N00446:213
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.
Much less have […] used that Popish Cruelty, which the Natives of America have by some other people been treated with. Even a Bis••• of their own, hath Published, very Tragical Histories of the Spanish Cruelties upon the Indians of this Western World. Such were those Cruelties, that the Indians of length declared, They had rather go to He• with their Ancestors, than to the same Heaven which the Spaniards pretended unto; 'tis indeed impossible to reckon up, the various and exquisite Barbarities with which these execrable Spaniards, murdered in less than fifty years no less than fifty millions of the Indians; it seems this was their way of •ringing them into the Sheepfold of our merciful Jesus! But on the other side, the good people of New-England have carried it with so much tenderness towards the tawny Creatures among whom we live, that they would not own so much as one foot of Land in the Country, without a fair Purchase and Consent from the Natives that laid claim unto it; atheit we had a Royal Char•e• from the King of Great […] to Protect us in our settlement upon this Continent I suppose 'twas in revenge upon us for this Conscientiousness, that the la•e oppressors of New England, acknowledged no man to have any Title at all unto one Font of Land in all our Colony. But we did and we do, think, notwithstanding the Ba••ters of those lories, that the Indians had not by their ⟨p. 131⟩Paganism so forfeited all Right unto any of their Possessions, that the first pretended Christians that could, right Violently and yet Honestly seize upon them. Instead of this, the people of New England, knowing that some of the English were sufficiently covetous and encroaching, and that the Indians in straits are easily prevailed upon, to sell their lands, made a Law, That none should purchase, or so much at Receive any land of the Indians, without the Allowance of the Court. Yea, and some lands which were peculiarly convenient for the Indians, our people who were more careful of them than they were of themselves, made a Law That they should never be bought our of their bands. I suppose after this it would surprise mankind, if they should hear such wonderful Creatures as our late Secretary Randolph affirming, This barbarous people were never civilly treated, by the late Government, who made it their business to encroach upon their Lands, and by degrees to have them out of all.