Christian Cyclopedia

(1604–90). “Apostle to the Indians” of N Am.; b. Eng.; Puritan; to Am. 1631; teacher in the ch.at Roxbury, Massachusetts 1632; first preached to Indians in their own tongue 1646; his Mahican Bible (NT 1661, OT 1663) was the 1st Bible pub. in Am.; founded 13 chs. (no. of converts est. 1674: ca. 4,000); educ. many native workers, including 24 preachers; received financial help from a miss. corporation in Eng.; many results of his work destroyed by King Philip's War (1675–76; named after Indian chief Philip, son of Massasoit).

Missionary Explorers Among the American Indians, ed. M. G. Humphreys (New York, 1913), pp. 1–28; W. G. Polack, John Eliot: The Apostle to the Indians in Men and Missions, ed. L. Fuerbringer, I (St. Louis, 1924); J. T. Adams, “John Eliot,” Dictionary of American Biography, ed. A. Johnson and D. Malone, VI (New York, 1943), 79–80.