Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/467

Rh by himself. To insure impartiality in interpretation, Mayhew came to help him. The natives gave to the appointed day the term Natootomahteac, “the day of examination;” and they were advised to prepare themselves for it by private religious exercises. A public fast occurred in the interval, which those natives observed. Eliot suffered just at this time a dreadful, staggering blow, which almost disheartened him. As with hopeful heart he was mounting his horse, ten days before the set occasion, to prepare his candidates, word was brought to him that three drunken Indians had drawn into their revels the son of one of his foremost disciples. He was the more distressed because, as he says, one of the culprits, “though the least in the offence, was he that hath been my interpreter, whom I have used in translating a good part of the Holy Scriptures; and in that respect I saw much of Satan's venom, and in God I saw displeasure. I lay him by for that day of our examination, and used another in his room.” The men were judged by their own local magistrates, put in the stocks, and whipped at a tree. The boy was put in the stocks for a short time, and then whipped by his father in the school.

When the great day came, Eliot proceeded with the utmost deliberation, with full caution, and charming candor. He wished to secure a rigidly fair interpretation and a clear understanding of the candidates by the elders, so that all should be scanned and tried. “For my desire was to be true to Christ, to their souls, and to the churches.” Eight candidates were examined, and we have the proceedings in full in one of the London tracts. Eliot frankly said, as to the subjects of his efforts in general, “We know the profession of very many of them is but a mere paint, and their best graces nothing but mere flashes and pangs.” If, according to the literalism of the Puritan faith, the names of all true covenanted Christians are written in the “Lamb's book of life,” there may be found upon it the names of the following members of the fold in Natick: