den deaths took place, mournful consequences of the excesses occasioned by debauches. The missionaries succeeded, not without great trouble, in arresting the terrible scourge, destroyer of all civilization, which was being introduced in a satanic manner among their neophytes.
Despite all the efforts made by those tools of hell, the whites, to brutalize the Indians, the missionaries have not been without consolation. The greater number of the Potawatomies remained faithful during the trial, and edified the priests by their piety and love of work. Those who momentarily abandoned themselves to the sad excesses of drink were not shaken in the faith, and arose directly from their fall. They have all escaped the abyss into which our civilizers sought to cast them. Besides, experience is there, to teach the savages that their purses become swiftly empty in these orgies; and as their money disappears, reason gradually resumes its empire in the heart of the duped Indian. Our missionaries therefore hold their ground and are not discouraged; they even redouble their zeal and ardor to arrest the evil and the offenses which divine goodness receives from its children. The Indians are always dear to our good priests' hearts, and their apostolic labors continue to bear consoling fruits of salvation.
Still we must own that the missionary's position among the Potawatomies is more difficult to-day than formerly. He must struggle against all sorts of obstacles: against whisky, with which the whites wish to slay his neophytes; against erroneous doctrines, which false pastors sow with both hands; against race prejudices, the more revolting that they come from our brethren in the faith, weak Catholics, who are Catholics in name only and who are coming over from Europe by shiploads. The priest who takes to heart the interests of the wretch who is groaning under the oppression of the vices which the Author of our salvation condemns, is often opposed in his action by the very ones who ought to recognize and support his zeal and charity.