The good priests deprecated the traffic in liquors and tried hard to control it, but soldiers of fortune and reckless traders were in the majority, their interests taking precedence of all spiritual demands and carrying everything along.

What could the brave missionaries do but make the very best of a perilous situation?
In those days wine was drunk by almost everybody, its use at table and as an article of incidental refreshment and social pleasure being practically universal; wherefore the steps of reform in the matter of intemperance were but rudimentary and in all places beset by well-nigh insurmountable difficulties.

In fact the exigencies of frontier life demanded, perhaps, the very stimulus which, when over indulged in, caused so much evil.

Malaria loaded the air, and the most efficacious drugs now at command were then undiscovered or could not be had.
Intoxicants were the only popular specific.

Men drank to prevent contracting ague, drank again, between rigors, to cure it, and yet again to brace themselves during convalescence.
But if the effect of rum as a beverage had strong allurement for the white man, it made an absolute slave of the Indian, who never hesitated for a moment to undertake any task, no matter how hard, bear any privation, even the most terrible, or brave any danger, although it might demand reckless desperation, if in in the end a well filled bottle or jug appeared as his reward.
Of course the traders did not overlook such a source of power.
Alcoholic liquor became their implement of almost magical work in controlling the lives, labors, and resources of the Indians.