Page:Life among the Apaches.djvu/100

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94
LIFE AMONG THE APACHES.

continue even unto the end; to faint not by the way, nor become lukewarm. These people are God's children, as well as yourself. They are possessed of immortal souls, and if your lot has been cast, through the mercy of Providence, in a more elevated and useful condition of life, you should not contemn those who have been denied these benefits. The Almighty has created them for the express purpose of exercising your philanthropy, your brotherly love, and all your better and nobler qualities. Take the red man by the hand as you have done to his negro brother, and guide him gently, kindly toward a better state in this world and the hope of salvation hereafter.

I admit that these are very persuasive and forcible arguments; but, reverend sir, the red man absolutely refuses to come. He disdains to take my hand; he flouts my offered sympathy, and feels indignant at my presumption in proffering him my aid to improve his condition. He conceives himself not only my equal, but decidedly my superior. He desires only to be let alone. His forefathers lived well enough without our officious services, and he intends to do likewise. He is the man of the woods, the plains, the mountains, and looks upon us as the men of the towns and the cities. For no possible consideration would he change places or accept our domiciliary style of life, and without such domestication all our efforts are vain and idle. With calm and unruffled dignity he listens to all you say, and with unconcealed dislike he makes it a point to remember nothing he has heard, or, if remembering, to treasure it up as something to be avoided. Your counsels are considered as baits and traps, and your desire to domiciliate him as an effort to bring him under your control. You are and must ever remain, to him, an object of suspicion and