ty for themselves, and the rich lands of the
Indian, that they sought. Providence reserved for the French chevaliers
and missionaries the glory of leaving their homes without compulsion,
real or imaginary, to penetrate an inhospitable wilderness; to undergo
fatigues; to encounter dangers, and endure privations of a thousand
kinds; enticed by no golden glitter, covetous of no riches, save such as
are "laid up in heaven!" They came not as conquerors, but as ministers
of peace, demanding only hospitality. They never attacked the savages
with sword or fagot; but extending hands not stained by blood, they
justified their profession by relief and love and kindly offices.
Sometimes, indeed, they received little tracts of land; not seized by
the hand of power, nor grasped by superior cunning, but possessed as the
free gift of simple gratitude; and upon these they lived in peace,
surrounded by savages, but protected by the respect inspired by
blameless and beneficent lives. Many of those whose vows permitted it,
intermarried among the converted natives, and left the seeds of many
meliorations in a stony soil; and many of them, when they died, were as
sincerely mourned by the simple children of the forest, as if they had
been chiefs and braves.

Such were the men of peace who penetrated the wilderness through the
French settlements in Canada, and preached the gospel to the heathen,
where no white man had ever before been seen; and it is particularly to
this class that I apply the word at the head of this article. But the
same gentle spirit pervaded other orders of adventurers--men of the
sword and buckler, as well as of the stole and surplice. These came to
establish the dominion of _La Belle France_; but it was not to oppress
the simple native, or to drive him from his lands. Kindness marked even
the conduct of the rough soldier; and such men as La Salle, and
Iberville, who were stern enough in war, and rigid enough in discipline,
manifested always an anxious solicitude for the _rights_, as well as for
the spiritual welfare of the Indian. They gave a generous confidence
where they were conscious of no wish to injure; they treated frankly and
on equal terms, with those whom their religion and their native kindness
alike taught them to consider brethren and friends. Take, for example,
that significant anecdote of La Salle, related by the faithful
chronicler[53] of his unfortunate expeditions. He was building the fort
of _Crevecoeu