THE 



JOURNAL 



BISHOP OF MONTREAL, 

DURING A VISIT 
TO THE 

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY S 

NORTH-WEST AMERICA MISSION. 

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, BY THE SECRETABIES, 

AN INTRODUCTION, 

GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FORMATION OF THE 
MISSION, AND ITS PROGRESS TO AUGUST 1848. 



FLEET STREET, AND HANOVER STREET ; 
LONDON : MDCCCXLIX. 



Seeley, Printer. 



ADVERTISEMENT 
TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



THE Bishop of Montreal having 
kindly proposed to the Committee of 
the Church Missionary Society to 
visit their Mission at the Red River, 
in Prince Rupert s Land, they most 
thankfully accepted the proposal ; and 
made every arrangement in their power 
to facilitate his Lordship s arduous but 
Christian undertaking. 

The following Letters, written to the 
Secretary of the Society, relate the 
circumstances of the visit. The Bishop 
has entrusted the Society with the 
publication of them, and has requested 
that whatever profits may arise therf- 
from may be reserved till a fund shall 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

be opened for the endowment of a 
Bishopric for Prince Rupert s Land. 

The Committee of the Church Mis 
sionary Society most cordially concur 
in his Lordship s earnest appeal for the 
speedy accomplishment of a measure, 
which, under the Divine blessing, would 
have a great and beneficial influence 
upon the operations of the Society in 
that remote, but interesting, sphere of 
its labours. 



Church Missionary House, 
May 1845. 



CONTEXTS. 



INTRODUCTION 

AN HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE FORMATION AND PRO 
GRESS OF THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH MISSIO 
NARY SOCIETY IN PRINCE RUPERT S LAND : 

Geographical Position and Inhabitants of Prince 

Rupert s Land ii 

Earliest Labours of the Society, through the Rev. J. 

West iii 

Formation of the North-West America Mission ... viii 

Building of a Church x 

Entrance of the Rev. D. T. Jones on the Mission, 

and Departure of Mr. West xii 

Completion of a Second Church Trials and Pro 
gress of the Mission xiv 

Erection of a Third Church , xviii 

Formation of the Indian Settlement xx 

Commencement of Agricultural and Building 

Operations xxiii 

Change in the Locality of the Settlement Esta 
blishment of a School and Week-day Lecture, xxvi 
First Baptisms at the Settlement Hopeful 

Death of an Adult Indian xxx 

Establishment of a Lord s-day Evening Service xxxii 

Further Evidence of Vital Religion xxxiii 

Erection of a Flour -mill xxxiv 

Rebuilding of the Upper Church Establishment of 

Schools xxxv 

Trials of the Mission Death of Mrs. Jones xxxvi 

Illustrations of the Effect of the Gospel xxxviii 

Progress of the Indian Settlement xli 

Return of Mr. Jones to England Appeal for more 
Missionaries, and Arrival out of the Rev. J. 
Smithurst xliii 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Present Condition of the Indian Settlement xlv 

Arrival of the Rev. A. Cowley, and Mr. J. Roberts 

Return of Mr. Roberts xlvii 

Arrangements for the Upper, Middle, and Lower 

Churches Building of a New Church at the 

Rapids Arrival of the Rev. R. James xlviii 

Formation of the Cumberland Station Appointment 

to it of the Rev. J. Hunter, and his Arrival ... 

Progress of the Cumberland Station 

Death of Mrs. Hunter 

Formation and Progress of a branch Station at Lac- 

la-Ronge Ixiii 

Openings at Isle-de-la-Crosseand Fort Chippewj^an Ixxi 
Formation and Progress of the Manitoba Station ... Ixxii 
Visit of the Bishop of Montreal Ixxviii 

LETTER 1 1 

VOYAGE FROM LA CHINE TO THE RED-RIVER SETTLE 
MENT : 

Departure from Quebec for Montreal 2 

Equipments and Crew 3 

Mode of Travelling. 5 

Difficulties and Varieties of the Journey 10 

Line of Route 12 

Particular Features or Occurrences of the Journey... 15 

Inhabitants, or Stragglers, met with along the Route, 22 

Efforts to reach the Red River 37 

LETTER II 42 

PROCEEDINGS AT THE RED-RIVER SETTLEMENT : 

Arrival at the Red River Indian Church and Settle 
ment 42 

Arrival, at the Indian Settlement, of the Missionaries 

from the Higher Stations 50 

Departure to visit the other Churches ... , 52 

Confirmations 53 

Ordinations , 62 

Number of Services, and Attendance of the People 64 

Reasons for not proceeding to Cumberland 66 

Rough Sketch of the Colony or Settlement of the 

Red River 67 

The Four Churches . 72 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Missionaries 75 

The Schools 77 

Hospitalities experienced 79 

Society of the Red River 81 

The Forts 84 

The Peltries 86 

Some other Statistical Particulars 88 

The Buffalo Hunt 93 

Strength and Dexterity of the Natives 97 

Hardships and Adventures of European Inhabitants 98 

LETTER III 101 

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN POPULATION OF THE 
FUR COUNTRY, THEIR MORAL AND GENERAL 
CONDITION, AND THEIR SUPERSTITIONS ; WITH 
AN APPEAL TO THE RELIGIOUS SYMPATHIES OF 
GREAT BRITAIN ON THEIR BEHALF : 

Parting at the Indian Settlement Indian Work 

and Drawings 101 

Departure 105 

Climate of the Red River 107 

Some Incidents of the Route, before omitted Ill 

Return to La Chine 117 

Indian Population, and Extent of Field for Missio 
nary Exertion 119 

Moral and General Condition of the Indians, and 

Practical Inferences ... ... 124 

Superstition of the Indians, and Jugglery of their 

Conjurors 128 

Concluding Appeal to Britain for the Establishment 

of a Bishop of our Church in the Territory ... 145 



Address to the Bishop from the Christian Indians at 

the Indian Settlement 165 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Indian Settlement at the Red River * to face Title 

Map of Prince Rupert s Land, with the 

Bishop s Route ., ., ~~ ~~ Page i 

Image Used by North- American Indian 

Conjurors ~~ ,, 129 

North- American Indian Conjuring Rattle 136 

Conjuring Rattle used in the District of 

Krasno-jarsk, Siberia ~~ 138 



* The building in the left-hand corner of the cut is the School 
master s House; in the centre is the Missionary s Residence; 
and to the right is seen the Church, with the Schoolhouse behind 
it. In the River, to the left, are the Missionary and School 
master s canoes; and to the right, some canoes of Indians attend 
ing Divine Service. 



r 



, 



INTBJODUCTION 



AN HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE FORMATION AND 
PROGRESS OP THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN PRINCE RUPERT S 
LAND. 



As some of the readers of the Bishop of Montreal s 
interesting Letters may be anxious to know more 
of the Missionary labours which have been carried 
on by the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY in Prince 
Rupert s Land, it has been considered advisable 
to give a brief historical notice of the North- 
West America Mission. 



Geographical Position and Inhabitants of Prince 
Ruperts Land. 

Communication is maintained between Eng 
land and Prince Rupert s Land either through 
Canada, by the route so fully described by the 
Bishop, or by means of the Hudson s Bay Com 
pany s ships, which sail from England about the 
end of May or beginning of June, and usually 
arrive at York Fort, on the shores of Hudson s 
Bay, some time in the month of August. It is 
only during four months in the summer that 
Hudson s Bay is navigable, on account of the 
ice. This may serve to give some idea of the 
secluded character of those remote regions. 

The Territories granted to the Hudson s Bay 
Company, by a Charter from King Charles the 
Second in 1669, are of great extent, reaching 
from the western boundary of Canada to the 
Pacific Ocean, and from the frontier of the United 
States, in about North Lat. 50, to as far North 
as has hitherto been explored ; with the exception 
of a portion to the North- West, which belongs 
to the Empire of Russia. 

This immense tract of country is varied by a 
succession of plains, lakes, and rivers ; and it is 
intersected, between W. Long. 115 and 130, 



Ill 

by a chain of mountains called the Rocky Moun 
tains, running from North- West to South-East. 

The Indians, who are thinly scattered through 
out this vast extent of country, have no towns 
or villages ; but live in tents, and obtain a scanty 
subsistence by hunting and fishing. They have 
been so fully and graphically described by the 
Bishop, that nothing need here be added, except 
the fact that the Tribes among whom Missionary 
labours have been carried on by the Church Mis 
sionary Society are chiefly the Muscaigoes, or 
Swampy Crees, and the Saulteaux, a branch of 
the Chippeways. 

Earliest Labours of the Society, through the 
Rev. J. West. 

It was in the year 1820 that the attention of 
the Committee of the Church Missionary Society 
was first called to this scattered portion of the 
human family. Two proposals were then made 
to the Society, one of which had reference to the 
Indians who lived to the West of the Rocky 
Mountains. No available opportunity, however, 
occurred for acting upon this suggestion. 

The other proposal related chiefly to the Indians 
on this side of the same chain of mountains, and 

B 2 



IV 



was the result of the following circumstances. In 
the year 1811, an Agricultural Settlement was 
formed on the banks of the Red River, to the 
south of Lake Winnipeg, by the late Earl of Sel 
kirk. After an eventful history, this Settlement 
was increased, owing to the same place having 
been selected as a location for retired servants of 
the Hudson s Bay Company. To this Settlement 
the Rev. J. West, an active friend of the Society, 
was, in 1820, appointed Chaplain. Being desirous, 
if possible, of availing himself of any opportunities 
which his new position might place within his reach 
to benefit the surrounding heathen, he laid before 
the Committee a judicious paper,* on the most pro 
mising means of promoting the instruction of the 
Indians ; and offered his services in carrying out 
some of the suggestions contained in it, by estab 
lishing Schools for the Indians in the vicinity of 
the Red River. The sum of IQOL was accord 
ingly placed at Mr. West s disposal, for the year 
1820, to enable him to make trial of his proposed 
plan. 

Mr. West left England in one of the Company s 
ships at the end of May 1820, and arrived at 
York Fort on the 15th of August. He remained 

* See Appendix xii of the 20th Report. 



here upward of a fortnight, while arrangements 
were made for proceeding to his destination. 
During this period, he had many opportunities of 
visiting the Indians in their tents, and was much 
impressed with their degraded state. One of 
therm, named Withaweecapo, who had two wives, 
was prevailed upon to give up two of his children 
to Mr. West s care to be educated, and it was 
arranged that one of them should proceed with 
him to the Red River, and that the other should 
follow. Mr. West wrote in 1841 

Well do I remember Withaweecapo bringing bis 
son to me in bis arms, as I sat in tbe boat waiting for 
him ; and, as he parted with bis boy, with tears of 
affection saying, " There, I give you my son to teach 
as you say ; because I tbink you will take care of him 
as you say, and will treat him as a father. But I shall 
come and see my boy." 

It is an interesting fact, that fourteen years 
afterward, Withaweecapo fulfilled his intention. 
He came a distance of many hundred miles to 
" see his boy." During that visit, he heard and 
embraced the Gospel. He put away one of his 
wives, and was married to the other. He now 
sleeps by the side of the Indian Church. His 
widow is a Communicant, and all their children, 
seven in number, are Christians. 



VI 

On Mr. West s arrival at Norway House, he 
obtained another Indian boy ; and on entering the 
mouth of the Red River, after having traversed 
the whole length of Lake Winnipeg, he first be 
came acquainted with a band of Saulteaux Indians, 
then encamped at Netley Creek as their summer 
residence, who, with their Chief Pigwys, occupy 
a somewhat prominent place in the subsequent 
annals of the Mission. 

The Settlement, at this time, consisted of a 
number of huts widely scattered along the margin 
of the River. There was a Roman-Catholic Cha 
pel in course of erection ; and a small house ad 
joining, the residence of the Priest ; but no Pro 
testant Church or School-house. The state of the 
European and mixed population was such as might 
have been anticipated, where no opportunities 
existed for Public Worship, and where the sacred 
ordinance of marriage, with its holy sanctions and 
attendant obligations, had fallen into disuse. From 
his first arrival at York Fort, however, Mr. West 
found his ministrations well attended. One of 
the Settlers, being present at Divine Service at 
Fort Douglas, on the second Lord s-day after Mr. 
West s arrival at the Red River, stated that it was 
the happiest day of his life ; as he had not been 



Vll 



at a place of worship for thirty years, since he 
left England. 

In order that no time might be lost, a tem 
porary log-house, conveniently situated near the 
dwellings of the Protestant Settlers, was repaired 
and opened as a School under the care of Mr. 
Harbidge, who had accompanied Mr. West from 
England with that view. The number of Scholars 
soon amounted to thirty. The Indian boys, how 
ever, still continued under the personal care and 
instruction of Mr. West. 

In the beginning of the year 1821, Mr. West, 
in the discharge of his duties as Chaplain, visited 
the Company s Trading Establishments at Bran 
don House and Beaver Creek. During this jour 
ney of 500 or 600 miles, performed in a cariole 
drawn by dogs, he had frequent opportunities of 
intercourse with Indians, many of whom seemed 
to appreciate the kind interest which he took in 
their behalf ; and he believed that several children 
would have been entrusted to him, if he had had 
an establishment prepared for their reception. 
One boy was sent to him, about three months 
afterward, by an Indian with whom he conversed 
on this occasion. 

When the time came for sending letters to 
England, in the following September, Mr. West 



VU1 

was able to report favourably respecting his la 
bours and prospects. He stated 

Those boys who have been with me since last year 
can now converse pretty freely in English, are just 
beginning to read, and can repeat the Lord s Prayer 
correctly. The other day, I gave them a small por 
tion of ground fora garden, and I never saw European 
school-boys more delighted than they were in hoeing 
and planting it. 

He also stated, that, as there was every pro 
bability that many more children would be con 
signed to his care, a School-house, sixty feet by 
twenty, with rooms partitioned off at each end 
for a Schoolmaster and a hunter, was in course 
of erection as an establishment for them. 



Formation of the North-West America 
Mission. 

On the arrival of these communications in 
England, a Special Meeting of the Committee 
was held on the 28th of January 1822, to take 
them into consideration. This Meeting was at 
tended by Benjamin Harrison, Esq., and Nicholas 
Garry, Esq., two of the Directors of the Hudson s 
Bay Company, who gave such a detail of circum- 
vStances connected with the Red River Settlement, 



IX 

and the prospects of usefulness among the nu 
merous Tribes of Indians to which access by its 
means may ultimately be obtained, that it was 
unanimously determined that a regular Mission 
should be formed under the superintendence of 
Mr. West ; that another Missionary should be 
sent out to his assistance ; and that the establish 
ment for Indian children should be carried on at 
the charge of the Society. 

Tidings of this arrangement were received by 
Mr. West with much joy and gratitude. He 
wrote, on the 28th of August 

No one ever received news from a far country 
which more gladdened the heart than your letters did 
mine. I read them again and again with lively emo 
tions of gratitude, and with joyful hope, that, as the 
sinews of war are now afforded, the Banner of the 
Cross would be successfully unfurled among the Bri 
tish North-American Indians. 

At the end of this year, there were eight In 
dian boys and two girls, with a Half-breed woman 
to take care of the children, upon the establish 
ment. Two of the boys, who were able to read 
the New Testament, and repeat the Church Cate 
chism and the chief truths of the Christian reli 
gion, had been baptized, by the names of James 
Hope and Henry Budd ; and the School-house had 



X 

been completed, and used as a temporary place 
for Divine Worship. 

Building of a Church. 

A more suitable building for this purpose, 
however, was felt to be necessary ; and in June 
1823, a Church was completed. It was an hum 
ble structure, built of wood; but it was an object 
of much interest, as being the first Protestant 
Church ever built in those wide regions where 
the Indians roam. 

On this subject Mr. West remarked 

I have just had the happiness to see the accomplish 
ment of the wish so feelingly expressed by the late 
Mr. Semple, who fell mortally wounded near the spot 
where our buildings are erected. In a Letter, dated 
in the year 1815, he observed 

I have trodden the burnt ruins of houses, barns, a mill, a 
fort, and sharpened stockades ; but none of a Place of Wor 
ship, even upon the smallest scale. I blush to say that, over 
the whole extent of the Hudson s-Bay Territories, no such 
building exists. It is surely high time that this foul reproach 
should be done away from among men belonging to a Chris 
tian Nation. I must confess that I am anxious to see the first 
little Christian Church, and steeple of wood, slowly rising 
among the wilds ; and to hear the sound of the first Sabbath- 
bell which has tolled here since the Creation. 



XI 

As I was returning from visiting some of the Settlers 
about nine or ten miles below, one evening, the length 
ened shadows of the setting sun cast from the build 
ings, and the consideration that there was now a land 
mark of Christianity in this wild waste, and an Asylum 
opened for the instruction and maintenance of Indian 
children, raised the most agreeable sensations in my 
mind ; and led me into a train of thought which awa 
kened a hope, that, in the divine compassion of the 
Saviour, it might be the means of raising a Spiritual 
Temple in this wilderness to the honour of His name. 
In the present state of the people, I considered it no 
small point gained, to have formed a religious estab 
lishment. The outward walls, even, and spire of the 
Church, cannot fail of having some effect on the minds 
of a wandering people, and of the population of the 
Settlement. 

The Congregation at this time consisted, on an 
average, of from 100 to 130 ; and among the Sun 
day-scholars, 50 in number, were included several 
adult Indian women, married to Europeans. 

Having laboured so successfully in laying the 
foundation of the Mission, at the sacrifice, which 
he deeply felt, of being separated for three years 
from his wife and family, Mr. West resolved to 
visit England, with the intention of returning 
with them to the scene of his labours. Circum 
stances of various kinds, however, prevented the 
fulfilment of this last intention. 



Xll 



Entrance of the Rev. D. T. Jones on the Mission, 
and Departure of Mr. West. 

In the mean time, the services of the Rev. 
D. T. Jones had been appropriated by the 
Committee to this Mission, and he accordingly 
sailed from England in the Company s ship in 
June 1823. 

Mr. West left the Red River Settlement on 
the llth of June, and arrived at York Fort on 
the 2nd of July. He then proceeded on foot 
to visit Fort Churchill, on the western side of 
Hudson s Bay, with a view to obtain some 
intercourse with the Esquimaux, in whom he 
felt deeply interested from some conversation 
which he had had in the preceding year with 
Captain Franklin and Dr. Richardson, when 
they returned from the Northern Land Expe 
dition. 

Some interesting extracts from Mr. West s 
Journal during this visit are given in the Twenty- 
fourth Report, pp. 202 4. 

He returned to York Fort on the nineteenth of 
August, and spent about three weeks with Mr. 
Jones, who had arrived three days before, con 
ferring on the best means of promoting the 
Mission. 



Xlll 

At the end of this time, Mr. West sailed for 
England, and Mr. Jones, with two Indian boys 
brought by Mr. West from Fort Churchill, pro 
ceeded on his journey to the Red River, where 
he immediately entered on the sphere of labour 
occupied by his predecessor. 

The account of his proceedings which Mr. 
Jones was enabled to send home in the summer 
of 1824 was most encouraging. 

He met with much countenance and support 
from the Authorities of the Hudson s Bay Com 
pany. The Church had not only been crowded 
all the winter, but had become much too small 
to contain the Congregation, so that it became 
necessary to commence the erection of an addi 
tional Church. There were twelve Indian boys 
and two girls in the Establishment. The number 
of Sunday -scholars had increased to 169. And 
the eagerness of some of the Half-breed youths 
to obtain instruction, as well as the progress of 
the Indian children, and the susceptibility of 
religious feeling manifested by them, were exceed 
ingly encouraging. 

In reference to the Congregation, Mr. Jones 
wrote 

It is truly gratifying to my soul, on the Lord s-day 
morning, to look out of my window, and see the peo- 



XIV 



pie coming in groups, as far as the eye can reach ; 
and my pleasure is doubly heightened, when I per 
ceive them, as they pass, to be principally Half-breed 
Natives and Indians. I am ready to cry, from the 
impulse of congenial feeling with the Psalmist, " I 
was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the 
House of the Lord. .. whither the tribes go up, the 
tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to 
give thanks unto the name of the Lord." 



Completion of a Second Church Trials and 
Progress of the Mission. 

On the thirtieth of January in the following 
year, 1825, the New Church was completed and 
opened for Divine Service. It was built on a 
plain called Image Plain, about six miles lower 
down the Settlement than the Upper Church. 
The Settlers subscribed liberally, according to 
their means, toward its erection. The Con 
gregations at both Churches were large and at 
tentive. 

Mr. Jones at this time remarked 

The work of the Lord is growing daily. I am hardly 
a day without some new encouragement to proceed. 

In the autumn of this year Mr. Jones was 
joined by the Rev. W. Cockran, to whose cha- 



XV 

racter and labours a most favourable and just tes 
timony is borne by the Bishop. 

One event, which occurred at the close of this 
year, must not be omitted in this sketch the 
admission of the first Native Indian to the 
Lord s Supper. She was the wife of a European 
Settler, and had for a long time been most 
regular in her attendance on the means of grace. 
Her knowledge of divine things had increased 
rapidly, and her conduct corresponded with her 
professed determination to forsake all and follow 
Christ. Her daughter followed her example, 
and became an ornament to religion and a bless 
ing to her neighbourhood. Mr. Jones could 
not help shedding tears of joy at this additional 
proof of divine approbation afforded to his 
labours. 

The year 1826 was a most eventful and trying 
period to the Settlement and the Mission. The 
severity of the winter had been unprecedented. 
The buffalo in the hunting-grounds had pre 
viously failed. The Settlers were compelled to 
support their cattle upon wheat and barley, there 
by rendering it doubtful whether any would re 
main for seed. On account of the lateness of 
the season it was feared that no wheat- crops 
could be expected at all, and if any thing occurred 



XVI 

to prevent the prosperity of barley and potatoes, 
a famine seemed inevitable. This distress was 
increased by the destructive inundation to which 
the Bishop refers, and which might well be regard 
ed by the inhabitants as an era not to be forgot 
ten. It prevailed from the beginning of May 
till the middle of June. Nearly every house in 
the Settlement was swept away, and the country 
laid under water as far as the eye could reach. 
The Missionaries, in common with the rest of 
the inhabitants, were obliged, for about a month, 
to leave their dwellings, and reside under tents 
pitched on a high spot of ground. A particularly 
interesting account of this distressing visitation 
is contained in the Missionary Register for 1826, 
pp. 633 637. In the midst of judgment, how 
ever, God remembered mercy. The Churches, 
School-houses, and dwellings of the Missionaries, 
were but little injured ; the fears entertained res 
pecting the barley and potato-crops proved 
groundless ; and the happy influence which their 
distresses produced upon the minds of the people 
illustrated the declaration of Scripture, " When 
the judgments of the Lord are in the earth, 
the inhabitants of the world will learn righteous 
ness." 

During the next four years, the progress of 



XV11 

the Mission was satisfactory and encouraging ; 
but it was not marked by any occurrence of 
striking interest. Mr. Jones visited England for 
the benefit of his health, and returned to his 
labours accompanied by Mrs. Jones. The attend 
ance at the two Churches continued to be good. 
The number of Communicants was greatly in 
creased. In 1824, there were only six ; in 1828, 
there were 134, of whom seven or eight were 
Indians. A school was opened for the reception 
of the daughters of gentlemen in the Hudson s 
Bay Company s service. There were altogether 
four daily Schools, beside Sunday-schools. The 
number of Indian children maintained and edu 
cated by the Society was about twenty ; which 
number might have been almost indefinitely in 
creased, had the means of procuring subsistence 
for them been less precarious. One pleasing 
fact in illustration of this should be noticed. 
Two Indian boys, who had been brought by 
Governor Simpson in 1825 from beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, went home on a visit to their 
parents, after they had been under instruction for 
about four years. They soon returned, bringing 
with them five other boys, four of whom were 
the sons of four different Chiefs, the heads of 
large Tribes in that part of the country and 



XV111 , 

each speaking a different dialect from the others. 
While this circumstance clearly manifested the 
confidence placed by the Natives there in the 
good faith of the White people, as well as their 
desire for instruction, it could not fail to suggest 
the pleasing anticipation that when these youths 
should return to their own friends, after having 
been instructed in Christianity, they might be 
made an extensive blessing. And this anticipation 
was not groundless. For when a Missionary visit 
ed those remote districts many years afterward, 
he found a band of Indians prepared to welcome 
his message, having learned to appreciate the 
blessings of the Gospel from one of these youths. 



Erection of a Third Church. 

On the return of Mr. Jones from England, 
another important step was taken in order to 
extend the benefits of pastoral superintendence 
on the banks of the Red River. A considerable 
population, consisting almost entirely of Half- 
breeds, had settled in the neighbourhood of a 
place called Grand Rapids, about fourteen miles 
from the Upper Church, and eight miles below 
what was then the Lower Church. This dis- 



XIX 

tance obviously precluded them from availing 
themselves of the ministrations provided in those 
Churches, and at the request of an individual 
who opened his house for the purpose, one or 
other of the Missionaries went down once a fort 
night to hold a Cottage Lecture, which was 
usually attended by about thirty of the inhabi 
tants. This service was so much valued by the 
people, and appeared to be productive of so many 
beneficial results, that it was arranged that Mr. 
Cockran should take up his residence at Grand 
Rapids. He was now able to hold a regular Ser 
vice, first in his own house, and afterward in a 
Schoolroom. The number of attendants soon 
became so great that the need of a Church began 
to be urgently felt. 

The manner in which this object was accom 
plished was very interesting. The people were 
all poor ; but they " offered willingly" what they 
could, both in money and materials, as well as 
in labour. They first began by collecting stones 
for the foundation. Then he who possessed an 
axe went into the woods to hew timber, which 
was hauled down to the intended site by him 
who possessed an ox, and thus by united efforts, 
and without any extraneous assistance, they 
succeeded in erecting a House of God, the best 

c 2 



XX 

building of the kind that had yet been raised in 
Rupert s Land. 

On occasion of the opening of this Church, 
May 1, 1832, Mr. Cockran wrote 

It was a day of thankfulness, as well as a spiritual 
feast to us who were present : our cup truly overflowed 
with the remembrance of His goodness to us all the 
time we had been engaged in the work. Not one 
who had been employed in it was detained by sick 
ness from the dedication : none had paid the debt of 
sin : all were permitted, by the kindness of God, to 
see the object of our prayers and industry devoted to 
His service. 

About this time, Mr. Cockran introduced the 
spinning of flax into a School of Industry 
which he had previously established. Such an 
occupation was perfectly new to the children, 
who had never witnessed anything of the kind 
before. 

Formation of the Indian Settlement. 

Some account must now be given of what the 
Bishop justly characterizes as a " great and most 
happy, but, in the first instance, most arduous 
experiment" of endeavouring " to establish the 
Natives in settled habitations, and in a compact 
civilized community, as tillers of the soil." 



XXI 

Hitherto the labours of the Missionaries had 
been chiefly directed to the European Settlers, 
and their descendants of mixed blood. Some 
thing had been effected by occasional intercourse 
with individual Natives ; but, with the exception 
of the Indian School, no systematic effort had 
been made in their behalf. It was the settled 
conviction of the Missionaries that nothing of a 
decided and permanent character could be effected 
for the religious instruction of the Indians, so 
long as they were compelled to wander about in 
search of a precarious subsistence, and thus were 
prevented from availing themselves, for a sufficient 
length of time, of the means of grace, and oppor 
tunities of instruction. To those, however, who 
were acquainted with the Indian character, the 
very idea of inducing them to give up their erratic 
habits, and heathen customs and prejudices, ap 
peared altogether visionary. But, formidable as 
the difficulties were, Mr. Cockran resolved to 
encounter them ; and to allow no discouragements, 
which faith and patience could overcome, to deter 
him from prosecuting the undertaking. 

Accordingly, having obtained the permission 
of Governor Simpson to try the experiment of 
locating the Indians near Netley Creek, in the 
neighbourhood of the spot where Pigwys and his 



XX11 

tribe of Saulteaux were in the habit of pitching 
their tents during the summer, he had several 
interviews with the old Chief, in which he ex 
plained to him his intentions, and sought to ob 
tain his consent and co-operation. The distressed 
condition of the tribe during winter was referred 
to, and the advantages of cultivation pointed out. 
Many questions were asked, and objections urged, 
by the Chief Would they be required to lay 
aside the Indian " medicine ? " Would the Chief s 
influence be lessened ? The change proposed 
was contrary to the customs of their ancestors, 
which they were unwilling to relinquish. At 
length, however, after repeated consultations 
with the old men of his Tribe, the Chief called 
upon Mr. Cockran, and announced his assent to 
the proposal ; but he would give no encourage 
ment at all to the idea of establishing a School for 
the instruction of the children. 

It was on the 18th of April 1832, when the 
River had scarcely become navigable by the break 
ing up of the ice, that Mr. Cockran set out to 
select a piece of ground on which to teach the In 
dians agriculture. The waves were running high, 
the North wind blew keenly, huge blocks of ice, 
piled up by the force of the water, garnished the 
sides of the River, and the whole aspect was chill- 



XX111 

ing and dreary. On arriving at the Chiefs tent, 
he could not be prevailed upon to expose himself 
to the discomfort of the weather in order to assist 
in the selection. At the distance of from fourteen 
to sixteen miles below Grand Rapids, the land on 
both sides of the River, being low and swampy, 
appeared at this time to be almost inundated by 
the melted snow. The only dry spot was that 
which the Saulteaux usually choose for their sum 
mer encampment. There were many things 
which rendered it unsuitable as a permanent Set 
tlement ; but as it was a place to which the Indi 
ans were attached, and in which there were not 
many difficulties to be overcome in clearing the 
ground, Mr. Cockran fixed upon it as the most 
suitable for his present purpose. 



Commencement of Agricultural and Building 
Operations. 

To this place, on the 3rd of May, Mr. Cockran 
sent two servants, with oxen and agricultural 
implements ; but the Indians had not yet arrived 
from their winter encampment ; and when they 
came, instead of performing their promise to 
prepare the ground, they were holding a conjur 
ing feast in order to ascertain whether the propo- 



XXIV 

sed change would be beneficial. So great was 
their indifference, that the Chief could not induce 
any of his men to paddle the canoe to Grand Ra 
pids, to procure an additional supply of the seed- 
corn and potatoes which was intended for their 
own benefit. 

At length, however, seven families were indu 
ced to cultivate a little ; and among them seventy 
bushels of potatoes were planted, and ten bushels 
of barley, and three of wheat, were sown. An 
unpropitious season interfered with the produc 
tiveness of the wheat and potatoes, and afforded 
the Indians a plausible ground for stating that 
they could not be expected to succeed in a course 
which was contrary to the customs and habits of 
their ancestors. The barley yielded an average 
crop, and on the 3rd of September, Mr. Cockran 
went down with seven sickles, and gave the Indi 
ans some instruction in the art of using them. 
Notwithstanding the awkwardness of their first 
attempts, these new students of agriculture at 
length succeeded in securing the harvest. 

Mr. Cockran s next object was to build a house 
for the Chief. For this purpose, in addition to 
his servant an old man who could put up the 
frame of a house, but who never felt much in 
clined to labour he engaged the services of 



XXV 

three Indians, who were as little accustomed to 
the business of a carpenter as they were to that 
of a farmer ; a slight blister occasioned by the use 
of a hatchet being at any time sufficient to induce 
them to lay aside their employment. When this 
house was finished, another was commenced for 
the old man before referred to, who had agreed 
to spend the winter in that place. 

An Indian, whose name signifies Red Deer, 
had been more diligent and successful than the 
others in his farming operations, and he now 
applied for assistance to build a house, and a cel 
lar to contain his produce. A man was engaged 
to assist him, and both laboured diligently till the 
house was completed. 

Another Indian, who belonged to a different 
Tribe, and came from the neighbourhood of Nor 
way House, followed the same example, having 
obtained a grant of land from the Chief for the 
purpose. This completes the small number of 
those who were willing this year to profit by the 
means afforded them for adopting the habits of 
civilized life. 



XXVI 

Change in the Locality of the SettlementEstablish 
ment of a School and Week-day Lecture. 

The little progress thus made, however, was 
sufficient to encourage Mr. Cockran to proceed 
with his benevolent plans. As has been already 
stated, the place in which these plans were hither 
to carried on, originally chosen from its immediate 
vicinity to the Saulteaux encampment, had many 
disadvantages. Several families of other Tribes, 
chiefly Muscaigoes, or Swampy Crees,* had also 
manifested a disposition to settle, and it was un 
desirable, at present, that they should be brought 
too near the Saulteaux. Accordingly, in the fol- 

* For some time many families of this Tribe had 
been drifting to the Red-River Settlement, on account 
of their having relatives among the Half-breeds who 
resided there. Among these were some very old 
men, one of whom told Mr. Jones that he had left his 
own country, not with a view of bettering his outward 
condition, but because he had heard that One from 
above had come to this world to save the souls of men, 
and he wished to learn something about Him. In 
1832, at the Upper Church, Mr. Jones preached on 
Lord s-day evenings, through an interpreter, to a 
Congregation of from seventy to eighty of these peo 
ple, whose regular attendance, and desire to learn, 
gave him much encouragement. 



XXV11 

lowing year, 1833, another very eligible location, 
three miles higher up the River, and about twelve 
miles from Grand Rapids, was selected, on which 
to form a more permanent Settlement. 

To these Indians, as well as to the Saulteaux, 
Mr. Cockran sent a plough and a pair of oxen, 
some other agricultural implements, and a supply 
of seed-corn and potatoes. All wrought well ; 
the old Chief Pigwys, especially, setting a good 
example to his people by his diligence and perse 
verance. 

In the autumn, nine small houses were built 
at the new Settlement. Each house was twenty- 
four feet by sixteen, with a cellar for potatoes. 
Mr. Cockran remarked 

I do not pretend to say that any of these cottages 
were either neat or elegant. The seams of the log- 
walls were plastered with mud; the chimneys were of 
the same material; the roofs were thatched with reeds 
and covered with earth ; the boards of the floors, and 
doors, and beds, were planed with the saw; and the 
windows were formed of parchment made of the skins 
of fishes. 

Each Indian who built a house was supplied 
with clothing, tools, and a more experienced 
man to assist and direct him. During this period, 
Mr. Cockran spent several days together at the 



XXV111 

Settlement, and frequently laboured with his own 
hands. 

A Schoolroom, forty feet by twenty, with a 
residence for the Master at one end, arid a loft 
above to serve as a granary, was also completed. 
Lest the children should be dispersed by the 
necessity of searching for food during the winter, 
it was arranged that they should be provided 
with one good meal each day. With this view, 
twenty acres of land at the Rapids were sown 
with wheat, and a fishing party was sent to Lake 
Winnipeg to endeavour to obtain a stock of fish 
for winter consumption. It was also found abso 
lutely necessary to supply the children with some 
articles of clothing. 

When all these arrangements were made, the 
School was opened on the 25th of November, with 
thirty-two children. Mr. Joseph Cook, whose 
father was an Englishman, and whose mother 
was a Cree-Indian, was appointed Schoolmaster. 
On account of the utter absence of parental con 
trol among the Indians, it was found exceedingly 
difficult, at first, to maintain anything like order 
and discipline ; but, by degrees, a marked im 
provement was observable in this respect. 

Shortly afterward, a week-day Lecture was 
established by Mr. Cockran, in the Schoolroom, 



XXIX 

for the benefit of the adults. The attendance 
at first was small ; but it soon increased, and the 
Lecture became an object of much interest. 

The following spring brought with it the 
usual agricultural operations, and it was encou 
raging to see the progress which had been made. 
On the 7th of May 1834, Mr. Cockran ob 
served 

The Indians continue to enlarge their farms. The 
Bay in which we have commenced is all covered with 
persons actively employed some digging up roots, 
others gathering them ; some sowing wheat, and 
others planting potatoes. How soon the industrious 
hand of man can change the gloomy desert into a 
garden ! The only habitation which this Bay could 
boast of last spring was a solitary tent of Indians 
pitched here for the sake of taking fish. Now we can 
stand upon the opposite shore, and see the smoke of 
nine chimneys towering to the sky, upward of thirty 
children beguiling away the cheerful hours of the 
morning in innocent mirth before they assemble to 
con their lessons. We can hear the sound of the axe 
and the saw, the cock crowing, the hogs grunting, 
and the ploughman driving his oxen. 

The Saulteaux Indians continued to manifest 
considerable opposition on the subject of having 
their children educated. Mr. Cockran, however, 
at last succeeded in obtaining from them a reluc- 



XXX 

tant promise of nine children. A new School 
room was accordingly built, toward the close of 
this year, near the Saulteaux encampment, for 
their especial use ; but when it was finished, the 
children originally promised had departed with 
their parents to their wintering grounds. The 
School, however, was shortly afterward opened 
with five boys. 



First Baptisms at the Settlement Hopeful Death of 
an Adult Indian. 

Mr. Cockran was this year permitted to see 
fruit far more important than civilization, result 
ing from his labours. The self-denying rides 
along the bad roads from Grand Rapids to the 
Indian Settlement, in all kinds of weather, in 
order to attend the weekly Meeting which he had 
established, were more than compensated by see 
ing some of the adults beginning to manifest an 
anxiety respecting their everlasting welfare. On 
the llth of September he baptized ten adults, 
six children attending the School, and four 
infants. Several of the adults had applied for 
the ordinance ten months previously, and they 
had all given sufficient evidence of their sincerity 
to justify their reception within the pale of the 



XXXI 

visible Church. There was now a small company 
of those who were " within " to be guided and 
edified, and reminded of their Christian obligations 
to " shine as lights in the world, amidst a crooked 
and perverse generation." 

In little more than two months afterward, 
another Indian, who had for eighteen months been 
an orderly and improving character, and a regular 
attendant at the weekly meetings, became danger 
ously ill. He had for some time felt strongly 
inclined openly to avow his faith in Christ ; but 
the furious opposition of his wife and mother had 
hitherto prevailed to hinder him from publicly 
renouncing the customs of his forefathers. In 
the prospect of eternity, however, he fully resolved 
to encounter every opposition, and to profess the 
faith of Christ crucified ; and while the drum of 
the conjurer, employed by his relatives, was 
sounding, he sent for Mr. Cockran, who, amidst 
a volley of abuse from the mother and wife, which 
made the dying man tremble, baptized him, and 
two of his children who belonged to the School. 
He died within three days afterward; and was 
thus the first, in this part of the wilderness, who 
died in the profession of the true faith. It is a 
pleasing fact, that, not many weeks afterward, his 
widow entirely renounced her opposition, and 
became a Christian. 



XXX11 

Establishment of a Lord s-day Evening Service. 

In the beginning of 1835, by an arrangement 
with Mr. Jones respecting the duties of the 
Middle Church, Mr. Cockran was enabled to 
commence a service in the Indian Schoolroom on 
Lord s-day evenings. By this means a better 
opportunity was afforded for calling the attention 
of the infant Christian community to the duties 
and privileges of the Lord s-day. The Congre 
gation continued to increase, and an extract from 
Mr. Cockran s Journal will show the encourage 
ment which he derived, both here and at the 
Rapids, from this source 

May 31, 1835 I preached, in the morning, at the 
Rapids, to a large and attentive audience. When I 
say large, I mean for this part of the world ; for, as 
we never see a concourse of people except at Church, 
we are liable to more excitement on this head than 
those who frequently cast their eyes over immense 
multitudes. In England, I have often expressed with 
astonishment, What ! so many in the market, and so 
few in Church ! Here it is the reverse. On week 
days, you may travel for miles, and not see a human 
face ; but on the Lord s-day, when you draw near the 
Church at the hour of prayer, the track is covered 
with old and young and middle-aged, pressing for 
ward to the House of God to pay the weekly tribute 



XXX111 

of praise to the Author of their being. When you 
enter Church, and glance at full 300 individuals 
waiting to join in singing the praises of God, you say 
with astonishment, " This is the Lord s doing ; it is 
marvellous in our eyes." In the afternoon, I visited 
the Indian Settlement, and preached there. The 
School-room was perfectly full, and the weather ex 
cessively hot. Their heads were well anointed with 
sturgeon oil, which rendered the effluvia of the place 
almost intolerable. I should be exceedingly happy if 
I could teach them to be more cleanly in their persons 
and in their houses ; but, however severe I may be 
upon them respecting their houses, their farms, and 
dirty habits, at their own homes, still, when at Church, 
I take them as they are, and welcome them. 



Further Evidence of Vital Religion. 

That something more than an external appear 
ance of devotion was to be found among some of 
the poor Indians who thus waited upon the Lord 
in His House, is evident from an interesting 
account, contained in the Church Missionary 
Record for December 1835, of the death of an 
Esquimaux lad, named Colon Leslie, and of the 
expressive and original terms in which an older 
Indian described the difficulties which he met with 
in his religious course, plainly showing that he 



XXXIV 

was no stranger to spiritual religion as a matter 
of experience. 

Erection of a Flour-mill. 

In temporal things, also, another advance was 
made this year. Mr. Cockran mentioned the 
pleasure which it gave him to see " an Indian 
ploughing his ground, with his own plough and 
ox ; and his daughter driving it." The quantity of 
corn raised in the Indian Settlement was now 
so considerable, that the want of a mill to grind 
it began to be very greatly felt ; and after encoun 
tering many difficulties, the indefatigable perse 
verance of Mr. Cockran succeeded in accomplish 
ing this object. A new impulse seemed now to 
be given to the Indian character. Mr. Cockran, 
describing a visit which he made to the Indian 
Settlement on one occasion, remarked 

It seems quite in a bustle to-day. Some were 
carrying the wheat to the mill upon their backs ; 
others were hauling it, with oxen, upon sledges. The 
mill was gliding steadily round, driven by a north- 
wind. I found 12 persons waiting for their flour. The 
grist-mill is the most conspicuous mark of civilization 
that we have planted in this rude waste, and its bene 
ficial effect is strikingly felt by the savage. He seems 



XXXV 

all at once stimulated to develope a new character. 
On the blowing of the wind he is out with his wheat 
to winnow ; gets it into his bag, runs to the mill, and 
stands in eager expectation of his turn. When once 
it is in the hopper, and the stones at work, he handles 
it as it falls into the box, to see if it be well ground. 
I thought it scarcely possible so to rouse the Indian s 
drowsy powers. 



Rebuilding of the Upper Church 
Establishment of Schools. 

While this remarkable transition from barbar 
ism to civilization was taking place in the Indian 
Settlement, Mr. Jones was successfully prosecut 
ing his ministerial labours among the more mixed 
population of the upper part of the Colony. The 
Congregations at the Upper and Middle Churches 
consisted of about 800 or 900, including children, 
and the number of Communicants amounted to 
about 130. The first Church, though reflecting 
great credit on the zeal and exertions of Mr. 
West, and of all who were concerned in its erec 
tion, being built of logs, was fast going to decay, 
and it was found necessary to erect a more sub 
stantial edifice of stone. This object was accom 
plished by a liberal subscription on the part of 
the Settlers, aided by a munificent grant from the 

D 2 



XXXVI 

Hudson 5 s-Bay Company, and a smaller grant from 
the Church Missionary Society. The building 
was opened for Divine Service on the 26th of 
November 1834. It is capable of accommodating 
comfortably 700 people, and 1000 might find room 
without being over-crowded. 

Five Day-schools, containing about 400 chil 
dren, had been established ; beside two Semina 
ries for children of persons engaged in the ser 
vice of the Hudson s-Bay Company, which were 
under the care and superintendence of Mr. and 
Mrs. Jones, assisted by a Tutor and Governess 
from England. At the different Sunday-schools, 
also, nearly 300 received religious instruction. 
Moreover, the orderly demeanour, moral conduct, 
and religious habits, of all classes, were, for the 
most part, satisfactory and cheering. 

Trials of the Mission Death of Mrs. Jones. 

The year 1836 was a season of heavy trial to 
the whole Mission. A severe frost, which oc 
curred in the middle of August, completely de 
stroyed the wheat crops and all garden seeds. 
The buffalo hunters returned from the plains with 
empty carriages. The Company s ship, after hav 
ing landed her passengers at York Fort, was 



driven out of Hudson s Bay by a severe storm, 
and compelled to return to England without hav 
ing been able to land her cargo or to receive any 
despatches ; and thus the Mission was obliged to 
remain another year without communications from 
home, and supplies of various kinds which were 
urgently needed. But a loss, still more deeply 
felt, occurred by the sudden removal of Mrs. 
Jones in the midst of her usefulness ; leaving Mr. 
Jones a bereaved widower, and five children mo 
therless. 

In the midst of these complicated difficulties 
and sorrows, however, there were some impor 
tant and soothing alleviations. The barley har 
vest was good, and the potatoes not altogether 
unproductive. The quantity of cattle which the 
people possessed, and the large stock of old grain 
which was in the hands of several, enabled them 
to pass the winter without much inconvenience. 
The sympathy and sensibility called forth by the 
death of Mrs. Jones, was exceedingly touching. 
When Mr. Cockran, immediately on receiving the 
melancholy intelligence, set out to visit his afflict 
ed brother, every one he met was equally discon 
solate " a shake by the hand, a few faltering 
words, a deep sigh, and a flood of tears, were all 
that passed." Her loss was regarded by the 



XXXV111 

whole Protestant population as the heaviest of that 
trying season. Their language was, " Our crops 
have been smitten by the frost ; our supplies are 
cut off by the non-arrival of the ships : seed-time 
and harvest will come again : a new summer may 
bring another ship ; but Mrs. Jones will never re 
turn ! " Among the Roman Catholic population, 
also, there was a feeling of sympathy, and even 
the untutored savage showed, by his silent grief, 
that he had lost a friend. 



Illustrations of the Effect of the Gospel. 

Many interesting instances might be adduced 
to illustrate the power of religion in influencing 
the minds, and improving the characters, of vari 
ous classes of the population ; but two accounts 
must now suffice. The first is a narrative, related 
by Mr. Jones, of the death of an Indian boy who 
had been educated at the Indian School, and bap 
tized by the name of Jack Spense. Mr. Jones 
observed in his Journal, under the date June 26, 
1836 

I found him dying of consumption, and in a state 
of the most awful poverty and destitution, in a small 
birch-rind covered hut, with nothing but a few fern- 
leaves under him, and an old blanket over him, 



XXXIX 

which was in a condition not to be described. After 
recovering from my surprise, I said, " My poor boy, 
I am very sorry to find you in this state : had you let 
me know, you should not have been lying here." He 
replied, " It is very little I want now, and these poor 
people get it me ; but I should like something softer 
to lie upon, as my bones are very sore." I then asked 
him concerning the state of his mind ; when he 
replied, that he was very happy ; that Jesus Christ, 
the Lord of Glory, had died to save him, and that he 
had the most perfect confidence in Him. Observing 
a small Bible under the corner of his blanket, I said, 
" Jack, you have a friend there : I am glad to see 
that : I hope you find something good there." Weak 
as he was, he raised himself on his elbow, held it in 
his attenuated hand, while a smile played on his 
countenance, and slowly spoke, in precisely the fol 
lowing words " This, Sir, is my dear friend. You 
gave it me, when we all went down to live at Mr. 
Cockran s. For a longtime I read it much, and often 
thought of what it told. Last year, I went to see my 
sister at Lake Winnipeg" about 200 miles off 
"where I remained about two months. When I was 
half-way back through the Lake, I remembered that 
I had left my Bible behind me. I directly turned 
round, and was nine days by myself, tossing to and 
fro, before I could reach the house ; but I found my 
friend, and determined that I would not part with it 
again ; and ever since it has been near my breast, 
and I thought I should have buried it with me ; but 
I have thought since, I had better give it to you 



xl 

when I am gone, and it may do some one else good." 
He was often interrupted by a sepulchral cough, and 
sank down exhausted. I read and prayed, the hut 
hardly affording me room to be upright even when 
kneeling. The evening sun was pouring its rays 
through the holes in the bark-covered hut: and I 
could not but mentally exclaim, on coming away, 
What a scene for the pen of a Legh Richmond ! 

The other instance of the influence of divine 
grace, although it occurred four years later, may 
be here introduced. It will be seen in the fol 
lowing eloquent and pathetic advice given by an 
Indian father to his son, who was setting out on a 
long and hazardous journey. Mr. Cockran wrote, 
in his Journal 

July 26, 1840 I returned home, in company with 
a Native whose son had gone on a long journey, near 
to the Rocky Mountains. I was delighted to find that 
he had sent his son off with the most pressing 
injunction that he would pray to God at least twice 
every day, and read the Bible as often as he might 
have an opportunity. He said, "My son, as long as 
you have been in my house you have seen me pray : 
let this put you in mind that there is a Being, whom 
we cannot see, who gives us all things. You go to 
Church : there you hear that this Great Being, whom 
wicked men hate, and are afraid of, is Love. When 
you go through the plains, you will not see me 
praying; you will not hear that God is Love. There 



xli 

you will meet with men whose hearts are cruel ; who 
will stand up against you ; who have no pity : they 
would drive an arrow through your heart ; they would 
take your scalp from your head, and drink your blood. 
My son, when night comes on, before you close your 
eyes, ask Him who draws the darkness round you to 
look and pity you, and spread His hand over you; 
for you are alone, far from home, and have no other 
friend but Him. When morning comes, and your 
eyes first see the light, thank the Best of all Beings 
for His protection ; and ask Him to go, with you on 
your journey, to turn men who have bad hearts on 
one side, that they may not meet you. Should you 
be in danger, never forget that "the blood of Jesus 
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Trust in it : 
God has accepted of it as the sacrifice for your soul; 
and through this, you and I may meet in heaven." 
The father said to me : " My heart was light and 
happy when I saw my son take his Bible and some 
Tracts ; and when he squeezed my hand, with the 
tears in his eyes, and said, I will remember Him 
who is over us all, till I meet you again. " 



Progress of the Indian Settlement. 

The number of Indians who embraced Chris 
tianity at the Indian Settlement was constantly 
increasing. On the 24th of December 1836, five 
Native women were baptized, one of whom had 
come a distance of 90 miles to seek admission in- 



xlii 

to the Church; and this at a season when the 
thermometer was 25 below zero. About this 
time there were 47 Christian families, comprising 
about 260 individuals. The School-room having 
become much too small to accommodate the Con- 
gregation, Mr. Cockran found it necessary to build 
a Church. In the prosecution of this object he 
was liberally supported by the more affluent in 
habitants of the upper part of the Colony, and 
the Congregation at the Rapids were especially 
forward in rendering their aid. Altogether, about 
95/. 15s. was contributed, in labour, produce, or 
cash. In this Church many faults, which had 
been committed from inexperience in building the 
other Churches, were avoided. Its size is about 
54 feet by 24, and it will accommodate about 300 
persons. The day on which it was opened, Janu 
ary 4, 1837, was exceedingly cold and tempestu 
ous ; but the Church was quite full, all the Offi 
cers of the Hudson s-Bay Company, as well as 
several of the Settlers, being present.* 

* A description of the locality of the Indian Settle 
ment, and of the interesting appearance of the Church, 
is contained in the 39th Report, pp. 123, 124. Fide 
Frontispiece. 



Xilll 



Return of Mr. Jones to England Appeal for 
more Missionaries, and Arrival out of the Rev. 
J. Smit hurst. 

In 1838, Mr. Jones was compelled by domestic 
circumstances, as well as by the state of his 
health, to visit England. He intended to return 
to his labours ; but it pleased God to order 
otherwise. He gradually became weaker, and 
in October 1844 he was taken away from this 
world of sin and suffering. 

When Mr. Jones left the Red River, he was 
the bearer of several letters and messages to the 
Committee, urging, with affectionate earnestness, 
the importance of sending out additional Missio 
naries to them. After service at the Indian 
Church, on the 9th of August, the old Chief 
Pigwys came to Mr. Jones, and said, " I send 
by you a letter to the Missionary men in England : 
tell them not to forget me : I want the Word of 
Life to be always spoken in my land." Another 
Indian, who appeared to take the lead among the 
Muscaigoes, sent a similar message : adding, with 
much vehemence of gesture, " Tell them to make 
haste : time is short, and Death is snatching away 
our friends and relations very fast : tell them to 
make haste" 



xliv 

In allusion to the efforts made by the Church 
of Rome, the Indians, in their general letter, made 
the following affecting appeal 

Mr. Jones is now going to leave us. Mr. Cockran 
is talking of leaving us. Must we turn to our idols 
and gods again? or must we turn to the French 
Praying-masters for protection and assistance, where 
a good few of our children and relatives are gone to? 
We see not less than three French Praying- masters 
have arrived in the River, and not one for us. What 
is this, our friends? The Word of God says, that one 
soul is worth more than all the world. Surely, then, 
our friends, 300 souls are worthy of one Praying-mas 
ter." 

This appeal, taken in connexion with the solitary 
condition of Mr. Cockran, who had to divide his 
labours among the Congregations of four Churches, 
was irresistible ; and accordingly, the Rev. J. 
Smithurst was appointed to this Mission. He 
arrived at the Red River in September 1839, and 
with a praiseworthy eagerness to be among the 
people committed to his charge, took up his resi 
dence at the Indian Settlement even before the 
house which was being prepared for his reception 
was completed. 



xlv 



Present Condition of the Indian Settlement. 

The advantage of having a resident Minister, 
as might be expected, has been very great. Each 
succeeding year has exhibited a marked improve 
ment, both in the temporal and spiritual * con 
dition of the Christian Indians : their numbers 
are constantly increasing by the addition of new 
families, desirous of civilization, and inquiring after 
Christianity ; and the testimony of several com 
petent witnesses, acquainted with the Indian 
character, and experienced in the country, has 
been of the same satisfactory tenour as that which 
the Bishop has borne in his valuable letters. 

In the winter of 1844 5 a new farmhouse 
was finished, and the Mission Establishment, thus 
completed, serves as a model to the Indians. A 
year later a new windmill was erected, the one 
built by Mr. Cockran having become unservicea- 

* One interesting fact, mentioned by Mr. Smithurst 
in 1840, must not be omitted 

When the Christian Indians are out on a hunting excur 
sion, they usually spend the Lord s-day together, and abstain 
entirely from the chase. One of them is in the habit of read 
ing the Church-service ; and after singing, they all talk over 
what they can remember of the Word of God taught them 
either in Church or in School. 



ble. The erection of this mill induced the Indians 
to make considerable efforts toward enlarging their 
farms. 

During the last year or two it has pleased God 
greatly to try the faith and patience both of the 
Missionary and his people. In August and Sep 
tember 1846 dysentery prevailed to an alarming 
extent, and proved fatal in a great many cases. 
Nearly twenty of the Sunday- scholars died. The 
crops of the same year were almost a total failure. 
Whole families were obliged to leave the Settle 
ment for weeks together, to catch fish in Lake 
Winnipeg. Great efforts were made by them, 
however, to be at the Settlement on the Lord s- 
day, and to keep their children at School. Mr. 
Smithurst writes 

I have often seen the poor children, on leaving 
School, go to the river, and sit there angling till sun 
set in order to catch a few small fish called gold- 
eyes, which have scarcely an ounce of which is eat 
able upon them. 

In the year 1847 48 the Indians continued 
to suffer greatly from scarcity, and so many were 
obliged to leave the Settlement, for a time, as 
considerably to interfere with the regular atten 
dance both at Church and School. The prospects 



xlvii 

. * * 
of the harvest, however, were in August las\ 

raising, so that we trust the Settlement w 
same its usual aspect. 

Mr. Smithurst states, in his Report for 
year ending August 1, 1848, that the Eng. 
Morning Service is attended, when all the Indk 
are at home, by about 350 ; and the Indian Afte 
noon Service by from 80 to 130. There is als 
a Service on Wednesday Evening in the Schofl- 
room, which under favourable circumstances is 
well attended. The number of Communicants is 
86. In February Mr. Cook, the Schoolmaster, 
died, his place being occupied by his son. The 
number of Scholars on the books is 68, 35 boys 
and 33 girls. The Sunday-school consists of 36 
Adults in addition to the Day-scholars. On the 
whole, Mr. Smithurst says, " there are many 
marks of improvement, in a religious, moral, and 
civil point of view. If there be much to discou 
rage, and to try both faith and patience, there is 
much over which we ought to rejoice." 

Arrival of the Rev. A. Cowley and Mr. J. 
Roberts Return of Mr. Roberts. 

In 1841, the band of Missionary labourers was 
strengthened by the addition to their number of 



xlviii 

.lev. A. Cowley, and Mr. J. Roberts. Mr. 

;erts returned to this country after two years 

our as a Catechist. Mr. Cowley was at first 

gaged in assisting Mr. Cockran in the Upper 

ettlement, and afterward in superintending the 

ormation of a new Station at Manitoba Lake, 

of which an account is given below. 



Arrangements for the Upper, Middle, and Lower 
Churches Building of a New Church at the 
Rapids Arrival of the Rev. R. James. 

By the ordination of Mr. M Allum, during the 
Bishop s visit, it was hoped that the duties of the 
Upper Church were provided for. Very shortly, 
however, his health failed, and the Church was 
necessarily closed for three weeks. He was sub 
sequently able to take the duty occasionally ; and 
on the other Sundays, Mr. Cockran officiated at 
both the Upper and Middle Churches, and Mr. 
Smithurst at the Indian Settlement and the Lower 
Church. Under this arrangement these two Mis 
sionaries had each to ride twenty-six miles during 
the day ; but it was the only course open to them, 
except closing the Upper Church. 

The insufficient accommodation afforded in the 



xlix 

Lower Church is noticed in the Bishop s Letters, 
and had been strongly felt also by the Missionaries, 
The love of the people for the ordinances of God s 
house had not abated since their erection of the 
first Church,* as will be seen by the following 
account taken from Mr. Cockran s Journal 

Dec. 31 > 1844 I held a Meeting for the purpose of 
ascertaining what means we could raise for building 
a stone Church. Almost all the males attended. I 
addressed them on the zeal and liberality of the Chil 
dren of Israel, when it was proposed to build the 
Tabernacle. If Moses found a willing people, the 
present assembly were equally so. Silver and gold 
they had none ; but stones, lime, shingles, boards, 
timber, and labour, were cheerfully contributed, and 
to such an amount as perfectly astonished me. Never, 
since the day of Pentecost, was self so completely 
conquered. The shingle-makers proposed to give 
10,000 shingles each, and the lime-burners 400 bush 
els of lime each. The mason proposed to dress the 
stones for one corner, and lay them, gratis. Boards 
and timber were promised in the same liberal man 
ner. One black curly-head, descended from the line 
of Ham by his father s side, stood up in his leather 
coat, and said, " I shall give 10J." The eyes of all were 
turned toward him, and a smile played upon every 
countenance. I said, " I believe our brethren think 
you are too poor to raise such a sum." He said, 
raising his arm, " Here is my body : it is at your ser- 



* Vide pp. xviii. xx. 



1 

vice. It is true, I can neither square a stone nor lay 
one ; but there will be the floor and the roof: turn me 
to them, and then you will see, if God give me life 
and health, that the value of the sum shall be raised." 
In materials and labour above TOO/, were promised. 

The foundation of a stone Church was at once 
commenced, and the corner-stone was laid by Mr. 
Smithurst on the 4th of July 1845. Its dimen 
sions are 81| feet by 40 within the walls, and 
there will be a gallery at the west end. The 
tower is 20 feet square, and its base admits of a 
commodious porch. At the beginning of August 
last, the roof was finished, and all the stone-work ; 
the spire and the interior remaining incomplete. 
It was to be opened in a few months. 

For some years the health of Mr. Cockran had 
been seriously failing, and he was at length com 
pelled to retire from the post which he had so 
long and so usefully held. He preached his 
farewell sermon at the Lower (or Grand Rapids) 
Church on the 14th of June 1846, on which occa 
sion Mr. Cowley, being on a visit to the Settle 
ment, thus writes 

Never do I expect to forget the last look which 
some of the people gave their pastor as they retired 
from the Church, in which, from its very first rearing, 



they had heard, with so much pleasure and profit, 
the voice of him whom now, proceeding to their 
homes at a distance, they looked upon to see no more 
for ever. Their hearts were too full for words : the 
only utterance their feelings could obtain was in a 
flood of tears, as each walked up, silently embraced 
his hand, and turned away. 

On the next day Mr. Cockran and his family 
left the Settlement for Canada. 

To provide for the vacancy thus occasioned, the 
Rev. R. James was sent out in the summer of 
1846. He and Mrs. James arrived at the Settle 
ment in the beginning of October, and shortl 
took up their residence at the Grand Rapids. Of 
the new Church Mr. James wrote on his arrival 

It is a noble building by far the best in Prince 
Rupert s Land. Many poor men here, in their godly 
enthusiasm, have given donations of 10/., and, to pay 
it, have forestaked two years wages. 

And in a Report to August 1 847 he states 

I have never yet seen, in the present Church, a 
vacant seat on the Lord s-day. Be the weather what 
it may, rain or snow, storm or sunshine, frozen mer 
cury or fever heat, the Church is more than full. 
Many have to walk five or six miles each way, and 
that often, in winter, through two or three feet of 

E 2 



Hi 

snow. Several families, living between the Rapids 
and Middle Churches, attend both, and in doing so 
perform a journey of sixteen miles. 

His last Report, to August 1848, exhibits a 
steady progress in the various branches of his 
charge. 

Contrary to expectation, Mr. Cockran s health 
was so much improved by a year s residence in 
Canada, that he considered it to be his duty to 
return to the scene of his former labours. He 
arrived at the Settlement on the 31st of July 
1847, and undertook the duties of the Upper 
Church, &c. } as Chaplain to the Hudson s-Bay 
Company. Although Mr. Cockran has been thus 
engaged in ministering to the Settlers rather than 
in direct Missionary work, the Mission will derive 
great benefit from his presence and counsel, his 
thorough acquaintance with the Indian character, 
and the weight of his influence throughout the 
Settlement. 

Formation of the Cumberland Station Appoint 
ment to it of the Rev. J. Hunter, and his Arrival. 

In 1839, the Committee had the satisfaction 
to find that the Hudson s-Bay Company were 



liii 

disposed to countenance and promote the forma 
tion of a Missionary Station at Cumberland 
House, one of their Posts, about 500 miles from 
the Red River. The financial circumstances of 
the Society prevented the Committee from avail 
ing themselves of this opening to the extent 
which they desired. In order, however, that 
some beginning might be made, Mr. Henry Budd, 
who had been for some time in connexion with 
the Society as a Schoolmaster, was sent to that 
neighbourhood in June 1840. When he had 
been labouring for about a year, he was enabled 
to send home an encouraging account of the 
success which had attended his exertions. After 
the lapse of another year, the Rev. J. Smithurst 
was anxious to visit the infant Station, with a 
view to strengthen Mr. Budd s hands, and to 
baptize such as might be prepared for that ordi 
nance. This desire was increased by his receiving 
a communication, through Mr. Budd, from the 
Indians of that district, earnestly requesting him 
to visit them. As the journey occupied twenty- 
six days, Mr. Smith urst s joy may be well 
imagined when the guide made the pleasing 
announcement, " Mr. Budd s place is just behind 
that point of wood." A few minutes brought him 



within sight of the infant Mission Establishment, 
which he thus described 

The School-house in the centre, Mr. Budd s house 
on the South side, and the children s house on the 
North, appeared respectable buildings; and struck 
me as reflecting very great credit upon Mr. Budd s 
industry. A gentle slope from the houses toward the 
river appeared to have been cleared, but not fenced ; 
and in the rear, a neat square field was fenced in, 
and under cultivation. 

Our boat was soon observed, and the School-child 
ren flocked down to the beach to welcome our arrival. 
Their appearance was highly satisfactory, consider 
ing the short time which had intervened since they 
were taken from their native woods. Notwithstanding 
the unfavourable circumstances under which we ar 
rived, amid a deluge of rain, the first impression 
upon my mind was so pleasing, that I quite forgot 
the tediousness of twenty-six days travelling through 
a solitary wilderness. 

The School was found to contain thirty-one 
Indian children, all neat and clean. On examina 
tion, it appeared that they had made very good 
progress in learning. There were but few adult 
Indians at the Station when Mr. Smithurst arri 
ved, because they were necessarily engaged in 
procuring subsistence, at a fishing-place about a 
day s journey off; but he was informed that they 



Iv 

would not fail to reach the Station on Saturday, 
according to their regular custom. Accordingly, 
on that day he wrote 

In the afternoon, a whole fleet of canoes made 
their appearance, and formed a most pleasing scene. 
The party, consisting of from sixty to seventy persons, 
pitched their tents alongside the Mission Establish 
ment, in order to attend the services of the Lord s- 
day. This was indeed one of the most cheering sights 
I ever witnessed ; and called forth feelings of the 
deepest gratitude to God, that He should have in 
clined the hearts of so many to seek after the way of 
salvation. 

Up to a late hour on Saturday evening, as well 
as on the following morning, Mr. Smithurst was 
engaged in a close examination of the Candidates 
for Baptism individually. He reported, that 
" the result of the examinations was highly 
satisfactory/ 

June 26, 1842, is a day much to be remember 
ed in the annals of this Mission. In the after 
noon, Mr. Smithurst had the privilege of ad 
mitting into the Church of Christ, by Baptism, 
eighty-five Indians ; of whom thirty-eight were 
adults, and the remaining forty- seven their 
children. 

In the summer of 1843, Mr. Budd reported 



Ivi 

that the eighty-five baptized Indians continued 
stedfast in the faith, and manifested an increasing 
desire after divine things ; and that there were 
fifty-eight Candidates for Baptism awaiting the 
arrival of a Clergyman. The urgent need of an 
ordained Missionary for this interesting Station 
was met by the appointment of the Rev. J. Hunter, 
who with Mrs. Hunter arrived at York Fort in 
August 1844, and at their Station on the 26th of 
September. Mr. Hunter writes 

On landing from the boat, a great number of In 
dians, who had for some time been waiting my arri 
val, came to bid us welcome ; and we could imme 
diately perceive, from their manner and address, that 
we were not surrounded by Heathen, but by Christian 
Brethren. 

Mr. Hunter immediately addressed himself to 
the examination of the Candidates for Baptism, 
and did not discover any to whom he could not 
conscientiously administer that sacrament. On 
the first Lord s-day after his arrival he baptized 
31 adults and 35 children. He states 

I had previously arranged that they should come 
up for Baptism by households, and a most interesting 
and delightful scene it was to see the father and mo 
ther, with their children, approach the font to receive 
this sacred ordinance. All was breathless attention, 



Ivii 

many a tear was shed s and both old and young ap 
peared to be affected by the solemn Service. 

Thus at this Station there were now 150 Chris 
tian Converts, who, four years previously, had 
been all Heathen, and had never heard the " glad 
tidings" of the Gospel. When it is considered 
that Mr. Budd was one of the first Indian boys 
consigned to Mr. West s care in ] 820, it will be 
seen that this account furnishes a most striking 
illustration of the value of Native Agency. 

Progress of the Cumberland Station. 

Mr. Hunter entered upon his work with vigour, 
amid manifest tokens of the blessing of the Lord. 
The whole number baptized by him in the first 
year of his residence amounted to 59 adults and 
68 children ; in the next year 62 persons, in the 
next, 32 adults and 53 children, and in the year 
ending August 1848, 22 adults and 43 children 
were added to the number. The total number 
baptized in connexion with the Station, by Mr. 
Smithurst and Mr. Hunter, has amounted to 424. 
The Chief of the place was baptized on Easter 
Sunday 1847. 

In his last Report Mr. Hunter states that 
many proofs existed to justify the conclusion 



Iviii 

that the work of grace commenced among the 
Indians was of a permanent character. " In 
spiritual matters," he says, "we have had abun 
dant cause to rejoice, and ample encouragement 
to prosecute with greater earnestness than ever 
our work of faith and labour of love both among 
our own people and the surrounding heathen." 
The Indians are very devout and attentive during 
the Services, and very anxious that their children 
should be baptized. 

The sacrament of the Lord s Supper was first 
administered in October 1844, the number of 
Indian Communicants being 12. On Easter Sun 
day 1848 the following entry occurs in Mr. Hun 
ter s Journal 

At the Services to-day the Schoolroom was com 
pletely filled with Christian Indians, about 150 being 
present. During the past week the Indians have been 
coming in from all quarters to attend the Services of 
this season, and to be present at the Communion. 
After the Morning Service, it was my privilege to 
administer the Lord s Supper to 51 Communicants, 
being the largest number that have ever attended at 
this Station. I have every reason to believe that the 
majority of these Communicants are sincere and de 
vout Christians, living consistently with the blessed 
Gospel of Christ, and endeavouring to adorn their 
profession by a pious walk and conversation. 



lix 

Several Indians, who have died since Mr. 
Hunter s residence at the Station, have given 
good evidence that they died " in the Lord." 

There are a Day and Sunday-school at the Sta 
tion, conducted by Mr. Budd under Mr. Hunter s 
superintendence. In the Day-school the number 
of children on the books is 85, of whom 25 read 
in the Old or New Testaments. In the Sunday- 
school there are 12 adults and 2 children in 
addition to the Day-scholars. The attendance at 
both Schools is very good during the summer, 
when the parents are about the Mission Establish 
ment ; but during the winter, from the want of 
provisions and other causes, it is more irregular. 

During 1845 6 a commodious dwelling-house 
was erected, and the farm greatly enlarged. In 
the spring of 184 8 ten bushels and a half of wheat, 
and six bushels of barley, were sown, and about 
16 bushels of potatoes planted. At the begin 
ning of August Mr. Hunter reports that the crops 
were " looking remarkably well, and promising 
an abundant harvest. 5 

For some time the want of a Church had been 
greatly felt, and on the llth of September 1847 
Mr. Hunter writes in his Journal 



Ix 

I called a meeting of the Indians, and invited them 
to subscribe toward the erection of a Church. They 
responded to my invitation, not in money, it is true, 
but in work. The Chief gave a horse, and the sub 
scriptions amounted altogether to 28/. 

Before the close of the summer the frame of 
the Church had been put up, and during the win 
ter the beams, &c., were prepared, and hauled to 
the banks of the river about 30 miles above the 
Station. At the beginning of August last, by the 
assistance of the Indians, the wood had been rafted 
down, and was lying close to the frame of the 
Church. Mr. Hunter hoped to complete the 
"logging" of the building before the winter 
set in. 

We must not omit to record what has been 
done by the Indians themselves toward leading a 
settled and civilized life. Their efforts in this 
respect are peculiarly interesting, as it is well 
known how deeply rooted is their love for a wan 
dering and, as they deem it, an independent life. 
What their condition in such circumstances really 
is, may be seen forcibly described at p. 31 of the 
Bishop s Journal. 

In his Report for the year ending August 1846 
Mr. Hunter wrote 



Ixi 

Several of the Christian Indians have commenced 
new farms, and those who had farms have enlarged 
them ; so that an entire island, of tolerable size, is 
under cultivation with potatoes. About ten have 
commenced preparing wood for houses ; and one 
house, which will make the fifth Indian house, is 
now being erected. Several of the Indians have also 
wheat, barley, turnips, peas, &c., growing on their 
farms. 

And again, a year later 

The frames of four houses have been put up by the 
Indians, and are now being logged. Several Indians 
are away, cutting wood for houses, which they intend 
to raft down the river. On their farms are growing 
excellent crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, and tur 
nips ; and some of them have horses, cattle, and pigs. 
They are now dressed in European clothes, and are 
abandoning their native indolence, and adopting more 
active and industrious habits. Many of them are 
excellent sawyers and squarers, and are able very 
materially to assist the carpenter in the erection of 
our new buildings. As in spiritual, so in temporal 
things, a great change is taking place among these 
Indians : this strikes me the more forcibly when I 
visit Heathen Indians, who have not had the like 
privileges. 

We cannot refrain from giving one instance of 
the " great change " referred to above. Mr. 
Hunter records, in his Journal 



Ixii 



Jan. 5, 1847 I went, with Mrs. Hunter, to visit 
Charles Cook, the Rocky-Lake Chief, at his farm, 
about six miles from hence. The old man is now re 
siding in a house which he has recently erected, in 
which we found a cheerful fire blazing, and his fa 
mily seated around the hearth. They appeared to be 
both surprised and delighted with our visit, and the 
old man seated us near the fire. He has put up the 
house very well, and has a nice cellar in which he 
keeps his potatoes secure from the frost. Adjoining 
is another house, in which he keeps a pig that I gave 
him, and I have promised to supply him with a calf 
shortly : his sons lately purchased a horse for him. 
He has a large family, and was one of the first here 
who embraced Christianity. Before leaving we sang 
a hymn together, and engaged in prayer to our com 
mon Father. Suspended on the trees outside the 
house were the skins of foxes one a silver fox and 
martens, the produce of the winter s hunt. 



Death of Mrs. Hunter. 

In the midst of the prosperity thus attendant 
on the Mission, it pleased God to call Mrs. Hun 
ter to Himself. The intense cold appears to have 
been too much for her constitution, and induced, 
or at least developed, consumption. She died on 
the 20th of November 1847. Her husband writes 

She was much beloved by the Indians for her 



Ixiii 

affability and kindness. She embraced every oppor 
tunity of speaking to them for their temporal and 
spiritual good, and they all appear to feel that they 
have lost a kind friend : they all gathered around her 
grave, and wept for her as for their sister. 



Formation and Progress of a branch Station at 
Lac-la-Ronge. 

On several occasions Mr. Hunter had observed 
that a desire for instruction prevailed among the 
Rapid-River Indians. One of the earliest notices 
of this fact occurs in his Journal of May 1845, 
when an Indian and his family presented them 
selves for Christian instruction, having travelled 
about 400 miles to obtain it. This man left his 
home in the autumn, and continued journeying in 
his canoe until the rivers were locked by the win 
ter. He hunted until the spring, when he resumed 
his voyage, the desire for instruction remaining 
urgent within him. 

A month later, while on a visit to Cumberland 
Fort, Mr. Hunter met with two other Indians 
from the Rapid- River, who were then on their 
way to Cumberland Station for further instruction 
than they had been able to gain from the visits of 
Christian Indians to them. On this occasion Mr. 
Hunter relates the way in which the Rapid-River 



Ixiv 

Indians had become anxious to know more of 
Christianity 

Some two or three years ago, one of these Indians, 
Great Chief, visited the Pas [Mr. Hunter s Station] 
for instruction ; and, after re main ing there some time, 
procured some initiatory books and tracts from Henry 
Budd, and left for the purpose of returning home, 
with the laudable intention of endeavouring to com 
municate a little of that instruction which he had found 
so profitable to himself. From that period up to the 
present time he has steadily kept this object in view, 
occasionally visiting the Pas for the purpose of obtain 
ing further instruction, and returning to his country 
men to dispense it; and so desirous were the Indians 
to listen to the message of salvation, although im 
parted by so inadequate an instrument, that they 
have kept him up four nights in succession, listening 
to the truths of the Gospel from his lips. Party after 
party would enter his tent, and, after retiring for a 
short time for refreshment and repose, would return 
again to obtain further information. Their cry is, 
" Send us a Teacher : we are poor and ignorant ; have 
pity, then, on our poverty and our ignorance, and 
teach us the blessings of salvation." 

Impressed with the great importance of the 
opening, Mr. Hunter prevailed on James Beardy, 
one of his best-instructed Indians, at once to pro 
ceed to a place near the Rapid River, called Lac- 
la-Ronge, about 200 miles from the Cumberland 



Ixv 

Station. In a Letter dated September 2, 1845, 
Beardy wrote to Mr. Hunter 

I feel a pleasure in endeavouring to follow your 
instructions who sent me into this neighbourhood. 
The Indians here are so desirous of instruction in the 
Christian Religion that they will not allow me to go 
back : therefore I have determined to pass the winter 
among them. They told me that it was the first time 
they had heard the good words of salvation. 

Be so good as to write me a few lines by the first 
opportunity, and tell me the way I must go on with 
the Natives ; and I shall always try my best to per 
form your orders. 

In May 1846, Heche Hookemow, or the Great 
Chief, referred to above, visited the Cumberland 
Station principally for baptism, to which ordi 
nance he and his family were admitted on the 7th 
of June. 

On the 1 6th of June, Beardy returned to the 
Cumberland Station from Lac-la- Ronge, bringing 
with him a family of Indians for instruction and 
baptism. On the next day Mr. Hunter writes 

Conversing with Beardy and the Rapid-River In 
dians who arrived yesterday. The account which 
Beardy gives is most encouraging. There are twenty 
families waiting the arrival of a Christian Teacher. 
He has engaged in prayer with them daily, and on 

F 



Ixvi 



Lord s-days they have assembled at the Fort ; a large 
room, which they completely filled, being assigned to 
them. Here they have engaged in praise and prayer-, 
and as much of the Christian Religion as Beardy 
could, from time to time, call to remembrance, he has 
made known to them. " The chief substance of my 
teaching was," he told me, " to show them that they 
were all sinners ; that they had broken God s holy 
laws ; and thus stood in need of the salvation which 
God had provided through the blood and righteous 
ness of Christ." 

As soon as possible, on the 8th of July, Mr. 
Hunter despatched James Settee, one of his 
Schoolmasters, to Lac-la-Ronge, to continue the 
work so happily commenced there. Mr. Settee 
had formerly laboured at Fort Ellice, but various 
reasons induced the Missionaries to transfer his 
labours from thence to the Cumberland District. 
He arrived at Lac-la-Ronge on the 8th of August, 
a short time before two Roman-Catholic Priests, 
who afterward settled in the neighbourhood, and 
just prior to the appearance of the measles among 
the Indians, who thus stood in peculiar need of his 
assistance and instruction, many being carried off 
by the disease. The following affecting passage is 
from Mr. Settee s Journal 

October 24. The total number who have died here 



Ixvii 

up to the present time is 29 viz. 5 men, 12 women, 
and 12 children, the majority of whom have been 
buried by myself. I am happy to add that they were 
all Converts, that they had forsaken their drums 
and conjurations, and held Family Prayers. Many 
of them gave evidence that they died in simple de 
pendence on the merits of the Lord Jesus, uttering 
with their last breath such ejaculations as the fol 
lowing " I love my soul and my Saviour, and I will 
praise Him while I have breath." They anxiously 
desired Christian Baptism, and it grieved me much 
to see them dying without that ordinance. 

Mr. Settee continued zealously to labour at the 
Station, erected a dwelling-house, and cultivated 
a piece of ground. The visit of a Clergyman was 
now urgently required ; and early in the morning 
of the 13th of June 1847, a canoe, with four In 
dians, arrived at the Pas from Lac-la-Ronge, in 
order to take Mr. Hunter back with them. The 
party left the Pas on the 17th, and on the 30th 
Mr. Hunter writes 

Accompanied by two canoes of Indians, who were 
going with me for instruction and Baptism, we made 
toward Lac-la-Ronge, and about four o clock this 
afternoon arrived at Mr. Settee s house, which is plea 
santly situated at the base of immense granite rocks 
200 or 300 feet high. The whole establishment spoke 
well for Settee s industry and perseverance, consider- 

F 2 



Ixviii 

ing the short time he had been located here, and 
the many hinderances arising from sickness, jour 
neys, &c. The Company s Establishment is on the 
opposite side of the Lake, where the Indians were 
encamped, and who were to be seen on the hill, with 
their children, to catch a view of their long-expected 
visitor. On my landing at the Mission-house, they 
all came paddling in their canoes to welcome my ar 
rival : their Christian affection and joy almost over 
came my feelings, and it was plainly discernible that 
the power of the Gospel was felt and recognised. 

July I This morning, at an early hour, I commen 
ced examining the Candidates for Baptism, and found 
them well instructed in the leading truths of the 
Christian Religion : most of them could repeat the 
Creed, the Lord s Prayer, and the Ten Command 
ments ; also portions of Scripture, Hymns, Prayers, 
&c. I explained to them the nature, responsibili 
ties, and benefits to be derived from Christian Bap 
tism, and then baptised 48 adults and 59 children, 
making a total of 107 persons, the first-fruits of a 
Station not yet established one year ; and had all the 
Candidates been present, instead of 107 we should 
have had about 160. 

On his return to his Station, Mr. Hunter had 
the happiness of reporting " All the Indians at 
Lac-la-Ronge have embraced the Christian Reli 
gion : there is not one Heathen among them." Thus 
was furnished another wonderful proof of the 
value of Native Agency. 



Ixix 

In his last Report, July 1848, Mr. Hunter 
writes 

Mr. Settee states, that, amidst many privations and 
hardships, he has much to encourage him in his la 
bours. The 107 Indians whom I baptized last summer 
continue steady in the profession of the Christian 
faith, and are regular attendants on the Means of 
Grace whenever opportunity offers. 

In the Day and Sunday-schools there are 31 boys, 
24 girls, and 7 adults, making a total of 62. Three 
of these children read in the New Testament, four 
write on slates, and about 30 can repeat the Creed, 
Lord s Prayer, and Commandments, in English. A 
great number of the adults can do the same. 

In September 1847, 38 Indians, from the neigh 
bourhood of the Churchill River, visited Lac-la- 
Ronge, in the hope of receiving Christian instruc 
tion and baptism. From other parts, also, heathen 
Indians are constantly arriving. Writing on this 
subject, Settee thus notices the remarkable ear 
nestness of the converted Indians in watching for 
souls 

Our Christian Indians are constantly on the watch 
to see a heathen. As soon as they see one they sur 
round him, and endeavour to persuade him out of 
his evil ways, and become a praying man like one of 
themselves ; praying at the same time that the Lord 



Ixx 

would convince and convert all the heathen to wor 
ship and serve Him. 

Thus do these poor men " warn the wicked," 
and deliver their own souls. Settee has made 
several journeys around his Station, and finds the 
same desire for Christian instruction existing 
wherever he goes. In June 1848 he was at the 
Rapid River, and says "I am very busy at pre 
sent : the Indians will give me no time to write, 
coming in every minute to hear the word of God : 
indeed I have no time to eat sometimes." 

We cannot refrain from giving the following no 
tice, from Mr. Settee s Journal, of a poor Indian 
who died in the Lord 

Nov. 13, 1847 Poor old John Venn died. He was 
baptized by Mr. Hunter, and had for a long time 
trusted in the merits of his Saviour. I often heard 
him say to his wife, " I am looking out when my Savi 
our sends for me. I hope I am ready to see Him who 
has so much loved me as to die for my sins, and on 
whom I wholly cast myself. Pray to Him, my wife, 
pray for our little girl, that you may be saved in the 
day of His coming." 

The manifest need of a Missionary at this Sta 
tion has induced the Committee to set apart an 
ordained Student, who will probably leave for 
Hudson s Bay in the spring of 1849. 



Ixxi 
Openings at Isle-de-la-Crosse and Fort Chippewyan. 

Isle-de-la-Crosse is about as far from Lac-la- 
Ronge as Lac-La-Ronge from Mr. Hunter s Sta 
tion. The Indians at this post have long been 
very anxious for religious instructien, and have 
been in vain urged to embrace Romanism. At 
Fort Chippewyan, also, in the same direction, 
nearly 400 miles beyond Isle-de-la-Crosse, the 
same desire for Christian instruction prevailed. 
Hence when Mr. Settee went in July 1846 to re 
side at Lac-la-Ronge, James Beardy removed to 
Isle-de-la-Crosse. 

In a Letter dated August 3, 1848, Mr. Hunter 
writes 

The openings which present themselves at Isle-de- 
la-Crosse and Fort Chippewyan are as encouraging as 
ever. The only cause* for regret is, that while no 
Missionary is coming out this year for Lac-la-Ronge, 
an additional Romish Priest has been sent this year 
to Isle-de-la-Crosse, where two Priests are already 
stationed. One of them will in all probability pro 
ceed immediately to Fort Chippewyan. A Chief at 
that place, named Tripe-de-Roche, sent to me this 
summer, requesting that I would send some one to 
teach them and their children the Christian Religion, 
as they were unwilling to attend the ministrations of 
the Romish Priest. I have some reason to believe 



Ixxii 

that this disposition is prevalent among the Chippe- 
wyans. 

The call for Missionaries is here plain enough ; 
but where are the men ? 

Formation and Progress of the Manitoba Station. 

The Manitoba Station, already referred to, is 
about 200 miles west from the Red River, and was 
commenced by the Rev. A. Cowley in August 
1842. He and his wife at first lived in a tent, 
and endured great hardships. In December, Mr. 
Cowley fixed upon a new locality for the Station 
a place called Partridge Crop, where he still re 
sides. In August 1843 he was obliged to return 
to the Red River to assist Mr. Cockran, and the 
Manitoba Station was left in charge of Christian 
Natives. During his residence at Red River Mr. 
Cowley occasionally visited Partridge Crop, and 
finally returned thither in August 1844. 

During the first year of Mr. Cowley s residence 
at the new Station, a house and offices were 
erected, a piece of land enclosed and sown, and 
various other secular labours undertaken. Ser 
vice was held on the Lord s -day, and a Day and 
Sunday-school were earned on as regularly as 
circumstances permitted. Other means of grace 



Ixxiii 

also were afforded, and the Indians around the 
Station were visited by Mr. Cowley as frequently 
as his duties at home would allow. On the sub 
ject of Indian civilization Mr. Cowley wrote 

We have succeeded in persuading two Indians to 
prepare wood to build themselves houses, another to 
allow us to prepare wood for him, he being unable, 
and a goodly number of them to farm : there are thir 
teen small patches of ground planted with potatoes, 
&c., by them, and all separately fenced. 

At the end of the next year July 1846 Mr. 
Cowley was still unable to report the conversion 
of even one Indian. The Saulteaux Indians, 
among whom Mr. Cowley labours, have ever 
been found peculiarly indifferent to the message 
of the Gospel, and pertinacious in adhering to 
their own superstitions. The means of grace 
were continued as in the previous year, and the 
Day-school numbered, during the winter, 20 regu 
lar scholars, 15 of them being boarders. A 
Schoolroom was built, and occupied for the first 
time in November 1845. Mr. Cowley wrote, in 
July 1846 

I have introduced the carding and spinning of 
wool into the School, to assist in clothing the child 
ren, and to teach them habits of industry and 
economy. In this, as well as in reading and writing, 
they are making, I think, very satisfactory progress. 



Ixxiv 

Some have also commenced arithmetic. You can 
scarcely conceive the pleasure which I enjoy in seeing 
these boys and girls, once more than half-naked and 
half-starved, now sitting around me, all clean, well 
fed, and tidily dressed ; sometimes reading, either the 
Word of the living God, or such other books as they 
are able ; at other times, standing by my side, singing 
with sweet voices the praises of their Maker ; or falling 
down on their knees, with me, to pray to God our 
Saviour. 

This year witnessed a considerable advance to 
ward Indian civilization. On this point Mr. Cow- 
ley wrote 

I do not know, among all the families living about 
us, one single Indian who has not a small piece of 
land planted with potatoes. One has also wheat, and 
many of them maize, in addition to potatoes, growing 
beautifully upon their land. We number seven houses 
upon the banks of the River ; and the framework of 
another is erected, and logs cut ready for a ninth. 
The Indians are also anxious to obtain cattle. 

The early part of Mr. Cowley s third year at 
his Station was marked by a fatal sickness, which 
carried off many of the Indians. The Missionary 
was also much pained by the indulgence of the 
Indians around him in intoxicating liquors, several 
hopeful Natives being thus seduced from what 
appeared to be their setting out in civilized and 



Ixxv 

Christian life. Notwithstanding, however, all that 
occurred to discourage, Mr. Cowley was of opinion 
that his position was "at least more cheering 
than at any former period." In the spring of 
1847 he called a meeting of the Indians for con 
ference with them on the best things. They ac 
knowledged the kind intentions of the Missionary, 
but said they were too old to become praying-men 
now. Their children, they said, they would give 
up to be taught. Mr. Cowley s main hopes were 
thus confined to the School. He wrote of it, July 
21, 1847 

We have now 27 boarders and 15 day-scholars, of 
whom 19 are boys and 23 girls. Some read the Bible 
quite fluently, have learned all the Catechisms we 
have here, and know a great deal of the Scriptures. 
Others are following close after them in reading ; but 
are more backward in writing and arithmetic. The 
remainder are progressing favourably. They have 
carded and spun a considerable quantity of wool 
during the year, which is now at the Red River for 
the purpose of being woven into cloth for their win 
ter clothing. 

On the 2nd of August 1846, an Indian from 
Swan River, with his family, arrived at the Station 
for Christian instruction. They had heard the 
Gospel already from Christian Indians, and the 



Ixxvi 

mother and some of the children had heen bap 
tized. After a fortnight s further instruction Mr. 
Cowley baptized the father, Peter Brass, and two 
of his sons. Their knowledge was far less than 
he could have wished, but their coming a journey 
of 200 miles for baptism, and remaining for a 
fortnight under preparatory instruction, convinced 
him of their sincerity. They were received into 
the visible Church on the understanding that they 
were to settle down, and live a Christian life, 
where instruction might be had both for them 
selves and their family. 

In Mr. Cowley s report for the year ending 
July 1848, the general condition of the adult 
population of the Station is described as very 
discouraging. He writes, July 17 

My people generally manifest the same indifference, 
apathy, and recklessness of character with regard to 
spiritual things as heretofore. They are seldom near 
us for any length of time, but wander through the 
lakes and woods for months together in search of 
food. They say they do not forget what they hear 
while here, but when I question them upon the most 
simple truths of our holy religion, their ignorance is 
distressing ; and when joined, as it sometimes is, with 
levity, truly heartrending. There are however a few, 
though very few, who pay more attention to what they 
hear, and conduct themselves with more decorum. 



Ixxvii 

Five families of Indians possess eleven herd of 
horned cattle, and four or more horses, young and 
old. There are seven Indian dwelling-houses upon 
the banks of the River. 

The School may be viewed as flourishing. There 
are 8 Half-breed and 9 Indian boys, and 9 Half-breed 
and 9 Indian girls; total 35. Of these, 25 are fed and 
clothed at the Society s expense. Five read in the 
Bible, write on paper, and cypher : they also learn 
the Assembly s Shorter Catechism, spelling, and 
tables. Eight others read the New Testament, write, 
learn Catechisms, &c. 

We have enlarged the farm this year. The whole 
of the land besides the Schoolmaster s garden within 
our enclosure forms a square of about 297 yards by 
290. This comprises the site of our house, outhouses, 
yard, garden, and farm. We have sown about 17 
bushels of wheat and of barley, and planted 12lbs. of 
potatoes. 

We would earnestly ask the readers of this nar 
rative, to pray for the blessing of God upon the 
disheartening labours of the devoted Missionary at 
this Station. Truly the name Manitoba (Evil 
Spirit) is descriptive of the place ! Yet even here 
shall the " strong man armed " be overcome by a 
stronger than he, all his armour wherein he trusted 
shall be taken from him, and his spoils add glory 
to the Conqueror s name. 



Ixxviii 
Visit of the Bishop of Montreal. 

It only remains that some reference should be 
made to the important visit of the Bishop of 
Montreal. From the time of his consecration in 
1836, Dr. Mountain cherished the intention of 
visiting this distant branch of the Church of Eng 
land, and the proposal was heartily seconded by 
the Society. The prior claims of his own Diocese, 
however, interfered with the carrying out of this 
intention until 1842, when he fully hoped to be 
able to accomplish the object. But a severe 
illness obliged him to defer the visit until the 
year 1844. 

The account of the journey, and other infor 
mation communicated in the Bishop s Letters, 
cannot fail to be regarded as highly interesting ; 
and all who read them will doubtless agree with 
the Clergy of the Mission in considering that 
" the self-denying zeal which stimulated, and the 
persevering industry which accomplished, this 
pious, noble, and arduous enterprise, entitled his 
Lordship to our warmest acknowledgments of 
gratitude." * 

The visit greatly cheered the hearts and strength 
ened the hands of the Missionaries, and there is 

* Address of the Clergy to the Bishop. 



Ixxix 

every reason to believe that, under God s blessing, 
it will greatly tend to the stability and extension 
of the Mission. 

The impression produced upon the Bishop s 
mind by what he saw is sufficiently evident in his 
Letters. It may be well, however, to add the fol 
lowing short but satisfactory testimony, extracted 
from a letter to the Secretary, dated August 27, 
1844, written immediately after his Lordship s re 
turn to Quebec 

It is impossible that I can write to you, after rny 
visit, without paying at least a passing tribute to the 
invaluable labours of those faithful men whom the 
Society has employed in that field of its extensive 
operations : and the opportunity which was afforded 
to me of contrasting the condition of the Indians who 
are under their training and direction, with that of 
the unhappy Heathens with whom I came in contact 
on the route, signally enabled me to appreciate the 
blessings of which the Society is the instrument, and 
did indeed yield a beautiful testimony to the power 
and reality of the Gospel of Christ. 



LETTEE I. 

VOYAGE FROM LA CHINE TO THE BED 
RIVER SETTLEMENT. 

Quebec, Nov. 20, 1844. 
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, 

THE accumulation of business which has 
come upon me in the Diocese, since my 
return from the Red River three months 
ago, and the necessity which I have been 
under of travelling, in different directions, 
upon ecclesiastical matters, have compelled 
me to suffer mail after mail to depart with 
out furnishing to the CHURCH MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY the fuller and more particular 
account which I promised, upon the first 
occasion of my writing to you after getting 
back to Quebec, of my visit to the Society s 
Mission in the quarter above-mentioned, 
and of the fruit of their operations which 

a 



I there witnessed. To this task I now ad 
dress myself, proposing chiefly to execute 
it in the form of a condensed abstract from 
my Journal ; but, even now, I am by no 
means sure of being able to complete it be 
fore the closing of the mail on the 24th of 
the present month. 

Departure from Quebec for Montreal. 

Having, by the great goodness of God, 
been enabled again to undertake this long- 
cherished project, the hope of accomplishing 
which appeared, in 1842, to be extinguished 
by the extraordinary illness which it pleased 
Him at that time to lay upon me and 
having once more put all matters in train 
for it by communications, which had the 
most encouraging result, with the heads of 
the Church at home, the Society, the Hud 
son s Bay Company, and the Missionaries 
upon the spot I left Quebec, by Steamer, 
for Montreal, on the 13th of May last, and 
on the morning of the 16th embarked in 
my canoe at La Chine, nine miles above the 



latter city, where the Company have an 
important Depot 

Equipments and Grew. 

My equipment, and the means of my 
conveyance, having been provided, with the 
utmost alacrity, at the charge of the Society, 
in their desire to procure the Episcopal 
ministrations for the remote Mission of the 
Red River, it may be satisfactory, upon this 
as well as upon other and obvious grounds, 
to state that the arrangements were all 
made for me in the most excellent manner, 
and with the most careful attention, by 
direction of Sir Greorge Simpson, the Gover 
nor of the Company s Territory, who was 
at La Chine at the time. A new birch-bark 
canoe was provided, of the largest class, 
such as is called a canot de mattre, having 
fourteen paddles, and being of the length 
of thirty-six feet. The crew were picked 
men, and most of them were, more or less, 
experienced voyageurs. One had accom 
panied Captain Franklin to the Arctic re- 

G 2 



4 

gions in 1825. Eight of them were French 
Canadians : six were Iroquois Indians, from 
the village of Caughnawaugha, opposite to 
La Chine, where a Mission was established 
for this Tribe during the French possession 
of the country. All, of either race, were 
Roman Catholics a great drawback from 
the comfort of a voyage of many weeks 
through the wilderness, in which several 
Sundays were to be passed, with only my 
own servant to benefit beside our mutual 
benefit by any ministrations afforded by 
my Chaplain and myself. Our guide, a 
functionary who, in a manner, conducts the 
whole enterprise, was an Iroquois, and a 
man of the very first reputation in his line : 
the steersmen of whom there are two, on 
account of the practice of exchanging the 
large canoe for two smaller ones, and di 
viding the crew, at the upper end of 
Lake Superior were Canadians. The other 
eleven men are called middlemen. One of 
them however, who acted as our own cook, 
and had charge of our provisions and all 
the apparatus connected with our culinary 



department, had certain perquisites and 
privileges above the rest. The Indians all 
spoke French sufficiently for the common 
purposes of the day. We were thus seven 
teen persons in the canoe. Our baggage, 
bedding, and provisions, with the equip 
ments of the canoe and the tent, were 
estimated, I think, at the weight of a ton 
and a half. 

Mode of Travelling. 

"We travelled for some few days up the 
Ottawa, with Settlements or detached habi 
tations within our reach ; and, in fact, we 
were far up this river before we bid adieu 
to the region where Steamers have pene 
trated, and inns have been established at 
intervals connected with their trips ; but we 
fell at once, to avoid all delay and to make 
sure of keeping our people together, into the 
habits and rules of the voyageur, and our 
only recourse to the houses was to procure 
milk, for which payment was always re 
fused, for our tea. 



The whole system of travelling on this 
route is framed with reference to the neces 
sity of accomplishing an enormous distance, 
presenting many obstructions and tedious 
delays, within a given time. The season is 
short ; for the navigation is not open before 
the end of April, and much inconvenience 
and detention are apt to be encountered 
if Lake Superior be not crossed, on the 
downward route, before the end of August 
the high winds of September rendering 
it often impossible, for many days together, 
for a canoe to proceed at all upon that pro 
digious expanse of water, and the size of 
the craft precluding any arrangement for 
carrying a considerable stock of provisions. 
In fact, I was strongly advised to lay my 
plans in such a manner as, humanly speak 
ing, to ensure my return to La Chine before 
the end of August. Duties in my own 
Diocese made it impossible for me to set out 
before the middle of May. With every 
exertion, I was not likely to accomplish 
the voyage, or journey I hardly know 
which to call it in a less space of time 



than one of between five and six weeks, each 
way ; and being anxious to afford all the 
time in my power to the Mission, and, if it 
should have been found necessary, to visit 
the Catechist s Station at Cumberland, I 
had evidently no time to lose. The rules 
in travelling, observed with more or less 
strictness according to circumstances, but 
without any material deviation, are to rise 
about three o clock ; hastily throwing on 
your clothes, to jump into the canoe, and 
push your way on till about eight, when 
you go ashore, and an hour is allowed for 
breakfast. It was our practice, while 
breakfast was in preparation, to make our 
toilet, going a little apart behind a tree, 
and hanging a traveller s looking-glass 
upon one of the branches ; and it was in 
these operations, although often abridged 
by the omission of the process of shaving, 
that the mosquitoes and smaller flies of two 
different kinds, were most annoying. Ano 
ther stop is made about two o clock for 
dinner ; but this is usually cold, and only 
half an hour is allowed for it. We then 



8 

keep going commonly till a little after sun 
set sometimes a little earlier where the 
places suitable for camping are rare, as in 
Lake Superior, and we happen to reach one 
of them before the day has wholly declined 
often considerably later when the nights 
are fine, and the way without difficulty. 
Upon two or three occasions, when we 
found that we could sail, and it was a great 
point to take advantage of our wind, we 
ran the whole night. I may here observe, 
that we are not in the least cramped in 
the canoe ; but can lounge in any posture 
that we like, or lie at length, if needful, 
covered over with our blankets, and, in 
case of rain, a tarpaulin for a quilt, which 
may be drawn over head and all. 

As soon as we go ashore at night, the 
tent is mounted for the passengers myself 
and the Rev. P. J. Maning, who accom 
panied me as Chaplain. My servant also 
slept within the tent. The three beds, con 
sisting of blankets and a stout green rug, 
with cloth pillows, of which articles I had 
rather more than my share, but without 



sheets or mattrasses, are spread upon pieces 
of tarpaulin, and, with the chests, &c., be 
tween, precisely fill the whole interior of 
the tent. Two huge fires are lighted, com 
posed of drift-wood, or fallen trees ; or, in 
some places, of trees felled upon the spot 
One of these is close to the tent and thank 
ful we were, on many a cold or wet evening, 
to get over it that for the canoe-men is at 
some little distance and then the kettles 
are set boiling, and the cooking operations 
begin. In wet weather the men sleep under 
the canoe, which is always drawn ashore and 
inverted at night : they lie two and two toge 
ther, and the smallest men occupy the places 
under the bow and the stern. In general 
they sleep beneath the canopy of heaven. 
Each man has one blanket. The canoe is 
examined by experienced hands, while some 
day-light remains, to ascertain whether any 
rents have been made in the bark by scrap 
ing against rocks in passing through rapids, 
or otherwise ; and the gum which is over 
the seams is spread, as required, by the ap 
plication of burning brands. If there has 



10 

been reason to apprehend more serious in 
jury, some fuller opportunity of day-light 
is taken, and recourse is had to the keg of 
resinous gum which is always carried in the 
canoe, and, perhaps, to spare pieces of bark, 
of which a supply is also taken. 

The distance from La Chine to the Red 
River is commonly estimated at 1800 miles; 
but it is not accurately known. 

Sir Greorge Simpson, one of the most 
remarkable travellers in the world, accom 
plishes the distance in visiting the Red 
River and thence proceeding, by a circuit 
ous route, to Hudson s Bay, and so back, 
by a different line of route still, till it 
falls into the Ottawa in a wonderfully 
short time. He calls his men at half-past 
one o clock, and sets out each day about 
two A.M. 

Difficulties and Varieties of the 
Journey. 

At times you make a great distance in 
a day, descending a swift river with an 



11 

exemption, for some unusual space, from 
the frequent interruption of Portages ; * or 
sailing, it may be, along an open lake. 
Upon other occasions, you are contending 
against a powerful and turbulent stream, 
and mastering the current opposed to you 
sometimes by poling, sometimes by the tow 
ing-line drawn by the men who are now 
in the water, now scrambling along its edge 
through tangled woods sometimes by the 
mere force of the paddle. Or you are 
brought to a stand by a cataract, or an im 
passable rapid, and then comes the whole 
process of unloading the canoe and dividing 
out every article which it contains to be 
carried upon the backs of the men, others 
being employed in carrying the canoe itself 
upon their shoulders ; and all this, here 
over broken rocks, and there, perhaps, 
through deep and miry swamps. Often 
you have scarcely re-loaded, and seated 
yourself again in the canoe, before another 
similar obstruction presents itself, and the 

* Carrying-places. 



12 

whole double labour of unloading and re 
loading is to be gone through over again. In 
parts of the Winnipeg River, these Portages 
occur in very rapid succession ; and some 
of them are only of a few yards in length 
separated from each other by a distance 
not very much greater. The longest Port 
age upon the whole route is called five 
miles. Again, on the great lakes, but par 
ticularly on Lake Superior, you are liable, 
even in the best season, to the necessity of 
lying by, for a day here or a day there, 
or a couple or more days together, when 
the winds and waves become too high for 
the canoe. This detention the voyageurs 
describe by the term degrader. "We were 
considered fortunate in not being obliged 
to pass any one whole day upon the shores 
of this Lake. It took us eight days to as 
cend it, and a week to come down. 

Line of Route. 

The line of the whole route is as follows. 
After ascending the Ottawa for about a week, 



13 

you pursue a course almost at right angles 
to the direction of that ascent. Entering 
the river Mattawan at its confluence with 
the Ottawa, passing again from this through 
La Petite Riviere, and some small lakes, 
traversing the high lands from whence the 
waters flow in opposite directions, you reach 
Lake Nipissin, and, having crossed it, de 
scend the whole length of French River 
into Lake Huron. You then coast up the 
northern shore of this Lake for 190 miles, 
which brings you to the Saut Sainte Marie, 
at the lower extremity of Lake Superior. 
Thence you coast, in like manner, up the 
northern shore of the last-mentioned Lake, 
till you reach Fort William, a Station of the 
Company, at the mouth of the River Ka- 
menistiquoia. Here the large canoe is ex 
changed for two smaller ones, more adapted 
to the travelling which is to follow ; * but 
much less so for the passage of the great 
lakes, and you again ascend the waters, 



* They are called canots du nord. The whole 
voyage is sometimes performed in them. 



14 

passing into the interior up the river just 
named ; and so, by an immense chain of 
lakes and rivers, varying infinitely in size 
the smallest lakes being little more than 
spacious ponds, and the smallest rivers 
scarcely entitled to be called any thing but 
brooks you reach Lake Winnipeg, which 
is 300 miles long ; and, passing a short way 
up the shore, enter and ascend the Red 
River. In the course of this latter part of 
the route, commencing at Fort William, you 
again reach a height from which the waters 
fall either way, and here is the boundary 
between Canada and the Hudson s Bay 
Territory. The Rainy Lake, and the Lake 
of the Woods, are the most considerable of 
those of which you travel the length, after 
leaving Lake Superior. The River Winni 
peg, which flows out of the Lake of the 
Woods into the Lake of its own name, is a 
magnificent stream, abounding in foaming 
rapids and thundering falls, many of which 
are of extraordinary beauty ; but any de 
scription of which, in detail, would be 
wholly inconsistent with the limits which I 



15 

prescribe to myself here, intending only to 
convey a general idea of the whole journey, 
and having already been carried to a length 
beyond my own anticipations. There are 
still, however, some few leading features, 
and prominent points of the journey, which 
it may not be uninteresting to notice, with 
out exhibiting them in any particular order 
or connexion. 

Particular Features or Occurrences 
of the Journey. 

In passing through long tracts of country, 
where there is so little to remind you of 
living human beings, it is rather striking 
to meet with the mementos of the dead. It 
is the custom of the voyageurs, in case of 
death among their number, by drowning or 
any other casualty, to plant a low wooden 
cross on the spot where the body lies. We 
saw several of these crosses, sometimes two 
or three together, on the Portages by the 
side of rapids, in the higher parts of the 
magnificent Ottawa ; and in the Portage 



16 

which is called Rocher du Capitaine there 
is one, said to commemorate the death of a 
man whose neck was broken in carrying the 
canoe, and bearing this inscription, rudely 
cut upon the arms of the cross : Aujour- 
d hui pour moi : demain toi. Upon a low 
bare rocky point in Lake Nipissin, there are 
fourteen crosses, serving, as we were told, 
to record the loss of the whole crew of a 
canoe, with which another was in company 
at the time. We found a few single crosses, 
at wide intervals, beyond Lake Superior. 
These were the memorials of men who, 
though such is the chosen emblem of their 
system, had darkened views of the doctrines 
of the cross ; but we found, also, the obscure 
and solitary graves, concealed among the 
bushes, in some spots where we landed, 
within the Hudson s Bay Territory, of those 
to whom Christ was totally unknown. These 
graves were roofed over with birch-bark. 
The Indians are said to deposit, with the 
dead, his gun, and other articles which he 
is supposed to find useful in the other world. 
In the immediate neighbourhood of the 



17 

Rainy Lake Fort, where there is a resort of 
Indians, and where we saw them encamped, 
there is an oblong box, resting upon a small 
platform, and supported by four posts, per 
haps ten feet high, which contains the bones 
of a Chief, held in especial honour ; and 
these bones, it appears, had been removed 
all the way from Fort William to a spot 
more frequented by the connexions of the 
deceased. 

We experienced more cold, both in de 
gree and in duration, than I had expected. 
In crossing small bays, as we coasted up 
Lake Superior, on the 3rd and again on 
the 5th of June, we broke our way through 
a thin coat of ice, which had been formed 
over the whole surface of these bays during 
the night. It is a very singular noise which 
is produced by the paddles in this opera 
tion, and not unlike distant thunder : so, 
at least, it seemed to me when it woke me 
as I happened to be dozing in the canoe. 
It is only in an extraordinary concurrence 
of circumstances that the whole of this 
vast fresh-water sea can freeze over. I 



18 

was assured that this happened in the win 
ter of 1843, after a calm of four days, 
and during intensely cold weather. No 
other instance of this is said to be remem 
bered. On the 10th of June, when we 
camped upon the edge of the River Kame- 
nistiquoia, the ice formed during the night 
upon the paddles was a quarter of an inch 
thick. On the llth, still upon the same 
river, there was a crust of ice found up 
on the water left close to our fire in a tin 
pot. 

At Fort William, situated, as I have 
said, at the mouth of this river, there is a 
fishery carried on, which employs a good 
many Indians, of different sexes and ages ; 
the fish being cured for the Montreal mar 
ket, besides affording the principal food of 
the dependents upon the Fort, The species 
is white-fish, of a very excellent quality, 
and the numbers taken are something pro 
digious. Five thousand of these fish were 
taken in one morning before breakfast during 
the past summer. At the distance of about 
a day s journey up the river, from the Fort, 



19 

are the Kakabeka Falls poured down an 
awful chasm in the rocks after Niagara, 
incomparably the grandest and most strik 
ing cataract that I ever saw. 

Fort "William is approached through 
Thunder Bay. It is a singular and beau 
tiful scene : shut in, on one side, by an 
irregular range of heights, of which the 
lower part, consisting of densely wooded 
slopes, is crested by very lofty and precipi 
tous columnar rocks, entirely bare. On 
the other side of the bay are some remarka 
ble eminences and islets one of the emi 
nences having very much the appearance of 
a huge bastion, or military rounded work. 

The rude and rocky solitudes, through 
which we passed, exhibited, at intervals, 
many scenes of romantic beauty ; and the 
features of the landscape assume, in some 
few instances, a softened character, as in 
the Rainy Lake River, and the lower part 
of the Kamenistiquoia, where green sloping 
banks are crowned with a full foliage of 
well-grown deciduous trees, and fringed by 
luxuriant shrubs and bushes. Most of the 

H 2 



20 

lakes abound in small rocky islets, covered 
partially or wholly with wood. Parts of 
the Ottawa I do not speak of those which 
are within the verge of established civili 
zation, and which comprehend some re 
markable objects of attraction are very 
beautiful ; and nothing can exceed the ro 
mantic rapids known by the name of the 
Culbute and the Calumet, in that river, 
at the latter of which the Government is 
engaged in constructing a slide for timber, 
which has already produced a nascent vil 
lage. But the hand of the Creator has 
also gemmed the wilderness with minor 
decorations ; and the eye is often refreshed 
by the sight of flowers, or trees, and shrubs, 
in blossom. I forbear to particularize 
them ; yet I cannot refrain from mention 
ing that in parts of the downward route, 
in July and August, our way was en 
livened by the greatest profusion of wild 
roses, and highly-scented white water-lilies 
of extraordinary beauty. The only wild 
quadruped that we saw, on the whole jour 
ney, except some insignificant kinds, was 



21 

a wolf. "We disturbed, upon the waters, 
innumerable wild ducks of different kinds, 
and we saw many loons, and some other 
aquatic birds, and a few of the heron tribe. 
We also saw a good many eagles. Lake 
Winnipeg is frequented by the wild swan 
and the pelican ; but we did not meet with 
either, and were, indeed, a little too late in 
the season at that spot for the wild swan, 
of which four different kinds are found 
within the Hudson s Bay Territory, and of 
which the down is one of the articles ex 
ported by the Company. I brought home 
with me a pair of antlers, of portentous size, 
of the wapiti deer, which were made a pre 
sent to me at the Red River. In the late 
Mr. Simpson s Journal, this animal is called 
the red deer, by which name it is known 
among the English-speaking inhabitants : 
the French call it biche. We saw one 
domesticated buffalo, grazing with the other 
cattle in the pastures of the Red River 
Settlement. 



22 



Inhabitants, or Stragglers, met with along 
the Route. 

I come now to speak of the rational in 
habitants, who are sprinkled along these 
wilds. After passing the habitations of a 
meagre and widely-severed population which 
begin to break the dense continuity of 
forest in the higher parts of the Ottawa, we 
bid adieu to settlements, and during our 
last day upon that river, in mounting it, we 
saw no human habitation except the little 
post of the Company at the mouth of the 
Mattawan, where we slept. The traces of 
lumberers, who may be called the pioneers 
of settlement, are found to linger further 
up : and we breakfasted, one rainy morn 
ing, before reaching the Mattawan, in one 
of their empty shanties, a rude temporary 
edifice of trunks felled upon the spot and 
left in their rough natural state at least 
equal, however, to many habitations of new 
settlers, which often take the same name. 
The word, no doubt, is a corruption of chan- 
tier, and strictly, therefore, should describe 



23 

the place of the lumber-men s operations 
rather than the building constructed for 
their shelter. They are a wild, reckless, 
adventurous race, and the life which they 
lead tends too often to demoralize the youth 
of the country who engage in it. We fell 
in with but few of them ; but, in one in 
stance, our canoe-men raced with a crew of 
lumberers, and the lumberers who were 
the defeated party afterward camped close 
by us. I got into conversation with a fine 
active young fellow, who appeared to have 
been reared in religious habits in Ireland ; 
but who acknowledged to me his total 
neglect, and that of all the Protestant por 
tion of his companions, of private devotion 
or means of edification pleading, when I 
urged upon him the reproach of falling 
behind the Romanists, whose advantages 
were so vastly inferior, that they were in 
deed punctilious in their prayers, but in 
their lives and language not less profane 
and careless than those who omitted them. 
And so the unhappy formality of one set of 
men is made to furnish a dispensation from 



24 

religious duty by others who have better 
means of light. We were now fairly in the 
wilderness, and, speedily turning our backs 
upon the last vestige even of lumbering 
enterprise, had this wilderness before us for 
a journey of perhaps five weeks more to the 
Red River, without a trace of civilized man 
except the solitary posts of the Company, and 
the more considerable interruption in the 
neighbourhood of the Saut Sainte Marie ; 
where, on both sides, there is some settle 
ment, and, on the American side, a small 
military post directly opposite to that of the 
Company. 

The Company s posts, which are estab 
lished at very unequal intervals, are gene 
rally called Forts ; and some of them are 
surrounded by a high and strong stockade. 
We stopped, both in going and returning, 
at ten of these posts, the first of which is 
upon the Ottawa, not above 250 miles 
from Montreal ; and in six instances, tak 
ing the two journeys together, we enjoyed 
their shelter for the night. Upon these 
occasions, we always collected the few per- 



25 

sons who could be got together for prayers 
and some religious instruction, arid our 
services appeared always to be thankfully 
received. We had the opportunity, in three 
instances, of regularly officiating to a little 
band of hearers, at the Forts, on Sundays 
upon one of these occasions, I signified 
to our crew, through the cook, that we 
should be glad to see them if they would 
attend ; but none of them did so, except 
the cook himself. In two other cases, the 
wife of the gentleman in charge expressing 
an earnest desire for Confirmation, I ad 
ministered that rite, in its full solemnity, to 
the solitary Candidate. I mention this 
particularly, because I previously examined 
these two ladies, who were Half-breeds, 
myself ; and their seriousness, humility, 
and acquaintance, at the same time, with 
essential scriptural truths, as well as, more 
generally, with their Bibles, afforded a very 
satisfactory testimony in favour of the Red 
River School, established under the auspices 
of the Church Missionary Society, in which 
they had been educated. A very few sub- 



26 

ordinates, who are often Roman Catholics, 
and a larger number of dependents, who 
are Heathen Indians, augmented, at certain 
seasons, by some transient inhabitants of 
the same class, make up, with the gentle 
man in charge and his family, if he has 
one, the list of persons at most of the Forts. 
The principal posts are in charge of Chief 
Factors : the next grade is that of Chief 
Trader : some inferior posts are committed 
to the hands of clerks. The particular 
spot is selected on account of some local 
advantages, and there is usually a kitchen- 
garden, of very limited produce, some pas 
turage, and a dairy, attached to the es 
tablishment. At Fort William the dairy is 
really a very complete affair. I carried a 
letter from Sir George Simpson to be pre 
sented at every post where I should stop ; 
but the kindness and attention which we 
everywhere experienced at the hands of the 
Company s servants were marked by an em- 
pressement which showed them to proceed 
from spontaneous feeling, and gave the bet 
ter zest to those comforts and refreshments 



27 

demanded by the wants of the body, which 
were tendered in a manner, and under cir 
cumstances, stamping them with a resem 
blance to the exercise of primitive hospi 
tality towards the way-worn stranger. It 
may be supposed that common things are 
often by no means common in places like 
these. At one of the posts, where we 
brought away some milk, there was no such 
thing as an empty bottle to be had, and the 
vessel which we borrowed for the purpose 
was left at the next Fort with a strict charge 
that it should be returned by the first op 
portunity. 

At these posts we also procured, when 
necessary, supplies to be charged in the 
account ; for the provision which we could 
carry tapered down very rapidly in the 
hands, or rather in the mouths, of seven 
teen men It was not always that we could 
get food of a very choice kind : in one in 
stance, at a very remote post, our reple 
nishment of provisions consisted of small 
wheaten cakes, made of very discoloured 
flour, a pair of fowls, which were a present, 



28 

and a supply of maple sugar, for ourselves ; 
with pemmican, or pounded buffalo-meat, 
for the men. But we had always enough 
to eat, without danger, also, of running 
short in point of quantity ; and we had 
with us, in the canoe, the accounts of some 
journeys made by adventurers in the fur- 
trade, in other parts of these regions, or by 
men exploring them in the cause of science, 
whose hardships, privations, and dangers, 
would have made us blush to complain of 
anything which we encountered ; even if 
we had not had another Book in our com 
pany, which tells us of the Patriarch s pil 
low of stone, and the Apostle s night and 
day in the deep, and which teaches us, as 
the disciples of One who had not where to 
lay His head, having " food and raiment to 
be therewith content," 

The longest space of time which we 
passed without seeing a single human being, 
was five days and a half. This was after 
we left the mountain Portage at the Kaka- 
beka Falls, where there was a small en 
campment of Indians, and passed up the 



29 

Kamenistiquoia into the chain of streams 
and lakes beyond, before reaching the 
Rainy Lake. We fell in with straggling 
Indians, generally at wide intervals, all 
the length of the route ; sometimes in 
their little canoes, sometimes sojourning in 
a solitary tent of bark, or in little parties 
ivhich occupied two or three such habita 
tions. They almost always came alongside 
of us to barter fresh or dried fish, generally 
sturgeon, of a very large size, for tobacco, 
pemmican, or fragments of biscuit. They 
were all Sauteux,* so called from the Saut 
Sainte Marie, one of the great stations of 
this extensively-ramified Tribe ; but by 
their own Indian name, Ogibwas, till lately 
called and written, corruptly, Chippawas 
by the English, who have given the perma- 



* The English pronounce and write it Sauteaux, 
and, if I recollect rightly, it is so spelt in the late 
Mr. Simpson s Journal ; but the Roman Catholic 
Bishop at the Red Eiver, who gave me the ety 
mology of the word, pointed out that it should be 
written Sauteux. 



30 

nent name of Chippawa to a village near 
the Falls of Niagara. They could, with few 
exceptions, speak neither French, English, 
nor Iroquois, and all their communication 
with us was by signs. If addressed in any 
of the languages here mentioned, they have 
a very expressive way of putting the finger 
to the ear as if to intimate deafness, to 
which, in its effect, their ignorance of the 
language is equivalent. In other places, 
we came to considerable encampments, of 
perhaps 200 savages, and we counted, at 
one of them, thirty canoes ; but this was 
an exceedingly rare occurrence on the jour 
ney. We encamped nearer to a large body 
of them than we intended, or desired, in the 
Rainy Lake River, where we saw their fires, 
and heard their drum, or tom-tom, which 
appeared to be going for a great part of the 
night. In this quarter they are noted for 
thieving with a surprising adroitness, and 
baggage the most closely watched has some 
times not wholly escaped their pillage. We 
did not, however, lose a single article. 



31 

These different bodies had shifted their en 
campments when we returned.* 

Nothing can be more pitiable, in my esti 
mation, than the condition of these poor 
Heathens : nothing more calculated to ex 
cite an interest in favour of all rightly -con 
ducted efforts for their conversion. They 
are sometimes regarded with a sort of admi 
ration, as the unsophisticated children of 
nature ; and, still more, as exhibiting the 
very impersonation of a high-toned inde 
pendence, and an unshackled manliness of 
spirit. Children of nature they are : and 
what kind of moral nurse is mother nature, 



* The Indians, when they move, leave the 
skeleton of their tents ; but carry with them the 
bark, which is in great rolls, stitched at the ends 
by a fibrous thread to a slender stick. Most of 
their tents are conical ; the smoke, issuing from an 
aperture at the point of junction of the poles, 
directly over the fire which is in the centre of the 
tent. When the tent smokes, they apply a piece 
of bark as a remedy, which is stuck up on one 
side of the aperture above, and placed on this side 
or on that, according to the direction of the wind. 



32 

a Christian has no need to ask. They are 
physically a fine race of men, and they are 
perfectly susceptible of moral, and intellec 
tual, and spiritual culture ; but their actual 
condition presents a most degrading picture 
of humanity. Some of them came up to 
us in dirty blankets, or dirtier dresses of 
worn and tattered hare-skins : others were 
totally naked, except the waist-cloth, their 
heads, with scarcely an exception, protected 
only by an enormous mass of - long black 
hair. Others, in the encampments, who 
appeared to be persons of some distinction, 
and whose attire was in better order, were 
tricked out more like Bedlamites than 
rational beings ; a silly and undiscriminat- 
ing passion for ornament prompting them 
to turn to this account whatever frippery 
they can become possessed of ; so that the 
thimbles, for example, which they procure 
from the Company are seen dangling at the 
end of long thin braids of hair which hang 
from the men s foreheads : some have fea 
thers stuck into their hair, and these, per 
haps, bent into an imitation of horns ; with 



33 

others appended to resemble the ears of an 
animal. Many have their faces painted, 
all the lower part of the visage being made 
perfectly black, and the eyes encircled with 
bright vermillion ; but it would be impos 
sible to describe the varieties of their cos 
tume, or their fantastic decorations : and 
there they sit, or rather squat, smoking and 
basking in the sun the live-long day, sunk 
in an indolence from which nothing seems 
to rouse them but the excitement of war, 
or of the chase. Every species of labour 
and drudgery, in the mean time, is thrown 
entirely upon the women, and if an Indian 
travels on foot with his family, all the load 
which is to be carried is consigned to the 
back of his wife or wives ; for he does not 
always content himself with one. We were 
particularly struck with the appearance of 
one savage, who, squatting, with his whole 
figure in a heap, upon the point of a pro 
jecting rock which overhung the river, per 
fectly naked and perfectly motionless, star 
ing down upon us out of the hair which 
buried his head and covered his shoulders, 

i 



34 

looked like some hideous idol of the East. 
The passion for tobacco among these people 
appears to be excessive and universal : they 
receive a little fragment of it with unre- 
pressed delight, and will promise sometimes 
a good wind to the traveller in compensation 
for the favour. Their passion also for liquor 
is well known ; but it is a great blessing 
that the Company have adopted measures to 
withhold from them this devastating curse. 
That some of them are practised thieves, 
I have already had occasion to notice : 
whether this characteristic attaches exten 
sively to the race, I cannot say ; but they 
appear very generally to be inveterate gam 
blers, and will strip themselves of every 
article they possess, in the unsuccessful in 
dulgence of this passion. Their abject 
condition struck me very forcibly in seeing 
their women and girls, exceedingly good- 
looking lasses of seventeen or eighteen, 
putting themselves in the way of our canoe- 
men to earn from them a few handfuls of 
pemmican or other fragments of coarse 
food, by helping to carry the loads across 



35 

the Portages, and screaming at the top of 
their voices in contending for more than 
was given to them, as if noise could make 
their strange language more intelligible. 
One poor woman, with three young child 
ren, kept company with us in her canoe 
for the greater part of a day, and assisted 
in this way at every Portage. Thus they, 
the ancient lords of the soil, and invested 
still, in many imaginations, with a species 
of wild dignity and grandeur, are glad to 
gather up the crumbs which fall from the 
superfluity of our roughest class of hirelings, 
and to make themselves, as it were, beasts 
of burthen for their benefit. The men and 
boys, also, will make this exertion for the 
same inducement. 

The vices to which these Indians are 
addicted, prevail, as is but too sadly notori 
ous, among professed Christians ; but where 
is there a cure for them at all, but in the 
Christian system efficiently applied ? and 
what is more conspicuous than that where- 
ever it is so applied, they disappear ? Euro 
peans, in some points of view, have done 

i 2 



36 

unspeakable mischief to the Indians, and 
they owe them a long-accumulated repara 
tion ; but as matters are now conducted, 
their condition is meliorated by their con 
nexion with the Whites, and their partial 
assimilation to European habits ; and this is 
one step of approach toward their enjoy 
ment of fuller blessings and more exalted 
privileges. Those who are attached to the 
Forts are far more comfortable in their ap 
pearance than the others. 

That they are a fine race of people phy 
sically, I have already said ; and I have 
certainly seen among them some striplings, 
from fifteen to eighteen years old suffi 
ciently neat in their persons, with a manly 
bearing and an elastic tread, their limbs 
well-turned, their hands and nails well- 
formed, their dark beaming eyes harmoniz 
ing with a profusion of glossy black hair 
and a sunned complexion who did seem, 
altogether, to carry the stamp, if I may so 
express it, of a natural nobility. I have 
been assured that there is no such thing 
known, as a dwarfish or deformed Indian. 
They are certainly fine animals. 



37 

What they are capable of becoming, as the 
rational creatures of God, and subjects for 
His grace, I shall have occasion to show 
hereafter, and I shall then speak, also, if 
so permitted, of certain superstitions which 
prevail among them in their Heathen state. 
The Society may not be sorry, although 
they will hear nothing new, to receive a 
sketch, be it but an imperfect one, of the 
condition, efficiency, and prospects of the 
Mission, from other hands than those of 
the Missionaries themselves. But I am 
obliged to reserve for another Letter the 
account of my actual visit at the Red River, 
and I shall now conclude this by a descrip 
tion of our efforts made to gain that place 
at the close of our ascending journey. 

Efforts to reach the Red River. 

We camped at nightfall, on the 21st of 
June, upon a level rock beside the Winni 
peg River, whose whole volume of water 
here rushes down in an impetuous and roar 
ing fall called le petit rocher du bonnet. 



38 

At three o clock the next morning, a cry 
was raised that the Governor was coming in 
view ; and, accordingly, by the time that we 
were ready to receive him, Sir George 
Simpson, attended by his Secretary, stepped 
from his canoe upon the rock, being on his 
way down from the Red River. We re 
mained together a quarter of an hour or 
twenty minutes, to arrange some matters 
connected with an Ordination to be there 
held, and upon that rock an official letter 
relating to the subject was written at his 
dictation and signed by himself. We then 
parted, to proceed in opposite directions. 

The spot, I believe, is about 100 miles 
from the Lower Fort, at the Red River. 
We passed down the Winnipeg River, stop 
ping to breakfast, and take in some few sup 
plies, at Fort Alexander ; and, entering Lake 
Winnipeg, began to coast round in order to 
gain the mouth of the Red River. It was 
Saturday. If it could only be possible to 
reach the first Church of the Settlement 
during the night, it might, besides prevent 
ing, as it were, the dead loss of another 



39 

Sabbath, save us a whole week ; for I knew 
that less than three Sundays would not suf 
fice for my duties among the Churches, and 
I judged that, by diligently improving the 
time of my sojourn, I might properly accom 
plish them without remaining for a fourth. 
This I represented to the guide, and the 
other men, and they cheerfully undertook 
to carry me on, calculating that we should 
reach our destination about midnight, or 
one in the morning. We went ashore for 
supper on a flat islet in the Lake, of sand 
and shingle, and there witnessed a sunset 
of unequalled glory : the gorgeous splendour 
of the descending orb through a blaze of 
gold among empurpled clouds, contrasted 
with a remarkable depth and massiveness 
of gloom which covered the whole face of 
the adjacent heavens where a thunder-storm 
was collecting itself, while a long stream 
of golden light was playing upon the waves 
up to the very spot where we stood. We 
got our tea, and re-embarked without rain ; 
but then the storm began, and the lightning 
was vivid and brilliant. The moon showed 



40 

herself afterwards by fitful glances between 
the clouds ; but before long she sunk, and 
was lost to us. The rain now came down 
without interruption, and the night grew 
exceedingly dark. The whole shore is level, 
and even in day-light the mouth of the 
river is not always easily found, so that 
persons have been known to enter Pike or 
Jack River Riviere aux bi ochets by mis 
take, intending to go to the Red River Set 
tlement. Our guide, however, knew what 
he was about, and cautiously groped his 
way along the reedy shore, in one place 
jumping into the water and walking about 
to ascertain as a help to his judgment of 
the locality, and its accordance with his 
own memory the nature of the bottom 
with his feet. This mode of proceeding, 
however, was necessarily very slow ; and 
the day broke upon us disclosing a bed, on 
either side, of green reeds or rushes extend 
ing for miles together, out of which arose 
countless multitudes of wild ducks and 
some other water-fowl, with no object in 
the distance which looked like a Church, 



41 

The men in the mean time, in both canoes, 
wet and weary as they were, preserved an 
unfailing patience, good-humour, and cheer 
fulness ; and such, in fact, was their deport 
ment from first to last. They had now been 
paddling, with the exception of our stay for 
breakfast at Fort Alexander, which was 
rather unusually prolonged, and half an 
hour s sailing on Lake Winnipeg, added to 
the stop made for supper dinner we did 
not take on account of a late breakfast 
they had been paddling, with these excep 
tions, since a little after three on Saturday 
morning, and it was nine on the Sunday 
morning when we reached the Church and 
Mission-house of the Indian Settlement, 
distinctively so called. What we saw there, 
and what contrast it exhibited with things 
which we had seen on the way, I must tell 
you, if it please God, another time. We 
made our distance in thirty-eight days from 
La Chine. 

I am, Rev. Sir, 

Your faithful humble Servant, 
Gr. J. MONTREAL. 



LETTER II. 

PROCEEDINGS AT THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT. 

Arrival at the Red River Indian Church 
and Settlement. 

Quebec, Dec. 2, 1844. 
REVEREND SIR, 

MY Letter to you of the 20th of last month 
concluded with a statement of my arrival 
at the Indian Settlement, forming the lower 
extremity of the Red River Colony, on 
Sunday morning the 23rd of June. It was 
about 9 o clock, and within half an hour 
of the time for the commencement of Di 
vine Service. The sight which greeted me 
was such as never can be forgotten by 
myself or my companions ; and the recol 
lection will always be coupled with feelings 
of devout thankfulness to God, and warm 



43 

appreciation of the blessings dispensed by 
the Church Missionary Society. After tra 
velling for upward of a month through an 
inhospitable wilderness, and casually encoun 
tering, at intervals, such specimens of the 
Heathen savage as I have described, we 
came at once, and without any intermediate 
gradation in the aspect of things, upon the 
Establishment formed upon the low margin 
of the river, for the same race of people in 
their Christian state ; and there, on the 
morning of the Lord s own blessed day, we 
saw them gathering already around their 
pastor, who was before his door ; their chil 
dren collecting in the same manner, with 
their books in their hands, all decently 
clothed from head to foot : a repose and 
steadiness in their deportment, at least the 
seeming indications of a high and control 
ling influence upon their characters and 
hearts. Around were their humble dwell 
ings, with the commencement of farms, and 
cattle grazing in the meadows ; the neat 
modest Parsonage, or Mission-house, with 
its garden attached to it ; and the simple 



44 

but decent Church, with the School-house 
as its appendage, forming the leading ob 
jects in the picture, and carrying, upon the 
face of them, the promise of blessing. We 
were amply rewarded for all the toils and 
exposure of the night. I have said that the 
scene could never be forgotten either by my 
companions or myself. My Chaplain natu 
rally felt as I did upon the occasion ; but it 
may not perhaps be wholly beneath notice 
that my servant, an Englishman, to whom 
everything in this journey was new, told 
me afterwards, that he could hardly com 
mand his tears. Nor was it an unpleasing 
or worthless testimony that was rendered 
by one of our old voyageurs to the actual 
merits of the Mission, when, addressing this 
man, he said, " There are your Christian 
Indians " the speaker being a French Ca 
nadian Roman Catholic " it would be very 
well if all the Whites were as good as they 
are/ We were greeted by good Mr. Smith- 
urst at the water s edge, and after having 
refreshed ourselves and robed under his 
roof, we proceeded to the Church. There 



45 

were perhaps 250 Indians present, compos 
ing the whole Congregation. Nothing can 
be more reverential and solemn than the 
demeanour and bearing of these people in 
public worship. Their costume has a hy 
brid kind of character, partly European, 
partly Indian, the former predominating 
among the men. The women, for the most 
part, still wear the blanket, or else a piece 
of dark cloth, thrown over the head, with 
the hair parted smoothly in front, and leg 
gings from the knee downward. They all 
wear moccasins ; which indeed are worn by 
the Missionaries, and almost all the Euro 
pean population of the Colony. The Morn 
ing Service is performed in English ; but 
the Lessons are rendered into the Indian 
tongue by the interpreter, a Half-breed 
Schoolmaster, * who stands beneath the 
Clergyman. The same man rendered my 
sermon, sentence by sentence. The Even- 

* Mr. Joseph. Cook, since dead. Vide p. 15 
of the " Church Missionary Record " for January 
1849. 



46 

ing Service is performed in the Indian lan 
guage, which Mr. Smithurst has so far mas 
tered as to use it where he is familiar with 
what he has to say ; but the Lessons are 
read and rendered as in the morning. It 
was followed by a sermon, which I again 
delivered, the interpreter doing his part as 
before. About two-thirds of the congrega 
tion are said to understand a plain and 
simple address in English ; and, as far as 
this Settlement is concerned, the time, I 
conceive, is fast coming when no other will 
be required. But far and wide, let it be 
hoped, will there be occasion for carrying 
divine instruction, within the Territory, to 
" men of other tongues/ 

Mr. Smithurst, as the Society is perhaps 
aware, has made great progress in the pre 
paration of a Grammar of the Cree language, 
being that which is spoken by the great 
body of the Indian converts under the 
Society s care. It appears to be exceedingly 
complicated, abounding in moods and tenses, 
and exhibiting a great variety of inflections. 
The Quarterly Review, however, in No. 



47 

CXLVIIL, Article "Forster on Arabia/ speaks 
thus 

" The multiplied inflections (as they are 
improperly considered) of the Americans 
and Esquimaux, are plainly the contrivances 
of rude nations ; who, instead of using the 
simple and beautiful method of the Oriental 
nations, modified the relations of verbs and 
nouns, by the addition, in each instance, 
of whole words, which at length came to be 
statedly added in each change of mood or 
tense or case, but always unabbreviated ; 
which is one reason why their words pre 
sent such an uncouth and polysyllabic ap 
pearance to the eye : their supposed termi 
nations being, in fact, no more part of the 
words which they modify, than the auxiliary 
particles are in English/ 

I do not profess myself qualified to 
pronounce with what correctness these re 
marks may be found applicable to the Cree 
language. 

The singing is conducted chiefly by the 
children of the School. I visited the Sunday- 
school, held in the School-house, and found 



48 

a large attendance. The number of chil 
dren on the list is 153 : it will possibly ap 
pear fanciful ; but I could not help thinking 
of the precise correspondence of the number 
which these fishers of men had here gathered 
in, with that of the miraculous draft of 
fishes, when the net was cast by the com 
mand of Christ John xxi. 11. After the 
Evening Service, Mr. Smithurst made the 
most advanced children read to me in the 
Bible, and examined them not only in the 
Catechism, but in the Thirty-nine Articles. 
I do confess that I was much disposed to 
question the profitableness, to subjects of 
such a class, of this last-mentioned portion 
of the instruction bestowed upon them ; 
and, taking an example, I asked Mr. Smith 
urst what those Indian youths and girls 
would understand by the Twenty-first Ar 
ticle : what conceptions they would attach 
to General Councils, and their just subordi 
nation to Sovereign Princes. I proposed 
the question, however, rather in the form 
of inquiry than of objection ; and Mr. 
Smithurst satisfied me at once upon this 



49 

point by explaining that the Indians are 
quite familiar with Councils and solemn 
deliberations on their own affairs in the 
Tribes that they are easily led to transfer 
this idea to the affairs of the Church and 
that, having also a pre-possession in favour 
of the authority of Chiefs, and a strong feel 
ing of dutiful respect for their " Great Mo 
ther " the Queen, who, they are made to 
understand, protects the Church and con 
forms to its system, they have no difficulty 
in connecting the notion of a reference to 
her pleasure or that of a Sovereign gene 
rally with the deliberative proceedings of 
the Church of God. From all that I could 
gather, the Crees appear to be distinguished 
as a thinking and intelligent Tribe. There 
is a sprinkling of Sauteux in Mr. Smith- 
urst s Congregation. 

The Church was shut up, after all was 
over, by an old Indian acting as a sort of 
Sexton, who had formerly been a noted Sor 
cerer or Medicine in his Tribe. * 



* This old man died in peace on the 31st of July 

K 



50 

The day, altogether, was one of extraor 
dinary interest ; and if the scenes which it 
presented could have been witnessed by 
those who are called upon to support the 
Society at home, and, still more, if they could 
have had the opportunity of contrasting 
them with the exhibitions of poor, dirty, 
and degraded Heathens, half, or wholly 
naked, or perhaps decked out with the most 
fantastic absurdity, who were to be seen on 
the way, a powerful accession of force would 
have been gained for the appeal to their 
charity. 

Arrival, at the Indian Settlement, of the 
Missionaries from the higher Stations. 

On Monday morning, the 24th, the Rev. 
Messrs. Cockran and Cowley, to whom 
information of my arrival had been con 
veyed, came down, from their Stations up 

1845. An account of his last illness and death 
is given in p. 280 of the " Church Missionary 
Record" for December 1846. 



51 

the river, to meet me ; and, in conference 
with them and Mr. Smithurst, I laid down 
the whole plan of my operations, and settled 
the distribution of my time and labour 
among the different Churches during my 
stay. This day, which was the Festival 
of St. John the Baptist, was spent still in 
the Indian Settlement, and the offices of 
the Church, which call to mind the preach 
ing in the wilderness, were certainly not 
inappropriate with reference to our situation. 
We had a service in the evening, which 
was fully attended by the Indians, and my 
Chaplain, the Rev. P. J. Maning, preached 
to them through the interpreter. The Con 
firmation was reserved for my return to 
the Settlement, on my homeward way. 

We walked, in the course of this day, 
over the Mission Farm, which constitutes, 
in fact, a branch of the Society s Establish 
ment for the improvement of the Indians, 
since it is the model for their own agricul 
tural operations ; and for this reason, as 
again in the case of Mr. Cockran at the 
Eapids, has been an object upon which the 

K 2 



52 

Missionary has bestowed some closeness of 
personal attention. In all respects it is 
truly gratifying to observe how the con 
dition and the habits of the Indian are 
bettered by the exertions made, under the 
auspices of the Society, in his behalf. 

Departure to visit the other Churches. 

On the 25th, we put ourselves in motion 
to visit the Missionaries up the river, and, 
having crossed it, rode up with Mr. Smith- 
urst to Mr. Cockran s charge at the Rapids, 
calling, on our way, at the Lower Fort. I 
was mounted upon a horse of the Indian 
breed, an animal, however, of very peacea 
ble and quiet not to say dull inclinations. 
My companions had English or American 
steeds. It had been settled that I should 
pass two more Sundays in the Colony,* and 
a couple of days or so beyond. I had thus 

* I use this term which is known to be fully 
authorized in preference to Settlement, just here, 
in speaking of the Establishments formed at the 



53 

about a fortnight now before me, and it was 
necessary, under all the circumstances of 
the case, to turn this time to the best pos 
sible account, and to do all that God might 
enable me to do to give effect to this first 
Episcopal visit. I shall not trouble the 
Society with the detail of our proceedings, 
day by day, as rioted in my Journal ; but 
the summary of them is as follows and 
what makes them worth recording is, that 
having placed myself at the disposal of 
the Clergy, who made a great number of 
appointments for me, I found all their 
arrangements most fully responded to by 
the people, of every class, and a marked 
and lively interest manifested throughout, 
in all the ministrations which were afforded. 

Confirmations. 
1. With reference to the Confirmations, 

Red River, because I have occasion to use the word 
Settlement in descilbing the Establishment formed 
specially for the Indians. 



54 

after some services at the different Churches, 
between which we kept passing backwards 
and forwards, with sermons introductory in 
part to the administration of the rite, the 
Candidates themselves met me by classes 
at the Lower or Rapids Church which is 
sadly too small for the Congregation and 
in whole bodies at the other Churches, to 
receive some familiar instruction and exhor 
tation in preparation for the assumption of 
their vows. This I based chiefly upon the 
Catechism, and upon the main heads of the 
sponsorial engagements. It was not that I 
meant to take the task of preparation out 
of the hands of the Clergy, nor that I con 
ceived any preparation sufficient which 
could be gone through in so short a space 
of time : it was merely a help and a wind 
ing up before the actual assumption of the 
vows, and reception of blessing from the 
Church ; and it originated in my having 
said long before, by letter, that as so many 
uncertainties must attach to the execution 
of my purpose, and that thence a special 
and direct preparation made by the Clergy 



55 

might be liable to be followed by a disap 
pointment, in that case very undesirable, 
I would, if it should be their wish, render 
any assistance in my power, after my arri 
val, in fitting the Candidates to present 
themselves. Nothing new was required in 
the way of examination : they are so con 
stantly under the training, and so followed 
by the anxious and watchful eye, of the 
shepherds set over them, that the amount 
of their religious proficiency, as well as the 
tenor of their ordinary deportment, was 
perfectly well known beforehand. In fact 
the Clergy know them as a father knows 
his children, and they know whom to ad 
mit and whom to debar, while other cases 
hung in the balance and were decided after 
being made the subjects of consideration, 
perhaps of some necessary allowance, with 
some particular charge, and the exaction of 
some particular promises. I had here an 
opportunity of seeing the great influence 
of the Clergy, and the willing acquiescence 
of the people ; proceeding, not from any 
artfully-acquired authority, or determined 



56 

establishment of an imperious ascendancy ; 
but, as I verily believe, from the faithful 
devotedness of the men employed in the 
Mission ; from the concern which they have 
manifested for the souls of those committed 
to them ; from the power of those holy 
truths which they have pressed upon the 
acceptance of sinful man ; and from the 
general benefits, also, which, in the most 
conspicuous manner, have flowed from the 
formation of the Mission in the Colony. 

These engagements were followed, of 
course, by the Confirmations themselves, 
upon each of which occasions full service 
was performed. At the Lower Church, 
there were two Confirmations held on the 
Sunday, on account of its contracted di 
mensions. In the morning, 192 women 
and girls were confirmed : in the evening, 
150 men and youths. This last was again 
the precise number of persons confirmed 
at the Middle Church, when both sexes 
were admitted together. And it was very 
remarkable, that this was also the exact 
number confirmed on the day following at 



57 . 

the Upper Church. Two hundred, and 
something over, were confirmed at the In 
dian Church on my return to it. I find 
that the total of the Confirmations is noted 
to have been 846 persons in the Red-River 
Colony. It would have been about a 
thousand ; but for the unavoidable absence 
of some of the subjects for the rite, either 
in the buffalo-hunting in the Prairies, or 
with the boats sent to Hudson s Bay. 
The great body of the population at the 
Rapids consists of Half-breeds, a term 
comprehending every shade of mixed blood 
among the Natives : at the Middle and 
Upper Churches there is a greater infusion 
of Europeans : in all the Congregations 
there is a proportion of pure Indians, and 
that at the Indian Church as before stated 
is, with some exceptions, a pure Indian 
body. The Half-breeds are called by the 
French metifs, or familiarly bois-brules. 
The origin of this latter term I do not well 
know ; but I have heard it traced to a fan 
cied resemblance of this darker race, as 
compared with their European fathers, to 



58 

the burnt standing trunks which are very 
commonly seen upon the skirts of their 
native forests, where the ravages of fire 
have taken effect. In clearing new land 
for settlement, it is well known that one of 
the processes is performed by burning ; but 
in the wildest depths of continuous forest, 
along the line of uninhabited country 
through which we passed, nothing is more 
common than to see considerable tracts 
through which the fire has run, and in 
which the landscape is thence grievously 
disfigured. The fires left by the Indians, 
or by the voyageurs where they have camped 
for the night, or stopped to dress their 
meals, may easily, in dry and windy 
weather, communicate with the neighbour 
ing trees, and spread extensively along the 
woods. Our own fires, in one or two in 
stances, ran up some kind of resinous fir, 
and quickly produced a fierce and brilliant 
blaze. Even the droppings of a lighted 
pipe may, in some places, come in contact 
with the materials of an incipient confla 
gration in the forest. Part of the Portage 



59 

called the Savanne was on fire when we 
passed through it. In one way or other, 
therefore, bois-brule is a very familiar 
object in the eyes of those who are 
conversant with the wilds of North Ame 
rica. But this is a complete digression. 

In was truly a very interesting spectacle 
to behold the Churches filled, on all the 
different occasions connected with the Con 
firmations, as well as at the public services 
on other days, by a people brought under 
the yoke of the Gospel, many of whom had 
been originally heathens, and the great 
body of whom had Indian blood in their 
veins ; and the effect was indescribably 
heightened by the deep attention with 
which they listened, and the devout reve 
rence with which they knelt to receive the 
imposition of hands the comfortable hope 
shedding its ray over the solemnity, that 
they did in sincerity dedicate themselves 
to Christ. I was much struck at one of 
the preparatory meetings in Mr. Cockran s 
immediate charge where, as I have said, 
the Candidates came by divisions by the 



60 

perfectly correct and serious deportment of 
about seventy young girls, some of them 
still were School-children, who were brought 
together without mothers, or matrons, or 
elders of any kind, to put them under re 
straint ; and I could not help thinking that 
it would have been difficult to collect the 
same number of such subjects in an Euro 
pean community, who would have preserved, 
as these girls did, an inviolate reverence 
even in the vacant intervals before and after 
service, and during the calling over of the 
names from a list which Mr. Cockran held 
in his hand. At the close of the instruc 
tion given to each of the different classes, 
he desired that all would stand up who were 
willing to undertake the vows. There was 
only one instance of any demur : this was in 
the case of a woman who had had quarrels 
with her husband, and with whom Mr. 
Cockran did not feel satisfied. He had 
taken means to explain to her what was 
expected from her in certain points of con 
jugal duty, and she did not, when it came 
to the point, seem prepared to act up to this 



61 

expectation. But the poor creature was 
the only one present of a distinct Tribe, for 
whose language there was a difficulty, at 
the moment, in finding an interpreter ; and 
I do believe that she was misunderstood. 

There is a remarkable modesty and re 
serve in the whole deportment of the Indian 
women partly, no doubt, attributable to 
the absolute subjection of the sex, in the 
aboriginal state of the Tribes. In most of 
the young people, of both sexes, but in a 
more marked degree among the females, I 
found a great diffidence and shyness, unac 
companied, however, by a particle of that 
sullenness of mood sometimes observable in 
persons whom it is difficult to draw out. 

I must not be understood to mean, that, 
in all these pleasing pictures, the old Adam 
does not any where lurk in disguise, or to 
express an unqualified hope that, among 
those who voluntarily re-enrolled themselves 
as soldiers of the cross, there will not be 
instances of mortifying inconsistency, per 
haps of unhappy defection : the Indians 
have strong passions, and are liable to be 



62 

thrown into circumstances unfavourable to 
the maintenance of holiness ; but, allow 
ing for the necessary intermixture of tares 
with the wheat, I believe that the Con 
gregations of the Church at the Red River 
may be called exemplary, and that the 
Church has taken root in the place with 
the fairest auguries of a continuance and 
increase of blessed fruits of a practical kind. 

Ordinations. 

2. With reference to the Ordinations, it 
was no small satisfaction to be enabled, upon 
the spot, to add one to the number of la 
bourers in this remote corner of the vine 
yard ; and subsequently, during my stay, 
to admit to the grade of Priesthood, both 
him and another whom it so happened that 
I had myself ordained Deacon, in Canada, 
rather more than three years before. These 
gentlemen were, of course, duly examined, 
and their testimonials were presented to 
me, made out in due form. Mr. Me Allum, 
who was to be appointed Assistant Chaplain 



63 

to the Company, with the understanding 
that he should succeed to the appointment 
of Chaplain, had also a full recommendation 
from Governor Sir George Simpson. His 
Si Quis was read on St. Peter s day, the 
only opportunity which was afforded for it, 
upon occasion of divine service held in the 
Middle Church, in the presence of an ex 
ceedingly good Congregation. It was in 
that Church that he was ordained Deacon, 
on Sunday the 30th of June, and that both 
the gentlemen were ordained Priests on the 
Sunday following, being my last at the Red 
River. I trust that both will be found 
" workmen that need not be ashamed, right 
ly dividing the word of truth/ and doing, 
in all respects, " the work of evangelists." 
It is a great point gained, that the services 
at the Red-River Churches should be so 
provided for as to admit of sparing a Cler 
gyman from thence for another Station in 
the Territory. I long to hear of the Rev. 
J. Hunter s arrival, and of a favourable 
issue to the litigation respecting Mr. Leith s 
bequest. Little as are these additions, 



64 

compared with the demands of the enor 
mous country which lies open to evangeli 
zation, it is a comfort to think of any fresh 
movement made the augury, let it be 
devoutly hoped, of far more extended ope 
rations. 

The Church was crowded to excess at 
both Ordinations : in fact, upon the second 
occasion, not only was the aisle and the 
vestibule crammed, after the occupation of 
every sitting in the pews ; but there were 
people standing on the outside at the open 
windows. I was assisted in the ceremony 
by Mr. Cockran, Mr. Smithurst, and my 
own Chaplain. My servant, with a gown 
and staff, acted as verger. 

Number of Services, and Attendance of 
the People. 

We spent, altogether, seventeen days 
at the Red-River Colony, exclusive of the 
day of our departure ; and, during this so 
journ, I had the satisfaction, in ministering 
among the Congregations, to preach to them, 



65 

after full and regular service in the Churches, 
thirteen times, besides five occasions upon 
which I more familiarly addressed the Can 
didates for Confirmation, in the preparatory 
meetings which I have mentioned. My 
Chaplain, who assisted more or less in all 
the services, also preached upon three occa 
sions, and I believe with very favourable 
effect. We thus met the people, in different 
bodies, though repeating our ministrations 
often among the same, twenty-one times in 
all, and they never failed to shew a for 
wardness of mind to attend us. The largest 
Congregation at any of the public services 
probably amounted to full 500 persons : 
the smallest did not fall short of 200. The 
large share which I took myself in preach 
ing was dictated by a desire, felt on all 
hands, that the people should be brought 
in contact as much as possible with the 
Episcopal functions ; which, with very few 
exceptions, were wholly new to them all. 



66 
Reasons for not proceeding to Cumberland. 

Having accomplished the visit to the 
Red River, and finding myself fairly in 
the Territory, I should have proceeded, at 
whatever hazard of certain inconveniences, 
of different kinds, which would have fol 
lowed from my detention, to visit the Sta 
tion of Mr. Budd, the Catechist at Cumber 
land, had I found that there would be any 
object gained by my doing so. But the 
Missionaries wholly dissuaded me from the 
enterprise, upon the ground that the In 
dians would be away, at that particular 
season, from the spot. I saw a long letter 
from Mr. Budd to Mr. Smithurst, who, as 
the Society are aware, periodically visits 
the Station. It was creditable, and inte 
resting as a specimen of the performance of 
a pure Indian educated in the Society s 
Schools in the Territory. I think it is in 
some measure to be regretted, although it 
may seem but a trine, that European sur 
names have been given to the baptized In 
dians. The retention of their original 



67 

names, with the Christian name as a prefix 
in each case, would have served as a con 
stant mark and memento of their having 
been gathered, with their posterity as a 
consequence, into the bosom of the Church 
of God from a state of heathenism ; and 
wherever an individual is made prominent 
as a Clergyman, a Catechist, or a School 
master, or a helper, in any way, of the 
cause, an increased interest would be com 
municated to the report of his proceedings 
at home as in the case of some Oriental 
converts if he were noticed under his In 
dian appellation. 

Rough Sketch of the Colony or Settlement 
of the Red River. 

The Colony or Settlement of the Red 
River respecting the origin, formation, 
and early history of which it is quite super 
fluous that I should say anything here be 
yond a passing remark, that it affords a 
wonderfully striking example of good 
brought by the hand of God out of evil 

L 2 



68 

extends upwards of fifty miles, taking its 
commencing point at the Indian Church, 
and pursuing it to either of its terminations 
above the junction of the Assiniboin, or 
Stone River, with the stream which gives 
name to the Colony. From what circum 
stance the stream itself derives the name is 
one of those points respecting which Gram- 
matici certant if the investigators in this 
case may be so described et adhuc sub 
judice Us est It has been stated to some 
of the Missionaries, that the Red Lake, 
with which it is connected, lying within 
the limits of the United States, is so called 
from having been dyed, in a memorable 
battle among the Indians, with human 
blood, and that the name has naturally 
communicated itself to the River. But I 
have been assured, by some well-informed 
persons, that it is derived from a reddish 
earth in the higher parts of the River, 
which gives a tinge to the waters. There 
are small and obscure rivers in Canada 
bearing also the name of La Riviere Rouge. 
In that part of it which flows through the 



69 

Colony, the River is of a dull appearance, 
by no means remarkable for clearness, and 
partaking of the colour of common clay. 
The Roman-Catholic Settlement, which is 
perfectly distinct from the Protestant, com 
mences just at the point where the two 
rivers meet, and runs up each of them for 
a considerable distance. 

The country is all level, forming, in fact, 
the commencement of the Prairies ; but it 
was, in part at least, well wooded upon the 
banks of the river when the Settlement was 
formed.* In passing down by water from the 
Forts to the Indian Settlement, you find it 
still over-hung in places by well-grown and 
handsome trees, principally elms, springing 
from rich green banks, fringed by a full 
and rounded foliage of shrubs, and these 
garnished by the intermixture, in vast pro- 

* A very fine grove of oaks is remembered upon 
a now naked point, at the mouth of the Assiniboin, 
the site of what is called the Old Fort, near the 
modern structures which have supplied its place. 
Sugar-maples were also known in the neighbourhood. 



70 

fusion, of wild roses in bloom, when we saw 
them. There is an equal profusion of large 
yellow specimens of the Lady s Slipper 
Cypripedium flavescens scattered over the 
even surface of the plain above and below 
the Lower Fort, and in the same neighbour 
hood there are other wild flowers, which 
make a considerable show. This part of 
the plain is checquered by a small growth 
of trees and bushes : higher up, as you ap 
proach the Upper Church, you have to your 
right a boundless and open expanse of level 
green. The country having this character, 
an overflow of the waters must of course, 
if it once take place, extend itself far and 
wide without check, and there was a memo 
rable inundation about eighteen years ago, 
in which it could not certainly be said that 
the people drove their cattle altos visere 
monies; but they had recourse, both for 
themselves and their cattle, to whatever 
trifling eminence was within their reach : 
and, from the manner in which they still 
refer to this visitation, they would be sup 
posed to be a race of still-surviving ante- 



71 

diluvians, since they speak familiarly of 
things which happened a year before the 
flood, or just at the time of the flood, and 
so forth. The open level country extends, 
in one direction, all the way to St. Peter s 
on the Missouri, and you may drive a wag 
gon without impediment for hundreds of 
miles till you reach that place, where you 
fall at once into a line of American steam 
ers, and have every facility of travelling 
onwards to any part of the United States 
or to Canada. This is the route by which 
Mr. Thomas Simpson, the unfortunate but 
gifted discoverer of the Arctic passage, was 
proceeding homeward when he met with 
his death an occurrence shrouded in mys 
tery and uncertainty. The Roman-Catholic 
Bishop of the Red River, also, has gone to 
Europe by that route. It is necessary, 
however, that the traveller should be one 
of a sufficiently strong and well-armed 
party, the vast open wilds which are to be 
passed being frequented by Tribes of a fierce 
character. 



72 
The Four Churches. 

Along the strip of Settlement which 
occupies, with interruptions, the opposite 
sides of the river, the four English Churches 
are situated. The Indian Church is about 
thirteen miles below the Lower Church at 
the Rapids ; this again is about six from 
the Middle Church ; and the Middle Church 
about seven from the Upper. The Indian 
Church is a wooden building, painted white, 
fifty feet or upwards in length, with a cupola 
over the entrance. It has square-topped 
windows, which, so far, give it an uneccle- 
siastical appearance. The Lower Church 
is also of wood, and of the length of fifty 
feet. I have already had occasion to men 
tion the great insufficiency of this build 
ing,* and among other evils thence aris 
ing, the School-children are excluded from 



* This is the Church attended by much the lar 
gest of any of the Congregations. It will be ob 
served that out of 846 persons confirmed at the 
four Churches, 342 were confirmed in this. 



73 

Church. They have their Sunday exer 
cises in the School-house ; but this is not 
like the habit of " worshipping the Lord in 
the great congregation/ and " paying their 
vows in the sight of them that fear Him/ 
The Middle Church, which is not quite 
completed, and which has been built by 
the unaided exertions of the Congregation, 
is an edifice of stone, sixty feet long. The 
Upper Church, which is also of stone, is 
ten feet longer, and will accommodate 500 
persons. About 400, upon one occasion, 
met me there. It contains some respect 
able mural monuments : among others, one 
which was put up in memory of Mrs. Jones, 
wife of the gentleman who long laboured 
as a Missionary of the Society, and is affec 
tionately remembered upon the spot. None 
of the Churches have any sort of architec 
tural pretensions ; but the two stone 
Churches are creditable-looking buildings. 
Nothing, however, can be more unseemly, 
more inconvenient, or more at variance 
with the usages of the Church of England, 
than the interior arrangements of the Upper 



74 

and Lower Churches, in which there is no 
communion-table, and no place reserved for 
it ; and in which, when the Communion is 
administered, the elements are carried from 
pew to pew. It was very awkward to ma 
nage the Confirmations, and would have been 
far more so to attempt to hold an Ordina 
tion, in either of these Churches. This has 
been one instance of an undue, and I be 
lieve a very mis-calculating, concession to 
some prejudices but very partially existing; 
and its chief effect, as I apprehend, has 
been to augment and to perpetuate the diffi 
culties against which it was intended to 
provide. A change now would be much 
more marked than the simple introduction 
of the English mode of fitting up Churches, 
when the whole establishment of provision 
for public worship was something entirely 
new in the place. Nevertheless, I should 
not at all despair, from what I saw, of over 
coming, by degrees, and with judicious 
management, the difficulties, upon this and 
similar subjects, which do, in some quarters, 
exist; and it is certain, that the mass of 



75 

the people are pre-disposed cordially to 
acquiesce in the recommendations of the 
Clergy, and the rules of the Church. In 
the mean time, the fullest credit must be 
given to the motives of those excellent per 
sons who were originally concerned in the 
erection of the Churches here described, 
and who themselves anticipated certain ob 
jections, or perhaps yielded some points to 
others with whom they were associated. 
The Middle Church has a communion-place, 
with rails in front of it, although it is placed 
awkwardly in one of the corners. The In 
dian Church has the holy table in the cen 
tre facing the aisle, with the pulpit at one 
side, and the desk at the other to corres 
pond to it. 

The Missionaries. 

The labours which Mr. Cockran went 
through in planting, cherishing, and watch 
ing over the Settlement for which this 
Church was built, have frequently been 
mentioned to me among the proofs of his 



76 

unwearied devotedness and zeal. The roads 
at that time between the Lower Fort and 
the Indian Settlement were desperately bad, 
and often and often did he pass through 
them, up and down, in the hottest weather 
of summer, and in the height of the season 
for flies and musquitos, which abound in 
the newly-opened woods, making forced 
marches to fulfil the duties lying upon him 
in his more immediate charge, thirteen 
miles off, and at the same time to establish 
the Natives, as a great and most happy, 
but in the first instance most arduous, ex 
periment, in settled habitations, and in a 
compact civilized community, as tillers of 
the soil. They had every thing to learn in 
every way, and they learned every thing 
from him. They were moulded by his in 
defatigable hand, and his task was one in 
which nothing but prayer and faith could 
carry him through. His conspicuous dis 
interestedness and his ready beneficence, 
of which many examples have been men 
tioned to me by respectable Factors of the 
Company and other persons, were greatly 



77 

instrumental in advancing his success. He 
is one, in the fullest sense, willing to spend 
and to be spent. And I grieve to say that 
he is, in a measure, spent ; for his exertions 
have visibly impaired his constitution. It 
must, however, be a great satisfaction to 
his mind to see how this labour has been 
prospered, and to witness how admirably 
the work which he put in train has been 
followed up by the Missionary now in 
charge upon the spot. Of the aspect of 
that charge, as now resting in the hands 
of Mr. Smithurst, I have before had occa 
sion to speak. The Indians of all ages at 
tend him every evening in the School-house 
for religious instruction. 

The Missionaries have of course them 
selves informed the Society of the division 
of labour established in the Churches above, 
between Mr. Cockran and Mr. Me Allum. 

The Schools. 

The Schools form another important fea 
ture in the operations of the Society. My 



78 

hands were too full, and my time too in 
cessantly taken up, to admit of my bestow 
ing upon them any very close examination. 
I inspected, in a general way, the School 
at the Indian Settlement, where I have al 
ready mentioned the number of Sunday 
scholars ; but I could not do even this when 
I was at the Lower and Middle Churches. 
I had some conversation, however, with the 
teachers, and I am fully under the impres 
sion that they do justice to their charge. 
At the Lower Church, on a Sunday after 
noon, I delivered an address, at the in 
stance of Mr. Cockran, to about a hundred 
children of the Sunday-school, adapted to 
the level of their capacities. 

The Boarding School, one of a superior 
order, close to the Upper Church, having a 
separate department for each sex which 
was originally established under the aus 
pices of the Society, and is now conducted 
by Mr. Me Allum, on his own account, 
with the help of an allowance from the 
Company is really a nice establishment, 
and the premises attached to it have more 



79 

neatness and finish than is common in 
young and remote settlements. The youths 
have a separate garden for their own amuse 
ment. 

I have had many detached opportunities 
of seeing good fruits produced by these dif 
ferent Schools. 

Mr. Me. Allum s School has fallen off in 
numbers ; but not more, probably, than 
may be accounted for by the excess of 
demand for education, in the early stage 
of its establishment, among that class of 
persons for whom it was designed ; many of 
the gentlemen of the Company, within the 
Territory, having been prompted to avail 
themselves of the opportunity for getting 
their Half-breed children instructed who 
had passed the usual age of attending 
School. 

Hospitalities experienced. 

During my stay at the Red River, my 
time, of course, was spent much with the 
Clergy, and I was largely indebted to their 



80 

hospitable and brotherly attentions ; per 
haps I should rather say filial, if I should 
describe accurately the affectionate respect 
and consideration which they manifested 
toward the Bishop who came to see them. 
I passed four or five days, in two different 
visits, under the roof of Mr. Smithurst. I 
was received in the same way by Mr. and 
Mrs. Cockran ; but Mr. Mailing was more 
with them than I was, for, after leaving 
the Indian Settlement, it was arranged that 
I should myself take advantage of the hos 
pitality of the gentlemen at the Forts, to 
make my head-quarters there, although I 
was also most kindly entertained and lodged 
for a couple of nights by Mr. and Mrs. Bird 
both English persons, who have a very 
neat little establishment, and a nice farm, 
near the Middle Church besides being a 
guest once or twice at the table of the Rev. 
A. Cowley, and that of the Rev. J. Me 
Allum. With these exceptions, my time 
was divided between the Lower and Upper 
Forts. 

The statement of these particulars may 



81 

appear trivially minute. But all, even the 
lesser and ordinary demonstrations of kindly 
feeling which I met with, are valued in my 
recollection, and I wish to give them a place 
in the record of my doings at the Red River, 
that, so far as it may be known, they may 
be noticed too. 

Society of the Red River. 

I had, at the Forts, the command of 
horses for my daily movements, and every 
accommodation aiforded to me within, and 
every facility abroad, which I could require ; 
all done with the most cheerful kindness in 
the world. At the Lower Fort, I was the 
guest of Mr. and Mrs. Finlayson, who were 
in temporary occupation, being en route for 
La Chine, where Mr. Finlayson had been 
appointed to the charge of the depot He 
had just retired from the appointment of 
Governor of Assiniboia, for so the Chief 
Factor is styled in an instrument with the 
Company s Seal attached to it who has 
charge within the Red River Colony in the 

M 



Territory. He was succeeded by Mr. 
Christie, who had just taken possession at 
the Upper Fort, where the residence of the 
Governor is made. Mrs. Finlayson, a lady 
from England, is sister to Lady Simpson, 
and cousin to Sir George. Mr. and Mrs. 
Christie have a daughter, who had just re 
turned from England, where she had passed 
some years in completing her education. 
Mr. Thorn, the Recorder of the Territory, 
an exceedingly able man, possessing a varied 
range of information, and deeply engaged, 
latterly, in biblical studies, has apartments, 
with his lady and children, within the Lower 
Fort. There are scattered about the Settle 
ment several respectable retired Factors or 
Traders of the Company, of whom Mr. Bird 
is one ; some married to European, more to 
Native wives. At this date, I imagine that 
in the majority of instances the original 
connexion has been that of a marriage regu 
larly solemnized. One of the many bless 
ings introduced by the Church Missionary 
Society into this region, is the correction of 
those irregularities which, with all their 



83 

long train of mischiefs to the community, 
flowed from the absence of means for the 
celebration of matrimony. I was made ac 
quainted with an old gentleman of the name 
of Bunn, now verging upon that period 
when the strength of man is " but labour 
and sorrow/ who was the fijjst in the Terri 
tory to set the example of marrying the In 
dian woman who had lived with him as his 
wife. It is but justice to say that I believe 
many of the gentlemen, who had formed 
these connexions, considered themselves as 
solemnly bound to the women, and only 
waited for an opportunity to be married. 
They also recognized and reared the children 
as their own legitimate representatives. 

What I have here stated may give an 
idea of the society at the Red River. Al 
though the style of the establishments at the 
Forts is exceedingly plain, and the extreme 
difficulty of transport, as well as the iso 
lated character and remote situation of the 
place itself, cause a variety of articles to be 
dispensed with to which some of the in 
mates Mrs. Finlayson, for example have 

M 2 



84 

been elsewhere accustomed ; yet there is 
far from a deficiency there to be witnessed, 
either of comforts or of habits of refinement. 
Dinners were given at both Forts, in com 
pliment to myself, to which the Clergy, 
the Recorder, and the Physician, who has 
an allowance ^from the Company, were 
invited. 

The Forts. 

The Forts at the Red River are better 
entitled to the appellation than the posts 
which we had seen on the route. The 
Lower Fort comprehends a square space, 
I believe, of nearly four acres within the 
walls ; which are built of a white-looking 
stone found at a particular spot in the banks 
of the river, and are pierced all round for 
small arms. At each of the four corners 
is a small round bastion, pierced for cannon, 
and surmounted by a pointed and conical 
roof. Within the enclosure are the dwell 
ing-house, the stores, workshops, and other 
buildings, detached from each other. The 



85 

Upper Fort is upon the same plan ; but the 
area within the walls is very much smaller. 
The Forts are about twenty miles apart, the 
road between them being a dead level the 
whole way. The Lower Fort is about eight 
miles above the Indian Church, on the 
opposite side of the river. The Upper stands 
at the confluence of the Red River and 
the Assiniboin, nearly facing the principal 
Roman Catholic Church, and the residence 
of the Bishop attached to it : he came to see 
me at the Fort, and I, of course, returned 
the courtesy of his visit. 

The warlike guise of these establishments 
serves rather as a demonstration of power 
than an actual military defence, and since 
their erection, which is much posterior to 
the junction of the North-West with the 
Hudson VBay Company, and the consequent 
cessation of such hostilities as had before 
been witnessed in these wilds, I am not 
aware that a shot has ever been fired from 
their walls. There is an old block-house 
near the Upper Fort ; and the buildings 
close by, which are called the Old Fort, are 



86 

inhabited by a respectable family. The 
Forts which have been now constructed 
would afford the means, however, of gather 
ing in the surrounding population in the 
event of any disturbance, or any irruption 
from abroad. 

The Peltries. 

I visited the stores, and saw some spe 
cimens of the peltries. These consist of 
four different kinds of bear ; about half- 
a-dozen kinds of fox, of which the silver is 
the most precious, but of which I was sur 
prised to learn that some different kinds * 
are found in the same litter ; beaver ; mar 
tin ; otter; wolf; carcajou (the wolverine 
or glutton, which is much in request as a 

* i. e. As the kinds are denominated by colour. 
The red, the cross, the silver, and the black, appear 
to be varieties of colour only, and, as is here said, 
are found in the same litter. There are, besides 
these, the blue fox, a smaller blue, found in the 
Prairies, and a white. 



87 

pendent cariole-robe in Canada) ; fisher ; 
lynx, or loup cervier ; musk-rat, of which 
only the larger specimens are taken ; besides 
the seal from the Pacific, which is there 
killed with clubs upon the rocks ; and the 
buffalo, of which eight or ten thousand 
skins, better known by the name of robes, 
are annually exported from Hudson s Bay. 
This is not a profitable branch of the trade, 
although the demand in the North Ameri 
can Colonies, for which the robes are re- 
shipped in England, must be immense ; 
since every man within those limits, who 
owns a horse, has at least one buffalo-robe 
for his sleigh or cariole. Indians have 
been known in possession of white buffalo 
skins ; but these are like the black swan of 
old, and, in the particular instance men 
tioned to me, the owner refused to part 
with it for any price, saying that he had 
given a first-rate horse for it, and that it 
was a great medicine (charm). An inferior 
kind of ermine, which I suppose to be the 
stoat,* was formerly one of the exports ; 



* The stoat and the ermine, I believe, are to 



88 

but this has been discarded as unprofitable, 
the last consignments not having produced 
more than two-pence per dozen. I believe 
I stated, in my last letter, that four kinds 
of wild swan are found within the Terri 
tory ; but I spoke from memory, and my 
notes mention only three, the largest of 
which has a black, while the others have 
red bills. The skins are exported on ac 
count of the down. The skin of the musk- 
bull, taken near the Polar Sea, is not an 
article of trade ; although, if the account 
given by Bewick be correct, it is valuable 
for more than one purpose. 

Some other Statistical Particulars. 

The whole population of the Red-River 
Settlement, according to a Census with 

same animal ; the name of ermine being given to 
it when, in snowy climates, it becomes, like the 
hare and the ptarmigan, white during the winter 
months ; but it appears to be a coarser variety 
which is found in the Territory. 



89 

which I was obligingly furnished, is 514.3 : 
of which number 2798 are Roman Catho 
lics, and 2345 are Protestants. No Pro 
testant worship, except that of the Church 
of England, has ever been established 
among the people. The heads of families 
are 870 ; of whom 571 are Indians or 
Half-breeds, Natives of the Territory ; 152 
Canadians ; 61 Orkneymen ; 49 Scotchmen ; 
22 Englishmen ; 5 Irishmen ; and 2 Swiss. 
Wales, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Germany, 
Poland, and the United States of America, 
have each contributed one to the list. There 
is also one Esquimaux Indian. There are 
730 dwelling-houses ; 1219 barns or stables ; 
18 windmills ; and 1 watermill. From the 
level character of the country, it may be 
conceived that there is not much facility for 
the operations of the latter kind of con 
struction. There are 821 horses ; 749 
mares ; 107 bulls ; 2207 cows ; 1580 calves; 
1976 pigs ; and 3569 sheep. These par 
ticulars were taken in March 1843. The 
soil, which is alluvial, is beyond example 
rich and productive, and withal so easily 



90 

worked, that although it does not quite 
come up to the description of the happy 
islands reddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata 
quotannis there is an instance, as I was 
assured, of a farm in which the owner, 
with comparatively slight labour in the 
preparatory processes, had taken a wheat- 
crop out of the same land for eighteen 
successive years never changing the crop, 
never manuring the land, and never suf 
fering it to lie fallow and that the crop 
was abundant to the last. And with re 
spect to pasture and hay, they are to be 
had, ad libitum, as nature gives them in 
the open plains. The Company dispose of 
their land upon liberal terms, with a front 
age along the river, and I think the uni 
form depth of a mile, with an understand 
ing that, till further arrangements take 
place, another mile is at the disposal of the 
owner for any benefits which he can derive 
from it. I speak from memory. It is 
only a small portion of the farms, next the 
river, that is ever seen enclosed. The 
people revel in abundance ; but it is all 



91 

for home consumption : they have no outlet, 
no market for their produce. The liberality 
of the Company is also evinced in their 
permitting private traders to import goods 
in the Company s ships, although they, the 
Company, have stores of their own within 
the Forts, in which articles of the same 
description are for sale. All these articles 
are brought across from Hudson s Bay, a 
distance of several hundred miles, in boats ; 
and these boats are drawn across the differ 
ent Portages upon rollers, or, in some 
places, carried upon waggons. Hence, 
those articles which are of a heavy des 
cription are charged at a price seemingly 
out of all proportion to that of many others, 
which may be obtained at a moderate 
rate. A common grinding-stone is sold for 
twenty shillings sterling. The Company, 
who by their Charter have the privilege 
of issuing money, transact all their pecu 
niary concerns in British sterling, which 
differs considerably, as is well known, 
from the currency received in the North 
American Colonies of the Crown. Their 



92 

issue of paper is in three denominations, 
the highest of which is one pound ; and 
the three are distinguished from each other, 
for the convenience of the Natives, by 
the different colours of the ink red, blue, 
and black. The boat has been now sub 
stituted for the canoe upon all the lines 
of route on which the operations of the 
Company are regularly conducted, except 
on that which leads into Canada. The 
country in this direction is not of such 
a nature as to admit of introducing the 
roller or the waggon upon the Portages. 
At the Red River, and on Lake Superior, 
there may be seen, in the service of the 
Company, small decked sailing-vessels 
which ply between the posts. The num 
ber of bark and wooden canoes, kept for 
one purpose or other by the inhabitants 
of the Red River, is 410. In the palmy 
days of the North-West Company, when 
the peltries, now sent home by Hudson s 
Bay, were taken down to be shipped at 
Montreal, the brigades of canoes amounted 
sometimes to forty in the season. The 



93 

name of brigade is still given to the two 
or three loaded canoes which start yearly 
from La Chine for the Red River ; but 
the voyageurs occupation is almost gone. 

The Buffalo Hunt. 

Notwithstanding the want of market 
for their produce, it is the opinion of the 
Missionaries, confirmed by that of several 
intelligent gentlemen of the Company with 
whom I have conversed, that it would be 
far more for the advantage of the Red- 
River population to labour uninterruptedly 
upon their farms, than to pursue, as a large 
proportion of them do, during the summer, 
the chace of the buffalo, with all its exciting 
scenes and ever-shifting alternations, which 
not only calls them away from their homes 
and their ordinary labours ; but tends to 
give them a disrelish for habits of steady 
industry. The time is remembered, when 
the buffalo was seen at the Red River 
itself ; but the herds have further and fur 
ther receded, and the hunting parties are 



94 

now known to be drawn sometimes 200 miles 
from home. The Red River pours forth, as 
the expeditions have been described to me, 
about 800 hunters, with a long train of 
women and children in as many carts : 
these carts are so arranged, when they stop, 
as to encircle and fence in the party : if 
their stop is prolonged, they pitch their tents. 
The appearance is that of a little army 
with its camp-followers ; and those who 
are engaged in the warfare, who are all, or 
almost all, Half-breeds, are among the most 
fearless, active, and alert of mankind 
admirably skilled as marksmen and in 
horsemanship, and wonderfully adroit and 
prompt, as well as self-possessed, in their 
manoeuvres, without which they would, in 
the melee, be perpetually liable to shoot 
one another. The powder-horn arid the 
fire-bag, in which the shot is carried loose, 
are slung upon belts crossing each other 
upon the breast : a ball is put into the 
mouth, in preparation for loading, and the 
powder is measured in the hollow of the 
palm : no wadding is made use of; and 



95 

in this way they load and re-load, fire 
and fire again, at full speed on horseback. 
The object of all this preparation, and all 
these adventures, is not to obtain the furs, 
or robes for the hair is short at this sea 
son, and all the robes are brought in by 
Indians, who hunt the wood-buffalo in the 
winter : the Prairie hunters dress the hides 
for their own use ; and, among other pur 
poses, they convert them into the cover 
ing of their tents ; but the prizes which 
prompt the expedition are the meat and 
the tallow. Each cart brings back, upon 
an average, about ten carcases, reduced 
to the different preparations of the flesh 
and fat here described. The women who 
accompany them prepare the dried meat, 
which is cut in long slices from the ribs, 
and make the pemican ; which is meat 
cut from the more fleshy parts, and pounded 
with a mixture of tallow. By these two 
processes they have meat in different forms, 
which is preserved without being salted ; 
but they also make large quantities of tal 
low separately, which is done up in bags of 



96 

buffalo skins with the hair upon them, in 
form not unlike a common travelling-bag. 
Of these the Company takes a large por 
tion oif their hands ; but more for the sake 
of affording profit to the people than for 
that of any benefit to its own trade. They 
are often improvident and backward in 
turning to account the resources of their 
land. The Protestant part of the Settle 
ment sends out far fewer hunters than the 
Roman Catholic, and is, in all respects, 
more marked by the steady and correct 
habits of its population. The late Mr. 
Simpson, in his lively and remarkably 
well- written Journal, attributes, if I re 
member, this difference, which is confessed, 
to the mercurial temperament of the 
French, whose blood enters largely into 
the composition of the Romish population. 
But I most firmly believe, that the advan 
tage on our side is to be accounted for 
from the different genius of the two 
systems of faith ; and, what is evidently 
not separate from this, the assiduous pains 
taken by our Missionaries to mould the 



97 

people to habits of order, industry, and 
civilized regularity, in common life. I do 
not deny, however, that there may be ex 
amples in the world of Protestant failure 
in cases of this nature, as well as of Romish 
success. 

Strength and Dexterity of the Natives. 

The Half-breeds, however, in those phy 
sical qualities and feats of skill which pro 
voke our admiration, do not appear to have 
gained upon the Indians whose blood is 
mixed in their veins. I have been assured, 
by one of the most respectable Factors, that 
he has seen an Indian pierce an inch plank 
with an unbarbed arrow, shot from his bow, 
the mere wooden point passing through and 
protruding on the other side. And as an 
example of dexterity of hand, and correct 
ness of eye, the same Factor told me that 
he had seen one of these people, I think 
at a distance of 150 yards, send his arrow 
clear through a loop-hole in the wall of the 
Fort, three times out of four. 

N 



98 



Hardships and Adventures of European 
Inhabitants. 

The Factors and Traders themselves have 
many a tale to tell of severe endurance in 
their own persons, hair-breadth escapes, 
and perilous exploits. There is one old 
gentleman in the Settlement, who states, 
among a variety of other incidents, that 
he was once reduced, when separated from 
his party and lost, to seek subsistence by 
eating live frogs, or fishing for minnow by 
means of a fragment of the buckle of his 
hat attached to a hair drawn from his head. 
There is possibly a little imagination which 
lends its aid to heighten some of these 
tales, and I forbear from pursuing them. 
It may not, however, be uninteresting to 
mention that we paid a visit to Mr. Ross, 
one of the survivors of the crew of the 
Tonquin, who happened to be on shore 
when she was blown up by her desperate 
and obstinate Commander. "We read the ac 
count of that awful catastrophe in Washing 
ton Irvine s Astoria, which, with some other 



99 

historical works on the regions frequented 
by the fur-traders, which I had never 
read before, were lent to us at some of the 
Forts to occupy a portion of our long days 
in the canoe, and to give us opportunity of 
comparison with our own observation and 
experience, so far as they went. Mr. Ross 
is mentioned by name in Irvine s book. 

I am ashamed of the length to which this 
Letter has run in rendering details which 
have no direct connexion with the great 
object of my journey. I have selected here 
and there, from the rough notes of which 
my Journal is composed, some matters of 
miscellaneous information, contained in an 
abbreviated mode of expression, within the 
compass of a very few short lines, which 
I thought might diversify and enliven my 
descriptions, and render them more attrac 
tive to general readers if destined to reach 
any such as well as to convey to the 
Committee more clear and full ideas of 
the state and characteristic features of the 
community in its different divisions, and the 
whole condition of the country, in the 

N 2 



100 

bearing of these points upon the exertions 
of the Society. But in doing this, perhaps 
because I have wanted the skill of com 
pression, I have found my matter expand 
itself far indeed beyond my own antici 
pations. And being now on the 8th of 
December under the necessity of closing 
my Letter, I shall yet once more have to 
trespass upon a patience on which I have 
already drawn with some freedom : for there 
are words which, if it please Grod, I have 
yet to utter : there are impressions, produced 
by " the things which I have seen and 
heard/ which " I cannot but speak" things 
which " stirred my spirit within me/ and 
must prompt me to raise one poor feeble 
voice, that, if nothing more can be done by 
the Church for the spiritual interests of 
Prince Rupert s Land, I may at least stand 
acquitted to my own conscience by having 
made the appeal. 
I am, 

Reverend Sir. 

Your very faithful humble Servant, 
Gr. J. MONTREAL. 



LETTER III. 

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN POPULATION 
OF THE FUE COUNTRY, THEIR MORAL 
AND GENERAL CONDITION, AND THEIR 
SUPERSTITIONS ; WITH AN APPEAL TO 
THE RELIGIOUS SYMPATHIES OF GREAT 
BRITAIN ON THEIR BEHALF. 



Parting at the Indian Settlement Indian 
Work and Drawings. 

Quebec, Dec. 16, 1844. 

REV. AND DEAR SIR, 

MY labours being brought to a close at the 
Red River, I prepared, on the 10th of July, 
to embark with my party in the canoes, 
and took a final leave of my friends. The 
kind addresses which I separately received 
from my brethren of the Clergy, from the 
Protestant inhabitants generally, and from 
the Congregation of the Indian Church, 



102 

respecting which last it is pleasing to know 
that it was a spontaneous act, unsug- 
gested and unaided, was communicated to 
the Society in my Letter to you of the 
27th of August, announcing my return to 
Quebec. The three Clergymen from above 
had come down to Mr. Smithurst s to bid 
me and my Chaplain farewell ; and we 
parted with many mutual expressions of 
regard, and fervent invocations of blessing. 
The fore-part of the day was occupied in 
packing up the presents with which we 
had been loaded by our different friends, 
consisting of specimens of Indian workman 
ship, or other characteristic mementos of 
the Territory, which were put into a large 
box made for the purpose, and formed no 
trifling addition to the amount of baggage 
which was to be carried across the Portages. 
Several Indian women were busy, up to 
the last moment, in finishing some trifling 
token of remembrance which they were 
anxious to put into our hands. They work 
beautifully in bead-work, or embroidery 
with silk, or with the dyed hair of the 



103 

moose, and with dyed porcupine quills. 
Fire-bags, leggings, belts for the fire- bag 
and powder-horn, all made of cloth, moc 
casins of moose-skin, mittens and gloves of 
the same, or other soft leather, with baskets 
and boxes of bark, are the most common 
articles upon which they employ their orna 
mental skill ; and their sprigs, and other 
decorative devices, are executed not only 
with great accuracy, but often with a taste 
ful effect. The fire-bags, which are some 
times of leather and trimmed with fur, are 
usually very richly and minutely wrought, 
and finished at the edge with a showy 
fringe. The beauty, nicety, and correctness 
of the fancy-work executed by the women, 
contrasts strangely with the extreme rude 
ness of performance which I have seen 
when a delineation of natural or artificial 
objects is attempted in colours. I have in 
my possession a whole buffalo-robe, the 
inner side of which is daubed all over with 
representations of human figures, some of 
them on horse-back, fire-locks and other 
implements interspersed, with marks or de- 



104 

vices arbitrarily representing bodies of men 
in battle array, or other combinations of 
objects, the whole precisely resembling the 
first attempts at drawing made by a young 
and untaught child ; a specimen of which is 
introduced in one of Wilkie s celebrated 
pictures. The gentleman one of the Chief 
Factors who made me a present of this 
robe, appeared to think that it was designed 
to exhibit a complete history of the exploits 
of the wearer, for these robes are thrown 
over the shoulders as a cloak. This speci 
men was procured from one of the Black- 
feet Indians. Along the middle, from one 
end to the other, is a narrow strip of stained 
quill-work, with circles, at intervals, of the 
same material. A representation of the 
same sort of thing may be seen in Catlin s 
book. These uncouth delineations are, I 
apprehend, the work of the men ; but not 
so the quill-work. I do not know whether 
the Indians who are rather more in contact 
with the Whites, and nearer to the borders 
of civilization, imbibe thence a better use 
of the hand and eye in their copies from 



105 

nature ; but along the shores of Lake 
Superior, and in some other parts of the 
route, we had observed drawings upon the 
face of the rocks, usually in places only 
accessible to very expert climbers, and this 
done perhaps in a spirit of pride and chal 
lenge, of various domestic animals, long- 
necked aquatic birds, schooners, and canoes, 
the canoes sometimes full of men, which, at 
the distance from which we saw them, ap 
peared to exhibit a tolerably correct outline. 
They are made by scraping away the incrus 
tations formed upon the surface of the rock, 
and leaving the lighter colour underneath ; 
and in some places are very conspicuous 
objects to the eye. 

Departure. 

The last act of devotion in which we 
united with the Indians had been on the 
evening of the day before [our departure], 
in the School-house, after the Confirmation 
held in the morning in the Church. They 
attend Mr. Smithurst every week-day even- 



106 

ing in this way, to receive religious instruc 
tion of a familiar kind, in conjunction with 
which some prayers from the Liturgy are 
offered, and Psalms are sung. He never 
opens his Church except for full and regu 
lar service. These people, with whose aged 
Chief and his wife I had had a special in 
terview by their own desire, now gathered 
around us, in front of the little Parsonage, 
by the river-side, men, women, and chil 
dren, to bid us adieu at the moment of our 
embarkation. One woman, with the pecu 
liar modesty of manner which I have before 
described, presented me, just as I was step 
ping into the canoe, with a simple bark bas 
ket of her own workmanship. Another was 
present who had recently become a Convert, 
and had been baptized, on the evening be 
fore her Confirmation, by Mr. Maning. Mr. 
Smithurst accompanied us down to the 
mouth of the river, his own boat attending 
to take him back. 

I had great cause of thankfulness in being 
enabled to bring away Mr. Maning without 
delay ; for he had met with an accident 



107 

the day before, which seemed to threaten 
either a most inconvenient detention, or 
the necessity of my leaving him to come 
down when the season should open again 
in the Spring. In stepping backward, he 
fell down a trap-door opening into the 
cellar, in the floor of one of Mr. Smithurst s 
rooms. The jar of this fall was very severe, 
and shook his whole nervous system in a 
manner of which the symptoms were very 
distressing. "We had to send about twenty 
miles for the Medical Gentleman in the 
service of the Company, who at once pro 
nounced that Mr. Maning would be able to 
travel the next day, and used measures 
which, by the blessing of God, were found 
to verify his augury. 

Climate of the Red River. 

Having spoken of the opening of the 
season, I will here mention that, at the 
Red River itself, the climate, from all that 
I could gather, appears not materially to 
differ from that of Quebec. The " sleighing" 



108 

appears to be of much the same duration. 
The cold is probably a little more severe ; 
for it occurs more frequently, according to 
the information given to me, that the mer 
cury freezes in the thermometer. This has 
occurred at Quebec, I think about three 
times within the memory of living man. 
I do not think that at either place the 
power of frost has ever been known to 
descend much below that point, if at all.* 

* In a subsequent Letter, Jan. 16, 1845, the 
Bishop writes 

In speaking of the climate at the Red River, com 
paratively with that of Quebec, I have probably 
underrated the degree of cold experienced in winter, 
at the former place. Mr. Maning received infor 
mation that the temperature had been known to 
stand there at 52 below zero by the spirit thermo 
meter : and that it descended as low as 40 more often 
than I supposed. I have still some doubt of the 
former of these two statements. 

On this subject the Rev. J. Smithurst writes, in 
his Journal 

January 9, 1848 It has been intensely cold to 
day. Having no spirit thermometer, I could not as 
certain the exact degree of cold, but I should suppose 



109 

In the regions further North, some of the 
Fur-traders have told me, in accordance 

that at sunrise this morning it must have been about 
50 below zero. On former occasions, when I have 
made observations with spirit thermometers, I have 
invariably found that as soon as the degree of cold 
reached 46 below zero, the atmosphere lost that 
clearness which we usually have here, and appeared 
as if mixed with a thin blue smoke, which went on 
increasing in density as the cold increased. On no 
former occasion, with the exception of two mornings 
in February 1843, when a spirit thermometer which I 
then had stood at 52 below zero, have I seen the at 
mosphere assume the same dense smoky appearance 
which it had this morning before sunrise. It was 
from myself that Mr. Maning received information of 
the thermometer having been known to go down as 
low as 52 below zero, and which statement the Bishop 
of Montreal appears to doubt. 

As this morning was in appearance so like the 
mornings in 1843 to which I have referred above, I 
resolved to make the best experiment that I could for 
testing the degree of cold. I therefore filled a table 
spoon half full of mercury, and put it about two yards 
outside the front door a little before sunrise. In about 
ten minutes it was perfectly solid, and I turned it out 
of the spoon, and hammered it out till it was like a 
piece of sheet lead. I put it again into the spoon and 
took it into the house, and stood by the stove with it 



110 

with the accounts of Arctic explorers, that 
the spirit thermometer has indicated an 
approach to 60 below zero, by Fahrenheit. 
The winds which sweep over the open and 
level prairie at the Red River, are described 
as intensely cold and cutting in severe 
weather. During our stay, with the inter 
ruption of some hard showers, we had a 
delightful time : the season, however, was 
said to be unusually cool. On the way 
back it occurred, I think, only a couple of 
times, and that only during the height of 
the day, that we felt glad to raise the um- 

in my hand four minutes before there was any ap 
pearance of its liquefying. There was a thermometer 
hanging on the opposite side of the room from the 
stove, and it stood, at the time I was making the ex 
periment, at 75 above zero. As I held the frozen 
mercury within a foot of the stove, the temperature 
there must have been at least 80, and yet I had to 
hold it for four minutes before a single liquid particle 
started from the frozen mass. I put it out again, and 
at 10 o clock it was still frozen. I may therefore, I 
think, safely infer that the cold must have been at 
least 10 below the point at which mercury freezes ; 
so that I have very little hesitation in saying that the 
cold of this morning was 50 below zero. 



Ill 

brella to shade ourselves from the sun glar 
ing on the water. 

I gave, in my first Letter, an account 
of what was most remarkable on the route, 
both up and down ; but I may add here 
one or two circumstances which occurred 
upon our return, and which I did not then 
notice. 

Some incidents of the Route, before omitted. 

"VVe overtook, at the Rainy Lake Fort, 
where we passed a night, a gentleman who 
has been established for a great number 
of years far on the other side of the 
Rocky Mountains, and is now one of the 
principal Factors of the Company. He 
was proceeding from that remote quarter 
to Canada, and had under his charge a 
couple of youths, the sons of another Factor, 
whom he was to place at School. There 
were also passengers with him, an elderly 
couple, decent sort of people, and he had, 
in this part of the route, two canoes like 
our own. But he had other companions, 



112 

also, of a different cast ; and the footing 
upon which they were with the rest, 
afforded a striking evidence of the strange 
state of society in some parts of the Ameri 
can wilderness, and might serve as a check 
to the romance of feeling which is fasci 
nated by the adventures and varieties of 
a half-Indian life, and attaches the idea 
of comparative insipidity to the settled 
habits of order and civilization. Two most 
atrocious criminals, who had, in a state of 
exasperation, murdered one of the Factors, 
in a very savage and barbarous manner, 
were placed in charge of this gentleman, 
professedly to be brought down to Canada 
for trial. The crime had been committed 
at one of the posts established in a portion 
of territory belonging to Russia, and held 
under lease from the Government of that 
country, by the Company. The nearest 
Russian authorities, it appears, refused to 
have any thing to do with the case, and as 
it would have been of mischievous conse 
quence to leave the perpetrators of this 
act of blood at large in the country where 



113 

it occurred, matters were so managed as 
to send them off as prisoners to Canada 
They were, however, when we saw them, 
perfectly at liberty ; nor was there any thing, 
either in their deportment or in the state 
of relations appearing to subsist between 
themselves and their companions, which 
could indicate the character in which they 
were travelling. The party left the Fort in 
the morning, as usual, with song ; and the 
two murderers, with all the nonchalance 
in the world, occupied their seats and 
handled their paddles, without any dis 
tinction, as part of the crew, and joined 
in the cheerful chorus with which they 
started, nearly in company with ourselves. 
One of them was a French Canadian ; the 
other, an Iroquois Indian. There is an 
act of the British Parliament which con 
fers criminal jurisdiction over the Hudson V 
Bay Territory upon the Canadian Courts 
of Justice ; but this crime having been 
committed in Russian Territory, it must 
probably have been sufficiently understood, 
perhaps by all parties, that these Courts 

o 



114 

could not be competent to try it. The men, 
in any case, could easily escape into the 
United States upon reaching the Saut Sainte 
Marie. I met one of them, however, after 
my return, walking quietly and composedly 
through the village street of La Chine. 

Acts of violence committed upon the 
persons of the Factors or Traders of the 
Company must, I apprehend, be of ex 
ceedingly rare occurrence. As far as I had 
opportunities of knowing, the general system 
pursued at the Forts, with reference to the 
treatment of the people employed, is such 
as to gain their attachment. And the In 
dian hangers-on, in seasons of want, draw 
largely upon the charity of these establish 
ments. Kindness, united with firmness and 
decision, appears to be the secret of govern 
ing mankind throughout the world, ill 
as it is understood in too large a portion 
of it, But where the spirit of Christian 
love, and a conscientious adherence to 
principle, prevail, there the qualities before 
mentioned appear under a sanctified as 
pect ; and it is then that they effectually 



115 

promote the happiness and well-being of 
a community. " Blessed are they who 
sow beside all waters" the seeds of such 
heavenly improvement in this world of sin 
and strife ! 

In descending the Ottawa, our guide, 
with more than half the crew, were, upon 
one occasion, in most imminent peril of 
their lives, and had a truly merciful deliver 
ance. It was at one of the spots where 
slides are in process of construction by the 
Government, under a considerable grant 
of money from the Provincial Parliament, 
for the passage of timber. We had left 
the canoe, and, with part of the crew, had 
betaken ourselves for the night to a log- 
building put up by some Irish people em 
ployed about the slide, and situated at some 
distance. The canoe was to come round 
to us in the morning, having first a bad 
Rapid to shoot. The guide was perfectly 
at home in all the Rapids ; but the slide, 
which had been constructed since we passed 
up, had forced the waters into new courses, 
and he was consequently at a fault. They 

2 



116 

were whirled in the arms of danger to 
seeming death : they were rapidly filling 
with water : the men were alarmed, and 
one cried this thing, and another that, their 
presence of mind beginning to forsake them 
all, except the guide. " Nagez" said he, 
in a tone of stern command ; " nagez : ne 
paries pas." They obeyed : made a last 
desperate effort with their paddles, and 
gained a sort of little recess where the 
waters were comparatively quiet. As soon 
as they got safe on shore, they all fell upon 
their knees and performed their devotions 
an example to better instructed persons, 
and professors of a more enlightened system 
of faith. We were detained several hours 
for the repair of the canoe, and for drying 
the articles of baggage which had been 
left in it. 

In the course of the downward voyage, 
we lost two half days in mending our frail 
vessel. 



117 

Return to La Chine. 

We reached La Chine toward the close 
of a fine day, on the 14th of August, and 
came in with song. The sound of the voices 
is cheerful, and gives life to the strokes 
of the paddle, urging the canoe with a 
rushing sound through the water, on which 
the old Norman airs of the voyageurs float, 
like the chimes of Church bells. But far 
other song* had I cause at the close of this 
journey to raise in my heart, even a song 

* The songs are not profane or licentious that, 
of course, would not have been suffered, even if 
there had been, which I had no reason whatever to 
suppose, any habit or disposition of the kind in the 
singers; but they are light and nonsensical, and 
sometimes partake of a convivial character. The 
words, from the manner of singing them, are very 
imperfectly caught ; and, in fact, many of the men 
themselves seem to catch them from the leader as 
mere sounds without a meaning, slurring the words 
together, without attaching to them any definite 
ideas. The refrain, as in our familiar and childish 
songs, is often pure nonsense. 



118 

of thanksgiving unto my Grod, after having 
been permitted to visit those remote esta 
blishments of the Church to comfort the 
hearts of those faithful Missionaries to 
dispense ministrations urgently needed, for 
which no provision exists within reach 
and, may I dare to hope it, to give an im 
pulse to endeavours which will result in 
something effectual for the permanent sup 
ply of these spiritual wants. To this subject 
I shall speedily return. 

I parted at La Chine with Mr. Maning, 
who, by the way, was once an aspirant to 
the service of the Church Missionary Society, 
and was known to the gentlemen presiding 
over their Institution at Islington ; but, with 
several other young men, I believe, about 
the same time, found the door not opening 
to him as he expected, and ultimately came 
out to Canada, where he entered the service 
of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, in which he has been a very active 
and labourious itinerant Missionary, often 
" enduring hardship as a good soldier of 
Jesus Christ/ He went with me as a 



119 

volunteer, his own duties having been pro 
vided for in his absence. 

Indian Population, and Extent of Field 
for Missionary Exertion. 

I come now to consider the Territory, 
and the whole tracts of country traversed 
by the Company in their operations, and 
dotted with their widely-severed posts, as 
presenting a field for the exertions of re 
ligious zeal. And the value of whatever I 
have said respecting secular and temporal 
things is, that it may serve the purpose 
of giving a more palpable form and pres 
sure, a more human reality, if I may so 
speak, to the interests of this vast region 
and its inhabitants, in bringing them before 
the friends of religion at home ; and that it 
may lend, perchance, more attraction to 
a story which ought to be listened to, by 
diversifying its details. 

The same gentleman to whom I was 
indebted, as already mentioned, for a copy 
of the Census taken in the Red-River 



120 

Colony, has most obligingly furnished me 
with the fullest information which he could 
prepare, at short notice, respecting the 
Tribes at large. He states, however, the 
deficiency of certain data, not at the mo 
ment at his command, " without which it 
is not easy to determine either the number 
or the territorial limits of a people, in their 
divisions and subdivisions, whose habits are 
constantly erratic in the pursuit of game, 
which affords the means of their subsist 
ence." It appears, also, that the discor 
dant estimates, even of the oldest and most 
experienced residents in the Indian country, 
forbid all idea of arriving at an accurate 
knowledge of the amount of population, 
either as a whole or in detail. The Tribes 
themselves, however, occupying the country 
East of the Rocky Mountains, and resorting 
upon occasion to the Company s Establish 
ments, may be enumerated and distinguished 
as follows below 

Mackenzie s River District 
The Copper Indians : 

Inhabiting the Country about this River. 






121 

The Louclieux or Quarrellers : 
The Hare Indians : 
The Dog-rib Indians : 
The Strong- bow Indians : 
Inhabiting Mackenzie s River, and its 

Neighbourhood, and speaking different 

languages. 

Athabasca and Isle a la Crosse Districts 
The Chipewyans, and a few of the Cree 

Tribe : 

Inhabiting the Country surrounding this 
Lake, and between it arid the Isle a la 
Crosse District. 
Peace River District 

The Beaver Indians, and a few Sauteux from 

the Rainy Lake : 

Inhabiting both sides of this River, and 
speaking a language different from that 
of the Chipewyans of Athabasca. 
Upper part of the Saskatchewan District 
The Black-feet proper : 
The Blood Indians : 
The Piegans : * 



* The first syllable is pronounced as in the 
French word pied. 



122 

The Fall Indians : 

The Surcies : 

All these five Tribes are generally termed 
Black-feet, although they speak different 
languages, and have different customs 
and manners. 
Lower part of the Saskatchewan District 

The Stone Indians, or Assiniboins : 

The Crees : 

The Sauteux, or Ogibwas : 

These three Tribes are constantly at variance 
with the Black-feet, and the whole eight 
depend on the chase for subsistence. 
They i. e. the three Tribes extend 
their habitations also to the upper 
part of lied River and of Swan River. 

York Factory, Oxford, Norway House, Cum 
berland, and lower part of Swan River Dis 
trict 

Mis-Kee- Goose,* or Swampy Indians : 

These also extend along the sea-coast to 
James s Bay. They evidently spring 
from the Crees, as their language is only 

,__.__. 

Muskaigos. 



123 

a dialect of the Cree. There is said 
to be a mixture of the Sauteux in their 
origin. 

Churchill District 
Esquimaux : 

Chipewyans, and a few Swamp Indians : 
Inhabiting the Country to the North of 
Churchill. 

These are all the Tribes on the East 
side of the Rocky Mountains who trade 
respectively at the posts indicated by 
italics. The source from which I received 
this information is one upon which I feel 
that I can rely ; and with the exception of 
the Mackenzie s River District, respecting 
which the statements are less positively 
made, the whole account, I believe, is the 
result of personal acquaintance with the 
localities. 

The Indians in James s Bay are generally 
classed with the Mis-Kee-Goose, and inhabit 
the countries about Albany, Moose, and East 
Main. 

Beyond the Rocky Mountains, the Com 
pany occupy a territory extending from the 



124 

North branch of the Columbia River to the 
line of separation from the dominions of 
Russia, latitude 54 40 North. These re 
gions are inhabited by a vast variety of 
Tribes, speaking different languages, and 
frequently engaged in war with one another. 
They are generally considered more natu 
rally acute than those on the Eastern side 
of the mountains, and more awake to the 
desire of instruction ; although it must not 
be inferred from this remark, that there is 
any characteristic deficiency in these points 
generally pervading those on the Eastern 
side. I cannot give particulars. I should 
have received them from the same highly- 
intelligent and well-informed gentleman to 
whom I am indebted for the statements 
made above, if circumstances had not de 
prived him of access at present to some of 
his papers. 

Moral and General Condition of the Indians, 
and Practical Inferences. 

Here, then, are seventeen Tribes on the 



125 

East side of the Rocky Mountains, beside 
the vast hordes, under manifold names, 
who range the immense regions lying be 
tween those heights and the Pacific Ocean, 
and are brought into contact with the ser 
vants of the Company, far out of its own 
Territories, for purposes of trade since its 
operations, and its traffic with the Tribes, 
are pushed, over the surface of the globe, 
for a wide and long space beyond the limits 
of its chartered sway. And tw^o questions 
now present themselves : 1. What is the con 
dition of all these " nations, and kindreds, 
and tongues, and people ? " 2, What is the 
duty lying upon the great country whose 
influence penetrates and pervades these 
distant portions of the earth, and whose 
own prodigious resources are still swelled 
by what she draws from them to me 
liorate that condition ? To which a third 
may perhaps be added What is within 
her power for effecting such melioration ? 

I need not say much with respect to the 
first. They are Heathen savages. The con 
dition and the habits of Heathen savages, 



126 

I have had occasion to paint in my notice 
of those specimens with which I was in 
contact upon my route. But there are 
aggravated features to be contemplated 
when we look further into the interior, or 
follow the inquiry to the more remote rami 
fications of the trade. Scenes of blood and 
treachery, from hereditary and cherished 
feuds ; the trophies of the scalping-knife ; 
the exposure of infants ; the abandonment 
of helpless objects, when found burthen- 
some, to perish in the wilds these are some 
of the examples among the Indians of that 
fierceness and cruelty of nature which has 
multiplied itself in many forms over the 
earth, since the day when it was said, " The 
voice of thy brother s blood crieth unto me 
from the ground/ The influence of the 
Company has been exerted, no doubt, suc 
cessfully to a certain extent, to check some 
of these practices ; and more decisively, I 
believe, for the discontinuance of certain 
horrid barbarities exercised upon the 
widows of Indian warriors, as an esta 
blished custom, and upon captive slaves at 



127 

the will of their masters. But what is this 
improvement, as far as it goes, but a testi 
mony to the humanizing influences of the 
Christian religion, which, even in its general 
and indirect operation i. e. apart from any 
endeavours to make converts to it, or teach 
it as a system of faith engenders an ab 
horrence of acts like these ? and, conse 
quently, to the unspeakably higher advan 
tage of bringing that system to bear in its 
direct force upon the persons and the hearts 
of the Indians themselves ? Crimes and atro 
cities prevail among professed Christians ; 
and there is a remark made by that amiable 
and engaging writer, the late Mr. T. Simp 
son, to the effect,* that they need not be 
hasty to condemn the Indians for practices 
of a revolting nature which prevail among 
them, if only they look at home. But the 
difference lies in this that these are prac 
tices allowed in the community ; not repug 
nant to public sentiment, nor at variance 
with any system received as authority in 



* I have not his work at hand. 



128 

morals. Within the Tribes themselves, 
there is no counter influence to cure or to 
repress them. They are found, in fact, in 
corporated with the sentiments and usages 
of the people. 

Superstition af the Indians, and Jugglery 
of their Conjurors. 

With reference to the religion of the In 
dians, if it can be called by that name, it 
is well known that they believe in a great 
spirit called Manitou, a word which enters 
into the composition of many of their names 
of places ; that they are afraid of this spirit, 
although their fear is not in the slightest 
degree whatever connected with a discern 
ing sense of moral delinquency ; and that 
they yield an extensive credence to the 
existence of spiritual agency, which they 
associate with the exercise of necromancy. 
I cannot find that they have anything which 
can properly be called worship, either pri 
vate or public ; but I took some pains to 
possess myself of the practices of their sor- 




IMAGE USED BY N. AMEE. INDIAN CONJURORS 

Page 129. 



129 

cerers, or conjurors, or Medicines, as they 
call them, and of the notions attached by 
the people to these performances ; especially 
in a conversation, of perhaps a couple of 
hours, with two intelligent Crees, now sin 
cere Christians, and Communicants of Mr. 
Smithurst s Congregation, who had been 
sorcerers of note in their heathen state, and 
who made me presents of certain imple 
ments of the craft a hideous mis-shapen 
image, made of painted leather, stuffed, 
about three feet high ;* a conjuring-rattle ; 
a very rudely-executed imitation of a snake, 
of painted wood ; and two small pieces of 
carved bone ; the uses of which will be 
presently described. Communicating with 
these men through an interpreter, and with 
other persons present who might be said 

* A drawing of it is here given. The face is of 
wood, flat, and without a nose : the eyes are brass 
studs. The fringe upon the arms and legs is of 
leather, mixed with small triangular pieces of tin : 
upon the sides and head, of le ather only. The 
leather is of moose-skin, and the colouring is laid 
on in making the image. 



ISO 

perhaps to put leading questions, I may 
certainly have been led into some mistakes 
upon lesser points for I am perfectly aware 
of the difficulty of being accurate in such 
cases, and I have received from respectable 
sources within the Territory very conflict 
ing accounts of many other peculiarities 
of the Indian beside his superstitions ; but 
I did my best to sift my information, and 
wrote down the result of my conversation 
while it was fresh : I believe, therefore, 
that I shall state nothing materially in 
correct. 

According to the conclusions of my own 
mind, there is in these conjurors a great, 
but not an uncommon mixture, of which 
Mahomed appears to afford one of the most 
remarkable examples in history, of fanati 
cism and imposture. 

The two men with whom I conversed, 
appear to have been sincere enthusiasts 
in their function at the time ; although, 
with all this/ they unreservedly stated 
that the conjurors are obviously acted 
upon by interested motives, since they re- 



131 

ceive largely the " rewards of divination " 
and the " wages of unrighteousness/ beside 
being considered to be protected against 
the fatal charms exercised by others of 
the craft. One of them told me that his 
father advised him, when a youth, to train 
himself to become a conjuror, as the best 
speculation in which he could engage. 
They say that one man in twenty, some 
times even one in ten, will be found to 
have acquired some portion of the art ; in 
which, however, there are many degrees 
of excellence, and some accomplished pro 
fessors have an extraordinary influence and 
reputation. The preparation for assuming 
the task is made by fasting in one place 
and posture, night and day, with the face 
down to the earth. The ability of the 
Indian to endure the protracted privation 
of food is well known ; and this they are 
said, in these voluntary fastings, to extend 
to eight, ten, or even twelve days. They 
believe that, during this process, they re 
ceive communications from the invisible 
world through the medium of dreams. One 

P 2 



132 

of them described to me a huge figure 
which repeatedly appeared to him in his 
nocturnal visions, demanding an offering of 
fat, to be hung upon a certain tree ; and 
his description reminded me of the genii 
pictured in the Arabian Nights, which I 
remember reading when a boy. Upon one 
occasion, this portentous and colossal 
visitor stood before him, with the tent of 
the family between his legs. And the 
effect upon the feelings and imagination 
of the Indian, could not fail to bring to 
mind the astonishingly sublime and thrill 
ing description found in far different pages, 
those of the volume of eternal truth itself, 
in the fourth chapter of Job, 13 16. In 
the solitude of the night, with the body 
attenuated by fasting, the tone of the ani 
mal spirits consequently lowered, and the 
mind filled beforehand with ideas of a dark 
and mysterious agency, it is no wonder if 
the poor savage beholds awful and repulsive 
apparitions in his dreams. 

After having become qualified, by the 
revelations thus supposed to be imparted to 



133 

him, to assume the office of conjuror, he 
prepares for any special exercise of his 
powers, by the erection of a conjuror s tent 
or lodge of which I have seen, in different 
places on the route, a skeleton or frame 
formed of young saplings, or single branches 
stripped of the leaves and twigs, the whole 
encircled at intervals by bands or hoops of 
the same material, and covered with dressed 
skins of a considerable height but only of 
a size to admit one man, in a recumbent pos 
ture or doubled together. Here they are 
prostrate, often being put in with their 
hands and feet tied by hard knots, which 
they contrive, by some trick, to disengage. 
While they are lying in the tent, it becomes 
violently agitated, the top swinging rapidly 
backward and forward in the view of the 
spectators on the outside, who also hear a 
variety of " strange sounds and voices, un 
like the voice of man" the responses ren 
dered within to the conjuror, by his aerial 
visitants ; after receiving which he supplies 
news respecting persons and affairs at a 
great distance. He is also believed to re- 



134 

ceive the power of inflicting disease and 
death upon persons some hundred miles off, 
whether his own enemies or those of his 
neighbours who have recourse to his magi 
cal skill. During the process going on in 
the conjuring lodge, without boldly looking 
up, he catches glimpses, in the same plane 
with the topmost hoop of the lodge, of a 
number of objects like little stars. The 
Converts who have formerly been engaged 
in this craft do not always shake off every 
remnant of the old habitual awe attached 
to their mysteries, and of the strong imagi 
native fascinations which have acted upon 
the excited mind. They sometimes appear 
to shrink instinctively from the mention 
of the subject. One of the two whom I 
have specially mentioned, told me that he 
now knew the power of sorcery to be all 
worthless falsehood; but that it had for 
merly had a strong hold upon his mind. 

Two specimens were given me of the in 
strument which is sent through the air to 
carry sickness or death to its appointed 
mark. They are small pieces of bone, about 



135 

the length of a man s thumb, ornamentally 
carved : one of them is sharply pointed at 
both ends ; the other is of an oblong form, 
with projections at the corners. The In 
dians believe that it actually enters the 
person of the victim by an invisible aper 
ture, after which, it was stated by one of 
my informants, that it returns through the 
air to the conjuror. The bone implements 
were sent to me after the close of my inter 
view with the ci-devant conjurors, and the 
explanations relating to them were given 
by other parties. I have found very simi 
lar superstitions still lingering among the 
Indians of Lorette, near Quebec, although 
they were settled in a village, as Roman 
Catholics, before the English conquest of 
Canada, and are now a race of mixed blood, 
whose language, in another generation, will 
be exclusively French. The sufferer who 
has been struck can only be dis-enchanted 
by another conjuror, and it is for this pro 
cess that the aid of the conjuror is perhaps 
most frequently invoked. Being sent for 
when a member of a family is seriously ill, 



136 

he comes with his rattle into the tent. The 
rattle has a resemblance to a battledore, 
except that it is perfectly round, and has a 
very short handle. It is about a foot in dia 
meter. The space between the two parch 
ments which are stretched upon it is filled 
with small pebbles, or some other loose rat 
tling substances. The specimen which I 
have of which a drawing is here given 
is painted over, on one side, with what ap 
pear to be talismanic marks or magical em 
blems : the triangle forms one of these, and 
other figures, opposite to each other, to the 
main central stroke of which projections 
are attached having a rude resemblance to 
wings, are called the big birds, a name 
which the Indians give to thunder, seem 
ing, in this point, to approach that profane 
mythology which made the eagle the mini- 
strum fidminis alitem. The devices vary : 
they are more simple in a specimen given 
to Mr. Maning. The quondam conjuror per 
formed before me with his rattle, putting 
himself into a stooping posture, and then 
shaking it, with great vehemence and great 




N. AMER. INDIAN CONJURING RATTLE. 
Page 136. 



137 

rapidity, over his own shoulders, under his 
breast, and between his legs. I believe it 
is also shaken over the patient, and, with 
some muttered incantations and other mum 
mery, the charm is completed. There is a 
mark in the centre of the rattle, and the 
conjuror has a kind of whistle in his mouth : 
with this whistle he pretends to suck out the 
disease from the patient, and then to pass 
it into the rattle through the central mark. 
There is a curious resemblance between the 
form and appearance of the Indian conjuring 
rattle, and those of an appendage of the 
sorceresses in the district of Krasno-jarsk 
in Siberia, as represented in the engravings 
of a German work, which I have not seen, 
and of which I am unable at present to give 
the title. It was observed by an excellent 
English lady now here, who I believe will 
permit me to call her my friend ; and it 
struck her so forcibly, when she compared 
her recollections of the engraving with the 
rattle itself, which I put into her hands, 
that she wrote home for a drawing made 
after the engraving, of which drawing I 



138 

also forward you a copy. Speculations 
might be built upon this small coincidence, 
confirmatory of the persuasion that America 
was peopled from Northern Asia.* 

The use of the term medicine, in North 
American Anglo-Indian phraseology, to de 
scribe not only any article of potency for 
effects supposed to partake of a magical 
character ; but even the person who is mas 
ter of these effects, and operates with such 
articles prepares us to find that medical 
cures, produced by common agents in their 
natural efficacy, are resolved by the Indians 
into the working of a charm, and made ad- 

* The Siberian affair is perhaps a musical instru 
ment, having some resemblance to a tambourine. 
It is not double ; but open on the under side, and 
held in the hand by means of a bar which there 
crosses it. The figure of the sorceress is repre 
sented as holding in the other hand something 
which has the appearance of a long feather ; but 
may be a fringed and ornamented stick, with which 
to strike the instrument. Still, this is an imple 
ment of divination, and its sounds are probably, 
like those of the rattle, conceived to carry a charm. 





SIBERIAN CONJURING RATTLE. 
Page 133 



139 

vantage of by the conjuror, as if they be 
longed to the secrets of his power. An In 
dian, after some violent exertion, is perhaps 
exposed to cold, and suffers in some of the 
forms of malady which follow from ob 
structed perspiration. He applies to a con 
juror, who, with all solemnity of perform 
ance, puts him into a small low tent made of 
sticks arched over, and covered tightly with 
skins. The place has been first thoroughly 
heated by means of red-hot stones, and 
steam is produced by pouring water on 
them ; and thus, in fact by the process of a 
vapour-bath, but in the estimation of the 
Indian by the mysterious force of a charm, 
the patient is relieved. The place con 
structed for the operation is called a sweat 
ing-house. 

The conjurors carry in their belts, or 
hanging at their sides, a little rudely- 
executed image, supposed to possess some 
powers of enchantment. Except in this 
kind of way, there is no superstition con 
nected with images among the Indians. 
The images seem to be only a portion of 



140 

the magical apparatus. Upon certain high 
days, I think twice a year, they hold a 
feast, for which a spacious tent is made. 
The images are then placed up at one end 
of it ; sometimes such large, leathern, decor 
ated things, as were given to Mr. Maning 
and myself ; but no act of worship or 
homage to them appears to be paid. In 
what precise light they are regarded, it is 
a matter of some difficulty to pronounce ; 
and, in fact, the Indians themselves seem 
to me to have only a confused and mystic 
view of their attributes and powers ; but 
it does appear that they are, in some in 
stances, designed to represent spirits, and 
to be fashioned in imitation of appearances 
made to the conjurors in their dreams. 
Upon the occasions here mentioned, when 
the images are set up, there are two heaps 
prepared upon the floor, or ground within 
the tent, of the down of the wild swan : 
upon each of these is laid a bladder full 
of fat. The conjuror first makes the entire 
circuit of the assembly, who are sitting in 
a line around the inner side of the tent, and 



141 

places upon the head of each individual 
a small portion of this down. He then 
throws one of the bladders to the man 
nearest to him, who, having bitten out a 
piece of fat through the bladder, passes this 
on to his neighbour to do the same, and 
so it goes completely round. The piece of 
fat, taken out with the teeth, is believed 
to assure to the individual whatever he has 
previously made up his mind to wish for. 
One exclaims, after biting his morsel, I 
have got life ! i. e. a long life for himself : 
another, I have got the life of my enemy ! 
a third, I have got luck in my next hunt 
ing ! a fourth, I have got rum ! A portion 
of the fat is burnt as an offering ; but whe 
ther this be the contents of the second 
bladder, or the leavings of both, I did not 
learn. Before any of the ceremonies com 
mence within, four men without, fire their 
guns, one gun being pointed to each of the 
four cardinal points. The women and 
children are not admitted to the assembly. 
The image which I have, and the other 
implements of conjuration among which 



142 

there is one, namely, the snake, about the 
use or meaning of which I am not sure 
I have reserved to be presented to the 
Church Missionary Society, if they should 
think them worth having, as evidences 
of prevalent superstition in the scene of 
their labours, which I visited. But they are 
far removed from having either beauty, 
costliness, or neatness of execution ; and 
the Society has perhaps already, in its 
collection, better specimens of the same 
kind from the same quarter. They are, 
however tangible proofs of imposture, de 
lusion, and darkness. The proceedings 
which I have described in connexion with 
them, are, as I wish it to be kept in view, 
not things of which I have been an ocular 
witness ; but results of my endeavours to 
collect and compare information from the 
best living sources within my reach when 
I was upon the spot. Many of the parti 
culars have been verified to me by the 
independent testimony of different infor 
mants Europeans who have been familiar 



143 

with Indian life, or Indians who have be 
come Christians. 

There are some of the Clergy who are 
distinctly persuaded of a direct diabolical 
agency, preternaturally manifested, in the 
performances of the conjurors : and cer 
tainly there are some startling appearances 
connected with them ; particularly in what 
takes place when the conjuror gets into 
his lodge, and in some parts of the ex 
perience of conjurors who have since be 
come Christians. Nor can it be doubted 
for one moment that these, and all similar 
delusions, are fostered and promoted by 
the " father of lies." In my own judgment, 
however, so far as that may be worth stat 
ing, the marvellous appearances which 
stagger the mind may be resolvable into 
mere sleight of hand, of which the effects, 
in their common exhibitions for money in 
Europe, are often perfectly wonderful and 
unaccountable till explained ; and the im 
pressions existing in the minds of the 
quondam conjurors may be traced, as I 
have hinted before, to a strongly-excited 



144 

imagination acted upon by several conspir 
ing causes, and creating its visions to itself 
with all the force of reality, as minds over 
wrought by ghost stories will make spectral 
appearances out of natural objects. I have 
always been slow to believe in the super 
natural displays of infernal agency, apart 
from the contemporary displays of miracu 
lous power from above. When one is per 
mitted, I am disposed to think that the 
other is to be looked for. 

That, in very many instances, the per 
formances of the sorcerers are mere jug 
gling cheats, is matter beyond dispute ; and 
a remarkable example of this nature was 
related to me by a gentleman to whom 
I have already owned myself indebted for 
much information. He was present when 
one of these fellows pretended to conjure 
back, and to produce to view, bullets which 
he had told some of the Indians to throw, 
with all their might, into the river. He 
was either naked, or stripped for the pur 
pose, and his very hair was searched in 
order to ascertain that he had no bullets 



145 

concealed in it. The Factor observed, how 
ever, that, in executing his various move 
ments and gesticulations to operate the 
charm, he passed his hands over his face, 
and was convinced that, by a piece of well- 
concealed dexterity, he took the bullets 
from his mouth ; and the Factor privately 
desired one of the other Indians, when the 
exhibition was about to be repeated, to 
make a little notch in his bullet by 
which it could be recognised. The bullet 
produced by the conjuror was, of course, 
without the mark, and the cheat was de 
tected. 

Concluding Appeal to Britain for the Es 
tablishment of a Bishop of our Church 
in the Territory. 

The second and third questions which I 
have proposed above, relating to the duty 
which we owe to the Indians, and the power 
which we have to perform it, may now be 
considered together. 

It would surely be a happy consumma- 



146 

tion to see these .juggling fiends no more 
believed ; to see these perverted minds 
disabused, which are capable of better and 
nobler things ; to see these deceptions, de 
lusions, and abominations, swept away ; to 
see these sottish and mischievous practices, 
with all their accompaniments of moral 
debasement, and of social and domestic 
degradation, displaced by the observances 
of Christianity and the habits of Christian 
men the prayers, the praises, the teaching, 
the Sacraments, of the Church of the living 
(rod ; the light of His blessed Word ; the 
lessons of His heavenly love ; the purifying 
efficacy of His holy truth ; the practical 
fruits of His being made known in Christ 
to fallen, bewildered, and ruined man. 
The Bible warns us of the tendency, in 
nature, to superstitious mummeries and dark 
forbidden arts, and of their utter offensive- 
ness in the sight of Grod the pre- disposition, 
on the one side, to entertain the whole 
brood, who are described in our transla 
tion under the names of wizards, witches, 
magicians, necromancers, soothsayers, sor- 



147 

cerers, diviners, astrologers, seekers of en 
chantments, dealers with familiar spirits, 
and practisers of curious arts ; and the ready 
avidity of all these, on the other side, to 
profit by that corrupt credulousness, to 
which, in fact, they owe their existence. 

The Bible says, " How beautiful upon the 
mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
good tidings, that publisheth peace and 
salvation/ Well may we apply, in both 
instances, the language of that blessed 
Book to the regions here under our review 
a review pregnant with instructive les 
sons of duty toward the poor Indian, whose 
country we have occupied, and replete with 
unanswerable proof, although exhibited as 
yet upon a confined scale, of his capacity 
to benefit by what we can do for him. 
I have got life, is what he may be taught 
to say in a better sense than when he 
utters it, under the tuition of a conjuror, 
in biting fat out of a bladder : he may learn 
to say it with a happy reference to Him, 
who came that we " might have life, and 
might have it more abundantly ; " and of 

Q 2 



148 

whom it is emphatically declared, that 
" in Him was life, and the life was the 
light of men/ / have got the life of my 
enemy, is what the Indian may be taught to 
repudiate as a sentiment befitting a human 
heart he can learn to " love his enemies/ 
and instead of asking the life of his ene 
mies, to ask an understanding heart to 
discern between good and evil. Here is a 
country open to evangelization a country, 
to borrow the language of the Missionaries 
who have been sent to labour in it, larger 
than Russia and how trifling is the begin 
ning which has been made in the work ; 
yet how encouraging the effect of that 
beginning as an incitement to enlarge, by 
God s blessing, the borders of the Churches. 
Is it, then, not to be evangelized ? And if 
it is to be, who is to evangelize it ? To 
what country is it an appendage ? To what 
power does it belong ? To what Church 
does it address the call, " Come over, and 
help us ? " The country is an appendage 
to Britain, to Christian Britain, to the first 
Empire upon earth ; with a Christian Go- 



149 

vernment ; with a great Church Establish 
ment ; with institutions, laws, and customs 
connecting all her proceedings with the 
name of religion ; with immense, inexhaust 
ible resources ; with unequalled means 
and facilities of influence ; with responsi 
bilities before the GOD who rules over 
kingdoms, exactly proportioned to all the 
distinctions which are here enumerated. 
Shall it be said, that it is not in the power 
of such a country either to supply her own 
people in her own Colonies with spiritual 
succour, or which is to our present pur 
pose to meet the demands actually pre 
senting themselves in her Dependencies, for 
blessing the savage with the Gospel ? What 
is the meaning of her prayer, offered all 
over the world when her people pray, " that 
God would be pleased to make His ways 
known to all sorts and conditions of men, 
His saving health unto all nations " if, in 
a country such as I am here speaking of, 
she can make no more effort, than, at this 
period of her occupation, to provide some 
thing less than half-a-dozen Clergymen, 



J50 

and these without any Bishop to preside 
over them ? Great efforts have been made 
by the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel for the Colonists great efforts by 
the Church Missionary Society for Heathen 
lands ; but what, after all, are the labours 
of both Societies together, considered as 
the act of Great Britain ? It is called much, 
if a religious Society of the National Church 
in that country, having vast and various 
objects to accomplish in many regions for 
the highest interests of man, can raise 
^100,000 a year. Things are then said to 
prosper and flourish ; but are there not 
single individuals in England who have the 
double and the treble of this income ? And 
what would be found the aggregate, if 
calculated, of all the incomes amounting 
to or exceeding ^5000 a year ? Let it 
then be hoped that the Church Missionary 
Society will not be left without the 
means of energetically and extensively en 
larging its operations in this most interest 
ing and promising field ; and that all other 
parties concerned will efficiently take their 



151 

share in the same object. I am as much 
convinced that it is the duty of the English 
Government to plant and perpetuate the 
Church according to her full organization, 
and to provide standing institutions for 
training a local body of Clergy, in the 
distant dominions of the Empire, as that it 
is the duty of a father to see to the religious 
interests of his family ; and whatever may 
be the issue of the Oregon boundary ques 
tion, there is a large accountability of this 
kind in the region for which I am pleading. 
There is not one Clergyman of the Church 
of England on the further side of the Rocky 
Mountains. The HudsonVBay Company 
did at one time maintain a Chaplain at 
Fort Vancouver they have ceased to do 
so. Within their own proper Territories 
they have one, namely at the Red River : in 
Hudson s Bay itself there is none. If I 
may judge from the kindness shown person 
ally to myself, the facilities given to my 
operations, and the respect paid to my 
office, by all the gentlemen representing the 
Company s interests, with whom I had to 



152 

do, that body must be presumed well-affected 
to the cause ; and that its several proceed 
ings are conducted on a liberal scale, I 
have had some occasion to notice. I hope 
that I may without impropriety suggest that 
the Company an English Company, whose 
seat is in London should be solicited to 
take some part, and to assume some share, 
of the burthen in establishing a Bishopric 
within its own Territories. At least, that 
they would countenance the undertaking, 
and go hand-in-hand with the parties en 
gaged in it. They are Lords Paramount 
there : * they can make any laws, not 
repugnant to the Laws of England ; issue 



* I have seen a printed copy of the Charter, 
and, if my memory serves me, the Territory is held 
of the Crown by the tenure that the Sovereign, 
in case of visiting it, may demand an elk and two 
black beavers. In the strict sense of the word, the 
Sovereign is the Lord Paramount " since none 
seemeth simply to be Lord Paramount, but only 
the King." Minshew s Guide into the Tongues, 
1627. 



153 

their own money ; appoint their own public 
Functionaries for the administration of the 
Territory ; and raise, if they see necessary, 
a Military Force. What they have done for 
the Recorder of the Red River would, in my 
judgment, with certain aids given to him in 
travelling, suffice of itself for the mainten 
ance of a Bishop, whose Diocese should com 
prise the country East of the Rocky Moun 
tains. This is now the thing to begin with : 
a great deal more will follow of itself. The 
Church Missionary Society, and the Institu 
tion formed expressly for the establishment 
of Bishoprics in the Colonies, would help 
forward this object in different ways. Spe 
cial benefactors may be raised up, when an 
interest is once excited by the appeal, 
perhaps within the number persons who 
are or have been connected with the Com 
pany s interests. Already a gentleman the 
late Mr. Leith who was a resident Factor 
in the Territory, has bequeathed the sum 
of 1 0,000, as yet, I believe, in litigation, 
toward the propagation of the Gospel in 
the scene of his former pursuits and occupa- 



154 

tions ; with the interest arising from which 
sum, it is intended, if I am correctly in 
formed, to establish a Mission and a School 
in Cumberland. It is the rule of the 
Company s posts that the Factor or Trader 
in charge, when there is no Clergyman, 
should read the Church Service on Sun 
days to the persons who can be gathered to 
hear it. They have forwarded the erection 
and establishment of Churches at the Red 
River. Nothing, perhaps, has been want 
ing to engage them in more effectually 
promoting the advancement of religion 
under the same auspices, but the impulse 
only recently given either to public autho 
rities, or to the community at large, in the 
work of extending the Church. Their own 
temporal interests would be favourably 
affected by whatever they do in this way : 
the whole social condition of the Territory 
would be improved, and the way would be 
prepared for changes which must ultimately 
come. There are large tracts of country 
in which the diminution of the furs is 
already very sensibly, and by the poor 



155 

Indians severely, felt. The day will arrive 
when the example of the Red-River Settle 
ment must be followed in other portions of 
the Territory ; and, if I belonged to the 
Company, I should say that the sooner it 
comes, the better. Those vast regions, com 
prehending here and there tracts favourable 
for cultivation, cannot be doomed to be for 
ever tenanted only by wild beasts, and 
savages as wild : their resources of another 
kind must be turned to account ; and in the 
mean time, there is little fear that any 
effects resulting directly or indirectly from 
the exertions of the Church will prema 
turely accelerate the desertion of the hunts 
man s craft : that will be a long and gradual 
process, accomplished by little and little, 
rather behind than in advance of the cir 
cumstances which demand it. At all events, 
the religious melioration of a country will 
always bring a good return to its Lords : 
and nothing will ever be lost by consulting 
the honour, and furthering the cause on 
earth, of Him who has all in His omnipo 
tent hands. 



156 

I may seem here to have made some ob 
servations which partake of presumption, 
as proceeding from a person of such limited 
experience in the Territory as myself. But 
the subject has taken a deep hold upon my 
convictions, as well as upon my heart. I 
feel, with an indescribable force, the neces 
sity of establishing a Bishop in those Terri 
tories. Perhaps I need not disclaim such 
an idea as that all the virtue of the Gospel 
is centred in the Episcopate, because I hap 
pen to hold that thorny office myself ; but 
it is the Episcopal Church of England which 
is specially, distinctly, and loudly called to 
occupy that open field it is the Episcopal 
Church of England which took the lead, 
and gave the impulse to other parties, in 
whatever has been yet done, of any note, 
for planting and extending any of the forms 
of Christianity in that land it is the Epis 
copal Church of England, its interests being 
represented upon the spot by the Church 
Missionary Society, which has been con 
spicuously successful, by the fruits of its 
Schools and Missions, in diffusing blessings 



157 

among the people ; and an Episcopal Church 
without a Bishop is an anomaly upon the 
face of it a contradiction in terms : it is 
like a monarchy without a King. A Bishop 
is necessary even for the existing establish 
ment of Clergy, and the existing Congrega 
tions ; who, in their extreme remoteness and 
utter severance from all the rest of the 
world, afford a sort of revived exhibition of 
the ancient sect of the acephali, against 
their own wills. A Clergy without super 
intendence a people who love the Church,* 

* The facts which I have detailed in may 
second Letter afford abundant evidence of this; 
and it might be confirmed from the more remote 
Stations, which I have not seen. In the Protest 
ant division of the Red-River Settlement itself, 
the continued accession of Europeans being the 
merest trifle in the world, and the few original 
European Settlers being destined, in the course of 
nature, soon to disappear from the scene, it may 
be said that the whole population will shortly be 
composed of persons trained exclusively in the 
Church of England a happy spectacle of religious 
unity. Never, never may it be broken in upon ! 



158 

without the means of Confirmation 
Churches unconsecrated the uniform and 
pervading influence of resident authority in 
matters Ecclesiastical unknown Ordina 
tion upon the spot impossible, though sub 
jects for it should be found, and the need 
for their services should be urgent the 
nearest Bishop probably two thousand miles 
off, and the intervening country a " waste 
howling wilderness/ and he under a disa 
bility, without special commission from 
home, to act for the Territory in this behalf 
none to advise the Clergy in their per 
plexities, to strengthen their hands in sea 
sons of difficulty, to relieve them of painful 
exercises of discretion in matters of local 
necessity or expediency, to comfort and en 
courage them in trouble none to conduct 
measures of improvement with authority 
and weight on the part of the Church, in 
concert with the Society at home, or with 
the Functionaries of the Company upon the 
spot no common point of reference to 
which Clergy and people can look with 
confidence alike no apex where the loose 



159 

pieces, as it were, of the Church converge 
and are bound together in one. "What a 
difference would the appointment of this 
one individual, the local establishment of 
this single office, produce in the whole aspect 
and prosperity of the Church ! What can 
be more mortifying to our Clergy, more dis 
couraging to our people, than to see, in the 
adjoining Roman-Catholic Settlement, the 
Church of Rome giving full efficiency to 
her Ecclesiastical arrangements by the es 
tablishment of a Bishop of French origin, 
and to know that a second has been estab 
lished in Columbia,* while the Church of 
the Sovereign and of the Empire remains 
yet among them in a defective and mutilated 
form and that, although she has sufficiently 
proved her perfect adaptation to the peculiar 
task required in the Territory, and there is 
reason to believe that even now there are 



* His residence, I believe, is within the limits of 
the United States ; but his jurisdiction is considered 
to cross the Line. 



160 

more Indian hearts prepared to receive the 
Gospel from her hands. 

The Church, in the early days of Chris 
tianity, was planted in new regions by seat 
ing, at a central point, the Bishop with his 
Cathedral and his College of Presbyters, 
who ranged the country here and there 
under his direction.* And this, or the 
nearest approach to this of which the times 
are susceptible, is what is wanted now. It 
is wanted in Prince Rupert s Land. The 



* It would be very desirable, I think, to train 
some of the Natives for the Ministry ; and to require 
it of some of the English Missionaries to learn In 
dian languages. But, upon the whole, although the 
mixture would be good, it is found that the Euro 
pean Clergyman has the most influence, and that 
the prophet who is in his own country is less 
honoured. And Mr. Cockran is a strong advocate 
for bringing the Indians as speedily as possible to 
the use of the English language, and stimulating 
them to the acquisition by some bars left in their 
way till they make it. He thinks this is the 
surest way to anglify them in their sentiments also. 



161 

effect of my own flying visit, and imperfect 
ministrations, sufficiently demonstrates the 
existence of the want. Most cheerfully, 
most gladly, would I repeat the journey, 
under the same arrangement, every four or 
five years, if that would serve the purpose, 
so long as I may be spared in health and 
strength, and provided I could afford to 
steal the time from the yearly increasing 
duties of my own charge. But the fact is, 
that the fruits of such a visit as mine, in 
stead of sufficing for the exigencies which 
exist, serve rather to set in strong relief the 
real character of those exigencies as de 
manding, imperiously, an established pro 
vision for the exercise of the Episcopal 
functions upon the spot. And indeed, by 
the time at which another visit might be 
paid by myself, the Missions may be found 
so far to have extended themselves, that it 
would be impossible to accomplish the jour 
ney, and to return, within the season open 
for travelling. But shall it be supposed 
that things are to be left for such a shift ? 
Is it actually come to this, that the Church 

R 



162 

of Rome can establish two Bishoprics in 
ground which ought specially to be taken 
up by the Church of England, and that the 
Church of England cannot establish one? 
I am not proposing any interference here 
with what the Church of Rome has posi 
tively in her hands, nor any control of her 
zeal by measures of intolerance : there is 
abundance of work for the Church of Eng 
land to do without anything like this, and 
they are surely better blessings that she 
would dispense. We cannot think with 
complacency, if we love the truth of God, 
of the extension of Romanism instead of 
Scriptural religion ; but it is of the plain 
duties and the plain wants of the Church 
of England that I am speaking, indepen 
dently of all other considerations, and as 
they exist in themselves. And cannot 
means be found to enable her for the dis 
charge of these duties, and to supply these 
wants within her bosom ; or, if means ai 
provided, cannot men be found to use them <-. 
Forbid the thought ! I feel confident that, 
if that were my business, I could find the 



163 

man, and a fitting man, myself. The branch 
of our Episcopal Church which subsists in 
foreign America has consecrated a Bishop 
for China, where we had carried war a 
necessary war, it may be granted, and one 
ordained, in the providence of Grod, to break 
down the barriers of ages, and open the way 
for the introduction of blessings ; but war 
was what we carried there and if America 
can now carry, to the extreme point of the 
globe, the Church in her completeness of 
form, can it be believed, can it be endured, 
that England should leave her own Depen 
dencies unsupplied ? I am well aware that 
whatever other effect may be produced by 
these poor Appeals of mine which, such 
as they are, I have made some sacrifices 
and some forced efforts, in the midst of the 
pressure of other duties, to prepare they 
will, if known at all abroad, stimulate other 
parties to pre-occupy as much as may be 
possible of the ground. It is not in a spirit 
of rivalry, or from notions of competition 
with them, that I desire to see our own 
Church doing her part. But let her do her 

R 2 



164 

own duty, and commit the issue to God 
above. I cannot, for one, withhold the ex 
pression of my feelings in the cause. "While 
I have been " musing " of these things, 
" my heart was hot within me : the fire 
kindled, and I have spoken with my tongue." 
And I may speak, if so permitted, yet 
again, though in a different way. It is for 
others to carry the work into effect to de 
liberate, to plan, and to execute. But a 
move should be made at once an earnest, 
a determined move, with the eye of faith 
turned up to God, the heart lifted in the 
fervency of prayer, and the hand put to the 
work without looking back. 
I am, 

Reverend Sir, 

Your very faithful Servant, 
G. J. MONTREAL. 



165 



ADDRESS TO THE BISHOP FROM THE CHRISTIAN 
INDIANS AT THE INDIAN SETTLEMENT. 

To our Chief Praying Father from Mont 
real 

We, the Cree and Ogibwa Indians, Members 
of the Church of England, wish to say a few 
words to our Chief Praying Father. 

We thank you, Father, for having come this 
long way to visit us. Our Praying Father* told 
us that you intended to come two years since ; 
but that you were taken very sick, and could 
not. Our hearts are very glad that you have 
come at last, and we thank God for sending you. 
We shall, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, 
try to do what you tell us. We thank the Eng 
lish people in English country, across the great 
water, for sending us a Praying Father, and for 
paying a Teacher to teach our children. You 
see, Father, that nearly all our young people can 
read the Word of God. We now live very com 
fortably, and we owe all this to the good people 
in English country. If they had not pitied us, 
we should have been still Heathens. We pray 

* Mr. Smithurst. 



166 

every day for our great Mother, The Lady Chief, 
Victoria, and for her relations,* and also for our 
Chief Praying Fathers, f and for our Praying 
Fathers. { 

We hope God will take you safely back to 
your own home ; and we pray Him to bless you 
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Signed, on behalf of the Indians, by me, 

HENRY PRINCE, 

Acting for my Father Pigwys, 

Chief of the Red-River Indians. 



The Royal Family. f The Bishops. 

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