describing the scenery and life of the region, mark him as a man of a refined spirit, of delicate tastes, of broad culture, and of an artistic genius. But his enthusiasm over the promise and success of his work, his doting fondness for his “good Indians,” his relations of the almost womanly affection which they manifest to him, and his exultant record of conversions, of baptisms of infants and adults, of first communions, and of the gushing joy on the church festivals with their rude resources, would hardly have been edifying reading for an old Puritan.
The aim and method of the Roman Catholic system of dealing with the natives are well set forth, though scarcely with any breadth of charity for other workers, by the Abbé Em. Domenech, a missionary among them:[1] —
“In general the Americans, above all, only consider civilization,
not as a blessing which might polish savages, preserve their natural
good qualities, extend the elements of well-being they already
possess, reform their faults and vices, and modify their inclinations
and character, but rather as a means of clearing this rich and fertile
country of an independent, jealous, cruel, or at least useless,
embarrassing, and degraded population. Religion, whose solicitude
extends over all mankind, has shown that what human philanthropy
would not or could not achieve, from impotency, was to her
quite possible; and that the civilization of the Indians was a problem
easy to expound, and a work equally useful to humanity and
the general interests of nations. Missionaries — with no aid but
their faith, their zeal, and their love of all the souls redeemed by the
divine blood shed on the Mount of Calvary — have gone forward,
crucifix in hand, among the great deserts of the New World; and
far from attempting to annihilate savages and destroy their natural
character, have raised them to the rank of Christians and men
regenerated by an eminently civilizing religion. They have
preserved the customs and dress rendered necessary by climate and
habit to the rude industry of the desert. They have added
elements of European industry, useful or indispensable in regions
where wants are so few, and have softened the social feelings to
- ↑ See his “Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America.” 1860. Vol. ii. p. 441.
