It is impossible to estimate the number of this aboriginal population.  Doubtless the popular impression is an exaggerated one.  It would be safe to say that, all told, there were never at any one period, more than half a million of these people, occupying the present territory of the United States from ocean to ocean.  They were widely scattered, so that there were great stretches of forest and prairie lying between the different tribes.

There were many groups, distinct in their languages, which yet bore a general resemblance to each other in construction, so that the several tribes could at least easily learn to understand each other.  I think that the weight of authority is, that they belong to one family of nations, and are derived from one stock, while they display considerable diversities in language and customs.

The motive of the early settlers of New England, which took precedence over all others—­as they declared—­was “a desire to advance the gospel in these remote parts of the world, even if they should be but stepping-stones to those who were to follow them.”  Finding these barbarous tribes here, the Pilgrim Fathers bartered with them for peaceable possession, which they did not always secure.  As civilization encroached upon barbarism, the colonists kept their homes often only by the defences of war.  But peace was in the hearts and purposes of the early settlers.

As early as 1643, the Rev. John Eliot, who had been educated at the University of Cambridge, England, and who had come to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1630, wrote that he had “been through varieties of intercourse with the Indians, and had many solemn discourses with all sorts of nations of them.”  It was his theory that they were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.  He acquired their language.  It was an arduous undertaking, but he said “Prayer and pains through faith in Christ Jesus will do anything.”

In 1660, he had visited all the Indians in the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies, and preached the gospel to them, and the first Indian church was then formed.

In 1661, he had translated the New Testament into the Indian tongue, and in 1663, the Old Testament.  This Indian Bible was published at Cambridge, and was the only Bible printed in America until a much later period.  Besides this, Eliot instituted schools, and induced large numbers to give up their savage customs and habits, and to form themselves into civilized communities.

The zeal of Eliot quickened that of others, and in 1674, there was a missionary circuit of 14 villages and 1,100 praying Indians.