N00446:139
The triumphs of the reformed religion, in America. The life of the renowned John…
The triumphs of the reformed religion, in America. The life of the renowned John Eliot; a person justly famous in the church of God, not only as an eminent Christian, and an excellent Minister, among the English, but also, as a memorable evangelist among the Indians, of New-England; with some account concerning the late and strange success of the Gospel, in those parts of the world, which for many ages have lain buried in pagan ignorance. / Written by Cotton Mather. ; [Two lines from Luke]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris for Joseph Brunning i.e, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
They continue in a place, till they have burnt, up all the Wood thereabouts, and then▪ they, pluck up Stakes; to follow the Wood, which they cannot fetch home unto themselves; hence when ⟨p. 81⟩they enquire about the English, Why come they hither! they have themselves very Learnedly determined the case, I was because we wanted Fitting. No Acts are understood among them, unless just so far as to maintain their Brutish Conversation, which is little more than is to be found among the very Beavers upon our Streams.
They contnue in a place, till they have burnt, up all the Wood thereabouts, and then▪ they, pluck up Stakes; to follow the Wood, which they cannot fetch home unto themselves; hence when ⟨p. 81⟩they enquire about the English, Why come they hither! they have themselves very Learnedly determined the case, I was because we wanted Fiting. No Acts are understood among them, unless just so far as to maintain their Brutish Conversation, which is little more than is to be found among the very Bevers upon our Streams.
Their Division of Time is by Sleeps, and Moons, and Winters; and by lodging abroad, they have somewhat observed the motions of the Stars; among which it has been surprising unto me to find, that they have always called Charles's▪ Wane by the name of P••ukunna••w, or The Bear, which is the name whereby Europeans also have distinguished it. Moreover, they have little, if any Traditions among them worthy of our notice; and Reading and Writing is altogether unknown to them, tho' there is a Rock or two in the Country that has unaccountable Characters Engraved upon it. All the Religion they have amounts unto thus much; they believe, that there are many Gods, who made and own the several Nations of the world; of which a certain Great God in the South-west Regions of Heaven bears the greatest Figure. They believe, that every remarkable Creature has a peculiar God within it, or about it: there is with them, a Sun-God, a Moon-god, and the like; and they cannot conceive but that the fire must be a kind of a God, inasmuch as a Spark of it