44 THE HURON MISSION. [1633. 



them, if they will, with credulity, superstition, 

 or a blind enthusiasm ; but slander itself cannot 

 accuse them of hypocrisy or ambition. Doubt- 

 less, in their propagandism, they were acting in 

 concurrence with a mundane policy ; but, for the 

 present at least, this policy was rational and hu- 

 mane. They were promoting the ends of com- 

 merce and national expansion. The foundations 

 of French dominion were to be laid deep in the 

 heart and conscience of the savage. His stubborn 

 neck was to be subdued to the " yoke of the 

 Faith." The power of the priest established, that 

 of the temporal ruler was secure. These sangui- 

 nary hordes, weaned from intestine strife, were to 

 unite m a common allegiance to God and the 

 King. Mingled with French traders and French 

 settlers, softened by French manners, guided by 

 French priests, ruled by French oflftcers, their now 

 divided bands would become the constituents of 

 a vast wilderness empire, which in time might 

 span the continent. Spanish civilization crushed 

 the Indian ; English civilization scorned and neg- 

 lected him ; French civilization embraced and cher- 

 ished him. 



Policy and commerce, then, built their hopes on 

 the priests. These commissioned interpreters of 

 the Divine Will, accredited with letters patent frcm 

 Heaven, and affiliated to God's anointed on earth, 

 would have pushed to its most unqualified appli- 

 cation the Scripture metaphor of the shepherd and 

 the sheep. They would have tamed the wild man 

 of the woods to a condition of obedience, unques- 



