482 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



absolute, in the main they wielded it with moderation if not 

 always with discretion ; and, if they placed the spiritual welfare 

 of their children above their earthly good, it was due to the times 

 and their calling. It may be added that the same error is too 

 often to be discerned in missionary systems the world over. In 

 order to Christianize, the missionary should first educate. 



The best proof of the good character and kindness of the 

 fathers is to be found in the fact that many of the neophytes 

 cherished an unbounded affection for them, as is attested by 

 many contemporaries. Nevertheless, from first to last of mission 

 rule, discontent was rife among the converts, and had the mission 

 Indian possessed but a spark of the courage which characterizes 

 our Eastern tribes, mission sway would have been short-lived. 

 Imagine a body of Iroquois driven to church by the whip, or 

 forced to kneel by being punched with goads ! The evidences of 

 discontent appear in the threatened uprising at all the missions 

 and the actual revolts at several, by the hostile attitude of all the 

 gentile tribes who were brought into direct or indirect relation 

 with the missions ; and, above all, by the numerous yearly deser- 

 tions at every establishment. The causes of trouble are not far 

 to seek. In the first place it is evident that, call it by what name 

 you will, the neophytes were subjected to a state of slavery — a 

 slavery, too, which galled, however mild the type, but from which 

 they found it exceedingly difficult to escape ; for, in addition to 

 the aid of the soldiers in hunting renegades, the priests could 

 usually count upon the assistance of the gentile tribes to return 

 fugitives. The wild Indians hated the neophytes, and the rule 

 among them was — once a neophyte always a neophyte. How 

 strongly linked was the chain which bound the neophyte appears 

 in the provision that, even when liberty was given him after ten 

 years' service, a portion of his earnings was still claimed by the 

 Church. The crops the neophytes were compelled to sow were 

 sown mainly for the profit of others, the harvests they reaped 

 were not their own. Thus the usual incentives of toil were 

 absent. Though professedly regarded as a child by the fathers, 

 the Indian was virtually a slave. 



The sudden breaking up of all tribal ties and the substitution 

 of arbitrary authority for the independence of the liberty -loving 

 Indian, together with the complete change of life, must also have 

 been irksome and productive of unhappiness. 



Possibly, however, the most potent of all causes for discontent 

 is to be ascribed to the fearful mortality which from the very 

 first raged among the mission folds. Its sources are somewhat 

 obscure, although it is safe to attribute it largely to what may be 

 termed unnatural conditions of life. It is stated, and it may be 

 readily believed, that when visited by even trifling disorders the 



