Part 13 (1/2)

Follow the great trade rivers! From source to mouth, their banks are lined with the Indians who have come into contact with your civilization!

”Go to any mission centre! Do you find that the Indian has taken kindly to the doctrines it teaches? Do you find them happy, G.o.d-fearing Indians who embraced Christianity and are living in accord with its precepts? You do not! Except in a very few isolated cases, like your lawyers and doctors of the states, you will find at the very gates of the missions, be their denomination what they may, debauchery and rascality in its most vicious forms. Read your answer there in the vice-marked, ragged, emaciated hangers-on of the missions.

”I do not say that this harm is wrought wilfully--on the contrary, I know it is not. They are n.o.ble and well-meaning men and women who carry the gospel into the North. Many of them I know and respect and admire--Father Desplaines, Father Crossett, the good Father O'Reiley, and Duncan Fitzgilbert, of my mother's faith. These men are good men; n.o.ble men, and the true friends of the Indians; in health and in sickness, in plague, famine, and adversity these men shoulder the red man's burden, feed, clothe, and doctor him, and nurse him back to health--or bury him. With these I have no quarrel, nor with the religion they teach--in its theory. It is not bad. It is good. These men are my friends. They visit me, and are welcome whenever they come.

”Each of these has begged me to allow him to establish a mission among my Indians. And my answer is always the same--'_No!_' And I point to the mission centres already established. It is then they tell me that the deplorable condition exists, not because of the mission, but _despite_ it.” He paused with a gesture of impatience. ”_Because_!

_Despite_! A quibble of words! If the _fact_ remains, what difference does it make whether it is _because_ or _despite_? It must be a great comfort to the unfortunate one who is degraded, diseased, d.a.m.ned, to know that his degradation, disease, and d.a.m.nation, were wrought not _because_, but _despite_. I think G.o.d laughs--even as he pities. But, in spite of all they can do, the _fact_ remains. I do not ask you to believe me. Go and see it with your own eyes, and then if you _dare_, come back and establish another plague spot in G.o.d's own wilderness.

The Indian rapidly acquires all the white man's vices--and but few of his virtues.

”Stop and think what it means to experiment with the future of a people. To overthrow their traditions: to confute their beliefs and superst.i.tions, and to subvert their G.o.ds! And what do you offer them in return? Other traditions; other beliefs; another G.o.d--and education! Do you dare to a.s.sume the responsibility? Do you dare to implant in the minds of these people an education--a culture--that will render them for ever dissatisfied with their lot, and send many of them to the land of the white man to engage in a feeble and hopeless struggle after that which is, for them, unattainable?”

”But it is _not_ unattainable! They----”

”I know your sophisms; your fabrication of theory!” MacNair interrupted her almost fiercely. ”The _facts_! I have seen the rum-sodden wrecks, the debauched and soul-warped men and women who hang about your frontier towns, diseased in body and mind, and whose greatest misfortune is that they live. These, Miss Chloe Elliston, are the real monuments to your education. Do you dare to drive one hundred to certain degradation that is worse than fiery h.e.l.l, that you may point with pride to one who shall attain to the white man's standard of success?”

”That is not the truth! I do not believe it! I _will_ not believe it!”

The steel-grey eyes of the man bored deep into the s.h.i.+ning eyes of brown. ”I know that you do not believe it. But you are wrong when you say that you _will_ not believe it. You are honest and unafraid, and, therefore, you will learn, and now, one thing further.

”We will say that you succeed in keeping your school, or post, or mission, from this condition of debauchery--which you will not. What then? Suppose you educate your Indians? There are no employers in the North. None who buy education. The men who pay out money in the waste places pay it for bone and brawn, not for brains; they have brains--or something that answers the purpose--therefore, your educated Indian must do one of two things--he must go where he can use his education or he must remain where he is. In either event he will be the loser. If he seeks the land of the white man, he must compete with the white man on the white man's terms. He cannot do it. If he stays here in the North he must continue to hunt, or trap, or work on the river, or in the mines, or the timber, and he is ever afterward dissatisfied with his lot. More, he has wasted the time he spent in filling his brain with useless knowledge.”

MacNair spoke rapidly and earnestly, and Chloe realized that he spoke from his heart and also that he spoke from a certain knowledge of his subject. She was at a loss for a reply. She could not dispute him, for he had told her not to believe him; to go see for herself. She did not believe MacNair, but in spite of herself she was impressed.

”The missionaries _are_ doing good! Their reports show----”

”Their reports show! Of course their reports show! Why shouldn't they? Where do their reports go? To the people who pay them their salaries! Do not understand me to say that in all cases these reports are falsely made. They are not--that is, they are literally true. A mission reports so many converts to Christianity during a certain period of time. Well and good; the converts are there--they can produce them. The Indians are not fools. If the white men want them to profess Christianity, why they will profess Christianity--or Hinduism or Mohammedanism. They will wors.h.i.+p any G.o.d the white man suggests--for a fancy waistcoat or a piece of salt pork. The white man gives many gifts of clothing, and sometimes of food--to his converts.

Therefore, he shall not want for converts--while the clothing holds out!”

”And _your_ Indians? Have they not suffered from their contact with you?”

”No. They have not suffered. I know them, their needs and requirements, and their virtues and failings. And they know me.”

”Where is your fort?”

”Some distance above here on the sh.o.r.e of this lake.”

”Will you take me there? Show me these Indians, that I may see for myself that you have spoken the truth?”

”No. I told you you were to have nothing to do with my Indians. I also warned my Indians against you--and your partner Lapierre. I cannot warn them against you and then take you among them.”

”Very well. I shall go myself, then. I came up here to see your fort and the condition of your Indians. You knew I would come.”

”No. I did not know that. I had not seen the fighting spirit in your eyes then. Now I know that you will come--but not while I am here.

And when you do come you will be taken back to your own school. You will not be harmed, for you are honest in your purpose. But you will, nevertheless, be prevented from coming into contact with my Indians. I will have none of Lapierre's spies hanging about, to the injury of my people.”

”Lapierre's spies! Do you think I am a spy? Lapierre's?”