[Sidenote: =Eliot translates the Bible=]
=49. John Eliot.= The treatment of the Indians by the colonists was
generally just and kind. Trading with the white man had brought the
Indians better food and clothing. Schools were being set up to give
them some of the white man's education, and many preachers tried to
teach them to become Christians. One man who spent his whole life in
this work was John Eliot. His first care was to learn the language of
the Indians of Massachusetts. He succeeded so well that he was able to
translate the entire Bible into the Indian language and to preach to
the Indians in their native tongue.
The converts that he made he gathered together into communities which
settled near the English towns. These converts were taught how to build
themselves log cabins and to live and dress like the English. The
principal village established by Eliot was at Natick, Massachusetts.
Others quickly followed Eliot's example, and several other Christian
Indian villages sprang up. These communities flourished, and in a few
years Eliot could count as many as four thousand converts among the
Indians of Massachusetts.
Eliot continued to preach until his death in 1690. Even the fierce King
Philip's War could not check his success.