and
a large house built in the English style, though with only a day or two
of help from an English carpenter, the lower part of which was to serve
as a place of worship on Sunday, and for a school on other days, the
upper part as a wardrobe and storehouse for valuables, and with a room
partitioned off, and known as "the prophet's chamber," for the use of Mr.
Eliot on his visits to the settlement. Outside were canopies, formed by
mats stretched on poles, one for Mr. Eliot and his attendants, another
for the men, and a third for the women. These were apparently to shelter
a sort of forum, and likewise to supplement the school-chapel in warm
weather. A few English-built houses were raised; but the Indians found
them expensive and troublesome, and preferred the bark wigwams on
improved principles.

The spot was secured to the Indians by the Council of Government, acting
under the Commonwealth at home; but the right of local self-government
was vested in each township; and Eliot, as the guide of his new settlers,
could lead them to what he believed to be a truly scriptural code, such
as he longed to see prevail in his native land. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "the
blessed day in England, when the Word of God shall be their Magna Carta
and chief law book, and all lawyers must be divines to study the
Scripture."

His commencement in carrying out this system was to preach Jethro's
advice to Moses, and thence deduce that the Indians should divide
themselves into hundreds and into tens, and elect rulers for each
division, each tithing man being responsible for the ten under him, each
chief of a hundred for the ten tithings. This was done on the 6th of
August, 1651; and Eliot declared that it seemed to him as if he beheld
the scattered bones he had spoken of in his first sermon to the Indians,
come bone to bone, and a civil political life begin. His hundreds and
tithings were as much suggested by the traditional arrangements of King
Alfred as by those of Moses in the wilderness; and his next step was, in
like manner, partly founded on Scripture, partly on English
history,--namely, the binding his Indians by a solemn covenant to serve
the Lord, and ratifying it on a fast-day. His converts had often asked
him why he held none of the great fast-days with them that they saw the
English hold, and he had always replied that there was not a sufficient
occasion, but he regarded this as truly important enough. Moreover, a
ship containing