though usually his countrymen had
rather die than undergo such a piece of self-denial. That liquor has
merely enchanted them. At last, and not long since, this demon appeared
again unto this pagan, requiring him to kill himself, and assuring him
that he should revive in a day or two, never to die any more. He
thereupon divers times attempted it, but his friends very carefully
prevented it; however, at length he found a _fair_ opportunity for this
_foul_ business, and hanged himself,--you may be sure without his
expected resurrection."

This story, grotesque as it sounds in the solemn simplicity of the worthy
Puritan, is really only an instance of what takes place wherever the
light of the Gospel is held up to men capable of appreciating its
standard of morality, but too proud to bend the spirit to accept the
doctrine of the Cross. The Sachem was but a red-skinned "seeker after
God," an "ape of Christianity," like Marcus Aurelius, and like the many
others we shall meet with who loved darkness rather than light, not so
much because their deeds were evil as because their hearts were proud.

Like all practical men, Eliot found it absolutely necessary to do what he
called "carrying on civility with religion," _i.e._ instructing the
converts in such of the arts of life as would afford them wholesome
industry; but want of means was his great difficulty, and in the middle
of a civil war England was not very likely to supply him.

Still he made his Indians at Nonantum hedge and ditch, plant trees, sow
cornfields, and saw planks; and some good man in England, whose name he
never knew, sent him in 1648 ten pounds for schools among the natives,
half of which he gave to a mistress at Cambridge, and half to a master at
Dorchester, under whom the Indian children made good progress, and he
catechized them himself most diligently by way of teaching both them and
the parents who looked on.

He had by this time translated the Bible, but it remained in manuscript
for want of the means of printing it; and his favourite scheme of
creating an Indian city, with a scriptural government, well out of the
way of temptation from and interference by the English, was also at a
standstill, from his poverty.

He likewise sustained a great loss in his friend Mr. Shepard, who had
worked with him with equal devotion and enthusiasm, but this loss really
led to the fulfilment of his wishes, for Mr. Shepard's papers were sent
home, and aroused such