For 15. At the commencement of this cen- | pertinacity, the asperity of their manners, tury, Japan was filled with an astonishing their rustic mode of life, and other faults, multitude of people, whom the Jesuits injured rather than promoted the progress especially had convinced of the excellence of the Christian cause among that highof the Christian religion. But this very minded and discerning people. Yet all brilliant success was somewhat disturbed, these causes were by no means adequate to partly by the hatred of Christianity enter-arrest the progress of Christianity, or to tained by the national priests and by certain bring very great evils upon the immense nobles of the court, which gave rise to multitude who had made profession of this severe persecutions in one place and another religion. And perhaps means might have both of the newly converted Christians and been devised at Rome, if not for entirely their teachers, and partly by the internal removing yet for quieting and moderating broils and contentions among those who these contentions.' had the charge of this rising church. here as in other countries the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries waged a most pernicious war against the Jesuits. For both at the court of Rome and elsewhere, they taxed them with insatiable avarice, with too great indulgence both to the vices and the superstitions of the Japanese, with a crafty management unbecoming the ministers of Christ, with an eagerness to reign and give law, and with other crimes of no less magnitude. The Jesuits, on the other hand, complained that their accusers, by their imprudence, their ignorance of human nature, their deacons, and so on. A certain sacrifice called Ci, which consists of wine, blood, fruits, &c. is offered after the worshippers have prepared themselves for this ceremony by fasting and other acts of abstinence and mortification. They kneel before the inscription, prostrate the body nine times before it, until the head touches the ground, repeat a great variety of prayers; after which, the priest taking in one hand a cupful of wine and in the other a like cup filled with blood, makes a solemn libation to the deceased and dismisses the assembly with a blessing. The rites performed by families in honour of their deceased parents are pretty much of the same nature. Now, in order to know with certainty whether this festival and these rites be of a civil or a religious nature. we have only to inquire whether they be the same with those ceremonies which are performed by the Chinese in the worship they pay to certain celestial and terres trial spirits or genii, which worship is undoubtedly of a religious kind. The learned Leibnitz, in the preface to his Novissima Sinica, undertook to affirm that the consequently that the Jesuits were accused unjustly. But that great man does not appear to have examined this matter with his usua! sagacity and attention. For it is evident from a multitude of accounts every way worthy of credit, and particularly from the observations made on the Chinese missions by that learned and candid Franciscan Antonio de S. Maria (Ep. Leibnitist. vol. ii.), not only that Confucius was worshipped among the idols and the celestial and terrestrial spirits of the in honour of him were perfectly the same with those which were performed as acts of worship to these idols and spirits. Those who desire a more ample account of this matter may consult the following authors:Budæus, Annal. Histor. Philos. p. 287, where he treats De superstitioso Demortuorum apud Sinenses cultu; Wolfius, Not. ad Casaubon. p. 342; Charmos, Annot. ad Maigrotti Historiam Cultus Sinensis. especially Arnaud, Morale Pratique des Jésuites, tome iii. vi. vii. and a collection of historical relations published at Cologne in 8vo, in the year 1700, under the following title: Historia Cultus Sinensium, seu Varia Septa de Cultibus Sinarum inter Vicarios Apostolicos, PP. S. I. controversis.- Mack. services now mentioned were not of the same kind, and Chinese, but that the oblations and ceremonies observed et But more 16. But in the year 1615, the emperor of Japan himself commenced against the Christians a most direful persecution, which exceeds anything to be found in the whole history of the Christian church; and this persecution continued many years, and did not cease until it had exterminated Christianity from that empire. For the Christian religion was condemned as altogether intolerable, because it was deemed ruinous to the safety of the nation and to the majesty of their supreme pontiff, whom the populace of Japan believed to be the offspring of the gods themselves, and likewise to the most sacred institutions and religion of their ancestors. The foreign Christians therefore, the Portuguese especially and the Spaniards, were required to depart from the kingdom; and the Japanese who had renounced their idols were required to abandon Christ or undergo the most cruel death. This dreadful persecution destroyed an innumerable multitude of people of every class, age, sex, and rank, who preferred to die amid the most exquisite tortures rather than violate their vows of fidelity to Christ. And if either the Jesuits or their adversaries were guilty of faults while pleading the cause of Christ, they now as it were atoned for them by their own blood. For most of them gave themselves up to death for Christ with the greatest firmness, and some of them with joy and triumph. The causes of this horrid persecution are differently stated by different parties. The Jesuits throw some of the blame on the imprudent conduct of the Dominicans and Franciscans, and these in return ascribe it to the avaricious, factious, arrogant temper of the Jesuits. And both unitedly accuse the 1 Besides the writers mentioned by Fabricius, Lur Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. xl. p. 678, &c. see Charlevoix, Histoire Générale de Japon, tome ii. livr. xi. &c. p. 57, &c. 2 Kæmpfer has given a neat account of this protracted business in the sixth of those Dissertations which he has annexed to his History of Japan, sec. iv. &c. p. 6475, of the English edition. But it will also be but fair to hear the fuller statement of Charlevoix, who has omitted nothing that would go to excuse the Jesuits, in his Histoire Générale de Japon, tome ii. livr. xii. p. 136, &c. The other writers are mentioned by Fabri Dutch and English of studiously inflaming | against the Roman pontiffs; so that they the emperor of Japan with hatred against the Portuguese and Spaniards, as well as cius, Luz Evangelii toti orbi ezoriens, cap. xl. p. 678. Add the Acta Sanctorum, tom. i. Mensis Februarii, p. 723, &c. where may be seen the history of the church founded in Japan, and the life and death of those who were first slain by the Japanese on account of Christom. ii. p. 376, &c. [Francis Xavier first preached the gospel in Japan in 1549. After he left that country in 1552 great numbers were converted, and some Japanese became Jesuits. Schools and churches were erected even in the capital Meaco. tianity. Mamachius, Origines et Antiquit. Christianæ, embassy was sent to Rome. Christianity at that time In 1585 a Japanese seemed about to become the prevailing religion; there were at least 200,000 Christians, and among them princes, courtiers, chief nobles, and generals; the Bonzes and their religion were openly ridiculed, and the city which he founded, and he was on terms of intimacy with the Jesuits. But the base conduct of the be all a farce, and he became jealous of the designs of emperor had excluded paganism altogether from a new Europeans led the emperor to suspect Christianity to these strangers. He was also offended at the refusal of some converted females to surrender to him their chastity; and at the instigation of his favourite in 1587, he commenced a persecution. All Jesuits were Out of ordered to quit the country. Some obeyed, but others remained under the protection of the nobles. about 250 churches, 70 were pulled down. In 1590, But the more than 20.000 Christians lost their lives. next year added 12,000 new converts. In 1596 Spanish sea-captain driven upon the coast showed a chart of extensive countries subject to his master; and being asked how his master could conquer so many nations, he said, their missionaries went forward and prepared the minds of the people to favour him, and then fleets and armies made an easy conquest. This statement was transmitted to court, and produced great jealousy of the missionaries. The emperor swore that the Spaniards should never thus conquer Japan; and he immediately set himself to exterminate Chris tianity, which he called a devilish law. The mission aries were imprisoned, and not a few of them as well as their converts were put to death. The persecution continued several years. Yet in 1603 there were 120 Jesuits, most of them priests, in Japan. After this, an English officer of a Dutch ship cautioned the Japanese to beware of the military enterprises of the Spaniards; and represented the priests as designing men who had been excluded from most European countries, and who did not teach genuine Christianity. This produced a fresh persecution; and in the province of Nangasaki, where there had been more than 40,000 Christians, not one could be found in 1622; all had either renounced their religion or been put to death. Hitherto however the number of Christians in Japan had not diminished greatly; and some estimates make them to have been about 400,000, and others near 600,000. But now things began to take a different turn In 1616, jejas, guar dian to the young prince Fidejori (who was favourable to Christianity, as were many of the nobles), slew his ward and proclaimed himself emperor. The Jesuits were objects of his jealousy; and various causes induced him to forbid the farther spread of Christianity, and the ingress of monks and priests into the country. He likewise determined to bring back the Japanese Christians to the old religion. Edicts were issued for these purposes, but they were not at once rigorously executed. At length some Franciscan monks, sent as envoys from the Spanish governor of Manilla, imprudently ventured to preach openly in the streets of Meaco and to erect a church there. This exasperated the government and brought on a persecution, which is without a parallel in the annals of the church. Among the causes of it, were the intercepted letters mentioned in the text, giving account of a projected insurrection of the Christians as soon as a Spanish force should appear on the coast. As soon as these letters reached the court in 1637. decrees were passed requiring all foreigners to quit the country at once on pain of death, and subjecting every foreigner to the same penalty who should ever after set his foot in the country. The return of the Japanese Christians to paganism was now per alone might have control among the Japanese and might secure their commerce to themselves. The Dutch and English reply that neither the Spaniards nor any other adhe rents to the Roman pontiffs were accused by them, but only that the perfidy of the Spaniards was detected. And indeed nearly all agree in this, that the emperor was per. suaded by certain letters intercepted by the Dutch and by other evidence bearing a other teachers of the new religion designed strong probability, that the Jesuits and the to raise a sedition by means of their disciples, and to bring Japan under the power of the Spanish king; and hence the tyrant equally cruel and jealous, thought he could not be quiet and secure unless he destroyed every vestige of Christianity. From that time Japan has been closed against all foreigners, and even the phantoms of the Christian name are exterminated with fire and sword. A few of the Hollanders wh are allowed annually to import a sma quantity of European merchandise, live in an extreme corner of the kingdom, as it were enclosed in a prison. 17. Many respectable and pious men endeavoured to rouse the Lutherans, in imitation of the Catholics, to efforts for imparting Christian truth to the nations enveloped in the darkness of degrading superstition. No one was more zealous in this cause than the Austrian nobleman, Justinian Ernest, baron of Wels, who pro posed the formation of a society for this purpose which should bear the name c Jesus. But there were various causes, emptorily required, on pain of death. These decres were rigorously executed; and two years after, the Fo tuguese were all driven from the country, and only the Hollanders were allowed to introduce a small quantity of European goods, and to live as it were imprisoned to a corner of the empire. Thus fell the Japanese cha after it had stood very nearly a century. See Schroeck's Kirchengesch, seit der Reform. vol. iii. p. 668, &c.— Ms. 1 Arnold's Kirchen-und Ketzerhistorie, part ii, book xvii. chap. xv. sec. 23, &c. p. 1066, and part ini. chap xv. sec. 18, p. 150; Moller, Cimbria Literata, tom p. 75. [In 1664, this Hungarian baron published t letters addressed to the Lutheran community, on reformation of manners and on efforts for the copre sion of the heathen. In the first, he proposed these three questions-Is it right that we Evangelical Chr tians should keep the gospel to ourselves, and not se to spread it abroad? Is it right that we everywhere encourage so many to study theology, yet give them be opportunity to go abroad, but rather keep them, three, six, or more years, waiting for parishes to beco vacant or for the posts of schoolmasters? Is it right that we should expend so much in dress, high living useless amusements, and expensive fashions, yet hithet have never thought of any means for spreading the gospel? His proposal to form a missionary association was approved by some, but objected to by others, esje, cially among the higher clergy. He himself advane d 12.000 dollars for the object, went to Holland on the subject, and at length shipped for the Dutch West Indies to engage himself in missionary labour, but he wa no more heard of Some feeble attempts were made to get up a missionary association afterwards; but to Do certain that this nation after it had obtained a firm establishment in the East Indies, adopted at great expense various measures well calculated to imbue the natives with a knowledge of Christian principles.3 See the letters addressed to John Leusden, De Sue cess Eoragelii apud Indos Orientales, published at Utrecht, 1699, 8vo. and especially the situation of the Lutheran | under their power), are said to have reprinces few of whom possessed any territo- nounced the impious rites of their fathers." ries or fortified posts out of Europe, which If perhaps some extravagance may be prevented this matter from ever proceeding found in these narrations, yet it is most beyond good wishes and consultations. But the Reformed, and especially the English and the Dutch, whose mercantile adventures carried them to the remotest parts of the world and who planted extensive colonies during this century in Asia, Africa, and America, enjoyed the best advantages for 18. As the interior parts of Africa Proper extending the limits of the Christian church. | have not yet been accessible to Europeans, Nor did these nations wholly neglect this they still remain wholly destitute of the duty; although they are taxed with grasp-light of Christian truth. But in the mariing at the wealth of the Indians but neglecting their souls, and perhaps they did not perform so much as they might have done. Among the English, by an act of 3 See Braun's La véritable Religion des Hollandois, parliament in the year 1647, the business p. 71, 267, &c. Amsterd. 1675, 12mo. This work is in of propagating Christianity was committed answer to the malignant tract of Stoup, entitled, La to the care of a society composed of men that the Dutch have no regard for religion whatever. Religion des Hollandois, in which he would insinuate of the highest respectability and integrity. The Dutch conquered Ceylon from the Portuguese This society was revived in the reign of about the middle of this century, and immediately established there the Protestant religion, excluding all Charles II. A.D. 1661, and again confirmed others from every office. The Portuguese inhabitants, and invested with extraordinary privileges and the natives, both Catholics and pagans, in large numbers embraced the established faith at least in preand rights by William III. in the year tence. The country was divided into 240 parishes, a 1701; and being enriched with the splen-church was erected and a school established in each. did donations of kings, nobles, and private individuals, it has continued down to our own times. From this noble institution great advantages have been derived and are still daily derived, by many nations ignorant of Christ and especially by those in America. By the labours of the Dutch, an immense number of people in the island of Cevlon, on the coast of Malabar, in the island of Formosa, and in other countries of Asia, (which the Dutch either conquered from the Portuguese or otherwise brought purpose during this century. See the authors above cited. Mur. intendent. Every ten schools had a catechist who was their superAbout 15 clergymen were assigned to the island. In 1672 Baldæus, one of the Dutch ministers, gives account of 30 native churches in the province of Jaffnapatnam, in which were about 30,000 attendants on worship upon Sundays, and about 16,000 pupils in the schools during the week. Near the close of the ton, "that in and near the island of Ceylon, the Dutch pastors had baptised about 300,000 of the natives. (Mather's Eccles. Hist. of New England, book iii. p. 195. fol. edit.) The Dutch had also translated and published in the Cingalese language, considerable portions of the Bible, besides catechisms, prayers, and other Christian books. The Dutch having possessed themselves of a large part of the island of Java, opened a church in Batavia the capital, in the year 1621. Pursuing much the same plans here as at Ceylon, in the year 1721 they could reckon 100,000 Christians in Java, and two Dutch, two Portuguese, and one or two Malay churches at Batavia. The New Testament in Malay was printed at Amsterdam, 1668, at the expense of the Dutch East India Company. Soon after establishing the gospel in Java, the Dutch sent ministers from Batavia to the island of Amboyna; and in 1686, it is said, they had converted 30,000 of the natives. Here too schools were established and a number of ministers stationed, at the expense of the Dutch East India Company. In 1634, the Dutch formed a settlement on the western part of the island Formosa. Robert Junius of Delft was sent out by the Dutch government to establish Christianity there. He is said to have baptised 6000 persons, and to have set up schools in which about six hundred young men were century, Leusden wrote to Dr. Increase Mather of Bos 1 Kennet, Relation de la Société etablie pour la Propagation de l'Evangile par le Roy Guillaume III Rotterd. 1708, 12mo. [In 1649 an ordinance was passed by the English parliament, for the erection of a corporation, by the name of the President and Society for the propagation of the Gospel in New-England; and a general collection for its endowment was ordered to be made in all the countries, cities, towns, and parishes of England and Wales. Notwithstanding very considerable opposition to the measure, funds were raised in this manner, which enabled the society to purchase lands worth from five to six hundred pounds a year. On the restoration of Charles II. the corporation became dead in law; and Colonel Bedingfield, a Ro-taught to read. He composed some prayers and transman Catholic, who had sold to it an estate of 322 pounds per annum, seized upon that estate and refused to refund the money he had received for it. But in 1661 a new charter was granted by the king, and the honourable Robert Boyle brought a suit in chancery against Bedingfield and recovered the land. Boyle was appointed the first governor of the company, and held the office about thirty years. (See Brown's History of the Propagation of Christianity, vol. i. p. 62, &c. and Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, ed. of Toulmin, vol. iv. p. 360, &c. but especially the Connecticut Evang. Magazine, vol. iv. p. 1, &c.) It was this society which supported the various missionary operations in New-England during the seventeenth century. Their expendituro in the year 1661 amounted to £738 8s Id.--Mur. lated certain psalms into the Formosan language; and though his labours were chiefly in the northern parts of the island, yet he had planted churches in twentythree towns in the south, and had set pastors over them when he returned to Holland. In 1661, the gospels of Matthew and John were translated into the Formosan language by Dan. Gravius, and printed at Amsterdam, together with a Catechism. But probably before these books reached the island, it was captured by a Chinese pirate, and it has since belonged to the Chinese. Besides the converts in these places, the Dutch made many others in Sumatra, Timor. Celebes, Banda, Ternate, and the neighbouring Molucca Islands. Brown's Hist. of the Propagation of Christianity, vol i. chap. iii. p. 15-28.-Mur. See time parts, especially those where the Portuguese have obtained settlements, the power of the barbarous superstitions has here and there been prostrated, and the Romish rites have succeeded in their place. Yet the candid even of the Romish communion do not deny, that the number of those in this part of the world who deserve the appellation of genuine Christians is but small; that the greater part so worship Christ, as at the same time to follow the abominable superstitions of their fathers; and that even the best of them have many defects. What little advances Christianity has made in that country are to be ascribed almost wholly to the efforts of the Capuchins, who in this century encountered incredible toils and hardships in bringing some of the ferocious nations of Africa to a knowledge of Christ. They persuaded among others the kings of Owerra and Benin to admit the truth of Christianity; as induced the very cruel and heroic queen of Matamba, Anna Zingha, in 1652 to allow herself and people to be baptized. For the Roman pontiffs, or rather the society at Rome which superintends the propagation of Christianity, have judged that African missions for various reasons were attended with peculiar dangers and difficulties, and could not well be performed by any but those early accustomed to austere modes of living and to the endurance of hardships. Nor did the other Romish monks appear to envy very much the Capuchins their hardearned glory. 19. The India of the West or what is commonly called America is inhabited by innumerable colonists professing the Romish religion, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.2 But these colonists, especially the Spanish and Portuguese, as appears from the testi For illustration of these facts, besides Cerri, Etât Présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 222, &c. see Cavazzi, Relation Historique de l'Afrique [d' Ethiopie] Occidentale, which Labat published in French, tome iii. p. 433, &c. tome iv. p. 28, 354, &c. and nearly the whole work, which is chiefly occupied with the history of the missions performed by the Capuchins in Africa during the last century. [Maclaine finds all these references totally wrong. Schlegel says: Mosheim meant Father Fortunatus Alamandini's Historical Description of the kingdoms of Congo, Matamba, and Angola, in Italian, Bologna, 1687, fol. whose statements the Italian Capuchin and missionary, Cavazzi de Montecavallo, has copied. And these last, Labat actually translated in a free manner into French, and published in five volumes, 12mo, Paris, 1732, under the title, Relation Historique de Ethiopie Occidentale. And this last is the work which Mosheim had in his eye, and not that of the same Labat, which was also published in five volumes 12mo, in 1728, entitled, Nouvelle Relation de l'Afrique Occidentale.-Mur. mony of very respectable men belonging themselves to the Catholic church, are, even the priests not excepted, the lowest and most abandoned of all who bear the Christian name, and far surpass even the pagans in ridiculous rites and flagitions conduct. Those of the aboriginal Americans who have been reduced to servitude by the Europeans, or who reside in the vicinity of Europeans, have received some slight knowledge of the Romish religion from the Jesuits, Franciscans, and others; but the little knowledge they have received is wholly obscured by the barbarity of their customs and manners. Those Catholic priests of various orders and classes, who in modern times have visited the wandering tribes of the forests remote from the settlements of Europeans, have learned by experience that the Indians, unless they become civilized and cease to roam, are absolutely incapable of receiving and retaining on their minds the principles of Christianity. And hence, in some provinces both of South and North America Indian commonwealths have been founded by the Jesuits with great efforts, and guarded with laws similar to those of the Europeans; and the access of all Europeans to them has nearly been cut off, to prevent their being corrupted by European vices, while the Jesuits sustain the rank both of teachers and of magistrates among them. But while the Jesuits highly extol the merits and zeal of their order in this thing, others deny their claims, and maintain that they are more eager after public honours, wealth, and power, than the advancement of Christianity; and allege that they have collected immense quantities of gold from Paraguay which is subject to their sole authority and from other countries, which they have transmitted to their society in Europe." See in particular, Frezier, Voyage de la Mer du Sud, p. 167, 218, 328, 353, 402, 417, 432, 533. 4 An immense number of facts on this subject are found in the letters which the French Jesuits wrote to their European friends respecting the success of their missions, and which have been published at Paris. 5 Labat, when asked by Tamburini, the general of the order of the Jesuits, what progress Christianity was making among the Americans, boldly and frankly said. Either none or very little; that he had not met with one adult among those tribes who was truly a Chris tian, that the preachers among them were useful only by baptizing occasionally infants who were at the point of death. Voyage du P. Labat en Espagne et en Italie, tome viii. p. 7. "Je lui répondis qu'on n'y avoit fait jusqu'à présent d'autres progrès que de baptizer quelques enfans moribonds sans avoir pu convertir véritablement aucun adulte." He added that to make the Americans Christians, they must first be See the authors mentioned by Fabricius, Lux Evan-made men:-" Qu'il en falloit faire des hommes, avantgelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. xlviii. xlix. p. 769, &c. The state of the Romish religion in that part of America occupied by Christians, is briefly exhibited by Cerri, Etat Présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 245. que d'en faire des Chrétiens." This resolute Dominicaa who had been a missionary in the American islands wished to give the father of the Jesuits some salutary counsels respecting the immense possessions and wealth 20. In the American provinces which the British occupied in this century, the cause of Christianity was urged with more wisdom and of course with more success, upon the stupidity and amazing listlessness of the Indians. The glory of commencing this most important work is justly claimed by those Independents, as they are called, who had to forsake their country on account of their dissent from the religion established by law. Some families of this sect, that they might transmit uncontaminated to their children the religious principles they had embraced, removed in the year 1620 from Holland to New-England, and there laid the foundation of a new commonwealth. As these first adventurers were of his sons in the American islands, but the cautious old man dexterously avoided the subject "Je voulus le mettre sur les biens que la Compagnie possède aux spirit the same Labat checked the supreme pontiff himself, Clement XI. who commended the activity of the Spaniards and Portuguese in furthering the salvation of the Americans, but taxed the French with negligence in this very important matter:-the Spa Isles; il éluda délicatement cet Article." With no less not unsuccessful, they were followed in 1629 by very many of those called Puritans in England, who were impatient of the evils which they suffered from the persecution of the bishops, and of the court which favoured those bishops. But these emigrants had at first to encounter so many hardships and difficulties in the dreary and uncultivated wilderness, that they could pay but little attention to the instruction of the Indians. More courage and more leisure for such enterprises were enjoyed by the new Puritan exiles from England, who went to America in 1623 [1633], and subsequently, Thomas Mayhew, Thomas Shepherd, John Eliot, and many others. All these merited high praise by their efforts for the salvation of the Americans; but none more than Eliot, who by translating the holy Scriptures and other religious books into the Indian language, and by collecting and suitably instructing no small number of Christian converts among the barbarians, obtained after his death the honourable title of the Apostle of the Indians. These 2 Increase Mather's History of New-England, p. 126, &c.; Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 182, &c. [Cotton Mather's Eccles. History of New England, book i. chap. iv. &c. and the other writers mentioned in the preceding note.-Mur. niards and the Portuguese, said Labat, have no cause to boast of the success of their labours; they only induce the Indians to feign themselves Christians, through &c. [Cotton Mather's Eccles. Hist. of New-England, fear of tortures and death. "Les Missionaires Espag-book i. chap. ii. &c.; Prince's New-England Chrononols et Portugais n'avoient pas sujet de se vanter des logy; Holmes' American Annals, vol. i. and the other prétendues conversions des Indiens, puisqu'il étoit histories of the first planting of Colonies in New-Engconstant qu'ils n'avoient fait que des hypocrites, que la land.-Mur. crainte de la mort ou des tourmens avoit forcez à recevoir de baptême, et qui étoient demeurez après l'avoir reçû, aussi idolatres qu'auparavant." ubi supra, p. 12. To this testimony, so very recent and of so high authority, so many more ancient might be added that it would be difficult to recount them. See also respecting the American Jesuits, the Mémoire touchant l'Etablissement considérable des Pères Jésuites dans les Indes d'Espagne, which is added to Frezier's Relation du Voyage de la Mer du Sud, p. 577, &c.; Coreal, Voyages aux Indes Occidentales, tome ii. p. 67, 43, &c. See also Mamachius, Origines et Antiquitates Christianæ, tom. ii. p. 337, &c. Respecting the Jesuits occupying the province of Paraquaria or Paraguay, see Ulloa, Voyage d'Amérique, tome i. p. 540, &c. and Muratori's Tract published in 1743, in which he pleads their cause against their accusers. [A full and very favourable history of the Jesuit republic of Paraguay to A.D. 1747, with numerous documents and vouchers, may be found in the Jesuit Charlevoix's Histoire du Paraguay, Paris, 1757, 6 tomes, 12mo; also in English, but without the documents, London, 1769, 2 vols. 8vo. In 1752, the king of Spain having ceded a considerable part of this Jesuit republic to the king of Portugal in exchange for other territories, the Indians who dreaded the dominion of the Portuguese absolutely refused to be transferred, and resisted the commissioners of the two governments by force of arms. This revolt of the natives was ascribed to the influence of the Jesuits, their immediate rulers; and the enemies of that order seized this occasion to effect not only the subversion of this their republic, but likewise the overthrow of the order itself. The Portuguese government was the first to suppress the order; and to justify their proceeding they caused a narrative to be published which was printed at the Hague in French, in 1758, 8vo, with the title La Republique des Jésuites au Paraguay renversée, in which the character of the order is treated with no indulgence. From that time onward the order of Jesuits and their republic of Paraguay have been generally treated with execration. But of late many discerning writers, especially among the Protestants, defend the cause of the Jesuits and speak very favourably of their missionary labours in Paraguay.-Mur. Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 111; Böhm's Englische Reformationshistorie, book vi. chap. v. p. 807, 3 Hornbeck, De Conversione Indor. et Gentil. lib. ii. cap. xv. p. 260; Increase Mather's Epistola de Successi Evangelii apud Indos Occidentales ad Joh. Leusdenium, Utrecht, 1699, 8vo, [published also in English, in Cotton Mather's Eccles. History of New-England, book iii. p. 194, &c.] The Rev. John Eliot was born in England A.D. 1604. After leaving the university he taught school a few years, and then removed to New-England in 1631, in order to preach the gospel without molestation. The church in Boston would have settled him as a colleague with Mr. Wilson, but he had promised several friends in England that if they removed to America he would become their pastor. Accordingly on their arrival and settlement in Dorchester, he was ordained over them in November, 1632, and served them fifty-eight years or till his death in 1690. He early turned his attention to the Indians around him, learned their language in 1644, and two years after commenced a regular weekly lecture to them at Natic. It was in this year that the general court of Massachusetts passed an act or order to encourage the propagation of the gospel among the Indians. Eliot was countenanced and aided by the ministers around him, who frequently supplied his pulpit in his absence, and were always ready to afford him counsel, and also to aid him occasionally, so far as their ignorance of the Indian tongue would permit, in imparting religious instruction to the Indians. He not only preached regular weekly lectures at Natic, but likewise occasionally to the Indian congregations at Concord, Dorchester Mills, Watertown, and some other places. In the year 1670, he visited twelve towns or villages of Christian Indians under his care, in Massachusetts and along the Merrimac; in all of which there were Indian preachers regularly stationed, to serve them on Sundays and be their constant spiritual guides. At Natic there were two such teachers, and between forty and fifty communicants. For the use of these natives he translated into the Indian language, primers, catechisms, the Practice of Piety, Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, several of Mr. Shepherd's works, and at length the whole Bible, which |