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MICHIGAN AS A PROVINCE 1 - 5
The liquor question proved to be a most distressing cause of friction between the missionaries and the commandants. De Carheil knocked in the heads of sundry barrels of brandy and spilled the precious fluid on the ground, which conduct resulted in a violent quarrel between him and Cadillac—an exceedingly irritating state of affairs. There were also other sources of disagreement. The missionaries were solely intent upon fostering the growth of Christianity and looked with no satisfaction upon anything tending to retard it. In their view, the savages should be left undisturbed in the relations to which he had been accustomed from time immemorial. They did not consider it part of their duty to change his mode of life, to teach him agriculture or
the useful arts, or to separate him from anything except idolatry. They believed that Christianity could have better sway in the mind and heart of the native if he were left free to perpetuate his race in its natural environment than under the artificial restraint of civilization which would require a complete transformation of his nature.
The secular interests did not accept this view. The ultimate extinction of the savage races was not then contemplated, or even dreamed of. But it was the opinion of the most astute of those who were face to face with the problem that it was absolutely necessary to break up the tribal coalitions and to compel the savages to dwell peacefully near the European settlements, and to settle down to a domestic and agricultural life. So we cannot wonder that the great colonizers did not look with favor upon the Jesuits and that the latter had distinct aversion to all colonizing schemes.
There was another element of discord. The Iroquois were the most belligerent of all the savages. They were in a chronic state of warfare, particularly with the Hurons, whom they had pursued and slaughtered with relentless fury.
MICHIGAN
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