Letter XXIX,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRECIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
The Osages.-The second Letter of Father Bax.
HOLLAND, January, 1857.
REVEREND FATHER:
I inclose the second letter of Father Bax, mentioned in mine of December 1st.
____________________
VILLAGE of ST. FRANCIS HIERONYMO, June l0th, 1850.
REV. AND VERY DEAR FATHER :
In my last letter I was obliged, against my inclination, to give you a very abridged description of the truly prosperous state of our schools. Nothing astonishes the whites more than the extraordinary progress of our little Osages in the different branches taught them. Such are: reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and grammar, for the boys; reading, writing, geography, needlework, embroidery, and drawing, for the girls. To these dispositions all join a very decided taste for music, and find great pleasure in singing pious canticles. They are, besides, very polite, docile, and obedient. As soon as they perceive a white, their first movement is to go and present
him the hand. Their sensibility and good dispositions have often alleviated the pain that we experienced when our means would not suffer us to provide for their necessities.
If it happen that one of the Fathers is absent during three or four days, they are on the watch for the moment when he is expected. As soon as they perceive him, which sometimes takes place at a distance of three or four miles, nothing can hinder them from running to meet him, and crying out : " Father, how are you ? how d o you do ?"
The greater number among them are remarkable for truly admirable sentiments of devotion. Hence religion is the most efficacious means for correcting the faults usual at their age. The most powerful rebuke that we can make them is to ask them : " My child, when you were baptized, did you not promise God that you would be good ?" Of a considerable number, we may report great progress in the catechism. Forty have made their first communion. These last visit the Blessed Sacrament with as much regularity and devotion as the most fervent among the faithful.
The above, Rev. Father, gives us the highest consolation. Hardly two years since, these little neophytes were running naked in the woods and on the plains, addicted to every kind of vice, and having no knowledge of their Creator, nor of the end of their creation. Never has the goodness of God been more manifest to me ; never have I seen the divine influence more generally felt and better appreciated ; never, before this day, have I been so intimately convinced that the Lord offers to all nations, to every family, and to each individual, the means of being saved, and of being united to the Holy Church.
What happened to us on the clay of our arrival here, serves as a powerful confirmation of this truth. It was reported to us that an Indian had just died in a village about four miles distant. I expressed to my informant the grief this misfortune caused me. He told me that another man, in the same place, was at the point of death. In the hope of arriving in time to baptize him, I set out immediately. Arrived at the place where the Neosho divides into two branches, I found the waters so swollen that it. was impossible to pass them, and would be so during several days more.
On the fourth day (it was Sunday), a half-blood passed the river on the trunk of a tree, to come and hear mass. I questioned him concerning the state of the sick man. He had been in his agony during four clays; lie had ever shown an excellent deportment, and had manifested an earnest desire to see the Black-gown, who had come to announce the word of God to his nation. I mounted my horse directly, with some apprehension that my guide might delay my arrival. In this I was mistaken - he reached there more quickly on foot than I on my horse.
I found my Indian extremely ill ; evidently lie was hastening rapidly to eternity. As soon as I entered the lodge, be saluted me with joy and affection. I made him comprehend, by means of all interpreter, that I came to speak with him of the Great Spirit, and instruct him in the truths necessary to salvation. "I thank thee, Father: thy words are kind and consoling; my heart is overjoyed that thou hast come." Such were the words be addressed me with a dying voice. I spoke to him of the dispositions requisite for receiving baptism, and told him, among other things, that he must, renounce all the bad actions that be might have committed, be contrite for them, and never again do evil, though he might be restored to health ; that if lie was sincerely disposed to act thus, the Great Spirit would forget all the sins of his past life. "Father," he replied, "I always wished to be good ; I never stole, I never became drunk, I have never killed. However, if I have offended the Great Spirit, I repent. I desire to please him, so that, if I die, he may have mercy on me, and grant me the grace of being admitted into his presence." Fatigued with the effort lie had made to speak, he kept silence during several moments; then, again opening his eyes, he said: "Father, if thou believest me worthy of receiving baptism, thou wilt grant me a great favor and many blessings." Fully satisfied with the lively desire that he manifested, I administered that sacrament to him. Scarcely was he regenerated in the healing waters of baptism, than be expired, and went to. enjoy the happiness reserved to the children of the Church.
The consoling death of this Indian was followed by a most distressing scene. I had never witnessed demonstrations of sorrow so profound. The men, throwing off that stoical indifference which appears to be so natural to them, heaved deep sighs and shed torrents of tears; the women, with dishevelled hair, shrieked and gave all the signs of a despair over which reason cannot predominate. I buried the Indian, on the following day, in accordance with the ritual of the Church. The whole village was present at this ceremony. The assistants witnessed the attention and respect which we pay to the dead with a deep gratitude. From that time forth, we have always assisted the sick in their agony. The time for instructing them is very short, and their ideas concerning religion are more than imperfect; but., on the other side, they have all the simplicity and good-will of children, and their dispositions are most consoling.
A few days ago I baptized the oldest man in the nation. Impossible to tell you the impressions I experienced when pouring the holy water over that head, whitened with length of years. Baptism is one of the sacraments of our holy religion that the Indians understand the best, and it is the one that they are most desirous of receiving.
Some incidents, that a few would style providential, and others accidental, have contributed much to augment (in this tribe) faith concerning the efficacy of that sacrament. I will cite but one example.
One evening-it was during the autumn of 1848-an Indian arrived at the 'Mission. Grief and anxiety were depicted on his face. As soon as he perceived me, he said to me : "Father, come without delay, for my wife is dying. All despair, and I consider her already as dead. Thou didst tell us to call thee when my one was sick or in danger of death. I wish her to learn the words of the Great Spirit before she dies. . This is why I come to call thee." I had just arrived from a village called Cawva-Shinka, or Little Village, situated thirty miles from the Mission ; I was exhausted with fatigue. But how resist an invitation so pressing, and above all in a circumstance so grave? After a moment of repose, I set out with the man. Arrived at the village at midnight, I found the lodge filled with women and children, crying, and singing the Indian death-song. I besought them to conclude these lugubrious accents, and approached the sick woman, extended on a buffalo-hide, and scarcely covered with some tattered blankets. She was unconscious. As she appeared to me not likely soon to return to herself, I resolved to remain until morning. An Indian had the kindness to lend me his blanket; I wrapped myself in it, and endeavored to take a few hours' rest. But it was vain. I never passed such a miserable night. The women and the children recommenced their frightful clamor; the dogs of the wigwam passed back and forward over the with such steady regularity, that it would have been quite impossible to me to count the number of visits. About daylight, the patient began to give sonic signs of life ; but she could not yet speak. As soon as she had received her senses entirely, I made her a short exhortation. She appeared attentive, and gave signs of real joy. I baptized her, and
departed. Two hours after my leaving she was perfectly recovered. She arose, took her infant, and nursed it.
Not long after, I returned to the same village, and found myself immediately surrounded by men, women, and children, shouting, unanimously, "Komkai"-we are very glad to see you. This word is used for giving a cordial reception. After recounting to me the fact,, and the cure of the sick woman, they brought me twenty-five children to baptize. " Father," said they to me, " we, believe thy words. We know that baptism comes from the Great Spirit. We are poor, ignorant people ; we cannot read the book that contains the word of the Great Spirit; but thou wilt explain it to us, and we will believe thee." I have had very evident proofs of the sincerity of their good intentions, and of their firm resolution not to offend God, after having received baptism.
About a month ago, I stopped at an Indian wigwam. Its inmates had not been able to go to the chase, on account of the illness of their little daughter. Her mother told me that they were suffering with hunger, and that they had not eaten meat for a long time. She added that she had seen a stray ox in the forest, belonging to a white man, and, that she would have killed it bad she not recalled the promise that she bad made at her baptism-rather to die than do that which is sinful; that she preferred to die of hunger, to offending the Great Spirit; and, that if she had killed the ox, the Great Spirit would no longer have bad compassion on her in her misery. This little recital pleased and edified . me. I could not refrain from reflecting, that the condition of the world would be widely different, did all Christians remember as faithfully and practically their baptismal vows as did this poor Indian woman.
So far, we have baptized more than five hundred persons. One hundred adults and children have had the happiness of receiving the sacrament of regeneration before dying. When the Indians are well taught, we have not much to fear in regard to their exemplary conduct. The greatest obstacle for it-, is in the difficulty that we experience in acquiring their tongue. It contains very few words, and those quite inconvenient for expressing abstract ideas. These people have some confused ideas of a Supreme Being, of the immortality of the soul, of the bliss or of the chastisements of the future life; but these ideas are mingled with material and superstitious notions. The following is an example They believe that those whom the Great Spirit admits into his happy abode will there receive an abundance of buffaloes, moose, deer, and corn; that when a person dies, his soul continues to inhabit the place in which it quitted the body; that souls sometimes return from the other world, to take and conduct there other souls. For this reason they fear to travel in the dark, especially when any one is very ill; they think that then there certainly is some spirit fluttering about
in the air. Some of their Vig-kontah (jugglers) pretend, on many occasions, to have the power of chasing this spirit, and of saving the life of the person who' is dangerously sick. When there is danger of death, the most superstitious have frequent recourse to these " medicine men ;" a horse, a mule, or even several, must reward these services. I knew one of those impostors who by this trade had gained, in one spring only,, thirty-two horses. Their efforts tend principally to persuading the poor Indians not to call upon its in their maladies. They declare, with the greatest assurance, that they will annul the eflicaciousness of our power.
Last spring I went to pay a visit to the Little Osages. The day of my arrival, I baptized three persons who were dangerously sick ; they died the next day. Some days after, a malignant fever broke out, and proved fatal to many. The jugglers attributed the cause of the scourge to my presence, declaring that I had annihilated their power over the spirits. It is afflicting, but also somewhat laughable, to see these jugglers endeavoring to drive away the spirits. They make themselves as hideous as possible, equip themselves with all their instruments and weapons, discharge their guns, brandish their clubs and tomahawks, beat the drum, and have recourse, in fine, to whatever can produce a noise ; in a word, they employ all imaginable tricks to deceive those poor Indians. But their power, which was formerly very great, is beginning to decline. The esteem which the savages had for there is daily diminishing. The Indians are attached to us, principally, say they, because we have no wives and children. "If you had," they say, "you would do like the missionaries (the presbyterians) who preceded you, you would think too much of your families, and you would neglect the red-man and his children."
I often go and visit them in their villages, and I am always received with the greatest civility. A crier precedes me, to announce my approach. When they are all collected in a large wigwam, or beneath the wide-spread branches of some stately tree, I begin my instruction. They listen most attentively. When I have done speaking, the chief rises, and addresses his tribe some words of paternal advice, and repeats what the missionary has said, or makes comments on it. One Sunday a chief named Pai-nonpashe, of the Great Hill Village, on the Verdigris River, came to see his two children, who were boarding with us. A short instruction, which I gave after mass, produced such an impression on his mind, that, when returning Dome, lie said to a half-breed who accompanied him : " I begin now to discover what we must do to be agreeable to the Great Spirit, and to become happy in this life and in the other."
The excellent health enjoyed by our children at the mission school, greatly astonishes the parents. Indeed, thus far sickness has been unknown among them ; not one of them has died since we have been here. This contributes much to augment the confidence which the Indians feel towards us, and dissipates all their fears during the season of the great hunts, in which they are obliged to remove from us for several mouths.
When the frightful ravages caused by the cholera along the river Kansas, at Westport, and in other places, were known here, the Osages, panic-struck, immediately resolved to go and seek their safety in the plains. Some desired to conduct their children with them ; but the majority opposed it, in the firm persuasion that they would be in security under the care of the Black-gowns, and protected by the Son of God and his Holy Mother. They therefore retired to the plains, and left their children with us. They had been but a short time in their new abode, when the cholera declared itself in the most terrible manner, and carried off a great number. Perceiving their error in having fled from the mission, they hastened to return, and encamp, as they said, quite near the kind Fathers. They consequently hastened with such precipitation that they made no provision, and travelled day and night. In proportion as they reached their own lands, the scourge diminished. The last case of death occurred at fifteen miles from the mission.
The greatest difficulties we encounter arise from the halfbloods, almost all of French origin. They have nothing of the Catholic but baptism, and an inviolable attachment to their creed, of which, for want of instruction, they know almost nothing, and they practise still less. They have, again and again, proved to the Protestant ministers that their efforts to make them, change their religion were absolutely useless.
Another obstacle for us is the mode of life that the Indians are obliged to lead, in order to procure the
provisions that are necessary for their Subsistence. They commonly pass six months of the year in the chase, which forces them to remove from us, and exposes the morality of those who would wish to live as exemplary Christians, to great temptations and dangers. I hope that this state of affairs will change ; for many are already convinced that they cannot long rely oil the game, and that they should have already commenced cultivating their grounds, had they but the means necessary.
A deputation of the nation, composed of the principal chief, of five warriors, and an interpreter, went to pay a visit to their "Great Father." President Taylor received them with the greatest kindness, and encouraged them to commence cultivating their lands. I cannot express to you the gratitude that I experience when I think of the truly paternal care lavished on my dear savages by their Great Father, and by all the officers employed in the Indian department. The savages have been greatly flattered by it. ' I am fully convinced that great good will result from it.
This, Rev. Father, is but an imperfect sketch of the state of our mission, in which we hope to gather many fruits of salvation, if it please God that we remain in it. Pecuniary difficulties have placed, and still place us in very critical positions; but, Rev. Father, the assistance that we sometimes receive from the Propagation of the Faith, from some generous hearts and friends of the Indians, relieves us. We
hope in divine Providence for all and in all. "God is faithful." Commend us to the prayers of your pious congregation, and of your kind community in St. Louis.
Reverend and most dear Father,
Your devoted brother in Jesus Christ,
J. J. BAX, S. J.