them having seen that the colonists in New Sweden had but little reserve with the women, had no difficulty in preaching to Europeans the virtue which these should have been the first to have inculcated on them. The struggle against their temptations has been the occasion of many heroic acts. We have more than once seen the neophytes, after the example of the saints, throw themselves into the snow in the severest rigors of the winter, to cool the ardor of their concupiscence, or repressing it by the flames, as if in view of the pains of the life to come. How many young girls have preferred death to the loss of their honor! How many savages have openly espoused the faith, in spite of their fellows, and have willingly offered blood and life to defend it! I am convinced that one would have found among them many martyrs, if he had dared to persecute them. The grace of God produces everywhere the same effects. It can transform stones, and make of them children of Israel.’
“ ‘Some persons have had a pious curiosity to know the arguments which serve for the conversion of the savages. We put foremost the grounds of credibility generally given by theologians. Those which are the most effective may be reduced to three. The first is the accordance of our law and of the commandments of God with the light of reason. There is nothing forbidden by the faith which is not equally so by reason, and nothing commanded or allowed by the faith which reason does not also approve. Thus, the first of our Christians, in asking for baptism, made this avowal to Father Brebeuf: “I have meant for three years to speak to you of the faith taught by this man endowed with an excellent judgment; and as you have been preaching I have silently said to myself, ‘He speaks the truth.’ Since the first day, I have begun to put in practice what you have taught me.” In this view, our savages are indeed much superior in intelligence and constancy to the people of the East, of whom our Indian apostle, St. Francis Xavier, drew so sad a representation in his letters. They yield readily to reason. My second argument was drawn from the written monuments, — not only Holy Scripture, but also the works of men; and with this argument we shut the mouths of their false prophets, or rather charlatans. They have among them neither books nor writings, as we have said. When they recount their fables about the creation of the world, about the deluge (of which they have a confused idea), and about the land of souls, we ask them, “Who told you
