Once these established, communication and interchange
would follow, and the way would be cleared for the betterment of
relations and the removal of misunderstandings. Today an American may
ride through the country alone, unarmed and unmolested; [46] twenty
years ago a Spaniard trying the same thing would have lost his head
within the first five miles. And this difference is fundamentally
due to the fact, already mentioned, of the honesty of our relations
with these simple mountaineers. We have their confidence and their
esteem and their respect, and this in spite of the necessity under
which our authorities have constantly labored of punishing them when
necessary and of insisting upon law and order wherever our jurisdiction
prevails. The lesson has been hard to learn, but it has been driven
home. The truth of the matter is, that a great missionary work has
been begun; missionary not in the limited sense of forcing upon the
understanding of a yet circumscribed people a religion unintelligible
to them, but in the sense of teaching peace and harmony, respect for
order, obedience to law, regard for the rights of others.
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