USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Shawmut: or, The settlement of Boston by the Puritan pilgrims > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
This admirable temper he carried in all his
-
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON. 89
public life. Cotton Mather says of him, that he had " studied that book, which, professing to teach politics, had but three leaves, and on each leaf but one word, and that word was MODERATION."
His end was peace. Worn with the toil of planting society in this wilderness, and with domestic affliction, in the loss of three wives and six children, at the age of sixty-two he felt a rapid decay of his faculties, and spoke of his approaching dissolution. His view of death was prophetic. A fever, after a month's con- finement, sealed up his eyes in death. His body lies buried at the north end of the Chapel burying-ground. Such was the man who, above all others, might be called the founder and father of Boston.
Mr. Thomas Dudley, the first deputy gov- ernor, was a man of marked character. He was trained to the law in his youth, and had seen service as a captain of the army in the wars of the continent. He became a puritan
8*
2
90
SHAWMUT, OR THE
after his retirement from the army ; and when the project of the Massachusetts colony was determined upon, he was selected as a suitable person to conduct its fortunes. He was a man of sound sense, sterling integrity, and uncom- promising faith.
He was rigid in his religious opinions, and went får beyond Winthrop in enforcing the sectarian laws of the state. He considered that the various opinions that were struggling to manifest themselves from time to time, tend- ed to licentiousness ; and he was desirous that it should be inscribed on his grave-stone, that he was no friend to unlimited toleration, which he called libertinism. In his pocket, after his death, were found the following lines :
" Dim eye, deaf ear, cold stomach, shew My dissolution is in view ; Eleven times seven near lived have I, And now God calls, I willing die. 1 My shuttle 's shot, my race is run, My sun is set, my day is done ; My span is measured, tale is told,
-
91
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
My flower is faded and grown old ; My dream is vanished, shadow 's fled, My soul with Christ, my body dead. Farewell dear wife, children and friends, Hate heresy, make blessed ends, Bear poverty, live with good men, So shall we live with joy again. Let men of God in court and churches watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch, Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice, To poison all with heresy and vice. If men be left and otherwise combine, My epitaph 's, I died no libertine."
He was almost always elected deputy when Winthrop was chosen governor; and several times he was elected governor. He had his residence first at Cambridge, which he was chiefly instrumental in founding, and which he wished to make the seat of government. For a short time he lived in Newburyport, but finally fixed his abode in Roxbury, where he died, July 31, 1653.
CHAPTER VIII.
FREE SCHOOLS. HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCARCELY had the pilgrims erected their houses in this new world, before they turned their attention to providing means for the edu- cation of the rising generation, not only in the elements of learning, but in the higher branches.
The distinguished honor of first establishing free schools belongs to Boston. The earliest notice of the subject is in the town records, under date of April 13, 1635. " Agreed upon, that our brother Philemon Purmont shall be entreated to become school-master, for the teaching and nurturing children with us." The precise plan, on which the schools were founded, is not known, but it appears that they were at first supported by voluntary subscrip- tions. The schools were not only for the chil-
5
94
SHAWMUT, OR THE
dren of the colonists, but the Indian children were also allowed to enjoy the privilege. Our fathers were not enthusiasts, looking for the maintenance of civil or religious liberty without the aid of general education. They knew that as liberty without religion degenerates into licentiousness, so religion without learning will turn into fanaticism. Their aim, there- fore, was, to enlighten the whole community. The leading men of the state were not content with having their own children provided for ; they were willing to pay also for the education of the poor. The same liberal sentiments pre- vailed among the poorer classes, for when the government in 1636, the next year after the free school was commenced in Boston, appropriated four hundred pounds for the endowment of a college, they brought forward their humble of- ferings with ardor. One gave a sheep, another some cotton cloth, another a silver flagon, an- other a fruit-dish, a silver topped jug, a salt- cellar ; some subscribed five shillings, some a
-
£
95
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
pound, in money, and so upwards to larger sums. The site chosen for the college was in the town of Newton, three miles from the ferry to Boston. Two years afterwards the name of the town was altered to Cambridge. At the same time the college was called Har- vard college, in honor of Rev. John Harvard, who died that year at Charlestown, and left a legacy to the institution of between seven and eight hundred pounds, which was a great part of his estate, and a valuable library of two hun- dred and sixty volumes. Of this man but little more is known than this good deed; but this has immortalized his name. He came to Charlestown in a consumption, in the hope that a change of climate might benefit his health; but he rapidly sunk under his disorder, and before a year had expired, he was laid at rest. He was educated at Cambridge, England, and the character of the books in his library, as well as the noble act which closed his life, in- dicates an elevated mind. One hundred and
96
SHAWMUT.
ninety years after his death, September 26, 1828, a granite monument was erected to his memory on the top of burying hill in Charles- town.
The college was unfortunate in its first president, Mr. Nathaniel Eaton, who was suffi- ciently well educated, but destitute of moral qualification for such an office. He possessed a violent temper, and was displaced for beating his usher with a cudgel. He was subsequently turned out of the church also. He was suc- ceeded by Mr. Henry Dunstan, a man of an- other stamp, and of distinguished worth.
-
97
CHAPTER IX.
THE ABORIGINES. MISSIONARY LABORS AMONG THEM. THE APOSTLE OF THE INDIANS.
To complete the picture of the settlement of Boston ,by the pilgrims, it is necessary to glance at their intercourse with the natives.
As if Providence designed to clear the way for the occupancy of the land by white men, seven or eight years before the Mayflower ar- rived at Plymouth, a terrible epidemic wrought destruction among the Indians all along the coast. Scarcely one in ten escaped, and the land was made " an Indian Golgotha." The Massachusetts tribe, which before could muster in an emergency not less than three thousand warriors, had dwindled down in comparison to a handful. How much this diminished the perils of the settlement, may be inferred from the fate of a French ship, as mentioned by
9
98
SHAWMUT, OR THE
Cotton Mather. It was commanded by a Capt. Finch, who visited the country for purposes of trade. The savages came on board in a friendly guise, and apparently without armor ; but they had knives concealed under their clothes, and watching their opportunity, sud- denly they sprang upon the crew, murdered them all; and burnt the ship.
The disease which preyed upon the Indians was a sort of yellow fever. "The bodies," said an old Indian, " were exceedingly yellow, (describing it by a garment he showed,) both before and after they died." It may here be remarked that the consumption, now so fatal to persons of every age, was a disease common to the native tribes on this coast. It seems to be an attendant upon our climate. The young Indian felt it coming upon him, retired from the chase, and lay down in his quiet wigwam, and, in a few months, alternating between hope and fear, closed his eyes peacefully in death.
In their general character and customs, the
-
99
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
Indians of these parts were not dissimilar to the existing North American aborigines. They were divided into small tribes, under the gov- ernment of sachems. "Their skins," says one whose office brought him to a familiar acquain- tance with the Massachusetts, "are of tawny color ; the proportion of their limbs well formed ; their hair, is black and harsh, not curling ; their eyes black and dull. They take many wives, one of them being principal in their esteem and affection. They also put away their wives, and their wives leave their husbands upon ground of displeasure. If any wrong be committed, the whole tribe consider themselves bound to take revenge. Their houses or wigwams are built with small poles fixed in the ground, bent and fastened together with bark of trees, oval or arbor-shaped at the top. Their clothing is chiefly made of the skins of wild beasts, some- times mantles of the feathers of birds quilted artificially. The females decorate themselves with bracelets, necklaces, and beads of black
-
100
SHAWMUT, OR THE
and white wampum. They are addicted to gaming, and also delight much in dancing and feasting. If any stranger come to their house, they give him the best lodging and diet they have. They acknowledge one Supreme doer of good, and another of mischief; the latter they dread and fear, more than they love and honor the chief good, which is God."
It is evident that the colonists regarded them- selves somewhat in the character of mission- aries to the natives. The device upon the seal of the Charter was an Indian, erect and naked, holding an arrow in his right hand, and in his left a bow, with these words in a scroll from his mouth, " Come over and help us." Their treatment of the Indians in the vicinity was, almost without exception, just, humane, and worthy of a Christian people. Another fearful epidemic, ever following in the wake of Euro- pean emigration, the small pox, got among the tribes about three years after the colony ar- rived, and spread desolation throughout their
-
101
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
wigwams. . The ministers, disregarding the perils attending their duty, visited them in their afflictions, and labored assiduously to in- culcate among them the blessed hopes of the gospel.
The chief sachem of this region was Wono- haquaham, Sagamore John, as he was called by the settlers. His residence was on the north-east side of the harbor at Winnisimmet, (now Chelsea.) He conceived a strong liking for the English strangers, and reciprocated with them many acts of kindness. He fell ? victim to the raging disorder. Mr. Cotton has given an account of his last days, which reveals both the dark superstitions of these poor heathen, and the evangelical ardor of the colo- nists.
" At our first coming, brother Sagamore John was the chiefest Sachem in these parts. His falling sick, our Pastor, Mr. Wilson, hear- ing of it, (and being of some acquaintance with him,) went to visit him, taking with him some 9* THE NEWBERRY
-
102
SHAWMUT, OR THE
of the Deacons of our Church, and withall a little Mithridate and strong water. When he came to his lodging, (which they call wigwam,) hearing a noyse within, he looked over the door to discerne what it meant, and saw many Indians gathered together, and some Powows amongst them, who are their Priests, Physi- cians and Witches. They by course spake earnestly to the sick Sagamore and to his dis- ease, (in a way of charming of it and him,) and one to another in a kind of Antiphonies. When they had done, all kept silence, our Pastor went in with the Deacon, and found the man farre spent, with his eyes set in his head, his speech leaving him, his mother (old squaw sachem) sitting weeping at his bed head. Well, (saith our Pastour,) our God save Sagamore John; Powow cram (that is kill) Sagamore John ; and thereupon hee fell to prayer with his Deacon ; and after prayer, forced into the sick man's mouth with a spoon a little Mithri- date dissolved in the strong water ; soon after
-
-
103
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
the Sagamore looked up, and three days after went abroad on hunting. This providence so farre prevailed with the Sagamore, that he promised to look after the Englishman's God, to heare their sermons, to weare English ap- parell, &c. But his neighbour Indians, Saga- mores and Powows, hearing of this, threatened to cram him, (that is, to kill him,) if he did so degenerate from his country's Gods and Reli- gion ; he therefore fell off, and took up his Indian course of life again. Whatsoever fa- cility may seeme to offer itself of the conversion of the Indians, it is not so easie a matter for them to hold out, no not in a semblance of profession of the true Religion. Afterwards God struck John Sagamore againe, (and as I remember, with the small pox :) but then when they desired like succor from our Pastour as before, he told them now the Lord was angry with Sagamore John, and it was doubtful he would not so easily be intreated."
Another writer speaks thus of his last mo-
104
SHAWMUT, OR THE
ments, for he died of this disease :- " Being struck with death, he began fearfully to re- proach himself that he had not lived with the English and known their God. 'But now,' he added, ' I must die. The God of the English is much angry with me, and will destroy me. Ah! I was afraid of the scoffs of those wicked Indians. But my child shall live with the English, to know their God, when I am dead. I'll give him to Mr. Wilson, he much good man, and much love me.' "
But the brightest example of missionary zeal which the whole history of the settlement of America exhibits, was that of Eliot, justly dis- tinguished by the title given him in his life- time, "the Apostle of the Indians." This morning star graced the dawn of civilization in Boston and vicinity. The Rev. John Eliot was born in the county of Essex, in England, and educated in the University of Cambridge. He arrived at Boston the year after the settle- ment commenced. In the absence of the pas-
105
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
tor, who was gone to England, he supplied the pulpit for several months, and gave so much satisfaction by his enlightened and pious labors, that he was earnestly invited by the whole church to become a colleague of Mr. Wilson in the pastoral office. He was, however, under an engagement to serve a company, who were expected soon to leave England to make a settlement in the neighborhood of Shawmut. When they arrived, they selected Roxbury as their place of residence, and Mr. Eliot was installed as their pastor, and remained in that relation until his death. He had not been long in the land before his heart yearned over the degraded and forlorn condition of the abo- rigines. He took an old Indian into his family, and learnt of him the Indian language. He then began to preach among them. His first sermon in the Indian language was delivered at Nonantum, now Newton, December 8, 1646. His text was Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. After sermon he gave opportunity
106
SHAWMUT, OR THE
for the Indians to ask any questions. One in- quired whether Jesus Christ could understand prayers in the Indian language ; another asked how there could be an image of God, seeing it was forbidden in the commandments ; a third question was, how the world became full of people, if they were all drowned. At other times he was asked, if God was stronger than the Devil, why he did not kill the Devil ? and how the English came to know so much more about God than the Indians, seeing they had one father ? and how it came to pass that the sea water was salt, and the river water fresh ? After his second sermon, one old Indian asked him, with tears in his eyes, whether it was not too late for him to be saved. After laboring among them for a season, he discovered that there was little prospect of doing permanent good, unless they could be induced to forsake their desultory, savage habits, and become civ- ilized. Through his influence, the converted Indians and their friends were persuaded to
-
-
107
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
form towns . after the fashion of the colonists. The first Indian town was built at Natick, on Charles River, in 1651. A house of worship was erected, and a form of government adopted based on the general model which Jethro re- commended to Moses for the Israelites in the wilderness, as related in Exodus xviii. He established a school, and, besides the rudiments, he taught them logic and natural philosophy. Every fortnight he was on his missionary tours, which extended through all the tribes in the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies, as far as Cape Cod and Nantucket. He was resisted by the sachems and powows, who often threatened his life. But he was afraid of nothing in the discharge of his duty. He said to them, "I am about the work of the great God, and my Lord is with me; so that I neither fear you nor all the sachems in the country. I will go on ; do you touch me if you dare."
He encountered all kinds of hardships with cheerfulness. " I have not been dry," said he,
108
SHAWMUT, OR THE
" night nor day, from the third to the sixth day of the week, but so travelled ; and at night pull off my boots, wring my stockings, and on with them again, and so proceed. But God's blessing is my help. I have considered the word of Christ, 1 Tim. ii. 3, ' Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.' "
In fifteen years after he preached the first sermon, he printed, in the Indian language, his translation of the New Testament, and a few years after the whole Bible. His success was as extraordinary as his exertions. He lived to see twenty-four native preachers declaring to thousands of their converted countrymen the " unsearchable riches of Christ." During the wars of Philip, which resulted in the extermi- nation of whole tribes, he defended the towns of praying Indians from violence, when the fury of the exasperated colonists would have whelmed them in indiscriminate destruction. In this angelic labor he incurred the hatred of some. Being upset in a boat, and well nigh
-
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
drowned, a man who hated him for his friend- ship to the Indians, expressed his regret that the missionary had not lost his life when he came so near it. In a short time after, this same man was overset in a boat and drowned.
Through all his labors and perils, he was preserved by a merciful Providence, and after living to an extreme old age, he died in the bosom of his family, at Roxbury, May 20, 1690.
Mr. Eliot's preaching was plain, free from the quaint expressions and theological quibbles which marked the age, earnest and instructive. He breathed a continual spirit of prayer It was his constant habit to lift up his heart in prayer for every person he met. His benevo- lence was unbounded, and he often gave to the poor what was needed by his own family. It is related, that the treasurer of the parish, knowing his extreme generosity, on one occa- sion when he paid him his monthly salary, tied it up in a handkerchief in several hard knots. Eliot called, on his way home, to see a poor
10
-
110
SHAWMUT, OR THE
family in distress, and wishing to relieve their wants, he tried to get at his money, but he could not untie the knots. So after some time trying, impatient of the perplexity, he gave handkerchief and all to the mother of the family, saying, " Here, my dear, take it; I believe the Lord designs it all for you."
His temperance was remarkable. One plain dish was all that he allowed himself at home ; and his habitual drink was water. Of wine he said, " it is a noble and generous liquor, and we should be humbly thankful for it; but, as I remember, water was made before it." He was decidedly opposed to the custom of wear- ing wigs, and protested against the practice of " drinking tobacco," as smoking was called. His humility was extreme, for he literally wore, in imitation of John the Baptist, " a leathern girdle about his loins."
The sun has its spots, and the most perfect of human kind are not without their faults. Eliot had as few, perhaps, as any other man.
£
111
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
He finished his course amidst the affections and praises of his generation ; and his last words were,' " welcome joy."
The author of the Wonder Working Provi- dence has employed his muse in the following tribute to his memory, which, though it has but little of poetry in it except the rhyme, is interesting as showing the light in which Eliot was regarded by his contemporaries :
" Great is thy worke in wildernesse, oh man, Young Eliot, neere twenty yeares thou hast, In westerne world, with mickle toil, thy span Spent well neere out, an .! now thy gray hairs graced Are by thy Landlord Christ, who makes use of thee To feed his flock, and heathen people teach, In their own language, God and Christ to see A Saviour, their blind hearts could not reach, Poor naked children, come to learn God's mind Before thy face, with reverend regard. Blesse God for thee may these poor heathen blind, That from thy mouth Christ's gospel sweet have heard. Eliot, thy name is through the wild woods spread, In Indians' mouths frequent 's thy fame-for why ! In sundry shapes the devil made them dread, And now the Lord makes them their wigwams fly.
-
112
SHAWMUT, OR THE
Rejoice in this, nay, rather joy that thou, Amongst Christ's soldiers hast thy name sure set, Although small gain on earth accrew to you, Yet Christ to crowne will thee to Heaven soone fet."
Before we leave the Indians, we may men- tion a neighboring sachem, with whom the settlers had frequent and friendly intercourse. His residence was at Dorchester, near Neponset River, and his name among his tribe was. Chickatabot. A few months after the arrival of the colony, he made a visit to Governor Winthrop at Shawmut, accompanied by a num- ber of the native men and women, bringing with them a present of a bushel of Indian corn. He was invited to dine with the governor, and he accepted the invitation for himself and two of his attendants, one squaw, and one sannop ; the rest he sent home, though it rained hard, and the governor urged their remaining. Be- ing dressed in English fashion, they sat down in English style at the table, and behaved, the governor remarks, " as soberly as any English- man."
-
.
113
SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON.
In a few weeks the sagamore made Boston another visit, and wished to purchase of the governor a suit of clothes. Mr. Winthrop told him that " English sagamores did not use to truck," but calling his tailor, he gave orders to make the sachem a complete suit. In return, Chickatabot presented the governor with two large skins of coat-beaver. A few days after- wards he returned to get his clothes; and, be- ing rigged out from head to foot like an Eng- lishman, he sat down to dinner at the govern- or's house with no little self-complacency. At the table he declined eating until after the governor had given thanks; and after meat he desired him to do the same. He took leave of the governor in high spirits, and no doubt made a grand display of his new dress among his own people at Neponset.
In this friendly manner did the fathers of Boston associate with the aborigines of these parts ; nor was there once a drop of Indian blood shed in their streets, nor a wigwam burnt
10*
114
SHAWMUT.
within sight of the city. The storm of Indian war raged at a distance, and rolled away with- out involving the peaceful tribes around Shaw- mut. Once during the first year of the settle- ment, there was an alarm that the Indians of the interior were coming down upon them, but it proved a false alarm, and they experienced nothing of the dreadful scenes which marked the early history of so many of the settlements in our country.
-
CHAPTER X.
PICTURE OF THE SETTLEMENT AT SHAWMUT. VIEW FROM BEACON HILL.
THE settlement at Shawmut is now fairly established. Let us take a survey of it. Here we are favored with looking first through the eyes of an actual visitant of the place, Mr. Wood, who has left a graphic and picturesque account of it, as he saw it in 1633. " The har- bor," he writes, " is made by a great company of islands, whose high cliffs shoulder out the boisterous seas ; yet may easily deceive any unskilful pilot ; presenting many fair openings and broad sounds, which afford too shallow water for ships, though navigable for boats and pinnaces. It is a safe and pleasant harbor within, having but one common and safe en- trance, and that not very broad; there scarce being room for three ships to come in board to
116
SHAWMUT, OR THE
board at a time; but being once in, there is room for the anchorage of a fleet.
" The situation of Boston is very pleasant, being a peninsula, hemmed in on the south side by the bay of Roxbury, and on the north side with Charles River, the marshes on the back side being not a quarter of a mile over ; so that a little fencing will secure their cattle from the wolves. The greatest wants are wood and meadow land ; being constrained to fetch their building timber and fire-wood from the islands in boats, and their hay in loyters. It being a neck, and bare of wood, they are not troubled with these great annoyances, wolves, rattlesnakes and musquitoes.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.