which makes him very slow of
being able to endure civilization, renders wandering almost a necessity
to his constitution, and generally makes him, when under restraint, even
under the most favourable conditions, dwindle away, lose all his fine
natural endowments, and become an abject and often a vicious being. The
misfortune has been that, with a few honourable exceptions, it has not
been within the power of the better and more thoughtful portion of man to
change the Red Indian's vague belief in his "Great Spirit" to a more
systematic and stringent acceptance of other eternal verities and their
consequent obligations, and at the same time leave him free to lead the
roving life of the patriarchs of old; since, as Scripture itself shows
us, it takes many generations to train the wandering hunter to a tiller
of the soil, or a dweller in cities; and the shock to the wild man of a
sudden change is almost always fatal both to mental and bodily health.
This conclusion, however, has been a matter of slow and sad experience,
often confused by the wretched effects of the vice, barbarity, and
avarice of the settler and seaman, which in many cases have counteracted
the effects of the missionary, and accelerated the extinction of the
native.

In John Eliot's time, there was all to hope; and the community of
Englishmen with whom he lived, though stern, fierce, intolerant, and at
times cruel in their intolerance, did not embarrass his work nor corrupt
the Indians by the grosser and coarser vices, when, in his biographer's
words, "our Eliot was on such ill terms with the devil as to alarm him
with sounding the silver trumpets of Heaven in his territories, and make
some noble and zealous endeavours towards ousting him of his ancient
possessions." The Pilgrim Fathers had obtained their land by fair
purchase, _i.e._ if purchase could be fair where there was no real mutual
understanding; and a good deal of interest had been felt in England in
the religious state of the Red men. The charter to the colony had
enforced their conversion on the settlers, and Dr. Lake, Bishop of Bath
and Wells, declared that but for his old age and infirmities he would
have headed a mission to America for the purpose. Had he done so,
perhaps something systematic might have been attempted. As it was the
new colonists had too severe a struggle with their own difficulties to
attend to their heathen surroundings, even though the seal of their
colony of Massach