(c. 1671, by John Eliot)
For many Christian British and European settlers to the Americas, attaining personal religious freedom was not tantamount to securing the Kingdom of Heaven. Necessary also was an effort to win new souls, in this case those belonging to the New World's native inhabitants. The proselytizing ethic is the impetus behind the unusual work seen here. Educated at Cambridge University in England, the missionary John Eliot (1604–1690) settled in colonial Massachusetts in 1631, whereupon he flung himself into the difficult task of reconstructing the local Indian population. To this end and with the help of the British Parliament, Eliot established some fourteen villages so that his "praying Indians" could live apart from harmful pagan influences. Most of these villages would eventually be taken over by white settlers, eager always for more space. Eliot's several Dialogues, written from the perspective of successful converts, were intended as guide books to aid in the challenge of swaying the spirits of the often-dubious Native Americans. An accomplished pamphleteer and a contributor to the Bay Psalm Book, the self-styled "Apostle to the Indians" went so far as to render the Bible into the native language Massachuset (sometimes called Natick), thus producing, in translation, the first Bible printed in North America.
