Measures were speedily taken which resulted in the erection of the Bowdoin Street meeting house, a of the Church and congr THE INDIAN CHURCHES ON NANTUCKET. BY REV. 8. D. HOSMER, NANTUCKET. THAT treeless sand-isle, Nantucket, the Old Bay State's outermost picket in the broad Atlantic, with its Indian traditions and story of American enterprise, whose adventurous sons catch whales abroad, and sharks on their own shores, some of whose young children, ocean-born, have been cradled on the rocking surges of the Pacific, and well-known stormy Cape Horn - this isolated fragment of our Commonwealth affords much to interest a lover of tales of the sea, or the student of natural history, and even the dust-disturbing antiquarian. We have been gleaning the scattered incidents concerning its Indian churches, which we now bind together in a sheaf. A noble missionary work was wrought here two hundred years ago; whose fully detailed narrative would reflect honor on the forefather's memory, and show God's wonder-working providence. In 1665, a few years after the English settled on the island, King Philip came thither in vengeful pursuit of an Indian who had disrespectfully used the name of that sachem's father. For, even to speak the name of a deceased brave, the aborigines accounted a capital crime. The settlers wished to save the culprit, whom Philip having seized would have killed at once. They interposed, and gave for his ransom all the money on the island, which was but £11. Philip still demurring, they then, by an adroit stratagem, caused the doughty warrior to be alarmed for his own safety, who whereupon departed hastily without his captive, of whom we shall hear more directly. About twenty years before this event, Thos. Mayhew of Watertown had taken up his residence on Martha's Vineyard, having obtained the grant of both islands in 1641. His son, Thomas, Jr., preached to the whites at first, but his fame rests on his self-denying efforts to Christianize the natives. That became his life-work. One of his early converts, the Sagamore Towauquatick, addressed this missionary in words as beautiful as they were true: "You shall be to us as one that standeth by a running river, filling many vessels; so shall you fill us with everlasting knowledge." In these labors he found in his father an active helper; and when Rev. Thomas Mayhew died (he was lost at sea on his voyage to England), Governor Mayhew in his old age learned the Indian language, and became a successful missionary. Gookin, a cotemporary, states in his Historical Collections of the Praying Indians, that the first light of the gospel came to Nantucket by means of Messrs. Thomas Mayhew, father and son; and also by Hiacoomes, now pastor of one of the churches upon the Vineyard. 1 The zealous labors of the Mayhews in evangelizing the Indians have descended in the family as an inheritance, even into the present century. John, 3d son of Rev. Thomas Mayhew, at the age of 21, preached to the Indians, and died in 1689, leav ing a native church of 100 members. In the next generation, Experience Mayhew superintended six Indian congregations; received the degree of A. M., Harvard College, 1720; wrote the work entitled "Indian Converts." His son Zachariah was ordained as preacher to the natives on the Vineyard, Dec. 10th, 1767, and died in 1806. Sprague's Annals, vol. 1. 2 First published from the original manuscript in the Mass. Hist. Colls., 1st series, vol. 1. These were also aided by a Peter Folger, whom Pierce, the biographer of the Mayhews, thus characterizes, " An able and godly Englishman, employed in teaching the youth in reading, writing, and the principles of religion, by catechizing, being well learned likewise in the Scriptures, and capable of helping them in religious matters." Removing to Nantucket, he became very influential in that community. A poem of his, entitled "A Looking Glass for the Times," is extant, whose public merit certainly has not saved it from oblivion. It owes its preservation to the fact, that its writer was grandfather to the world-known Dr. Benjamin Franklin.3 The elder Mayhew writes to Captain Gookin of Cambridge, "I have often these thirty-two years been to Nantucket." In 1670, Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, as he has been fitly styled, made a visitation to the Vineyard to ordain a pastor of an Indian Church there, and examine into the religious condition of the natives in that region. The teacher of the praying Indians of Nantucket was present, and reported that about ninety families there prayed to God. It was advised that some of the most godly among them should join to the church at the Vineyard; and after some experience of their godly walk, should issue forth into church state among themselves, and have officers ordained." But precisely when they were organized separately, I have not learned. It must have been soon, for, in 1674, we find the Church fully established. Gookin states that he obtained these facts from personal conversation with Nantucket Indians. There was one church of thirty members, in full communion; whereof twenty were men. The pastor Assassamoogh, or in his English name, John Gibbs, no doubt the very per 3 Peter Foulger had two sons and seven daughters, the youngest of whom, Abiah, was Benjamin Franklin's mother. For the poem, vide Macy's History of Nantucket, page 287. Also consult Sparks's Life and Works of Franklin, vol. i., p. 8. son rescued from Philip's vengeance. Forty children and youth had been baptized. Three hundred Indians, young and old, prayed to God, and kept the Sabbath. The Church met at Oggawame, also congregations at Wammasquid and Squatesit. There were three other religious teachers; Joseph, Samuel, and Caleb, who also keepeth school. Nearly abreast the fifth mile-stone, as one now rides out to the fishing village Siasconsett, he sees at a distance, on his left hand, a bright sheet of water, stretching along the base of a sandy hill. Issuing thence, a lazy brooklet through the low meadow winds its way oceanward. That meadow marks the spot of the Indian village, Okawah, where John Gibbs for nearly twenty-five years preached to the church of converted savages. The water still bears his name, Gibbs Pond; and farther down the valley, a secluded spot of a few acres, in the midst of marshy reeds and brakes, perpetuates the memory of another aboriginal occupant in its appellation, Tashima's Island. Ten years later, Mr. Eliot, in 1684, writing Mr. Boyle of London, mentions the Church at Nantucket. The next allusion to our praying Indians I find in Mather's Magnalia, book vi., section 56, which contains an interesting letter from Mr. John Gardner, whom Dr. Mather describes as well acquainted with them; having divers years assisted them in their government, by instructing them in the laws of England, and deciding difficult cases among them. Mr. Gardner speaks of two Congregational churches and one Baptist; laments the decay of religion among them, ascribing it to their not preserving the truth in the love of it; their love to drink, and their being more mindful of form than substance. In their government, each of the three praying towns had their court to hear and determine causes up to forty shillings; magistrates of their own number, chosen yearly, who often appealed to the English for advice in greater matters. Four years later we learn, that, at the desire and charge of these Christian Indians, "The worshipful Capt. Gardner" had procured the frame of a meetinghouse, which in June, 1698, they were building; at which place is unknown. On the top of a gentle swell, a mile west of the present town, was the first English burial ground. Within the memory of the living, several grave-stones were standing. That of one only remains; kept in order by the thoughtful care of some of his descendants. It bears on its timeworn front the name and age of the Indian benefactor, Mr. John Gardner. In the summer of 1698, Rev. Mr. Rawson of Mendon, and Rev. Mr. Danforth of Taunton, in visiting the plantations of Indians, reported five congregations at Nantucket. Job Muckemuck succeeds John Gibbs, deceased. They name other preachers, and one in particular, who practised faithfully the then unchallenged right of the pulpit to rebuke all moral evils: Noah, a person never known to be overtaken with drink, but a zealous preacher against it. Should not his total abstinence have secured him a more fitting scriptural name? These visitors report two churches, (they deign not to notice the Baptist society) with ordained officers, in each of which are twenty communicants at least, and a commendable discipline is maintained. The whole number of adult persons is about five hundred. Three schools had been sustained, though just then suspended for want of primers. From their report we quote farther in their own words. "We preached to them in their own language twice in one assembly, into which they were generally convened on the Lord's Day. Three of their principal preachers were improved by us in prayer, that we might discover something of their abilities, in which we found them good proficients." year 1700. Already the white man's firewater has been hinted at as the bane of the Indian. Still we believe that the general reception of the gospel by the islanders, and the undisturbed peace between the natives and the settlers here, kept the race from that rapid extinction which was the red man's fate on the main land. The History of Nantucket states that at one period there were four Indian meeting houses: at Okawah, or Gibbs Pond; at Miacomet, a wigwam village two miles south-west of the present town; the third at Polpis, four miles up the harbor; and the fourth near the eastern end of the island. Miacomet signifies "meeting-place," according to the authority just quoted, which mentions Benjamin Tashima as a faithful teacher and preacher there. He had been preceded by a Zachary Hoibe, whose preaching and practice, if the story be true, conflicted. He used to tell his hearers to do as he said, not as he did. Tashima was grandson to the old sachem who ruled over that part of the island at its settlement by the whites. An old house may still be seen in town, which tradition avers was anciently used as an Indian meeting-house at Miacomet. We subjoin from the History of Nantucket an account of their manner of worship, written by a Quaker of the last century. "They attended their meetings very precisely, which were held on the first and fifth days of the week. I have been at their meetings many times, and seen their devotion, and it was remarkably solid; and I could understand the most of what was said. They always placed us in a suitable seat, and were not put by our coming in; but rather appeared glad to see us. A minister is called coutaumuchary. When meeting was done they would strike fire, and light their pipes, draw three or four whiffs, and so hand it to their next neighbor. Thus flourished these churches till the And they would say tawpoot; which is, I Mass. Hist. Coll., 1st series, vol. 10, p. 132. thank you." Of their civil affairs, he says: "They had justices, constables, grand-jury men; and some of them were weavers, and some good carpenters." From other sources we learn that not a few went in Nantucket vessels on whaling voyages, and became expert mariners. In the summer of 1763, the Indians numbered ninety families. A contagious sickness, supposed to have been caught from the clothing of a wrecked sailor, raged fearfully that year among the natives. The whites, though exposed in their care of the Indians, never took the disease, which disappeared strangely from the island in a single day. During the six months of its continuance, over two hundred died; only one hundred and thirty-six survived. In the same fatal season the blue fish, before very abundant, left the waters of Nantucket; and tradition maintains that the natives saw in the strange occurrence the gloomy omen of their own extinction. Thus were the native churches greatly enfeebled, if indeed they outlived the pestilence. Thenceforth the Indians rapidly dwindled; fading away like the smoke curling up from their wigwams. In 1784, the town valuation enumerates thirty-five natives. In 1792, these were reduced to four males and sixteen females. In 1794, we find a statement that there had been at Nantucket three meeting houses, where the Indians had assembled for public worship with Indian pastors, and a few remain; but they have no public assembly for religious worship. Our islanders well remember the spare form and aboriginal features of the last of the red men. Dwelling like a hermit alone at his home, which commanded a full view of the spacious harbor and thriving town, for years he was the solitary relic of a once-powerful people. Those peculiar traits of the sons of the forest, quick observation, strong prejudices, imperturbable secretiveness, were noticeable in Abram Quary's character. In 1854, he died at a ripe old age. An oil painting representing him seated thoughtfully in his room, a striking likeness, graces the walls of our Athenæum. The race has vanished. But their memorial has not perished with them. Old inhabitants will point you out their burial spots; the ploughman often turns up their flint arrow-heads; unearths hidden shell-heaps, tokens of their habitations. As in the State of Maine, lake, river, and mountain, by the strong euphonious names they bear, tell who once occupied the lands; so too the designation of our island's localities, nearly all of Indian derivations, perpetuate, in the daily speech of the living, the remembrance of a people departed. "AT ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS DO." ST. AUGUSTINE was in the habit of dining upon Saturday as upon Sunday; but being puzzled with the different practices then prevailing, (for they had begun to fast at Rome on Saturday,) consulted St. Ambrose on the subject. At Milan they did not fast on Saturday; so the answer of the Milan saint was: "Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato," when I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday. — Augustine, Epis. xxxvi. to Casulanus. THE FUNCTIONS OF MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATIONS. BY REV. SAMUEL LEE, NEW IPSWICH, N. H. Ir is a humiliating fact, that history must record a so universal tendency in the sacred profession to arrogate to itself a power other than moral. The ministers of Him who took upon himself "the form of a servant " have been unceasing in their efforts to acquire governmental authority. And they have succeeded to a lamentable extent; corrupting themselves in corresponding degree, and depriving their office of the appropriate moral influence by which it was designed to bless the world and glorify the Savior. No sooner was Satan, as a persecutor, bound by the "great chain" in the hand of the angel, and the days of persecution thus ended, than this tendency was evinced in melancholy prominence, and soon culminated in Popery. At the Reformation, Luther seems to have conceived the true idea of Congregationalism, but supposed the common people were not yet ready for its exemplification in practice. And it was thought best that the clergy should be invested with authority. The Puritans thought otherwise. And although certain incompatible doctrines were not eliminated, as that of the divine right of kings and nobles in family succession, they yet believed that, in ecclesiastical relations, the power of government was alone in the " People." The Pilgrims brought with them to New England these same opinions. And though embarrassed with their theories of civil government, they yet succeeded in maturing a system of Church polity that will stand the test of time. The Cambridge Platform will go down to the Millennium. Its principles are primary and pure. And they apply not only to the Church, but to the State also; so that while they have guided the Church, they have led along, in a footway parallel to that of Zion, the fathers of our civil institutions. The author of the Declaration of Independence obtained his first principles, as therein stated, by the study of the Congregational churches of our land. The first truths of governmental polity are the same in both Church and State. The effort in the earlier periods of the Christian Church, by the clergy, to secure the power of authority, hold, we had almost said, an apology in the relative status intellectually of themselves on the one hand, and the almost entire community on the other. They were the educated class. Mental discipline and general intelligence were almost confined to themselves. So that while they wielded, as of course they should, a moral power that was mighty, they seemed to themselves alone competent to wield the power of governmental authority. Whatever might have been true of the first centuries of the Christian Church, this question need not now be discussed, especially in relation to the Congregational churches of our own enlightened country. The brethren of these churches are men of intelligence; many of them of the highest mental and moral culture. Congregationalism has of late become a mighty power in these United States. And it is destined to a work that shall make this land the glory of all lands. There is such an affinity between it and our civil polity, that the two cannot but coöperate, and make their way along side by side. The day is not distant, we think, when any other Church polity than the Congregational shall be considered to be as really incompatible with our civil institutions as is slavery. The great principles of our civil government, lying, as they do, deep in our very nature as men, |