more consistent in their conduct. In a letter to the secretary of the "Venerable Society," dated Boston, New England, May 1st, 1714, he writes: Letter of "I last year wrote to my Lord of London, referring to giving easement from the taxes for the support of the ministers in this province to all such as attended the worship after the Church of England, which I have brought to pass at Newbury. Upon their first meeting, I wrote to the magistrates of the town to direct that nothing should be collected from the members of the congregation, which has been observed ever since, saving that there was an arrear due to the Presbyterian minister of the town for some time past, before the chappel was erected, which, after some trouble, they have agreed among themselves, for which arrears, nevertheless, the collectors of Newbury sued some of the Church of England before the justices, who gave costs to the said Church party, and dismist the complaint, and all is quiet. "There has been the same trouble at Braintree, which I hope is over also, but I have a sorrowful account from everybody referring to Mr. Eager. I had heard of his rude life in the passage hither, being frequently disguised in drink, and fighting with the saylors even to wounds, and taring his cloaths, and during the few months of his stay here he was frequently in quarrels and fightings, and sending challenges for duels, that at length the auditory at Brandry (Braintree) were quite ashamed and discouraged; and he is gone to Barbadoes without any direction or order, and the congregation is without minister. General Nicholson has been here and seen the process of the affair as above. I am sorry for this account, and more is true; and the Church is greatly hurt by him, as well as the other people, who are almost universally of another persuasion." * Cotton Mather, on the other hand, complained of the intrusion of the High Church missionaries. In a letter dated Boston, N. England, 10, 10, 1712, he writes:- "Our High Church here, in imitation of their brethren in ⚫ Letter Book V.S. P.G., vol ix. Scotland, seek all advantage to disturb us; and if in a town of two or three hundred they can find half a score of an Complaint of abject and vicious character to declare for the Church High Church of England, though they understand nothing of the Intrusion. matter, they promise them a release from their parish dues to the established ministry, and send over to your Society for missionaries, whose business here cannot be for the propagation of religion, but the molestation of it. The Society is in this matter extremely imposed on, and the reputation of it in these parts of the world suffers to the uttermost. We have our share in your fears of what things may be coming on the earth. But we are hastening to the world where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.” Happily, the ecclesiastical disturbance in New England did not entirely absorb the attention of the opposing parties. The Mathers, busied in many affairs, continued to manifest a deep interest in the mission to the Indians. Many of the native settlements were desolated by war, so that the work of the missionaries was rendered exceedingly difficult. Cotton Mather writes to Sir William Ashurst (10 d. 10 m., 1712):— Missions of the New England Company. "We have employed visitors to go into all the villages of our Indians, and bring us exact information of their condition, their numbers, their desires, their wants, and how things are carried on amongst them. And this information lying before us, we consider from time to time what may be done to their various occasions. That we may more effectually pursue those ends, we hold our meetings with much greater frequency than formerly. Since the loss of our State House (which is now almost rebuilt), we have the pleasure of being in our turns at each other's houses. "Your purchase at Martha's Vineyard was a very seasonable action; and it being worth, at a moderate computation, six thousand pounds, the bargain made for it was a pretty good one, for which I hope our industrious and ingenious agent has had See Additional MSS., 4276, 49. some grateful acknowledgment. The intention of putting into a condition of yielding some agreeable revenue, to help to support the main interest, will be a business of some time; it is what we are, in convenient methods, prosecuting. "One of our most languishing and withered Indian villages is that of Natick (with some not far distant from it), which our famous Eliot made the more distinguished and peculiar object of his travels. That which has reduced them to scarce thirty families at Natick, and scarce so many at either of the next villages, has been chiefly their exposed situation in this grievous time of war, and perhaps a little hard usage from some superiors who knew how to make their penn'orths out of them. But we are employing our most exquisite studies to form a more considerable town in that place, by bringing their neighbours to a cohabitation with them, and leaving them under a good government and protection. "The grand concern of re-printing the Indian Bible often comes under our consideration. The most of your Commissioners are averse to doing it at all, and rather hope to bring the rising generation, by schools and other ways, to a full acquaintance with the English tongue, in which they have a key to all the treasures of knowledge of which we ourselves are owners. My own poor opinion is, that the projection of Anglicizing our Indians is much more easy to be talked of than to be accomplished. It will take more time than the Commissioners who talk of it can imagine. 'Tis more than you have done to this day to your Welsh neighbours. However, I will humbly show you my further opinion that the re-printing of the Bible will be much sooner and cheaper done in London than in Boston. The experiment we made in printing the Psalter not long ago convinced us what a tedious and expensive undertaking that of the Bible must be, if in this place it be gone upon. Seven years would not be enough to finish the work at our presses, whereas little more than a seventh part of the time would perhaps dispatch it with you, if such a person as Mr. Grindal Rawson or Mr. Experience Mayhew (both of whom are most expert masters of the Indian language, and preachers to the Indians in it) might pass over the Atlantic, and keep close to the supervisal of the press work; and the cost there would be surprisingly short of what it might be with us (except you should rather choose to send over a couple of operatives hither, who might follow no other work but that while that is doing; and how far the capacity of your stock must be considered in such a matter as this, you are very able to form a judgment. "The stagnation upon the remissions hither which the Martha's Vineyard purchase has occasioned compels us to the borrowing of several hundreds of pounds to answer our obligations for necessary salaries and services. In this there are of your Commissioners who generously offer to tax themselves for disbursements or emergencies. But no man has done like your most valuable Treasurer, Mr. Sewall, who has advanced this way as to deserve all the thanks that we can render him. The adding of Mr. Adam Winthrop to their number, when you see your time for it, will, I perceive, be acceptable to all the gentlemen (who voted that it should be recommended unto you for that purpose), and very singularly acceptable to me, who take him to be a person of honour, and prudence, and virtue, in an uncommon degree. But as far as my own relation to this good interest is concerned, I am sensible of my doing so little service to it that I am not only ashamed of my barrenness, but also (for that and some other cause) I would beg, if you think it meet, a dismission from it, and a succession of one that might be much more serviceable. The utmost that I can pretend unto is to give my constant attendance at the meetings, and a small assistance to the shaping of our projections, and write letters upon occasion to the Indian preachers and churches, or perhaps give directions to the instruments employed by you, and receive and peruse addresses to the Commissioners from such as please now and then to make use of me on so befriending of them. I do not remember that I have ever taken more than one journey-and that was lately, and no very long one-personally to visit, and inspect, and instruct the Indian villages; and the truth is, considering the pastoral care of the largest flock in the English America lying on me, and the expectations which all the Churches in those colonies have to be served by me in my circumstances, and the many correspondences which I am to culti vate, and the many societies I belong to, and the publication of treatises on many arguments demanded of me faster than I can well despatch them (whereof I now take leave to tender one or two of the latter small ones to your lady), I am rendered less capable of doing what I could wish to do in this particular affair. However, I hope that whether my relation to your Commission be superseded or no, I shall, as long as I live, continue to do everything that I find myself capable of doing for the cause of Christianity among the Indians. What I am now projecting is the introduction of Christianity among the Monhegan Indians of Connecticut, who, alas! remain obstinate pagans to this day; and I am not without hopes that the excellent governor of their colony, whose heart is in the cause, will one day or other help us to accomplish it. May the Glorious One multiply His blessings on your person and family, and continue your opportunities to extend your influence to these American regions, where you have many friends, but not more sincerely devoted than "Sir, your most obliged servant, "Co. MATHER." Writing again to "Governor Ashurst," on the neglected state of the Indians in other colonies, Dec. 7th, 1713, he says: "Some forlorn and wretched companies of Indians in Connecticut continue to this hour in horrid Paganism, though they have been for seventy years together in the bowels of a Christian colony. I formerly wrote as pressing a letter as I could unto the General Assembly of Connecticut, that the government there might be prevailed withal to exert their care, with the advice of their ministers, to revive the work of Christianizing the Indians that are under their influence. They began to do something, which yet came to nothing. But I hope this new essay of ours (under the countenance of their excellent governor) will have a harvest anon to be rejoiced in. I suppose our secretary, Judge Sewal, will send you the journal of our missionary. "I made so bold with the honourable Governor of New York as to address him lately with another letter, soliciting for something to be done, that a body of Indians, yet in the darkest and vilest heathenism, upon Long Island, may be Christianized. That most valuable gentleman will do what he can; but I wish he may not find his generous intentions clogged by some English people of a very bad character with insuperable difficulties." * New England Company MSS. |