f an experiment, which to the Presbyterian mind had proved
a grievous disappointment.

He had a much more important work in hand than the defence of old dreams
of the reign of the saints--for the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in New England had just finished printing his translation of the
New Testament, _Wusku Wuttestermentum_ as it was called, and in two years
more the Old Testament was finished. A copy was presented to Charles
II., to the Chancellor Clarendon, and to the two Universities in England,
as well as to Harvard College. It was in the Mohican dialect, which was
sufficiently like that of the neighbouring tribes to serve for them, and
had all the correctness that the scholarship and philology of the time
could furnish. There is a story that Eliot wrote the whole with a single
pen. It went through a good many editions, but is now very rare, and
with Eliot's Catechism, and translations of Baxter's chief works, and a
metrical version of the Psalms, remains the only vestige of the language
of the Mohicans.

There were now several Indian congregations, one in especial at the
island called Martha's Vineyard, under the charge of an Indian pastor,
John Hiacoomes, who is said to have been the first red-skinned convert,
and who had made proof of much true Christian courage. Once in the act
of prayer he received a severe blow from a Sachem, and would have been
killed if some English had not been present; but all his answer was, "I
have two hands. I had one hand for injuries, and the other for God.
While I did receive wrong with the one, the other laid the greater hold
on God."

When some of the Powaws, or medicine men, were boasting that they could,
if they would, destroy all the praying Indians at once, Hiacoomes made
reply: "Let all the Powaws in the island come together, I'll venture
myself in the midst among them all. Let them use all their witchcrafts.
With the help of God, I'll tread upon them all!"

By which defiance he wonderfully "heartened" his flock, who, Christians
as they were, had still been beset by the dread of the magic arts, in
which, as we have seen, even their White teachers did not wholly
disbelieve.

Such a man as this was well worthy of promotion, and Mr. Eliot hoped to
educate his more promising scholars, so as to supply a succession of
learned and trained native pastors. Two young men, named Joel and Caleb,
were sent to Harvard College, Cambridge, where they both were gai