[179] The Shawnees have four missionary establishments among them, viz. a Methodist, Baptist, Moravian, and Quaker. There are also missionaries of different sects among most of the tribes of the border, the labors of whom have been attended with some degree of success. There is, I believe, but one Catholic Mission upon the frontier, which is among the Potawatomies, about a thousand of whom have embraced this faith. The Catholics, however, appear to have succeeded better than most other denominations, in their missionary efforts. It is so in Mexico, so in Canada, and appears so everywhere else that they have undertaken the Christianization of the heathen. I would not be understood to attribute this to any intrinsic superiority of their religion, but to the peculiarities of its forms and ceremonies. The pageantry of their worship, the palpable representation of the divine mysteries by the introduction of images, better accords with their pristine idolatry, than a more spiritual faith. Catholics, indeed, have had the sagacity to permit the Indians (at least in some countries) to interweave many of their own heathen ceremonies with the sacred Christian rites, forming a singular _mêlée_ of Romish and pagan worship, which is especially the case in Mexico. Also, the less rigid Catholic creed and customs do not debar them from their wonted favorite amusements, not to say vices. It is therefore that whole tribes sometimes simultaneously embrace this imposing creed.--GREGG. [180] See Thwaites, _Hennepin's New Discovery_ (Chicago, 1903), ii, pp. 537, 538.--ED. [181] Adair, who resided forty years with the southern Indians, previous to 1775, speaks of the same among them all.--GREGG. _Comment by Ed._ Consult J. Long's _Voyages_ in our volume ii, p. 64, note 31. [182] Peter Martyr de Anghiera (1457 (?)-1526) was the first historian of the New World. Born in North Italy, he went to Rome in 1477, in the train of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. Ten years later he was invited to Spain, where he became tutor to the royal children, and later protonothary and royal historiographer. His _Decades_ (_De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe Decades_) first appearing in 1530, are a prime source for the early history of America, he having known and conversed with the Spanish discoverers.--ED. [183] Also Clavigero speaks of similar beliefs and practices among the Mexican Indians, particularly in the obsequies of the kings; and adds--"El número de víctimas correspondía á la grandeza del funeral, y, segun algunos autores, llegaban á veces á doscientas."--GREGG. [184] Edition of 1555, translated from the Latin, fol. 181.--In another place, the same author also says they buried corn, etc., with the dead, for their use in the world to come.--GREGG. [185] For Herrera, see our volume xix, p. 258, note 79 (Gregg).--ED.