Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/416

396 regularly established in the village. The savages were engaged by eye and sense before it was possible to reach their minds by any lessons. Heroic, resolute, and unflagging was the zeal of the missionary to master the language of his disciples, as teaching them his own or that of the Church was out of the question. He would select one of the most intelligent as his interpreter and instructor in his cabin. He would — as soon as he could venture to do so — make a vocabulary, and put his sacred formulas into the native tongue. Instances have been already mentioned in which roguish tricks were played upon the confiding missionary, odious and filthy terms being given to him in Indian as the equivalents of sacred words.

The station would be put under the name of a saint of the Church calendar, and be committed to his or her patronage. Sooner or later a miracle of mercy or help would attest that the pledge was recognized from above. There was never the slightest faltering in the mind of the Jesuit as to which incidents, events, and agencies he should assign to the saint, and which to the Devil. The division was generally an equal one. The daily routine of life in the lulls from the war or hunting excitements found all the natives gathered in early morning about the cross, or in the chapel, attending upon the Mass, and so towards evening on Vespers. Hours of the day were assigned for instruction. In every case the missionary was zealous to baptize every infant within his reach, especially those who were dangerously ill. The missionary meant to be scrupulous — we can hardly say cautious — about performing this saving rite for adults. Some instruction, with a generous and easy conviction that it was understood, must precede. The Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, a simple catechism, and a few hortatory words on the divine authority of the Church were the medium of full conversion.

The Fathers, alike from preference and from policy,