300 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
falls or rapids, nor, indeed, was it quite necessary here. 
We took less notice of the scenery to-day, because we 
were in quite a settled country. The river became 
broad and sluggish, and we saw a blue heron winging 
its way slowly down the stream before us. 
We passed the Passadumkeag River on our left and 
saw the blue Olamon mountains at a distance in the south¬ 
east. Hereabouts our Indian told us at length the story 
of their contention with the priest respecting schools. He 
thought a great deal of education and had recommended 
it to his tribe. His argument in its favor was, that if you 
had been to college and learnt to calculate, you could 
“ keep ’em property, — no other way.” He said that his 
boy was the best scholar in the school at Oldtown, to 
which he went with whites. He himself is a Protestant, 
and goes to church regularly in Oldtown. According to 
his account, a good many of his tribe are Protestants, and 
many of the Catholics also are in favor of schools. Some 
years ago they had a schoolmaster, a Protestant, whom 
they liked very well. The priest came and said that 
they must send him away, and finally he had such influ¬ 
ence, telling them that they would go to the bad place at 
last if they retained him, that they sent him away. The 
school party, though numerous, were about giving up. 
Bishop Fenwick came from Boston and used his influ¬ 
ence against them. But our Indian told his side that 
they must not give up, must hold on, they were the 
strongest. If they gave up, then they would have no 
party. But they'answered that it was “no use, priest 
too strong, we’d better give up.” At length he per¬ 
suaded them to make a stand. 
The priest was going for a sign to cut dowp the lib¬ 
erty-pole. So Polis and his party had a secret meeting 
