CHAPTER XI.
THE INDIAN AND THE MISSIONARY.
A friend of the Indians - Their trust in him - Interesting intercourse with the tribes - The Indian Question - Missionary work - Comparison of Protestant and Catholic methods - Great obstacles to success - The destruction of the field by white settlement.
There has never lived a more sincere, ardent and practical friend of the Indians than Father De Smet. He held them in the deepest affection. He sympathized with them in the wrongs they suffered. At the same time he saw their limitations; he hated their revolting uncleanliness, abhorred their cruelties, and hesitated not to point out to them the evils of their manner of life. With all of Catlin's enthusiasm for the native character, he had none of those impracticable and chimerical notions which made that writer wholly unreliable as an authority, and his plans impossible of realization.
As Father De Smet was a friend of the Indians to an extent never equaled by any other white man, so there was never another white man for whom they felt the deep personal affection and absolute trust that they did for him. Nothing is more remarkable in his eventful life than this fact. He had but to show himself to win their hearts. There was that in his benevolent manner that commanded their trust in an instant. They delighted to honor him. He was borne in triumph or escorted with imposing ceremony; given their best lodge; feasted until endurance could receive no more. And as years rolled on and they found him always true, their first impressions grew into a worshipful love. He was the only white man, they were wont to say, who never talked to them with a forked tongue.
His interviews with them were full of exquisite incidents,