Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/417

Rh to abstain as far as possible from confusing the minds of the savages with abstract instruction, with arguments or explanations. The savages assented most readily to propositions which they least understood. Implicit trust and obedience were what was required of them, and, within a limited range, yielded. Especially were the Fathers — quite unlike all Protestant missionaries in this respect — very careful not to interfere with the habits, the modes of life, the inclinations, the superstitions even, of the savages, beyond what was absolutely indispensable for their purposes. They did not aim to civilize the savages, to confine them to industrious toils and handicrafts, to limit their roaming life, to meddle with their usages, to change their relations to their chiefs and warriors, or to restrain their warlike ferocity, or absolutely to forbid polygamy. In their earlier residence and work among the savages the Jesuits found their wisdom, patience, and efforts sufficiently tasked in securing their own footing, in having their presence tolerated among a wild, suspicious, and capricious set of stolid and superstitious barbarians. At times they needed to practise extreme caution, to show no fear, to temporize and endure, but never to yield, give over effort, or run away. The jealous savages, forming but the faintest conception of the real object, the wholly unselfish and consecrated aim, of the missionary, would imagine all evil of him. On occasions of plagues or prevailing diseases, many an evil eye would be turned upon the Jesuit; the knife or tomahawk would be threateningly brandished, on the dark, dread suspicion that he had artfully introduced the malady and was working hellish charms upon them. The missionary, thwarted and threatened, stood firm and unquailing. He was perfectly willing, he would have been triumphantly happy, to die as a martyr; but if in haste, or lack of prudence, or heat of zeal he in any way provoked or facilitated death, or failed to use every human effort to avert it, he lost the glorious palm.