While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
New England.—The earliest New England mission was attempted by the French
Jesuit Father Peter Biard among the
Abnaki on Mt Desert Island, Maine, in 1613, in connection with a French
post, but both were destroyed by an English fleet almost before the buildings
were completed. In the next 70 years other Jesuits, chief among whom was Father
Gabriel Druillettes (1646-57), spent much time in the Abnaki villages and drew
off so many converts to the Algonkin mission of Sillery as to make it
practically an Abnaki mission. In 1683 the mission of St Francis de Sales was
founded at the Falls of the Chaudière,
Quebec, and two years later Sillery was finally abandoned for the new site.
Among those gathered at St Francis were many refugees from the southern New
England tribes, driven out by King Philip's war, the
Pennacook and southern Abnaki being
especially numerous. In 1700 the mission was removed to its present location,
and during the colonial period continued to be recruited by refugees from the
New England tribes. About 1685 missions were established among the
Penobscot and the
Passamaquoddy, and in 1695 the
celebrated Jesuit Father Sebastian Râle (Rasle,
Rasles) began at the Abnaki mission at Norridgewock on the Kennebec (the present
Indian Old Point, Me.) the work which is so inseparably connected with his name.
He was not, however, the founder of the mission, as the church was already built
and nearly the whole tribe Christian. In 1705 the church and village were burned
by the New Englanders, but rebuilt by the Indians. In 1713 a small band removed
to the St Lawrence and settled at Bécancour,
Quebec, where their descendants still remain. In 1722 the mission was again
attacked and pillaged by a force of more than 200 men, but the alarm was given
in time and the village was found deserted. As a part of the plunder the raiders
carried off the manuscript Abnaki dictionary to which Râle
had devoted nearly 30 years of study, and which ranks as one of the great
monuments of our aboriginal languages. On Aug. 23, 1724, a third attack was made
by the New England men, with a party of Mohawk allies, and the congregation
scattered after a defense in which seven chiefs fell, the missionary was killed,
scalped, and hacked to pieces, and the church plundered and burned. Râle
was then 66 years of age. His dictionary, preserved at Harvard University, was
published in 1833. and in the same year a monument was erected on the spot where
he met his death. The mission site remained desolate, a large part of the
Indians joining their kindred at St Francis. The minor stations on the Penobscot
and St John continued for a time, but steadily declined under the constant
colonial warfare. In 1759 the Canadian Abnaki mission of St Francis, then a
large and flourishing village, was attacked by a New England force under Col.
Rogers and destroyed, 200 Indians being killed. It was afterward rebuilt, the
present site being best known as Pierreville, Quebec. The Abpaki missions in
Maine were restored after the Revolution and are still continued by Jesuit
priests among the Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy.
Among other names distinguished in the Abnaki mission
the first place must be given to the Jesuits Aubéry
and Lesueur. Father Aubéry, after 10 years'
work among the Indians of Nova Scotia, went in 1709 to St Francis, where he
remained until his death in 1755. He acquired a fluent use of the language, in
which he wrote much. Most of his manuscripts were destroyed in the burning of
the mission in 1759, but many are still preserved in the mission archives,
including an Abnaki dictionary of nearly 600 pages. Father Lesueur labored first
at Sillery and then at Bécancour from 1715,
with a few interruptions, until 1753, leaving as his monument a manuscript 'Dictionnaire
de Racines' (Abnaki ) of 900 pages, now also preserved in the mission archives.
To the later period belong Rev. Ciquard, who ministered from 1792 to 1815 on the
Penobscot, the St John, and at St Francis; Father Romagné,
with the Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy from 1804 to 1825; Rev. Demilier, a
Franciscan, who labored with marked success to the same tribes from 1833 to
1843, and the Jesuit Father Eugène Vetromile
in the same field from about 1855 to about 1880. Each one of these has made some
contribution to the literature of the language, the last named being also the
author of a history of the Abnaki and of two volumes of travels in Europe and
the Orient.
The beginning of Protestant work among the
Indians of south New England may fairly be credited to Roger Williams, who, on
being driven from his home and ministry in Massachusetts for his advocacy of
religious toleration in 1635, took refuge among the
Wampanoag and
Narraganset, among whom he
speedily acquired such influence that he was able to hold them from alliance
with the hostiles in the Pequot war. In 1643 Thomas Mayhew, jr (Congregational),
son of the grantee of Marthas Vineyard, Mass., having learned the language of
the tribe on the island, began among them the work which was continued in the
same family for four generations, with such success that throughout the terror
of King Philip's war in 1675-76 the Christian Indians on the island remained
quiet and friendly, although outnumbering the whites by 10 to 1. Thomas Mayhew,
the younger, was lost at sea in 1657, while on a missionary voyage to England.
The work was then taken up by his father, of the same name, and the native
convert Hiacoomes. It was continued from about 1673 by John Mayhew, son of the
first named, until his death in 1689, and then by Experience Mayhew, grandson of
Thomas the elder, nearly to the time of his death in 1758. Each one of these
learned and worked in the Indian language, in which Thomas, jr, and Experience
prepared some small devotional works. The last of the name was assisted also for
years by Rev. Josiah Torrey, in charge of a white congregation on the island. In
1720 the Indians of Marthas Vineyard numbered about 800 of an estimated 1,500 on
the first settlement in 1642. They had several churches and schools, so that
most of those old enough could read in either their own or the English language.
The last native preacher to use the Indian language was Zachariah Howwoswe (or
Hossweit), who died in 1821.
As far back as 1651 a building had been authorized at
Harvard College for the accommodation of Indian pupils, but only one Indian
(Caleb Cheeshateaumuck) is on record as having finished the course, and he died
soon afterward of consumption.
The most noted mission work of this section, however,
was that begun by the noted Rev. John Eliot (Congregational) among a
remnant of the Massachuset tribe at Nonantum, now Newton, near Boston, Mass., in
the fall of 1646. He was then about 42 years of age and had prepared himself for
the task by three years of study of the language. The work was extended to other
villages, and the reports of his and Mayhew's success led to the formation in
1649 of the English "Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel among the
Indians in New England" for the furtherance of the mission. As early as 1644 the
Massachusetts government had made provision looking to the instruction of time
neighboring tribes in Christianity, Eliot himself being the pioneer. In 1650 a
community of Christian Indians, under a regular form of government, was
established at Natick, 18 miles south west of Boston, and became the
headquarters of the mission work. In 1674 the "Praying Indians," directly under
the care of Eliot and his coadjutor, Samuel Danforth, in the Massachusetts Bay
jurisdiction, numbered 14 principal villages with a total population exceeding
1,000, among the Massachuset,
Pawtucket, Nipmuc, and other tribes of eastern
Massachusetts, each village being organized on a religious and industrial basis.
The Christian Indians of Plymouth colony, in south east Massachusetts, including
also Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard,
etc., under Revs. John Cotton and Richard Bourne, were estimated at nearly 2,500
more. Most of the converts however were drawn from broken and subject tribes.
The powerful Wampanoag,
Narraganset, and
Mohegan rejected all missionary
advances, and King Philip scornfully told Eliot that he cared no more for his
gospel than for a button upon his coat. Most of Eliot's work fell to the ground
with the breaking out of King Philip's war in the following year. The colonists
refused to believe in the friendship of the converts, and made such threats
against them that many of the Indians joined the hostiles and afterward fled
with them to Canada and New York. The "praying towns" were broken up, and the
Indians who remained were gathered up and held as prisoners on an island in
Boston Harbor until the return of peace, suffering much hardship in the
meantime, so that the close of the war found the two races so embittered against
each other that for some time it was impossible to accomplish successful
results. Of the 14 praying towns in 1674 there were left only 4 in 1684. Eliot
remained at his post until his death in 1690, in his 86th year, leaving behind
him as his most permanent monument his great translation of the Bible into the
Natick (Massachuset) language, besides a grammar and several minor works in the
language. Daniel Gookin, whose father had been official Indian superintendent,
was Eliot's coadjutor in the later mission period. Eight years after Eliot's
death the Indian church at Natick had but 10 members, and in 1716 it became
extinct, as did the language itself a generation later.
Among Eliot's co-workers or successors in the same
region the best known were Samuel Danforth, Sr, from 1650 until his death in
1674; Rev. John Cotton, who preached to the Indians of both Natick and Plymouth
from 1669 to 1697, being "eminently skilled in the Indian language"; his son,
Josiah Cotton, who continued his father's work in the Plymouth jurisdiction for
nearly 40 years; Samuel Treat, who worked among the
Nauset Indians of the (Cape Cod region
from 1675 until his death in 1717, and translated the Confession of Faith into
the language; Grindal Rawson, about 1687 to his death in 1715, the translator of
'Spiritual Milk'; and Samuel Danforth the younger, who labored in east
Massachusetts from 1698 to his death in 1727, and was the author of several
religious tracts in the native language. These and others were commissioned and
salaried by the society organized in 1649.
About 1651 Rev. Abraham Pierson, under the auspices of
the same society, began preaching to the Qninnipiac Indians about Branford,
west Connecticut, and continued until his removal about 1669, when the work was
undertaken by a successor, but with little result to either, the Indians showing
"a perverse contempt," not withstanding presents made to encourage their
attendance at the services. A few years later Rev. James Fitch was commissioned
to work among the Mohegan, and succeeded in gathering a small congregation, but
found his efforts strongly opposed by
Uncas and the other chiefs. The mission
probably came to an end with King Philip's war. Efforts were continued at
intervals among the tribal remnants of south New England during the next
century, partly through the society founded in 1649 and partly by colonial
appropriation, but with little encouraging result, in consequence of the rapid
decrease and demoralization of the Indians, the only notable convert being
Samson Occomn. The English society with drew
support about 1760. A last attempt was made among the Mohegan by Miss Sarah L.
Huntington in 1827, and continued for several years, chiefly by aid of
governmental appropriation (De Forest).
In 1734 a Congregationalist mission was begun among the
Mahican in western Massachusetts by Rev. John Sergeant, under the auspices of
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. By hard study
and constant association he was soon able to preach to them in their own
language, into which he translated several simple devotional works. In 1736 the
converts were gathered into a regular mission town, which was named Stockbridge,
from which central point the work was extended into Connecticut and New York,
and even as far as the Delaware River. In 1743 Rev. David Brainerd, who had been
working also among the Mahican at the village of Kaunaumeek, across the New York
line, brought his congregation to consolidate with that of Stockbridge. Mr.
Sergeant died in 1749, and after a succession of briefer pastorates the work was
taken up, in 1775, by his son, Rev. John Sergeant, jr, who continued with it
until the end of his life. The westward advance of white settlement and the
demoralizing influence of two wars accomplished the same result here as
elsewhere, and in 1785 the diminishing Stockbridge tribe removed to New
Stockbridge, N. Y., on lands given by the Oneida. Their leader in this removal
was the educated Indian minister Samson Occom. Mr. Sergeant himself followed in
the next year. The mission was at that time supported by the joint effort of
American and Scotch societies, including the corporation of Harvard College. In
1795 the settlement consisted of about, 60 families, mostly improvident,
unacquainted with the English language, and "in their dress and manners
uncivilized" (Aborigines Corn., 1844). Besides preaching to them in their own
language, Mr. Sergeant prepared for their use several small religious
works in the native tongue. In 1821, with their chief, Solomon Aupaurout, they
removed again (their missionary being unable to accompany them on account of old
age), this time to the neighborhood of Green Bay, Wis., where about 520
"Stockbridge and Munsee," of mixed blood, still keep the name. Among the later
missionaries the most distinguished is Rev. Jeremiah Slingerland, an educated
member of the tribe, who from 1849, served, for more than 30 years. Merged with
them are all who remain of the Brotherton band of New York, made up from tribal
remnants of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Long Island—Mohegan,
Pequot, Narraganset, and Montauk—
gathered into a settlement also in the Oneida country by the same Occom in 1786.
These in 1795 were reported as the numbering about 39 families, all
Christian, and fairly civilized. Among the names connected with the
Stockbridge mission is that of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, jr, author of a short
treatise on the Mahican ("Muhhekaneew") language (1788), and of John Quinney and
Capt. Hendrick Aupaumut, native assistants and translators under the elder
Sergeant.
In addition to the regular mission establishments some
educational work for the Indians was earned on in accord with a declared
purpose at Harvard Collage, Cambridge, Mass., as already noted; at Moore's
charity school for Indians, founded by Rev. .Eleazer Wheelock at Lebanon,
Conn., in 1754, and transferred in 1769 to Hanover, N. H., under the name
of Dartmouth College, and the Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Conn.,
by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, beginning in
1817. The net result was small.
