that degree that wars have become rare among tribes over whose territories the missionaries' influence has not been paralyzed by the advice and instigation of white people; so that civilization produced by Christianity for these unfortunate people is not a destructive and demoralizing work, but one of happiness and improvement.”
As was remarked on a previous page, the Moravians
— taking up their residences with Indian communities, and
devoting themselves in schools, workshops, and fields to
the joint objects of civilizing and Christianizing the natives
— found in their early zeal and efforts more rewarding
results than have been attained by any other Protestant
fellowship. Men that are justly entitled to the epithets
“saintly” and “apostolic,” coming from a pietistic
communion in Germany, gathered considerable bodies of the
natives in communities, — first in New York and Pennsylvania,
and afterwards in Ohio. These gave such promise
of full success as gratified, if they did not reward, the devotion
and hopefulness of the missionaries. But the same
tragic fate, from similar causes and agencies, befell most
of these communities at a critical stage of their training,
as was visited upon Eliot's Indian towns in Massachusetts.
Except that in the case of the Moravian settlements not
only Indians hostile to their objects, but whites also, were
the agents of their destruction in the closing years of the
French war, and in the distracting strifes of our own
Revolution.
Only in the most summary terms can we recognize here the continuance, under various modifications and adaptations, of missionary efforts devised by Protestants for the benefit of the Indians. They have never been neglected or intermitted up to our time. Humane and generous sentiments instigating a work of obligation, with funds supplied to sustain the work, have devised a succession of schemes of local or general operation in the service of the Indians. Very many of such among them as showed promise of
