Page:Life and journals of Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by.djvu/143

 sent, and in a few minutes about a dozen collected. The substance of my discourse was as follows: — 1st. I made known to them the words of the Great Spirit, concerning the depravity and miserable condition of man by nature; and 2nd. The mercy of God in sending his Son into the world, to make people good, wise, and happy, both in this world and the world to come. I then related to them the conversion of the Indians at the Credit. Belleville, Rice Lake, and Lake Simcoe. I told them how they had forsaken their destroyer, the fire-waters, so that now, instead of getting drunk, quarrelling, and fighting; they loved the Great Spirit, and one another, and prospered in many things. I also informed them that our father, the Governor, had built us a village at the Credit, where our people and their children could live comfortably. After a short pause Kanootong made the following objections: "Brother — I am glad to see you and hear from your people, but with respect to Indians becoming Christians, I cannot think it right; for when the Great Spirit made the white man and the Indian, he did not make them of one colour, and therefore did not design them to worship in the same way; for he placed the white man across the great waters, and there gave him his religion written in a book; he also made the white man to cultivate the earth, and raise cattle, &c. ; but when the Great Spirit made the Indian, he placed him in this country, and gave him his way of worship written in his heart, which has been handed down from one generation to another; for his subsistence, he gave him the wild beasts of the forest, the fowls that fly in the air, the fish that swim in the waters, and the corn for his bread; and, before the white man came to this country the Indian did not know the use of iron, but for an axe he used a stone sharpened at one end, tied to a split stick; with this he cut his wood; and for his hoe he split the limb of a tree; he had also stone pots to cook with; these things answered his purpose, and he