ABSTRACT
MUCH has been said about the idolaters and their superstitious rites in this most northerly region of the world, and how there is hope that one day they will hear the true preaching of the divine word and not be slow to enter the communion of believers in Christ. 1 Nevertheless, persuaded by devout homilies of Catholic priests, a large number of the people of the wild have already been drawn in and a better hope is born that in time, when heresies elsewhere are put down, these races will with one accord come to seek admission. 2 Indeed, the reason for their apparent slowness is quite clear: they live a great way off, that is to say, two hundred or more Italian miles from the churches of Christians, which they are seldom able to come near on account of this enormous distance. 3 However, those who have yielded themselves to Christian observance are found to be very obedient, though because of the distance I have referred to they visit their baptismal churches only once or twice a year, bringing with them their unweaned babies to be baptized, in carriers or baskets strapped to their backs, together with other burdens and gifts of pelts, especially of the valuable kinds, to be given to the priest in lieu of tithes. But the remoteness and the inconvenience entailed in converting men to the Faith must be deplored, not only in the case of the Bothnians, who live to the north, but also in that of the Varmlanders to the west; and since these regions are trackless and full of perils, priests can seldom enter those wildernesses, and bishops never. 4
Hope for idolaters
Huge distance
They carry babies in baskets They give tithes
Trackless places
