.MTAxNg.NjcyNTM
1 number in top left margin A true & impartial narrative, of the doeings & suffering of the christian or praying Indians, In New England in the time of the warre beetwene the English & barborus Heathen which beegan the 20th of June 1675:
For as much as sundry persons have taken paines to write & publish historical narratives of the warre beetwene the English & Indians in New England, but very litle hath beene hitherto declared (that I have sene) concerning the christian Indians who in Reality may be judged to have had normal strikethrough some strikethrough/ shame in the effects & consequens of this warre, I thought it might have attendenty to Gods Glory & to give satisfaction to such worthy & good pensions, as have beene benafactors & welwillers to that pious work of Gospelizing the poore Indians in New England, to give them a right information how these Ch[ris]tian Natives, have demeaned themselves in this house of tribulation. And therefore (through divine assistance) I shall endeavor to give a particular & real acct of this affayrie In efort I come to declare matter of fact I shal promise some things nescecary to bee understood, for the better charms of our ensueing discourse. The Chtian Indians in New England have three dwellings in sundry Jurisdictions of the English colonies & that as a considerable distance from each other. more particulary. 1: upon the Ilands of Nantucket & Marthas vineyard in which two Ilands [sic: Islands] there inhabite many hundreds of them. that visibly profess the Gospell; These Indians have felt very litle of this warre comparitively, for the English that dwell upon these Ilands, have held a good corespondans wth these Indiens all the time of the warre as they did before the warre began. The only sufferings of these Chrians Indians was that they were of coming up in the sumer during the warre to work for the english in the massachusats colony, whither many scores of them did usually repayre to work wherby they and their families were accomadated with nescicery clothing, which is scarce & deare upon these Ilands, besides several of these indians belonging to the Ilands beeing at worke at some of the English townes when the warre began in the sumer 1674 were not permitted to stay in the colonies