Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/452

432 It is pleasant to follow in Druillettes' Journal, through its marvellous misspelling of the names of places and persons, his recognitions of kindly and cordial treatment. The one that especially engages us is that in which, as he was returning from Plymouth to Boston, he tells us that he went to see “Mr. Heliot,” the minister; adding, “He treated me with respect and affection, and invited me to pass the winter with him.” Here then, face to face together, in the humble cottage, but by the generous fireside of the village wilderness pastor, were seated in respectful and affectionate converse two Christian men, each and both of whom spent nearly half a century in what was to them the most sacred of all labors. It must have been on or near Christmas day. We know well how much there was to alienate them in opinion, in prejudice, in profoundly sincere convictions, and in experience. Had they been so disposed, the very sight of each other in times of religious ardor and passionate strife, like those through which they lived, might have prompted a bitter and aimless discussion. But we are certain that nothing of this sort passed between them. They were Christian gentlemen. Peaceful, gentle, and respectful, however otherwise earnest, must have been their interview by the fireside on that winter's day. The season of the year, so dreary and perilous for the Jesuit's return journey, doubtless suggested the kindly invitation to him to make his winter's home with the Puritan pastor. We picture the scene to our minds, and love to gaze upon it as full of pleasing and elevating suggestions. We might be interested in the subject of their conversation for itself; we certainly should be interested in their talk, because it was theirs. A letter of Eliot's of that date shows that he was seriously exercised upon the question whether the natives of the continent were the descendants of the lost Jewish tribes. The question was then one of exciting interest and discussion among the Puritans, and it appears that some of Eliot's own brethren were cool in their