Title: The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America - and Frequent Excursions Among the North-West American - Indians, In the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823.
Author: West, John, 1778-1845
Language: English
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A JOURNAL.

PRINTED BY L. B. SEELEY,
WESTON GREEN, THAMES DITTON.



THE SUBSTANCE OF A JOURNAL

DURING A RESIDENCE AT THE RED RIVER COLONY,

British North America;

AND FREQUENT EXCURSIONS AMONG THE NORTH-WEST AMERICAN INDIANS,

IN THE YEARS 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823.



By

JOHN WEST, M. A.

LATE CHAPLAIN TO THE HON. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.



PRINTED FOR L. B. SEELEY AND SON,
FLEET STREET, LONDON.
MDCCCXXIV.



TO THE

REV. HENRY BUDD, M. A.

CHAPLAIN TO BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL, MINISTER OF BRIDEWELL PRECINCT,
AND RECTOR OF WHITE ROOTHING, ESSEX,

AS A TESTIMONY

OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP,
AND OF HIGH ESTEEM FOR HIS UNWEARIED EXERTIONS IN EVERY
CAUSE OF BENEVOLENCE AND ENLIGHTENED ENDEAVOUR
TO PROMOTE THE BEST INTERESTS OF MAN,

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

BY THE AUTHOR.



Transcriber's Notes:

Variant spellings have been retained.

The Errata have been moved to the beginning of the text.

To improve readability, dashes between entries in the Table of Contents
and in chapter subheadings have been converted to periods.



ERRATA.


Page 1, line 7, _for_ Salteaux, _read_ Saulteaux.
    21, line 6, _for_ 1820, _read_ 1817.
    36, line 2 from bottom, _for_ spiritous, _read_ spirituous.
    57, line 24, _for_ forty, _read_ sixty.
    70, bottom of the page, _for_ Heritics, _read_ Heretics.
   131, line 24, _for_ Loom, _read_ Loon.
   156, line 3, _for_ a, _read_ no.
   180, line 3, _for_ intrepedity, _read_ intrepidity.
   204, line 19, _for_ intention it, _read_ intention of it.



PREFACE.


We live in a day when the most distant parts of the earth are opening
as the sphere of Missionary labours. The state of the heathen world is
becoming better known, and the sympathy of British Christians has been
awakened, in zealous endeavours to evangelize and soothe its sorrows.
In these encouraging signs of the times, the Author is induced to give
the following pages to the public, from having traversed some of the
dreary wilds of North America, and felt deeply interested in the
religious instruction and amelioration of the condition of the natives.
They are wandering, in unnumbered tribes, through vast wildernesses,
where generation after generation have passed away, in gross ignorance
and almost brutal degradation.

Should any information he is enabled to give excite a further Christian
sympathy, and more active benevolence in their behalf, it will truly
rejoice his heart: and his prayer to God, is, that the Aborigines of a
British Territory, may not remain as outcasts from British Missionary
exertions; but may be raised through their instrumentality, to what
they are capable of enjoying, the advantages of civilized and social
life, with the blessings of Christianity.

September, 1824.



CONTENTS.


                                                                PAGE.

CHAPTER I.--Departure from England. Arrival at the Orkney Isles. Enter
Hudson's Straits. Icebergs. Esquimaux. Killing a Polar Bear. York
Factory. Embarked for the Red River Colony. Difficulties of the
Navigation. Lake Winipeg. Muskeggowuck, or Swamp Indians. Pigewis, a
chief of the Chipewyans, or Saulteaux Tribe. Arrival at the Red River.
Colonists. School established. Wolf dogs. Indians visit Fort Douglas.
Design of a Building for Divine Worship                             1

CHAPTER II.--Visit the School. Leave the Forks for Qu'appelle. Arrival
at Brandon House. Indian Corpse staged. Marriages at Company's Posts.
Distribution of the Scriptures. Departure from Brandon House.
Encampment. Arrival at Qu'appelle. Character and Customs of Stone
Indians. Stop at some Hunter's Tents on return to the Colony. Visit
Pembina. Hunting Buffaloes. Indian address. Canadian Voyageurs. Indian
Marriages. Burial Ground. Pemican. Indian Hunter sends his son to be
educated. Mosquitoes. Locusts                                      28

CHAPTER III.--Norway House. Baptisms. Arrival at York Factory. Swiss
Emigrants. Auxiliary Bible Society formed. Boat wrecked. Catholic
Priests. Sioux Indians killed at the Colony. Circulation of the
Scriptures among the Colonists. Scarcity of Provisions. Fishing under
the Ice. Wild Fowl. Meet the Sioux Indians at Pembina. They scalp an
Assiniboine. War dance. Cruelly put to death a Captive Boy. Indian
expression of gratitude for the Education of his Child. Sturgeon   64

CHAPTER IV.--Arrival of Canoe from Montreal. Liberal Provision for
Missionary Establishment. Manitobah Lake. Indian Gardens. Meet Captain
Franklin and Officers of the Arctic Expedition at York Factory. First
Anniversary of the Auxiliary Bible Society. Half-Caste Children. Aurora
Borealis. Conversation with Pigewis. Good Harvest at the Settlement,
and arrival of Cattle from United States. Massacre of Hunters. Produce
of Grain at Colony                                                 94

CHAPTER V.--Climate of Red River. Thermometer. Pigewis's Nephew.
Wolves. Remarks of General Washington. Indian Woman shot by her son.
Sufferings of Indians. Their notions of the Deluge. No visible object
of adoration. Acknowledge a Future Life. Left the Colony for Bas la
Rivière. Lost on Winipeg Lake. Recover the Track, and meet an
intoxicated Indian. Apparent facilities for establishing Schools West
of Rocky Mountains. Russians affording Religious instruction on the
North West Coast of North America. Rumours of War among the surrounding
Tribes with the Sioux Indians                                     110

CHAPTER VI.--Progress of Indian Children in reading. Building for
Divine Worship. Left the Colony. Arrival at York Fort. Departure for
Churchill Factory. Bears. Indian Hieroglyphics. Arrival at Churchill.
Interview with Esquimaux. Return to York Factory. Embark for England.
Moravian Missionaries. Greenland. Arrival in the Thames           150



DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.


1. The engraving of meeting the Indians, to face the title page.

2. Scalping the Indians to face page 85.

3. The Protestant Church, to face page 155.



THE RED RIVER COLONY; AND THE NORTH-WEST-AMERICAN INDIANS.



CHAPTER I.

DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND. ARRIVAL AT THE ORKNEY ISLES. ENTER HUDSON'S
STRAITS. ICEBERGS. ESQUIMAUX. KILLING A POLAR BEAR. YORK FACTORY.
EMBARKED FOR THE RED RIVER COLONY. DIFFICULTIES OF THE NAVIGATION.
LAKE WINIPEG. MUSKEGGOWUCK, OR SWAMP INDIANS. PIGEWIS, A CHIEF OF THE
CHIPPEWAYS OR SALTEAUX TRIBE. ARRIVAL AT THE RED RIVER. COLONISTS.
SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. WOLF-DOGS. INDIANS VISIT FORT DOUGLAS. DESIGN OF
A BUILDING FOR DIVINE WORSHIP.


On the 27th of May, 1820, I embarked at Gravesend, on board the
Honourable Hudson's Bay Company's ship, the Eddystone; accompanied by
the ship, Prince of Wales, and the Luna brig, for Hudson's Bay. In my
appointment as Chaplain to the Company, my instructions were, to reside
at the Red River Settlement, and under the encouragement and aid of the
Church Missionary Society, I was to seek the instruction, and endeavour
to meliorate the condition of the native Indians.

The anchor was weighed early on the following morning, and sailing with
a fine breeze, the sea soon opened to our view. The thought that I was
now leaving all that was dear to me upon earth, to encounter the perils
of the ocean, and the wilderness, sensibly affected me at times; but my
feelings were relieved in the sanguine hope that I was borne on my way
under the guidance of a kind protecting Providence, and that the
circumstances of the country whither I was bound, would soon admit of
my being surrounded with my family. With these sentiments, I saw point
after point sink in the horizon, as we passed the shores of England and
Scotland for the Orkneys.

We bore up for these Isles on the 10th of June, after experiencing
faint and variable winds for several days: and a more dreary scene can
scarcely be imagined than they present to the eye, in general. No tree
or shrub is visible; and all is barren except a few spots of cultivated
ground in the vales, which form a striking contrast with the barren
heath-covered hills that surround them. These cultivated spots mark the
residence of the hardy Orkneyman in a wretched looking habitation with
scarcely any other light, (as I found upon landing on one of the
islands) than from a smoke hole, or from an aperture in the wall,
closed at night with a tuft of grass. The calf and pig were seen as
inmates, while the little furniture that appeared, was either festooned
with strings of dried fish, or crossed with a perch for the fowls to
roost on.

A different scene, however, presented itself, as we anchored the next
day in the commodious harbour of Stromness. The view of the town, with
the surrounding cultivated parts of the country, and the Hoy Hill, is
striking and romantic, and as our stay here was for a few days, I
accepted an invitation to the Manse, from the kind and worthy minister
of Hoy, and ascended with him the hill, of about 1620 feet high.

The sabbath we spent at sea was a delight to me, from the arrangement
made by the captain for the attendance of the passengers and part of
the crew on divine worship, both morning and afternoon. Another sabbath
had now returned, and the weather being fair, all were summoned to
attend on the quarter deck. We commenced the service by singing the Old
Hundredth Psalm, and our voices being heard by the crews of several
ships, lying near to us at anchor, they were seen hurrying on deck from
below, so as to present to us a most interesting and gratifying sight--

    "We stood, and under open sky adored
    The God, that made both 'seas,' air, earth, and heaven."

There appeared to be a solemn impression; and I trust that religion was
felt among us as a divine reality.

JUNE 22.--The ships got under weigh to proceed on our voyage; and as we
passed the rugged and broken rocks of Hoy Head, we were reminded of the
fury of a tempestuous ocean, in forming some of them into detached
pillars, and vast caverns; while they left an impression upon the mind,
of desolation and danger. We had not sailed more than one hundred miles
on the Atlantic before it blew a strong head wind, and several on board
with myself were greatly affected by the motion of the ship. It threw
me into such a state of languor, that I felt as though I could have
willingly yielded to have been cast overboard, and it was nearly a week
before I was relieved from this painful sensation and nausea, peculiar
to sea sickness.

Without any occurrence worthy of notice we arrived in Davis's Straits
on the 19th of July, where Greenland ships are sometimes met with,
returning from the whale fishery, but we saw not a single whaler in
this solitary part of the ocean. The Mallemuk, found in great numbers
off Greenland, and the "Larus crepidatus," or black toed gull,
frequently visited us; and for nearly a whole day, a large shoal of the
"Delphinus deductor," or leading whale, was observed following the
ship. The captain ordered the harpoons and lances to be in readiness in
case we fell in with the great Greenland whale, but nothing was seen of
this monster of the deep.

In approaching Hudson's straits, we first saw one of those beautiful
features in the scenery of the North, an Iceberg, which being driven
with vast masses of ice off Cape Farewell, South Greenland, are soon
destroyed by means of the solar heat, and tempestuous force of the sea.
The thermometer was at 27° on the night of the 22nd, with ice in the
boat; and in the afternoon we saw an iceblink, a beautiful effulgence
or reflection of light over the floating ice, to the extent of forty or
fifty miles. The next day we passed Resolution Island, Lat. 61° 25',
Long. 65° 2' and all was desolate and inhospitable in the view over
black barren rocks, and in the aspect of the shore. This being Sunday,
I preached in the morning, catechized the young people in the
afternoon, and had divine service again in the evening, as was our
custom every sabbath in crossing the Atlantic, when the weather would
permit: and it afforded me much pleasure to witness the sailors at
times in groups reading the life of Newton, or some religious tracts
which I put into their hands. The Scotch I found generally well and
scripturally informed, and several of them joined the young people in
reading to me the New Testatament, and answering the catechetical
questions. In our passage through the Straits, our progress was impeded
by vast fields of ice, and icebergs floating past us in every form of
desolate magnificence. The scene was truly grand and impressive, and
mocks imagination to describe. There is a solemn and an overwhelming
sensation produced in the mind, by these enormous masses of snow and
ice, not to be conveyed in words. They floated by us from one to two
hundred feet above the water, and sometimes of great length, resembling
huge mountains, with deep vallies between, lofty cliffs, and all the
imposing objects in nature, passing in silent grandeur, except at
intervals, when the fall of one was heard, or the crashing of the ice
struck the ear like the noise of distant thunder.

When nearly off Saddle Back, with a light favourable breeze, and about
ten miles from the shore, the Esquimaux who, visit the Straits during
summer, were observed with their one man skin canoes, followed by women
in some of a larger size, paddling towards the ship. No sooner was the
sail shortened than we were surrounded by nearly two hundred of them:
the men raising their paddles as they approached us, shouting with much
exultation, 'chimo! chimo! pillattaa! pillattaa!' expressions probably
of friendship, or trade. They were particularly eager to exchange all
that they apparently possessed, and hastily bartered with the
Eddystone, blubber, whalebone, and seahorse teeth, for axes, saws,
knives, tin kettles, and bits of old iron hoop. The women presented
image toys, made from the bones and teeth of animals, models of canoes,
and various articles of dress, made of seal skins, and the membranes of
the abdomen of the whale, all of which displayed considerable ingenuity
and neatness, and for which they received in exchange, needles, knives,
and beads. It was very clear that European deception had reached them,
from the manner in which they _tenaciously_ held their articles till
they _grasped_ what was offered in barter for them; and immediately
they got the merchandise in possession, they licked it with their
tongues, in satisfaction that it was their own. The tribe appeared to
be well-conditioned in their savage state, and remarkably healthy. Some
of the children, I observed, were eating raw flesh, from the bones of
animals that had been killed, and given them by their mothers, who
appeared to have a strong natural affection for their offspring. I
threw one of them a halfpenny, which she caught; and pointing to the
child she immediately gave it to him with much apparent fondness. It
has been supposed that in holding up their children, as is sometimes
the case, it is for barter, but I should rather conclude that it is for
the purpose of exciting commiseration, and to obtain some European
article for them. A few of the men were permitted to come on board, and
the good humour of the captain invited one to dance with him: he took
the step with much agility and quickness, and imitated every gesture of
his lively partner. The breeze freshening, we soon parted with this
barbarous people, and when at a short distance from the ship, they
assembled in their canoes, each taking hold of the adjoining one, in
apparent consultation, as to what bargains they had made, and what
articles they possessed, till a canoe was observed to break off from
the group, which they all followed for their haunts along the shores of
Terra Neiva, and the Savage Islands. Having a copy of the Esquimaux
Gospels from the British and Foreign Bible Society, it was my wish to
have read part of a chapter to them, with a view to ascertain, if
possible, whether they knew of the Moravian Missionary establishment at
Nain, on the Labrador coast; but such was the haste, bustle, and noise
of their intercourse with us, that I lost the opportunity. Though they
have exchanged articles in barter for many years, it is not known
whether they are from the Labrador shore on a summer excursion for
killing seals, and the whale fishery, or from the East main coast,
where they return and winter.

The highest point of latitude we reached in our course, was 62°
44'--longitude 74° 16', and when off Cape Digges we parted company with
the Prince of Wales, as bound to James's Bay. We stood on direct for
York Factory, and when about fifty miles from Cary Swan's Nest, the
chief mate pointed out to me a polar bear, with her two cubs swimming
towards the ship. He immediately ordered the jolly-boat to be lowered,
and asked me to accompany him in the attempt to kill her. Some axes
were put into the boat, in case the ferocious animal should approach us
in the attack; and the sailors pulled away in the direction she was
swimming. At the first shot, when within about one hundred yards, she
growled tremendously, and immediately made for the boat; but having the
advantage in rowing faster than she could swim, our guns were reloaded
till she was killed, and one of the cubs also accidentally, from
swimming close to the mother; the other got upon the floating carcase,
and was towed to the side of the ship, when a noose was put around its
neck, and it was hauled on board for the captain to take with him
alive, on his return to England.

AUGUST 3.--We fell in with a great deal of floating ice, the weather
was very foggy, and the thermometer at freezing point. The ship
occasionally received some heavy blows, and with difficulty made way
along a vein of water. On the 5th we were completely blocked in with
ice, and nothing was to be seen in every part of the horizon, but one
vast mass, as a barrier to our proceeding. It was a terrific, and
sublime spectacle; and the human mind cannot conceive any thing more
awful, than the destruction of a ship, by the meeting of two enormous
fields of ice, advancing against each other at the rate of several
miles an hour. "It may easily be imagined," says Captain Scoresby,
"that the strongest ship can no more withstand the shock of the contact
of two fields, than a sheet of paper can stop a musket-ball. Numbers of
vessels since the establishment of the Whale Fishery have been thus
destroyed. Some have been thrown upon the ice. Some have had their
hulls completely thrown open, and others have been buried beneath the
heaped fragments of the ice."--

Sunday, the 6th.--Text in the morning 1st book Samuel, 30th chapter,
latter part of the 6th verse. The weather was very variable, with much
thunder and lightening; which was awful and impressive. On the 12th the
thermometer was below freezing point, and the rigging of the ship was
covered with large icicles. Intense fogs often prevailed, but of very
inconsiderable height. They would sometimes obscure the hull of the
ship, when the mast head was seen, and the sun was visible and
effulgent.

In the evening of the 13th, the sailors gave three cheers, as we got
under weigh on the opening of the ice by a strong northerly wind, and
left the vast mass which had jammed us in for many days. The next day
we saw the land, and came to the anchorage at York Flatts the following
morning, with sentiments of gratitude to God for his protecting
Providence through the perils of the ice and of the sea, and for the
little interruption in the duties of my profession from the state of
the weather, during the voyage.

I was kindly received by the Governor at the Factory, the principal
depôt of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the sabbath, every
arrangement was made for the attendance of the Company's servants on
divine worship, both parts of the day. Observing a number of half-breed
children running about, growing up in ignorance and idleness; and being
informed that they were a numerous offspring of Europeans by Indian
women, and found at all the Company's Posts; I drew up a plan, which I
submitted to the Governor, for collecting a certain number of them, to
be maintained, clothed, and educated upon a regularly organized system.
It was transmitted by him to the Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company,
whose benevolent feelings towards this neglected race, had induced them
to send several schoolmasters to the country, fifteen or sixteen years
ago; but who were unhappily diverted from their original purpose, and
became engaged as fur traders.

During my stay at this post, I visited several Indian families, and no
sooner saw them crowded together in their miserable-looking tents, than
I felt a lively interest (as I anticipated) in their behalf. Unlike the
Esquimaux I had seen in Hudson's Straits, with their flat, fat, greasy
faces, these '_Swampy Crees_' presented a way-worn countenance, which
depicted "Suffering without comfort, while they sunk without hope." The
contrast was striking, and forcibly impressed my mind with the idea,
that Indians who knew not the corrupt influence and barter of
spirituous liquors at a Trading Post, were far happier, than the
wretched-looking group around me. The duty devolved upon me, to seek to
meliorate their sad condition, as degraded and emaciated, wandering in
ignorance, and wearing away a short existence in one continued
succession of hardships in procuring food. I was told of difficulties,
and some spoke of impossibilities in the way of teaching them
Christianity or the first rudiments of settled and civilized life; but
with a combination of opposing circumstances, I determined not to be
intimidated, nor to "confer with flesh and blood," but to put my hand
immediately to the plough, in the attempt to break in upon this heathen
wilderness. If little hope could be cherished of the adult Indian in
his wandering and unsettled habits of life, it appeared to me, that a
_wide_ and _most extensive field_, presented itself for cultivation in
the instruction of the native children. With the aid of an interpreter,
I spoke to an Indian, called Withaweecapo, about taking two of his boys
to the Red River Colony with me to educate and maintain. He yielded to
my request; and I shall never forget the affectionate manner in which
he brought the eldest boy in his arms, and placed him in the canoe on
the morning of my departure from York Factory. His two wives, sisters,
accompanied him to the water's edge, and while they stood gazing on us,
as the canoe was paddled from the shore, I considered that I bore a
pledge from the Indian that many more children might be found, if an
establishment were formed in British Christian sympathy, and British
liberality for their education and support.

I had to establish the principle, that the North-American Indian of
these regions would part with his children, to be educated in white
man's knowledge and religion. The above circumstance therefore afforded
us no small encouragement, in embarking for the colony. We overtook the
boats going thither on the 7th of September, slowly proceeding through
a most difficult and laborious navigation. The men were harnessed to a
line, as they walked along the steep declivity of a high bank, dragging
them against a strong current. In many places, as we proceeded, the
water was very shoal, and opposed us with so much force in the rapids,
that the men were frequently obliged to get out, and lift the boats
over the stones; at other times to unload, and launch them over the
rocks, and carry the goods upon their backs, or rather suspended in
slings from their heads, a considerable distance, over some of the
portages. The weather was frequently very cold, with snow and rain; and
our progress was so slow and mortifying, particularly up Hill River,
that the boats' crews were heard to execrate the man who first found
out such a way into the interior.

The blasphemy of the men, in the difficulties they had to encounter,
was truly painful to me. I had hoped better things of the Scotch, from
their known moral and enlightened education; but their horrid imprecations
proved a degeneracy of character in an Indian country. This I lamented
to find was too generally the case with Europeans, particularly so in
their barbarous treatment of women. They do not admit them as their
companions, nor do they allow them to eat at their tables, but degrade
them _merely_ as slaves to their arbitrary inclinations; while the
children grow up wild and uncultivated as the heathen.

The scenery throughout the passage is dull and monotonous (excepting a
few points in some of the small lakes, which are picturesque), till you
reach the Company's post, Norway House; when a fine body of water
bursts upon your view in Lake Winipeg. We found the voyage, from the
Factory to this point, so sombre and dreary, that the sight of a horse
grazing on the bank greatly exhilarated us, in the association of the
idea that we were approaching some human habitation. Our provisions
being short, we recruited our stock at this post; and I obtained
another boy for education, reported to me as the orphan son of a
deceased Indian and a half-caste woman; and taught him the prayer which
the other used morning and evening, and which he soon learned:--"_Great
Father, bless me, through Jesus Christ._" May a gracious God hear
their cry, and raise them up as heralds of his salvation in this truly
benighted and barbarous part of the world.

It often grieved me, in our hurried passage, to see the men employed in
taking the goods over the carrying places, or in rowing, during the
Sabbath. I contemplated the delight with which thousands in England
enjoyed the privileges of this sacred day, and welcomed divine
ordinances. In reading, meditation, and prayer, however, my soul was
not forsaken of God, and I gladly embraced an opportunity of calling
those more immediately around me to join in reading the scriptures, and
in prayer in my tent.

October the 6th. The ground was covered with snow, and the weather most
winterly, when we embarked in our open boats to cross the lake for the
Red River. Its length, from north to south, is about three hundred
miles; and it abounds with sunken rocks, which are very dangerous to
boats sailing in a fresh breeze. It is usual to run along shore, for
the sake of an encampment at night, and of getting into a creek for
shelter, in ease of storms and tempestuous weather. We had run about
half the lake, when the boat, under a press of sail, struck upon one of
these rocks, with so much violence as to threaten our immediate
destruction. The idea of never more seeing my family upon earth, rushed
upon my mind; but the pang of thought was alleviated by the
recollection that life at best was short, and that they would soon meet
me in 'brighter worlds,' whither I expected to be hurried, through the
supposed hasty death of drowning. Providentially however we escaped
being wrecked; and I could not but bless the God of my salvation, for
the anchor of hope afforded me amidst all dangers and difficulties and
possible privations of life.

As I sat at the door of my tent near a fire one evening, an Indian
joined me, and gave me to understand that he knew a little English. He
told me that he was taken prisoner when very young, and subsequently
fell into the hands of an American gentleman, who took him to England,
where he was very much frightened lest the houses should fall upon him.
He further added that he knew a little of Jesus Christ, and hoped that
I would teach him to read, when he came to the Red River, which he
intended to do after he had been on a visit to his relations. He has a
most interesting intelligent countenance, and expressed much delight at
my coming over to his country to teach the Indians. We saw but few of
them in our route along the courses of the river, and on the banks of
the Winipeg. These are called Muskeggouck, or Swamp Indians, and are
considered a distinct tribe, between the Nahathaway or Cree and
Saulteaux. They subsist on fish, and occasionally the moose deer or
elk, with the rein deer or caribou, vast numbers of which, as they swim
the river in spring and in the fall of the year, the Indians spear in
their canoes. In times of extremity they gather moss from the rocks,
that is called by the Canadians 'tripe de roche,' which boils into a
clammy substance, and has something of a nutritious quality. The
general appearance of these Indians is that of wretchedness and want,
and excited in my mind much sympathy towards them. I shook hands with
them, in the hope that ere the rising generation at least had passed
away, the light of Christianity, like the _aurora borealis_ relieving
the gloom of their winter night, would shed around them its heavenly
lustre, and cheer their suffering existence with a scriptural hope of
immortality.

In crossing the Winipeg, we saw almost daily large flocks of wild fowl,
geese, ducks, and swans, flying to the south; which was a sure
indication to us that winter was setting in with severity to the north.
In fact it had already visited us, and inflicted much suffering from
cold; and it was with no small delight that we entered the mouth of Red
River, soon after the sun rose in majestic splendour over the lake, on
the morning of the 13th of October. We proceeded to Netley Creek to
breakfast, where we met Pigewis the chief of a tribe of Saulteaux
Indians, who live principally along the banks of the river. This chief
breakfasted with the party, and shaking hands with me most cordially,
expressed a wish that "more of the stumps and brushwood were cleared
away for my feet, in coming to see his country." On our apprising him
of the Earl of Selkirk's death, he expressed much sorrow, and appeared
to feel deeply the loss which he and the colony had sustained in his
Lordship's decease. He shewed me the following high testimony of his
character, given him by the late Earl when at Red River.

    "The bearer, Pigewis, one of the principal chiefs of the Chipewyans,
    or Saulteaux of Red River, has been a steady friend of the
    settlement ever since its first establishment, and has never
    deserted its cause in its greatest reverses. He has often exerted
    his influence to restore peace; and having rendered most essential
    services to the settlers in their distress, deserves to be treated
    with favour and distinction by the officers of the Hudson's Bay
    Company, and by all the friends of peace and good order."

                        (Signed.)    SELKIRK.

    Fort Douglas, July 17, 1820.

As we proceeded, the banks were covered with oak, elm, ash, poplar, and
maple, and rose gradually higher as we approached the Colony, when the
praries, or open grassy plains, presented to the eye an agreeable
contrast with the almost continued forest of pine we were accustomed to
in the route from York Factory. On the 14th of October we reached the
settlement, consisting of a number of huts widely scattered along the
margin of the river; in vain did I look for a cluster of cottages,
where the hum of a small population at least might be heard as in a
village. I saw but few marks of human industry in the cultivation of
the soil. Almost every inhabitant we passed bore a gun upon his
shoulder and all appeared in a wild and hunter-like state. The
colonists were a compound of individuals of various countries. They
were principally Canadians, and Germans of the Meuron regiment; who
were discharged in Canada at the conclusion of the American war, and
were mostly Catholics. There was a large population of Scotch emigrants
also, who with some retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company were
chiefly Protestants, and by far the most industrious in agricultural
pursuits. There was an unfinished building as a Catholic church, and a
small house adjoining, the residence of the Priest; but no Protestant
manse, church, or school house, which obliged me to take up my abode at
the Colony Fort, (Fort Douglas,) where the 'Chargè d'Affaires' of the
settlement resided; and who kindly afforded the accommodation of a room
for divine worship on the sabbath. My ministry was generally well
attended by the settlers; and soon after my arrival I got a log-house
repaired about three miles below the Fort, among the Scotch population,
where the schoolmaster took up his abode, and began teaching from
twenty to twenty-five of the children.

Nov. the 8th.--The river was frozen over, and the winter set in with
severity. Many were harnessing and trying their dogs in sledges, with a
view to _trip_ to Pembina, a distance of about seventy miles, or to the
Hunters' tents, on the plains, for buffaloe meat. The journey generally
takes them a fortnight, or sometimes more, before they return to the
settlement with provisions; and this rambling and uncertain mode of
obtaining subsistence in their necessity, (the locusts having then
destroyed their crops,) has given the settlers a fondness for
_tripping_, to the neglect of improving their dwellings and their
farms. The dogs used on these occasions, and for travelling in carioles
over the snow, strongly resemble the wolf in size, and frequently in
colour. They have pointed noses, small sharp ears, long bushy tails,
and a savage aspect. They never bark, but set up a fierce growl, and
when numerous about a Fort, their howling is truly melancholy. A doubt
can no longer exist, that the dogs brought to the interior of these
wilds by Europeans, engendered with the wolf, and produced these dogs
in common use. They have no attachment, and destroy all domestic
animals. They are lashed to a sledge, and are often _brutally_
driven to travel thirty or forty miles a day, dragging after them a
load of three and four hundred pounds weight. When fat, they are eaten
by the Canadians as a great delicacy; and are generally presented by
the Indians at their feasts.

Many Indian families came frequently to the Fort, and as is common, I
believe, to all the aborigines were of a copper colour complexion, with
black coarse hair. Whenever they dressed for any particular occasion,
they anointed themselves all over with charcoal and grease, and painted
their eyebrows, lips and forehead, or cheeks, with vermillion. Some had
their noses perforated through the cartilage, in which was fixed part
of a goose quill, or a piece of tin, worn as an ornament, while others
strutted with the skin of a raven ingeniously folded as a head dress,
to present the beak over the forehead, and the tail spreading over the
back of the neck. Their clothing consisted principally of a blanket, a
buffaloe skin, and leggings, with a cap, which hung down their back,
and was fastened to a belt round the waist. _Scoutaywaubo_, or fire
water, (rum) was their principal request; to obtain which they appeared
ready to barter any thing, or every thing they possessed. The children
ran about almost naked, and were treated by their parents with all the
instinctive fondness of animals. They know of no restraint, and as they
grow up into life, they are left at full liberty to be absolute masters
of their own actions. They were very lively, and several of them had
pleasing countenances which indicated a capacity for much intellectual
improvement. Most of their ears were cut in large holes, to which were
suspended various ornaments, but principally those of beads. Their
mothers were in the practice of some disgusting habits towards them
particularly that of devouring the vermin which were engendered from
their dirty heads. They put into their mouths all that they happen to
find, and will sometimes reserve a quantity, and present the choice
collection as a _bonne bouche_ to their husbands.

After a short stay at the settlement, they left us to roam through the
forests, like animals, without any fixed residence, in search of
provisions, till the rivers open in the following spring, when they
return to the Company's Post, and trade with the skins and furs which
they have taken in hunting.

December the 6th. My residence was now removed to the farm belonging to
the late Earl of Selkirk, about three miles from Fort Douglas, and six
from the school. Though more comfortable in my quarters, than at the
Fort, the distance put me to much inconvenience in my professional
duties. We continued, however, to have divine service regularly on the
Sabbath; and having frequently enforced the moral, and social
obligation of marriage upon those who were living with, and had
families by Indian, or half caste women, I had the happiness to perform
the ceremony for several of the most respectable of the settlers, under
the conviction, that _the institution of marriage, and the security
of property, were the fundamental laws of society_. I had also many
baptisms; and with infants, some adult half-breeds were brought to be
baptized. I endeavoured to explain to them simply and faithfully the
nature and object of that Divine ordinance; but found great difficulty
in conveying to their minds any just and true ideas of the Saviour, who
gave the commission, on his ascension into heaven "To go and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost." This difficulty produced in me a strong desire to
extend the blessing of education to them: and from this period it
became a leading object with me, to erect in a central situation, a
substantial building, which should contain apartments for the
school-master, afford accommodation for Indian children, be a
day-school for the children of the settlers, enable us to establish a
Sunday school for the half-caste adult population who would attend, and
fully answer the purpose of a church for the present, till a brighter
prospect arose in the colony, and its inhabitants were more
congregated. I became anxious to see such a building arise as a
Protestant land-mark of Christianity in a vast field of heathenism and
general depravity of manners, and cheerfully gave my hand and my heart
to perfect the work. I expected a willing co-operation from the Scotch
settlers; but was disappointed in my sanguine hopes of their cheerful
and persevering assistance, through their prejudices against the
English Liturgy, and the simple rites of our communion. I visited them
however in their affliction, and performed all ministerial duties as
their Pastor; while my motto, was--Perseverance.



CHAPTER II.

VISIT THE SCHOOL. LEAVE THE FORKS FOR QU'APPELLE. ARRIVAL AT BRANDON
HOUSE. INDIAN CORPSE STAGED. MARRIAGES AT COMPANY'S POST. BAPTISMS.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCRIPTURES. DEPARTURE FROM BRANDON HOUSE.
ENCAMPMENT. ARRIVAL AT QU'APPELLE. CHARACTER AND CUSTOMS OF STONE
INDIANS. STOP AT SOME HUNTERS' TENTS ON RETURN TO THE COLONY. VISIT
PEMBINA. HUNTING BUFFALOES. INDIAN ADDRESS. CANADIAN VOYAGEURS. INDIAN
MARRIAGES. BURIAL GROUND. PEMICAN. INDIAN HUNTER SENDS HIS SON TO BE
EDUCATED. MOSQUITOES. LOCUSTS.


JANUARY 1, 1821.--I went to the school this morning, a distance of
about six miles from my residence, to examine the children, and was
much pleased at the progress which they had already made in reading.
Having addressed them, and prayed for a divine blessing on their
instruction: I distributed to those who could read a little book, as a
reward for their general good conduct in the school. In returning to
the farm, my mind was filled with sentiments of gratitude and love to a
divine Saviour for his providential protection, and gracious favour
towards me during the past year. He has shielded me in the shadow of
his hand through the perils of the sea and of the wilderness from
whence I may derive motives of devotion and activity in my profession.
Thousands are involved in worse than Egyptian darkness around me,
wandering in ignorance and perishing through lack of knowledge. When
will this wide waste howling wilderness blossom as the rose, and the
desert become as a fruitful field! Generations _may_ first pass away;
and the seed of instruction that is now sown, may lie buried, waiting
for the early and the latter rain, yet, the sure word of Prophecy, will
ever animate Christian liberality and exertion, in the bright prospect
of that glorious period, when Christianity shall burst upon the gloomy
scene of heathenism, and dispel every cloud of ignorance and
superstition, till _the very ends of the earth_ shall see the
salvation of the Lord.

As I returned from divine service at the Fort, to the farm, on the 7th,
it rained hard for nearly two hours, which is a very unusual thing
during winter in this northern latitude. We have seldom any rain for
nearly six months, but a continued hard frost the greater part of this
period. The sky is generally clear, and the snow lies about fifteen, or
at the utmost eighteen inches deep. As the climate of a country is not
known by merely measuring its distance from the equator, but is
affected differently in the same parallel of latitude by its locality,
and a variety of circumstances, we find that of Red River, though
situated in the same parallel, far different from, and intensely more
cold than, that of England. The thermometer is frequently at 30° and
40° below zero, when it is only about freezing point in the latter
place. This difference is probably occasioned by the prevailing
north-westerly wind, that blows with piercing keenness over the rocky
mountains, or Andes, which run from north to south through the whole
Continent, and over a country which is buried in ice and snow.

As my instructions were to afford religious instruction and consolation
to the servants in the active employment of the Hudson's Bay Company,
as well as to the Company's retired servants, and other inhabitants of
the settlement, upon such occasions as the nature of the country and
other circumstances would permit; I left the Forks[1] in a cariole
drawn by three dogs, accompanied by a sledge with two dogs, to carry
the luggage and provisions, and two men as drivers, on the 15th of
January, for Brandon House, and Qu'appelle, on the Assiniboine River.
After we had travelled about fifteen miles, we stopped on the edge of a
wood, and _bivouacked_ on the snow for the night. A large fire was
soon kindled, and a supply of wood cut to keep it up; when supper being
prepared and finished, I wrapped myself in my blankets and buffaloe
robe, and laid down with a few twigs under me in place of a bed, with
my feet towards the fire, and slept soundly under the open canopy of
heaven. The next morning we left our encampment before sunrise; and the
country as we passed presented some beautiful points and bluffs of
wood. We started again early the following morning, which was intensely
cold; and I had much difficulty in keeping my face from freezing, on my
way to the encampment rather late in the evening, at the '_Portage de
Prairè_.' In crossing the plain the next morning, with a sharp head
wind, my nose and part of my face were frozen quite hard and white. I
was not conscious of it, till it was perceived by the driver, who
immediately rubbed the parts affected well with snow, and restored the
circulation, so that I suffered no inconvenience from the circumstance,
but was obliged to keep my face covered with a blanket as I lay in the
cariole the remaining part of the day.

      [1] So called from the junction of the Assiniboine River with the
      Red River.

On the 19th we were on the march as early as half past four, and had a
sharp piercing wind in our faces, which drifted the snow, and made the
track very bad for the dogs. This greatly impeded our progress; and our
provisions being short, I shot some ptarmigans, which were frequently
seen on our route. We perceived some traces of the buffaloe, and the
wolf was frequently seen following our track, or crossing in the line
we were travelling. Jan. 20. We started at sunrise, with a very cold
head wind; and my favourite English watch dog, Neptune, left the
encampment, to follow us, with great reluctance. I was apprehensive
that he might turn back, on account of the severity of the morning; and
being obliged to put my head under the blanket in the cariole, I
requested the driver to encourage him along. We had not pursued our
journey however more than an hour, before I was grieved to find that
the piercing keenness of the wind had forced him to return; and the
poor animal was probably soon after devoured by the wolves.

We arrived at Brandon House, the Company's provision post, about three
o'clock; and the next day, being Sunday, the servants were all
assembled for divine worship at eleven o'clock: and we met again in the
evening at six, when I married the officer of the post, and baptized
his two children. On the following morning, I saw an Indian corpse
staged, or put upon a few cross sticks, about ten feet from the ground,
at a short distance from the fort. The property of the dead, which may
consist of a kettle, axe, and a few additional articles, is generally
put into the case, or wrapped in the buffaloe skin with the body, under
the idea that the deceased will want them, or that the spirit of these
articles will accompany the departed spirit in travelling to another
world. And whenever they visit the stage or burying-place, which they
frequently do for years afterwards, they will encircle it, smoke their
pipes, weep bitterly, and, in their sorrow, cut themselves with knives,
or pierce themselves with the points of sharp instruments. I could not
but reflect that theirs is a sorrow without hope: all is _gross
darkness_ with them as to futurity; and they wander through life
without the consolatory and cheering influence of that gospel which has
brought life and immortality to light.

Before I left this post, I married two of the Company's servants, and
baptized ten or twelve children. As their parents could read, I
distributed some Bibles and Testaments, with some Religious Tracts
among them. On the 24th, we set off for Qu'appelle, but not without the
kind attention of the officer, in adding two armed servants to our
party, from the expectation that we might fall in with a tribe of Stone
Indians, who had been threatening him, and had acted in a turbulent
manner at the post a few days before. In the course of the afternoon,
we saw a band of buffaloes, which fled from us with considerable
rapidity. Though an animal apparently of a very unwieldy make, and as
large as a Devonshire ox, they were soon out of our sight in a laboured
canter. In the evening our encampment was surrounded by wolves, which
serenaded us with their melancholy howling throughout the night: and
when I first put my head from under the buffaloe robe in the morning,
our encampment presented a truly wild and striking scene;--the guns
were resting against a tree, and pistols with powder horns were hanging
on its branches; one of the men had just recruited the fire, and was
cooking a small piece of buffaloe meat on the point of a stick, while
the others were lying around it in every direction. Intermingled with
the party were the dogs, lying in holes which they had scratched in the
snow for shelter, but from which they were soon dragged, and harnessed
that we might recommence our journey. We had not proceeded far before
we met one of the Company's servants going to the fort which we had
left, who told us that the Indians we were apprehensive of meeting had
gone from their track considerably to the north of our direction. In
consequence of this information we sent back the two armed servants who
had accompanied us. In the course of the day we saw vast numbers of
buffaloes; some rambling through the plains, while others in sheltered
spots were scraping the snow away with their feet to graze. In the
evening we encamped among some dwarf willows; and some time after we
had kindled the fire, we were considerably alarmed by hearing the
Indians drumming, shouting, and dancing, at a short distance from us in
the woods. We immediately almost extinguished the fire, and lay down
with our guns under our heads, fully expecting that they had seen our
fire, and would visit us in the course of the night. We dreaded this
from the known character of the Stone Indians, they being great
thieves; and it having been represented to us, that they murdered
individuals, or small parties of white people, for plunder; or stripped
them, leaving them to travel to the posts without clothing, in the most
severe weather. We had little sleep, and started before break of day,
without having been observed by them. We stopped to breakfast at the
_Standing Stone_, where the Indians had deposited bits of tobacco,
small pieces of cloth, &c. as a sacrifice, in superstitious expectation
that it would influence their manitou to give them buffaloes and a good
hunt. Jan. 27th. soon after midnight, we were disturbed by the
buffaloes passing close to our encampment: we rose early, and arrived
at Qu'appelle about three o'clock. Nearly about the same time, a large
band of Indians came to the fort from the plains with provisions. Many
of them rode good horses, caparisoned with a saddle or pad of dressed
skin, stuffed with buffaloe wool, from which were suspended wooden
stirrups; and a leathern thong, tied at both ends to the under jaw of
the animal, formed the bridle. When they had delivered their loads,
they paraded the fort with an air of independence. It was not long
however before they became clamorous for spiritous liquors; and the
evening presented such a bacchanalia, including the women and the
children, as I never before witnessed. Drinking made them quarrelsome,
and one of the men became so infuriated, that he would have killed
another with his bow, had not the master of the post immediately rushed
in and taken it from him. The following day, being Sunday, the servants
were all assembled for divine worship, and again in the evening. Before
I left the fort, I married several of the Company's servants, who had
been living with, and had families by, Indian or half-caste women, and
baptized their children. I explained to them the nature and obligations
of marriage and baptism; and distributed among them some Bibles and
Testaments, and Religious Tracts.

With the Indians who were at the Fort, there was one of the Company's
servants who had been with the tribe nearly a year and a half, to learn
their language as an interpreter. They were very partial to him, and
treated him with great kindness and hospitality. He usually lived with
their chief, and upon informing him who I was, and the object for which
I came to the country, he welcomed me by a hearty shake of the hand;
while others came round me, and stroked me on the head, as a fond
father would his favourite boy. On one occasion, when I particularly
noticed one of their children, the boy's father was so affected with
the attention, that with tears he exclaimed, "See! the God takes notice
of my child." Many of these Indians were strong, athletic men, and
generally well-proportioned; their countenances were pleasing, with
aquiline noses, and beautifully white and regular teeth. The buffaloe
supplies them with food, and also with clothing. The skin was the
principal, and almost the only article of dress they wore, and was
wrapped round them, or worn tastefully over the shoulder like the
Highland plaid. The leggins of some of them were fringed with human
hair, taken from the scalps of their enemies; and their moccassins, or
shoes, were neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. They are notorious
horse-stealers, and often make predatory excursions to the Mandan
villages on the banks of the Missouri, to steal them. They sometimes
visit the Red River for this purpose, and have swept off, at times,
nearly the whole of our horses from the settlement. Such indeed is
their propensity for this species of theft, that they have fired upon,
and killed the Company's servants, close to the forts for these useful
animals. They run the buffaloe with them in the summer, and fasten them
to sledges which they drag over the snow when they travel in the
winter; while the dogs carry burdens upon their backs, like packs upon
the pack-horse. It does not appear that chastity is much regarded among
them. They take as many wives as they please, and part with them for a
season, or permit others to cohabit with them in their own lodges for a
time, for a gun, a horse, or some article they may wish to possess.
They are known, however, to kill the woman, or cut off her ears or
nose, if she be unfaithful without their knowledge or permission. All
the lowest and most laborious drudgery is imposed upon her, and she is
not permitted to eat till after her lord has finished his meal, who
amidst the burdensome toil of life, and a desultory and precarious
existence, will only condescend to carry his gun, take care of his
horse, and hunt as want may compel him. During the time the interpreter
was with these Indians the measles prevailed, and carried off great
numbers of them, in different tribes. They often expressed to him a
very low opinion of the white people who introduced this disease
amongst them, and threatened to kill them all, at the same time
observing, that they would not hurt him, but send him home down the
Missouri. When their relations, or children of whom they are
passionately fond, were sick, they were almost constantly addressing
their manitou drumming, and making a great noise; and at the same time
they sprinkled them with water where they complained of pain. And when
the interpreter was sick, they were perpetually wanting to drum and
conjure him well. He spoke to them of that God and Saviour whom white
people adore; but they called him a fool, saying that he never came to
their country, or did any thing for them, "_So vain were they in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened._"

JAN. 30.--We left Qu'appelle to return to the colony, and stopped for
the night at an encampment of Indians, some of whom were engaged as
hunters for the company. They welcomed me with much cordiality to their
wigwams. We smoked the calumet as a token of friendship; and a
plentiful supply of buffaloe tongues was prepared for supper. I slept
in one of their tents, wrapt in a buffaloe robe, before a small fire in
the centre, but the wind drawing under it, I suffered more from cold
than when I slept in an open encampment. As we were starting the next
morning I observed a fine looking little boy standing by the side of
the cariole, and told his father that if he would send him to me at the
Settlement by the first opportunity, I would be as a parent to him,
clothe him, and feed him, and teach him what I knew would be for his
happiness, with the Indian boys I had already under my care. We
proceeded, and after we had travelled about three hours, the whole
scene around us was animated with buffaloes; so numerous, that there
could not be less, I apprehend, than ten thousand, in different bands,
at one time in our view. It took us nearly the whole day to cross the
plain, before we came to any wood for the night. We resumed our journey
at the dawn of the following morning, and after travelling about three
hours we stopped at a small creek to breakfast: as soon as we had
kindled the fire, two Indians made their appearance, and pointing to
the willows, shewed me a buffaloe that they had just shot. They were
very expert in cutting up the animal, and ate some of the fat, I
observed, with a few choice pieces, in a raw state. Soon afterwards I
saw another Indian peeping over an eminence, whose head-dress at first
gave him the appearance of a wolf: and, fearing some treachery, we
hurried our breakfast and started.

FEB. 2.--The night was so intensely cold that I had but little sleep,
and we hurried from our encampment at break of day. The air was filled
with small icy particles; and some snow having fallen the evening
before, one of the men was obliged to walk in snow shoes, to make a
track for the dogs to follow. Our progress was slow, but we persevered,
and arrived at Brandon house about four o'clock. We saw some persons at
this post, who had just come from the Mandan villages: they informed us
of the custom that prevails among these Indians, as with many others,
of presenting females to strangers; the husband his wife or daughter,
and the brother his sister, as a mark of hospitality: and parents are
known to lend their daughters of tender age for a few beads or a little
tobacco! During our stay, a Sunday intervened, when all met for divine
worship in the morning and evening, and I had an opportunity of
baptizing several more children, whose parents had come in from the
hunting grounds, since my arrival at the Post, in my way to Qu'appelle.
On the 5th we left the fort, and returning by the same track that we
came, I searched for traces of my favourite lost dog, but found none.
The next morning I got into the cariole very early, and the rising sun
gradually opened to my view a beautiful and striking scenery. All
nature appeared silently and impressively to proclaim the goodness and
wisdom of God. Day unto day, in the revolutions of that glorious orb,
which shed a flood of light over the impenetrable forests and wild
wastes that surrounded me, uttereth speech. Yet His voice is not heard
among the heathen, nor His name known throughout these vast territories
by Europeans in general, but to swear by.----Oh! for wisdom, truly
Christian faith, integrity and zeal in my labours as a minister, in
this heathen and _moral desert_.

FEB. 9.--The wind drifted the snow this morning like a thick fog, that
at times we could scarcely see twenty yards from the cariole. It did
not stop us however in our way, and I reached the farm about five
o'clock, with grateful thanks to God, for protecting me through a
perilous journey, drawn by dogs over the snow a distance of between
five and six hundred miles among some of the most treacherous tribes of
Indians in this northern wilderness.

MARCH 4.--The weather continues very cold, so as to prevent the women
and the children from attending regularly divine service on the
Sabbath. The sun however is seldom obscured with clouds, but shines
with a sickly face; without softening at all at present, the piercing
north-westerly wind that prevails throughout the winter.

A wish having been expressed to me, that I would attend a general
meeting of the principal settlers at Pembina, I set off in a cariole
for this point of the Settlement, a distance of nearly eighty miles, on
the 12th. We stopped a few hours at the Salt Springs, and then
proceeded on our journey so as to reach Fort Daer the next morning to
breakfast; so expeditiously will the dogs drag the cariole in a good
track, and with a good driver. We met for the purpose of considering
the best means of protection, and of resisting any attack that might be
made by the Sioux Indians, who were reported to have hostile intentions
against this part of the colony, in the Spring. They had frequently
killed the hunters upon the plains; and a war party from the
Mississippi, scalped a boy last summer within a short distance of the
fort where we were assembled; leaving a painted stick upon the mangled
body, as a supposed indication that they would return for slaughter.

The 18th being the Sabbath, I preached to a considerable number of
persons assembled at the Fort. They heard me with great attention; but
I was often depressed in mind, on the general view of character, and at
the spectacle of human depravity and barbarism I was called to witness.
During my stay, I went to some hunter's tents on the plains, and saw
them kill the buffaloe, by crawling on the snow, and pushing their guns
before them, and this for a considerable distance till they got very
near the band. Their approach to the animals was like the appearance of
wolves, which generally hover round them to devour the leg-wearied and
the wounded; and they killed three before the herd fled. But in hunting
the buffaloes for provisions it affords great diversion to pursue them
on horseback. I once accompanied two expert hunters to witness this
mode of killing them. It was in the spring: at this season the bulls
follow the bands of cows in the rear on their return to the south,
whereas in the beginning of the winter, in their migration to the
north, they preceded them and led the way. We fell in with a herd of
about forty, on an extensive prarie. They were covering the retreat of
the cows. As soon as our horses espied them they shewed great spirit,
and became as eager to chase them as I have understood the old English
hunter is to follow the fox-hounds in breaking cover. The buffaloes
were grazing, and did not start till we approached within about half a
mile of them, when they all cantered off in nearly a compact body. We
immediately threw the reins upon the horses' necks, and in a short time
were intermingled with several of them. Pulling up my horse I then
witnessed the interesting sight of the hunters continuing the chase,
till they had separated one of the bulls from the rest, and after
driving it some distance, they gallopped alongside and fired upon the
animal, with the gun resting upon the front of the saddle. Immediately
it was wounded, it gave chase in the most furious manner, and the
horses aware of their danger, turned and cantered away at the same pace
as the buffaloe. While the bull was pursuing them, the men reloaded
their guns, which they do in a most expeditious manner, by pouring the
charge of powder into the palm of their hand half closed, from a horn
hung over the shoulder, and taking a ball from the pouch that is
fastened to their side, and then suddenly breaking out of the line,
they shot the animal through the heart as it came opposite to them. It
was of a very large size, with long shaggy hair on the head and
shoulders, and the head when separated from the carcase was nearly as
much as I could lift from the ground.

The Indians have another mode of pursuing the buffaloes for
subsistence, by driving them into a pound. They make the inclosure of a
circular form with trees felled on the spot, to the extent of one or
two hundred yards in diameter, and raise the entrance with snow, so as
to prevent the retreat of the animals when they have once entered. As
soon as a herd is seen in the horizon coming in the direction of the
pound, a party of Indians arrange themselves singly in two opposite
lines, branching out gradually on each side to a considerable distance,
that the buffaloes may advance between them. In taking their station at
the distance of twenty or thirty yards from each other, they lie down,
while another party manoeuvre on horseback, to get in rear of the
band. Immediately they have succeeded they give chace, and the party in
ambush rising up as the buffaloes come opposite to them, they all
halloo, and shout, and fire their guns, so as to drive them, trampling
upon each other, into the snare, where they are soon slaughtered by the
arrow or the gun.

The buffaloe tongue, when well cured, is of excellent flavour, and is
much esteemed, together with the _bos_, or hump of the animal, that is
formed on the point of the shoulders. The meat is much easier of
digestion than English beef; and many pounds of it are often taken by
the hungry traveller just before he wraps himself in his buffaloe robe
for the night without the least inconvenience.

On my return to the Fort, I had an opportunity of hearing from a chief
of a small tribe of Chipewyans, surrounded by a party of his young men,
a most pathetic account, and a powerful declaration of revenge against
the Sioux Indians, who had tomahawked and scalped his son. Laying his
hand upon his heart as he related the tragical circumstance, he
emphatically exclaimed, 'It is _here_ I am affected, and _feel_ my
loss;' then raising his hand above his head, he said, 'the spirit of my
son cries for vengeance. It must be appeased. His bones lie on the
ground uncovered. We want ammunition: give us powder and ball, and we
will go and revenge his death upon our enemies.' Their public speeches
are full of bold metaphor, energy and pathos. "No Greek or Roman orator
ever spoke perhaps with more strength and sublimity than one of their
chiefs when asked to remove with his tribe to a distance from their
native soil." 'We were born,' said he, 'on this ground, our fathers lie
buried in it, shall we say to the bones of our fathers, arise, and come
with us into a foreign land?'

One of the Indians left his wampum, or belt, at the Fort as a pledge
that he would return and pay the value of an article which was given to
him at his request. They consider this deposit sacred and inviolable,
and as giving a sanction to their words, their promises and their
treaties. They are seldom known to fail in redeeming the pledge; and
they ratify their agreements with each other by a mutual exchange of
the wampum, regarding it with the smoking of tobacco, as the great test
of sincerity.

In conducting their war excursions, they act upon the same principle as
in hunting. They are vigilant in espying out the track of those whom
they pursue, and will follow them over the praries, and through the
forests, till they have discovered where they halt; when they wait with
the greatest patience, under every privation, either lurking in the
grass, or concealing themselves in the bushes, till an opportunity
offers to rush upon their prey, at a time when they are least able to
resist them. These tribes are strangers to open warfare, and laugh at
Europeans as fools for standing out, as they say, in the plains, to be
shot at.

On the 22nd I reached the Farm, and from the expeditious mode of
travelling over the snow, I began to think, as is common among the
Indians, that one hundred miles was little more than a step, or in fact
but a short distance. It often astonished me to see with what an
unwearied pace, the drivers hurry along their dogs in a cariole, or
sledge, day after day in a journey of two and three hundred miles. I
have seen some of the English half-breeds greatly excel in this
respect. Many of the Canadians however are very expert drivers, as they
are excellent _voyageurs_ in the canoe. There is a native gaiety, and
vivacity of character, which impel them forward, and particularly so,
under the individual and encouraging appellation of '_bon homme_.' When
tripping, they are commonly all life, using the whip, or more commonly
a thick stick, barbarously upon their dogs, vociferating as they go
"_Sacres Crapeaux_," "_Sacrée Marne_," "_Saintes Diables_," and
uttering expressions of the most appalling blasphemy. In the rivers,
their canoe songs, as sung to a lively air and chorus with the paddle,
are very cheerful and pleasing. They smoke immediately and almost
incessantly, when the paddle is from their hands; and none exceed them
in skill, in running the rapids, passing the portages with pieces of
eighty and ninety pounds weight upon their backs, and expeditiously
performing a journey of one thousand miles.

APRIL 1.--Last Friday I married several couples, at the Company's Post;
nearly all the English half-breeds were assembled on the occasion, and
so passionately fond are they of dancing, that they continued to dance
almost incessantly from two o'clock on Friday afternoon, till late on
Saturday night. This morning the Colony Fort was nearly thronged with
them to attend divine service; and it was my endeavour to address them,
with plainness, simplicity, and fidelity. There was much attention;
but, I fear, from their talking, principally, their mother tongue, the
Indian language, that they did not comprehend a great deal of my
discourse. This is the case also, with a few of the Scotch Highland
settlers, who speak generally the Gaelic language.

Marriage, I would enforce upon all, who are living with, and have
children by half-caste, or Indian women. The apostolic injunction is
clear and decisive against the too common practice of the country, in
putting them away, after enjoying the morning of their days; or
deserting them to be taken by the Indians with their children, when the
parties, who have cohabited with them, leave the Hudson's Bay Company's
territories.[2] And if a colony is to be organized, and established in
the wilderness, the moral obligation of marriage must be felt. It is
"the _parent_," said Sir William Scott, "not the _child_ of civil
society." Some _form_, or religious rite in marriage is also requisite,
and has generally been observed by enlightened and civilized nations.
It is a civil contract in civil society, but the sanction of religion
should be superadded. The ancients considered it as a religious
ceremony. They consulted their imaginary gods, before the marriage was
solemnized, and implored their assistance by prayers, and sacrifices;
the gall was taken out of the victim, as the seat of anger and malice,
and thrown behind the altar, as hateful to the deities who presided
over the nuptial ceremonies. Marriage, by its original institution[3]
is the nearest of all earthly relations, and as involving each other's
happiness through life, it surely ought to be entered upon by
professing Christians, with religious rites, invoking heaven as a party
to it, while the consent of the individuals is pledged to each other,
ratified and confirmed by a vow.

      [2] 1 Corin. vii. 12.

      [3] Gen. ii. 24.

Incestuous cohabitation is common with the Indians, and in some
instances, they will espouse several sisters at the same time; but so
far from adopting the custom of others in presenting their wives, or
daughters as a mark of hospitality due to a stranger, the Chipewyans or
Saulteaux tribe of Red River, appear very jealous of them towards
Europeans. There is something patriarchal in their manner of first
choosing their wives. When a young man wishes to take a young woman to
live with him; he may perhaps mention his wishes to her, but generally,
he speaks to the father, or those who have authority over her. If his
proposal be accepted, he is admitted into the tent, and lives with the
family, generally a year, bringing in the produce of his hunting for
the general mess. He then separates to a tent of his own, and adds to
the number of wives, according to his success and character as a
hunter. The Indians have been greatly corrupted in their simple and
barbarous manners, by their intercourse with Europeans, many of whom
have borne scarcely any other mark of the Christian character than the
name; and who have not only fallen into the habits of an Indian life,
but have frequently exceeded the savage in their savage customs. When a
female is taken by them, it does not appear that her wishes are at all
consulted, but she is obtained from the lodge as an inmate at the Fort,
for the prime of her days generally, through that irresistible bribe to
Indians, rum. Childbirth, is considered by them, as an event of a
trifling nature; and it is not an uncommon case for a woman to be taken
in labour, step aside from the party she is travelling with, and
overtake them in the evening at their encampment, with a new-born
infant on her back. It has been confidently stated that Indian women
suffer more from parturition with half-breed children than when the
father is an Indian. If this account be true, it can only be in
consequence of their approach to the habits of civilized life, exerting
an injurious influence over their general constitution. When taken to
live with white men, they have larger families, and at the same time
are liable to more disease consequent upon it, than in their wild and
wandering state. They have customs, such as separation for forty days
at the birth of a child, setting apart the female in a separate lodge
at peculiar seasons, and forbidding her to touch any articles in common
use, which bear a strong resemblance to the laws of uncleanness, and
separation commanded to be observed towards Jewish females. These
strongly corroborate the idea, that they are of Asiatic origin;
descended from some of the scattered tribes of the children of Israel:
and through some ancient transmigration, came over by Kamtchatka into
these wild and extensive territories. When they name their children, it
is common for them to make a feast, smoke the calumet, and address the
Master of life, asking him to protect the child, whom they call after
some animal, place, or object in nature, and make him a good hunter.
The Stone Indians add to the request, a good horse-stealer. The women
suckle their children generally, till the one supplants the other, and
it is not an uncommon circumstance to see them of three or four years
old running to take the breast. They have a burial ground at the
Settlement, and usually put the property of the deceased into the grave
with the corpse. If any remains, it is given away from an aversion they
have to use any thing that belonged to their relations who have died.
Some of the graves are very neatly covered over with short sticks and
bark as a kind of canopy, and a few scalps are affixed to poles that
are stuck in the ground at the head of several of them. You see also
occasionally at the grave, a piece of wood on which is either carved or
painted the symbols of the tribe the deceased belonged to, and which
are taken from the different animals of the country.

APRIL 6.--One of the principal settlers informed me this morning, that
an Indian had stabbed one of his wives in a fit of intoxication at an
encampment near his house. I immediately went to the Lodge to inquire
into the circumstance, and found that the poor woman had been stabbed
in wanton cruelty, through the shoulder and the arm, but not mortally.
The Indians were still drunk, and some of them having knives in their
hands, I thought it most prudent to withdraw from their tents, without
offering any assistance. The Indians appear to me to be generally of an
inoffensive and hospitable disposition; but spirituous liquors, like
war, infuriate them with the most revengeful and barbarous feelings.
They are so conscious of this effect of drinking, that they generally
deliver up their guns, bows and arrows, and knives, to the officers,
before they begin to drink at the Company's Post; and when at their
tents, it is the first care of the women to conceal them, during the
season of riot and intoxication.

A considerable quantity of snow fell on the night of the 12th, and the
weather continuing very cold, it is not practicable yet to begin any
operations in farming. Though I see not as yet any striking effects of
my ministry among the settlers, yet, I trust, some little outward
reformation has taken place, in the better observance of the Sabbath.

MAY 2.--The rivers have broken up this spring unusually late, and the
ice is now floating down in large masses. The settlers, who went to
Pembina and the plains, for buffaloe meat in the Fall, are returning
upon rafts, or in canoes formed by hollowing the large trunks of trees:
many of them are as improvident of to-morrow as the Indians, and have
brought with them no dried provisions for the summer. This is not the
case however with the Scotch, who have been provident enough to bring
with them a supply of dried meat and pemican for a future day. The
dried meat is prepared by cutting the flesh of the buffaloe thin, and
hanging it on stages of wood to dry by the fire; and is generally tied
in bundles of fifty or forty pounds weight. It is very rough, and
tasteless, except a strong flavour of the smoke. Pemican is made by
pounding the dried meat, and mixing it with boiled fat, and is then put
into bags made of buffaloe skin, which weigh about eighty and a hundred
pounds each. It is a species of food well adapted to travelling in the
country; but so strongly cemented in the bag, that when it is used, it
is necessary to apply the axe; and very much resembles in appearance
tallow-chandler's grease.

The 10th.--The plains have been on fire to a considerable extent for
several days past, and the awful spectacle is seen this evening,
through the whole of the northern, and western horizon. Idle rumours
prevail that the Sioux Indians will attack the Settlement; which
unhappily unsettle the minds, and interrupt the industry of the
colonists. But none of these things move me, in carrying on my plans,
and making arrangements to erect a substantial building, sixty feet by
twenty. The Red River appears to me, a most desirable spot for a
Missionary establishment, and the formation of schools; from whence
Christianity may arise, and be propagated among the numerous tribes of
the north. The settlers are now actively employed in preparing to sow
the small lots of land which they have cleared: but this season is
short from the great length of the winter.--The 20th being Sunday more
than one hundred of them assembled at the Fort for divine service; and
their children from the school were present for public examination.
They gave general satisfaction in their answers to questions from the
"Chief Truths of the Christian Religion, and Lewis's Catechism."--Text
Proverbs iii. 17.

By the arrival of the boats from Qu'appelle, on the 25th, I received
the little Indian boy, I noticed, when leaving the Hunter's Tents,
during my excursion to that quarter in January last. Soon after my
departure, the father of the boy observed, that "as I had asked for his
son, and stood between the Great Spirit and the Indians, he would send
him to me;" and just before the boats left the Post for the Red River,
he brought the boy, and requested that he might be delivered to my
care. Thus was I encouraged in the idea, that native Indian children
might be collected from the wandering tribes of the north, and educated
in "the knowledge of the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent."

Every additional Indian child I obtained for this purpose, together
with the great inconvenience of having no place appropriated for public
worship, gave a fresh stimulus to exertion in erecting the proposed
building. There was but little willing assistance however, towards this
desirable object; as few possessed any active spirit of public
improvement; and the general habits of the people being those of
lounging and smoking, were but little favourable to voluntary
exertions.

Sturgeon are caught at this period, from sixty to one hundred pounds
weight and more, in great abundance at the Settlement; and also for
about a month in the fall of the year, a little below the rapids
towards the mouth of the river. The oil of this fish is sometimes used
as lamp oil by the settlers; and the sound, when carefully and quickly
dried in the shade, by hanging it upon a line in a good breeze, forms
isinglass, the simple solution of which in water makes a good jelly,
and may be seasoned by the addition of syrup and wine, or of the
expressed juices of any ripe fruit. The roe is often cooked immediately
it is taken from the fish; but, when salted and placed under a
considerable pressure until dry, it forms the very nutritious article
of food named _caviare_. They generally afford us an abundant supply of
provisions for about a month or five weeks; and when they leave the
river, we have usually a good supply of cat fish, weighing about seven
or eight pounds each, and which are taken in greater or less quantities
for the most part of the summer months.

June the 20th. The canoes arrived from Montreal, _via_ Lake Superior,
and brought me the gratifying intelligence, in letters from England,
that my family were all well. It was my intention that they should have
embarked with me in my mission to this country, but circumstances
prevented it; and now that I was surrounded with unexpected
difficulties, situated in the very heart of an Indian territory, most
difficult of access, and without military protection, I deemed it most
advisable that they should defer the voyage, in the hope that another
year might lessen these difficulties, and bring a better arrangement
for the prosperity of the colony. I could undergo privations, and enter
upon any arduous official duties, for the best interests of the natives
and the settlers; but I could not subject Mrs. West (and infant
children) to the known existing trials of the country, whose useful
talents would otherwise have greatly aided me in the formation and
superintendence of schools.

July 2nd. An agreeable change has taken place in the scenery around us;
the trees are breaking into leaves, and many plants are in blossom,
where, but a short time ago, everything bore the aspect of winter. But
this almost sudden and pleasing change has brought an unceasing
torment: night and day we are perpetually persecuted with the
mosquitoes, that swarm around us, and afford no rest but in the
annoying respiration of a smoky room. They hover in clouds about the
domestic cattle, and drive them (almost irritated to madness) to the
smoke of fires lighted with tufts of grass for their relief. The trial
of this ever busy and tormenting insect is inconceivable, but to those
who have endured it. We retire to rest, enveloped in clothes almost to
suffocation, but the musquitoe finds its way under the blankets,
piercing with its envenomed trunk, till we often rise in a fever. Nor
are we relieved from this painful scourge until the return of a slight
frost, in the beginning of September.

20th. The weather is extremely hot, the thermometer more than 90° above
zero. Vegetation is making an astonishingly rapid progress, and the
grain in its luxuriant growth upon a rich soil, presents to the eye the
fairest prospects of a good harvest. But the locust, an insect very
like the large grasshopper, is beginning to make sad ravages, by
destroying the crops, as it has done for the last three years, at the
Settlement. These insects multiply so rapidly, that they soon
overspread the land, or rather the whole country; and had not a wise
Providence limited their existence to a year, they would no doubt (if
permitted to increase) soon destroy the whole vegetative produce of the
world. They seem to devour, not so much from a ravenous appetite, as
from the rage of destroying every vegetable substance that lies in the
way; and their work of destruction is frequently so regular in a field
of corn, as to have the appearance of being cut with a scythe. Where
they are bred, from eggs that are deposited in the earth the autumn
before, they stop during the months of April, May, and June; towards
the latter end of July, they get strong, and have wings, when they rise
together, sometimes so numerous as to form a black cloud, which darkens
the rays of the sun. Their first direction is against the wind, but
afterwards they appear to be driven by its course, and fall, as a
scourge, as they become exhausted by flight. "_The land may be as the
garden of Eden before them, but behind them it is a desolate
wilderness._"



CHAPTER III.

NORWAY HOUSE. BAPTISMS. ARRIVAL AT YORK FACTORY. SWISS EMIGRANTS.
AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY FORMED. BOAT WRECKED. CATHOLIC PRIESTS. SIOUX
INDIANS KILLED AT THE COLONY. CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES AMONG THE
COLONISTS. SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. FISHING UNDER THE ICE. WILD FOWL.
MEET THE INDIANS AT PEMBINA. THEY SCALP AN ASSINIBOINE. WAR DANCE.
CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH A CAPTIVE BOY. INDIAN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE
FOR THE EDUCATION OF HIS CHILD. STURGEON.


The late Earl of Selkirk having suggested that, "In the course of each
summer, it would be proper that the minister should visit the Hudson's
Bay Company's factory at Norway House, and also at York Fort, as a
great number of their servants are assembled at these places, for a few
weeks in summer, and have no other opportunity for any public religious
instruction;" I left the settlement on the first of August, and met, at
Norway House, one of the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a
gentleman of the North West, on their route from Montreal to York Fort,
to make arrangements for the future trade of the country, in consequence
of a coalition between the two Companies. This was a circumstance which
I could not but hail, as highly encouraging in the attempt to better
the condition of the native Indians, and likely to remove many of the
evils that prevailed during the ardour of opposition.

The 12th of August, being Sunday, we had divine service; after which I
baptized between twenty and thirty children, and married two of the
Company's officers. On the 14th, we left this Post, and arrived at York
Factory, the 27th, where we found a considerable number of Swiss
families, who had left their country, as emigrants to the Red River
Colony. They shewed me a prospectus, which had been circulated in the
Swiss Cantons, by a gentleman who had been in Canada, but had never
seen the Settlement; and were anxious in their inquiries whether it was
rising to prosperity. They appeared to me to be a different description
of settlers, from what the colony, in its infancy of improvement, was
prepared to receive; as consisting principally of watchmakers and
mechanics. The hardy husbandman was the character we wanted; who would
work his persevering way through the thickets, clear the surface, and
spread cultivation around us; and not easily repine if a storm overtook
him in the wilderness.

During my stay at the Factory, several marriages and baptisms took
place; and it was no small encouragement to me, in my ministerial
labours, to have the patronage and cordial co-operation of the Director
I had the pleasure of meeting, in establishing an Auxiliary Bible
Society, for "Prince Rupert's Land and the Red River Settlement." It
was formed with great liberality on the part of the Company's officers,
who met on the occasion; and more than one hundred and twenty pounds
were immediately subscribed, in aid of an institution, (the British and
Foreign Bible Society,) which justly challenges the admiration of the
world. Pure in its principle, and simple yet mighty in operation, it is
diffusing blessings through the four quarters of the globe: Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America, are partakers of its bounty; and the tide of
its beneficent liberality is flowing towards all nations, kindreds,
tongues, and complexions of our fellow men, that they may read in their
own tongues the wonderful works of God.

We cheered the Director, with the most cordial feelings of regard, as
he stepped into the boat, on the morning of the 13th of September, to
embark in the Prince of Wales, on his return to England; and immediately
 afterwards, I set off on my return to the Red River. We overtook the
 second division of boats, with the Swiss emigrants, on the 20th,
 slowly proceeding, and greatly harassed with the difficulties of the
 navigation. They informed us, that one of their party was accidentally
 drowned, soon after they left the Factory; and that several of their
 children had died on the passage. We were late on our return to the
 colony, and under considerable apprehensions that the rivers would be
 frozen over before our arrival. We experienced very cold weather the
 beginning of October; and our encampment at night was frequently
 covered with snow. One of the Swiss got his feet dreadfully frozen,
 from the careless neglect of not taking off his shoes and socks to
 dry, before he lay down to rest. In crossing Winipeg Lake, one of the
 boats was wrecked, but providentially no lives were lost. This
 accident, however, detained us in an encampment for six or seven days;
 and having scarcely any other subsistence than a little boiled barley,
 I experienced at times the most pressing hunger. Every one rambled in
 pursuit of game, but generally returned unsuccessful. One evening, a
 servant brought in from his day's hunt a large horned owl, which was
 immediately cooked, and eagerly despatched. The next day, I was
 walking along the shore with my gun, when the waves cast at my feet
a dead jack-fish; I took it up, and felt, from the keenness of my
appetite for animal food, as though I could have immediately devoured
it, notwithstanding it bore the marks of having been dead a considerable
time. At this moment, I heard the croaking of a raven, and placing the
fish upon the bank, as a bait, I shot it from behind a willow, where I
had concealed myself, as it lighted upon the ground; and the success
afforded me a welcome repast at night.

We reached the mouth of the Red River on the 2nd of November, and found
our friend Pigewis, the Indian chief, at his old encampment. He
received us most hospitably, giving us a good supply of dried sturgeon.
Our hungry party put the liberality of the Indians to the test, but it
did not fail; as I believe it seldom does, in their improvidence of
tomorrow. I landed at Fort Douglas on the 4th, and could not but
recount the mercies of God in my safe return. They have followed me
through many a perilous, and trying scene of life; and I would that a
sense of a continual protecting Providence in the mercy of Redemption,
may ever actuate me in whatsoever things may tend to the promotion of
the happiness, and of the _best interests_ of my fellow men, in the
journeyings of my life, through a disordered and distracted world.

No sooner had the Swiss emigrants arrived, than many of the Germans,
who had come to the Settlement a few years ago from Canada, and had
houses, presented themselves 'in search of a wife,' and having fixed
their attachment with acceptance, they received those families, in
which was their choice, into their habitations. Those who had no
daughters to afford this introduction, were obliged to pitch their
tents along the banks of the river, and outside the stockades of the
Fort, till they removed to Pembina in the better prospect of provisions
for the winter. Those of the Germans, who were Catholics, applied to
the Canadian Catholic Priests to solemnize their marriage; but they
refused, because their intended wives were Protestants; and such was
their bigotry in this matter, in refusing to marry a Catholic to a
Protestant, that they expressed an opinion, that a Catholic could not
be present, even as a witness, "_sine culpa_"[4] when I performed the
marriage ceremony, "_inter Catholicos et Hæreticos_."[5]

      [4] Without blame.

      [5] Between Catholics and Heritics.

The locusts which had begun the work of destruction at my leaving the
Colony for York Factory, had completely destroyed the crops; and during
my absence, a party of Sioux Indians, came to Fort Douglas, in
expectation, it was said, of receiving presents from the stores. It was
thought advisable to promise them some goods, on their returning
peaceably to their own country, and they manifested no other than a
peaceable disposition to all parties. The Saulteaux Indians, however,
of Red River, between whom and the Sioux nation, a hostile feeling has
existed from time immemorial, became very irritable; and a small party
of them fired upon a straggling party of the Sioux, in a garden on the
Point below the Colony Fort; they killed two, and wounded a third; and
fled with such precipitation by swimming the river, and running through
the willows, as to escape the vengeance, and almost the view of those
who survived. It is the glory of the North American Indian to steal
upon his enemies like a fox, to attack like a tiger, and flee after the
attack like a bird. The Indians were not seen any more till after the
Sioux had left the settlement, who went away murmuring, that powder and
ball had been given, as they said, at the Fort, to the Saulteaux, to
kill them. In fact they had formed a deep laid scheme to scalp the
person in charge of Fort Douglas, in the absence of the 'Chargè
d'Affaires' of the Colony, and were only prevented carrying it into
execution by one of the party giving information to a person at the
Farm, as to their intentions. They buried those who were shot near the
Stockades of the Fort, and for more than a week after they were gone,
the Saulteaux, in their savage fondness to exhibit the scalp in their
war-dance, and obtain possession of the toes and fingers of the slain,
made several attempts by night to disturb the graves, but were
prevented getting these trophies, by a watch that was kept.

NOVEMBER 11.--The winter is again set in with severity, and I have been
greatly disappointed in not having the building so far finished, as to
have accommodated the schoolmaster with a residence, as well as to have
afforded a place for divine worship before this period. He is now
resident with the Indian boys, at the Post which formerly belonged to
the North West Company: but being so far distant from the body of the
Protestant settlers his number of scholars is not so large as it was,
nor have we so many on the Sabbath, for divine worship as formerly. The
difficulties which we have hitherto met with in obtaining provisions,
and the mode of procuring them, have formed the character of the
Colonists principally into that of hunters and fishermen; so that
labourers are not obtained but at a high remunerating price, or at a
dollar a day each. A circulating medium would no doubt reduce the price
of labour. It has frequently been requested by the settlers, and would
relieve them from many unpleasant circumstances arising from barter and
payment by bills.

I found the Scriptures at some of the Company's Posts I visited, most
of the copies of which had been sent into the country, together with
the Book of Common Prayer, by one of the Directors, who ever expressed
to me a lively interest for its moral improvement: and the liberal
supply which I had received from the British and Foreign Bible Society,
in several different languages, enabled me to circulate many copies of
the Bible among the colonists, in _English_, _Gaelic_, _German_,
_Danish_, _Italian_, and _French_. They were gratefully received by
them in general, and by none more so than the Highlanders, one of whom
on receiving a Gaelic Bible well remarked, "that one word in the heart
was worth more than the whole volume in the pocket neglected." The
Catholic priests, however, opposed this circulation, and one of them
called on a Catholic, to whom I had given a Bible at his own particular
request, and after anathematizing our great reformer, asked him to give
it up. The man refused with this pointed and pertinent question, "From
whence, Sir, do you get your knowledge of religion?" In this refusal,
he acted upon the enlightened principle, that we derive all true
sentiments in religious subjects from the Bible, and the Bible alone;
and that the exercise of private judgment in the possession of the
Bible, was the birth-right privilege of every man. Therein is contained
the great charter of salvation, and the awful code of divine
communication to the human race. "A Bible then to every man in the
world," is the sentiment we would encourage, in opposition to such a
priestly objection, that is contrary to the liberal conduct of more
enlightened Catholics, and manifestly opposed to scriptural examples,
and the divine command of the Founder of Christianity himself. The
Eunuch was _reading the scriptures_, searching for, and inquiring after
divine truth, when Philip received a commission from heaven to "join
himself to his chariot." The Saviour gave an authoritative command to
the Jews to "_search the scriptures_," and it is recorded of Timothy
that "_from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures_." They are the
means of affording that instruction which man's wisdom cannot teach,
while they bear every mark of a divine revelation, in a manner worthy
of God, and plain to the meanest capacity.

I had given a French Testament to one of the Canadians, whom I married
to a Swiss Protestant, which excited the farther active prejudice of
the Catholic priest. He called on him, and requested that he might have
it, but the Canadian objected, saying, that as his wife was a
Protestant, she wished to read it. He then asked to borrow it,
promising to return the Testament in a few days, and took it home with
him. I had written on the inside of the cover--

    The man's name.
    From the British and Foreign Bible Society.
    "Sondez les Ecritures." St. Jean, v. 39.

A short time after it was returned, the Canadian shewed me the remarks
which the priest had written, and gave me the Testament, at my request,
in exchange for a Bible.

Over the above text, the Catholic priest wrote, "Lisez avee soin les
Ecritures, mais ne les explicuez point d'apres vos lumieres," and
immediately following my name, which I had put at the bottom of the
cover: "Si _quelquun_ nécoute pas l'Eglise regardez le comme un Paién,
et un Publicain." Matth. xviii. 17; adding the following observations:
"Dans ce livre, on ne dit pas un mot de la penitence qui afflige le
corps. Cependant il est de foi qu'elle est absolument necessaire au
salut aprés le péché, c'est a l'Eglise de J. C. qu'il appartient de
determiner le sens des Ecritures."

The prejudices which the Canadian priests at the Colony express against
Catholics marrying Protestants must tend to weaken the religious and
moral obligation of the marriage contract, as entered into between
them. I have known the priests refuse to marry the parties of the above
different persuasions, at the time that they were co-habiting together,
as though it were better for them to live in fornication, than that
they should violate the rigid statutes of the Papal see.

I married a couple a short time ago, and afterwards found that the
priest had been unwearied in calling upon the woman who was a professed
Protestant, and never ceased to repeat to her their opinions of
heretics, till, with the persuasion of her husband, they prevailed upon
her to be re-baptized, and re-married by them in the _nominal_
profession of the Catholic faith. And I was assured by a Swiss
gentleman at the Settlement, who had married a Catholic from Montreal,
that some months after their marriage, one of the priests called upon
his wife, and told her that it would have been better for her to have
married a heathen, than a Protestant. A heathen, he said, might be
converted to the Catholic faith, and be saved, but little hope could be
entertained of a Protestant. These circumstances prove that Popery, as
it now exists, at least in this quarter of the globe, is not contrary
to what it was in the days of the Reformation.

Christmas is again returned, and appears to be generally known amongst
us, as in Europe, only as a season of intoxication. Will not the very
heathen rise up in judgment, at the last day, and condemn such a gross
perversion of the supposed period of the Redeemer's birth; the
knowledge of whose name, they have hitherto been unacquainted with. We
had divine service at the Fort:--text, Luke ii. 8-11. The Indian boys
repeated some hymns, and joined in the singing Hallelujah! to the
"Emmanuel, which being interpreted, is, God with us." I meet with many
discouraging circumstances in my ministerial labours; but my path is
sometimes cheered with the pleasing hope, that they are not altogether
in vain; and that the light of Christianity will break in upon the
heathen darkness that surrounds me. _The promises of God are
sure_; and when cast down, I am not disheartened.

JANUARY 1, 1822.--Oh thou God of mercy, as thou hast brought me
hitherto, be pleased to support and direct me in the wilderness; order
my footsteps, and make my path acceptable to thyself--"Hoping all
things, may I endure all things," in the desire of usefulness, as I
proceed in the journey of life, and be endued with a Spirit of Love,
and of a sound mind, as year after year revolves over my head.

The 16th. We are suffering great privations at the Settlement. Very
little buffaloe meat has been obtained from the plains, and our
principal subsistence is from grain boiled into soup. Few have either
pepper, salt, flour, or vegetables. One of the Swiss was lately frozen
to death on the plains; and a Meuron settler returning to the colony
with a horse sledge of provisions perished also from the severity of
the winter.

FEB. 14.--Times do not yet wear a more favourable aspect, and most of
the settlers are upon an allowance of a pint of wheat each a day.
Sometimes a few fish are taken with nets, from under the ice, which are
put down by making holes at the distance of about fifteen or twenty
feet from each other, and affixing the net line to a pole of this
length, by which the net is drawn in the water from one opening to the
other, till it is easily set. The fish that are caught, are pike,
perch, and a species of herring, called gold-eyes, and for which an
exorbitant price is frequently paid. The northern Indians angle for
fish in winter, by cutting round holes in the ice about a foot or two
in diameter, and letting down a baited hook. This is always kept in
motion to prevent the water from freezing, and to attract the fish to
the spot. Immediately they take a fish, they scoop out the eyes and
swallow them, thinking them as great a delicacy as the European does
the oyster.

My professional duties calling me to Pembina, I left the Farm in a
cariole on the 20th, and was sorry to find on my arrival many Swiss
families suffering from the want of a regular supply of provisions from
the plains. This was occasioned in a great measure from the
irregularity and eagerness with which the hunters pursued the buffaloes
immediately they made their appearance. Had they suffered some of the
leading bands to have passed in the direction they were going towards
the Settlement, instead of pursuing and turning them as soon as they
were seen in the horizon, others would probably have followed, and
plenty of provisions had been obtained. But the fugitive supplies of
the chase are generally a poor dependance; and the colony will be
greatly encouraged should the domestic cattle that have been purchased
arrive from the United States. The difficulties which the Swiss
emigrants have had to encounter, and the severity of the climate have
disheartened many of them from settling in the country, and they have
determined on going to a settlement on the Ohio in the Spring. They
attended divine service on the Sabbath during my stay, and expressed
much gratitude for my reading to them the French Testament and the
ministerial duties I performed among them.

I returned to the Farm, where a report reached me, which was in
circulation, upon strong grounds of suspicion, that a most deliberate
and barbarous murder had been committed by one of the half-breeds on a
Canadian freeman. He was supposed to have been instigated to the bloody
deed by a woman he lived with, and whom he received from the Canadian
for so many buffaloes as provision. Evidence however was wanting, it
was thought, that would justify his being sent down to Montreal, or to
England for trial, to convict him there; as there was no criminal
jurisdiction established within the territories of the Hudson's Bay
Company.

MARCH 25.--The thaw has come on unexpectedly early, and caused many of
the hunters to return from the plains with scarcely any provisions.
There were a few tame buffaloes that had been reared in the colony,
which have been slaughtered, and to save as much seed corn as possible,
the allowance of grain is given out to the settlers with the most rigid
economy by the Chargè d'Affaires. There was a general shout to day in
the Settlement at the sight of some swans and geese, as the sure
harbingers of Spring, and of immense flocks of wild fowl, that bend
their course in the Spring to the north, as in the fall of the year
they fly to the south. It was indeed a cheerful sight, as nearly all
the feathered tribe leave us during a long and severe winter. In this
season, we hear only, and that but very seldom the croaking of the
raven, the chattering of the magpie, or the tapping of the woodpecker.
But as summer bursts upon us, the call of the whip-poor-will is heard
in the dusk of the evening, and the solitude of the woods is enlivened
with a rich variety of birds, some of which dazzle the eye with the
beauty of their colours. They have no notes however in their gay
plumage, or melody of sound, which catch, and delight the ear. The wild
fowl are mere birds of passage at the Red River, and but few were shot,
as they passed over the colony, for our relief, in the want of
provisions. Our numbers increased almost daily, from the return of the
settlers from the plains, and it was the general opinion that it would
be far better to kill all the horses and dogs in the Settlement for
food, than distribute the whole of the grain, so as to be without seed
corn.

APRIL 5.--One of the chief officers of the Hudson's Bay Company
arrived, and gave us the welcome promise, (before we were actually
driven to the above extremity,) that the Colony should receive some
wheat to sow from the Company's Post at _Bas la Rivière_, on Lake
Winepeg, where there is a good farm, and the crops had escaped the
ravages of the locusts. When cheered by this prospect, the information
reached us, that a party of Sioux Indians were on their way to the
Settlement. As their intentions in visiting us were not known, and
being apprehensive that more blood would be shed by the Saulteaux if
they came down to Fort Douglas, it was resolved that two boats should
be manned to prevent if possible their proceeding any farther than
Pembina. It was far better to present an imposing force to them on the
borders of the colony, than to suffer them to come down amongst us,
where we should have been completely in their power, in our scattered
habitations. At the request of the chief officer I accompanied the
boats, and set off with him for the Company's Post at Pembina, about
the middle of May. We arrived on the Friday, and soon after divine
service on the Sunday morning the Sioux Indians were seen marching over
the plains, with several colours flying, towards the Colony Fort, which
was immediately opposite to that of the Company. When at the distance
of about five hundred yards from us, they halted, and a Saulteaux
Indian who happened to be at Pembina, immediately stripped himself
naked, and rushed towards them as a proof of his courage. They received
him with a cold reserve, while some of them pointed their guns close to
his body. He then mingled with the party, and we conducted them to the
Colony Fort, as is customary when Indians are supposed to visit with
peaceable and friendly intentions.

As soon as they had entered the Fort they placed two sentinels at the
gate, one with a bow and arrows, and the other with a gun. There was
something like military discipline among them, which they had probably
learned during the late American war, in which they were engaged by the
English; many of them were of a remarkably fine stature, and
well-proportioned, but more formed for agility than strength. Their
countenances were stamped with a fierce and barbarous expression, and
being all armed with either long knives, tomahawks, guns, or bows, they
soon encircled and formed a guard for the Chief of their party. After a
short time, they became very restless, and searched every corner and
outhouse of the Fort, under the suspicion that some treacherous attack
might be made upon them. A few of them then crossed over to the
Company's Post, and no idea was entertained but that they would conduct
themselves peaceably. Liquor was given them at both posts; and as I was
standing within the stockades of that of the Company, at eight o'clock
in the evening, a Chief of the party named Wanatou, came in apparently
intoxicated, and snatching a gun from an Indian who stood near him, he
fired it with ball in a manner that indicated some evil design. Leaving
the Fort he wrestled with another for his gun which he fired in the
air, and went immediately to the other post, where it was supposed they
had taken up their quarters for the night. A guard being mounted, we
retired to rest, but were disturbed about eleven o'clock with the cry,
that the Sioux Indians had shot and scalped an Assiniboine, who with
two others had travelled a considerable distance to smoke the calumet
with them at Pembina. The bloody and unsuspected deed was committed by
Wanatou, whose intention was to have killed the other two had they not
immediately fled, because some one, or a party of their nation had
stolen a horse from him about a year before. As soon as the scalp was
taken they all started for the plains with this notorious Chief, who
had shed the blood of ten or twelve Indians and Americans before; and
who bore the marks of having been several times pierced with balls by
his enemies. It was formerly the custom to cut off the heads of those
whom they slew in war, and to carry them away as trophies; but these
were found cumbersome in the hasty retreat which they always make as
soon as they have killed their enemy; they are now satisfied with only
tearing off the scalp. This is usually taken from the crown of the
head, of a small circular size; sometimes however they take the whole
integuments of the skull, with which they ornament their war jackets
and leggins, or twist into a brush for the purpose of keeping off the
mosquitoes. The scalp is their glory and triumph, and is often carried
by women stretched upon a stick, and hung with various articles so as
to make a jingle to men when they perform the war-dance.

This is very animated and striking, as they generally dance completely
armed, and with gestures to represent their mode of going to war, their
attack upon their enemy, the scalping of those who are slain, and their
triumphant return as conquerors. They go through these evolutions in
such a wild and savage manner as frequently to excite the fears of the
European, who witnesses the war dance, lest it should terminate, in a
bloody conflict, and the death of most of the party.

We returned to the Forks, after having seen a party of half-breeds set
off with their horses and carts for buffaloe meat, in the same
direction the Sioux Indians were gone. They were advised not to follow
their track so immediately; but the want of provisions led them to
neglect this advice; and in about a fortnight afterwards we were
informed, that they had been fired upon in their encampment in the dawn
of the morning (the time when Indians generally make their attack) that
two of them were killed, a third mortally wounded, and that all their
horses were stolen. It was strongly suspected though never ascertained
as a fact, that this savage deed was committed by the Indians who had
so recently left Pembina; as well as the scalping of one of the
Company's servants who was killed a short time afterwards within a mile
of the Fort.

The Sioux are a great nation, spread over a vast tract of country,
between the Missisippi and Pembina; along the banks of the Missouri,
and towards the Saskashawan. They are divided into numerous tribes,
called Sisatoones, Yanktoons, Wapatoones, and others, with the
Assiniboines or Stone Indians, who are recognized as descendents or
seceders, by a similarity of language and customs. On the banks of the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers they have small villages, where they
grow Indian corn, pumpkins, and water melons; but they live principally
on the plains in the chase of the buffaloe. Their language is very
guttural and difficult, and superstitious ceremonies and customs
prevail amongst them which are similar to those observed by the
Tartars. The Sioux, like the Tartars, sometimes offer water as a symbol
of peace and safety to a stranger, or of pardon to an offender, which
strongly corroborates the idea that they were originally from Asia.
Some time ago I was informed by an officer, who had numbers of them
under his influence in the American war, that a Sioux Indian was doomed
to die for an offence which he had committed, and taking his station
before the tribe, and drawing his blanket over his face, in expectation
of the fatal shot, the Chief stepped forward and presented some water
to him, as a token of pardon, when he was permitted again to join the
party. They consider it also as a very bad omen in common with the
Tartars, to cut a stick that has been burnt by fire, and with them they
consign every thing to destruction, though it be their canoe, as
polluted, if it be sprinkled with the water of animals. And it is a
remarkable fact, that the laws of separation and uncleanness, being
forty days for a male child and eighty for a female, observed by these
Indians, exactly correspond with the Levitical law imposed upon the
Jews in the birth of their children.

They are truly barbarous, like the Indians in general, towards their
captive enemies. The following circumstance, as related to me by an
Indian woman, whom I married to one of the principal settlers, and who
was a near relation of one of the women who was tomahawked by a war
party of Sioux Indians, some time ago, is calculated to fill the mind
with horror. They fell upon four lodges belonging to the Saulteaux, who
had encamped near _Fond du Lac_, Lake Superior, and which contained the
wives and children of about twelve men, who were at that time absent a
hunting; and immediately killed and scalped the whole party, except one
woman and two or three of the children. With the most wanton and savage
cruelty, they proceeded to put one of these little ones to death, by
first turning him for a short time close before a fire, when they cut
off one of his arms, and told him to run; and afterwards cruelly
tortured him, with the other children, till he died.

It is almost incredible the torture to which they will sometimes put
their prisoners; and the adult captives will endure it without a tear
or a groan. In spite of all their sufferings, which the love of cruelty
and revenge can invent and inflict upon them, they continue to chaunt
their death song with a firm voice; considering that to die like a man,
courting pain rather than flinching from it, is the noblest triumph of
the warrior. In going to war, some time ago, a Sioux chief cut a piece
of flesh from his thigh, and holding it up with a view to animate and
encourage the party who were to accompany him to the ferocious
conflict, told them to see how little he regarded pain, and that,
despising torture and the scalping knife and tomahawk of their enemies,
they should rush upon them, and pursue them till they were
exterminated; and thereby console the spirits of the dead whom they had
slain.

It does not appear that cannibalism is practised by any of the North
American Indians; on the contrary, the eating of human flesh is held in
great abhorrence by them: and when they are driven to eat it, through
dire necessity, they are generally shunned by other Indians who know
it, and who often take their lives secretly. It is not an uncommon
practice, however, for them to cut flesh from their captives, and, when
cooked to eat small bits of it, as well as to give some to their
children, with a little of their blood, no doubt under the idea that it
will give them courage, and a spirit of hatred and revenge against
their enemies. What can calm these ferocious feelings, and curb this
savage fury of the passions in the torturous destruction of defenceless
women and sucking infants? what, but the introduction and influence of
Christianity, the best civilizer of the wandering natives of these
dreary wilds, and the most probable means of fixing them in the pursuit
of agriculture, and of those social advantages and privileges to which
they are at present strangers.

MAY 24.--By the arrival of the boats from Qu'appelle, I received
another little Indian boy for admission into the school; and felt
encouraged in the persuasion, that should we extend our travels among
the Indians, and make known to them our simple object in visiting them
as Missionaries, many probably among the different tribes who traded at
the Company's Posts, would be gradually led to give up their children
for education. I had now several under my care, who could converse
pretty freely in English, and were beginning to read tolerably well,
repeating the Lord's prayer correctly. The _primary_ object in teaching
them, was to give them a _religious_ education; but the use of the bow
was not to be forgotten, and they were hereafter to be engaged in
hunting, as opportunities and circumstances might allow. As agriculture
was an important branch in the system of instruction, I had given them
some small portions of ground to cultivate; and I never saw European
schoolboys more delighted than they were, in hoeing and planting their
separate gardens. Nor were the parents of these boys insensible to the
care and kindness that were shewn to them. I was told by one of the
Company's officers, that before he left Qu'appelle for the colony, he
saw the father of the boy I had received from the Indian tents, after
my visit to that quarter, and asked him to part with a fine horse that
he was riding, which he refused to do, saying that he kept it for the
"Black Robe," a name by which they distinguished me from the Catholic
priests, whom they call the "Long Robe," for taking care of his boy. He
repeated his application for the horse, with the tempting offer of some
rum; but the Indian was firm in his intention of keeping it, as a
present for kindness shewn to his child. This was gratitude; and I left
directions, in my absence from the Settlement, that should he bring it
down, he should be treated with all possible kindness; and amply repaid
with blankets, or any useful European articles that he might want and
which could be procured, in return for the gift of his horse.

It was now hinted to me, that the interest I was taking in the
education of the native children, had already excited the fears of some
of the chief factors and traders, as to the extent to which it might be
carried. Though a few conversed liberally with me on the subject, there
were others who were apprehensive that the extension of knowledge among
the natives, and the locating them in agricultural pursuits, where
practicable, would operate as an injury to the fur trade. My reply on
the contrary was, that if Christian knowledge were gradually diffused
among the natives throughout the vast territory of the Hudson's Bay
Company, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the North Pacific,
it would best promote the honour and advantages of all parties
concerned in the fur trade, and which I was persuaded was the general
enlightened opinion of the Directors in London.

The 28th. The Settlers have been busily employed of late in getting in
their seed corn, and much more has been sown than was expected a short
time ago, from the prudent management of the grain, by the Chargè
d'Affaires of the Colony, in the dearth of provisions; and from the
supply which we have received from _Bas la Rivière_. The sturgeon
season also has been very successful, which has in some measure
brightened the countenances of a people, who have passed a long and
severe winter, without "_the sound of the mill stones, and the light
of the candle_."



CHAPTER IV.

ARRIVAL OF CANOE FROM MONTREAL. LIBERAL PROVISION FOR MISSIONARY
ESTABLISHMENT. MANITOBAH LAKE. INDIAN GARDENS. MEET CAPTAIN FRANKLIN
AND OFFICERS OF THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION, AT YORK FACTORY. FIRST
ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY. HALF-CASTE CHILDREN. AURORA
BOREALIS. CONVERSATION WITH PIGEWIS. GOOD HARVEST AT THE SETTLEMENT,
AND ARRIVAL OF CATTLE FROM UNITED STATES MASSACRE OF HUNTERS. PRODUCE
OF GRAIN AT THE COLONY.


On the 20th of June, the light canoe arrived from Montreal, which
brought me letters from England; and no one ever received news from a
far country, which gladdened the heart more than these letters did
mine. My family were all well; and a liberal provision had been made,
for a Missionary establishment at the Red River, for the maintenance
and education of native Indian children, by the Church Missionary
Society. In conveying this information to me, an active friend to the
communication of Christianity to the Indians, observes, "I hope a
foundation is now laid to extend the blessings of Christianity,
religion, morals, and education, wherever the representative of the
Company may set his foot." God grant that if may! and that the Light
which first sprang up in Judea, may break forth upon every part of
these vast territories, dissipate the present darkness of the natives,
and lead them to the enjoyment of "_the fulness of the blessings of
the gospel of Christ_."

All, all, is encouraging to proceed: yet I will not conceal my fears,
that expectations may be raised too high, as to the progress that may
be made in that vast field of labour which presents itself.--"There are
a great many willows to cut down, and roots to remove," as an Indian
chief said to me, when he welcomed me to the country, "before the path
will be clear to walk in." The axe, however, is laid to the root of the
tree, in the establishment of schools, as the means of instruction and
of diffusing Christian knowledge in this moral wilderness; and we may
anticipate the hope that numbers will arise to enjoy what they are
capable of feeling, the endearments of social life, as well as of moral
and religious education.

Soon after the express canoe arrived, a Director of the Hudson's Bay
Company and an executor of the late Earl of Selkirk, came to the
Settlement, via Montreal. I accompanied him to Pembina; and he acted
upon the opinion, that the inhabitants of this distant and extreme
point of the colony, who were principally hunters, were living too near
the supposed line of demarcation, between the British territories and
the United States; and that it would be far better for them to remove
down to the Forks; where, if the industry of the colonists was more
concentrated, it would tend more to their protection and prosperity.
Many promised to comply with this suggestion. On our return, I took the
opportunity of opening, with divine service, the building (though it
was not finished) which was intended as a school-house, and a temporary
place for divine worship; and, at the same time, baptized two of the
boys who had been under my charge, one as James Hope, and the other as
Henry Budd; they being able to read the New Testament, repeat the
Church Catechism, and to understand the chief truths of the Christian
Religion.

JULY 18.--We have the satisfaction of seeing the new sown grain promise
well for a crop; and great hopes are entertained that it will this year
escape the ravages of the locusts. Under this sanguine expectation, I
left the colony, with the Director, on the 22d, on my annual visit to
York Factory, taking the route of Manitobah Lake. As we passed this
fine and extensive sheet of water, we saw occasionally some beautiful
points, or bluffs of wood and the most striking and romantic scenery
that can be presented to the eye. The waters abound with fish; and the
alluvial soil of some parts, near the banks of the lake, promises every
encouragement to the active industry of the agriculturist. A tribe of
Indians, who traverse this part of the country, have gardens, in which
they grow potatoes and pumpkins; and were encouragement given them, by
the presence and superintendence of a Missionary, in the cultivation of
the soil, and the assistance of a plough and seed corn, afforded them
from the Colony, with the view to establish them in a village, there is
little doubt, that they would gradually, or indeed soon, become so far
civilized, as to promote the formation of a school among them for the
education of their children. We proceeded on our way, through the
Dauphin River, into Lake Winipeg, and arrived at Norway House, in about
a week after we left the Settlement.

When within about fifty miles of York Fort, two Indians paddled their
canoe to the side of the boat, and requested that I would take a little
boy, who was with them, under my charge. This I consented to do, if
they would bring him to me on my return to the Colony; and I threw him
a blanket, as he was almost naked, and suffering apparently from cold.
In landing at the Factory, I had the pleasure of meeting Captain
Franklin, and the gentlemen of the Northern Land Expedition, recently
returned from their arduous journey to the mouth of the Coppermine
River, and waiting for the return of the Company's ship to England. An
Esquimaux Indian, who accompanied the expedition as one of the guides,
named Augustus, and who survived the supposed fate of his companion,
Junius,[6] often came to my room, and interested me with his
conversation in English, which was tolerably well understood by him,
from the instructions he had received during his travels. He belongs to
a tribe that annually visits Churchill Factory, from the northward; and
often assures me, that "Esquimaux want white man to come and teach
them;" and tells me, that they would "make snow house, good, properly,
for him in winter; and bring plenty of musk oxen and deer for him to
eat." Captain Franklin expressed much interest for this harmless race
of Indians: and having spoken to the Governor of this northern
district, I have resolved upon visiting Churchill, next July, in the
hope of meeting the tribe on their visit to that Factory, and to obtain
information, as to the practicability of sending a schoolmaster amongst
them, or forming a school for the education of their children.

      [6] See Captain Franklin's Journey to the Coppermine River, Vol.
      II. p. 270, second edition.

During my stay at the Factory, we held the first anniversary meeting of
the Auxiliary Bible Society, and were warmly assisted by Captain
Franklin and the gentlemen of the expedition. It appeared that the
amount of donations and annual subscriptions for the past year, i.e.
from Sept. 2nd, 1821, when the Society was first formed, to Sept. 2nd,
1822, was 200_l._ 0_s._ 6_d._ the whole of which sum was remitted to
the parent institution in London; and the very encouraging sum of sixty
pounds was subscribed at the meeting, towards the collection for the
second year.

There were but few persons who came out by the ship for the Colony this
year, as the succession of difficulties we had met with, had lessened
the encouragement to emigrate to this quarter. Among those who came,
however, was a young woman, as the intended wife of the schoolmaster,
who was appointed by the Church Missionary Society, to assist in
teaching at the Mission Establishment at Red River. I obtained a little
boy and girl from an Indian tent at the Factory, to accompany her, in
addition to those who were already there. The features of the boy bore
a strong resemblance to those of the Esquimaux: but there was a shade
of difference between the little girl, and Indians of entire blood,
which was particularly seen in the colour of her hair. It was not of
that jet black, which is common with the Indians in general, and which
is the case with many of the children belonging to the tribes, or
individual families who visit, or are much about the different
Factories. I often met with half-caste children, whose parents had died
or deserted them; who are growing up with numbers at the different
posts in great depravity. Should their education be neglected, as it
has hitherto been, and should they be led to "_find their grounds_,"
with the Indians, it cannot be a matter of surprise, if at any time
hereafter they should collectively or in parties, threaten the peace of
the country, and the safety of the trading Posts.

SEPT. 4.--The Indians who brought the boy in the canoe to the boat on
my way to the Factory met me on my return, and he is taking his passage
with the other two children to the Settlement. Though I have now made
the voyage several times from York Fort to the Colony, I do not find
that the labour and difficulty of the way are at all relieved. Some
parts of the tracking ground might evidently be improved by cutting
away the willows at the edges of the river; and the track over a few of
the portages might also be made better; some of the large stones
likewise might be removed when the water is low, which is expeditiously
done by digging a large hole by the side and undermining them; when
they are rolled over and buried. But to improve the passage materially,
appears to me to be impracticable, from the shallowness of the water,
and the rapidity of the current in many of the rivers. We saw that
beautiful phenomenon called the '_Aurora Borealis_,' or the northern
lights, on most clear evenings, consisting of long columns of clear
white light, shooting across the heavens with a tremulous motion, and
altering slowly to a variety of shapes. At times they were very
brilliant, and appeared suddenly in different parts of the sky, where
none had been seen before. It has been observed, that this phenomenon
is not vivid in very high latitudes, and that its seat appears to be
about the latitude of 60°.

Many of the Indians have a pleasing and romantic idea of this meteor.
They believe the northern lights to be the spirits of their departed
friends dancing in the clouds, and when they are remarkably bright, at
which time they vary most in form and situation, they say that their
deceased friends are making merry.

The northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis "Edthin, i.e. Deer, from
having found that when a hairy deer-skin is briskly stroked with the
hand in a dark night, it will emit many sparks of electrical fire as
the back of a cat will."

On the 5th of October we reached the encampment of Pigewis, the chief
of the Red River Indians; and on pitching our tents for the night a
little way farther up on the banks of the river, he came with his
eldest son and another Indian and drank tea with me in the evening. It
was the first time that I had met with him, since I received the
encouraging information from the Church Missionary Society, relative to
the Mission School at the Colony, and I was glad of the opportunity of
assuring him, through the aid of an interpreter, who was of our party,
"that many, very many in my country wished the Indians to be taught
white man's knowledge of the Great Spirit, and as a proof of their love
to them, my countrymen had told me to provide for the clothing,
maintenance, and education of many of their children; and had sent out
the young person whom he then saw to teach the little girls who might
be sent to the school for instruction." Though not easily persuaded
that you act from benevolent motives; he said _it was good!_ and
promised to tell all his tribe what I said about the children, and that
I should have two of his boys to instruct in the Spring, but added,
that 'the Indians like to have time to consider about these matters.'
We smoked the calumet, and after pausing a short time, he shrewdly
asked me what I would do with the children after they were taught what
I wished them to know. I told him they might return to their parents if
they wished it, but my hope was that they would see the advantage of
making gardens, and cultivating the soil, so as not to be exposed to
hunger and starvation, as the Indians generally were, who had to wander
and hunt for their provisions. The little girls, I observed, would be
taught to knit, and make articles of clothing to wear, like those which
white people wore; and all would be led to read the Book that the Great
Spirit had given to them, which the Indians had not yet known, and
which would teach them how to live well and to die happy. I added, that
it was the will of the Great Spirit, which he had declared in His Book,
'that a man should have but one wife, and a woman but one husband.' He
smiled at this information, and said that 'he thought that there was no
more harm in Indians having two wives than one of the settlers,' whom
he named. I grieved for the depravity of Europeans as noticed by the
heathen, and as raising a stumbling block in the way of their receiving
instruction, and our conversation closed upon the subject by my
observing, that 'there were some very bad white people, as there were
some very bad Indians, but that the good book condemned the practice.'

We had an unusually fine passage from the Factory; and in our approach
to Fort Douglas, we were cheered with the sight of several stacks of
corn standing near to some of the settlers houses, and were informed,
not only of a good harvest, but also of more than a hundred and fifty
head of cattle having arrived at the colony, from the Illinois
territory. These were encouraging circumstances, and I saw with
peculiar pleasure, a stack of wheat near the Mission School, which had
been raised, with nearly two hundred bushels of potatoes, from the
ground that we had cultivated near it; and having purchased two cows
for the establishment, our minds were relieved from anxiety as to
provisions for the children during the winter, as well as from the
quantity of grain that might be collected, till another harvest. Our
fears were kept alive however, as to the safety of the Settlement, by
being informed of another horrid massacre of four hunters, a woman, and
a little girl, on the plains near Pembina, by the Sioux Indians. Their
bodies were dreadfully mangled, and the death of the little girl was
attended with atrocious barbarity. When the Indians first approached
and made their attack on the party, she concealed herself under one of
the carts; but hearing the screams of her friends as the savages were
butchering them, she ran from the place of her concealment, and was
shot through with an arrow as she was running to escape. The frequent
massacre of the hunters by the Sioux Indians, and the constant alarm
excited at the Settlement, by reports that they would come down with
the savage intention of scalping us call for some military protection.
A small party stationed at the Colony, would not only be the means of
enforcing any civil process in the punishment of delinquents among the
Colonists, but afford that security in their habitations, which would
stimulate them to make improvements, and to a more active industry upon
the soil, while it would have the best effect upon the minds of the
Indians at large.

NOV. 4.--A party of hunters have just returned, bringing in some
venison of the red deer, or stag, which is sometimes killed at the
distance of about ten or twelve miles from the Colony. It is
astonishing with what keenness of observation they pursue these
animals: their eye is so very acute, that they will often discern a
path, and trace the deer over the rocks and the withered leaves, which
an European passes without noticing, or being at all aware, that any
human being or game have directed their course before him. They
distinguish the cardinal points by the terms, sun-rise, sun-set, cold
country, and warm country; and reach any destined point over the most
extensive plains with great accuracy, or travel through the thickest
woods with certainty, when they have nothing to direct them but the
moss that grows on the north side of the trunks of the trees, and their
tops bending towards the rising sun.

The 18th. The attendance on divine worship is much improved on the
Sabbath, from the accommodation the building affords, and I hope to
complete it in the ensuing spring. We have a considerable number of
half-caste children, and some adult Indian women, married to Europeans,
who attend a Sunday-school, for gratuitous instruction; and I have no
doubt that their numbers will increase considerably in the spring.
These children have capacity, and would rival Europeans, with the like
instruction, in the developement of their mental faculties. Extensive
plans might be devised, and carried into effect, if patronized by an
active co-operation, which would ultimately result in producing great
benefits to the half-caste population, and the Indians in general.
There is an opening for schools on the banks of the Saskashawan, where
the soil is good for cultivation, as well as on the banks of the
Athabasca river; and frequent applications reached me to forward their
establishment in those quarters, under the prospect of their being
supported through the produce that might be raised from the soil, and
the supplies to be obtained from the waters and the chase.

The winter has again set in, and many of the settlers are threshing out
their crops; and from the best information I can obtain, the return of
wheat has been from twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre. Barley, may
be stated at the same produce: but where sown in small quantities, and
under particular cultivation, I have heard of thirty, forty, and fifty
fold being reaped. Taking the average of the general crop, however, I
think it may be fairly stated at the above increase, without the
trouble of manuring. That useful article of food, the potatoe thrives
well, and returns upon an average thirty bushels for one. Indian corn
is grown; and every kind of garden vegetable, with water melons, and
pumpkins, comes to great perfection, when spared by the locusts. Some
have raised the tobacco plant, but it has not yet met with a fair
trial, any more than the sowing of hemp and flax. I failed in the
experiment of sowing some winter wheat, which I brought with me from
England; but I attribute this failure, to its being sown in an exposed
situation, and too early in the autumn, the plant having been of too
luxuriant a growth, before the severe frosts came on.--If sown in
sheltered spots, and later in the season, there is every probability of
its surviving the winter, which would be of great advantage in
agriculture, from the short period we have for preparing the land and
sowing it in spring. We have no fruit trees, but if introduced, they
would no doubt thrive at the Colony. We get a few raspberries in the
woods, and strawberries from the plains in summer; and on the route to
York Factory, we meet with black and red currants, gooseberries, and
cranberries. There is a root which is found in large quantities, and
generally called by the settlers, the Indian potatoe. It strongly
resembles the Jerusalem artichoke, and is eaten by the natives in a raw
state; but when boiled it is not badly flavoured. The characteristic
improvidence of the Indians, and their precarious means of subsistence,
will often reduce them to extreme want, and I have seen them collecting
small roots in the swamps, and eating the inner rind of the poplar
tree, and having recourse to a variety of berries, which are found in
abundance in many parts of the country.



CHAPTER V.

CLIMATE OF RED RIVER. THERMOMETER. PIGEWIS'S NEPHEW. WOLVES. REMARKS
OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. INDIAN WOMAN SHOT BY HER SON. SUFFERINGS OF
INDIANS. THEIR NOTIONS OF THE DELUGE. NO VISIBLE OBJECT OF ADORATION.
ACKNOWLEDGE A FUTURE LIFE. LEFT THE COLONY FOR BAS LA RIVIRÈE. LOST
ON WINIPEG LAKE. RECOVER THE TRACK, AND MEET AN INTOXICATED INDIAN.
APPARENT FACILITIES FOR ESTABLISHING SCHOOLS WEST OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
RUSSIANS AFFORDING RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION ON THE NORTH WEST COAST OF
NORTH AMERICA. RUMOURS OF WAR AMONG THE SURROUNDING TRIBES WITH THE
SIOUX INDIANS.


JANUARY 1, 1823.--Once more I have to record the goodness of God in
preserving my life, and granting me the invaluable blessing of health
throughout the past year.

    "God of my life! to thee belong
    The thankful heart, the grateful song."

May my days be spent with renewed ardour and watchfulness in my
Christian profession; never yielding to supineness and discouragements
in my Ministerial labours, and toils in the wilderness. Of all men, the
Missionary most needs strong faith, with a simple reliance upon the
providence and promises of God in the trials that await him. His path
is indeed an arduous one. Many unexpected circumstances will oppose his
conscientious endeavours to fulfil his calling; and difficulties will
surround him in every shape, so as to put his patience, his hopes of
usefulness and steady perseverance severely to the test. He will often
exclaim in the deep conviction of his mind, who is sufficient for the
great undertaking?--Experience in the Missionary field has convinced
me, that there are indeed but _few among a thousand_ qualified for the
difficult and exalted work. If that eminent Missionary, St. Paul,
abounding in zeal, and in all the graces of the Spirit, thought it
needful to solicit the prayers of the Churches that "the word of the
Lord might run, and have free course," how earnest ought our entreaties
to be of all friends of missions to "pray for us," who, _if we feel
aright_, must feel our own insignificance, in our labours among the
heathen, and in our services to the Christian church, when compared
with the labours of the Apostles, or with those of a Swartz, a Brainerd,
or a Martyn.

The climate of Red River is found to be remarkably healthy, and the
state of the weather may be pretty accurately ascertained from the
following table for the last two years. We know of no epidemic, nor is
a cough scarcely ever heard amongst us. The only cry of affliction, in
breathing a sharp pure air, that creates a keen appetite, has been,
'_Je n'ai rien pour manger_,' and death has rarely taken place amongst
the inhabitants, except by accident and extreme old age. It is far
otherwise, however with the natives of the country, who from the
hardships and incessant toil they undergo in seeking provisions, look
old at forty, and the women at a much earlier age: while numbers die,
at an early stage of their suffering existence, of pulmonary
consumptions. These are so common, that they may be considered as the
unavoidable consequence of privations and immoderate fatigue, which
they endure in hunting and in war; and of being continually exposed to
the inclemency of the seasons.

CLIMATE OF RED RIVER

THERMOMETER.

+---------+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      | Aver-| Aver-|
|  Month  |     | A.M. | A.M. |  M.  |  M.  | P.M. | P.M. |  age |  age |
|   and   |     |Below |Above |Below |Above |Below |Above |Below |Above |
|  Year   |Date |  °   |  °   |  °   |  °   |  °   |  °   |  °   |  °   |
+---------+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
|1821.    |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|January  | 23  |  24  |  ..  |  16  |  ..  |  26  |  ..  |  22  |  ..  |
|February |  2  |  30  |  ..  |  25  |  ..  |  28  |  ..  |  28  |  ..  |
|March    | 17  |   5  |  ..  |  ..  |  13  |   5  |  ..  |  ..  |   1  |
|April    |  9  |  ..  |  10  |  ..  |  18  |  ..  |  17  |  ..  |  15  |
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|May      |  8  |  ..  |  50  |  ..  |  77  |  ..  |  77  |  ..  |  68  |
|June     |  3  |  ..  |  72  |  ..  |  84  |  ..  |  88  |  ..  |  81  |
|July     | 28  |  ..  |  76  |  ..  |  91  |  ..  |  90  |  ..  |  85  |
|August   |  3  |  ..  |  70  |  ..  |  84  |  ..  |  88  |  ..  |  84  |
|September|  4  |  ..  |  58  |  ..  |  68  |  ..  |  70  |  ..  |  65  |
|October  | 25  |  ..  |  45  |  ..  |  62  |  ..  |  65  |  ..  |  27  |
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|November | 26  |   5  |  ..  |  16  |  ..  |  16  |  ..  |  12  |  ..  |
|December | 17  |  38  |  ..  |  15  |  ..  |  16  |  ..  |  23  |  ..  |
|---------+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------|
|1822.    |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|January  | 28  |  34  |  ..  |  25  |  ..  |  25  |  ..  |  28  |  ..  |
|February |  3  |  32  |  ..  |  19  |  ..  |  23  |  ..  |  25  |  ..  |
|March    | 13  |  ..  |   7  |  ..  |  25  |  ..  |  10  |  ..  |  14  |
|April    |  8  |  ..  |   5  |  ..  |  18  |  ..  |  21  |  ..  |  15  |
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|May      | 28  |  ..  |  65  |  ..  |  77  |  ..  |  78  |  ..  |  73  |
|June     |  9  |  ..  |  68  |  ..  |  76  |  ..  |  76  |  ..  |  73  |
|July     | 21  |  ..  |  75  |  ..  |  87  |  ..  |  81  |  ..  |  81  |
|August   |  8  |  ..  |  74  |  ..  |  83  |  ..  |  84  |  ..  |  80  |
|September| 13  |  ..  |  59  |  ..  |  79  |  ..  |  78  |  ..  |  72  |
|October  |  4  |  ..  |  54  |  ..  |  72  |  ..  |  71  |  ..  |  66  |
|         |     |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
|November | 29  |  24  |  ..  |   2  |  ..  |  15  |  ..  |  14  |  ..  |
|December | 14  |  49  |  ..  |  25  |  ..  |  28  |  ..  |  34  |  ..  |
+---------+-----+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

I have selected the day in each month of the year, when the thermometer
was at the lowest and highest degree of Zero; which will give a general
idea of the change of the state of the air. Though I have been informed
of the thermometer having been several degrees higher and lower at the
Colony, than here stated, the winter is nearly the same, as to the time
it sets in and breaks up, as that of Montreal; but the frost is rather
more intense, with less snow, and a clearer air. During the winter
months, a north-westerly wind, which is synonymous in this quarter of
the globe, with excessive cold, generally prevails; and even in sultry
weather, the moment that the wind veers from the south to that quarter,
its chilling influence is immediately felt in the sudden transition
from heat to cold. In summer, a southerly wind blows commonly with
considerable heat, and often in heavy gales, is accompanied with
violent torrents of rain, and much thunder.

The 4th.--The Indians around us generally divide into small parties for
the better support of their families during the winter months; and in
their rambling existence in search of animals for provisions. Pigewis
and a few others, occupying two lodges, called on me to-day, saying
that they were starving. The woods which they generally hunted were
burnt to a great extent during the last autumn, and they had only
killed a bear, and a few martins, with occasionally a rabbit, as a
subsistence for the last two months. This was their report, though they
often deceive in their lounging habits of begging at your residence. I
assisted them with a little Indian rice and some potatoes, on their
promise to strike their tents, and proceed to some other hunting
grounds on the following day. When they visit under these destitute
circumstances, they are often exceedingly troublesome, acknowledging no
right of restraint in being shut out from your presence; they enter
your dwelling without ceremony, and covet almost every thing that they
see. With a view, therefore, to keep them from my room in the evening,
I sent some tea and sugar with a little flour, for the purpose of
taking my tea with them in one of their tents. I was accompanied by one
of the Indian boys from the school as an interpreter, who now acted
well in that capacity, from the great progress he had made in speaking
English, and found them all encircling a small fire, by the side of
which they had placed a buffaloe robe for me to sit down upon. The pipe
was immediately lighted by an Indian whom we generally call 'Pigewis's
Aid-de-Camp;' and having pointed the stem to the heavens and then to
the earth, he gave the first whiff to the Master of Life, and
afterwards handed it to me. Pigewis then delivered what I understood to
be an address to the Great Spirit, and the party seated around him used
an expression, apparently of assent, in the middle and conclusion of
his speech. Though addressing an unknown God, what a reflection does
his conduct, in returning thanks for his short and precarious supplies,
to the Master of Life, cast upon multitudes who profess Christianity
and the knowledge of the true God, and yet daily partake of the
bounties of his providence, without any expression of gratitude, or
whose only return, is to live in the known violation of his laws, and
to blaspheme his holy name, in the midst of his goodness towards them!

Pigewis breakfasted with me on the following morning; and his general
remarks in conversation gave me, as they had done before, a favourable
opinion of his penetration and mental ability. The active efforts of
his mind, however, are confined principally to those objects which
immediately affect his present wants or enjoyments. Savages talk of the
animals that they have killed, and boast of the scalps that they have
taken in their war excursions; but they form no arrangement, nor enter
into calculation for futurity. They have no settled place of abode, or
property, or acquired wants and appetites, like those which rouse men
to activity in civilized life, and stimulate them to persevering
industry, while they keep the mind in perpetual exercise and ingenious
invention. Their simple wants are few, and when satisfied they waste
their time in listless indolence; and are often seen lying on the
ground for whole days together, without raising their heads from under
the blanket, or uttering a single word. The cravings of hunger rouse
them; and the scarcity of animals that now prevails in many parts of
the country, is a favourable circumstance towards leading them to the
cultivation of the soil; which would expand their minds, and prove of
vast advantage, among other means, in aiding their comprehension of
Christianity. It must, not be expected, however, that the Indians will
easily forsake a mode of life that is so congenial to man, in his
natural love of ease and indolence and licentious freedom. Necessity,
in a measure, must compel them to do this; _but the children may be
educated, and trained to industry upon the soil_, in the hope that they
may be recovered from their savage habits and customs, to see and enjoy
the blessings of civilization and Christianity. This object is highly
important, and no means should be spared in attempting its accomplishment,
where practicable. Where is our humanity and Christian sympathy, and
how do we fulfil the obligations which Christianity has enforced, if we
do not seek to raise these wandering heathen, who, with us, are immortal
in their destiny, from a mere animal existence to the partaking of the
privileges and hopes of the Christian religion?

Before Pigewis left me, his sister arrived, who was then living with a
very lazy bad Indian, and asked me to take her eldest boy, whose father
was dead, into the school. Though much above the usual age of admission
upon the establishment, I consented to receive him; and they both took
an affectionate leave of him, remarking that they were sure I should
keep him well. The whole party then set off towards some fresh hunting
grounds, and it was my hope and expectation that I should see nothing
more of them till the spring. The boy was comfortably clothed, and he
appeared to be well satisfied with the rest at the school, and had
begun to learn the English alphabet, when, to my surprise, I found the
mother, with the Indian, in my room, in about a week after they had
left the Settlement with Pigewis, saying that they had parted from him
in consequence of their not being able to obtain any provision; and
that "they thought it long" since they had seen the boy. He was
permitted to go from the school-house to their tent, which they had
pitched near me in the woods, almost daily without restraint, till at
length he refused to return. I repeated my request for him without
effect; and having my suspicion excited, that they would take him away
for the sake of the clothing and blankets which I had given him, I
determined upon having them again, as an example to deter others from
practising the like imposition. The parties were angry at my
determination, and looking upon the medicine bag that was suspended on
the willows near the tent, and which is carried by most of the Indians,
as a sacred depository for a few pounded roots, some choice bits of
earth, or a variety of articles which they only know how to appreciate
with superstitious regard, they told me that "they had bad medicine for
those who displeased them." I insisted, however, on the return of the
articles I had given to the boy, and obtained them; at the same time
promising that if he would go back to the school-house, he should have
his clothes again; but added, that "it would never be allowed for
Indians to bring their children to the school, which was established to
teach them what was for their happiness, merely for the purpose of
getting them clothed and provided with blankets, and then to entice
them to leave it."

JAN. 20.--The severity of the winter has driven a number of wolves to
hover about the Settlement in search of provisions; they are perfectly
harmless however, as they are met singly, and skulk away like a dog
conscious of having committed a theft. But in packs, they kill the
horses, and are formidable to encounter. In the pursuit of buffaloes
and the deer on the plains, they are known to form a crescent, and to
hurry their prey over precipices, or upon the steep muddy banks of a
river, where they devour them. No instance has occurred of their having
seized any of the children of the settlers, though they sometimes kill
and eat the carcases of the dogs close to their houses.

FEBRUARY 3.--It appears that I have given great offence to one of the
remaining Swiss emigrants, for refusing to baptize, at his immediate
request, the child of his daughter, born of fornication, and cast away
by her, as living in adultery. I deeply lamented the circumstance, but
felt the obligation to defer the administration of the sacrament, from
the conviction that the profligacy of the case called for an example
which might deter others among the Swiss from acting in the like
manner; and at the same time be a public expression of disapprobation,
on my part, of such unblushing depravity, in the eyes of a numerous
young people growing up at the Colony. Unless chastity be considered as
a virtue, what hope can be entertained of forming any organized
society? and if the Colonists fearlessly commit crimes, because they
have stepped over a certain line of latitude; and live in a wild
profligacy, without the curb of civil restraint, the Settlement can
hold out but faint hopes of answering in any way the expectations of
its patrons. Till morality and religion form its basis, disappointment
must follow. Nor can I imagine that the system taught by the Canadian
Catholic priests will avail any thing materially in benefitting the
morals of the people; they are bigotted to opinions which are
calculated to fetter the human mind, to cramp human exertion, and to
keep their dependants in perpetual leading-strings. Their doctrine is--

    "Extra Ecclesiam Romanam, salus non esse potest."[7]

      [7] There is no salvation beyond the pale of the Roman Church.

They appear to me to teach Christianity only as a dry system of
ecclesiastical statutes, without a shadow of spirituality. While they
multiply holidays, to the interruption of human industry, as generally
complained of by those who employ Canadians, they lightly regard the
Sabbath; and sanction the practice of spending the evenings of this
sacred day at cards, or in the dance. In their tinkling service of
worshipping the elevated host as the very God himself, they fall down
also in adoration to the Virgin Mary, addressing her, as--

    "Reine des Cieux!
    Intercedez pour nous,
    Mère de Dieu!"

and proudly arrogate to the Church of Rome, the absolute interpretation
of Scripture; forbidding the people to examine whether she does it
rightly or not. I thank God that I am a Protestant against such
idolatry and ecclesiastical tyranny!

The able and enlightened remarks of that renowned general and eminent
statesman, Washington, in his farewell address to the people of the
United States, relative to the well-being of a nation, are equally
applicable to the existence and prosperity of a Colony: "Of all the
dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity (he
observed), religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain
would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labour to
subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of
men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man,
ought to respect and cherish them. A volume would not trace all their
connexions with private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked,
Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the
sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the
instruments of investigation in the courts of justice? And let us with
caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained
without religion. Whatever be conceded to the influence of refined
education, or minds of a peculiar structure; reason and experience
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle."

A daughter has driven her aged Indian father, lashed, in his buffaloe
robe, on a sledge, to the Colony. He appeared to be in a very weak and
dying state, and has suffered much from the want of provisions. I was
much pleased with this instance of filial affection and care. Sometimes
the aged and infirm are abandoned or destroyed; and however shocking it
may be to those sentiments of tenderness and affection, which in
civilized life we regard as inherent in our common nature, it is
practised by savages in their hardships and extreme difficulty of
procuring subsistence for the parties who suffer, without being
considered as an act of cruelty, but as a deed of mercy. This shocking
custom, however, is seldom heard of among the Indians of this
neighbourhood; but is said to prevail with the Chipewyan or Northern
Indians, who are no sooner burdened with their relations, broken with
years and infirmities, and incapable of following the camp, than they
leave them to their fate. Instead of repining they are reconciled to
this dreadful termination of their existence, from the known custom of
their nation, and being conscious that they can no longer endure the
various distresses and fatigue of savage life, or assist in hunting for
provisions. A little meat, with an axe, and a small portion of tobacco,
are generally left with them by their _nearest relations_, who in
taking leave of them, say, that it is time for them to go into the
other world, which they suppose lies just beyond the spot where the sun
goes down, where they will be better taken care of than with them, and
then they walk away weeping. On the banks of the Saskashawan, an aged
woman prevailed on her son to shoot her through the head, instead of
adopting this sad extremity. She addressed him in a most pathetic
manner, reminding him of the care and toil with which she bore him on
her back from camp to camp in his infancy; with what incessant labour
she brought him up till he could use the bow and the gun; and having
seen him a great warrior, she requested that he would shew her
kindness, and give a proof of his courage, in shooting her, that she
might go home to her relations. "I have seen many winters, she added,
and am now become a burden, in not being able to assist in getting
provisions; and dragging me through the country, as I am unable to
walk, is a toil, and brings much distress:--take your gun." She then
drew her blanket over her head, and her son immediately deprived her of
life: in the apparent consciousness of having done an act of filial
duty and of mercy.

The old man who was brought to the Settlement, by his daughter for
relief soon recovered, so as to become exceedingly troublesome by
coming almost daily to my room. I succeeded at length in starting them
for some hunters' tents on the plains, where they expressed a wish to
go, if supplied with provisions to carry them there, by killing a small
dog, and giving it to them for food. An ox would not have been more
acceptable to a distressed European family than this animal was to
these Indians. But on leaving me two more families came to my residence
in a state of starvation. Necessity had compelled them to eat their
dogs, and they themselves were harnessed to their sledges, dragging
them in a most wretched and emaciated condition. One of the men
appeared to be reduced to the last stage of existence, and upon giving
him a fish and a few cooked potatoes, such was his natural affection
for his children, that, instead of voraciously devouring the small
portion of food, he divided it into morsels, and gave it to them in the
most affectionate manner. His children from their appearance had
partaken of by far the largest share of that scanty supply which he had
lately been able to obtain in hunting. They pitched their tents at a
short distance below in the woods, and the poor man came to me next
morning with the request that I would bleed him for a violent pain
which he complained of in his side. This I refused to do, and gave him
a note to the medical gentleman of the Colony, promising to call on him
the next day. When I saw him I found that he had not delivered the
note, but had bled himself in the foot with the flint from his gun, and
spoke of having experienced considerable relief. The party were
dreadfully distressed for provisions, and had actually collected at
their tents the remains of a dog which had died, with part of the head
of a horse, that had been starved to death in the severity of the
winter, and which was the only part of the animal that was left by the
wolves. The head of the dog was boiling in the kettle, and that of the
horse was suspended over it, to receive the smoke of the fire in the
preparation for cooking; while the children were busily employed in
breaking some bones which they had picked up, with an axe, and which
they were sucking in their raw state for their moisture. This was the
suffering extremity not of lazy bad Indians, but of those who bore the
character of good hunters, and were particularly careful of their
families; and I fear it is the case of many more from the exhausted
state of animals in the neighbourhood of Red River: and from the
frequent fires that occur in the plains, which extend also to the
destruction of the woods.

Towards the conclusion of the month we had another melancholy proof of
the Indians suffering extreme want from the few animals that were to be
met with during the winter. An Indian with his wife on their arrival
gave me to understand that they had been without food for twenty days,
and had lost their three children by starvation. Their appearance was
that of a melancholy dejection, and I had my suspicions excited at the
time that they had eaten them. This was confirmed afterwards by the
bones and hands of one of the children being found near some ashes at a
place where they said they had encamped, and suffered their misery. It
appears that two of their children died from want, whom they cooked and
eat, and that they afterwards killed the other for a subsistence in
their dire necessity. I asked this Indian, as I did the other, whether
from having suffered so much, it was not far better to do as the white
people did and cultivate the ground; he said, "Yes;" and expressed a
desire to do so if he could obtain tools, seed wheat and potatoes to
plant. Though it is the character of the savage to tell you what he
will do in future at your suggestion, to prevent the calamity which he
may be suffering from want of food or the inclemency of the weather,
and as soon as the season becomes mild, and the rivers yield him fish,
or the woods and plains provisions, to forget all his sufferings, and
to be as thoughtless and improvident as ever as to futurity; yet, I
think that a successful attempt might be made by a proper superintendance,
and a due encouragement to induce some of the Indians of this quarter
to settle in villages, and to cultivate the soil. The voice of humanity
claims this attention to them, under their almost incredible privations
at times: but prejudices may exist in the country which prevent this
desirable object being carried into effect. There was a time when the
Indians themselves had begun to collect into a kind of village towards
the mouth of the Red River, had cultivated spots of ground, and had
even erected something of a lodge for the purpose of performing some of
their unmeaning ceremonies of ignorance and heathenism, and to which
the Indians of all the surrounding country were accustomed at certain
seasons to repair; but fears were entertained that the natives would be
diverted from hunting furs to idle ceremonies, and an effectual stop
was put to all further improvement, by the spirit of opposition that
then existed in the country between the two rival Fur Companies.

MARCH 10.--The ringing of the Sabbath bell now collects an encouraging
congregation; and some of us, I trust, could experimentally adopt the
language of the Psalmist, in saying, "I was glad when they said unto
us, let us go into the house of the Lord."--My earnest prayer to God
is, that I may exercise a _spiritual_ ministry; and faithfully
preach those truths which give no hope to fallen man, but that which is
founded on God's mercy in Christ. I often felt rejoiced in spirit in
the prospect of doing good amidst the wild profligacy of manners that
surrounded me, and of making known the doctrines and precepts of
Christianity, where Christ had never before been named. Several adult
married Indian women attended the Sunday School, with many half-caste
children to be taught to read, and to receive religious instruction,
which gave me an opportunity of ascertaining what the notions of the
Indians were concerning the flood and the creation of the world. They
appeared either to be ignorant, or unwilling to relate any traditionary
stories that they might have as to the original formation of the world,
but spoke of an universal deluge, which they said was commonly believed
by all Indians. When the flood came and destroyed the world, they say
that a very great man, called Wæsackoochack, made a large raft, and
embarked with otters, beavers, deer, and other kinds of animals. After
it had floated upon the waters for some time, he put out an otter, with
a long piece of shagganappy or leathern cord tied to its leg, and it
dived very deep without finding any bottom, and was drowned. He then
put out a beaver, which was equally unsuccessful, and shared the same
fate. At length he threw out a musk-rat, that dived and brought up a
little mud in its mouth, which Wæsackoochack took, and placing in the
palm of his hand, he blew upon it, till it greatly enlarged itself, and
formed a good piece of the earth. He then turned out a deer that soon
returned, which led him to suppose that the earth was not large enough,
and blowing upon it again its size was greatly increased, so that a
loom which he then sent out never returned. The new earth being now of
a sufficient size, he turned adrift all the animals that he had
preserved. He is supposed still to have some intercourse with and power
over them as well as over the Indians, who pray to him to protect them
and keep them alive. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in speaking of the
Chipewyan or Northern Indians, who traverse an immense track of
country, to the north of the Athabasca lake, says, "that the notions
which these people entertain of the creation are of a singular nature.
They believe that the globe was at first one vast and entire ocean,
inhabited by no living creature except a mighty bird, whose eyes were
fire, whose glances were lightning, and the clapping of whose wings was
thunder. On his descending to the ocean, and touching it, the earth
instantly arose, and remained on the surface of the waters. They have
also a tradition amongst them, that they originally came from another
country, inhabited by very wicked people, and had traversed a great
lake, where they suffered much misery, it being always winter, with ice
and deep snow. At the Copper-Mine River, where they made the first
land, the ground was covered with copper. They believe also that in
ancient times their ancestors lived till their feet were worn out with
walking, and their throats with eating. They describe a deluge, when
the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountains,
on the tops of which they preserved themselves." There appears to be a
general belief of a flood among all the tribes of this vast continent;
and the Bible shews me from whence spring all those fables, and wild
notions which they entertain; and which prevail in other parts of the
heathen world upon these subjects. They are founded upon those events
which the sacred scriptures record, and which have been corrupted by
different nations, scattered and wandering through the globe as the
descendants of Noah, without a written language. The Hindoo therefore
in his belief that the earth was actually drawn up at the flood, by the
tusks of a boar, and that it rests at this hour on the back of a
tortoise: and the North American Indian in his wild supposition that
Wæsackoochack, whose reputed father was a snake, formed the present
beautiful order of creation after the deluge, by the help of a
musk-rat, afford no inconsiderable proof that the Bible is of far
greater antiquity than any other record extant in the world, and that
it is indeed of divine origin. While its sacred page therefore informs
and decides my judgment by the earliest historic information, may its
principles influence my life in all Christian practice, and joyful
expectation of the world to come, through faith in Him, whom it records
as the Redeemer of mankind; and in whom believing "there is neither
barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free."

    'One song employs all nations, and all sing,
    Worthy the Lamb! for he was slain for us.
    The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
    Shout to each other; and the mountain-tops,
    From distant mountains catch the flying joy;
    Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
    Earth rolls the rapturous hosannah round.'

I could never discover that the Indians among whom I travelled had any
thing like a visible object of adoration. Neither sun, moon, nor stars,
appear to catch their attention as objects of worship. There is an
impression upon their minds, of a Divine Being, whom they call the
_Great Spirit_, whom they ignorantly address, and suppose to be too
good even to punish them. Their general idea is, that they are more
immediately under the influence of a powerful _Evil Spirit_. Experience
has taught them this melancholy fact, in the trials, sufferings,
afflictions, and multiform death which they undergo; and therefore
their prayers are directed to him, when any severe calamity befalls
them. To avert his displeasure, they often have recourse to
superstitious practices, with the most childish credulity; and will
drum and dance throughout a whole night, in the hope of bringing relief
to the sick and dying. They know not that the great enemy of man's
happiness and salvation, is a chained enemy, and a captive to Him who
triumphed in his resurrection and ascension to glory, and under the
control and permissive will of Him, whom they denominate Keetchee
Manitou, or Great Spirit; and, consequently they are enslaved to all
that is pitiable in ignorance and superstition. Acknowledging the being
of a God, the uncultivated minds of these savages have led them to
shrink from the thoughts of annihilation, and to look forward with hope
to a future life. They have no idea however of intellectual enjoyments;
but a notion prevails among them, that at death they arrive at a large
river, on which they embark in a stone canoe; and that a gentle current
bears them on to an extensive lake, in the centre of which is a most
beautiful island, in the sight of which they receive their judgment. If
they have died courageously in war, they are particularly welcomed in
landing upon the island, where they, with skilful hunters, enjoy
perpetual spring and plenty, and live with all the good in an eternal
enjoyment of sensual pleasures. If they die with their hands imbrued
with the blood of their countrymen, and are lazy bad characters, the
stone canoe sinks with them, leaving them up to their chins in water,
that they may for ever behold the happiness of the good, and struggle
in vain to reach the island of bliss.

The 17th. I left the Colony in a cariole, to visit the Company's Post
at Bas la Rivière; we stopped the night, near the mouth of the Red
River, and crossed the point of Lake Winipeg, on the ice, the following
day, in time to reach the Fort the same evening. It is pleasantly
situated by a fine sheet of water; and is the way the canoes take their
route to Fort William, Lake Superior, and Montreal. During my stay, the
officer of the Post gave me the much admired fish of the country,
called by the Indians, _tittameg_, and by the Americans, _white-fish_.
Its usual weight is about three or four pounds; but it is caught in
some of the lakes of a much larger size; and, with the sturgeon, is a
principal article of food, and almost the only support of some of the
establishments. Before I left, the officer was married to one of the
best informed and most improved half-caste women I had seen. She was
the daughter of one of the chief factors, who was particularly fond of
his family; and afforded an instance of superiority of character among
this class of people, from the care and instruction which she had
received. The Mètifs, or, as they are sometimes called, Bois brulés,
have displayed the most striking ability as steersmen of boats, through
the most difficult rapids, and in the navigation of the rivers; and if
advantages were given them in education, they have capacities of
usefulness which might adorn the highest stations of civilized life. Of
the moral degradation, however, of these people, in common with that of
the Canadian voyageurs, it is difficult to exhibit an accurate picture.
Suffice it to say, that it is a degradation which, in some respects,
exceeds even that of the native Indian himself.

In starting from the Company's Post, on my return to the Colony, it was
my hope that we should cross the point of Winipeg Lake to the mouth of
the Red River, in one day, as we had done in our way thither; but about
two o'clock in the afternoon, I perceived, as I was in the cariole,
that the driver had mistaken his way. I told him of his error, but he
persisted in the opinion that he was right, and drove on till the
evening closed upon us, without his finding the entrance to the Red
River. Night came on, and the dogs were exhausted with fatigue, which
obliged us to stop, though not before one of them contrived to slip his
head out of the collar. It happened that we were near some wood on the
edge of the lake, but in reaching it we sank in soft drift snow up to
the middle; and it was a considerable time before we could make our
preparations for the night, under the spreading branches of a pine
tree. We got but little rest from the small fire that we were able to
make, and from our bad encampment. The next morning, I found that the
driver was greatly embarrassed in his idea of our exact situation, and
he led me throughout the day from one point of wood to another, over
the ice, on the borders of the lake, in a directly contrary way to that
in which we ought to have gone. We had no food for our dogs, and on
coming to our encampment for the night, the animals were completely
worn out with fatigue; and what added to our trials, was the loss of
the flint, which the man dropped in the snow, the first time he
attempted to strike the steel to kindle a fire. After some difficulty
we succeeded, with a small gun-flint, which I found in my pocket, and
we bivouacked upon the snow, before an insufficient fire, from the
scanty wood we were able to collect. It was my wish to have divided the
little provision that remained with the dogs, as they had eaten nothing
for two days, and I considered them scarcely able to move with the
cariole the next morning, at the same time intending to kill one of
them the following evening, to meet our wants, should we not succeed in
recovering our track. The driver assured me, however, that they would
go another day without giving up. From the conversation I had with him,
before we started on the following morning, I found that he had no
knowledge of our situation on the extensive lake before us, and
supposed that the Red River lay to the north, while I thought, from the
course of the sun, that it was to the south, and insisted upon his
taking that direction, which we did accordingly; and after a laborious
and rather anxious day's toil, we saw some points of small and
scattered willow bushes, like those which I knew to be near the
entrance of the river. This providentially proved to be the case,
otherwise our trials must have been great; the driver having become
nearly snow-blind, and incapable of driving the dogs, and the weather
becoming more intensely cold and stormy. It may easily be conceived
what our feelings were, in recovering a right track, after wandering
for several days upon an icy lake, among the intricate and similar
appearances of numerous and small islands of pine. They were those, I
trust, of sincere gratitude to God; and I often thought what a wretched
wanderer was man in a guilty world, without the light of Christianity
to guide, and its principle to direct his steps. Infidelity draws a
veil around him, and shrouds all in darkness as to a future life. All,
all is uncertainty before him, as the tempest-tossed mariner without a
compass, and the wearied wandering traveller without a chart or guide.
Let me then prize the scriptures more, which have "God for their
author, truth unmingled with error for their subject, and salvation for
their end." They are the fountains of interminable happiness, where he
who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, may be satisfied; and when
received in principle and in love, are a sure and unerring guide,
through a wilderness of toil and suffering, to the habitations of the
blessed, "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

As we passed along the river towards the Settlement, we met an
intoxicated Indian, who had been drinking at the grave of his child,
whom he had buried in the fall of the year. In going to the spot, I
found that all the snow and the grass had been removed, and that a
number of Indians, with Pigewis, had encircled the place where the body
had been deposited; and, as is their custom, they smoked the calumet,
wept, and sacrificed a little of what they possessed to the departed
spirit of the child. They do this, under the idea that the deceased may
want these articles in the world whither they are gone; and it is very
affecting occasionally to hear the plaintive and mournful lamentations
of the mother at the grave of her child, uttering in pitiful accents,
"Ah! my child, why did you leave me! Why go out of my sight so early!
Who will nurse you and feed you in the long journey you have undertaken!"
The strength of natural affection will sometimes lead them to commit
suicide, under the idea that they shall accompany the spirit, and nurse
their departed child in the other world. This persuasion, that the
spirits of the deceased want the same attendance in their new station
as in the present life, is so deeply rooted in the minds of the
Indians, that the _Carriers_, west of the Rocky Mountains, sometimes
burn the widow; and a chief, on the North-West coast of America,
sacrificed a human victim, who was a slave, on the death of his son. In
some provinces of America, historians have mentioned that, upon the
death of a Chief, a certain number of his wives, and of his slaves who
had been taken in war, were put to death, and interred together with
him, that he might appear with the same dignity in the world of
spirits, and be waited upon by the same attendants. Some have solicited
the honour to die, while others have fled, as marked for victims, under
this cruel and superstitious practice.

APRIL 4.--On my arrival at the Church Mission House for divine worship,
a poor Indian widow with five children, asked me to admit two of the
boys into the schools, which I immediately did, and particularly wished
her to leave the two girls also, one about six, and the other eight
years of age; but she would not comply with my request. The boys were
very wild and troublesome, and often ran away from the school to their
mother, who was generally living about the Settlement. They were
getting at length however better reconciled, and had begun to be
attached to the schoolmaster, when I was informed the Catholics were
prejudicing her mind against the school; and that some of the women of
that persuasion had told her, that I was collecting children from the
Indians with the intention of taking them away to my country. This idea
was spread amongst them, and an Indian calling at my residence told me
that he would give his boy to the school, if I would not leave them, as
he understood I intended to do. In vain did I tell him, that in going
home to see my wife and children I should be glad to return and bring
them with me, to assist me in teaching those of his country; and that
on my going away, my brother Minister would come, and love, and take
care of the Indian children as I did. He was not satisfied, and took
his boy away with him, saying he must wait, and see what was to be
done. The Saulteaux woman took her two boys away clandestinely, saying,
as I was afterwards informed, that "they would be all the same as dead
to her, if what she had heard was true," and though I had not an
opportunity of seeing her afterwards, she had the honesty to return the
children's clothes which I had given to them. These circumstances with
others that had occurred, convinced me that it would be far better to
obtain children for the school, from a distance than from the Indians
in the immediate neighbourhood of the Colony, as all those children who
were under our charge, and whose parents were more remote, soon became
reconciled to restraint, and were happy on the establishment. This
desirable object might soon be obtained by visiting the different
tribes of Indians, more especially were there a powerful interest
excited in favour of the Native School Establishment at Red River, by
the officers at the different Trading Posts.

In the attempt however to spread the knowledge of Christianity among
the natives, it appears that the least expensive mode of proceeding and
of ensuring the most extensive success for the Missionary is, to visit
those parts of the country where they are stationary, and live in
villages during the greater part of the year. He should direct his way
and persevering attention towards the rocky mountains, and the
Columbia. He may meet with difficulties and obstacles such as have
tried the faith and patience of Missionaries in other parts of the
heathen world, but let him persevere through the aid of the Company's
officers, who may introduce him to the Indians trading at their
respective Posts. Near to the foot of the rocky mountains the Indians
are known to dwell in their villages nearly nine months of the year.
During these months they live on salmon, either dried or taken fresh
from the rivers. They are not ferocious, but very indolent, and where
this is the case, are generally very licentious; but as they are
stationary for so long a period, an attempt might be made through the
co-operation of the Company's Officer, to lead them to cultivate the
soil, which at certain points will grow turnips, cabbages, and barley:
this produce, with the natural resources of the country would greatly
encourage an establishment for the education of their children
throughout the year: to the support of which the Indians themselves
might greatly contribute, and which would be attended with the most
beneficial results. In following the track towards the North Pacific
Ocean, the climate is much milder than to the East of the mountains,
and a vast encouragement would be found in seeking to benefit the
natives, from their being strangers to the intoxicating draught of
spirituous liquors, in barter for their articles of trade. So little
acquainted with the effects of intoxication are some of the Indians in
this quarter, that the following circumstance was related to me by an
Officer from the mouth of the Columbia. A Chief who had traded but
little with Europeans came to the Fort with two of his sons, and two
young men of his tribe. During their stay the servants made one of his
sons drunk. When the old man saw him foaming at the mouth, uttering the
most incoherent expressions, and staggering under the power of the
intoxicating draught, he immediately concluded that he was mad, and
exclaimed, 'Let him be shot.' It was some time before he could be
pacified, which was only effected in a measure by his being assured,
that he would see his son recovered from the disorder of his faculties.
And when the aged Chief saw him again restored to his right mind, and
found him capable of conversing, he manifested the greatest joy.

The Columbia presents every advantage in forming a settlement for the
natives or others, particularly so to the south of its entrance to the
sea, on the banks of the Willammette River. The soil is excellent; fish
and wild fowl are found in abundance, and a good supply of indigenous
animals is met with from the praries, or natural meadows. The summer
months are very pleasant, but those of winter are frequently rainy, and
subject to heavy fogs, which may occasionally render it unhealthy. The
Chinnook Indians are six months in villages in the neighbourhood of the
Company's Post, Fort George, at the mouth of the Columbia, and afford
facilities, with other surrounding tribes for the benevolent attempt of
introducing the knowledge of Christianity among them. In their war
excursions they adopt a different mode of warfare to that of the Red
River Indians, and those towards the Atlantic coast, by openly taking
the field against their enemies; and keeping their prisoners alive for
slaves. These are numerous among some of the tribes; and many might be
obtained, without purchasing them, for religious instruction. In fact
there appear to be many points in this vast territory where there is a
prospect of establishing well-conducted missions to the great and
lasting benefit of the natives. But the object should be pursued upon a
regular and persevering system, and while the Missionary needs the
active co-operation of the resident Officer in his arduous engagement
with the Indians; no idle prejudice should ever prevent his endeavours
to civilize and fix them in the cultivation of the soil where it may be
effected.

The Russians it appears are affording religious instruction in the
establishment of schools for the education of half-caste children, with
those of the natives in their Factories on the North-west coast of
North America. A gentleman informed me that he saw, at their
Establishment at Norfolk Sound, a priest and a schoolmaster, who were
teaching the children, and instructing the natives, not as the Spanish
priests do, at Fort St. Francisco, in South America, by taking them by
force, and compelling them to go through the forms and ceremonies of
_their_ religion, but by mild persuasion and conviction; and the
report of their success in general is, that a considerable number of
savages of the Polar Regions have been converted to Christianity.[8]

      [8] Since my return to England I have been favoured with the
      following communication from a gentleman, who travelled in
      Siberia, to promote the object of the British and Foreign Bible
      Society, in the general circulation of the Scriptures; and
      which-corroborates the above report. "The Russians have made many
      proselytes to the Greek Church, (he observes,) from among the
      natives of the North-West coast of North America, and two
      different supplies of copies of the Scriptures in the Slavonian
      and modern Russ languages have been forwarded to that quarter,
      for the use of their settlements there, by the Russian Bible
      Society."

MAY 23.--The Settlers have been very industrious in getting in their
seed corn; but the weather has been, and continues to be very cold,
with a strong north and north-easterly wind, which has cheeked
vegetation; and the woods around us still wear the dark hue of winter.
We now take a plentiful supply of sturgeon, and with the return of the
feathered tribe we are much annoyed by myriads of blackbirds that
destroy a good deal of the new sown grain, as well as when it is ripe
for harvest. Multitudes of pigeons also now appear, and unless they are
continually shot at, they devour the fruits of husbandry. They fly by
millions, and are often seen extending to a vast distance like a cloud;
when one flock has passed another succeeds, and we often profit by this
kind gift of Providence, by shooting them in their migrations, as
excellent food.

There is a general talk among the surrounding tribes of Indians, of
going to war against the Sioux nation. A strong band of the
Assiniboines are directing their course towards Pembina; and Pigewis,
who is by no means a war Chief, is setting off in that direction to
join them. Their rage of vengeance towards the Sioux Indians appears to
know no bounds; but the scalp of some poor solitary individuals among
them will probably terminate the campaign. They cannot keep long
together in numerous parties from the want of foresight to provide for
their subsistence; and accordingly a little more than a week's absence
brought Pigewis back again, with his party, without their having seen
an enemy, and in the destitute condition of being without food and
moccassins.



CHAPTER VI.

PROGRESS OF INDIAN CHILDREN IN READING. BUILDING FOR DIVINE WORSHIP.
LEFT THE COLONY. ARRIVAL AT YORK FORT. DEPARTURE TOR CHURCHILL
FACTORY. BEARS. INDIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. ARRIVAL AT CHURCHILL. INTERVIEW
WITH ESQUIMAUX. RETURN TO YORK FACTORY. EMBARK FOR ENGLAND. MORAVIAN
MISSIONARIES. GREENLAND. ARRIVAL IN THE THAMES.


JUNE 2.--I have been adding two small houses to the Church Mission
School, as separate sleeping apartments for the Indian children, who
have already made most encouraging progress in reading, and a few of
them in writing. In forming this Establishment for their religious
education, it is of the greatest importance that they should be
gradually inured to the cultivation of the soil, and instructed in the
knowledge of agriculture. For this purpose I have allotted a small
piece of ground for each child, and divided the different compartments
with a wicker frame. We often dig and hoe with our little charge in the
sweat of our brow as an example and encouragement for them to labour;
and promising them the produce of their own industry, we find that they
take great delight in their gardens. Necessity may compel the adult
Indian to take up the spade and submit to manual labour, but a child
brought up in the love of cultivating a garden will be naturally led to
the culture of the field as a means of subsistence: and educated in the
principles of Christianity, he will become stationary to partake of the
advantages and privileges of civilization. It is through these means of
instruction that a change will be gradually effected in the character
of the North American Indian, who in his present savage state thinks it
beneath the dignity of his independence to till the ground. What we
value in property, and all those customs which separate us from them in
a state of nature, they think lightly of, while they conclude that our
crossing the seas to see their country is more the effect of poverty
than of industry. To be a _man_, or what is synonymous with them, to be
a great and distinguished character, is to be expert in surprising,
torturing, and scalping an enemy; to be capable of enduring severe
privations; to make a good hunter, and traverse the woods with
geographical accuracy, without any other guide than the tops of the
trees, and the course of the sun. These are exploits which, in their
estimation, form the hero, and to which the expansion of their mind is
confined. Their intellectual powers are very limited, as they enter
into no abstruse meditations, or abstract ideas; but what they know in
the narrow range of supplying their wants, and combating with their
fellow men, they know thoroughly, and are thereby led to consider
themselves the standard of excellence. In their fancied superior
knowledge they are often heard to remark, when conversing with the
European, "You are almost as clever as an Indian." They must be
educated before they can be led to comprehend the benefits to be
received from civilization, or ere a hope can be cherished that their
characters will be changed under the mild influence of the Christian
religion. Man is as his principles are, and wandering under the
influence of those savage-taught habits, in which he has been nurtured,
which tend to harden the heart, and narrow all the sources of sympathy,
the character of the North American Indian is bold, fierce,
unrelenting, sanguinary, and cruel; in fact, a man-devil in war,
rejoicing in blood, exulting in the torments he is inflicting on his
victim, and then most pleased when his inflictions are most exquisite.
We should not be astonished at this character, so repugnant to the
sympathies of our nature, nor should we conclude too hastily against
him,--he also has his sympathies, and those of no common order. He also
loves his parent that begat him, and his child whom he has begotten,
with intense affection; he is not without affection from nature; but
perverted principle has perverted nature; and as his principle is, so
is his practice. Our surprise ceases when we learn that he is trained
up in blood, that he is catechized in cruelty, and that he is
instructed not in slaughter only, but in torment. Nothing that has life
without the pale of his own immediate circle not only does not escape
destruction, but is visited with torment also inflicted by his infant
hand. If his eye in passing by the lake observes the frog moving in the
rushes he instantly seizes his victim, and does not merely destroy it,
but often ingeniously torments it by pulling limb from limb. If the
duck be but wounded with the gun, his prey is not instantly despatched
to spare all future pain, but feather is plucked out after feather, and
the hapless creature is tormented on principle. I have frequently
witnessed the cruelty with which parents will sometimes amuse their
children, by catching young birds or animals, that they may disjoint
their limbs to make them struggle in a lingering death. And a child is
often seen twisting the neck of a young duck or goose, under the
laughing encouragements of the mother for hours together, before it is
strangled. At one moment he satisfies the cravings of nature from the
breast of his mother, and instantly rewards the boon with a violent
blow perhaps on the very breast on which he has been hanging. Nor does
the mother dare resent the injury by an appeal to the father. He would
at once say that punishment would daunt the spirit of the boy. Hence
the Indian never suffers his child to be corrected. We see then the
secret spring of his character. He is a murderer by habit, engendered
from his earliest age; and the scalping knife and the tomahawk, and the
unforgiving pursuit of his own enemy, or his father's enemy, till he
has drenched his hands in, and satiated his revenge with his blood, is
but the necessary issue of a principle on which his education has been
formed. The training of the child forms the maturity of the man.

Our Sunday school is generally attended by nearly fifty scholars,
including adults, independent of the Indian children; and the
congregation consists upon an average of from one hundred to one
hundred and thirty persons. It is a most gratifying sight to see the
Colonists, in groups, direct their steps on the Sabbath morning towards
the Mission house, at the ringing of the bell, which is now elevated in
a spire that is attached to the building. And it is no small
satisfaction to have accomplished the wish so feelingly expressed by a
deceased officer of the Company. "_I must confess_, (he observed) _that
I am anxious to see the first little Christian church and steeple of
wood, slowly rising among the wilds, to hear the sound of the first
sabbath bell that has tolled here since the creation._" I never
witnessed the Establishment but with peculiar feelings of delight, and
contemplated it as the dawn of a brighter day in the dark interior of a
moral wilderness. The lengthened shadows of the setting sun cast upon
the buildings, as I returned from calling upon some of the Settlers a
few evenings ago; and the consideration that there was now a landmark
of Christianity in this wild waste of heathenism, raised in my mind a
pleasing train of thought, with the sanguine hope that this Protestant
Establishment might be the means of raising a _spiritual_ temple to
the Lord, to whom "the heathen are given as an inheritance, and the
utmost parts of the earth as a possession."

I considered it as a small point gained, to have a public building
dedicated to religious purposes, whose spire should catch the eye, both
of the wandering natives, and the stationary Colonists. It would have
its effect on the population generally. The people of England look with
a degree of veneration to the ancient tower and lofty spire of the
Establishment; and they are bound in habitual attachment to her
constitution, which protects the monument and turf graves of their
ancestors. And where the lamp of spiritual Christianity burns but dimly
around her altar, it cannot be denied, that even her established rites
and outward form have some moral effect on the population at large.

On the 10th, I addressed a crowded congregation, in a farewell
discourse, from the pulpit, previous to my leaving the Colony for the
Factory: and having administered the sacrament to those who joined
cordially with me in prayer, that the Missionary who was on his way to
officiate in my absence, might be tenfold, yea a hundred fold, more
blessed in his ministry than I had been, I parted with those upon the
Church Mission Establishment with tears. It had been a long, and
anxious, and arduous scene of labour to me; and my hope was, as about
to embark for England, that I might return to the Settlement, and be
the means of effecting a better order of things.

The weather was favourable on the morning of our departure; and
stepping into the boat the current soon bore us down the river towards
Lake Winipeg. As the spire of the church receded from my view, and we
passed several of the houses of the Settlers, they hailed me with their
cordial wishes for a safe voyage, and expressed a hope of better times
for the Colony. Then it was that my heart renewed its supplications to
that God,

    --'who is ever present, ever felt,
    In the void waste, as in the city full,'

for the welfare of the Settlement, as affording a resting place for
numbers, after the toils of the wilderness in the Company's service,
where they might dwell, through the divine blessing, in the broad
day-light of Christianity; and being bound to the country from having
families by native women, might find the protection and advantages of
civilized life.

With light favourable winds we soon crossed the Lake and arrived at
Norway House, and such is generally the quickness of the passage from
this point to York Factory, that in the rapid stream of the rivers, a
loaded boat will reach the depot in a few days, which will take three
or four weeks to return with excessive toil, from the strength of the
opposing current. It appears dangerous to the inexperienced traveller
to run the rapids in the passage to the Factory, but it is seldom
attended with any serious accident. The men who have charge of the
boats are generally experienced steersmen, and it is an interesting
sight to see them take the rush of water with their boats, and with
cool intrepidity and skill direct the sweep, or steer-oar to their
arrival in safety at the bottom of a rapid of almost a perpendicular
fall of many feet, or through a torrent of water of a quarter of a mile
or more in length. Sometimes, however the boats strike in the violence
of their descent, so as to cause a fracture, and hurry the crew to pull
ashore to save the cargo from damage. This accident befel us several
times in our passage down, but a kind Providence protected us, and we
arrived in safety at York Factory.

Immediately on my arrival, I made arrangements for fulfilling my
Missionary engagement to visit the Esquimaux at Churchill, the
Company's most northern Post on the Bay. It was the advice of Captain
Franklin, that I should walk the distance of about one hundred and
eighty miles, from York Fort to that Factory, as I might be delayed in
a canoe, by the vast quantities of floating ice in the Bay, so as not
to meet these Indians in time. I followed this advice, and having
engaged one of the Company's servants, with an Indian who was an
excellent hunter, we set off on our expedition, on the morning of the
11th of July, accompanied by two Indians, who had come express from
Churchill, and were returning thither. It was necessary that we should
embark in a boat, to cross the North River; and in rowing round the
Point of Marsh, we perceived a brightness in the northern horizon, like
that reflected from ice, usually called the _blink_, and which led
us to suppose that vast fields of it were floating along the coast in
the direction that we were going. It happened to be low water when we
crossed the mouth of the river, so that the boat could not approach
nearer than about a mile from the shore, which obliged us to walk this
distance through the mud and water, to the place where we made our
encampment for the night, and where the mosquitoes inflicted their
torments upon us. We were dreadfully annoyed by them, from the swampy
country we had to traverse, and I was glad to start with the dawn of
the following morning, from a spot where they literally blackened a
small canvass tent that was pitched, and hovered around us in clouds so
as to render life itself burdensome. The day, however, afforded us very
little relief, while walking, nearly ancle deep in water, through the
marshes; and such was their torture upon the poor animals, that we
frequently saw the deer coming out of the woods, apparently almost
blinded and distracted with their numbers, to rush into the water on
the shore for relief. This gave an opportunity to the hunter to kill
two of them in the course of the afternoon, so that we had plenty of
venison, and a good supply of wild fowl, which he had shot for our
evening repast. We started at sunrise the next morning, after having
had but little sleep, as I had been wrapped in my blanket almost to
suffocation, to escape in a degree the misery of our unceasing torment.
Towards noon, we had much better walking than we had before met with,
and were relieved from the mosquitoes by a change of wind blowing cold
from off the ice, which was now seen from the horizon to the shores of
the bay. The relief to us was like a cessation from an agony of pain;
and as the hunter had just killed another deer, and the wild fowl flew
around us in abundance, we pitched the tent, and halted for several
hours, and refreshed ourselves with sleep, after the irritation and
almost sleepless nights that we had endured. We were on the march again
at five o'clock; and after we had forded Stoney River, we came upon the
track of a polar bear. The Indian hunter was very keen in his desire to
fall in with it, and I lamented that I had not an opportunity of seeing
him engage the ferocious animal, which seemed to have taken a survey of
the party, and to have gone into the wood a short distance from us. The
bears are now coming off the ice in the Bay, on which they have been
for several months past, to live upon seals, which they catch as they
lie sleeping by the sides of the holes in the drift ice, when it
dissolves or is driven far from shore. They seek their food among the
sea-weed and every trash that is washed up along the coast, or go upon
the rocks, or to the woods, for berries, during the summer months.
Savage, however, as this animal is, it is not so much dreaded by the
Indians as the grizzly bear, which is more ferocious and forward in his
attack. These are found towards the Rocky Mountains, and none but very
expert hunters like to attack them. A gentleman who was travelling to a
distance on the plains to the West of the Red River Colony, told me of
a narrow escape he once had, with his servant boy, in meeting a grizzly
bear. They were riding slowly along, near the close of the day, when
they espied the animal coming from the verge of a wood in the direction
towards them. They immediately quickened the pace of their horses, but
being jaded with the day's journey, the bear was soon seen to gain upon
them. In this emergency, he hit upon an expedient, which was probably
the means of saving their lives. He took the boy, who was screaming
with terror, behind him, and abandoned the horse that he rode. When the
ferocious animal came up to it, the gentleman, who stopped at some
distance, expected to see the bear rend it immediately with his paws;
but to his surprise, after having walked round and smelt at the horse,
as it stood motionless with fear, the bear returned to the wood, and
the horse was afterwards recovered without injury.

The morning of the 14th was very cold, from the wind blowing off the
ice in the Bay; and when we stopped to breakfast, I was obliged to put
a blanket over my shoulders, as I stood by the fire, for warmth. The
comfortable sensation however was, that we were free from the annoyance
and misery of the mosquitoes; cold, hunger, and thirst, are not to be
compared with the incessant suffering which they inflict. We waded
knee-deep through Owl River, in the afternoon of the 15th. The weather
was cold, and nothing was to be seen in the Bay but floating ice. It
was rather late before we pitched the tent, and we met with some
difficulty in collecting a sufficient quantity of drift wood on the
shore, to kindle a fire large enough to boil the kettle, and cook the
wild fowl that we had shot. The next day we forded Broad River, on the
banks of which we saw several dens, which the bears had scratched for
shelter: and seeing the smoke of an Indian tent at some distance before
us, in the direction we were going, we quickened our step, and reached
it before we stopped to breakfast. We found the whole family clothed in
deer-skins, and upon a hunting excursion from Churchill. The Indian, or
rather a half-breed, was very communicative, and told me that though he
was leading an Indian life, his father was formerly a master at one of
the Company's Posts, and proposed accompanying our party to the
Factory. He had two sons, he said, who were gone in the pursuit of a
deer; and, on quitting the encampment to travel with us, he would leave
some signs for them to follow us on their return. They were the
following, and drawn upon a broad piece of wood, which he prepared with
an axe.

[Illustration:

    6      5      4      3      2      1

    1. To intimate that the family was gone forward.
    2. That there was a Chief of the party.
    3. That he was accompanied by a European servant.
    4. And also by an Indian.
    5. That there were two Indians in company.
    6. That they should follow.]

It is a common custom with the Indians to paint hieroglyphic characters
on dressed buffaloe skins or robes; and a variety of figures are drawn
on many of those which they barter at the Company's Posts. In the
representation of a victory achieved over an enemy, the picture of the
Chief is given, with the mark of his nation, and those of the warriors
who accompanied him. A number of little images point out how many
prisoners were taken; while so many human figures without heads shew
the number who were slain. Such are the expressive signs of a barbarous
people, in recording their war exploits, and communicating information
without the knowledge of letters and the art of printing.

We proceeded, after the wife had put some kettles upon the back of a
miserable looking dog, and had taken her accustomed burden, the tent
with other articles, on her own. The little ones were also severally
laden with a knapsack, and the whole had the appearance of a camp of
gypsies moving through the country.

The 17th. Before we struck our tents this morning, the signs which the
old man left upon the piece of wood yesterday, brought his two sons,
whom he had left hunting, and who had walked nearly the whole of the
night to overtake us. We had now no provisions but what we shot on our
journey, and the addition to our party made every one active in the
pursuit of game as it appeared. The next day we passed Cape Churchill,
and came to a tent of Chipewyan or Northern Indians. The question was
not asked if we were hungry, but immediately on our arrival the women
were busily employed in cooking venison for us; and the men proposed to
go with us to Churchill. As soon as we had finished eating, the tent
was struck, and the whole party proceeded, with the old man a-head,
with a long staff in his hand, followed by his five sons and two
daughters, and the rest of us in the train, which suggested to my mind
the patriarchal mode of travelling. The 19th, our progress was slow,
from being again annoyed with mosquitoes, in a bad track, through a wet
swampy ground. As soon as we had passed the beacon, which was erected
as a landmark to the shipping that formerly sailed to Churchill, as the
Company's principal depôt, before its destruction by Pérouse, two of
the Indians left us, to take a circuit through some islands by the sea,
to hunt for provision. We pitched our tents early, in expectation that
they would join us, but we saw nothing of them that evening. It is
customary, as we were then travelling, to take only one blanket, in
which you roll yourself for the night, without undressing. On laying
down, upon a few willow twigs, I soon afterwards felt so extremely
cold, from the wind blowing strong off a large field of ice drifted on
the shore, that I was obliged to call the servant to take down the
tent, and wrap it round me, before I could get any sleep. The sudden
variation of the weather, however, gave me no cold, nor did it
interrupt a good appetite, which the traveller in these regions usually
enjoys.

Had we not been delayed by the absence of the Indians a hunting we
might have reached the Factory to-day, the 20th. They came in from
their excursion at the time we were taking our breakfast, but without
much success. They had killed an Arctic fox that supplied them with a
meal, and a few ducks which they brought to our encampment, among which
was the Eider duck, so remarkable for the beautiful softness of its
down. In the evening one of the Chipewyan Indians, sent me some dried
venison; and the next morning early we arrived at Churchill. The
Esquimaux, Augustus, who accompanied Captain Franklin to the shores of
the Polar Sea, came out to meet us, and expressed much delight at my
coming to see his tribe, who were expected to arrive at the Factory
every day. He had not seen his countrymen since he acted as one of the
guides in that arduous expedition, and intended to return with them to
his wife and children, laden with presents and rewards for his tried
and faithful services.

JULY 25.--The servants, with the Officers, assembled for divine
service, and laborious as is the office of a Missionary, I felt
delighted with its engagements; and thought it a high privilege to
_visit even_ the wild inhabitants of the rocks with the _simple
design_ of extending the Redeemer's kingdom among them; and that in
a remote quarter of the globe, where probably no Protestant Minister
had ever placed his foot before. The next day a northern Indian leader,
came to the Fort with his family; and upon making known to him the
object of my journey to meet the Esquimaux, he cheerfully promised to
give up one of his boys, a lively active little fellow, to be educated
at the Native School Establishment at the Red River. He appeared very
desirous of having his boy taught more than the Indians knew; and
assisted me in obtaining an orphan boy from a widow woman, who was in a
tent at a short distance, to accompany his son. I told him that they
must go a long way, (Churchill being about a thousand miles distant
from the Colony) but that they would be taken great care of. He made no
objection, but said that they should go, and might return when they had
learnt enough. This was a striking instance of the confidence of an
Indian, and confirmed the opinion that they would part with their
children to those in whom they thought they could justly confide, and
to whose kind tuition they were persuaded they could safely entrust
them. The Company's boats were going to York Factory, and would take
them there; where, on my return, I expected to meet my successor as a
Minister to the Settlement, on his arrival from England by the ship;
and who would take them under his care in continuing the voyage to the
school. "Religion, (says Hearne) has not as yet began to dawn among the
Northern Indians; for, though their conjurors do indeed sing songs and
make long speeches to some beasts and birds of prey, as also to
imaginary beings, which they say assist them in performing cures on the
sick, yet they, as well as their credulous neighbours, are utterly
destitute of every idea of practical religion."

The Company's present Establishment is about five miles up the river,
from the point of rock at its entrance where the ruins of the old
Factory are seen; which was the point Hearne started from on his
journey to the Coppermine River, in the year 1770; and which was blown
up by Pèrouse about the year 1784. It appears to have been strongly
fortified, and from its situation must have been capable of making a
formidable resistance to an enemy; and it can never cease to be a
matter of surprise that it should have been surrendered without firing
a shot. The walls and bastions are still remaining, which are strewed
with a considerable number of cannon, spiked, and of a large calibre.
Augustus used to visit this point every morning, in anxious expectation
that his countrymen would arrive by the way of the coast, in their seal
skin canoes. One day he returned to the Factory evidently much agitated;
and upon inquiry I found that there was an Esquimaux family in a tent
by the shore, under one of the rocks, one of whom had greatly alarmed
him with the information, that soon after he left his tribe with
Junius, (who is supposed to have perished as a guide in the Arctic
Expedition,) one of Junius's brothers took his wife, and thinking that
Augustus was displeased with him, and that he possessed the art of
conjuring, had determined upon his death, and that this superstitious
notion had so preyed upon his spirits as to terminate his existence.
This circumstance, he added, had led a surviving brother to threaten
revenge, and supposing that he might come to the Factory with the
Esquimaux who were expected, he advised him to be on his guard. The
next day, July the 29th, Augustus returned to the point of rock on the
look out, but not without having first requested a brace of pistols,
loaded his musket, and fixed his bayonet, yet nothing was seen of his
countrymen. The next morning I accompanied him to the Esquimaux tent,
with an interpreter, under the idea that I might obtain some
interesting information; and was much pleased to find the family living
in the apparent exercise of social affection. The Esquimaux treated his
wife with kindness; she was seated in the circle who were smoking the
pipe, and there was a constant smile upon her countenance, so opposite
to that oppressed dejected look of the Indian women in general. I asked
the Esquimaux of his country: he said it was good, though there was
plenty of cold and snow; but that there was plenty of musk oxen and
deer; and the corpulency of the party suggested the idea that there was
seldom a want of food amongst them. I told him that mine was better, as
growing what made the biscuit, of which they were very fond, and that
there was much less cold, and that we saw the water much longer than
they did. Observing that the woman was tattooed, I asked him when these
marks were made, on the chin, particularly, and on the hands. His reply
was, when the girls were marriageable, and espoused to their husbands;
who had generally but one wife, though good hunters had sometimes two.
Wishing to know whether they ever abandoned the aged and the infirm to
perish like the Northern Indians, he said, never; assuring me that they
always dragged them on sledges with them in winter to the different
points where they had laid up provisions in the autumn, 'en cache;' and
that they took them in their canoes in summer till they died. Knowing
that some Indians west of the rocky mountains burn their dead, I asked
him if this custom prevailed with the Esquimaux, he said, no; and that
they always buried theirs. The name of this Esquimaux was
_Achshannook_, and as Augustus could write a little, which he had been
taught during the time he was with the expedition, I gave him my
pencil, that the other might see what I wished to teach the Esquimaux
children, as well as to read white man's book, which told us true of
the Great Spirit, whom the Esquimaux did not know, and how they were to
live and die happy. The woman immediately caught up her little girl
about five years of age, and holding her towards me manifested the
greatest delight, with Achshannook, at the wish I had expressed of
having the Esquimaux children taught to write and read the book. They
often pointed in the direction the others were coming, and gave me to
understand that they would soon arrive. We returned to the Fort, and
walking by the side of the river we saw numbers of white whales which
frequent it at this season of the year, and many of which are harpooned
from a boat that is employed, and usually carries three or four of the
Company's servants. The harpooner killed one to-day, which measured
fourteen feet long, and eight in girth, and weighed it was supposed a
ton weight. The blubber is boiled at the Fort, and the oil sent to
England as an article of the Company's trade. When the Esquimaux visit
us from the tent, they generally go to the spot where the carcases of
the whales are left to rot after the blubber is taken, and carry away a
part, but generally from the fin or the tail; they have been known,
however, to take the maggots from the putrid carcase, and to boil them
with train oil as a rich repast. They are extremely filthy in their
mode of living. The Esquimaux who was engaged at the Fort as an
interpreter, used to eat the fish raw as he took them out of the net,
and devour the head and entrails of those that were cooked by the
Company's servants. And it is their constant custom, when their noses
bleed by any accident to lick their blood into their mouths and swallow
it.

Though the beaver, which furnishes the staple fur of the country, is
not common in this immediate neighbourhood, an Indian was successful
enough to kill one at a short distance down the river, which he brought
to the Fort. It was roasted for dinner, and proved of excellent
flavour, though I could not agree that the tail, which was served up in
a separate dish, was of that superior taste it is generally considered
to be. The sagacity of this animal has often been described; and I have
frequently been surprised at the singular construction of their houses,
the care with which they lay up their provision of wood, and the mode
in which they dam up the water near their habitations. They cut with
their teeth sticks of a considerable size, and when larger than they
are able to drag, they contrive to fell them on the bank, so that they
may fall and float down the stream to the place where they design to
make the dam; and then entwine them with willow twigs, which they
plaster with mud, so as effectually to obtain a head of water.

We met again on the Sabbath for divine worship on both parts of the
day, as we had done on the previous Sunday. As the Esquimaux did not
make their appearance, we began to think that the ice in the Bay might
have prevented their coming to the Factory. We were relieved from our
doubts however, on the 2nd of August, by Augustus running to the Fort
with the information that his countrymen were seen coming along in
their canoes. He waited till he ascertained that Junius's brother, who
was said to have threatened his life, was not of the party, and then
went to meet them. Some of them came over the rocks with the canoes
upon their heads, as being a much nearer way to the Company's Post from
the spot where they left the Bay, than following the course of the
river. Their number, with a small party that came soon afterwards, was
forty-two men, who brought with them a considerable quantity of the
Arctic fox skins, musk-ox, and deer skins, with those of the wolf and
wolverine, together with sea-horse teeth, and the horn of a sea-unicorn
about six feet long for barter at the Company's Post. In appearance
they strongly resembled each other, and were all clothed with deer-skin
jackets and lower garments of far larger than usually Dutch size, made
of the same material. Their stature was low, like that of the wife of
the Esquimaux at the tent who was not five feet in height. They were
all very broad set, with remarkably small eyes, low foreheads, and of a
very fine bronze complexion. A few of the men however were nearly six
feet in stature, and of a strong robust make. As soon as they had
bartered the articles which they brought with them for those they
requested in return, which were guns, ammunition, beads, and blankets
principally, they were informed that I had travelled a long way to see
them, and to have some talk with them.

The next day, they gathered round me, and with Augustus and an
interpreter, I was enabled to make the object of my visit to them well
understood. I told them that I came very far across the great lake,
because I loved the Esquimaux; that there were very many in my country
who loved them also, and would be pleased to hear that I had seen them.
I spoke true. I did not come to their country, thinking it was better
than mine, nor to make house and trade with them, but to enquire, and
they must speak true, if they would like white man to make house and
live amongst them, to teach their children white man's knowledge, and
of the Great and Good Spirit who made the world. The sun was then
shining in his glory, and the scenery in the full tide of the water
before us was striking and beautiful; when I asked them, if they knew
who made the heavens, the waters, and the earth, and all things that
surrounded us, so pleasing to our sight? their reply was, 'We do not
know whether the Person who made these things is dead or alive.' On
assuring them that I knew, and that it was my real wish that they and
their children should know also the Divine Being, who was the Creator
of all things; and on repeating the question, whether they wished that
white man should come and give them this knowledge, they all
simultaneously expressed a great desire that he should, laughing and
shouting, "heigh! heigh! augh! augh!" One of them afterwards gave me a
map of the coast which they traversed, including Chesterfield Inlet,
and which he drew with a pencil that I lent him, with great accuracy,
pointing out to me the particular rivers where the women speared salmon
in the rapids in summer, while the men were employed in killing the
deer, as they crossed in the water some points of the Inlet; or were
hunting on the coast, catching seals. Being provident, and not so
regardless of the morrow as the Indians in general, they lay up
provisions at these different places for the winter, and probably
seldom suffer from want of food; nor are they long in summer without
their favourite dish of the flesh and fat of the seal, mixed with train
oil as a sauce, which they prefer to salmon; and when not mixed with
their food, they drink the oil as a cordial.

The Esquimaux often surrounded me in groups, during their stay at the
Factory, and cordially shaking hands, were fond of saying, that the
Northern Indians, or Chipewyans, sprang from dogs, but that they were
formerly as white men. I encouraged them in the idea that we were
originally of the same parents, but that they being scattered, we knew
now a great deal more than they did, and therefore came to see if it
were possible to teach their children our knowledge, for their
happiness, and also themselves, if it were their desire. They appeared
to be quite overjoyed at this conversation, and laughed heartily,
shouting, "Heigh! heigh!" saying, (as the interpreter expressed it,)
"We want to know the Grand God."

I told them that there were stones on the edge of the water, in their
country, and that with a little wood, a house might be made like what
they saw at the Fort. Should I, or any other person, ever come from
across the great lake, to build this house, where their children might
live, and be taught what I had told them; I asked if they would assist
to bring the stones, and help to raise the building. They signified
their willingness by shouting again in their usual manner. I mentioned
the above circumstance, as conceiving it to be practicable and
advisable, from the best information I could obtain, that the first
attempt to form an establishment on the shores of the Bay, to educate
the children of the Esquimaux, should be made at Knapp's Bay, or, as
called by the Esquimaux, Aughlinatook. Augustus's tribe traverse this
part of the coast, which is about two hundred miles north of Churchill;
from whence the frame of the building and some dry provisions in casks
might be taken in boats, to maintain the party, at first making the
settlement, independent of the common resources of the country, and of
the Esquimaux; and a communication kept up with the Company's Post,
which might easily be done, both in summer and winter. It is said that
the word, difficulty, is not known in the English Military dictionary,
and surely ought not to be found in that of the Missionary; and a
mission undertaken to the Esquimaux, upon the plan suggested, conducted
with prudence, intrepedity, and perseverance, can leave little doubt as
to its ultimate success. They tied knots upon a sinew thread, tieing a
knot for each child as it was named, to inform me, at my request, of
the number of children they had belonging to their tribe, and which
they would bring to the school for instruction. The number on the sinew
thread was sixty-two boys and sixty-four girls. Whenever I spoke to
them about provisions, they uniformly said that they would bring
plenty; but should the establishment be made, a small number of
children would at first of course be taken, and increased in proportion
as the resources of the country, and the supplies afforded by the
Esquimaux towards the support of their children, were pretty accurately
ascertained. It is true that they live in a country, as those do on the
Labrador coast, of hopeless barrenness, and endure almost a perpetual
winter's blast; but the success of the faithful devoted Moravian
Missionaries, on the coast of Labrador, and on that of Greenland, in
their labours, privations, and perseverance, to impart the knowledge of
Christianity, which has been blessed of God to the salvation of the
Esquimaux, holds out every encouragement to the intrepid Missionary, in
his attempts to benefit, with Christian instruction, those on the
shores of Hudson's Bay.

    'Cold is the clime, the winds are bleak,
      And wastes of trackless snow,
    Ye friends of our incarnate God!
      Obscure the paths ye go.

    'But hearts more cold, and lusts more fierce,
      And wider wastes of sin,
    Ye Preachers of redeeming love!
      Obscure the soul within.

    'Yet go: and though both poles combine,
      To freeze the sinner's soul,
    The sinner's soul shall yield to grace,
      For grace can melt the pole.

    'Then blow ye winds, and roll ye waves,
      Your task assigned perform:
    The God of grace is nature's God,
      And rides upon the storm.

    'Nature and Providence obey
      The dictates of his grace;
    Go! for each drop subserves his cause
      Each atom has its place.'

A few of the Esquimaux who came to the Fort, were from Chesterfield
Inlet, and proposed to return, before the other party left us for
Knapp's Bay. Before they started, Augustus was very desirous that I
should see his countrymen conjure; and bringing a blanket and a large
knife, he assured me that one of them would swallow the knife, and not
die; or fire a ball through his body, leaning upon a gun, without being
injured. I understood that he was to perform this jugglery with the
blanket round him, which I objected to, if I saw it; but told him that
I had great objections to such deceptions and art, by which they
imposed on each other; and observed, that if his countrymen could
really conjure, they should conjure the whales to the shore, which were
then sporting in the river before us. He was not pleased, however, with
my refusal, and it was with difficulty that I prevented the exhibition.
When the party left us, they encircled me, and said that they would
tell all of their tribe what had been mentioned about teaching the
Esquimaux children white man's knowledge of the Great Spirit. They
informed me that a great many of the Esquimaux meet in summer about
Chesterfield Inlet; that some come down from the great lake to the
north, and that they had met some, who had seen two very large canoes
when there was no ice; and when one of these canoes stood in towards
the shore where they were, they were so alarmed as to run off over the
rocks, and that they did not return till the big canoes were out of
sight towards where the sun rises. This information led me to suppose
that they were the Discovery Ships, under the command of Captain Parry;
and to conjecture that the ice had been a barrier to his progress in
search of a North-West Passage, and that he was returning down the Bay
to England. The object of the Esquimaux in meeting from different
tribes at Chesterfield Inlet every year, is to barter with those
principally who trade at Churchill Factory, and also with some Northern
Indians, who exchange what European articles they may have for
fish-hooks made of bone, and sinew lines, and skins. I then shook hands
with them, and gave to each individual a clasp-knife, some tobacco, and
a few beads, to take with them to their wives, with which they were
much pleased, telling me, not to be afraid to come to their country, as
Esquimaux would treat me well.

AUGUST 7.--When the remaining party returned to Knapp's Bay, it was
proposed by the Master of the Company's Posts, that they should stop
for a few days at Seal River, about fifty miles north of Churchill, and
spear white whales for the blubber. This they readily assented to, and
the day after they started, I accompanied the officer in a boat to the
point where they were to be employed. We pitched our tents near the
place where they rested at night, and were much amused at their
dexterity in spearing a number of whales on the following day. In the
course of two days they harpooned about forty, so numerous were these
animals in the Bay at the mouth of the river. These Esquimaux were not
unacquainted with habits of cleanliness, for they were no sooner ashore
from spearing whales, than they changed their dirty skin dress for one
of a newer and cleaner character; and in seating themselves in a
circle, around a small fire they had made, I observed that while they
boiled the skin of the whale, and some partook of it, others were
eating the tail and the fin in a raw state. I never knew natives more
orderly and less troublesome; we were in their power, but so far from
annoying us, they never even came to our tents, importuning for tobacco
and other articles, as is generally the case with Indians when near
their own encampment.

Wishing to talk with them again on the subject of teaching their
children, I invited to my tent seven of the oldest men among them; and
repeated to them the questions which I had put to the whole of them
before. They expressed the same feelings in favour of instruction, and
a hope that I was not afraid to come to their country, promising, when
white man came, not to steal from him, a vice which they are sometimes
guilty of at the Factory. I found that they believed in a future state;
and acknowledged that there was a bad Spirit, who made them suffer, and
to whom they prayed that he would not hurt them. They thought that when
a bad man died, the bad Spirit took him, and put him in a hole under
ground, where there was always fire, but this idea they might have got
from their intercourse with Europeans at the Fort: and when a good man
died, they believed that the moon took him up, where he lived as he had
done below, only that he had always plenty to enjoy, and less paddling
to do. In parting with these Indians, as with the others who returned
to Chesterfield Inlet, I gave to each individual a clasp knife, some
tobacco, and a few beads to take to their wives; and my prayer to God
was, that some effectual step might be taken to communicate to these
heathen, that knowledge which they appeared desirous of receiving, and
which would ameliorate their condition through a scriptural hope of a
future life.

We returned to the Factory, along a coast the most dangerous to
navigate that can possibly be conceived, from fragments of rocks being
studded in the water for miles from the shore, and which are only
visible at the reflux of the tide. The safest course to take is to run
out to sea, and sail along out of sight of land; but this is hazardous
in an open boat, if the weather be stormy, or the water is much ruffled
by the wind. The Company lost a boat's crew last fall, as they were
returning to Churchill, from one of the points of rock where they had
been to collect geese, which the Indians had shot, and which are salted
as part of the winter supply of provisions at the Establishment. At
first it was supposed that the boat had been driven out to sea, and all
had perished in a most painful manner; but during our stay, an Indian
came to the Fort, to inform the officer that the empty boat was lying
on the beach, about six or seven miles to the south of Churchill River.
He immediately sent men to the spot, and to search along the coast for
some remains at least of the bodies of the crew, but not the least
appearance of them could be found. The boat filled and went down, with
the sail set and fastened to the mast, which was the state in which it
was found; but whether she struck upon the point of a sunken rock, or
swamped at the conflux of the waters off the mouth of the river at the
return of the tide, not a man survived to tell the melancholy tale.

The 10th.--I began to make preparations for my return to York Factory,
in the supply of ammunition and a couple of days' provisions for our
journey. As every thing we took was borne on the back of the men, we
deemed this sufficient, with the supply we were likely to obtain in our
walk through a country which at this season of the year generally
abounds with wildfowl. It was painful to see several Indian women in an
infirm state of health and lame, continually begging for a little
oatmeal, or picking _tripe de roche_ for a subsistence, being
unable to follow the tribe they belonged to; and, upon inquiry, I found
that it was a common custom among the Chipewyans, to leave the aged,
the infirm, and the sick, when supposed incapable of recovery, to
perish for want! and that one-half of the aged probably die in this
miserable condition! The common feelings of humanity suggest the
question,--Could not some establishment be formed, as a hospital for
the reception of a certain number at least of the aged and infirm;
towards the maintenance of which, the Indians themselves, in bringing
their relations, might be induced to contribute, were it only the tenth
skin from the produce of their hunting? If this establishment could not
be formed near the coast, might not one be made as an experiment on the
borders of their country in the Athabasca? where grain and Indian corn
might be raised towards its support. The subject at least challenges
inquiry, and is fraught with deep interest, as calling forth the best
feelings of benevolence; for a more deplorable situation in existence
cannot be conceived, than for persons to be deserted in afflictive old
age, suffering infirmity, and left at the last stage of life to expire
in want, when, of all other periods in our mortal career, we most need
attention, and sympathy, and kindness.

These Indians have a singular custom of wrestling for any woman to whom
they are attached; and she has to witness the contest, which consists
in hauling each other about by the hair of the head, without kicking or
striking, till the strongest party carries her off as his prize. And
instead of stabbing one another in their quarrels, as is frequently the
case with the Southern Indians, these generally decide them by
wrestling. They may permit a weak man, if he be a good hunter, to keep
the object of his choice; but otherwise he is obliged to yield his wife
to a stronger man, who may think her worth his notice. This barbarous
custom I should suppose prevails among the Esquimaux who visit
Churchill Factory, as they pointed out to me, at the time I saw them, a
weakly looking man, who they said had his wife taken from him by
another of superior strength. They shewed me also how they decided
their quarrels, by each party alternately bending the body in a
horizontal position, and receiving from each other a blow of the fist
on the temple or side of the face.

On the 12th, we left Churchill Factory, and in our track killed plenty
of wild-fowl, and were again tortured with the mosquitoes, till after
the second day's march, when we waded through a low swampy ground,
frequently half-leg deep in water, to some dry ridges of land. The wind
blew again off the ice in the bay, which enabled us to walk without
much annoyance; and in our progress, we often passed large holes, which
the bears had scratched in these ridges to lie in, and which, from the
impression of their paws on the sand, several had recently left. On the
17th, we came to a tent of Indians, who were encamped on the shore, for
the purpose of killing them, in the front of which was the head of one
that they had lately shot, stuck upon some painted sticks, in
expression of some superstitious notions respecting the animal. They
have a great dread of bears, and are very fond of wearing their claws
round their necks, ornamented as a necklace, under the idea that they
shall be preserved from their ferocious attacks. A short time before I
left the Red River Colony, a Saulteaux Indian came to my residence with
a necklace strung with some large claws; and prevailing upon him to
part with it for some tobacco, he addressed it in a very grave speech,
when he took it from his neck, and laid it for me on the table, in
language to the following effect:--"My grandfather! you and I have been
together some time--we must now part. Go to that Chief; and in leaving
me, be not angry, but let me kill buffaloe when I am hungry, and
another bear when I meet with it, and then I will make another necklace
of the claws." I smiled at this address, when, looking at me very
seriously, he said, "If you offend the bear," (I supposed he meant the
spirit of the bear, whose claws he had given me,) "the bears will be
sure to eat you."

On the 18th, some Indians whom we met, told us that they had heard the
great guns of the ship, on her arrival from England, though they had
not seen her at anchor. The next day convinced us of the fact; and we
reached York Factory early the following morning, after having walked
on our return from Churchill, the supposed distance of one hundred and
eighty miles, through a trackless path in swamps and long grass, in
less than seven days.

Here I had the happiness of meeting the Rev. Mr. Jones, arrived by the
ship, on his way to the Red River Settlement, my fellow-labourer in
that situation; to whom I committed the two Chipewyan Indian boys.
After a few days, he proceeded with his little charge to his
destination. And may God, whom we serve in the gospel of his Son,
abundantly bless his exertions, on entering upon a field of anxious and
laborious toil, which I have just left, to visit the land of my
nativity and affection, after an absence of more than three years.

York Factory, as the principal depôt, is rapidly improving in
appearance, and in the extent of its buildings. A number of the chief
Factors and Traders meet here every summer, and a council is held for
the management of the _Northern Factory_; while another is also
annually held at Moose, in St. James's Bay, for the direction of the
_Southern Factory_. This division of the Company's territory, comprises
the whole of the country, from the furthest known point to the north to
the boundary line of the United States, and from the waters of the
Pacific to those of the Atlantic. In carrying into effect the moral
improvement of the country, which has long been contemplated, it would
be very desirable that schools should be established at the Company's
chief depôts; where it is presumed provisions might be obtained, for
the support at least of a limited number of the half-caste children.
And the most beneficial results might follow the regular performance of
divine worship on the Sabbath, by a Clergyman, throughout the summer
months at least, in a building erected and appropriated as a chapel.
These are arrangements, which every benevolent mind, truly desirous of
promoting the best interests of the country, where the progress of
moral and religious instruction would be but slow, would rejoice to see
practically entered upon.

It may be stated with pleasure that directions have been given to
lessen the quantity of spirituous liquors in barter with the natives.
The baneful effects of such a medium of trade have long been deplored
by all who have regarded the amelioration of their state, and sought to
improve their wandering condition. Cruelty, disease, and premature
decay have for centuries past been generated wherever Europeans have
introduced the exchange of ardent spirits with the Indians. No act
therefore can be more beneficial and humane than that of gradually
altering a system which is at once so prejudicial to the native, and
injurious to the morals of the trader. It is to be hoped that the
benevolent intentions of the Honourable Committee will be carried into
full effect, together with the resolutions passed in council at York
Factory, July 1823, for the purpose of improving the moral state, both
of the Indians and of the European inhabitants of the Company's
territory; an event highly interesting to every friend of humanity and
religion.

SEPT. 10.--We embarked on board the ship Prince of Wales on her return
to England, and left the anchorage next day with a favourable wind. The
weather being moderate, on Sunday the 14th we enjoyed the privilege of
having two full services.

The 16th.--The wind continues light and favourable, and I have been
much interested in reading Mr. Wilberforce's pamphlet, entitled, "An
Appeal in behalf of the Negro Slaves." When will men regard each other
as brethren, connected by the common ties of humanity, and as generally
responsible to God, the Judge of all.

Sunday, 21st.--When off Cape Charles at the entrance of Hudson's
straits, the Thermometer I observed was as low as 24°; and the land as
we passed along was covered with snow. The prospect was most chilling
and dreary. Though it blew fresh, there was not however a heavy swell
of the sea, which gave us the opportunity of having divine service both
morning and afternoon. I felt humbled in going through the Ministerial
duties of the day; and the experience of my heart imposes on me the
obligation of labouring more and more after humiliation. What a
consolation is it to _know_ that we are saved by hope, even in Him, who
sitteth upon the circle of the heavens, directing the course of the
elements--who commandeth the waters and they obey Him.

On the 23d we encountered a heavy gale of wind, with a short and angry
sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with waves, and all on board
were reeling to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man. Towards
evening it blew a hurricane; the heavens were black with tempest, and
all around us appeared awfully dangerous. Self-examination is at all
times profitable and incumbent on the Christian, but when dangers press
around him in a tumultuous scene of waters, it is peculiarly consolatory
for him to find upon examination, that the sheet anchor of his hope is
well grounded; and that he has laboured in the cause of his divine Lord
with a conscious integrity, though with a conscious imperfection of
character. It was _well_ said by the wife of a Missionary, in her last
moments, when it was observed to her that she was dying a sacrifice in
the cause of missions, "_I would rather_ (said she) _die a penitent
sinner at the cross of Christ._" Every day, in the smooth unruffled
calm of life, or on the tempestuous ocean of its existence, would I
_feel_ the sentiment so expressive of the Christian's security, and
simple reliance upon the omnipotent arm of the Saviour, as uttered by
St. Peter, when ready to sink amidst the threatening waves, "Lord save
us, we perish."

During the 25th we were becalmed off the Upper Savage Islands, amidst
several large icebergs, some of which were stranded on the shore, and
would receive the accumulation of another winter's fall of snow, from
not being driven out of the Straits into the Atlantic Ocean, where they
are dissolved. The winter was again setting in with a cold frosty air,
and frequent snow storms. The next morning the wind freshened, and on
the 27th, when we were off Saddle Back, we experienced another heavy
gale of wind, which was so violent about eight o'clock in the evening,
that it broke the mizen top sail yard, while nine of the sailors were
furling the sail. Providentially the broken part of the yard slung with
the ropes, or every soul must inevitably have perished, from the
violent rolling of the ship. A more rough and stormy night could not
well be experienced, with the aggravated danger of sailing among a
number of large isles of floating ice; the running foul of one of which
would be immediate destruction, as upon a rock.

The next day the wind moderated, and was favourable, but from the
rolling of the ship I could only read the morning and evening prayers,
and that with some difficulty, when we met for divine worship. In the
evening we approached Resolution Island, and the waters of the Atlantic
opened to us with the encouraging prospect of having more sea room to
encounter any storms that we might afterwards meet with. As we left the
barren rugged shores of the Straits, and the chain of rocks terminating
in ragged points on the coast of Labrador, there was a general spirit
of congratulation; and the prospect of crossing the great Western Ocean
in safety raised in my mind the ascription of praise uttered by the
Psalmist, "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his
benefits."

OCT. 4.--We were off Cape Farewell, South Greenland, with strong gales
of wind. This point called to my mind the labours of the Moravian
Missionaries who had formed several settlements, the most southern of
which I believe is Lichterau, among the Greenlanders, under far greater
difficulties, than are likely to assail the Missionary, in his attempt
to form an establishment for the instruction of the same race of people
in the principles of divine truth on the shores of Hudson's Bay, with
the aid and co-operation of the Hudson's Bay Company. These pious,
simple, devoted Missionaries, have proved that missions to the heathen
on the most inhospitable and barren shores are not visionary schemes,
but succeed effectually under the blessing of heaven to the conversion
of the natives; and they have established the principle, that wherever
the waters roll, and however barren the rock on which man is to be
found, there man may be benefitted with the saving knowledge and
blessings of Christianity. The account given of the first Missionaries
of the United Brethren, whose entrance upon the inhospitable and icy
coasts of Greenland was in 1733, among whom was that eminent servant of
the mission, Matthew Stach, is truly interesting. Leaving Hernnhutt,
they first proceeded to the Danish capital, as Greenland was under that
government, to obtain the sanction of the King, in their intended
mission. Their first audience with the Chamberlain was not a little
discouraging, but being convinced, by a closer acquaintance of the
solidity of their faith, and the rectitude of their intentions, this
Minister became their firm friend, and willingly presented their
memorial to the King, who was pleased to approve of their design, and
wrote a letter with his own hand, recommending them to the notice of
the Danish Missionary, Egede, who had undertaken a mission to Greenland
in 1721, but had hitherto accomplished very little in the way of
success, notwithstanding his indefatigable exertions.

The Chamberlain also introduced them to several persons distinguished
by rank and piety, who liberally contributed toward the expense of
their voyage and intended settlement. Being asked one day by his
Excellency, how they proposed to maintain themselves in Greenland, they
answered, that they depended on the labour of their own hands and God's
blessing; and that not to be burdensome to any one, they would build
themselves a house and cultivate the ground. It being objected that
they would find no wood to build with, as the country presented little
but a face of barren rock. "Then," replied they in a true Missionary
spirit, "we will dig into the earth and lodge there." "No," said the
Minister, "to that necessity you shall not be reduced; you shall take
timber with you for building a house; accept of these fifty dollars for
that purpose." With this and other donations, they purchased poles,
planks and laths; instruments for agriculture, and carpenter's work,
together with several sorts of seeds and roots, with provisions. Thus
equipped, says Crantz, they took an affectionate leave of the Court
where they had been so hospitably entertained, and embarked on the 10th
of April, on board the King's ship, Caritas, Capt. Hildebrand. The
congregation at Hernhutt had already adopted the custom of annually
compiling a collection of scripture texts for every day in the year,
each illustrated or applied by a short verse from some hymn. This text
was called the "daily word," it supplied a profitable subject for
private meditation, and a theme for the public discourses. The daily
word on the morning of their embarkation on a mission which so often
appeared to baffle all hope, was, '_Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen._'

    "We view Him, whom no eye can see,
    With faith's keen vision stedfastly."

In this confidence they set sail; nor did they suffer themselves to be
confounded by any of the unspeakable difficulties of the following
years, till they and we at last beheld the completion of what they
hoped for in faith.

They sailed by Shetland, April 22nd; and, after an expeditious and
agreeable voyage, entered Davis's Straits in the beginning of May. Here
they encountered a field of floating ice, while enveloped in a thick
fog; but the next day a terrible storm arose, which dispersed the ice
and freed them at the same time from their fears. On the 13th they came
in sight of the coast of Greenland, when a violent tempest of four
days' continuance, preceded by a total eclipse of the sun, drove them
back more than sixty leagues. May 20th, they cast anchor in Ball's
River, after a voyage of six weeks; and joyfully welcomed the snowy
cliffs and savage inhabitants of a country which had so long been the
chief object of their wishes. The word of the day was, _The peace of
God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Jesus Christ._ By this they were frequently encouraged to a
peaceful and believing perseverance, during the first ensuing years,
amidst all the oppositions which they met with, and the slender
prospect they entertained of the conversion of the heathen.

The sight of the first Greenlanders, though they could not speak a word
to them, was accompanied with sensations of lively pleasure; their
pitiable condition pierced them to the heart, and they prayed the Lord,
_the Light to enlighten the gentiles_, that he would grant them
grace, wisdom, and power, to bring some of them at least out of
darkness into His marvellous light. Immediately on their landing they
repaired to Mr. Egede. He gave them a cordial reception, congratulated
them on their undertaking, and promised them his assistance in learning
the language. They next fixed on a spot for their building, on the
nearest habitable part of the coast, to which they afterward gave the
name of New Hernnhutt; and having consecrated it with prayer began to
run up a Greenland hut of stones and sods, in which they might find
shelter, until they had erected a wooden house. At first the natives
regarded them with contempt, concluding from the readiness with which
they engaged in every kind of manual labour, that they were the
Factor's servants; and being scattered among the islands and hills to
fish, catch seals, and hunt deer, while in winter they made journies on
sledges to their acquaintance upwards of a hundred leagues North or
South; the Brethren had little access to them, and but faint hopes of
making any permanent impression on their minds in their wandering mode
of existence. Some of the natives, however, paid a visit to them, but
it was only from curiosity to see their buildings, or to beg needles,
fish hooks, knives, and other such articles, if not to steal; and no
proffered advantages could tempt them to remain for a short time at the
Settlement. Till at length when they understood that the object of
these faithful, tried, and persevering Missionaries was not to trade
with them, but to make them acquainted with their Creator; and when
they observed their modest and gentle carriage, so different from that
of other Europeans, they paid them more attention, pressed them to come
to their huts, and promised to return the visit themselves. A more
frequent intercourse gradually commenced, and the Greenlanders would
sometimes spend a night with the Brethren. The motives of their visits
were, indeed, glaringly selfish. They wanted either food and shelter,
or presents of needles and other things. They even bluntly declared,
that if the Missionaries would give them no stock-fish, they would no
longer listen to what they had to say: and during the winter, which was
intensely cold, the Brethren could not refuse their request for
provisions. They did not altogether discontinue their visits in summer,
but they generally came after spending the night in feasting and
revelling, too drowsy to support a conversation, or intent only upon
hearing some news, or on begging or purloining whatever might strike
their fancy. Their pilfering habits made their visits not a little
troublesome to the Brethren, but the latter did not wish to frighten
them away; and were content for the present, that they came at all,
especially as a few of them discovered a satisfaction in being present
at the evening meetings, though held in German, and made inquiries into
the design of them. After a series of trying hardships; and after
enduring privations for years, they were encouraged in their mission,
established in much long-suffering and patience, by one of the natives
visiting them, and desiring to "see their things." They showed him what
they had, supposing that he wished to barter some Greenland food for
their iron ware. But after remaining quite silent for some time, he at
last said that he had been with the Minister, (Mr. Egede) who had told
him wonderful things of _One_, who was said to have created heaven
and earth, and was called God. Did they know any thing about it? If
they did, they should tell him something more, as he had forgotten a
good deal. This discourse made a deep impression on their minds. They
told him of the creation of man, and the intention it; of the fall and
consequent corruption of the human race; of the redemption through
Christ; of the resurrection; and of eternal happiness and damnation.
The poor Greenlander listened very attentively, was present at their
evening meeting, and slept all night in their tent. Further inquiries
were afterwards made among the natives, till the Brethren had their two
Greenland houses completely filled, and a native congregation
collected. The word of the gospel was eventually propagated by the
Missionaries through a vast extent of country, and its glad tidings
spread still farther by the savages themselves, so that a numerous
company of Greenlanders have been gathered to Jesus Christ by the
preaching of his word--moulded into a spiritual congregation by the
operation of the Holy Ghost (says the above historian,) and furnished
with such provisions for its good discipline, both within and without,
that amidst all defects, it might in truth be called a living,
flourishing, fruit-bearing plant of the heavenly Father's planting.

Such an example of success in Missionary exertions, in the frozen and
uncultivated regions of Greenland and of Labrador, as the United
Brethren have set, holds out every encouragement to hope that a mission
would succeed among the Esquimaux at Hudson's Bay. They resemble the
Greenlanders in their aspect, dress, and mode of living; and speaking
the same language, it would greatly aid the mission to them, if one or
two Christian natives could be obtained and prevailed upon to join it
from the coast of Greenland. They are shouting from their native rocks
for instruction, and have appealed to the Christian sympathy and
benevolence of every friend of missions, in language of the same import
as the call of Macedonia,--"We want to know the grand God."

    "Shall we, whose souls are lighted
      With wisdom from on high,
    Shall we to men benighted
      The lamp of life deny?
    Salvation! oh, salvation!
      The joyful sound proclaim,
    Till each remotest nation
      Has learn'd Messiah's name.
    Waft, waft, ye winds, his story,
      And you, ye waters, roll,
    Till, like a sea of glory,
      It spreads from pole to pole;
    Till o'er our ransomed nature,
      The Lamb for sinners slain,
    Redeemer, King, Creator!
      In bliss returns to reign."

    BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

The 5th.--Sunday. The wind has blown hard all day, so as to permit,
from the rolling of the ship, of my only reading the Morning and
Evening Prayers, for divine worship. I know that God, who made heaven,
earth, and seas, is not confined to forms of prayer, how ever
excellent, any more than to temples made with hands. But as a
formulary, how full and comprehensive is that of the Church of England!
and how well adapted to express the feelings of the mind, humbled, and
penitentially exercised, yet exalted in hope at the throne of a
covenant God in Christ Jesus. When the prayers are _prayed_, and not
merely read in the cold formality of office, instead of wearying the
mind by repetition, how often are they the means of arresting our
wandering thoughts, and awakening a devotional feeling! This effect, I
trust, was produced in our minds, as we met together, for the public
services of the day, in the cabin of the ship.

From the 5th to the 9th, we had stiff gales of wind from the same
quarter, which caused the sea to roll with a majesty and grandeur that
I never before witnessed. I stood on the quarterdeck, in admiration of
the scene, and of the wonders of God in the deep, as wave rolled after
wave, occasionally breaking on its _mountainous_ top into a roaring and
foaming surge. But while the waves roar and the winds howl around me, I
am borne in safety through the mighty waters towards the desired haven.
What a fit emblem is this experience of the spiritual and eternal
safety of the Christian, in the ark of the covenant, amidst the foaming
billows of affliction, the wind of temptation, and every storm of trial
raised by man in a fallen and disordered world, branded with so many
marks of its Creator's displeasure.

We were prevented from meeting in the cabin, for divine service, on
Sunday the 12th, from its blowing a hard gale, and the violent tossing
of the ship. We now experienced a sensible alteration in the weather,
as being much milder; and a couple of black wolves and a bear, which we
had on board, were evidently affected by the change of the atmosphere,
as we were bearing up for the Orkney Isles. On the 15th, we anchored in
Stromness harbour, and, leaving this anchorage on the 17th, we reached
Yarmouth Roads, October the 23d; and through a kind protecting
Providence, I landed, on the following day, from the ship, in the
Thames.

Since my departure from England, in May 1820, to this period of my
return, not one accident have I met with, nor have I been called to
experience a single day's illness. Though in perils oft by land and by
sea, and exposed to threatened dangers of the ice, and of the desert,
still my life has been preserved.

                     *      *      *      *      *

Praised be the Lord God of my salvation!

In sending this volume to the press, I feel that I am discharging a
duty which I owe to the natives of the rocks and of the wilderness,
whom I have seen in the darkness and misery of heathenism; and I
ardently desire that the Mission already entered upon, may become the
means of widely extending the knowledge of Christianity among them. I
have no higher wish in life, than to spend and be spent in the service
of Christ, for the salvation of the North American Indians. Not my
will, however, but His be done, who alone can direct and control all
Missions successfully, to the fulfilment of His prophetic word, when
"The wilderness shall become a fruitful field," and "the desert shall
rejoice and blossom as the rose."

                     *      *      *      *      *

Since the foregoing sheets were sent to the Printer, very gratifying
intelligence has been received of the improved state of the Colony; and
a sanguine hope is entertained that several native Indian children from
different nations will be added to the number of those already upon the
Church Mission School establishment at the Red River.

                     *      *      *      *      *

THE END.





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America - and Frequent Excursions Among the North-West American - Indians, In the Years 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823." ***

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