For it
must be confessed that, in spite of the cherished theories of most
romances and all statesmen and commanders, that FEAR is the great
civilizer of the savage barbarian, and that he is supposed to regard
the prowess of the white man and his mysterious death-dealing weapons
as evidence of his supernatural origin and superior creation, the facts
have generally pointed to the reverse. Elijah Martin was not long in
discovering that when the Minyo hunter, with his obsolete bow, dropped
dead by a bullet from a viewless and apparently noiseless space, it
was NOT considered the lightnings of an avenging Deity, but was traced
directly to the ambushed rifle of Kansas Joe, swayed by a viciousness
quite as human as their own; the spectacle of Blizzard Dick, verging
on delirium tremens, and riding "amuck" into an Indian village with a
revolver in each hand, did NOT impress them as a supernatural act, nor
excite their respectful awe as much as the less harmful frenzy of one
of their own medicine-men; they were NOT influenced by implacable white
gods, who relaxed only to drive hard bargains and exchange mildewed
flour and shoddy blankets for their fish and furs. I am afraid they
regarded these raids of Christian civilization as they looked upon
grasshopper plagues, famines, inundations, and epidemics; while an
utterly impassive God washed his hands of the means he had employed, and
even encouraged the faithful to resist and overcome his emissaries--the
white devils! Had Elijah Martin been a student of theology, he
would have been struck with the singular resemblance of these
theories--although the application thereof was reversed--to the
Christian faith.
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