Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/469

 History of the Christian Indians. A true and impartial narrative of the doings and sufferings of the Christian or Praying Indians, in New England, in the time of the war between the English and the barbarous heathen, which began the 20th of June, 1675.  as sundry persons have taken pains to write and publish historical narratives of the war, between the English and Indians in New England, but very little hath been hitherto declared (that I have seen) concerning the Christian Indians, who, in reality, may be judged to have no small share in the effects and consequences of this war ; I thought it might have a tendency to God's glory, and to give satisfaction to such worthy and good persons as have been benefactors and well-willers to that pious work of Gospelizing the poor Indians in New England, to give them right information how these Christian natives have demeaned themselves in this hour of tribulation. And therefore (through divine assistance) I shall endeavour to give a particular and real account of this affair. Before I come to declare matter of fact, I shall premise some things necessary to be understood for the better clearing of our ensuing discourse. The Christian Indians in New England have their dwellings in sundry Jurisdictions of the English Colonies, and that at a considerable distance from each other; more particularly, 1st. Upon the Islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, in which two Islands there inhabit many hundreds of them, that visibly profess the Gospel. These Indians have felt very little