o enter; but
Tecumah, less superstitious than his father, and prompted by curiosity,
begged leave to attend, accompanied by several other young men. Though
they were unable to comprehend a word, their countenances exhibited the
most perfect seriousness and apparent interest in what was going
forward. The count, who had observed Tecumah, whose eyes, indeed, had
seldom been turned away from the spot where he and his daughter sat,
sent for the interpreter to inquire of the young chief what opinion he
had formed.

"It is clear to me that you worship a great unknown Spirit, and that you
sing to Him songs of praise, while your teachers exhort you to love and
obey Him, and He is, I am sure, pleased with such worship. I remarked
how it differs from that of the Portuguese, who make idols of painted
wood, and bow before them as if such things could hear, or understand,
or give help to the foolish men who put faith in such nonsense."

"And is such the opinion you have formed without having the principles
of our faith explained to you?" asked the count, astonished at the
intelligence displayed by the young chief.

"I have said what I conceive to be the truth," answered Tecumah. "I
would like to know more of your faith, since it enables you to be as
wise and powerful as I see you are. Some time since, during an interval
of peace, I visited the settlement of the Portuguese. There I saw
bearded men bowing down, some before a cross with a figure nailed on it,
others before a woman with a child in her arms; others, again, were
adoring an infant in a cradle; and others, men and women, in long robes,
with books or staffs in their hands. Some were worshipping even
pictures, and I thought that all these things were the gods of the
Portuguese. When they told me that the woman with the child in her arms
was the Holy Virgin, and that the child was also a god, I could stop to
hear no more, feeling sure that the great Spirit to whom the Indian
looks up as God would be displeased with such blasphemy."

"Undoubtedly He is," said the count; "but had you inquired further, you
would have been told that the figure on the cross and the child in the
woman's arms and the one in the cradle represented the same person, the
Saviour of mankind, who is now in heaven, at the right hand of God."

"Then, how can He be in heaven and on earth at the same time?" asked the
Indian. "And if He is in heaven, surely men of sense should lift up
their hearts