sequent knowledge of
the Indian language. It also indicates how close an affinity and how
little dialectical difference existed between the language spoken by
the eastern Long Island Indians and that of the Natick or
Massachusetts Indians to which his works are credited. In fact, the
identity between these two dialects is closer than exists between
either of them and the Narragansett of Roger Williams, as can be
easily proven by comparison. Again, Eliot, in his grammar twenty years
afterward, as I have before quoted, by so confessing his obligation to
his young teacher to the total exclusion of Job Nesutan, who took his
place,[8] shows how he appreciated the instruction first imparted.
Eliot having written, in the winter of 1648-49, that he taught this
Indian how to read and to write, which he quickly learned, though he
knew not what use he then made of the knowledge, it becomes apparent
to all that he had then departed, to Eliot's great regret, from the
scene of Eliot's labors in Massachusetts; and, as seems to have been
the case, had returned to the home of his ancestors on Long Island
sometime between the fall of 1646, when he was with Eliot in Waban's
wigwam, and the winter of 1649, when Eliot wrote.[9] Whether his time
as a servant had expired, or whether he longed for the country of his
youth and childhood, we perhaps shall never learn.

At this point the interesting question arises, Can we identify any one
of the Long Island Indians of this period with the "interpreter" or
"pregnant witted young man" of John Eliot? Here it must be conceded
that the evidence is entirely circumstantial and not direct; but
withal so strong and so convincing as to make me a firm believer in
its truth, as I shall set it forth before you.

I shall begin my exposition with the Indian deed of the East Hampton
township, dated April 29, 1648,[10] where we find, by the power
acquired by the grantees from the Farrett mortgage of 1641,[11] that
Thomas Stanton made a purchase from the Indians for Theophilus Eaton,
Esq., Governor of the Colony of New Haven, and Edward Hopkins, Esq.,
Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, and their associates "for all
that tract of land lyinge from the bounds of the Inhabitants of
Southampton, unto the East side of _Napeak_, next unto _Meuntacut_
high land, with the whole breadth from sea to sea, etc.," this
conveyance is signed by the four Sachems of Eastern Long Island--to
wit: _Poggatacut_,[12] the Sachem o