- `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. Coll. of the Indians in New England_, 1674.
Already, as appears from the records, "At a General Court
held at Boston in New England, the 7th of the first month,
1643-4." - "Wassamequin, Nashoonon, Kutchamaquin, Massaconomet,
and Squaw Sachem, did voluntarily submit themselves" to the
English; and among other things did "promise to be willing from
time to time to be instructed in the knowledge of God." Being
asked "Not to do any unnecessary work on the Sabbath day,
especially within the gates of Christian towns," they answered,
"It is easy to them; they have not much to do on any day, and
they can well take their rest on that day." - "So," says Winthrop,
in his Journal, "we causing them to understand the articles, and
all the ten commandments of God, and they freely assenting to
all, they were solemnly received, and then presented the Court
with twenty-six fathom more of wampom; and the Court gave each of
them a coat of two yards of cloth, and their dinner; and to them
and their men, every of them, a cup of sack at their departure;
so they took leave and went away."
What journeyings on foot and on horseback through the wilderness,
to preach the Gospel to these minks and muskrats!
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