318 The Slaver and the Missionary 
which, during its short tenure of office, bore a re¬ 
markable family resemblance to that of the Jesuit 
missions in South America. The religious des¬ 
potism was complete, a tyranny grossly aggravated 
by the credulity, the bigotry, and the superstition, 
—I will not say of the age, because such things are 
of all ages, but of the imperfect education which 
the age afforded. There was no improvement, 
but rather a deterioration from the days of Pliny. 
One father tells the converts that comets forbode 
ill to the world. Another describes a bird not 
much unlike a sparrow, at first sight it seems 
wholly black, but upon a nearer view it looks blue ; 
the excellency of its song is that it harmoniously 
and articulately pronounces the name of Jesus 
Christ. A third remarks, “ they (the heathen) are 
excited by the heavens forming a cross under 
the zone ; they are excited by the mountains which 
have the cross carved on them, without knowing 
by whom; they are excited by the earth which 
draws the crucifix in its fruit called Nicefo.” Yet 
all these things are of little force to move the 
hearts of those Gentiles who scoffingly cry, 
“ When we are sick, forsooth, the wood of this 
cross will cure us ! ” Another father, resolving to 
denounce certain heathen practices, placed on the 
Feast of Purification an image of the Virgin in 
relievo upon the altar, and “ with a dagger struck 
through her breast on which the blood followed : ” 
