At A Third Of A Mile
Over The Water We Heard Distinctly Some Children Repeating Their
Catechism In A Cottage Near The Shore, While In The Broad
Shallows Between, A Herd Of Cows Stood Lashing Their Sides, And
Waging War With The Flies.
Two hundred years ago other catechizing than this was going on
here; for here came the Sachem Wannalancet, and
His people, and
sometimes Tahatawan, our Concord Sachem, who afterwards had a
church at home, to catch fish at the falls; and here also came
John Eliot, with the Bible and Catechism, and Baxter's Call to
the Unconverted, and other tracts, done into the Massachusetts
tongue, and taught them Christianity meanwhile. "This place,"
says Gookin, referring to Wamesit,
"being an ancient and capital seat of Indians, they come to
fish; and this good man takes this opportunity to spread the
net of the gospel, to fish for their souls." - "May 5th, 1674,"
he continues, "according to our usual custom, Mr. Eliot and
myself took our journey to Wamesit, or Pawtuckett; and arriving
there that evening, Mr. Eliot preached to as many of them as
could be got together, out of Matt. xxii. 1-14, the parable
of the marriage of the king's son. We met at the wigwam of one
called Wannalancet, about two miles from the town, near
Pawtuckett falls, and bordering upon Merrimak river. This
person, Wannalancet, is the eldest son of old Pasaconaway, the
chiefest sachem of Pawtuckett. He is a sober and grave person,
and of years, between fifty and sixty. He hath been always
loving and friendly to the English." As yet, however, they had
not prevailed on him to embrace the Christian religion. "But
at this time," says Gookin, "May 6, 1674," - "after some
deliberation and serious pause, he stood up, and made a speech
to this effect: - `I must acknowledge I have, all my days, used
to pass in an old canoe, (alluding to his frequent custom to
pass in a canoe upon the river,) and now you exhort me to
change and leave my old canoe, and embark in a new canoe, to
which I have hitherto been unwilling; but now I yield up myself
to your advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do engage to
pray to God hereafter.'" One "Mr. Richard Daniel, a gentleman
that lived in Billerica," who with other "persons of quality"
was present, "desired brother Eliot to tell the sachem from
him, that it may be, while he went in his old canoe, he passed
in a quiet stream; but the end thereof was death and
destruction to soul and body. But now he went into a new
canoe, perhaps he would meet with storms and trials, but yet he
should be encouraged to persevere, for the end of his voyage
would be everlasting rest." - "Since that time, I hear this
sachem doth persevere, and is a constant and diligent hearer of
God's word, and sanctifieth the Sabbath, though he doth travel
to Wamesit meeting every Sabbath, which is above two miles; and
though sundry of his people have deserted him, since he
subjected to the gospel, yet he continues and persists." -
_Gookin's Hist.
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