e to us; and the struggle to make him understand was one of the
most enormous and apparently hopeless ever undertaken by human teachers.
Before the missionaries could make these savages even listen to--much
less understand--Christianity, they had the dangerous task of proving
this paganism worthless. The Indian believed absolutely in the power of
his gory stone-god. If he should neglect his idol, he felt sure the idol
would punish and destroy him; and of course he would not believe
anything that could be told him to the contrary. The missionary had not
only to say, "Your idol is worthless; he cannot hurt anybody; he is only
a stone, and if you kick him he cannot punish you," but he had to prove
it. No Indian was going to be so foolhardy as to try the experiment, and
the new teacher had to do it in person. Of course he could not even do
that at first; for if he had begun his missionary work by offering any
indignity to one of those ugly gods of porphyry, its "priests" would
have slain him on the spot. But when the Indians saw at last that the
missionary was not struck down by some supernatural power for speaking
against their gods, there was one step gained. By degrees he could touch
the idol, and they saw that he was still unharmed. At last he overturned
and broke the cruel images; and the breathless and terrified worshippers
began to distrust and despise the cowardly divinities they had played
the slave to, but whom a stranger could insult and abuse with impunity.
It was only by this rude logic, which the debased savages could
understand, that the Spanish missionaries proved to the Indians that
human sacrifice was a human mistake and not the will of "Those Above."
It was a wonderful achievement, just the uprooting of this one, but
worst, custom of the Indian religion,--a custom strengthened by
centuries of constant practice. But the Spanish apostles were equal to
the task; and the infinite faith and zeal and patience which finally
abolished human sacrifice in Mexico, led gradually on, step by step, to
the final conversion of a continent and a half of savages to
Christianity.

VII.

THE CHURCH-BUILDERS IN NEW MEXICO.

To give even a skeleton of Spanish missionary work in the two Americas
would fill several volumes. The most that can be done here is to take a
sample leaf from that fascinating but formidable record; and for that I
shall outline something of what was done in an area particularly
interesting to u