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Show 130 BY PATH AND TRAIL. of these heroic and saintly men will be written and will give added dignity and importance to the history of Christian missions on the continent of America. Once having begun the conversion of a savage or bar barous people, the Jesuit missionaries never voluntarily retire from the field. It was at no time, and is not now, a part of the policy of the constitution of the order to des pair of converting a people who spurned their friendly advances or with bloody hands welcomed them to hospit able graves. The Society of Jesus is not, by any means, the greatest missionary body to which the Catholic church has given birth. Any one familiar with Montal-ambert ' s great history, ' ' The Monks of the West, ' ' must concede that the church has been the fruitful mother of heroic and zealous missionary orders. Considering the duration of its existence, it must, however, be admitted that the Society of Jesus is on a plane of successful equality with any organization established since apos tolic times for the conversion and civilization of pagan nations and savage tribes. It is a hopeful augury for the establishment and permanency of a more friendly feeling among us all that, since Parkman gave us his " Jesuits in North America/' the hostility to the great order among English speaking races is, like an unpleas ant odor, gradually evaporating. After reading Otondo's " Beport" of the failure of the California colony, the horrible degradation of the tribes and the pitiful sterility of the land, the Spanish viceroy to Mexico advised the home government to have nothing more to do with the accursed country. The King of Spain followed the recommendation of his rep resentative, and Lower California was abandoned to its sagebrush, scorpions, tarantulas and naked savages. |
