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Show 316 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. continued talking, explaining what the requirements were, etc. The interpreter insisted, after talking quite a while with the chiefs, that they fully understood me and were ready. I then told him to say to them: " Go back to your camp; talk with your head chief and your people, and explain these things. Take time to reconsider and do not be in a hurry to get baptized." A few days after this my interpreter again came to me and said many hundred Indians had come to my camp ( I was again at work away from home), all ready and wanting to be baptized. I was now sorely puzzled, for there was nothing in reason to convince me that these ignorant natives were really subject to such sudden conversion. Still, I knew that our people looked forward to a time when a nation will be born in a day, but I did not believe that time had come ; yet it looked a little that way, so I went down. On arriving at camp there were Indians in every place and direction ; there were between three and four hundred, all looking pleasant and smiling. The chiefs were grouped, sitting quietly and sedately. I commenced to talk to and question them, repeat-ing what I had formerly said and added more, and in every way endeavored to fasten upon their minds the responsibility of being baptized. I really desired to deter them, if possible, for I had no faith in the reality of the situation. But my interpreter, who talked at length to them, professing to explain all my words, insisted that they fully understood and wanted to be baptized the whole tribe included. Several Elders were present, and I asked, " What shall I do? I have no faith in this. There is something wrong." |