Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/332

 abandonment of the helpless infant—the capricious discarding of wife and children—the wanton effusion of human blood—are no longer known amongst them. Our feelings are not outraged by the brutal practice, heretofore so commonly witnessed, of a father considering a horse a fair exchange for his daughter; the justice of allowing the young Indian maiden to choose her future partner for life is now universally allowed;—the requisite care of their offspring is regarded in its proper light, as a Christian duty;—attention is paid to the wants of the sick;—changes of treatment, with the remedies administered according to our advice, have probably been the means, under Providence, of rescuing many from premature death. The long-cherished vindictive feelings which so frequently led to depopulating wars, are now supplanted by a Christian sense of justice, which, if unfortunately compelled to take up arms, does so only to repel unjust aggression or defend their inherent rights, but always with the fullest confidence in the protecting arm of Heaven.

Indeed their unbounded confidence in the God of battle, is well rewarded; a truth which the {293} enemies of the Flat-Heads invariably acknowledge. "The medicine of the Black-gowns," (an expression synonymous with the true religion,) "is," say they, "the strongest of all." Did time permit, I could adduce almost innumerable instances to confirm the belief universally entertained here, that Almighty God visibly protects them in the wars they are compelled to wage with the hostile tribes. A few of these, for the authenticity of which I can vouch, may suffice for the present.

In 1840, when threatened by a formidable band of Black-Feet, amounting to nearly eight hundred warriors, the Flat-Heads and Pends-d'Oreilles, scarcely numbering