been with me, and that he began
to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation
of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked him one time,
Who made him? The poor creature did not understand me at all, but
thought I had asked who was his father: but I took it by another handle,
and asked him, Who made the sea, the ground he walked on, and the hills
and woods? He told me, it was one old Benamuckee that lived beyond all:
he could describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very
old; much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon or the
stars. I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why did
not all things worship him? He looked very grave, and with a perfect
look of innocence said, All things said O! to him. I asked him, if the
people who die in his country, went away any where? He said, Yes, they
all went to Benamuckee. Then I asked him, whether those they ate up,
went thither too? he said, Yes.

From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true
God. I told him, that the great Maker of all things lived there,
pointing up towards heaven; that he governs the world by the same power
and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, could do
every thing for us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us:
and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great
attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being
sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and
his being able to hear us, even into heaven: he told me one day, that if
our God could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God
than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not
hear, till they went up to the great mountains, where he dwelt, to speak
to him. I asked him, if ever he went thither to speak to him? He said,
No, they never went that were young men; none went thither but the old
men; whom he called their Oowookakee, that is, as I made him explain it
to me, their religious, or clergy; and that they went to say O! (so he
called saying prayers,) and then came back, and told them what
Benamuckee said. By this I observed, that there is priestcraft even
amongst the most blinded ignorant Pagans in the world; and the policy of
making a secret religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the
people to the clergy, is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps
am