y as sixteen hundred and
eight, the Jesuits had established friendly relations with the Indians
of Canada--and before the stern crew of the May Flower had landed on
Plymouth Rock, they had preached the gospel on the shores of Lake
Huron. Their piety and wisdom had acquired an influence over the
untutored Indian, long before the commencement of the hostilities,
which afterward cost so much blood and suffering. They had, thus,
smoothed the way for their countrymen, and opened a safe path through
the wilderness, to the shore of the great western waters. And the
people who followed and accompanied them, were peculiarly adapted to
improve the advantages thus given them.

They were a gentle, peaceful, unambitious people. They came as the
friend, not the hereditary enemy, of the savage. They tendered the
calumet--a symbol well understood by every Indian--and were received as
allies and brethren. They had no national prejudices to overcome: the
copper color of the Indian was not an insuperable objection to
intermarriage, and children of the mixed blood were not, for that
reason, objects of scorn. An Indian maiden was as much a woman to a
Frenchman, as if she had been a _blonde_; and, if her form was graceful
and her features comely, he would woo her with as much ardor as if she
had been one of his own race.

Nor was this peculiarity attributable only to the native gallantry of
the French character, as it has sometimes been asserted; the total want
of prejudice, which grows up in contemplating an inferior race, held in
limited subjection, and a certain easiness of temper and tone of
thought, had far more influence.

The Frenchman has quite enough vanity, but very little pride. Whatever,
therefore, is sanctioned by those who surrounded him, is, in his eyes,
no degradation. He married the Indian woman--first, because there were
but few females among the emigrants, and he could not live without "the
sex;" and, second, because there was nothing in his prejudices, or in
public sentiment, to deter him. The descendants of these
marriages--except where, as in some cases, they are upheld by the
possession of great wealth--have no consideration, and are seldom seen
in the society of the whites. But this is only because French manners
and feelings have long since faded out of our social organization. The
Saxon, with his unconquerable prejudices of race, with his pride and
jealousy, has taken possession of the country; and, as he rules i