this committee for the settling this affair, yet new troubles arose not long after this, through the inordinate fears and corruptions of men ; which in the sequel may be further declared. One thing more I shall here add, which was told me by Mr. Thomas Clark, preacher at Chelmsford, concerning those Wamesit Indians ; he, speaking with the teacher of those Indians, named Symon Beckom, had this account from him. At their return, being questioned by Mr. Clark what they did in their absence, said Symon, “ We kept three Sabbaths in the woods ; the first Sabbath, ” said he, “ I read and taught the people out of Psalm 35, the second Sabbath from Psalm 46, the third Sabbath out of Psalm 118, ” which Scriptures, being considered, were very suitable to encourage and support them in their sad condition ; this shows, that those poor people have some little knowledge of, and affection to the word of God, and have some little ability (through grace) to apply such meet portions thereof, as are pertinent to their necessities.
1675. About the latter end of Dec., I had (among others) sometimes opportunity to accompany Mr. Elliot to visit and comfort the poor Christian Indians confined to Deer Island, who were (a little before) increased to be about five hundred souls, by addition of the Punkapog Indians, sent thither upon as little cause as the Naticks were. The enmity, jealousy, and clamors of some people against them put the magistracy upon a kind of necessity to send them all to the Island ; and although it was a great suffering to the Indians to live there, yet God brought forth this good by it ; first, their preservation from the fury of the people, secondly, the humbling and bettering the Indians by this sore affliction. I observed in all my visits to them, that they carried themselves patiently, humbly, and piously, without murmuring or complaining against the English for their sufferings, (which were not few,) for they lived chiefly upon clams and shell-fish, that they digged out of the sand, at low water ; the Island was bleak and cold, their wigwams poor and mean, their clothes few and thin ; some little corn they had of their own, which the Council ordered to be fetched from their plantations, and conveyed to them by little
