ELETJTHERA

[s. 241] : One of the Bahama Islands, W. I., lying 200 miles E. of the coast of Florida, between Great Abaco on the N. W. and Cat Island on the S. E. Area, 132 square miles; the Wesley an population, 8,733. Station of At Govern Methodist Society. Mi ionary this Society has 1 male mis22 native workers, 648 Christians in native Church, 4 church buildings, 4 Sunday schools, and at Rock Sound it has 2 male mi ionaries, 9 native workers, 2 outstations, 301 Christians in native churches, 4 church buildings, 4 Sunday schools. The SPG (1849) and the Baptist Society, entering the field later, have over 800 communicants and are doing excellent work. EL FUERTE. See Fuerte. ELIM (Cape Colony) A town in Cape Colony, S. Africa, situated in the Bred as dorp district, about 50 miles S. W. of Swell end am. Station of the Moravian Mi ions (1824), with (1900) 6 mi ionaries, men and women; 31 native workers. or’s Etat 823 Harbor sionary,: Eiiot, Jolin men and women; 2 preaching places, 2 schools and about 600 profe ing Christians. ELIM (Natal): A settlement in the extreme south of the Alfred district. Natal, S. Africa. Station of the Herm anns burg Mi ionary Society (1870), with a mi ionary and his wife, a chapel and a school. ELIM (Transvaal) A town in the Zoutspansberg district, Transvaal Colony, S. Africa, situated about 210 miles N. E. by N. of Pretor i a. Station of the Romande (French Switzerland) Mi ionary Society (1879), with (1902) 10 mi ionaries, men and women (including physician and hospital nurses); 12 native workers, 14 schools, 1 hospital, and 184 baptized Christians.: ELIOT, John: Born, 1604, in Nasing, E ex County, England. He had eminently godly par”by whom,” to use his own words, his first years were “seasoned with the fear of God, the Word, and prayer.” He was educated at the University of Cambridge, in 1623, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the original languages of Scripture, was well versed in the general course of liberal studies, had a partiality for philology, and was an acute grammarian. On leaving the university he became an usher in the grammar school of Rev. Thomas Hooker. To his connection with the latter he traces his conversion. Mr. Eliot resolved to devote himself to the ministry, and, being exposed to the tyranny of Laud on account of his non-conformity, followed Hooker to America, with sixty others, in the ship “Lyon,” which reached Boston November 3, Some of his brethren who contemplated 1631. going to America exacted from him a promise On that, if they came, he would be their pastor. his arrival he supplied the place of Mr. Wilson, the absent in Eng pastor of the Boston church, then land. In 1632 the brethren whom he had left came and settled in Roxbury. Mr. Eliot was installed as their pastor, continuing in that relaIn 1639 tion till his death, nearly sixty years. he was appointed, with Welde and Mather, by the civil and ecclesiastical leaders of the colony to prepare a new version of the Psalms. This Psalter, i ued in 1640, was the first book printed in America. It was entitled The Psalms in Metre, ents, faithfully translated for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints in public and private, espeIt was called The Bay cially in New England. Psalm Book, but afterward The New England The book pa ed Version of the Psalms. through twenty-one editions. Soon after Eliot was settled in Roxbury he became deeply interested in the Indians, and, the legislature having pa ed an act for the propagation of the Gospel among them, he resolved to learn their language that he might preach to them. Through a young Pequot, who had learned a little English and whom he had received into his family, he obtained He soon some knowledge of their language. became sufficiently familiar with its vocabulary and construction to translate the ten commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, some texts of Scrip In October, 1646, he ture, and a few prayers. made his first visit, with three others, to their camp near the site of Brighton, on the border of Newton, and preached to them, a embled in the wigwam of Waban, their chief, the first sermon ever preached in North America in a native tongue. The service continued three hours, the Indians asking many questions. Two weeks £]liot, John after he made a second visit, when an old warrior asked with tears if it was not too late for him to come to God. In another fortnight he made a third visit, when a deep, serious interest was manifest, tho many Indians had been incited by the powwows against him. These men, who were conjurers or juggling priests, violently opposed him. At this third visit Waban was so impre ed that he gathered his people at the evening campfire and talked to them about what they had heard. Desiring to civilize as well as Christianize the Indians, Eliot had those to whom he had preached gathered into a community on the site of their old camping ground. This was about five miles west of Boston, and to it, at the suggestion of the English, they gave the name Nonantum, signifying rejoicing. Eliot exerted great influence over them with rare tact and sagacity to encourage them to adopt the modes of civilized life. A simple civil administration was established, and in 1647 the General Court established a court, over which an English magistrate presided. With social and industrial improvements they were trained with the aid of some native helpers in religious duties. These Indians received the appellation of “praying Indians.” Another place for religious meetings and instruction was Neponset, within the limits of Dor chester, among a body of Indians whose chief was the first sachem to whom Eliot preached. A sachem at Concord now induced his people to petition for a tract near the English, that they Their request was also might be instructed. granted, a teacher was given them, and religious services were commenced. They adopted a code of rules regulating their civil and religious duties and their social comfort. In 1648 Mr. Eliot visited Pawtucket, 35 miles southward, where was a powerful chief. He and his two sons gave evidence of true conversion, and desired Mr. Eliot to live with and instruct them, offering him the choicest location. About this time came an earnest request from a chief living 60 miles from Roxbury, on the present site of Brook field, that Mr. Eliot would come and teach his people. As the journey would take him through a region where his life would be in danger, a sachem through whose country he must pa came with twenty of his warriors to escort him. He set out on horseback. The exposure and fatigue severely taxed his strength. “I have not been dry,” he states, “night or day from the third day of the week until the sixth, but so travel, and at night pull off my boots to wring my stockings, and on with them, and so continue. But God stepped in and helped.” Not only did the sachems violently oppose him and persecute the praying Indians, but he had received no aid or cheer from others. His own countrymen even aspersed him. It was declared both “in Old and New England that the whole scheme was to make money, and that the conversion of the Indians was a fable.” But despite the opposition of the sachems, the apathy of most of the English and the hostility of some, he pursued his work with heroic faith. In 1649 Christians in England were so stirred by the fame of his work that a society, entitled “The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England,” was formed and incorporated by Parliament. Collections were made throughout England and Wales, and liberal supplies were sent. This Society sent Eliot £50 per annum to supplement his salary of £60 at Roxbury. Eliot had long desired to have all his converts gathered S24 one settlement; the Indians favored the scheme, and the funds received from England made it practicable. A site was chosen on the Charles River, 18 miles from Boston, and a tract of 6,000 acres set apart and named Natick. All the praying Indians except one tribe were here gathered in 1650. The town was regularly laid out, a house lot a igned to each family, and a large building erected to serve for a church and school room. The governor and several others visited Natick, and were highly gratified. An Indian preached before the governor “with great devotion, gravity, decency, readine , and affection,” and a psalm lined by the Indian schoolmaster was sung “in one of our ordinary English tunes melodiously.” Mr. Eliot now began to train native preachers and teachers. The converts were formed into a church in 1660. His plan of gathering all the converts to the one mi ion at Natick failed, and thirteen other towns of praying Indians were formed. The industrial and educational work was pursued with succe . The number of converts under his immediate care in 1674 was 1,100, the result of his thirty-eight years of labor; and scattered through Ma achusetts, and on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, which he had visited, were 2,500 others, under the care of the May hews. Cotton, and Bourne, but whose conversion may be traced to the efforts and influence of Eliot. He lived to see twenty-four of the Indians preachers of the Gospel. In King Philip’s War of 1675 the praying Indians suffered greatly. They were hated and hunted by the in red men and cruelly treated by the whites. Mr. Eliot for protecting them was reviled and suspected by the English, but he remained their faithful friend. A very important part of John Eliot’s work was his translation of the Bible. The Testament New through the patronage of the English Society, i ued in 1661, and the Old Testament two years later. Eliot’s Indian Bible is the first Bible printed in America. It is the grandest monument of early American scholarship and evangelism. Of this work Edward Everett said: was, “The history of the Christian Church does not contain an example of resolute, untiring, succe In 1631, 1,500 copies were printed, and 2,000 in 1685. He translated also Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted, and various other treatises on practical religion. His original works were A Catechism, an Indian Psalter, a Primer, and the Indian Grammar. At the end of the latter he wrote:”Prayers and pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything.” In English he published The Communion of Churches, The Glorious Prospect of the Gospel among the Indians, and other works. When, through age and infirmity, he was unable to preach or visit the Indians, he induced several families to send their negro servants to him once a week, that he might instruct them in Gospel truth. He died May 20, 1690, aged eighty-six. ful labor superior.” Sparks’ American Biography, Vol. V., Boston, 1836; Wilson (Dr.), Life of John Eliot, London, 1853; Calverly (R. B.), Life of John Eliot, London, 1881. ELITUBENI. See Rainy. EL KSAR. See Kasr el Kebir. 242