cs did not harm
them, nor disturb their minds merely to corrupt them. The French they
loved. But the stern Presbyterian, with his dogmas and his task-work,
the city circle and the college, with their niggard conceptions and
unfeeling stare, have never tried the experiment."

Margaret naturally felt an especial interest in observing the character
and condition of the Indian women. She says, truly enough, "The
observations of women upon the position of woman are always more
valuable than those of men."

Unhappily, this is a theme in regard to which many women make no
observation of their own, and only repeat what they have heard from men.

But of Margaret's impressions a few sentences will give us some idea:--

"With the women I held much communication by signs. They are almost
invariably coarse and ugly, with the exception of their eyes, with a
peculiarly awkward gait, and forms bent by burdens. This gait, so
different from the steady and noble step of the men, marks the inferior
position they occupy."

Margaret quotes from Mrs. Schoolcraft and from Mrs. Grant passages which
assert that this inferiority does not run through the whole life of an
Indian woman, and that the drudgery and weary service imposed upon them
by the men are compensated by the esteem and honor in which they are
held. Still, she says:--

"Notwithstanding the homage paid to women, and the consequence allowed
them in some cases, it is impossible to look upon the Indian women
without feeling that they do occupy a lower place than women among the
nations of European civilization.... Their decorum and delicacy are
striking, and show that, where these are native to the mind, no habits
of life make any difference. Their whole gesture is timid, yet
self-possessed. They used to crowd round me to inspect little things I
had to show them, but never press near; on the contrary, would reprove
and keep off the children. Anything they took from my hand was held with
care, then shut or folded, and returned with an air of lady-like
precision."

And of the aspect of the Indian question in her day Margaret writes:--

"I have no hope of liberalizing the missionary, of humanizing the sharks
of trade, of infusing the conscientious drop into the flinty bosom of
policy, of saving the Indian from immediate degradation and speedy
death.... Yet, let every man look to himself how far this blood shall be
required at his hands. Let the missionary, instead of preaching to