,

BY CONVERS FRANCIS.

MR. ELIOT had been for some time assiduously employed in learning the
Indian language. To accomplish this, he secured the assistance of one of
the natives, who could speak English. Eliot, at the close of his Indian
Grammar, mentions him as "a pregnant-witted young man, who had been
a servant in an English house, who pretty well understood his own
language, and had a clear pronunciation." He took this Indian into his
family, and by constant intercourse with him soon become sufficiently
conversant with the vocabulary and construction of the language to
translate the ten commandments, the Lord's prayer, and several passages
of Scripture, besides composing exhortations and prayers.

Mr. Eliot must have found his task anything but easy or inviting. He was
to learn a dialect, in which he could be assisted by no affinity with
the languages he already knew. He was to do this without the help of any
written or printed specimens, with nothing in the shape of a grammar or
analysis, but merely by oral communication with his Indian instructor,
or with other natives, who, however comparatively intelligent, must from
the nature of the case have been very imperfect teachers. He applied
himself to the work with great patience and sagacity, carefully acting
the differences between the Indian and the English modes of constructing
words; and, having once got a clew to this, he pursued every noun and
verb he could think of through all possible variations. In this way he
arrived at analyses and rules, which he could apply for himself in a
general manner.

Neal says that Eliot was able to speak the language intelligibly after
conversing with the Indian servant a few months. This, in a limited
sense, may be true; but he is said to have been engaged two years in the
process of learning, before he went to preached to the Indians. In that
time he acquired a somewhat ready facility in the use of that dialect,
by means of which he was to carry the instructions of spiritual truth to
the men of the forest, though as late as 1649 he still lamented his want
of skill in this respect.

Notice having been given of his intention [of instructing the Indians],
Mr. Eliot, in company with three others, whose names are not mentioned,
having implored the divine blessing on the undertaking, made his first
visit to the Indians on the 28th of October, 1646 at a place afterwards
called Nonantum; a spot that has the honor of being the fir