fluence in England, and King Charles had gone to seek
protection in the Scottish army, that John Eliot, then in his
forty-second year, having thus prepared himself, commenced his campaign.

He had had a good deal of conversation with individual Indians who came
about the settlement at Roxbury, and who perceived the advantages of some
of the English customs. They said they believed that in forty years the
Red and White men would be all one, and were really anxious for this
consummation. When Eliot declared that the superiority of the White race
came from their better knowledge of God, and offered to come and instruct
them, they were full of joy and gratitude; and on the 28th of October,
1646, among the glowing autumn woods, a meeting of Indians was convoked,
to which Mr. Eliot came with three companions. They were met by a chief
named Waban, or the Wind, who had a son at an English school, and was
already well disposed towards them, and who led them to his wigwam, where
the principal men of the tribe awaited them.

"All the old men of the village,
All the warriors of the nation,
All the Jossakeeds, the prophets,
The magicians, the Wabenos,
And the medicine men, the medas,
Came to bid the strangers welcome.
'It is well,' they said, 'O brothers,
That you came so far to see us.'
In a circle round the doorway,
With their pipes they sat in silence,
Waiting to behold the strangers,
Waiting to receive their message,
Till the Black Robe chief, the pale face,
From the wigwam came to greet them,
Stammering in his speech a little,
Speaking words yet unfamiliar."

Mr. Eliot prayed in English, and then preached on the 9th and 10th verses
of the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, where the prophet is bid to call the
Breath of God from the four winds of heaven to give life to the dry bones
around. It so happened that the Indian word for breath or wind was
_Waban_, and this made a great impression, and was afterwards viewed as
an omen.

The preacher worked up from the natural religion, of which this fine race
already had an idea, to the leading Christian truths.

Then the Black Robe chief, the prophet,
Told his message to the people,
Told the purport of his mission,
Told them of the Virgin Mary,
And her blessed Son, the Saviour:
How in distant lands and ages
He had lived on earth as we do;
How He fasted, prayed, and laboured;
How the Jews, the tribe accu