they would not hear to it, for they pretend
to hold that the Spirit of the dead man goes forthwith,
after death, to the happy Hunting Grounds made for
good Indians, or to the cold and dreary Swamps and
Mountains, where the bad Indians doe starve and
freeze, and suffer all manner of hardships.

There was, Mr. Eliot told us, a famous Powah,
who, coming to Punkapog while he was at that Indian
town, gave out among the people there that a little
Humming Bird did come to him and peck at him when
he did aught that was wrong, and sing sweetly to him
when he did a good thing or spake the right words;
which coming to Mr. Eliot's ear, he made him confess,
in the presence of the congregation, that he did
only mean, by the figure of the Bird, the sense he had

of right and wrong in his own Mind. This Fellow
was moreover exceeding cunning, and did often ask
questions hard to be answered touching the creation of
the Devil, and the fall of Man.

I said to him, that I thought it must be a great satisfaction
to him to be permitted to witness the Fruit of
his long labors and sufferings in behalf of these People,
in the hopeful conversion of soe many of them to the
light and knowledge of the Gospel; to which he replied,
that his poor Labors had been indeed greatly
blest, but it was all of the Lord's doing, and he could
truly say he felt, in view of the great wants of these
wild People, and their darkness and misery, that he
had by no means done all his Duty towards them. He
said, also, that whenever he was in danger of being
puffed up with the praise of Men, or the vanity of his
own Heart, the Lord had seen meet to abase and humble
him, by the falling back of some of his people to
their old heathenish practices. The Warre, moreover,
was a sore evil to the Indian Churches, as some few of
their number were enticed by Philip to join him in his
burnings and slaughterings, and this did cause even the
peaceful and innocent to be vehementlie suspected and
cried out against as deceivers and murderers. Poor
unoffending old men, and pious women, had been shot
at and killed by our Soldiers, their Wigwams burned,

their Families scattered, and driven to seek shelter with
the enemy; yea, many Christian Indians, he did believe,
had been sold as slaves to the Barbadoes, which
he did account a great sin, and a reproach to our
people. Major Gookins said that a better feeling
towards the Indians did now prevail among the people;
the time having been when, because of his friendliness
to them, and his condemnation of their oppressors, he
was cried out against and stoned in the Streets, to the
great hazard of his life.

Soe, after some further discourse, our guests left
us, Mr. Eliot kindlie inviting me to visit his Indian congregation
near Boston, whereby I could judge for
myself of their condition.