protect a new colony at Wissagusset (now Weymouth), who had exasperated the Indians by begging and stealing. They had been sent over by a wealthy London merchant, and most of them were quite unfit for the business of founding a state. The Indians resolved to destroy them; but, through the agency of Massasoit, a firm friend of the English, the conspiracy was revealed to the Plymouth people in time for Captain Standish to march thither with a small company and avert the blow. When he arrived, his anger was fiercely kindled by the insolence of Pecksuot, the chief, and his few followers. Pecksuot sharpened his knife in the presence of Standish, and said, "Though you are a great captain, you are but a little man; and though I be no sachem, yet I am a man of great strength and courage." Standish had the prudence to check his resentment; but the next day, when the chief, and about the same number of his followers as Standish had with him, were in a room with the white people, the captain gave a signal, and five of the savages were slain. Standish snatched Pecksuot's knife from him, and with it slew its owner. When Mr. Robinson (the original pastor of the PILGRIMS, and who remained in Holland) heard of this event, he wrote to the Church of Plymouth "to consider the disposition of their captain, who was of a warm temper. He hoped that the Lord had sent him among them for good, if they used him right; but he doubted whether there was not wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after God's image, which was meet; and he thought that it would have been happy if they had converted some before they had killed any." Captain Standish settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about 1631; and a place near his residence is still called Captain's Hill. During almost the whole time of his residence in the colony, he was an assistant magistrate. He died at his house in Duxbury, in the year 1656. ISAAC ALLERTON. THE May Flower passengers may all be considered "distinguished Americans," because they left their birth-land forever, and became founders and citizens of a new empire in this Western World. Of the noble band who signed a constitution of government' in the cabin of the May Flower, at Cape Cod, Isaac Allerton was the fifth to append his name to that instrument. He survived the He terrors of the first winter in New England,2 afterward became the agent of the settlers in negotiating the purchase of the new possessions from those of the company in London, who had furnished capital for the enterprise ;3 and, as an enterprising trader, became the founder of the commerce of New England. established a trading post near the mouth of the Kennebeck, in 1627, and made several business voyages to England. He also established trading posts at Penobscot and Machias. In 1635, he opened a profitable trade with New Haven, New Amsterdam, Virginia, and even with the West Indies. He finally made New Amsterdam (now New York) his chief place of residence, and traded principally in tobacco. In 1643, when the English began to exert a considerable influence in the affairs of New Amsterdam, and a council of eight men represented the people, Mr. Allerton was chosen to fill a seat in that body. 1. The first written constitution adopted by a free people. 2. Of the one hundred PILGRIMS only forty survived. 3. Some London merchants formed a partnership with the PILGRIMS, and furnished capital for the enterprise. The service of each emigrant was valued as a capital of ten pounds, and all profits were reserved until the end of seven years. The community system did not work well, and at the end of the Beven years, the settlers bought of the merchants their interest in the venture. CANONICUS. Mr. Allerton was accompanied in the May Flower by his wife and four children. His wife died soon after their arrival; and in 1627, he married Fear, a daughter of Elder Brewster, the spiritual guide of the PILGRIM adventurers.' He was again marrried, for we have an account of She, also, died in 1634. his shipwreck, with his wife, on the coast of Massachusetts, in 1644. The time and place of his death is not known, some asserting that he returned to England, and others that he died in the city of New Amsterdam (New York), in 1659. CANONICUS. NE of the most renowned sachems among the New England tribes was ed New Plymouth. He regarded the advent of the white men with a jealous fear; and in 1622, feeling strong, with about five thousand fighting men around him, he sent a challenge to Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth colony, notwithstanding Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Wampanoags, was the friend of the English. His token of defiance was a bundle of arrows, tied with a snake skin. Bradford sagaciously filled the skin with powder and ball, and sent it back to Canonicus. The chief had never seen the like before, and he regarded these substances with superstitious awe. They were sent from village to village, and excited so much alarm, that the sachem sued for peace, and made a treaty of friendship, which he never violated; notwithstanding, he often received provocations that would have justified him in scattering all compacts to the winds. When Roger Williams became an exile from Massachusetts, he found a friend in Canonicus, who gave him all the land in the vicinity of Providence, for a settlement. Williams found more love and generous sentiment in the heart of that forest monarch than among his own countrymen at Boston. When the Pequot war broke out in 1637, Canonicus stood firmly in defence of the English; and a deputation from Massachusetts, who appeared before his island throne opposite His palace was a building Newport, were received with friendly assurances. fifty feet in length, made of upright poles, covered with branches and mats. The royal dinner given to the ambassadors consisted of boiled chestnuts for bread, plenty of venison, and a dessert of boiled pudding made of pounded Indian corn, well filled with whortle-berries. After again assuring the ambassadors of his friendly intentions, he advised the Pequots to bury the hatchet. They refused to listen, and were utterly destroyed by the combined forces of the English, the Narragansets, the Mohegans, and the Niantics. In 1638, Canonicus began to feel the infirmities of age, and resigned his government into the hands of his nephew, Miantonomoh. That chief was afterward made a prisoner by Uncas, "the last of the Mohegans," and murdered by the consent of the English. The resentment of Canonicus was aroused, and he could In the beautiful hardly be restrained from declaring war against the white people. Prudent counsels prevailed in his cabinet, and peace was maintained. month of June, 1647, this "wise and peaceable prince," as Williams calls him, died at his seat on Conannicut Island, opposite Newport, at the age of eightyfive years. 1. The practice of the Puritans of giving their children the names of moral qualities, was exemplified in Brewster's family. His two daughters were named respectively Fear and Love; and his son's name was Wrestling. SUCH UCH was the sweet little Indian girl, the favorite daughter of the powerful Emperor of the Powhatan Confederacy' in Virginia, when the white people laid the foundations of a new empire there. When a site for a settlement was chosen, Captain Smith, the boldest of those early adventurers, penetrated the interior, and was taken prisoner. His captor carried him in triumph from village to village, and then presented him to the Emperor, in his forest palace at Werowocomoco. Smith was condemned to die. With his arms pinioned, and his head upon a huge stone, he was doomed to have his brains dashed out by a blow from a club. When the executioner advanced, Pocahontas, then a girl ten or twelve years of age, leaped from her father's side, where she sat trembling, clasped the head of Smith in her arms, and implored his life. 'How could that stern old king deny The angel pleading in her eye? A power to soothe, and still subdue, To more than queenly sway she grew?"-SIMMS. The Emperor yielded, and Smith was spared. 1. This was a confederacy of more than twenty Indian tribes in the vicinity of the James, York and Potomac rivers. Powhatan was not the family name of the father of Pocahontas, but the title of the emperor, the same as the title of Pharaoh, for the Egyptian kings, in the time of the Jewish bondage. Two years after this event, the Indians formed a conspiracy to exterminate the white people. Again Pocahontas became an angel of deliverance. During a dark and stormy night she left her father's cabin, sped to Jamestown, informed Smith of his danger, and was back to her couch before dawn. It was no wonder that the English regarded the Indian princess with great esteem; and yet, when Smith had left the colony, and indolence and licentiousness had full sway, that gentle girl was ruthlessly torn from her kindred, and held a prisoner on board of an English vessel. Argall, a rough, half-piratical mariner, desirous of extorting advantageous terms of peace from her father, bribed a savage, by the gift of a copper kettle, to betray her into his hands. Powhatan loved his child tenderly, and offered five hundred bushels of corn, and a promise of friendship toward the English, for her ransom. But other bonds, more holy than those of Argall, now detained her. While on the ship, a mutual attachment had budded and blossomed between her and John Rolfe, a fine young Englishman, of good family. With the consent of her father, Pocahontas received Christian baptism, with the title of "the Lady Rebecca," and she and her lover were married. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her husband to England, where she was received at Court with all the distinction due to a princess. But the silly bigot on the throne was highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to marry a lady of royal blood, and absurdly apprehended that Rolfe might lay claim "to the crown of Virginia !" Afraid of the royal displeasure, Captain Smith, who was then in England, would not allow her to call him father, as she desired to do. She could not comprehend the cause; and her tender, simple heart was greatly grieved by what seemed to be his want of affection for her. She remained in England about a year; and when ready to embark for America with her husband, she was taken sick, and died at Gravesend, in the flowery month of June, 1617, when not quite twenty-two years of age. She left one son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became quite a distinguished man in Virginia. His only child was a daughter, and from her some of the leading families in Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Bollings, Hemmings, Murrays, Guys, Eldridges and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of Roanoke, boasted of his descent from the Indian princess. JOHN ELIOT. REAT efforts have been made from time to time to Christianize portions of the aboriginals of our country, but none have been more successful than those put forth during the early days of New England settlements, by one who has been justly termed the Apostle to the Indians. John Eliot was born in Essex county, England, in 1604. He was educated at the university of Cambridge, and was engaged in school teaching for several years. He became a gospel minister; and in 1631, arrived at Boston, and commenced ministerial labors there. He was afterward associated with Mr. Wilde at the head of a congregation in Roxbury; and these, with Richard Mather, were appointed, in 1639, to make a new metrical version of the Psalms. Looking out upon the dusky tribes around him, the heart of Mr. Eliot was troubled by a view of their spiritual destitution, and he resolved to preach the gospel among those heathen neighbors. The twenty tribes known to the English spoke a similar language, and when he had mastered it sufficient to be understood by them, he began his labors. His first sermon was preached to them in the present town of Newton, in October, 1646. He saw blossoms of promise at that first gathering, and very soon fruit appeared, to his great joy. Although violently opposed by the Indian priests, whose "craft was in danger," and also by some of the sachems and chiefs, he was not dismayed, but penetrated the deep wilderness in all directions, relying solely upon his God for protection. Finally, an Indian town was built at Natick, and a house of worship, the first for the use of the Indians ever erected by Protestants in America,' was reared there in 1660. Many received the rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper, after being thoroughly instructed in religious doctrines and duties. Mr. Eliot translated the New Testament into the Indian language, and published it in 1661; and in the course of a few years he established several congregations among these children of the forest, extending even as far as Cape Cod. He obtained unbounded influence over them; and he was also their protector when, during King Philip's war, the Massachusetts people wished to exterminate the Indians, without discrimination. It was estimated that there were five thousand "praying Indians," as the converts were called, among the New England tribes, when Philip raised the hatchet. When the weight of fourscore years bowed the pious apostle, and he could no longer visit the Indian churches, he persuaded a number of families to send their negro servants to him to be instructed in Gospel truth, and thus he labored for benighted minds, until the last. With the triumphant words, "welcome joy," upon his lips, the venerable and faithful servant died, on the 20th of May, 1690, at the age of eighty-six years. THE ROGER WILLIAMS. HE annunciation of new theories, whether in science, government, religion, or ethics, which clash with prevailing dogmas, is always met with scoff's and frowns, if not with actual persecution. The stand-point of reformers is always in advance of current ideas, and the true value of such men can only be appreciated when their labors have ceased, and they are sleeping with the dead. To such a character we turn when we contemplate Roger Williams, the great champion of toleration, and of private judgment in religious matters. He was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. He was a minister in the Church of England for a short time, but his independent principles soon led him to non-conformity, and he came to America to indulge in the free exercise of his opinions. He arrived in February, 1631, and in April following, he was chosen assistant minister at Salem. His extreme views concerning entire separation from the Church of England were not palatable to many of his brethren; and his asserted independence of the magistracy in religious matters drew upon him the condemnation of that entire class and their friends. He left Salem and went to Plymouth in 1632; but, on the death of the minister at the former place, he returned there, and took sole charge of the congregation, in 1634. There he proclaimed his peculiar views with more vehemence than ever; and in his excessive zeal for toleration, and individual liberty of thought and action, he became as intolerant as his opposers, without their excuse of care for the stability of the church and civil government. He asserted that an oath ought not to be administered to an unregenerate man; that a Christian ought not to 1. French Jesuits had already established missionary stations on the St. Lawrence, and even on the borders of the great lakes. |