Whereas there is a Report Spread abroad that the meeting of
Gwedelhes Agwirondongwas (by the Engliſh called
Peter) &c of
Onohoquagee,
and
M.r
Eliſha
Gun, Interpreter at the very Inſtant when the
Board of Corriſpondants were coming together, at my House
March 12. 1765. was by Some previous Notice or
appointment
and not So providential, and remarkable as was repreſented
in the public Prints. I lake this Opportunity to inform the
Publick that the Repreſentation made of that matter was the
Truth; and in every Circumſtance as remarkable, to the full,
as was repreſented; nor did I ever know or hear of anyone
who had the leaſt thought or Expectation of such a Meeting, or
that there ever had been any Endeavors used to procure it. or
that
^any one of^ either Party had any Expectation of meeting the other at
that
Time.
And where as it is reported that the world have been imposed
upon by the Repreſentation made that
M.r
Sampſon Occom an
Indian Miniſter, was bread a Heathen, ‘till he had arived near
or quite to the State of Manhood. I do now certify the publick
of the Truth of that Matter by giving you his own account of
it which
he Sent to me from
Boſton, on hearing the falſe
[illegible][guess: Re‐]‐ports made of that matter and injurious
Reports made
of that of that matter juſt before his Embarkation for
Europe,
viz.
“I was born a Heathen in
Mouayauhecunnak, alias
Mohegan in
New London —
my Parents were altogether Heathens —
and I was educated by them in their heatheniſh Notions —
and though there was a Sermon preachd to our
Mohegan Tribe Some Times, yet
many of the Indians regarded not the
Chriſtian Religion at all, but perſiſted in their heatheniſh
ways — and my Parents in particular,
^who^
were very Strong in the
Cuſtoms of their forefathers — They led a wandering Life up and
down
down in the Wilderneſs,
[illegible][guess: for]
^as^ my Father was a great Hunter
— and thus I lived
with them ‘till I was ſixteen years old —
[illegible]after thi
[illegible]s
there was a great religious Concern in those
parts, in which the Indians ſhared —
at this Time
y.
s
^extraordy
[illegible: [guess: Stories]]
gaind my attention &^ I began to hear
and think about the chriſtian Religion, and was under
great Trouble in mind for Some Time — I
thought that
the Religion which I heard at this Time was a new
thing among
mankind; and that they never had
heard of ſuch a way of Salvation before so ignorant
was I — and when I was
seventeen years old, I got
a Hope in Chriſt — and as my mind was affected with the
things of Religion, I began to
learn to read, though I
went to no School ‘till I was in my 19
th year, when I
went to the
Rev.d
M.r Wheelock’s and spent four years
there, and was moſt of the Time in a very low State of
Health. This is a True account of that
part of my Life
and Education.
Sampſon Occom
Boſton
Nov.r 28. 1765
and this account perfectly agrees with the account
what he has told me, and which I Suppose is well [illegible][guess: known]
to be true
[illegible][guess: Teſt.]
Eleazar Wheelock
This
^ſhort^ account of himſelf perfectly agrees with what he
has
told me more fully told me.
and it is what, I ſuppose,
is well known to be true.
Teſt
Eleazar Wheelock —
[right]false Reports of Peters Coming
& of M.r Occom Rectified in the public Prints — Feby. 1766.