AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE DOINGS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS IN NEW ENGLAND, IN THE YEARS 1675, 1676, 1677 IMPARTIALLY DRAWN BY ONE WELL ACQUAINTED WITH THAT AFFAIR, A ND PRESENTED UNTO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE CORPORATION RESIDING IN LONDON, APPOINTED BY THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY FOR PROMOTING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS IN AMERICA. PRELIMINARY NOTICE. IN preparing the following brief sketch of the principal incidents in the life of the author of “The History of the Christian Indians,” the Publishing Committee have consulted the original authorities cited by the -American biographical writers, and such other sources of information as were known to them, for the purpose of insuring greater accuracy; but the account is almost wholly confined to the period of his residence in New England, and is necessarily given in the most concise manner. They trust, that more ample justice will yet be done to his memory by the biographer and the historian. DANIEL GOOKIN was born in England, about A. D. 1612. As he is termed “a Kentish soldier” by one of his contemporaries, who was himself from the County of Kent, 1 it has been inferred, with good reason, that Gookin was a native of that county. In what year he emigrated to America, does not clearly appear; but he is supposed to have first settled in the southern colony of Virginia, from whence he removed to New England. Cotton Mather, in his memoir of Thompson, a nonconformist divine of Virginia, has the following quaint allusion to our author “A constellation of great converts there Shone round him, and his heavenly glory were. GOOKINS was one of these. By Thompson's pains, Christ and New England a dear Gookins gains.” A gentleman of the same name, “Master Daniel Gookin,”- (as he is styled,) accompanied by “fifty men of his own, and thirty passengers, well provided, arrived out of Ireland,” in Virginia, Nov. 22d, 1621. He was one of twenty-six persons, to whom patents of lands were granted in that year, and who are said to “have undertaken to transport great multitudes of people and cattle to Virginia.” 2 Having fulfilled his contract with the Virginia Company, by bringing them cattle and other supplies from Ireland, he settled in the colony at a place called Newport's News. 3 This gentleman is stated by several writers to have been the father of General Gookin; but the only circumstances authorizing even a conjecture to that effect, are the identity of name, and the fact that both lived in Virginia. A circumstance of an opposite character has been already alluded to, which seems to imply that Gookin had acquired his knowledge of arms in Kent; but, had he gone to Virginia with his father in 1621, when only about nine years of age, and remained there until his removal to New England, as is supposed, he could not well have borne arms in Kent. The Non-conformists were banished from Virginia in 1643; and in the following year, an “Indian Massacre” occurred in the same colony. “Upon these troubles,” says Governor Winthrop, writing at that period, “divers godly disposed persons came from thence to New England.” A ship containing a party of these exiles arrived at Boston, May 20th, 1644; and, as Gookin was admitted a freeman of the Colony on the 29th of the same month, he is supposed to have arrived in that ship.4 He resided at first in Boston, and subsequently in Cambridge, where he was placed in command of the military force of the town. It seems probable from this circumstance that he brought with him some reputation for skill in the art of war, especially since he is described by a contemporary historian as “a very forward man to advance martial discipline.” At a subsequent date, he was elected to the office of Major-General, or Commander-in-chief of the Colony; the governor at that period exercising no military command. Soon after his settlement in Cambridge, Gookin was elected by the freemen of that town to represent them in the General Court, and, in 1651, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Deputies. The succeeding year, he became an assistant, or one of the general magistrates of the Colony. But the office to which he devoted the energies of the residue of a long life, was that of Superintendent of the Indians within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. With the exception of two or three years passed in England, during the ascendency of Oliver Cromwell, he sustained this relation towards the Indians of the colony from the date of his first appointment in 1656, to his death, a period of more than thirty years. In conjunction with the excellent Eliot, he watched over their interests with the most unwearied care and anxiety, and sought every means to spread among them the blessings of civilization and Christianity. The Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, who were the agents of an English Corporation for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians, recommended, in one of their despatches to the government of the corporation, that a pecuniary allowance should be made to Gookin for his useful labors. “We have spoken,” they write, “with Mr. Eliot and others, concerning Captain Gookin's employment among the Indians, in governing of them in several plantations, ordering their town affairs (which they are not able to do themselves), taking account of their labor and expense of their time, and how their children profit in their learning, with many things of a like nature, and find it is to be of much use and benefit to them, and therefore could not but desire him to go on in that work, and have ordered £15 to be paid him towards his expenses for the year past.” This letter was dated at Boston, Sept. 18th, 1663. The recommendation was approved by the Corporation, who directed a similar sum to be paid to Mr. Gookin for another year. 5 Unfortunately, however, the policy adopted by Gookin towards the Indians did not at all times escape the censure of the public; for, during the troubles that arose from the aggressions of the hostile tribes, the people could with difficulty be restrained from involving in one common destruction the whole race; and, while it required the most determined spirit on the part of the Superintendent to stem the torrent of popular violence, he did not fail to draw on himself undeserved odium and reproach. Gookin was eminently the friend of the Indians, and never hesitated to interpose his own safety between the infuriated white man, and the unoffending object of his vengeance. But the following pages will tell the story with the guileless simplicity of truth, and the sober dignity of conscious rectitude. There is some satisfaction in knowing, that, during the latter part of his active career, Gookin enjoyed a full return of public favor and confidence. The same unshaken spirit of resistance to oppression, that had led him to protect the sons of the forest against popular injustice, again animated him when the agents of the Crown invaded the chartered rights of the Colony; but in this contest his zealous efforts were rewarded by the smiles of general approbation. He died at Cambridge, on the 19th of March, 1687, aged seventy-five years. A handsome monument was erected to his memory in the churchyard adjacent to the University, where he lies buried. He left three sons, one of whom was Sheriff of the County of Middlesex, and the others were reputable clergymen. One of his posterity, bearing the name of Daniel Gookin, was an officer in the American army during the Revolutionary war. There are now living, in various parts of the country, numerous lineal descendants of General Gookin, of the fifth and sixth generation. Beside the present work, Gookin wrote a history of New England, which was never printed, and is now probably lost. The original manuscript, and only copy of it, is supposed to have been destroyed in the dwelling-house of his son, at Sherburne, Mass., which, with its contents, was consumed by fire. Another work, entitled “Historical Collections of the Indians in New England,” &c., was first published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, in 1792. For their MS. copy of the present work, the Antiquarian Society are indebted to Mr. JARED SPARKS, the learned editor of the WRITINGS OF WASHINGTON, and other valuable works, well known to the public. The following letter from Mr. Sparks to a member of the Council of the Society, contains all the information relating to the original MS. that has been obtained. LETTER OF MR. SPARKS. “Cambridge, Sept. 4th, 1835. “DEAR SIR, “The Rev. Dr. Harris has requested me to state to you what I know respecting the manuscript letter of Daniel Gookin to Robert Boyle, on the Praying Indians, which is about to be printed by the Antiquarian Society. I have very little knowledge of the matter. Five years ago, I obtained the manuscript from the Rev. Mr. Campbell, of Pittsburg, who had recently brought it from England. It was put into his hands by a clergyman in that country. Mr. Campbell loaned it to me. A copy was taken, and the original was returned to him. It bore every mark of antiquity, and I have no doubt of its genuineness. The manuscript was examined by Mr. Savage and Dr. Harris, who were also satisfied that the letter was written by Gookin. In short, the internal evidence is of itself a sufficient proof. Mr. Campbell told me that he had promised to return the original to its owner in England.