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A beginner's history

Chapter 31: JOHN ELIOT, A SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS
By William H. Mace
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About This Book

Aimed at young readers, this illustrated school history surveys early exploration, colonization, colonial life, and the nation’s political development through concise biographical sketches and episode-based narratives. Chapters recount voyages, settlement patterns, and the foundations of several colonies, then address leaders and events that shaped independence and national institutions. Pedagogical features include study questions, leading facts, and suggested readings to support classroom use, while the preface and concluding material stress moral lessons of perseverance, civic responsibility, and the nation’s mobilization and role in the recent world war.

JOHN ELIOT, A SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS

THE NEW ENGLAND SETTLEMENTS

Eliot translates the Bible

49. John Eliot. The treatment of the Indians by the colonists was generally just and kind. Trading with the white man had brought the Indians better food and clothing. Schools were being set up to give them some of the white man's education, and many preachers tried to teach them to become Christians. One man who spent his whole life in this work was John Eliot. His first care was to learn the language of the Indians of Massachusetts. He succeeded so well that he was able to translate the entire Bible into the Indian language and to preach to the Indians in their native tongue.

The converts that he made he gathered together into communities which settled near the English towns. These converts were taught how to build themselves log cabins and to live and dress like the English. The principal village established by Eliot was at Natick, Massachusetts. Others quickly followed Eliot's example, and several other Christian Indian villages sprang up. These communities flourished, and in a few years Eliot could count as many as four thousand converts among the Indians of Massachusetts.

Eliot continued to preach until his death in 1690. Even the fierce King Philip's War could not check his success.