naries. Parkman has recounted their sufferings and their
glorious achievements in discovery, in exploration, and in inspiring
others with their stories of the wonderful West. But when the
black-robed Jesuit departed, and mass was no longer said in the log
chapels about the lakes and tributary streams, the influence of
Christianity still abided. There came a new generation of soldiers of
the cross who served the great valley in a later stage of development as
unselfishly and as thoroughly as their predecessors had done in the
earlier days.

The Indian in the Northwest in 1830 was not unacquainted with or hostile
to the whites; he did not fall down in awe to worship one of a different
color. His grandfather had traded with the wandering traveller who often
lived a whole winter in the village, and with his tribe had visited the
great commercial center at Mackinac. His father remembered the day when
the second class of strangers entered--the uniformed soldiers led by
Pike--and now the sound of the big gun in the fort at the mouth of the
Minnesota was no longer a dread portent.

But the missionary was a novelty. His purpose was unknown. He did not
ask for furs; he did not stealthily give them whiskey; he did not come
to summon them to councils at the agent's house; and he did not ask for
cessions of land. If they would respect the white man's "medicine
day"[406] and let their boys and girls attend the school, if they would
listen patiently while he talked to them of things they did not
understand, this newcomer was content. Out in the woods he cleared a
patch of ground and grew corn. If the red men wanted to help he was very
glad. When the winter storms came, and game was scarce, and the small
supply of corn that the squaws had safely cached in the fall was eaten,
then the missionary helped them in their difficulty. He often went with
them on their hunts, shared all their privations, and eased their pain
if accident or sickness befell them. As the activities of the mission
broadened and its personnel enlarged, the Indian became more and more
acquainted with whites who lived on farms and tilled the soil. So when
at last the land was opened to settlement, the transition from the
missionary's establishment to that of the American farmer was not
sudden.

Much has been written of the degeneration which came to the Indians
about a fort through their association with the soldiers. That such
degeneration did result is true, but i