MICMAC INDIANS. 143 



neighboring provinces. The French soon man- 

 aged to be on good terms with the natives ; they 

 settled among them and traded with them, 

 lived often in their wigwams and married their 

 daughters. More than this, French priests came 

 out and lived with them and learned their 

 language, and converted them to their creed. 

 This was not a difficult task, for the Indians be- 

 lieved in a good spirit who made all good 

 things ; in an evil spirit who was the author of 

 all evil. They believed in a heaven and a hell, 

 and also a middle state, or purgatory, says 

 Father Vetromile. This was a long start in the 

 right direction, and the devoted missionaries 

 gathered them all into the Roman Church, 

 where, as a rule, their descendants remain. 

 Before their conversion they were veiy cruel 

 in war, and afterward they perpetrated dreadful 

 deeds, but white Christians were setting them 

 no better example. In New England Eliot, 

 Tupper and Mayhew were preaching to the 

 Indians with a desire to save their souls, but all 

 their work bore no great fruit. Eliot translated 

 the Bible into their language, and I believe 

 there is not a man who can read it, unless 

 Father Vetromile be still alive. One may well 

 doubt that it ever served the purpose intended. 

 The New England white men who brought 



