Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/466

446 was in these words: “All those men that wear long hair shall pay five shillings.” Eliot says “they had a vain pride in their hair,” so that the sacrifice was a hard one. He himself was sturdily opposed to the wigs worn by his own brethren. In the summer of 1652, Eliot began to pursue, with a few of the most promising of the male Indians, precisely the same process by which in his own Puritan church individuals in the congregation from time to time became members in full communion. And he followed this method with even more formality in every subsequent step of the process. He drew from some half-dozen of his converts what are called “confessions,” — relations of private religious experience. These he translated and wrote down, and then submitted to a meeting of his own ministerial brethren. Oct. 16, 1652, was appointed for their assembling at Natick on a day of solemn fasting and prayer, for the hearing of further “confessions,” which were to be formally interpreted, opportunity being given for searching examination of them. These confessions, with an accompanying narrative, were sent to England and published in the interest of the Society which fostered the Indian missionary work. Eliot waited for the receipt of some of these tracts from England, that the circulation of them might reassure the confidence of friends here and remove what still remained of doubt or opposition to his work and purpose. He had another reason for delay, as “the waters were troubled” by threatening of war with the Dutch neighbors, and it seemed wise to wait for calmer seas. Eliot availed himself of the occasion of a great gathering in Boston, on a meeting of the Commissioners of the colonies, to bring his cause before the assembled elders, with the book of confessions. He asked for their approval of his proceeding to admit his Indians to a “Church estate,” and induced them to attend upon a solemn meeting to be held at Roxbury in July, 1654, for hearing the confessions of some of his candidates from Natick, to be