Note 420 — JOURNAL OF OUR VOYAGE FROM NEW NETHERLAND

Rev. John Eliot (1604-1690), the Apostle to the Indians, came over to Massachusetts in 1631 and in 1632 was ordained as "teacher" of the church of Roxbury. He soon engaged in efforts to Christianize the Indians, and in 1646 began to preach to them in their own tongue. He formed a community and church of "praying Indians" at Natick, and others elsewhere. His translation of the Bible into the dialect of the Massachusetts Indians was completed in 1658. The first edition of the New Testament, printed at Cambridge, was issued in 1661, the whole Bible (Old Testament of 1663, New Testament of 1661 imprint, and metrical version of the Psalms) in 1663.