APPENDIX. PAGE 161. THE LABORS OF THE PILGRIMS AND EARLY SETTLERS OF THE PLYMOUTH COLONY FOR THE INSTRUCTION AND CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS. THERE is no account of any special effort to christianize the Indians until after the banishment of Roger Williams (1636), when the government of Plymouth Colony enacted laws, "providing for the preaching of the gospel among them, and with the concurrence of the chiefs, for constituting courts to punish misdemeanors." laws were afterwards passed in Massachusetts. Mr. Williams was, that year, "fourteen weeks among them in their smoky holes," learning their language, and endeavoring to enlighten them in the things of the kingdom. Mr. Mayhew began his labors on the Vineyard in 1643, but it was several years before he entered with systematic earnestness in the great work which he ultimately accomplished. Mr. Eliot preached his first sermon to them in 1646, but gathered no church until 1660. Mr. Bourne began his labors as early as 1641, but it was several years before it was generally known that he and Mr. Tupper were "doing a great work" in Sandwich, and on the Cape. Mr. Cotton began his labors on the Vineyard in 1663, and having learned their language, often preached and taught there, and also to their assemblies after his settlement in Plymouth in 1667. Mr. Pierson, Mr. James, and Mr. Fitch, labored on Long Island and in Connecticut. How much would have been done for the spiritual good of the "sons of the forest," if Mr. Winslow, governor of Plymouth, had not devised the means of supporting these missionaries or ministers, seems quite uncertain. In 1649, Gov. Winslow was in England, as agent of the Colonies in their concerns with the mother country, and perceiving that a door was opening for successful labor among the Indians in the colonies, "requested that some persons of known piety and integrity might be constituted a corporation to receive and improve the free contributions which might be made for the encouraging of the propagating the gospel among them." A tract was circulated (sent from New England) with the title of "The clear sunshine of the Gospel breaking forth upon the Indians in New England." "Mr. Pelham assisted Gov. Winslow in forwarding the collections, and in July, 1649, Parliament passed an act or ordinance for the advancement of this good work." It would seem that the tract of Roger Williams (mentioned hereafter) was very efficient in arousing the good people of England to these measures. It was published in 1643, and in 1644, "several noblemen and other members of Parliament, addressed a letter to the Gov. and assistants of Massachusetts," in his favor, in which they speak of "his industry and travels among the Indians, and of his printed labors, the like whereof we have not seen extant from any part of America." Kno. Will. 200. The preamble to the act recites the "certain intelligence received" in respect to labors by the "ministers and others," and that "fit instruments should be encouraged in propagating the gospel to these poor heathen;" and then enacts that Gov. Winslow and fifteen others (then in England) "shall be a corporation for furthering so good a work, and that a general collection be made for the furtherance of the work through all England and Wales; that the ministers read the act to their people, and stir them up to liberal contributions." On the restoration a new charter was obtained, "and commissioners were appointed by the Corporation, and vacancies by death or otherwise, have, from time to time, been filled until the present day. Perhaps no fund of this nature has ever been more faithfully applied for the purposes for which it was raised." Hutch. i. 151–155. There was considerable opposition to the collections, "but subscriptions were opened in London and in the army, by the promotion of Mr. Winslow and Mr. Pelham, and an amount collected which gave a yearly income of £700 or £800 sterling. The appropriations by the commis |