OF THE FUR TRADE, &c. . Vv

objeéts of fuperior confideration, fhould have been the Grfk thing intro-
duced among a favage people: it attaches the wandering tribe to that
fpot where it adds fo much to their comforts; while it gives them a fenfe
of property, and of lafting poffeffion, inftead of the uncertain hopes
of the chafe, and the fugitive produce of uncultivated wilds. . Such
were the means by which the forefts of Paraguay were converfted into a
{cene of abundant cultivation, and its favage inhabitants introduced to

all the advantages of a civilized life.

The Canadian miffionaries fhould have been contented to improve the
morals of their own countrymen, fo that by meliorating their charaéter
and conduét, they would have given a ftriking example of the effeét of
religion in promoting the comforts of life to the furrounding favages;
and might by degrees have extended its benign influence to the remoteft
regions of that country, which was the objeét, and intended to be the
{cene, of their evangelic labours. But by bearing the light of the
Gofpel at once to the diftance of two thoufand five hundred miles from
the civilized part of the colonies, it was foon ob{cured by the cloud of

ignorance that darkened the human mind in thofe diftant regions.

The whole of their long route I have often travelled, andthe recol-
lection of fuch a people as the miffionaries having been there, was con-
fined to a few fuperannuated Canadians, who had not left that country
fince the ceffion to the Englifh, in 1763, and who particularly mentioned
the death of fome, and the diftrefling fituation.of them all. . But if thefe
religious men did not attain the objects of their perfevering piety, they
were, during their miflion, of great feryice to the commanders who

engaged