Eliot, John

John (1604-1690), the apostle of the Indians of North America. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, England. He emigrated to Massachusetts Bay with the family of Rev. Thomas Hooker. He became interested in the Massachusetts Indians and set himself at work to learn their language, residing, for the purpose, among them. He wrote a catechism for their use, the first book ever published in an Indian language. No copy of it exists. He translated the Bible into the Indian language. It was printed at Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was the first Bible printed in America. Eliot's Bible, as it is now called, is a rare book and fetches almost any price. Writer and readers have passed away. It is said that no one now living can read more than the title page. Eliot was a man of simple habits and unassuming manners. He lived to the age of eighty-six. John Eliot, a grandson of the former, was the pastor of Killingworth, Connecticut. He wrote a collection of essays upon Field Industry, the first volume of agricultural writing published in America. See Puritans