He died Oct. 24, 1657, leaving three daughters. In his will he speaks of "my brother, John Eliot, our teacher." If this is the same Philip mentioned in the communication from Nasing, Essex, who had a daughter, Elizabeth, born there in 1627, and perhaps Sarah, born in 1629, it would indicate that the Apostle's family may also have temporarily resided there. This is the more probable, as his widow's name was Elizabeth, whose property was distributed, in 1660, to her three sons-inlaw, John Smith of Dedham; John Aldis of Dedham, who married Sarah; and Richard Witherington of Dorchester.

III. JOHN ELIOT, THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS.

JOHN ELIOT, commonly called the Apostle to the Indians, was born in England in [Dec. 20?] 1604; or, as Prince supposes, in November of that year. We have no very authentic information as to the precise locality where he was born. Nasing, Essex county, is most commonly assigned as the place of his nativity, though the counties of Devonshire and Cornwall respectively lay claim to the honor of containing the birth-place of so distinguished a man. Nothing is related of his parents except that they gave him a liberal education, and were exemplary for their piety, to which Mr. Eliot himself bore testimony, when in after years he wrote these words: "I do see that it was a great favor of God unto me to season my first years with the fear of God, the word, and prayer."

He was educated at the University of Cambridge, England, and was distinguished for his love of the languages, Greek and Hebrew especially, of which he acquired a sound, thorough, and discriminating knowledge. He became well versed in the general course of liberal studies, and was particularly skillful in theological learning. It is recorded that he had a partiality for philological inquiries, and was an acute gram-marian. On leaving the University, he was employed as an usher in the Grammar School of Rev. Thomas Hooker, at Little Baddow, near Chelmsford, in Essex county. Mr. Hooker, who subsequently became one of the most eminent among the worthies of New England, exerted salutary influence on the formation of Mr. Eliot's character and principles, and decided him in pursuing the profession of a Christian minister. In after years he spoke of his residence at Little Baddow as a rich blessing to his soul.

In common with many other kindred spirits at the same period, Mr. Eliot turned his attention to the New World as better fitted for both safety and usefulness. And when Mr. Hooker was driven even from the vocation of Christian teacher, and compelled to take refuge in the wilderness, Mr. Eliot followed him. On the 3d of November, 1631, he reached Boston in the ship "Lion," in company with Gov. Winthrop's wife and children, and about sixty others. Immediately on his arrival, he took charge of the First Church in Boston, the pastor, Mr. Wilson, having temporarily gone to England on business. Previous to his leaving England, Mr. Eliot had betrothed himself to a young woman whose name was Anne Mountfort. She followed him to New England, and their marriage took place in October, 1632.

Mr. Eliot continued in charge of the Church in Boston until his removal to Roxbury, where he was ordained on the 5th of November, 1632, being the first minister in that place. The members of the Boston Church would gladly have settled him as teacher, in connection with their pastor, Mr. Wilson, but previous engagements entered into with the Roxbury settlers prevented such an arrangement. He continued as teacher of the Church in Roxbury until his death, a period of nearly sixty years. His meeting-house was on the hill where the present meeting-house of the First (Unitarian) Church in Roxbury now stands.

He soon conceived a strong passion for christianizing and improving the condition of the Indians, of whom there were a large number within the limits of the English plantations. He commenced his labors among them at Nonantum in Newton, on the 28th of October, 1646. The Boston Transcript says that the old oak beneath whose branches Eliot preached to the Indians at South Natick, in 1690, is still standinga "hale green tree”—and still affords a grateful shade to the weary traveler.* He executed several translations into the Indian language, the most noted of which is the Indian Bible.

*See Appendix C.

The New Testament was published at Cambridge, in September, 1661, under the auspices of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Three years after, the Old Testament was added; and the whole Bible,* with a Catechism and the Psalms of David in metre, was thus given to the Indians in their own language, in forty years after the settlement of the country.

Eliot's labors were far greater than those of any of the translators in Germany, France, and England, for they had not only the facilities afforded by copies of the Bible in Latin, which was the conventional language of the priests and students of Europe, and the aid of their contemporaries in Biblical learning, but their versions were substitutions of their vernacular tongue for one which was equally as well known; while his was in an unwritten and hitherto unknown language, which he was first obliged to learn, and after his Bible was published, to establish schools and prepare a grammar and other books for instructing the savages to read it; and in all these arduous duties he had no assistant but an Indian boy. Thus a humble and modest, yet faithful and zealous pastor, of a small Christian community, on the shores of a vast continent, which was then almost an entire wilderness, alone achieved a work which excited the wonder and admiration of both hemispheres, and has rendered his name ever memorable in the annals of literature and piety.

The exalted estimation, which had been formed in Europe, of the character and services of this EVANGELIST of the savages, may be inferred from the fact, that Leusden, the Professor of Hebrew in the University of Utrecht, and one of the most distinguished scholars of the age, dedicated his “Hebrew-English Psalter, to the very Reverend and pious John Eliot, the indefatigable and faithful minister of Rippou, and Venerable Apostle of the Indians in America; who had translated and published, in the American tongue, by an Atlæan Labour, the Bible; and first preached the Word of God to the Americans in the Indian tongue.'

*See Appendix A.

Equally distinguished for learning, piety, and philanthropy, this excellent man acquired the esteem and respect of his contemporaries, and left a name dear to his adopted country and illustrious throughout the world, as the first herald of Christianity to the savages of North America. His parochial duties were performed with zeal and fidelity, which evinced the purest principles of religion and the kindest feelings of benevolence. As a missionary, he relinquished the endearments of civilized society, encountered the dangers of the wilderness, and participated in the privations of the wild, precarious, and comfortless life of barbarians. With such holy ardor and untiring perseverance did he prosecute his great and commendable labors, as to have acquired the exalted title of "THE APOSTLE TO THE INDIANS."*

He was engaged in promoting the civilization, as well as the conversion of the Indians; and hoped the revolution in England, under Cromwell, would result in the triumph of civil and religious liberty, and the subjection of human governments to Christ.

During the troublous times under the Commonwealth, after the death of Charles I, John Eliot addressed a letter to Hugh Peters, then in England, promoting the revolution, dated Oct. 12, 1650, in which he says:

"The Lord hath greatly delighted to improve you, and eminently your talent is increased to ten talents, for our Lord and Master's honor and use; and doubt not your crown will be answerable. You are indeed envied, evil spoken of, smitten with the tongue. No matter. Be not troubled at what men say, when they speak evil of you, seeing you cannot but see, yea, all may see it, God dealeth well by you, the Lord doth improve, accept, succeed you. I cannot wish you in New England, so long as you are of such great use and service in the Old; not because I love you not, but because I love you and the cause of God, which you do totis viribus pursue and prosper in. I have a request unto you, in behalf

*For a petition of Mr. Eliot to the General Court of Massachusetts, against enslaving the Indians, see Appendix B.