EARLY MISSIONARY EFFORTS AMONG
                 THE INDIANS.

THE REV. JOHN ELIOT was styled by his con-
     temporaries, and he is known to posterity, as
"the Apostle to the Indians." A truer philanthropist
than he did not exist among the early New Englanders.
In his day the feeling toward the Indians was not
kindly.  It seems as if the opinion prevailed then,
which has since been embodied in the discreditable
phrase, that " the only good Indian is a dead one."
The Puritans pronounced the Indians children of the
devil, and thought they did a service in ridding the
world of as many of them as possible. Yet the con-
version and civilization of the natives of America were
among the professed objects for which the Puritans left
England. The charter of Massachusetts granted by
Charles I. contains an expression of the hope that the
settlers to whom it is granted " may win and incite the
natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience
of the only true God and Savior of mankind and the
Christian faith, which is our royal intention, and the
adventurers' free profession is the principal end of this
plantation."  The first seal of Massachusetts repre-
sented an Indian giving utterance to the words, " Come
over and help us."
  John Eliot was a native of Nasing, in Essex, where
he was born in i604. Little is known about his family
and his early years.  It is unquestionable that he
received a good education, but where or by whom is
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