,
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 noble 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;
noble 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, damned, to
know that his degradation, disease, and damnation, were wrought not
_because_, but _despite_. I think God 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 God'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
superstitions, and to subvert their gods! And what do you offer them
in return? Other traditions; other beliefs; another God--and
education! Do you dare to assume the responsibility? Do you dare to
implant in the minds of these people an education--a culture--that will
render them for ever dis