Nay, the
Grand Canyon of Arizona, now one of the greatest natural wonders of the
world, was seen by a young Spanish lieutenant and his twenty soldiers
three hundred years before the Anglo-Saxon took a glimpse at its
wonderful and awe-inspiring beauty. These and other similar facts are
attested by the report of the Bureau of Ethnology of Washington, as well
as by many other reliable authorities, including that singularly gifted
and scholarly student of Spanish history and folk lore, Charles F.
Lummis of Los Angeles, himself a Puritan on both sides of his house for
several generations back. It was the fortitude of this Spanish race,
coupled by its strong devotion to the faith which you and I profess,
which enabled them to solve the Indian problem as it has never been
attempted since. While under our present system of the government of
this United States, the Indian has been an outcast and a derelict to be
robbed and cheated by his white brother, yet on the other hand the
Spanish missionary brought into the life of the simple native of the
new world the wholesome light of Christianity, which made him recognize
in the Red Man the same soul which was made in the image and likeness of
the common Creator of us all.
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