our meetings may be the more comfortable and p varable, my
request is, y't you would further these two motions: first, y't you
would please to make an order in your towne and record it in your towne
record, that you approve and allow y'e Indians of Ponkipog there to sit
downe and make a towne, and to inioy such accommodations as may be
competent to maintain God's ordinances among them another day. My second
request is, y't you would appoint fitting men, who may in a fitt season
bound and lay out the same, and record y't alsoe. And thus commending
you to the Lord, I rest,

"Yours to serve in the service of Jesus Christ,

"JOHN ELIOT."

Following this missive a letter on quite a different subject, dictated
by the redoubtable Indian chief, King Philip, may be interesting. It
bears date of 1672, and is addressed to Captain Hopestill Foster of
Dorchester:

"S'r you may please to remember that when I last saw You att Walling
river You promised me six pounds in goods; now my request is that you
would send me by this Indian five yards of White light collered serge to
make me a coat and a good Holland shirt redy made; and a p'r of good
Indian briches all of which I have present need of, therefoer I pray S'r
faile not to send them by my Indian and with them the severall prices of
them; and silke & buttens & 7 yards Gallownes for trimming; not else att
present to trouble you w'th onley the subscription of

"KING PHILIP,

"his Majesty P.P."

One of the best commentaries on the lives and characters of the chief
actors in the history of the Dorchester Plantation may be read on the
tombstones that mark the places where their precious dust was deposited.
From Rev. Richard Mather, the most noted pastor of the church of that
period, to the humblest contemporary of his who enjoyed the rights and
priveleges of a free-holder, none was so mean or obscure that a
characteristic, if not fitting, epitaph did not mark the place of his
sepulture. From the many well worth perusing, the following are singled
and transcribed for the readers of this sketch.

Epitaph of James Humfrey, "one of y'e ruling elders of Dorchester," in
the form of an acrostic:

"I nclos'd within this shrine is precious dust.
A nd only waits ye rising of ye just.
M ost usefull while he liu'd, adorn'd his Station,
E uen to old age he Seur'd his Generation.

H ow great a Blessing this Ruling Elder be