Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/459

Rh But all this was prospective, in the future. The more fervently it was desired and aimed after, the more wisely and diligently should every intervening step and condition be regarded. With all his zeal and fervor, and his clear apprehension of his final object which alone would be success, Eliot was a most patient, sagacious, and methodical overseer of his own work. He thoughtfully and prudently kept in view all needful conditions and preliminaries; he was content with very slow progress; he calmly met all obstacles, and gently treated all mistrusts; and he did not hurry to anticipate the result. Companies of his converts, after he had catechised and preached to them for a little more than a year, began to importune him for an entrance upon full Christian standing and privileges. Kindly, and with reasons which seemed to convince, he postponed the solemn work which they would have hastened. It proved to be four years before he and they were fully gratified.

He felt that he had planned wisely in planting the Indian towns as remote from those of the English as would consist with the occasional intercourse needful for their oversight and direction. One very desirable end he thought would thus be secured, in restraining what had come to be realized as a troublesome and dangerous evil, — the loitering of Indians, as vagabonds or pilferers, on the skirts of the English towns. Even the best of them had so far only intermitted spasmodic periods of labor for themselves, or on wages for the whites in harvest-time, with wide wilderness roamings. So long as they pursued this course they could not be held to the social and legal obligations of a community, much less to the rules of Christian morality and church discipline. As soon as it was thought safe to do so, what may be called the municipal concerns of the Indian settlements and the adjudication of petty issues between man and man were administered by some among themselves. English magistrates were appointed by the Court to make periodical visits, to dispose of more