CHAPTER VII.
MISSIONARY EFFORTS AMONG THE INDIANS.
I. General Remarks on Aims and Methods in the Work. — II. Roman Catholic Missionaries. — III. Protestant Missionaries.
In the Introductory pages of this volume a brief reference
was made to the fact that many earnest and costly
efforts had been exerted by the white colonists of this
continent to offset and atone for, by benefits and blessings, the
injuries they had inflicted upon the natives. The subject
of Christian missions for their conversion, civilization, and
instruction was deferred for this more deliberate treatment.
So large and comprehensive a theme as this, with all its
variety of material and interest, can be dealt with here only
with a conciseness hardly consistent with its importance.
It will be convenient to distribute the contents of this chapter
under the three sections indicated in its title.
I. General Remarks on Aims and Methods of Missions.
— The severest test to which the Christian religion has
ever been subjected is not that of a critical searching by
scholars of its historical documents; nor that of an acute,
speculative, and often irreverent philosophy; nor even that
of an estimate of its practical effect upon the characters
and lives of its professors. The sternest and sharpest trial
of Christianity has come from the attempts made by its
instrumentality to instruct, reclaim, convert, indoctrinate,
and redeem a race of heathen savages. The trial on quite
