CHAPTER XIV.
MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS RELATING TO THE INDIANS.
Difficulties in the way of missionary work - Deaths of baptized children - Polygamy and drink - Thanks an informant - The Grattan Massacre - Indians must be industrious and rely on Providence - Testimonials to the mountain tribes.
I see more plainly every day that a good store of virtue is required, and the assistance of many prayers, to overcome the difficulties and obstacles which seem to multiply with our efforts to advance the greater glory of God. The demon does not sleep, and seeing that some portion of his prey is escaping him, " tanquam leo rugiens circuit, quaerens quem devoret." He employs all his snares and ruses to attach his devotees to their infamous debauches, and to the grossest superstitions. If a baptized Child dies, the medicine men, true ministers of Satan, put the whole village in uproar to make us the cause of its death. "It is the medicine (the water of baptism) that they poured on his forehead ; it is the medal or cross that they have hung around his neck, and nothing else, that have caused his death." By such speeches they increase the fears of these poor people.
Marriage also, which hampers them, and the prevalent practice of polygamy, form powerful obstacles to their conversion. The Indian is naturally light and inconstant; consequently to attach himself for life to a woman, and have but the one, seems to him impossible and insupportable. I should explain further that marriage is a species of speculation with them; a father who has several daughters is rich among the Indians, for he can sell them for one, two
(1) Extract from a letter (in French) to the Father-General (in 1839?).