But the influence most potent in reclaiming
the warriors of the West was of a different kind. Christian Frederic
Post, a member of the Moravian brotherhood, had been sent at the
instance of Forbes as an envoy to the hostile tribes from the Governor
and Council of Pennsylvania. He spoke the Delaware language, knew the
Indians well, had lived among them, had married a converted squaw, and,
by his simplicity of character, directness, and perfect honesty, gained
their full confidence. He now accepted his terrible mission, and calmly
prepared to place himself in the clutches of the tiger. He was a plain
German, upheld by a sense of duty and a single-hearted trust in God;
alone, with no great disciplined organization to impel and support him,
and no visions and illusions such as kindled and sustained the splendid
heroism of the early Jesuit martyrs. Yet his errand was no whit less
perilous. And here we may notice the contrast between the mission
settlements of the Moravians in Pennsylvania and those which the later
Jesuits and the Sulpitians had established at Caughnawaga, St. Francis,
La Presentation, and other places. The Moravians were apostles of peace,
and they succeeded to a surprising degree in weaning their converts from
their ferocious instincts and warlike habits; while the Mission Indians
of Canada retained all their native fierceness, and were systematically
impelled to use their tomahawks against the enemies of the Church.
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