-as they sometimes did,
for savages, like civilized men, do not always know their friends--he
resolutely offered peace; and, in his own simple and pious language,
"God touched their hearts," and they cast aside their weapons and
received him kindly.

But the _voyageur_ had higher qualities than enthusiasm. He was capable
of being so absorbed in a cause as to lose sight of his own identity; to
forget that he was more than an instrument in the hands of God, to do
God's work: and the distinction between these traits is broad indeed!
Enthusiasm is noisy, obtrusive--self-abnegation is silent, retiring;
enthusiasm is officious, troublesome, careless of time and
place--self-abnegation is prudent, gentle, considerate. The one is
active and fragmentary--the other passive, but constant.

Thus, when the untaught and simple native was to be converted, the
missionary took note of the spiritual capacity as well as of the
spiritual wants; he did not force him to receive, at once, the whole
creed of the church, as a mere enthusiast would have done; for _that_
wisdom would feed an infant with strong meats, even before it had drawn
its mother's milk. Neither did he preach the gospel with the sword, like
the Spaniard, nor with fire and fagot, like the puritan. He was wise as
the serpent, but gentle as the dove. He took the wondering Indian by
the hand; received him as a brother; won him over to listen patiently;
and then taught him first that which he could most easily comprehend: he
led him to address the throne of grace, or, in the language of the time,
"to embrace the prayer;" because even the savage believed in Deity. As
his understanding was expanded, and his heart purified--as every heart
must be which truly lifts itself to God--he gradually taught him the
more abstruse and wonderful doctrines of the Church of Christ. Gently
and imperceptibly he led him on, until the whole tremendous work was
done. The untutored savage, if he knew nothing else, yet knew the name
of his Redeemer. The bloody warfare, the feuds and jealousies of his
tribe, if not completely overcome, at least were softened and
ameliorated. When he could not convert, he endeavored to humanize; and
among the tribes of the Illinois,[55] though they were never thoroughly
Christianized, the influence of the good fathers soon prevailed to
abolish the barbarous practice of torturing captives.[56] For though
they might not embrace the religion, the savages venerated its
teac