persecuted, wandering Quaker woman had rested in it for a moment. The
children were so much excited, that Grandfather found it necessary to
bring his account of the persecution to a close.

"In 1660, the same year in which Mary Dyer was executed," said he,
"Charles the Second was restored to the throne of his fathers. This king
had many vices; but he would not permit blood to be shed, under pretence
of religion, in any part of his dominions. The Quakers in England told him
what had been done to their brethren in Massachusetts; and he sent orders
to Governor Endicott to forbear all such proceedings in future. And so
ended the Quaker persecution,—one of the most mournful passages in the
history of our forefathers."

Grandfather then told his auditors, that, shortly after the above
incident, the great chair had been given by the mint-master to the Rev.
Mr. John Eliot. He was the first minister of Roxbury. But besides
attending to his pastoral duties there, he learned the language of the red
men, and often went into the woods to preach to them. So earnestly did he
labor for their conversion, that he has always been called the apostle to
the Indians. The mention of this holy man suggested to Grandfather the
propriety of giving a brief sketch of the history of the Indians, so far
as they were connected with the English colonists.

A short period before the arrival of the first Pilgrims at Plymouth, there
had been a very grievous plague among the red men; and the sages and
ministers of that day were inclined to the opinion, that Providence had
sent this mortality, in order to make room for the settlement of the
English. But I know not why we should suppose that an Indian’s life is
less precious, in the eye of Heaven, than that of a white man. Be that as
it may, death had certainly been very busy with the savage tribes.