LOYOLA AND HIS FOLLOWERS 111 



which were to be immediately reported, whilst he 

 himself was watched in turn ; diplomacy, in assum- 

 ing disguises of soldiers, merchants, astrologers and 

 mandarins for the purpose of making converts and 

 enlarging the flock folded in the Church of Rome. 

 Only in the light of such discipline is it possible to 

 understand the sufferings and hardship endured by 

 these first missionaries to the North American 

 Indians. When prisoners fell into the hands of 

 their captors, the belief that baptism was all that 

 was needed to insure eternal bliss no doubt helped 

 to reconcile the priests to the torture and unspeak- 

 able cruelties they witnessed. Indians who declined 

 baptism when free, submitted to it under torture. 

 The Jesuits regarded with equanimity any agony 

 that directly led to so desirable a result. Cases are 

 on record where the priests, themselves prisoners, 

 had the forejoints of their fingers bitten off by their 

 tormentors, and with their bleeding hands baptized 

 their fellow-sufferers in their dying agonies. Under 

 cover of giving drink to a prisoner burning at the 

 stake, a portion of the water would be spilt on the 

 victim, and the formula of baptism surreptitiously 

 pronounced. 



The eagerness to perform the ceremony took no 

 account of the character of the subject. A dying 

 Algonquin threw himself on an Iroquois prisoner and 

 tore his ear off with his teeth, but the Algonquin was 

 baptized by a priest immediately after the brutal act. 



