First Protestant missionary labours. — It is pleasant
to turn from such scenes of carnage to scenes in which
humanity and Christian philanthropy are seen at work,
redressing the wrongs and ameliorating the sufferings
which man's inhumanity to man has been the means of
inflicting. The settlers did not deal with the Indians
they dispossessed of the lands which had been their ,
hunting grounds and those of their ancestors from time
immemorial as men who had no right to justice and com-
pensation. They paid for the lands they occupied, and for



296 PURITANISM

the seed-corn they used. But there were those among then-
own number who could not allow that justice and even-
handed dealing exhausted their obligation to the tribes '
around them. It is interesting to remember that it was
within the Puritan commonwealth that the first Protestant

, missionary movement originated. The Pilgrim Fathers
were the first to move in this good work. One of their
number was set apart " to promote the conversion of the
Indians." In December 1621, Eobert Cushman appealed
to England on behalf of " these poor heathen," and in 1636
the colony legislated for the " preaching of the gospel
among them." John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians,
famous both as a linguist and preacher, moved with pity
for a race so benighted, and living in such ignorance and
misery, gave up his settled ministry at Eosebury, near

■■^ Boston, and devoted himself for forty years to the con-
version and civilising of the Indians in their forests and
wigwams. He published an Indian grammar and a com-
plete translation of the Bible in the Indian language.
