Now see the poor Indians surrounded by white men, and their reserves forming little more than islets amid the ocean. The savages who before had vast countries for their hunting grounds, are at present restricted within narrow limits, having naught for subsistence but the product of their farms, which few of them know how to cultivate properly. Again, this state is only precarious. Unless they hasten to divide their lands and become citizens, they are in danger of losing all, and of being naught but vagabonds. How replete with difficulties is such a change! What a stormy and tempestuous future for these unfortunate tribes! The evil is great, but it is one that must be encountered, since there is no remedy. The Indians, even the most advanced in civilization, seem to us ill-prepared to meet all the exigencies of their situation.
In order to form a just idea of their critical position, and of the melancholy consequences which will be the result, unless restrained by a special protection of divine Providence, imagine two societies - one representing the manners and customs of barbarians, the other all the splendor of modern civilization -coming in contact. How many years will elapse before there will be a perfect fusion between the two societies, before unison will exist, before they can dwell together in complete harmony? Much time will be required ere the barbarous state will attain the height of the civilized! Neither the first, nor the second, nor the third generation, notwithstanding untiring efforts, w(^uld obtain that happy result, such as the thing is understood in our days. Hence, previous to a perfect fusion between the societies, the civilized society will have the advantage over the barbarous; it will have it entirely at its mercy, to make it subservient to its will and pleasure. In a word, the barbarian can no better sustain itself in presence of civilization, than the simplicity of childhood can contest against the malicious prudence of mature age. This, in my opinion, is what will be realized in the Great Desert, when the copper-colored race will come in contact with the