He exerted himself, during his sojourn among this simple and
well-disposed people, to inculcate, as far as he was able, the gentle
and humanizing precepts of the Christian faith, and to make them
acquainted with the leading points of its history; and it speaks highly
for the purity and benignity of his heart, that he derived unmixed
happiness from the task.
"Many a time," says he, "was my little lodge thronged, or rather piled
with hearers, for they lay on the ground, one leaning over the other,
until there was no further room, all listening with greedy ears to the
wonders which the Great Spirit had revealed to the white man. No
other subject gave them half the satisfaction, or commanded half the
attention; and but few scenes in my life remain so freshly on my memory,
or are so pleasurably recalled to my contemplation, as these hours
of intercourse with a distant and benighted race in the midst of the
desert."
The only excesses indulged in by this temperate and exemplary people,
appear to be gambling and horseracing. In these they engage with an
eagerness that amounts to infatuation. Knots of gamblers will assemble
before one of their lodge fires, early in the evening, and remain
absorbed in the chances and changes of the game until long after dawn
of the following day. As the night advances, they wax warmer and warmer.
Bets increase in amount, one loss only serves to lead to a greater,
until in the course of a single night's gambling, the richest chief may
become the poorest varlet in the camp.
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