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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est filmd d partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. y errata )d to nt ie pelure, 9on d 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 I.iil Ui.'X) ^'r PR] G WIT] Whei )i' of i'l int. tj hav m If,-; 1 CH () '"■Hit TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE, NORTH-AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1820-21. UNDERTAKEN WITH A DESIGN TO ESTABLISH SABBATH SCHOOLS, And Investigate the Religious State of the Country ; Wherein is given a Short Account of the Different Denomination:* of Christians, their Former History and Present Condition, interspersed with Notices relative to the various Clergymen that have officiated on the Island. I BY WALTER JOHNSTONE, AUTHOR OP " A SERIES OP LETTERS" DESCRIPTIVE OF THAT ISLAND. ;S Y EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR DAVID BROWN, 16, SOUTH ST. ANDREW'S STREET ; CHALMERS AND COLLINS, GLASGOW ; .JOHN JOHNSTONE, DUMPRIES ; AND KNIGHT AND LACEY, 24, PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON. 1823. /" . /•»'/C// '/i'U/l />" .(■• //" A't'/ff-'- r'l'tt/t/r //.' t't'ti />r///k-.i' /»'//•///■ A'T /'/'/' r Of XTiA «v-illi llic Lois ;is /,( KOADS. ."1 SI ARC R GENTl Printeil by Balfour & Clarke, Uinburgh, 1823. Th scribi great chara timat priet( tivet the 1 limit mors vant prop men TO SIR JAMES MONTGOMERY, OF STANHOPE, BART. M. P. TO ARCHIBALD MONTGOMERY, ESQ. AND ROBERT MONTGOMERY, ESQ. GENTLEMEN, This little Work I take the liberty of in- scribing to you, not merely on account of the great dignity and worth of your respective characters, but chiefly on account of your in- timate connexion, as extensive landed pro- prietors, with the Island of which this narra- tive treats. This Island, r « may be seen from the following pages, has hitherto in a very limited degree, enjoyed the advantages of moral and religious instruction. These ad- vantages the inhabitants, (no inconsiderable proportion of whom are your own country, men,) have not themselves the means of pro-, IV DEDICATION. curing in a satisfactory or permanent man- ner ; and they can indeed, in their present infant state, expect to obtain them only through the kindness and generosity of tlie several gentlemen to whom the Island be- longs. This object, which is certainly one of no mean importance, has the deepest claim on your notice and patronage. And the li- berality and benevolence by which you are characterized, induce me to express my tirm, but humble conviction, that, as possessors of extensive property in that country, you will not fail to promote, by every means in your power, the progress of religion and of liberal knowledge. I have the honour to be, GENTLEMEN, Your most humble, and most devoted servant, THE AUTHOR. an 01 an- ent Illy the be- |e of aim li. are rm, s of will our eral PREFACE. jVIany a traveller from Britain has visited the western continent, and given us elegant and elabo- rate descriptions of the scenery of nature, the man- ners and customs of the people, &c. &c. But the moral scenery exhibited there, seems to have been but little noticed by any of -them, and therefore faint- ly described. Perhaps, however, none of them trode in the same path which I had marked out for myself, and therefore had not a similar narrative to detail. I embarked for Prince Edward Island at the foot of the river Nith, Dumfries-shire, on the 1 9th of April, 1820, with the following objects in view, should it please Providence to enable me to carry them into execution : In the first place, to dispose of some articles, so as to raise some support for my family at home : In the second place, to erect Sab- bath schools wherever it was practicable : In the third place, to investigate the country so as to give a faithful picture of it to my countrymen who might think of emigrating ; and, in the last place, to form an opinion whether it would be prudent to transport my own family there, should I be able to procure the I I 4: 3 VI Fin: TACK. means of doinnj so. All these tlnnjrs I attended to. t) . 1' d in »lishcd. Ihit th( k some ujcasure actons sent work was what I did not contemplate till after I had travelled some time upon the inland. It then occurred to me that the people at home knew little of the destitute condition many are in abroad, who have no ministers of the Gospel provided for them by others, nor yet able to support such themselves. It surprised me greatly to think, that the spiritual wants of 20 or f25 thousand people, mostly emigrants from Great Britain, and still living under her govern- ment, and within four weeks'* sailing of her own shores, should be so little known, or attended to, in the mother country, while the outmost isles of the sea have shared in her Christian compassion and regard. Not that I would cast the least reflection upon mis- sions to the Heathen : But, while the one duty is at- tended to, the other, certainly not less important, ought not to be overlooked or neglected. But while I have attempted to call the attention of the public to this subject, I blush when I think of my unfitness for the task. For the reader must be informed that I was only bred a common tradesman, (a shoemaker,) and if I have risen to any thing supe- rior in mental acquirement to the common attain- ments of my brethren in trade, it is neither owing to my greater natural talents, learning, nor time for im- provement, but the right direction my mind received from the pious example and instruction of my parents in youth. My father was an indweller in tlie parish of Corrie, annexed to Hutton, Annandale, Dumfries- shire. He had sat under the ministry of the famous Mr. George Young, long pastor of that parish *, * The following authentic notices relative to the family of this excellent clergyman, will not, it is hoped, be unac- ceptable to many of my readers. — The Rev. George Youngs descended of the house of Auchenskeoch, in Galloway^ was came rUKFACE. vu from wlioni he liad learned to understand and love the Gospel. These he taught his ehildren, and pressed them upon their attention from the earliest born in 1074; and, after the usual course of classical ami theological study, was ordaiiud niinister of tlic unit((l pa- rishes of Ilutton and Corrie, in Annandalc, in 1702. lie was the first prcbbyterian clergyman of that j)lace ; — his predecessor, Mr. Menzies, of the Episcopal churcli, a man of respectability, having retained the living, notwithstanding the establishment of Presbytery at the Revolution, until his death, which took place a short time previously to the period when Mr. Young was inducted. In the discharge of his pastoral duties, Mr. Young was peculiarly faithful and succi-ssful ; and his me- mory is cherished by the inliabitants of his parish, and of the neighbouring districts, with a degree of gratitude and venera- tion, strikingly illustrative of the worth and dignity of his cha- racter. About the year 1735, from indefatigable exertions in performing his sacred functions, Mr. Young having fallen into a state of ill health, the inhabitants of the parish unanimously transmitted to George, Marquis of Annaiulale, the patron, then resident at Luneville in Lorraine, an earncbt application that he vifould be pleased to appoint Mr. ^Villiam Young, their clergyman's eldest son, his assistant and successor, in the charge of Hutton. This application was cheerfully complied with ; and the Marquis with his own hand drew out the pre- sentation, — a document composed, not in the common formal style of similar deeds, but written in terms of such deep re- spect for both the clergymen in question, and of such defer- ence to the voice of the parishioners, as reflects the greatest honour on the charact(T of that worthy nobleman. Mr. Young had thus the happiness of seeing his son ordained his fellow-labourer; and though he did not abate much of his ordi- nary exertions, yet so far recovered liis health as to survive the appointment about twelve years. lie died on the 14th of February, 1749, at the age of seventy-four, carrying to the grave the affections and regrets of his flock and numerous friends. Mr. Young married Sophia Mein, daughter of the Rev. William Mein, minister of Westerkirk. They had several children, of whom AV'illiam, the eldest, as just stated, was his successor in Hutton; John, a physician; and Henry, who died at St. Helena, a surgeon in the service of the East India Company. — William, the son of Dr. John Young, be- came a merchant in Plymouth, and his descendants have dis- tinguished themselves in the British navy. Mr. William Young, who succeeded his father, was pos- sessed of the same faithfulness and worth by which his pre- Ill PREFACE. dath evening school might be attempted among the children, as a goodly number of such were on board who could read, and might in that way receive instruction. I therefore proposed to set the chil- dren to work, to learn some tasks for this purpose ; but I was dissuaded from the attempt by some of the parents, who observed that the sailors were so much in the habit of swearing, that they would likely pour the greatest ridicule upon such an undertaking, and make it more sin than duty to try any thing of the kind. By these surmises I was persuaded to desist, and thus to lose the improvement of the first quiet Sabbath we had enjoyed on the passage. But it pleased Providence to detain us other eight days with the fog. Towards the end of this week I began to discourse with the sailors upon this subject, and found that all, except one, who was the oldest of them, had no objections; and some of them were even urgent that I should proceed. The next ob- jection made by some of the passengers, was, that the captain would allow no such thing on board. I said our birth was our own, and while we occupied it, and gave no interruption to the management of the vessel, he could find no reasonable fault. So I determined to proceed ; and calling the children be- fore me on the Sabbath morning, I explained the nature of a Sabbath school to them ; and putting such Catechisms, Testaments, and Bibles into their hands as could be procured, I appointed four o'clock in the evening the hour of meeting. The children set to work to learn their several tasks with the great- est alacrity, often asking before the hour arrived what of the clock it was, thus showing a decided iir^ b5 ■1 '■I 14 TRAVELS ON PHINCE EDWARD ISLAND. I clinatlon to the interesting object we had in view. At last, at the time fixed, they were assembled, and seated in a row upon trunks along the fronts of the beds, on the one side of the vessel, while their pa- rents were on the other; and all was attention and composure. No sooner the sound of sacred melody was raised, than the sailors, almost to a man, as- sembled and seated themselves round the hatch- mouth, with the greatest apparent anxiety to join in the worship, and attend to the instructions that might be communicated, while the captain, I was told, walked backward and forward within hearing the whole time. After singing and prayer, the various tasks were repeated by the most of the children in a superior manner: a word of exhortation was then given, and praise and prayer concluded the whole. The children rose from their seats, much elated with the way in which they had been able to acquit them- selves. Their young minds seemed flattered with the attentions that had been paid them ; and their hearts, I hope, were in some measure affected with the warnings and instructions that had been given with no other design but to promote their best inter- ests in time and eternity. These services had made a deep impression upon the minds of some of the sailors, for they accused me next morning very severely for not beginning such an useful and edifying exercise sooner. And one of them applied to me for a Shorter Catechism, again to refresh his memory with what he had learn- ed in the days of his youth. But as the beams of the sun, which, alighting upon the sweet scented flower, causes it to emit its richest perfume, has a very dif- ferent effect upon the putrid mass of vegetable mat- ter, so these exercises, which had been so well relish- ed by the other sailors, had a very opposite eiTect upon the mind of the old sailor I formerly mentioned. It had only tended to rouse the corruption of his S TAAV£LS ON PRIKCEl EDWAUD 16LAXD. u heart, and make it rage more furiously, and to watcli for an opportunity to give vent to his irreligious propensities in a volley of oaths. Accordingly next morning the wind springing up pretty fresh before it was light, he thrust his head down the hatchway, and making a great noise, so as to awake and set us all a trembling, he said we would not let alone our singing and praying yesternight, but we would expe- rience a fine return for it this morning, for we would be put under close-reefed top-sails immediately, with many a dreadful oath intermixed, which I think prudent not to repeat. As no one of us made hioi any reply, after uttering the most horrible impreca- tions, with the same observations as stated above, he retired. , But as these religious exercises had discovered the wickedness of some characters on board more fully than I was aware of, they also brought to my know- ledge the piety of others. An old woman from Perth- shire, a widow, whom I had often observed perusing her book,, now ventured to converse with me more freely upon the subject of religion. She was one of those retired unobtrusive Christians who prosecute the even tenor of their way to heaven ; almost no one knowing,, without careful inspection, what they are, or what is the object of their pursuit. This woman had part of her family with her, and as soon as they were settled, the rest were to follow. She had sat under the ministry of a Mr. M'Gillivray, a parish or chapel- of-ease minister, I suppose, in Perthshire*. He preach- • Since writing the above, I have met with the following notice of this excellent servant of Christ, in a small work, en- titled, " Notes of an Excursion into the Highlands of ScoUand in Autumn, 1818. By the Rev. John Brown, Biggar." " At Strathfillan they are blessed with the labours of an able, S'ous, and zealous missionary, on the Royal bounty, the Rev. •r. M'Gillivray.— I was delighted to hear the warmth with which the peonle spoke of this good man. ' Mr. M*D ■ said b6 16 TRAVELS OK PRINCE EDWARD ISLAKP. ed in Gaelic and English. He was most unwearied in his labours, she said, and was actually wearing himself out by them. She had fed and feasted rich- ly upon the bread of life, broken by his hands. She told me if she could have got him along with her, she did not matter if she had emigrated to the most distant corner of the world. But she was doubtful she would never meet with hi.s like again. In a few days the fog cleared away, so that we could proceed to our intended port in safety. And, on Friday, the 20th of May, we landed in the har- bour of Three Rivers, all well, no evil having be- fallen any of us during the voyage. After we had got a pilot on board, and all fear and anxiety were removed, I observed a lively joy sparkle in every countenance. But in those who had formed mista- ken notions of the country, a mixture of surprise and disappointment was also visible. With regard to myself, however, as I had been preserved in safe- ty over the devouring deep, upon whose waves I had never been tossed previously, I felt my whole soulfilled with gratitude, as I had never experienced before, to Him who is mightier than the mighty waves of the sea. And repairing to the bow of the vessel, and leaning upon the bulwarks, I poured my heart out in thank- fui acknowledgments to Him who, in the remotest corners of the world, is " the hearer of prayer.'* At the same time, I entreated the Father of mercies to bless any endeavours I might be able to make for the advancement of his cause among these destitute islanders. This prayer I hope God has answered, and will yet answer, above all that at that time I either asked or thought ; for the efforts I have been othei land blust little mine host is an eloquent man^ but for the plain truth and a good life, none of them can beat our own Mr. M*Gillivray.* May God grant that such ministers may soon be more numer- ous in the Highlands 1" He is now in Lochgoilhead. TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 17 )ed to make in the behalf of the inhabitants of that island, have exceeded what I had any previous con- ception of; and I hope and pray that tlie divine blessing accompanying them may still make them more and more successful. The Saturday after landing was all bustle, and the Sabbath little otherwise, so that nothing of a religious nature could be attended to among the children. On the following Wednesday, three of the families and myself went round in a small vessel to Murray Har- bour, about twelve miles south-west from Three Ri- vers. My Perthshire acquaintance and her family went to Nova Scotia, and I neither saw nor heard of her more. . » CHAPTER IL On our landing at Murray Harbour, I took partiv cular notice of the old settlers how they spoke and acted, and was agreeably surprised to find that, both in speech and behaviour, they exhibited many pleas- ing features of genuine Christianity ; while, on the other hand, some of our emigrants, who had left a land of great Christian privilege, were frequently blustering out minced oaths. The master of the little vessel that had carried us from Three Rivers was from Plymouth, and had been a local preacher of the Methodist persuasion. He conducted himself on the passage hke a Christian. But the pilot, who had been born upon the island, was the very reverse in his behaviour ; almost every sentence of his dis- course had an oath couched under it ; and, in vindi- cation of his practice, he affirmed that the very dumb brutes understood and required swearing to make them obedient. w IB TRAVELS ON PBINCE EDWARD ISLAKD. At this place, a shoemaker from the island of Guern- sey kindly allowed me to lodge in his house. He was a Methodist, and I learned that a number of his neigh«i hours were of the same persuasion. He permitted me to expose a few straw bonnets for sale in his house; and as the neighbouring settlers gathered in, I told them I intended to open a school for the instruction of their children the following Sabbath evening, in the meeting-house at hand, at four o''clock. The Sabbath came, and the Plymouth local preach- er officiated, but I could not persuade my old ship- companions to go to hear him, or to prepare their children for attending the school. We got a very plain and serious discourse upon the subject of Abra- ham offering up his son Isaac ; and when the hour arrived for school, I was much delighted to see old and young turning out from all directions ; some crossing the creek in boats, others in canoes, all anxi- ous to see and hear, what, perhaps, they had never seen or heard before. The exercises of the school were attended to on the part of the children, with much more propriety and ease than could well have been expected, considering that they were entirely new to them. After what they had committed to memory was repeated, they were requested to sit down, and to fix their eyes upon me, and pay the greatest attention to what I was about to say to them. I then endeavoured to point out, in as plain and faith- ful a way as I could, man's ruined and corrupted state by nature ; the means of his recovery, and the salvation provided in Christ Jesus; the necessity of faith in him, a new heart and a holy life. And I must say I could not complain of inattentive hearers, either among old or young. I must also say, I felt myself upon enviable ground, if I had been able to occupy it properly. If I had been in possession of the knowledge, the faithfulness, and fervency of an apostle, I had here an opportunity of calling it into TRAVELS ON PEINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 19 lem- mas a eigh- litted mse; told iction in •each- ship- their i very Abra- ; hour ee old some I anxi- never school I, with II have ntirely ted to to sit )ay the ) them, d t'aith- Tupted ind the ssity of And I learers, I felt able to ission of y of an 5 it into I exercise. Those more advanced in years might sit in some measure in the character of judges or critics, but the young always and every where, if we can get them to think at all, are easily persuaded that they know nothing naturally of God and divine things ; and that they need to be instructed. They have also no preconceived opinions to oppose to any instructions tendered them. What care then ought not teachers of babes to take, that in all the instructions they give to them, it be the sincere milk of the word they are feeding them with — such truths as God has revealed in the Scriptures for communi- cating by his blessing spiritual life and health to the soul ? And what need is there for a host of such teachers to be provided and sent out every where to act as pioneers before the army, breaking up and preparing the way for the more full and profitable ministry of the Gospel ? Till a sufficient supply of teachers are provided, and in full and constant em- ploy, or till every parent becomes a faithful teach* er himself, I look for very limited success to at- tend the preaching of the Gospel in any quarter of the world. In spite of all that God has commanded concerning the early instruction of the young,— in spite of all the encouraging promises made to such as attend zealously to this duty, and the awful threat- enings denounced against such as neglect it, — I say, in spite of all these. Christians, and Christian churches, have come lamentably short in their faithful atten- tion to this duty. Instead of looking for the mira- culous conversion of our children, like that of the Apostle Paul, in advanced life, we should be trying by every means in our power to train up young Ti- mothies everywhere, by making them early acquainted with the Scriptures, which are able to make them wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. But to return, My auditors were all Methodists, except two of I ^% so TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD I8LAUD. my old ship companions, whom I had persuaded to ac- company me to the school ; and I was much cheered and comforted in the commencement of my religious labours there ; for, at the close of the school, the most of the grown people present, with a smile of approbation upon their countenances, waited to shake hands with me in the most friendly manner possible. By the time we had got out of the meeting-house, notice having been brought that one of their regular preachers, on his way home from the Conference at Halifax, would preach immediately, we all turned in again, and heard an excellent sermon upon the New Birth. Towards the close of the discourse, the preach- er spoke of faith as a condition. This startled one of my old companions a little ; but when I discoursed with the preacher himself afterwards upon the subject, he said he only meant that faith was a condition of connexion, not of merit. After travelling from house to house all round the settlement, selling religious tracts and small books, I found a number of Presbyterians. Some of ihem, I hope, are sincere Christians ; but they are in de- plorably destitute circumstances as to the means of grace. They have no preacher — no social meeting on the Sabbath for any religious purpose ; and it would be go<3d for them not to meet at all on that day : for I apprehend that the most of those social meetings held on the Sabbath, where a constant at- tention to religious exercises is not maintained, will tend to the greater profanation of that holy day. The Methodists and Baptists, I was informed, every- where on the island hold social meetings on the Sao- bath for praise, prayer, and such means of edifica- tion as they possess within themselves. This keeps them alive to God and divine things. But Presby- terians are taught by their principles, and the forms generally adopted among ihem, that a regularly learn- ed and ordained ministry only have a right to ofii- I..! TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 81 c'ate publicly. Now, this being a new settlement, they are unable, from their poverty and paucity, to procure what they consider a legitimate means of in- struction ; a circumstance which, at the same time, produces and fosters barrenness in their souls, and raises a louder call to their brethren at home to send them help and wholeBCime advice to the utmost of their power, lest i\wy or their descendants fall into absolute heatiienism, and perish. I left the settlement in a few days, and travelled along the shore to Three Rivers, calhng at the Protest- ant nouses with religious tracts ; and I must say they bought them with the greatest cheerfulness in every house. When I reached Three Rivers, I made an attempt to erect a Sabbath-school on the south side of the Montague River; but although a goodly num- ber of grown-up people attended, no children were brought to be entered as scholars. My audience (as I learned afterwards) consisted of Presbyterians, Bap- tists, Methodists, and Roman Catholics. After praise and prayer, I gave them a few observations upon the nature of a Sabbath-school, and the gr^at propriety and necessity there existed for having one established amung them. But as they had brought no children for examination, I devoted the time we were together in submitting to them a summary view of the docv trine of grace. My audience were all very attentive to what I said ; but none more so than a young man, who had been brought up in the Romish faith. The whole time I spoke, the eye of this young man was so fixed upon me, as to seem insensible to every other object. Perhaps it was the first time he had ever heard the Scriptural way of salvation pointed out. After the meeting was over, one of the settlers came to me, and said, it was in vain for me to at- tempt the erection of a school on that side of the river, as there was none qualified to conduct it there ; but if I would come to the other side of the river ^nd %% TEAVKLS ON PRIXCE EDWARD ISLAND. .Jl' i: »' open one, lie hoped it would be carried on without ^ny doubt or difficulty. After pointino; out the Scrip- ture tasks for the children to be provided with on the following Sabbath, (for they had no Catechisms,) we parted. Next Sabbath, 18th June, I attended their raeet- ting-house, where they exhorted every Lord^s day in Qaelic. Kut as several others besides myself were present who knew not this language, the Highlander said a ^QVf things in English ; but it was very evident to an English ear, that he could not express himself with ease and propriety in that language, although his matter was sound and savoury. He also gave out a Psalm from the Scotch version ; but the otlier parts of the service were all in his mother tongue. The day becoming wet and rather stormy, the children that could be collected in these circumstances were assembled in a neighbouring farm4K)use. As the tasks wore in English, and said with great dis- tinctness, I gave them an exhortation, never dream-* ing that scarcely one of them could understand a word that was said. But the older part of the audi- ence said they understood me, and should have been sorry if it had been omitted. Having a good stock of Sabbath-school tickets, I served them all with one, which greatly delighted them, and leaving a large supply for further use, which I had also done at Murray Harbour, I left the settlement with every prospect of the school doing well. On my way back to Murray Harbour, as I passed Panmoor Island, I met with the Roman Catholic bishop at a gentleman^s house there, one of bis own faith, where, I was told, he was to celebrate mass and baptise children. The Highlanders were coming in crowds ; and also the Indians, who had their children in their arms, packed up in cases like fiddle-cases, open in the front, and the children fixed in with small spars of wood across before them, and stuffed rounc as I In eM the I The touch and thtir TRAVELS OK PEINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 93 I . thout jcrip- Lh on sms,) raeet- lay in ' were atider vident imself liough 3 out a parts The nldren s were \s the it dis* dream-* tand a e audi- re been 1 stock th one, a large lone at I every [ passed IJatholic bis own lass and ming in children le -cases, in with i stuffed all round with moss or fog. I found the bishop with- out the door. I stepped up to him, and found him quite easy of access, and engaging in his manners. After some conversation about where I had come from, and what were my views in coming to the island, the quality of the soil, &c. I said, what a pity these Indians were not taught to read. He gave me for answer, that they could read. Here he seemed will- ing to embrace the first opportunity that offered of speaking to other ipersons present, rather than say any more upon the subject which I had introducea, and our conversation ended. I had previously asked some of the Indians if they could read any, and they had all declared that they could read none ; but that if any person were to teach them gratis, they would willingly learn. I was therefore at a loss how to re- concile the assertion of the bishop with the directly opposite one of the Indians ; but the reader will hear more of this afterwards. I went back to Murray Harbour, in order to get ray luggage sent round by sea to Charlotte Town, there being no conveyance by land. Before I could find an opportunity, I had to wait about ten days. This time I spent in visiting the religious families all round the settlement, a task I found very agreeable, as I met with such a hearty welcome from them all. In every house I was received as it had been into the bosom of my own family after a long absence. The children who had been at the school, often touched my feelings very sensibly, by the respectful and loving manner in which they received me into th( ir houses — and would come, at the request of their parents, to my hand, with their faces covered with I he blush of modesty, to ^et me hear how well they could repeat their tasks. I found each of the parties, of which the settlement consisted, possessed of strong zeal for the peculiari- ties of their own different modes of faith. But I was 24 TllAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND- m. led to think, that, in some instances, it was not alto- gether according to knowledge. Some of the Pres- byterians held the belief of the doctrines of election, predestination, and the perseverance of the saints, as essentially necessary to the very being of a Christian as faith in Christ, accompanied with a holy life ; and were convinced, that the denial of these doctrines, or not believing them, was as great an error as almost * any held by the church of Rome. Some of the Me- thodists, on the other hand, alleged that the belief of these doctrines had a tendency to lull the conscience asleep, and to unnerve every endeavour to press in at the strait gate of true conversion to God, and for- ward in a course of increasing holiness to the close of life. I endeavoured to correct the mistakes of both as far as I was able. To the Presbyterians, I said, no doubt these doctrines were revealed iu the word of God. Notwithstanding of this, I was convinced that a full and assured belief of these, in the first in- stance, was not required in the Gospel as the terms of a sinner's acceptance with God. These terms, I conceived, were a true faith in Christ, such a faith as will be accompanied with repentance, love, and new obedience. But this doctrine of the electing love of God, and the perseverance of the saints, I said, I believed had been made known in the Scriptures for the farther comfort and establishment of such hap- py persons as had in reality experienced the fruits and effects of electing love in their effectual calling, and saving conversion to God. But the good work, I said, must be begun in our souls, and satisfactory evidence obtained that it is begun, before we could make any profitable use of this doctrine ; or, upon Scripture grounds, indulge the hope, that he who hath begun the good work will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And that for a sinner newly awakened to a sense of sin, to give his mind to the $tudy of that doctrine was not following the Scrip- TRAVELS GX PRINCE KDWaRD ISLAND. 25 / h tural order, and would, I was persuaded, prove very unprofitable and embarrassing. It would be like attempting to read before \%e had learned the alpha- bet. I also added, that I found the Arminianism of the Methodists different from what went by the same name in Scotland. The sum and substance of the latter was, do what you can, and Christ will do the rest; but I found the Methodists insisted upon the neces- sity of being born again of repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, with a continued course of holy living. I was then answered, that they did attend to many works and duties, but that they spoiled all by hoping to be saved by their good works, or that they hoped to merit the orace of God by hu- man endeavours; or that by strenuous endeavours they could convert themselves. To these allegations I could at the time make no reply. But it was not long till I had an opportunity of laying them before one of that communion. His answer was ; *' No, no. I maintain no such tenets: I know if there be any good thing in me, it is the grace of God that has wrought it, and no good endeavours of mine." I cautioned the Methodists to beware of making a Saviour of their duties, or even of their graces. For although we are said to be justified by faith, it must only be by faith instrumentally, for it must be the meritorious righteousness of Christ alone, believed on, and laid hold of by faith, which must constitute the grand meritorious cause of a sinner's justification be- fore God. It was in this way I endeavoured to re- concile them more to one another, and both to the truth, as far as I was able. Both parties had joined together in an amicable manner, and had erected a very good meeting-house. But on account of some misunderstanding taking place, it was not then fully finished. On the intervening Sabbath, I tried to get a school M TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND; erected among the children of the Presbyterians, but could not get them assembled; neither did I find any proper teacher convenient to take charge of them. I therefore waited upon the Methodist school, and found it attended to by two young men. I gave an exhortation to both the teachers and the children pre- sent to persevere in this and every other good work, and they would find that comforting promise made good in their own happy experience, that they should reap if they fainted not. On the Wednesday following, the 5th of July, having found a man going to town with a boat, I delivered my luggage to him, and went in the even- ing to the uppermost houses in the Settlement, six miles up Murray River. This is called Mr. Cam- bridge'*s Mills. There is comfortable and free quar- ters here for travellers on this road to town, who ge- nerally stay overnight, as beyond this there is seven- teen miles of road in the woods without a single house. I had not well finished supper till a young man from town arrived with the alarming news that he had seen two young bears on the road that day. He was on horseback, and I had to travel on foot and alone, with no weapon of defence but a walking stafJ*. Thus my trust in Providence, and also my na- tural courage, were put to a severe trial. I slept little, rose early, and committing myself to the care of Him who once shut the lions' mouths, that they could not hurt his servant for whom he had more work to do. I entered the wood at four o'clock in the morning, and passed all the solitary way, without either miss- ing it, of which there was some danger, or seeing any thing to harm me. After lodging that night at a Mr. Irving's, Cherry Valley, which lies a little to the left on the main road, in Lot 49, I reached town on the Friday evening. is, I c TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAXD. 2t s, but [ find them. I, and ive an n pre- work, made should July, )oat5 1 even- (it, six , Cam- ) quar> ho ge- seven- single young i^s that at day. on foot talking my na- •t little, jf Him Lild not to do. orning, r miss- ngany It at a e to the d town CHAPTER III. I HAD no sooner reached Charlotte Town, than my next anxiety was where to find comfortable and quiet lodgings, where no drink was sold. By the advice of an old acquaintance, the only one I had in town, I found these every way to my wish in the house of an old English gentlewoman, a Mrs. Bag- nal. The Saturday I spent in viewing the town, and finding out persons of a religious cast. On the Sabbath, I heard sermon first with the Methodists, and afterwards at the High Church, where a Mr. Desbrisay officiates, a venerable old gentleman, who has filled the situation of Garrison Chaplain at this place, upwards, I believe, of forty years. Though these two places of worship are the only Protestant ones in the town, and are open alternately at dif- ferent hours of the Sabbath, yet the numbers which attend are noway adequate to what the population of the town might produce, for I suppose that it amounts to between two and three thousand. There is, I confess, a Romish chapel also in town, but the Bishop is not oflen there ; and, as I did not see a meeting of the worshippers, I did not learn what numbers usually attend. Yet, after making the most liberal allowances, there is, I fear, not a few who attend no sanctuary, and probably have no Sab- bath at all. The Methodists hold a school in their chapel on the Sabbath evenings, but the children who attend are few in number, and very young in years, (the reason of which will be noticed afterwards.) I served the children with tickets, enjoining them to commit these passages of Scripture to memory, and repeat them next Sabbath. I found that proper books and catechisms for the instruction of children were greatly wanted both in town and country. It therefore oc- 28 TRAVELS ON PRIKC£ EDWARD ISLAND. curred to me, that if a society could be formed in town to raise a fund for laying in a proper supply to toe sold at British prices, it might prove a great en- couragement both to learning and morality. With this impression upon my mind, on the Monday I took the liberty of waiting on the Governor at the barracks in order to solicit him to become an encourager and patron of such a society. I was soon honoured with an audience of his Excellency. I began my conver- sation by stating wlrere I was from, and what my intentions were in coming to the island ; that one of these was the erection of Sabbath schools, as exten- sively as possiMe ; that I had opened a few as I came along ; that I found proper books much wanted for the instruction of youth every where ; and that I had called upon his Excellency to solicit his patronage to the formation of a society for providing suitable books at moderate prices for these schools. He said he had no concern with any schools but those con- nected with the Esiablished church, meaning the Church of England. I said the schools I was plead- ing for were connected with no particular church whatever, but were conducted upon the broad princi- pies of Christianity. His Excellency, however, still hesitated to patronize my exertions in this capacity. I then presented him with a small report of the Sab- bath School Union Society for Scotland, with some speeches of the members in it ; and requesting him to read it, I retired. Having had a letter of thanks some years ago from His Royal Highness the Duke of York, in answer to a communication sent him upon military affairs, and judging the Governor quite a military character, I next day took this iri my hand, hoping it might pro- cure me a more gracious reception. It had the desi- red effect. I was allowed to cypntJate at some length upon the nature of Sabbath Scuools, with the happy results that might be expected to follow when they I H 1 med in jply to sat en- With ' I took arracks ;er and id with conver- iiat my one of exten- I came ited for It I had nage to suitable He said Dse con- ing the s plead- church I pr inci- ter, still apacity. the Sab- th some 5 him to igo from nswer to lirs, and acter, I ght pro- the desi- le length e happy iien thej TRAVELS OS PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 29 I are properly conducted. I said, it was intended by them to occupy children with profitable employment on the Sabbath ; and to make them well acquainted with the revealed will of God in the days of their youth. This, I said, furnished them with the best rule of moral conduct through life ; and the blessing of God attending a course of instructions of this kind, it would, as we might reasonably hope, have the hap- piest effect in making children loving and obedient to their parents, honest and faithful servants, peaceful and orderly members of society, and good subjects of the state. I said, the proper teacher of a Sabbath school did not appear before the children in the cha- racter of a High Churchman, Presbyterian, Method- ist, Baptist, or Independent ; but as a believer of the word of God, and a disciple of Christ, anxious to make the children under his care acquainted with the precepts, histories, promises, and holy doctrines contained in that blessed book. It would be his con- stant endeavour to teach them such things as these, leaving it to their own choice to join what church they might think proper in after life. His Excellency, having now entered more fully and cordially into these views, did me the honour of repl^'ing, " Prose- cute your way over the island, selling your articles, and setting up these schools, and say you have my authority for so doing, and when you return to town I will hear you again upon the subject.'" Our conver- sation being now brought to a happy conclusion, I re- spectfully withdrew. On Wednesday the 12th July, I left town for the west end of the island. The road was rough, and in many parts very solitary, often six miles or more without a human habitation. On the Friday, I reach- ed the settlement of Tryon, about twenty-six miles west of Charlotte Town. Before I got into the open settlement, I met a gentleman, a farmer there, who kindly invited ms to his house. There is one com- c 30 TRAVELS ON PEINCE EDWARD ISLAND. I fort in that country, if one has long and solitary walks sometimes in the woods, they are always sure of a liearty welcome to such ciieer as the people have to give when they once find a house ; and there is very few of the old settlers who have not plenty of the common supports of life. I lodged the first night in the house of a Baptist. His conversation was of the most pious and sensible kind ; and his prayers were both fluent, fervent, and refreshing. He took me to the house of a Mr. Crawford, a Baptist preacher, who had attended Mr. Haldane's seminary in Scotland. His farm, it was evident, had be-^n ill attended to, and some marks of poverty might be seen about his house; but if the reader judges as I did, he will consider these as badges of honour to INIr. Crawford, when he learns that his poverty was occasioned greatly by his abundant labours in the vineyard of his master. As there was no other Gaelic preacher of the Protestant faith upon the island, he had preached over it at great distances with little fee or reward. Indeed, where money is not current to reward a preacher with, it is little that he can carry home with him, at the distance of thirty, forty, or perhaps sixty miles, even when the people are dis- posed to give of their substance for his support. Now, as the souls of the Highlanders on the island are as valuable as the souls of those yet residing among their native hills in Scotland, and as they are not only nu- merous, but I fear a number of them are perishing for lack of knowledge, might not some of the socie- ties, who are attending to the wants of these at home, compassionate also the case of those abroad, and send this Gaelic preacher some assistance to enable him to itinerate at large, preaching the gospel of Christ ? Having some letters to forward to the settlement of Malpeque, and hearing that Mr. Keir from thence was to preach at Bedeque next Sabbath, I took my journey on Saturday the 15th July, through the TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. SI walks 'e of a ave to s very Df the ght in vas of irayers brd, a Idane's it, had might iges as lour to •ty was in the Gaelic md, he ittle fee Tent to n carry jriy, or are dis- . Now, 1 are as ng their nly nu- erishing le socie- it home, nd send J him to rist? ttlement a thence took my uffh the woods to the latter place, which is twelve miles from Tryon. A few miles before I reached the settlement, I came to a small public-house, what they call a tavern. It was then the only house all the way between the settlements in question. Finding a great number of horses, with saddles and bridles, fastened to the fence at the road-side, and a great crowd of people about the house, I turned in, anxious to see what was going on. The house was small, consisting only of one apartment. A shower of rain at the time had caused the company, who were numerous, to take shelter un- der its humble roof, so that I could scarcely get room to enter within the door. When I had got near to the centre of the apartment, I saw some drinking rum, others considerably affected with what they had drunk. On the opposite side there were three magistrates seat- ed upon a plank, holding a court of law. The day being warm, and the house crowded, some of them were sitting without their coat. The magistrates being of nearly the same rank in life with those who were appearing before them, very little respect was paid to their authority or their orders. I observed one of the defenders, who was also without the coat, often clench his fist behind him, ready to give the prosecutor a blow when he could not carry his point with milder arguments ; and every moment I looked for this method of overcoming his antagonist being resorted to. No sooner was this knotty cause ended, than one of the magistrates, rising from the bench of justice, accosted me, in the most condescending man- ner, with <« Well, I see you are from the old country ! Will you be so obliging as to go to my house at Cape Traverse, and lodge with me to-night, and give me all the news from home." After he had kindly found me a guide through the wood to his house, for they had a number of more causes to decide, and after finding a careful hand to forward my letters to Mai- peque, I left this clamorous court of law. After I c2 .1 r ■I 32 TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. i% Jeft the house, I reflected upon the imprudence of holding a court of law where drinkino; rum was going on all the time ; and one of the magistrates acknow- ledged to me afterwards, that it was very improper to hold a court where there was no jail to commit offend- ers to, in order to overawe ignorant passionate people, who thought their own will should, in all cases, be the law. He also told me this poor tavern- keeper had not a Bible in his house, and that they had to swear the people upon the book of common prayer. This I believe is the case with many a fa- mily upon the island. At Cape Traverse, after having called on the wife of the magistrate, who received me very kindly, and with whom I drank tea, I went to a family from the south of Scotland, with whom I had been acquainted. I lodged with them over the Sabbath. The laistress of the house lamented greatly the want of a pr.^achcd gospel, and also that she had not made a better improvement of it when she had it plentifully at home in Scotland. I therefore recommended the erection of a Sabbath school to her and her husband, as their own family was numerous, and also several others in the neigh- bourhood. While thi^ conversation was going on, the gentleman who was their schoolmaster came in and joined us. He poured great contempt upon my endeavours in this way, cautioning the people of the house, with an air of great apparent seriousness, to beware of putting their children under the tuition of every stroller that might be hawking the country. Had I been a total stranger to this family, and had this gentleman been in high estimation for Christian prudence and sagacity, his surmises might have thwarted all my endeavours to collect the children that day ; but the good sense and discrimination of the people made me succeed, in the mean time at least, in spite of his opposition. After this conversation was ended, and the gentle- y 4 TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD TGLANO m \ce of going know- per to )fFencl- )eople, cases, avern- they >minon y a i'sL- wife of id with outh of lodged D house el, and nent of ;otland. 5abbath I family ) neigh- ing on, same in pon my e of the ness, to lition of country, md had hristian it have children lation of time at J gentle- man had departed, I set out, . t breakfast, round the whole neighbourhood to rei^ .est ihe ciiildren to assemble at a neighbouring gcntU naiy'§ h' Jse, being larger and more convenient than i ie one v lere I was lodged. At four o'clock in the evening tiiere \ ^ a pretty good turn out, both of old and young, .ad, considering the little time the children had to pi >arc their tasks, they acquitted themselves with mucL pro- priety : about fifteen of them, who had been seated as scholars, I served with tickets, and charged them to commit to memory the scriptural passages inscribed on them, and repeat them next Sabbath, and then ex- change them for others containing different portions of scripture. But I could neither prevail upon man or woman present to hear even these tickets repeated next Lord's day. The reason of this shyness, I sup- pose, was a word of advice I had given, that these meetings of the children should be opened and closed with praise and prayer. I left the meeting with a heavy heart, to think that they were like sheep en- tirely without a shepherd, and such plenty at home, and to spare. Had they only pious schoolmasters, willing to do their utmost for the spiritual profit of both old and young, their destitute condition might be greatly relieved, and these might find adequate support in many settlements at present, and would experience an advance of income as the lands became better improved, and the people more Christianized. On the Monday, (17th July) I returned to Tryon, and on the Tuesday to Charlotte Town, for more books. When on my way back to Tryon, on the following Thursday, night was overtaking me before I could reach my old quarters, and I had therefore to turn from the road a little to the left, into a settle- ment called Dissable, where I came to a Highland- man's house, who received me with the heartiest wel- come. His wife, a native of Glasgow, was labouring under the frailty of advanced years. When I spoke c 3 I 'I f 34 TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. m i: )> <: i.'i'-i to her upon the subject of religion, she opened her mind freely, and her observations were most affecting. She said she did not expect ever to hear the Gospel preached again in the present world ; and when her children went to a distance to hear sermon, her very heart was like to break xvithin her because she could not accompany them. I told her some comforting promises, and advised her to read the Scriptures, and meditate much upon them, continuing instant in prayer, — and if it was in my power to procure her a sermon I would do it : at any rate, I would bring her a good book, having some going by sea to Tryon. With these comforting assurances we parted. When I reached Tryon, I found my books arrived by sea. On the Friday and Saturday I traversed all round the settlement, endeavouring to get a school on the Sab- bath, and a house to assemble in ; but I was told that the Methodist meeting-house was occupied from ten o''clock in the morning till eight at night, and I could procure no other place every way convenient, and thus had to lose a day. I went on the Saturday night to lodge with the gentleman whom I met on my way first into the set- tlement, who had so kindly invited me to his house. His entertainment and accommodations were of a su- perior kind. I had to officiate as priest while I was in the house ; but to have acted as king would have been a more troublesome task. They were Presby- terians, and had no preacher at that time to come near them ; and the mistress of the house lamented the baneful effect the want of public ordinances had upon a rising family. As Mr. Crawford was gone that Sabbath to the Elliot, or West River, to preach, I attended the Me- thodists. They have a very decent meeting-house in the middle of the settlement ; and a local preacher from Bedeque officiated that day. At my request, he intimated a meeting of the heads of families on the r i^t; %- TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 35 Monday evening at six o'clock. At the time appoint- ed, a considerable number attended ; and Mr. Craw- ford liaving returned to the settlement, also attended, and opened the meeting with prayer. Mr. Millar, the regular Methodist preacher for the district, was also present before the meeting was over. Much di- vision of opinion prevailed as to the way in which the school was to be conducted ; and the least informed, 3s frequently happens, were the most loquacious : but as the shades of night were beginning to cover us be- fore any thing could be agreed upon, another meet- ing was fixed on the following Friday night. The final result was, that two schools were established, the one among the Presbyterians, the other by the Me- thodists ; and both were doing well the last time I visited the settlen.ent. On Tuesday ($i5th July,) I prepared to leave the settlement of Tryon, and proceeded on my way by Augustine Cove, Cape Traverse, and Seven Mile Bay, for Bedeque. Just when I was on the wing for departing, a gentleman from Dissable having heard of me from the people of the house, followed me out to ask me to come into their settlement to arrange a school for them. This I consented to do on my re. turn from Malpequc ; and giving him BostcKi's " View of the Covenants^' to carry to the old woman from Glasgow, I took to my journey. I now found that my endeavours to establish these schools were become the subject of general conversation ; and as I nsked no temporal reward for my labours in this way, I found that my views were considered honourable, and my endeavours praiseworthy. In every Pro- testant family, of whatever denomination, where there was any desire after religious knowledge^ I was press- ed to stay over night ; and even the servants at their work, who might see me passing by, had orders to invite me home to their masters' houses to get some c 4 I:"' 36 TRAVELS ON PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. refreshment or lodging. A pleasing instance of thia occurred on the evening of this day, Tuesday, where an old gentleman had charged his servant to be sure to send me home if he should again see me passing by. He seemed to wish for a fair exchange, for he gave me his carnal things with a liberal hand, and said it was his desire to have a return as liberal of those things which were spiritual. On Thursday evening, 27th of July, I reached the settlement of Bedeque. On the Friday and Satur- day I travelled round it, inviting the people to bring their children to the Methodist meeting-house, which I had procured, between the preachings, to hold the school in. I waited upon them at the time appoint- ed, but a very small number were presented for in- struction. A meeting of the heads of families was called on the Monday evening at 6 o''clock ; very few attended ; and these were men of no courage. The IMethodist preach.er here begged me to hold him ex^ cuRcd, his labours being so great that he could not take any hand in the school. The following week I traversed much of the settlement over again, encou- raging tlicni ail that I could to set their shoulders to the work. Next Sabbath, I waited again upon the children ; their numbers were increased, but still no individual would take charge of them. Another meeting was called on the Monday evening; it was alt my eyes to the other end of the house, there I saw nil the holv tilings exhibited to view, in all their native majesty and splendour. Elevated upon the wall, behind the altar, was a painting, near as big as life, representing the trial of Jesus Christ before Pontius IVilatc, just at the moment when Pilate exclaimed, *' Why, what evil hath he done ?" Upon the altar there were co- lumns of artificial flowers, and eight wax candies burning, all arranged in tasteful order. On the front of the altar, in a beautiful recess, was the image of the Saviour, extended upon the cross. Upon an emi- nence, before the altar, stood the bishop, covered with a v/hite surplice, delivering, in Gaelic, a lengthen- ed, eloquent, and animated address. But whether this oration was in honour of St. Michael, or recom- mending the practice of some moral virtue, I could not learn from any of the worshippers to whom I had access, who knew the language. The house was large, with extensive galleries, and was filled to excess, with people from many a dis- tant settlement. In the place where I took my sta- tion, I had an opportunity of observing all the ges- tures and devotional exhibitions of the worshippers, as they entered this sanctuary, for the^-e were still more arriving. I observed that they no sooner cast their eyes to the opposite end of the house, than they fell down upon their knees, and crossed themselves, uttering a prayer with the greatest apparent ferven- cy and devotion, holding their trembling hand be- fore their breasts all the while, and sometimes smiting with it. But whether it was the sight of the bi- shop, the altar, or \vhat was upon it, that kindled up such a fervent glow of devotional feehng over their whole frames, I could not ascertain ; but the impres- sion appeared outwardly to resemble that which the "1 f' 50 TRAVELS ON rPtlNCE EDT.'AIU) ISLAND. Prophet Isaiah fl^lt when the Q^ory of tho hc^ivenly world wn,3 exposev^l lo his viev', wliich made him cry out, " Vv oe is me ! I am uridon hi IndcGv-], tlic whole of the service, (bat I shall not describe it Ihr- ther,) seemed to be cf a. mechanical nature, calcu- lated more to occupy the body ti;an ediiy the Eor.l. After the worship was ove:*, I waited at c, little distance fVom the chapel, in order to take the libeity of speaking with the bishop when he came out. I wished to ask his concurrence to have the Indians taught to read. When I questioned him upc:: this subject, he gave me the Ibiiowing evasive answers ; First, that they could read ; but this, I said, was only what the iirst priests who had converted them had taught them to write. He next said " that they had no need to be taught to read the scriptures, for the priest made them acquainted with all that v/as needful, and explained it to them/'* When I observ- ed that they would likely never obtain much ac- quaintance with the scriptures in this way, he said *' They could answer any question upon any point of their faith, better than 1 could concerning any point of mine." And, lastly, he affirmed, " that they would not thank any person to teach them to read, and that they would rather go a-fishing." Such is an outline of my conversation with the bishop. But from his not relishing the subject I had touched upon, or liom some other cause, I could not detain him longer, else I meant to tell him, that all the Indians whom I had questioned upon the subject, declared that they would willingly learn to read, should any have the goodness to teach them gratis. As I went down the road to town, the race-grcund was before me. Almost the whole assembly, I sup- pose near to nine hundred, were repairing to it us fast as possible. And I learned that the bishop him- self attended, and that his attendance was absolutely needful in order to quell riots, and prevent bloodshed. TRAVELS ON PETNCE EDWAllD ISLAND. 51 cavenly nn crv 2 it far- i caicu- sor.l. ; fi little iibcitv out. I Indians r/c:z ihiG QGVvers : lid, was ;^d thorn lat they res, for bat v/as observ- uch ac- he said point of \y point y would ind that outline rom his or from ^er, else n I had y would •oodiiess -ground , I sup- to it us OX) him- >solutely 3odshed. Before I reached tlie place of annisemcpt, the road was crowded, but after i had passc^d it, I had only one old i^an for a comoanion. It v/as not lonir till I accosted him with, " 1 7ell^ I think you are not staying with your feilovz-v/orshippers to see the sport?"' "No," said he, " I tiiinkitia mixing holy things too much with those which are profane." ** I think you judo*c very properly'^ said I. Froni this man's farther conver- sation, I learned that tliere are some, even among the Roman Catholics, who lament the depravity of their own fellov;- worshippers. I reached Charlotte Town on Saturday the SOth September. On the Sabbath I was invited to attend the Methodists' school, and gave an exhortation to the chiklren. I found them almost ail so young in years that I was at a loss how to adapt my instructions in a way level to their capacities. I inquired why they took such young children under their tuition at the school ? They said, if they did not take such, they would get none at all. I found, that when the child- ren here get up to the age of ten or twelve years, they get so light and roving in their dispositions, that they cannot be confined to the drudgery of a Sabbath school. This is caused by the want of proper exam- ple, instruction, and restraint, on the part of their parents while their children are young. And when once bad habits have become prevalent among child- ren, in a populous neighbourhood, how difficult is it to eradicate them ! The parent, who might wish to counteract these bad habits, is in danger of being looked upon by his own children as a fool or a tyrant, wishing only to rob them of the natural and necessary enjoyments of youth. Christianity is worth twice as much as it requires to support it properly, even though its advantages were all confined to the present life. But where colonies have been planted without regard to the propagation of its heavenly principles, it will be found that the plague of immorality has 4< l! f^ 52 TRAVELS ON PEINCE EDWAllD ISLAND. been entailed upon posterity, which may not be early or easily removed. CHAPTER VI. 4 i m On Monday, October the Snd, when I reached Three Rivers, I was glad to find the Dumfries brig had ar- rived before mc. By her I received some common school Bibles, Testaments, small books, and a portion of hardware. The Bibles, seven in number, were all sold in two days. They were prized, because I sold them at a moderate price ; but, most of all, because they had the Scotch version of the Psalms bound up with them. I may also observe, that the Irishman, who had formerly passed such high encomiums upon the Sabbath school, now called upon me to purchase a New Testament, and when he found that I had still one left, he catched hold of it, and handing me the price, he carried it off with all the avidity of one thr*. hoped it might prove the salvation of his soul. On Sabbath, October the 8th, I waited upon in school at this place. I was requested to address the children ; but, when it came to my recollection that the old people only would understand fully what I said, I found it a very awkward business indeed. When this was over, happening to be among the last who stepped out of the meeting-house, I found those who had stepped out earlier all standing in a half circle round the door, ready to shake hands, and press me to go home with them that night. But one gentle- man opposed all the rest, by observing that I had been at all their houses, but I had never been at his, I consoled him with the promise that when I had ieisure in the winter, (for his house lay out of the way,) I would come and stay a week or more with him al- together. On October 20, I left this settlement for Murray harbour. As I could not get a boat going I my > ism, I hi tute( rule tUAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 53 be early sd Three r had ar- common I portion were all se I sold because )oiind up nan, who upon the irchase a had still r me the ' one thr*. il. upon ill dress the ction that y what I s indeed, g the last and those lalf circle press me 18 gentle- lat I had ?en at his. en I had the way,) th him al- eraent for )oat going to Panmoor Island, I had to go round the head of Sturgeon Bay, but I found difficulties in it which would not be easy to describe. On ilic 22d, I waited upon the Methodist Sabbath school. I requested the gentleman who had been readin^^ a sermon to the older people, for they had no preacher at the time, to wait till I gave a word of exhortation to the child- ren, who were ready lor examination, wishing to get over the creek with him, as I could not manage a canoe myself. After I had finished my address to the children, and we had left the house, this gentle- man said, " Well, I think, the Presbyterians in Scot- land could not have spoken to the children as you have done.'** " Why .^" said I. He replied, '' Because you said life and death were set before them. And, as I suppose, the Presbyterians in Scotland are all Calvinists, and believe that God has bound up, or fixed, every man's final condition so firndy by his de- cree, that it is in vain to make any such address as you have done ; for those that are appointed to sal- vation will be saved, and those to damnation will be damned, do each of them what they may." I now asked him if he approved of what I had said to the children. " Every word of it," was his reply. "Well then/' said I, " I was brought up in what is called the Calvinistic faith from my youth, and I have been at some pains to get information on both sides of the question, and 1 have never yet seen any reason why 1 should renounce Calvinism as I have learned it ; but I cannot say I have learned my Calvinism from John Calvin himself, lor I never had access to his works, but from the Scriptures, taken as a whole, and not in detached parts, with such other helps as fell in my way. Now, to make you understand my Calvin- ism, I feel no difficulty in addressing the children as I have done ; for God, I conceive, has not consti- tuted his secret purposes, but his revealed will, the rule of every man's conduct. In this revealed will of ' V 5i TRAVELS IN PIIIXCE EDWARD ISLAND. ■IM ,ii t4 God, I find commands, expostulations, and entrea- ties, addressed to sinners of all ages and characters, to turn from their evil ways, and flee by faith to the refuge provided for them in Christ, with encouraging promises, that if any sinner complies with this graci- ous call, he shall obtain mercy. What secret pur- pose God may have concerning any of these children, I know not ; but his revealed will is, that they be warned to flee from the wrath to come ; and I am persuaded, that if any of them do take warning, and are savingly turned to God, that almighty power and grace must have accompanied the outward call, else it would not have proved eft'ectual. And if this grace has been, or shall be bestowed hereafter, upon any of them, it must be an evidence of the love of Goci to them in particular. But whether God only con- ceived this love for them the moment he manifested it to them, or that it was in his heart from eternity, falls next to be considered. I think the latter, and not the former view of it, is more honourable to God, and sheds a higher glory upon his love, and is the very character he gives it himself. " I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee."" But God does not appoint the end without the necessary means. If God has chosen any to salvation, it is through sanc- tification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, where- unto he calls them by the gospel." "Well," said he, " I never knew as much of Calvinism as I do this day, for I formerly thought it tied up every man's hands from the use of means, but now I see it allows se- cret things to belong to God, and his revealed will to be the rule of our conduct. I advised him to read the scriptures carefully, and perhaps he would find Calvinism there, as some others had done 'before him. In a few days I returned by the same way to Three Rivers, and from thence by the George Town road are TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 55 ntrea- icters, to the raging graci- st pur- ildren, ley be L I am y, and er and 1, else 1 grace jn any >f Goi [y con- ifested ernity, r, and ibie to 3, and [ have e with i does ns. If 1 sanc- where- aid he, is day, hands iws se- will to :o read d find 'before Three n road to the head of Vernon River. I passed down the south side of this river, which is partly settled. The settlers are from different parts of Great Britain, and the United States. I believe their modes of faith are as various as the countries from whence they emigrated. I did not find any place of worship in all this neighbourhood, nor upon Orwell River, which I crossed, nor upon Orwell Bay, along which I pass- ed to the settlement of Belfast. The people through all these settlements, till I came near to Belfast, ap- peared to be like sheep without a shepherd ; but at last I came to a gentleman's house, (I believe he was from Perthshire,) who, I was told, took out a copy of the Gaelic Scriptures with him, and likewise some knowledge and fear of the Lord. But I was also told that the Highlanders whom the Earl of Selkirk took out and placed in that neighbourhood, were in the habit of spending their Sabbaths in the most un- profitable manner possible. Many of them could read none, and scarcely any of them had a single copy of the Scriptures in their possession. They were in the habit of meeting on this day in crowds, in an open place in the woods, and then all kinds of amusements went on. Feats of bodily strength or vigour were performed, such as running, wrestling, leaping, and throwing the stone. The older people looking on and laughing at the feats of the young, filled up the vacant moments with worldly and cor- rupt conversation. Such is a faint, but, I believe, a faithful picture of the way in which they spent their Sabbaths; and in many parts of the island to the present day, they are spent to little better purpose. But the gentleman whom I have referred to, as having a copy of the Scriptures, and able to read it in his mother tongue, was in the habit of inviting as many of his neighbours as chose to attend at his house in order to hear them read. This was the very first beginning of any thing D 2 ■I : i J i; 56 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. « i- like religion, I was told, in the settlement ; since that period, which may be about 16 years ago, (but I cannot exactly specify,) several houses in the settle- ment have been opened for reading the Scriptures and other good books ; but these last are very scarce and expensive to purchase. The settlers here, and all round this, are mostly Highlanders, and inclined to Presbyterianism ; and if a preacher of their native tongue, (which they are passionately fond of,) were to be sent to them, not to put them to heavy expense for a while, I think he would be received with the greatest enthusiasm of joy ; but if he was wholly dependent upon them for support, and if he were to be any way scrupulous in admitting them to every Christian privilege in their pre??ent condition, he might find himself deserted, and his support withdrawn. There are a few Baptists here, and also farther to the west at Point Prim. They have exhortation in Gaelic every Sabbath. I observed a young man speak two hours in one of their meetings here, upon the parable of the ten virgins. He delivered himself with all the ease, fluency, and dignified energy of the iviost eloquent orator ; and had not his voice at last rather failed him, his ardour and flowing eloquence would have continued unabated to the last. Had I been as good a judge of the matter as of the manner, I would have inserted an outline of the discourse. In a conversation I had with a Highlander, but none of their communion, but who had often attended their meetings, he said, some of the exhorters were become mighty in the Scriptures *, and there were some things about them, he must allow, very praise- worthy. They would let none of their members at- tend frolics, get drunk, swear, or pay idle visits on the Sabbath ; and, for his part, he could not say they were blameable in any thing but their views of bap- tism. But their exhortation he considered as a work 1 TRAVELS IN PIIINCK EDWARD ISLAND. 57 5 that 3Ut I settle- )tures scarce tiostjy ; and sy are 1, not nk he sm of im for ous in 1 their d, and ther to tion in 5 man , upon limself of the at last quence Had I lanner, course. It none ;tended s were 'e were praise- bers at- isits on ay they of bap- a work both of necessity and mercy, where no ministers could be procured, and, if procured, could not be properly supported. I tried to erect a Sabbath school here, and a so- ciety was formed one night in my presence Ibr con- ducting it. But the members fixed upon were not only different in faith but also in practice, and, like iron and clay, that cannot be properly amalgamated, they fell to pieces as early as they began to act *, so the first attempt miscarried, but I hope the school here will be revived again by teachers more in unison with one another, and with the spirit and principles of true Christianity ; and then, I hope, it will go ou successfully. I left this settlement on the 8tli of November, and crossing Orwell Bay in a boat, I passed throun, that ers the louis of J bread ; would jrrands ,d they t to be unwili- Jesus ition of ct, and ise ; or re that y over ►fit, bo- all my rred to not yet spoken conver- ith the ig with i quar- ters ; and I must say, the welcome reception I met with at Wood Islands, and the evidence 1 had that my instructions were both needful and blessed to some of them, was sufficient to rouse me to continued diligence, and render me regardless of the obstacles in the way. The winter was not the proper time for erecting Sabbath schools, or in some places for conti- nuing them, unless localised. But it was the fittest time for reading a £^ood book or tract, entering inta edifying conversation, solving doubts, removing diffi- culties, and pointing out the path more plainly, as far as I was able, to such as were asking the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward. In this way I spent the winter, visiting all the settlements I had formerly passed through, except those west of Char- lotte Town. I could not go upon much new ground, on account of the difficulty of travelling ; but I now visited many families I had not time to visit previous- ly, and entered into lengthened, and, I hope, edify- ing conversation with others, at whose houses I had formerly made but a passing call. Some of these conversations might be interesting to the serious reader ; but, as I have no doubt that this Narrative will reach the Island, it would be unfair in me to de- tail some of them. But while I shall suppose the winter is running its ample round, and that I am occupied as stated above, and purchasing fur where- ever I could find it, I shall narrate a few conversa- tions and interviews, which, I hope, may be thought not .unworthy of notice. Lest, however, I should hurt the feelings, or otherwise injure the persons with whom they happened, I must neither say who the persons were, nor where they resided. One day I came to the house of a Roman Catho- lic Highlander. I had been previously informed of his religion ; but, in order to try his disposition a little, I said, " One of my designs in coming to the Island was to erect Sabbath-schools everywhere." 68 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. " Did you ?'' exclaimed he ; " what is your name, if you please ? I should like to keep in remembrance the name of one who had come to the Island with such honourable intentions." And looking out a bit of paper, pen, and ink, with a book to rest it on, he requested me to put down my name myself. After I had put down my name, and handed him the paper, I began to examine the book. It was a Roman Ca- tholic Catechism and Prayer Book. I then put the question to him, his wife being present, " Suppose a school of that kind were erected near you, would you put your children to it ?'''' " I would do that cheerfully," was his reply. " Well, that is more than I expected from one of your faith, and I com- mend you greatly for it. But do you know that child- ren are taught the knowledge of the word of God at these schools, and nothing else?" "All the better,''' said he. " I have," replied I, " been glancing over this book since I came in, and I find in the beginning of it several scripture truths ; but towards the end of it I meet with something of quite a different cast. For instance, it is a scriptural truth, that there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This scripture doctrine, I be- lieve, is not denied in any of your books. But by and by you are taught another doctrine, namely, that you must apply to other mediators of an inferior kind ; in order, I suppose, to recommend you to this great and alone Mediator of God's appointment; and you are furnished, I see here, witli prayers to be presented to these under, or second- hand mediators, who are never so much as mentioned in all the book of God. Now, as every prayer which a poor self- condemned sinner, or even the greatest saint, needs to present to God, he is furnished with the subject matter of it in some part or other of his blessed word. But as neither these mediators, nor suitable prayers to be presented to them, are to be found in all the re vela- is my ye hir men. TRAVELS I>J PTIINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 69 ame, if ibrance d with xi a bit on, he After I paper, lan Ca- put the ppose a would do that is more I com- t child- God at ^r,'"* said vev this ining of nd of it t. For one the J IS lan, I be- But by ?ly, that inferior L to this itment ; irs to be diators, tie book )or self- t, needs subject ?d word, ayers to e revela^ tion of God's will to man, does it not appear as clear to you as a sun-beam, that the whole of these Me- diators, and the prayers to be presented to them, are nothing but the inventions of men ? If these spiritual guides, whom you have been following, are deceived themselves, you are nothing the safer in following them ; for the Saviour himself says, that " If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Their losing their souls, while deceiving themselves and you, will not prevent yours from be- ing lost also. Therefore I would advise you, as you value your own eternal salvation, to turn away from believing and obeying the doctrines and command- ments of men, and attend to what is declared in the word of God, and to that alone. " But to return to the subject of Jesus Christ being the only and alone Mediator between God and man, the text I have repeated is a decisive proof of it. But Christ had to make atonement for our sins, or to come under positive engagements to do so, before he could be admitted as a mediator to plead with God the Father, in behalf o^' sinful men. This he has ac- complished by his incarnation, obedience, sufferings, and death. This is proved by God having raised him from the dead ; lor " he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. He hath mat^nified the law and made it honourable. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses."" Another decisive proof of Christ being the alone Mediator, was the words spoken by an audible voice from heaven at his baptism. '^ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him." Now, from this last mentioned text, we may learn that God the Father is well pleased with Christ in every respect ; both that there should be no other mediator with himself in behalf of sinful men, for it is said in another Scripture, " Him the 70 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. Ml Father heareth alwavs," and also that there is no need of any mediator between us and Christ, for we are com- manded to hear him. O !" continued I, " if we would but give ear to what Christ says in his word to en- courage poor sinners to come directly to him, and al- so what he did in the days of his flesh, we would see the folly of applying to other mediators in order to plead with him. He says, " Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else, a just God and a Saviour." " Surely shall one say, In the Lord have, I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed."" " Behold the Lamb cf God, that taketh away the sin of the world." In the days of his flesh he said, " Sufler even little chil- dren to come unto me, and forbid them not.*' Did ever any come to him in the days of his flesh, be- lieving that he was the Son of God and the Saviour of sinners, who met with a denial, or failed of obtain- ing the desired cure ? He is the same compassionate Saviour now that he was then, for he is the same yes- terday, to-day, and for ever. Oh !" said I, " it only requires a discovery of him as the all-sufficient Sa- viour, able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, and a heart disposed to accept of him upon his own terms, in order to complete the work of a sinner's acceptance with God, and to interest him in all the blessings of the new covenant, grace here and glory hereafter. Think, I beseech you, of the dishonour you offer to Christ, by looking for help from other mediators. By this you rob him of one of the most valuable gems in his mediatorial crown. his compassion to sinners, who, while in the days oi his flesh, bore reproach lor this very thing, that he received sinners and eat with them. By this you give the lie to the most kind and endearing invitations TllAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 71 no need ire com- e would to en- and al- 3uld see n'der to e all ye ;ive you all the is none liall one trength, ncensed e Lamb d." In ;tle chil- r Did esh, be- Saviour F obtain- issionate ame yes- ' it only :ient Sa- come to of him he work irest him ace here , of the for help 1 of one 1 crown, days of that he this you vitations he ever addressed to men, some of which I have re- peated in your hearing. And what will you have to say at the day of judgment, when you will undoubt- edly find out your mistake, when it will be too late to rectify it. You will only then have to say, Your teachers taught you so; but may not the Judge answer, Why did not you read my word for your in- structions, and attend to it ? But you have put more confidence in man than in me, who am the God of truth who cannot lie. Now, all that I have set before you is the word of God, not the opinions or doctrines of men, and if you turn away your ears from hearing it, what an awful thing will it be if these words are produced against you in that decisive day, as proof that you would not hearken to this word when it was set before you ! We may never meet again till we meet before the judgment-seat of Christ ; let us therefore attend now to his kind and endearing invi- tations, and come to him by faith and fervent prayer, while he is seated upon a throne of mercy before he ascend a throne of judgment, to render to every man as his works shall be." Long before I had got this length, the deepest so- lemnity and thoughtfulness was visible in both their countenances, and the tear rolled big in each of their eyes. We had been all three some time upon our feet, I being impatient to be gone, but unwilling to go till I had made known as much of divine truth, as I hoped, by the blessing of God, might lead to the saving of their souls, and they apparently drink- ing in every word with the greatest earnestness, but much concerned lest I should be nighted in the woods. Having now allowed them a breathing, they exclaimed, "J/a?/ the Lord bless you for what you have told us, and may he bless it to our souls ! No man ever gave us as much instruction all our lives, and we would gladly hear more of it, but we are afraid you set yourself into the night, for you have a long 5 1 n TRAVELS IN I'llIKCE EDAVARD ISLAND. way in the wood before you reach the next settle- ment. And, said the husband, if* my horse had been at home you should have had it all the way, but I am sorry I cannot tell where to find it. I thanked him for his kind offer, and with deeply interested feelings on both sides, we shook hands and parted, the husband following me out to show me the way into the wood, and telling me how far it was to get through it. I no sooner looked my watch than I found I had not time to get to the next settlement with daylight, unless I ran the most of the way ; but immediately a young lad came up with a led horse, who kindly offered me the one that had a saddle, and this led me to admire the providential kindness of the Master I had been endeavouring to serve, without grudging ; for by this help I was carried comfortably forward in due time, and without difficulty. I have only far- ther to add, that I saw the mistress of tl\is. family several times afterwards, the husband not being at home, who asked me to bring her a book to instruct her and her husband in the scriptural way of salva- tion. I took her one upon the Nature and Necessity of Faith in Christ, and as she had no money, I gave it to her in a present. Her husband died before I left the island ; but I did not learn any particulars regarding his hopes for eternity. While I was travelling in another part of the island, I came to the house of a gentleman, who, I was told, maintained deistical sentiment?. The first question I asked him was, " Will you purchase any missionary intelligence ?" " No," said he with an oath, " I wish them all at the devil." " Will you purchase a book describing the antiquities of Scotland ?" " No." " Will you buy a number of newspapers describing all the operations of the radicals." " Yes ! what is the price of them .?"" " I said that I had got no din- ner, and if he would give me a bite of something to ; settle- Lcl been , but I hanked :crested parted, he way s to get I I had aylight, ?diately ) kindly 5 led me laster I idging ; ward in nly far- s. family l)eing at instruct )f' salva- [ecessity I gave before I rticulars of the who, I rhe first lase any an oath, Durchase TBAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 73 »i " No." iscribing what is no din- ithing to cat, he should have them all, about twenty in num- l^er.*" " O !" said he, " I would give you that, if I know you in need any way." He then conducted me into the house, and, ordering dinner in all haste, for he had not dined himself, he led me into a room with a large window standing open. The day being warm, we sat down with our faces that way. In or- der to give a religious turn to the conversation if pos- sible, I told him I had been erecting Sabbath Schools every where as I had come along. And taking a prize ticket from my pocket, I read the following lines : " A glory gilds the sacred page. Majestic like the sun ; It gives a light to every age. It gives, but borrows none." " O yes," said he, " that is true,"— holding up his hands, and spreading them out at the window towards the sky. " A glory gilds that page, indeed ;" but judging he had mistaken the meaning of these lines, I proceeded to read the next four,— " How precious is the book divine. By inspiration given. Bright as a lamp its doctrine shine. To guide our souls to heaven." Here he started almost from his seat, and exclaim- ed, " Inspiration! inspiration! zvho can prove that these boohs were given hy inspiration P" " You know, Sir, it is said that the Lord spake unto Moses." He repHed, *' Who can prove that .? we have only his own word for it. No, no," said he, " God is far too great and exalted a Being ever to hold intercourse or speak with man." " I cannot altogether," said I, " agree with you in this ; I think the things them- selves, revealed to and by Moses, are sufficiently de- monstrative that Moses had intercourse with God. But, dropping this point for the present, can you 74 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. suppose that a wise, holy, and benevolent Being, such as we may reasonably suppose the Almighty to be, would have formed a creature, like man, capable of knowing, loving, and serving him, without furnishing him with some express revelation of his will, how he might be acceptably worshipped and served ?" ^« Well," said he, " the light of nature, and the dic- tates of every man's conscience, furnish sufficient in- formation upon these subjects, if mankind would give proper heed to them. " I suppose, then,*" said I, " your creed, drawn from these sources, will contain a system of moral precepts as well as mine, such as doing justly, loving mercy, &c." *' O yes, it does," he said. " Well, then," I replied, " does your con- science never tell you, when comparing your conduct with this rule, that you have transgressed, and become guilty ? How do you manage matters in this case ?" He replied, " Just by being heartily sorry for what I have done, and by resolving to do so no more." *^ But supposing you were never to fall into sin but once, what positive information do you receive from these sources which you confide in, that God will pardon sin at all, or aamit of repentance as an atone- ment for one sin, far less for many ? You may be led by the ways of Providence to believe that God exercises long-suffering patience towards sinners ; but where do you receive positive information, apart from the Bible, that God will finally pardon sin at all, either with or without repentance." He was now much embarrassed, and finding no satisfactory answer at hand, he replied in a jocular manner, " Well, you are the most ingenious man I ever spoke with, and, if ever you come this way, be sure to stay with me over night : I should like to have more conversation with one who is so well informed." I thanked him kindly for his obhging offer ; but, resuming the sub- ject, I said, " I think I could gain nothing by re- nouncing my belief in the Scriptures for the sake of 6 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 73 g, such ' to be, )able of nishing 11, how jrved?'' :he dic- ient in- »ld give said I, contain such as t does," lur con- conduct become 1 case P*" or what more." sin but ire from ■od will 1 atone- may be at God rs ; but irt from at all, ^as now answer ell, you th, and, vith me ersation t said ;he tract through ', Hopes ave him wrsaiion lurch of D young he said go with hey said : he had le sequel le table. ) reading L tract, it bed. A? he had read the tracts with such unremitted perseve- rance, without finding the least fault with either doc- trine or duty recommended in them, I made free to observe to him that I had been quite agreeably dis- appointed to find him so anxious for information, and that of such a valuable kind ; and that certainly his own conscience would bear him witness that he bad spent the night much more profitably than with the card party. He assented to the truth of my obser- vations, and said they could get no books to read upon the Island, unless a sailor might have one at a time, and were quite lost for want of information. Seeing his willingness to read, I gave him all he had read in a compliment, and added others, to the num- ber of eight, of such as I thought most likely to do him good. I may add to the above, that I was often at the house afterwards, and was always received with vhe greatest marks of friendship ; and the compliment of a new tract was received by the whole family as a gift of great value. One day I met with a very old man, who had been brought up among Protestants in Scotland in his youth. But his first wife dying upon the Island, he had wedded another, a very zealous Roman Ca- tholic. But the connexion had turned out, like almost every other of the kind, a very unhappy one indeed ; for he had been obliged to part from his second wife at the time he had most need of her foster- ing care to comfort him. But, for the sake of peace, while he lived with her he had been obliged to com- ply with the forms of her religion, and had submitted three different times to be anointed by the priest for death. His own son begged me to deal very faith- fully with him, in the conversation we had together. He denied, in the frankest manner possible, all confi- dence in the efficacy of that ceremony. But he did not seem to have a proper view of the greatness of his e3 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWAllD ISLAND. sin in submitting to it, which he had clone, as he con- fessed, for the sake of peace. I met with another, also a Highlander, who had turned to the Romish faith, but apparently with more sincerity and honesty than the other, if sincerity and honesty can be commended in such a matter. When one of his neighbours, a Protestant, rallied him upon the subject one day, he returned for answer, " That nothing prospered with him while he was a Protestant, but since he had become a Catholic every thing had done well."" " O thou fool," said his neighbour, " the reason why thy cattle did not thrive was, thou hadst not food for them; but since thou got thy farm better cultivated, and more food for thy cattle, this has made them thrive better, and not the change of thy religion." Such is the measure of knowledge, or rather of ignorance and superstition, among some of the Highlanders ; and it is thought many of them would turn Protestants, were proper measures taken to enlighten them. And one of these means ought to be, a preacher in Gaelic, of pious, prudent, and engaging manners, to itinerate among them gratis ; and schoolmasters with the same qualifi- cations, whom they would willingly receive, and suf- ficiently reward ibr all their labours. When will Protestants do all that they might, in carrying the torch of divine truth into every corner of the king- dom of darkness ! I may add here, that I found several people, who can- didly confessed that their minds hung in doubt whe- ther to be of the Protestant or Romish faith. When I asked their reasons for hesitating to become Protectants, they told me the depravity of some, andthe divided state of the whole, were the stumbling blocks which lay in the way of their embracing Protestant principles with confidence and comfort. In answei- to these objec- tions, I stated the following things: that all man- kind might be divided, and are actually divided, into m e con- had 1 more ty and When d him inswer, was a atholic aid his t thrive :e thou )od for ind not isure of rstition, ;hought I proper of these :' pious, among qualifi- and suf- len will ^ing the le king- vho can- ibt whe- Whenl te&tants, ied state ;h lay in )les with e obj ce- ll! man- led, into TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 83 two classes by the Supreme Judge of heaven and earth, namely, those who serve him, and those who serve him not. In order to be accounted a servant of the Most High, we must take his revealed will for the rule of our conduct in all things. This shows us the need we have to be well acquainted with the Scriptures of truth, for all that knowledge which makes one wise to salvation must be drawn from that pure fountain. And what do we find taught there ? We find that man is a polluted, depraved creature, both by nature and practice ; that there is no salva- tii3n for him by the merit of any of his own works or iiuties ; but that God the Father has provided a Sa- viour and a salvation, suited to all our spiritual wants, in and through Jesus Christ his beloved Son ; that we are required, encouraged, and commanded, to be- lieve the divine testimony concerning Christ and the salvation wrought out by him ; and not merely to credit, w5th a cold and lifeless faith, the truth of these things concerning Christ and salvation through him, but also to discern their glory, excellence, and suit- ableness to our own souls in particular. When such a discovery has been made by us, its captivating ef- fect will be felt over the whole powers of our souls, bringing every thing within us under subjection to the whole truth which God has revealed in his word. Our faith will rest with unshaken confidence upon the veracity of what he has revealed ; our love will be kindled at the goodness of the things revealed ; and our obedience to all God's commandments will follow as a cheerful and willing service. But, in order to the attainment of these things, we must be made the subjects of the enlightening and renovating influence of the Holy Spirit, both to discover these things to our minds, and to incline our whole souls to a cordial acceptance of them when discovered. For this we are encouraged to pray ; and of this all true Christ- ians are made partakers. Therefore, says an Apos- £ 4 84 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. tie, " If any man liave not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." I told them that I hoped now they would see there was more requisite to the formation of a truly Chris- tian character, than tlie assuming of a bare profession, and that a new heart was absolutely needful, in order to a ne'.v life; and that this would account for the depravity they had observed among some of the Pro- testants. These had only a bare profession, a name to live while they were dead. But, in order to speak with propriety about the divisions of Protestants, it might be proper first to take notice of the things wherein all true Protestants are of one mind. Thev all believe, that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain the whole revealed will of God, both as to the faith and practice of every true Chris- tian ; and that no man, or body of mci,, have any au- thority to add to what is found written there, or take from it, since the days of the Apostles. They also believe that there is one God, the creator of all things ; that, in the divine nature, there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; that all mankind, by the first sin of their first father, became guilty, depraved, and miserable ; that there is no salvation for any sinner but through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ ; that an in- terest in this atonement can only be obtained by faith, such a faith as will purify the heart, working by love ; that, under its purifying influence, the true Christian may grow in holiness and meetnesr for heaven. These are a few things, among many others, in which, I told them, all true Christians, as far as known to me, were of one n> id. But, with regard to the things wherein they di.i'ered, and which seem- ed to stumble them most of all, I said they were of a very inferior importance, and regarded mostly the outside form of Christianity. As, for instance, some think a gradation of rank and power among the clergy, as in th good o among the coi have a disciplii mentioi which h who h( outside may be pure ar yet noi have th said ne God uj we had healed, when a more o1 glorify I preven and als to obe^ head. Hn has g€ full ar to viei be a pretty the Wc is littl is not TRAVELS IN PRINCE El>WARD ISLAND. 85 e IS as in the Church of England, is the best way for the good order of the church. Others think equahty among them is best, as in Scotland. Others think the common people who are in church-fellowship have a right to be consulted in all matters of church discipline, as among the Independents. I might mention a great many more, but all the differences which have been prevalent among Protestant churches who hold the head Christ, have only regarded the outside form of Christianity ; and some of these forms may be better calculated than others for maintaining pure and undefiled religion in the churches of Christ ; yet none of these forms, if they who follow them have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, can be said necessarily to deprive them of the blessing of God upon the ordinances of his grace. But I said we had a promise that ;^all these divisions shall be healed, and we hoped for the fulfilment of it soon, when all true Christians shall see eye to eye, and be more of one mind, that with one mouth they may glorify God ; and that these divisions should not prevent them from joining themselves to the Lord, and also to that church which seemed most faithfully to obey the will of Jesus, their great lawgiver and head. CHAPTER VIII. Hitherto my Narrative, though of a chequered, has generally b^en of a favourable kind. But if a full and faithful drawing is expected, I must exhibit to view some parts of the original which will fall to be a little darker shaded. It may be taken as a pretty fair test of the piety or impiety of a people, the way in which they spend their Sabbaths. If there is little of the fear of God visible on that day, there is not likely to be much on any other day of the w^ek. £ 5 86 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. But as I was not a frequenter of taverns, when I could avoid it, or the houses of those ^vho were dis- solute and profane, I do not suppose that the dark- est shades of some of their conduct ever came under my eye. But one evening of a Lord's day, I hap- pened to be in the country, and being unwilling to travel further, I repaired to an inn, or tavern. I found it pretty well supplied with customers, some of whom were greatly inflamed with rum. In the first apartment into which I got a peep, some were straining their lungs with swearing, others had stam- mered upon some subject, I think, connected with religion ; for there was one of them vociferating, " I was born a Protestant ! I was born a Protestant !" But the rules of good breeding did not allow me to collect any more of the conversation of this company. In the opposite end of the house, one would have thought there was something like religious worship going on. A young man had got a Methodist Hymn Book, and was making his boast that he could sing with the best Methodist among them. Other young men were making love to the girls who were in the house. Thus the time was occupied till sup- per was ready. At this time I was obliged to associ- ate with the rest of the company. But it was fa- vourable that none of those who were most intoxi- cated attended to eat any. When this was over, I retired by myself, and the company in the apartment I had left was soon greatly increased, and rum was called for and drank plentifully ; and the young men and women were carrying on their sports as lightly as if it had been the evening of a Scotch fair or mar- ket. But when the girls had to leave the company, another contrivance was resorted to for raising a loud laugh, and killing a little more time. One of the men covered himself over with a rug, or carpet, and began to act a character such as I had never seen acted before. But whether he intended to imitate a madman, a bull, a bull-dog, or a bear, or the whole of these intermix- TftAVELS IM PIUNCE EDWARD ISLAND. 87 when I ere dis- le dark- c under I hap- illing to eru. I s, some In the ime were d stam- Led with ing, " I estant !" w me to :)mpany. lid have worship t Hymn e could Other ^ho were till sup- o associ- was fa- ;t intoxi- j over, I lartmenl rum was Ling men s lightly ' or mar- ompany, g a loud the men began to d before. 1, a bull, ntermix- eii, I could not determine. 15ut he roared, barked, stamped with his feet, and tore and scratched on all sides with his liands, uttering, at intervals, hideou.s sounds of barking, roaring, howling, &c. such as I had never heard uttered previously by neither the human nor brutal tribe. He turned round on all sides, exhibiting these powers of voice and gesture ; and every change of motion, voice, or gesture, excited through the company a new bursting roar of ap- proving laughter ; and when his powers of utterance and extravagance were exhausted, he took a breath- ing, and again began varying his voice and mannner as long as the roar of laughter indicated that it had yet some amusing charms for the company. In short, I thought, if the devil had got him entirely at his command, he could not have caused him to act a more ridiculous farce. The landlady, who had been busy handing out her rum, and collecting her pay, now came and told me thai there was my bed at liand, and I might go to it when I pleast d. I said " I could not sleep when there was so much noise, and must bit till it subsided a little." She replied, " That it would be long, she doubted, before that happened." But immediately a man, who had got tired of the mirth, came and sprung into it; so I was obliged to follow quickly, else be in danger of loosing my share in it altogether. On the morning I was charged one shilling for supper and sixpence for bed, the common fare of the island. This I might have saved by travelling a few miles farther, but I had some desire to see a Sabbath evening scene in a well frequented tavern, and I may say I got quite enough of it. I shall next turn the reader's attention to a Sab- bath-day's scene in a private house. In the morning I was awoke with the sound of whistling, so loud as to be heard through the whole house. I rose in haste to see what was become of the older branches of the family, that a boy should be sitting by the kitchen fire, amusing himself in this way unadmunished by E 6 88 TRAVELS IN PIIIXCE EDWARD ISLAND. any one. When I stepped into the kitchen, I finind his parents so near that it was evident tiie boy's whist- ling on the Sabbath was not a new thing, or meriting, in their estimation, a severe censure. A young man Trom a distance had also been in the house over night. I saw he wished to make love to one of the daughters. He attended them to the milking of the cows, where levity had its full swing. I Jeft the house through the day, hoping to find better company. As I re- turned in the evening, two young men on horseback passed nie in great haste, who, I learned afterwards, were also of the tribe of lovers ; and when I reached the house, I found no little gigling and sport going on among the young people. The mistress of the house was standing at the door, and, while I halted a little to observe what was going on, one of her young sons passed her irtft^^the kitchen whistling all the way ; and he continued to do so till I had seated myself beside his father, who was reading religious tracts in the opposite end of the house. Th*-^ sound of such music on the Sabbath echoing through the house, was so grating to my ears, that I thought I must try some scheme tc have it put down. I then asked the gentleman, " if that boy in the kitchen was a son of his .?" He directly understood the reason of my in- quiry, and called out, " Give over your whistlings sirrah, or Fll come and give you a thrashing T It was not long till another of his sons was playing upon a Jew''s harp. The gentleman now thought proper to make some apology for the light conduct of his children, which he did in the following manner : " We cannot bring up children here with the sober habits you can in Scotland." " Why .^" said I. " Because," replied he, " the children here know that their pa- rents are dependent upon them for help as soon as they are fit to do any thing; and if their parents will not give them a good deal of their own way, as other children are getting in the neighbourhood, they will go off and leave them altogether destitute, it being so easy for young people to begin the world here, and TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 80 fi>und whist- riling, fr man night, o'hters. where 1 rough .s I re- seback •wards, eached going of the halted • young le way ; myself racts in of such I house, nust try iked the a son of ' my in- histling^ gr It ng upon ; proper t of his • : " We T habits ecause," heir pa- soon as ents will as other they will being so lere, and so difficult to pay the high wages of good servants to fill their place. If,'' continued he, " my children that are grown up were to leave me, the old woman and myself, with the helpless part of the family, could not make a living from our farm, after paying wages for"" working it." " Well," said I, " this is a most deplo- rable situation you are placed in, to be obliged to wink at the wickedness of your children for the sake of their temporal support. My opinion is, you have committed a great mistake in regard to the manage- ment of vour children in early life: You have not brought tfiem up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I fear you have not begun in time to make them obey you. I have heard it said by good judges of the matter, that if a child is not taught obedience to its parents at the age of two or three years, it is likely never to be obedient at all : And when one child has grown up, headstrong and refractory, in a family, it becomes a poison to all the rest. Abraham's ex- ample is a very proper one for every Christian parent to imitate: * For I know him,' says God, * that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.' Now, had you exercised proper authority over your child- ren betimes, and given them needful Christian in- struction, you might have expected this promise ful- filled in the after-conduct of some of them at least, that they would have kept the way of the Lord : But while you allow them to spend their Sabbaths in this idle, carnal, desultory manner, you can expect no- thing good at their hands. You should hold a social meeting with some of your Christian neighbours every Sabbath, for praise, prayer, and reading the Scrip- tures, and other good books, and take your children along with you. This plan, I hope, would have a double benefit attending it : It would keep your child- ren from associating with light,' carnal company on the ^^!n after jtire to friend- hich is oupled greatly this es- ting, it convert iniqui- e done ey will ir own iUer by sermon ut this , which teen or expres- way in ;n they ;d con- pt, was irrying nsown ensible on the me in- Many ibit of drinking rum, that every thing is sacrificed to the gratification of this propensity. If they arc at wor- ship, even at a short distance on the Sabbath, they must have rum on the way home if they can find a tavern ; and if they are travelling any length of way in the woods, they must have a bottle of it in their pocket. In the winter some of them suffer dreadful- ly in their hands and feet from intoxication, and it has cost others their lives. A man was frozen to death on the streets of Charlotte Town, the winter I was upon the island, having rendered himself stupid with drinking; and several instances of a like kind I heard had happened in the country within a few years. But one particular instance of the fatal effects of drinking rum happened toward the west end of the island when I was there. Three young men on horseback, with an old man in company, had drunk at a tavern to madness ; they no sooner took their way home than they whipped the old man''s horse, with him up- on it, in such fury before them, that, at a turn of the road, he was thrown, with a terrible dash, to the ground, and in two days afterwards he expired in great agony. In the madness of intoxication a High- lander from Wood Islands was murdered upon the streets of Charlotte Town ; and though two years had elapsed when I was at that settlement, the wi- dow's tears had not then ceased to flow. I shall here close this melancholy picture. I have not drawn it for the purpose of exciting contempt, but compassion, and to show what mankind are with- out the knowledge and fear of the Lord. Had the proprietors of land there, when they began to settle it with emigrants, made some provision for their instruc- tion and moral improvement, they had succeeded bet- ter for themselves ; but, having universally neglected this, the vices that were imported, or grew up and gathered strength among the settlers, in many in- stances, either prevented the cultivation of the lands, r I 94 XBAVELS IV I'EINCB EDWAUD ISLANP. ^1* n or consumed in riot their produce. And it has hap- pened veri^ generally^ as yet^ that little profit has ac- crued to the master^ while, at present^ ruin is hang- irig over the head of many a. tenant. But they who neglect to erect an altar lor God, will find that the devil, and their own lusts, will not allow them long to remain without one ; and at this altar the oiFerings will be more expensive, and the service less comfort- able *. And let it be for a shame, and may they be truly ashamed of it, that so many people should have emigrated from under the wings of churches called Christian, so ill provided for maintaining Christianity, and so little imbued with its holy principles ; and let them testify their godly sorrow for neglecting to cul- tivate their vineyards better at home, and caring so little for those auroad, by now sending out, or assist- ing to send out, faithful preachers of the Gospel to these colonists, who will direct the whole artillery of divine truth, in all its native majesty and importance, upon the sinner's conscience and his sin, that these people may not perish at our door unwarned and uii- instructed, and the blood of their souls be required at pur hands. CHAPTER IX. I SHALL now suppose the winter nearly over, and the ice beginning to break up upon the rivers and bays ; and, intending again to resume my narrative, I may observe, that I was at this time, tne 1st of April, at Murray Harbour, but the ice was so bad I durst not pass ing I wa bath alto^ for i the Sabl I attei Tlii^ attei wi * I would advise the proprietors of land upon the island, to appropriate one hundred acres of land in every settlement, for accommodating a preacher of the people's own choos- ing, and fifty acres for a schoolmaster. These lands the people .might clear with thejir own h$mds; and, when cleared »nd (;vU« has hap. tt has ac- ts hang. they who that the lera long offerings comfort- they be mid have les called istianity, and let g to cul- caring so or assist- ospel to illery of bortance, mi these ■ and ua- pired at TRAVELS IN l»niNCE EDWARD ISLAND. 95 , and the id bays ; J, I may ipril, at urst not le island, ttlement, n choos- hie people pass over to the western side of the bay ; and, return- ing along the shore for Three Rivers, at Gasperrow, I was asked by one of the settlers to stay over Sab- bath, and give them a wofd of sermon, as they were altogether destitute of such a privilege. I gave him for answer, that I had never attempted any thing of the kind : but if he would gather the children on the Sabbath evening I would wait upon them, and, when I was instructing the children, the older people might attend and take what information they could get. Tliis was complied with, and the meeting was well attended ; and I hope <* the power of the Loi-d was present to heal ;** for this school was so much prized by the old people that it was held afterwards succes- sively in the different houses of the settlement. The teachers were pious and prudent, and the children, as the parents told me when I visited them again, had shown such a capacity for learning as they had never been supposed to possess. It is worthy of remark, that, when this school Was opened, I went to a gentleman's house on the Satur- day night to inform his grandchildren of the school, and to point out the Scripture task. But the old gentleman, who had enjoyed little of the means of grace since he left Scotland, near 50 years ago, was so ignorant of the nature of the institution, or indif- ferent to the religious instruction of the children left by Providence to his care, that, after all the argu- ments I could use, he would not consent to let the boys go. When the hour was arrived, however, one of them, excited no doubt by curiosity, ran off se- cretly to see it ; but when the boy saw that all the children had some task to repeat, and that he had tivated, they would afford such effective and permanent help towards the support of these essential prerequisites to the moral improvement of both old and young, that 1 hope every settle- ment, with this favour granted them, might soon enjoy such a privilege without interruption or embarrassment. 1' '. ! 96 TRAVELS IN PllIXCE EDWARD ISLAND. \\ none, he felt so indignant at this that he determined to learn in future, and attend in the face of all oy)po- sition. It would have done one good to see how dih- gent the boy afterwards was to employ every mo- ment of spare time for getting his task, even on the week days. I may add, that the last time I visited the settlement the old gentleman was greatly recon- ciled to the attendance of the boys ; and who knows how much spiritual profit he may yet reap from hear- ing the tasks committed to memory, as, from the fail- ure of his own eye-sight, he has not been able to read himself these many years by gone ? On my way from this place, Gasperrow, to Three Rivers, I had to pass over Sturgeon Bay upon the ice, which had now become difficult and rather dan- gerous. When I had reached the settlement, a ge- neral notice was given to assemble all the children to the meeting-house, while the ice was passable upon the Montague, and Brudenell, or Doctors Rivers. By my advice, the children had been taught at con- venient houses over the winter. It will be proper to resort to this plan in many settlements, whenever these schools become general. But the want of pro- per teachers is great in some settlements at present ; but here it was otherwise, for almost in every house a man was to be found both able and willing to un- dertake the task. As the weather was exceedingly fine, (for their winters are generally driven away by the heat of the summer's sun) the gathering was pretty numerous on the Sabbath at the meeting-house, and many present who, like myself, did not understand the Gaelic. These could not be well edified but by reading di- vinity books in English to them. The settlers had bought a few from me, which they had been using in this way previously, and I now saw the propriety of lending them more. At this time it also occurred to xne, that if they would send home a petition with me D TRAVEtS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 97 term in cd all oppo- hovv di li- very mo- 1 on the I visited ly recon- lo knows om hear- the f'ail- 1 able to to Three ipon the her dan- it, a ge- ildren to ble upon Rivers, t at con- roper to whenever t of pro- 3resent ; -y house g to iin- br their ,t of the erous on present Gaelic. i'lng di- lers had using in )riety of irred to with me to Scotland for a supply of books for this purpose, some might be sent them j and I advised them to have the petition prepared in due time. In order to shorten the narrative of my second summer's excursion over the island as much as pos- sible, I shall insert no extraneous matter, not even the day of the month on which I visited the various settlements. On my way from Three Rivers to town, after I had passed the head of Vernon River, I came into a small settlement on Lot 49. A man, with whom I lodged, told me that there was not one resi- denter there fitted for conducting a Sabbath school. His own words were, "' This is a very dark settle- ment indeed ; they had many of them no Sabbath, and some of them worse than none; and trifling amusements and sensual indulgence was withfSany their great end and aim.*** I met with an old man, a little way from this, whose son had drunk himself so deep in debt for rum, that the officers were in pur- suit of him for the payment. When his father knew this, he ordered his son to sell hay at town and pay it. He sold the hay, and drank the price of it also. And when the officers came the second time, the fa- ther was so enraged that he turned his son adrift, discharging him ever to enter his door, or look him again in the face. The son, thus turned out, went from house to house like a vagabond. The Father's heart relented, and he had gone t;^ ask the advice of a neighbour, what to do in this dilemma ? It was there I saw him, and learned the whole matter. A little forward I came to the house of a pious gentle- man where I had often lodged. He told me he was once as wild and thoughtless as his neighbours; but going home to see his father in Ireland, he was sur- prised to find the whole family become religious, and family worship estabhshed where he had never seen it before. This astonishing change for the better, which had almost pervaded the whole parish, j^^ 93 TRAVELS IN PfilNCE SLDWAJID ISLAK9. learned, had been accomplished under the instrii. mentality of the parish High Church minister; who, from being a man of the world, had become a servant of Christ, and a faithful preacher of his Gospel. May the Lord raise up many such in that benighted and miserable country ! This young gentleman had opened a Sabbath school on tho island himself, and had carried it on some time in the face of much op. position. His father''s clergyman in Ireland had pro- culled him a donation of needful books from a society in liondon, which had revived both him and his pu- {uls greatly^ As I passed on to town, I came to Lot 48, where I had opened a Sabbath school in the winter. I found it gang on prosperously. Many of the peo- pLe'^ere are pious and exemplary Christians. They invited me to their houses with the greatest warmth of Christian love ; and, while I was with them, they dropped all work, as much as possible, and sat down to ask the meaning of this and the other Scripture which had perplexed them. They formerly had been «»bliged to employ a Koman Catholic Irishman for th^r schoolmaster, but a Scotchman coming in the way, they had emtployed him ; but I saw no appear- ance of religion about him then, and I have learned lunce, that he has turned so addicted to drinking as entirely to unfit him for the duties of his office. I believe the lively spirit of religion, which I found among the people here, was all begun by the zealous efforts of a common farmer, a Highlander, who had left his native country with as much knowledge of divine truth as to enable him to speak of it toothers, and as much zeal for God, and the good of souls, as to prompt him to labour in this work without tempo- ral fee or reward. And, being persuaded that it was his duty to occupy the talents he had received in this good work, the Lord had given testimony to the word of hb grace both here, and at Three Rivers, in a re- 1; f». tnAVBLS IN PRI'NCE EDWARD ISLAND. 99 le instriu ter; who, a servant 9 Gospel, benighted eman had nself, and much op. I had pro- 1 a society d his pu. Lot 48, he winter, f the peo- s. They »t warmth bem, they sat down Scripture I had been hman for ing in the o appear- learned 'inking as office. I I found le zealous who had [vledge of to ^others, ' souls, as jt tempo- lat it was ed in this the word >, in a re> markable manner. What a valuable character is a Christian in a b'^nighted neighbourhood ! For should he only be able to exhibit the graces of a holy life, he, even by these, shines as a light in the world. But when he is disposed not only to live to God, but also able to speak of him and his word for the benefit of others, guided by Christian prudence and zeal, he is doubly valuable, and is often made the honoured in- strument of encouraging others to run with him the same Christian race, that they may also share toge- ther in the same glorious prize. After passing over the Hillsborough river to town, and leaving it, I crossed the York or North River. Here I found a Highlander, a brother to him refer- red to above, not by blood, but in sentiment, talents, labours, and success. One of his neighbours, who knew the Gospel and loved it, but not of his senti- ments as to baptism, told me that he was the best preacher in the Gaelic he had met with. His ac- quaintance with the Scriptures surpassed them all, as also his skill in applying them to the understandings and consciences of his hearers. When I passed the settlement of Tryon, one of the Methodists told me they had dropped one of their social exercises in the meeting-house, in order to give time for holding the Sabbath school, and that they found their attention to the children a Tery pleasant work; and he hoped, in due time, it would also be profitable. When I had reached the settlement of Malpeque, or Prince Town, I turned my course along shore eastward to New London. The settlers here, I believe, are mostly Protestants and Presbyterians ; and I found what I took for real marks of piety among them. I lodged in a tavern the first night ; and 1 have heard it observed, that, when Christ came into the world there was no room for him in the inn, and that there had never been much room for his re- ligion in an inn since, but I found it otherwise here ; 100 TRAVELS IN I'RINCE EDWARD ISLAND. :l for the landlord, when supper was over, assembled all his guests and family into his own room, and there attended to worship. But when the obstacles lying in the landlord's way, to the performance of this du- ty, are understood, his piety will appear much more conspicuously. He had three or four masters of ves- sels for lodgers that night, who might be supposed more disposed to swear than to pray. Besides, the landlord was a Highlander, and very unable to ex- press himself in English, and a Gaelic prayer would have been unintelligible to the half of his audience; yet, notwithstanding all these hindrances, he offered up his evening sacrifice. I passed on eastward from this settlement to Cav- endish, and then through the woods, to a branch ol Great Rastico or Harris Bay, called New Glasgow. Here I found a new settlement, of which all the set- tlers were from Glasgow, Paisley, and that neigh- bourhood. They had shown a specimen of Scottish industry, for the time they had been settled there, (not full twelve months,) unparalleled upon the Island. I found among them a Baptist from Paisley, of the connection called M 'Lean's. He told me that he had attempted to exhort, after he settled there, but he said the people gathered from the neighbourhood, and behaved so badly, that he was obliged to give it up. But I advised him to commence a Sabbath school, and perhaps they would pay more respect to him in that way, than when acting as a preacher. I heard, before I left the Island, that he had taken my advice, and that he was going on successfully, and without opposition. When I reached the east side of Great Rastico, or Harris Bay, I came to the house of the Highlander formerly mentioned, who had been reprimanded at Cove Head sacrament for preaching, as it was sup- posed, to his ignorant neighbours. But I found that they had been mistaken in their charging him with cmblcd all and there acles l^'ing >f' this du- inch more crs of ves- 3 supposed esides, the ible to ex- yer would audience; he offered it to Cav- branch oC Glasgow, ill the set- lat neigh- »r Scottish there, (not Island. I ey, of the bat he had re, but he rhood, and give it up. th school, to him in I heard, my advice, id without lastico, or [ighlandcr landed at t was sup- bund that him with TRAVELS IN rillNCE EDWAUD ISLAND. 101 this sin. He told mc that he had a number of very illiterate country people around him, who understood little English, and could not read the Gaelic. He had pity upon them, and invited ihem to his house, and read the Scriptures to them in their native tongue ; and, when he was able to drop a word to make them understand it better, he did so. I said they accused him of staying at home sometimes, when they had sermon, and also detaining others, who, if it had not been for his imprudent iabours, would have attended. He said they were very im- perfect judges in the matter ; for they imagined that, because a Highlander could converse with his neigh- bour, they could also understand a preacher ; but this, he said, was a great mistake : for whenever a preacher went on in his usual style of pulpit orato- ry, he was using language not known in common conversation, and the Highlander was losing so many words, that caused the loss of almost the whole dis- course, even when the attention was the most unre- mitted. I advised him to go on, reading, praying, and instructing his neighbours, to the best of his abi- lity, and if I lived to get home, I might procure him some help, of one kind or another. At Cove Head, I found the two schools still car- ried on prosperously. I passed eastward from this to Tracady, a Roman Catholic settlement ; but not finding a conveyance over the Bay, I had to go on to the St. Peter's Road, and passed near to a Highland- er's house, where I met with an instance of kindness in the winter which has not many parallels on re- cord*. • I was then travelling in the deep snow, and much fatigued, on a Saturday evening, intending to reach the house of a Mr. Douglas, where I had often been hospitably entertained previ- ously, and always invited to come back when convenient. But at this time night came on, and the snow was so deep that I was obliged to turn from the road to the right, and ask for quar- F ^f lOS TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. ■lir f: ' 1 As I passed through the settlement of St. Fe« ter\ I found my old acquaintance, the elder, who had formerly supposed I would not get the keys of the meeting-house, to hold the school in it, greatly altered in his opinion as to my views and conduct. For he now told me that his neighbours and he had waited a long while for me to return, that they might have engaged me for schoolmaster both on the week- days and Sabbath. I had long wished to visit the eastern extremity of the Island, called East Point. A fair opportunity now offered ; so, leaving the head of St. Peter's Bay, I passed along the northern shore, where the settlers are all Roman Catholics. Hospitality to strangers is a prevailing virtue among them. But I heard that common swearing was greatly in use, and I fear that drunkenness, when drink can be got, and Sabbath profanation, are also considered as venial sins. Had I been able to converse with them in the Gaelic^ I t * ters at the house of a Highlander, with whom I had no acquaintance. The favour was granted without the least ap- pearance of reluctance or difficulty. The family consisted of the old man, his wife, with one son and a daughter, advanced to man and womanhood. I got a hed in the kitchen, with blankets, feather bed, and bolster. But while I was so well accommodated, 1 knew nothing how the rest of the family were supplied with these necessaries. A board partition divided the house, and the family slept in the other apartment. But on die Monday morning, when I stept beyond the partition, in search of my bundle, how greatly was I surprised to see two bedsteads, with nothing but dry marsh hay in both of them, and neither blanket, matress, nor bolster ih any of them. Here 1 came to know the fact, that the people had lain both nights with their clothes on, and that I had got all the bed- ding in the house for my accommodation. I am sorry I cannot insert the name of this Highlander. He was so ignorant of thf: English that I could not exchange one word with him. But his wife, who could speak it pretty well, told me they were Protestants ; so I read and spoke a good deal for their instruction on the Sabbath, and gave them sevettl religious tracts in return for their kindness. TRAVELS IN PttlNCE EDWARD ISLAND. 103 St. Fe- jr, who e keys greatly induct, he had T might i week- mity of rtunity f's Bay, settlers ngers is ird that ?ar that )abbath . Had Eielic^ I had no least ap- sisted of tdvanced en, with s so well [lily were rided the But on tition, in d to see I both of of them, ain both the bed- I cannot loirant of ith him* me they for their religious would have tried to scatter some of the seeds of divine truth among them ; but in some of the houses I could not exchange a word. One thing I observed, their great punctuality in attending to their prayers morning and night. When I had reached very near to the extremity of the Island, on the northern shore, I was not aware that nine Protestant families lived on the side of a creek called Surveyor'^s Inlet. As I was told the creek could not be easily passed lower down, I went by the head of it through the woods to the opposite shore, before I was informed of my mistake. I was exceedingly sorry that I did not see them, as their visitors must be very few, and fewer still of a Christ- ian kind. To view the place of their residence, one would be led to think it was upon the out-corner of creation. Near forty miles from the minister, now that they have one, they enjoy him only five Sab- baths in the year, for which they pay £15. But I was told some of them had both the knowledge and life of religion, and that they keep up a social meet- ing every Sabbath for attending to such means of grace as are within their power. And one comfort they enjoy, which is, that the encouraging promise of God reaches their condition. The Lord is equal- ly nigh to all them that call upon him throughout his vast dominions, that call upon him in truth. When I reached the shore on the other side, I found the settlers of a mixed kind, Catholics and Protestants. When I understood them to be of the latter class, I was very anxious to give the conversa- tion a religious turn, in order to communicate as much information to these destitute people as possible. But in one instance I was led into a mistake. By not hearing distinctly the answer given to my inquiry, *< what religion the next family was of ?^'' 1 took them for Protestants, when they were not. I entered the house with a design to communicate some religious v2 :3^ 104 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. * t' instruction, if the smallest opportunity offered. After my ordinary inquiry, what they would please to pur- chase ? their answer was, they had no money. I ob- served next, that they lived far from the means of grace, and certainly would not hear the Gospel often. The goodman, learning by this that I was a Protest- ant, answered me so as to persuade me he was the same. For he said they often got sermon from Mr. Pidgeon, the former Presbyterian minister at St. Peter's. I said I thought it must have been seldom that he had come that way, and that they must be fully as destitute as the Wood Islanders. I then repeated the substance of all that I had taught these people, as formerly narrated, and pressed them» in the most earnest manner, to erect a Sabbath school, in order to make their children acquainted with the Scriptures in early life. " Oh !" said I, " if you allow your children to grow up unacquainted with the oracles of truth, which alone are able to make them wise unto salvation, you will lose them all, and the lioman Catholics will gain them all over to their faith and practice.''* " We mean to learn them to read," he replied, " and when they grow up they may read the Bible if they think proper." '* This, I fear,*' said I, " will be ruinous to your children. For if they are not made acquainted with the word of God in their youth, they may never be inclined to read it when old ; and if they live and die unac- quainted with his word, they must remain also unac- quainted with Christ, and the way of salvation through him. How then can they be saved .?" His wife, who till n(»w had listened to what was said, ob- served rather jocularly, *' That they could get no preaching in the Protestant way, and that she was determined to turn Roman Catholic, and try what preaching she could get among them." *' Well," said I, " what better will you be to go to them ? I never heard any of their sermons, but I have heard TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 105 I ■! After to pur- lob- eans of I often, ^rotest- vas the I from ster at 3 been it they srs. I taught I them^ school, ith the if you d with » make ill, and their lem to p they This, tildren. e word ined to unac- unac- ivation His id, ob- get no he was what Well,^ bi? I heard that the most of their discourses are about the powers of the Blessed Virgin, the merits of the saints, the pains of purgatory? , and the means of deliverance from it, if people have money, and are willing to part with it. But these are doctrines of men, none of which are to be found in the word of God. I would have you to follow this," said I, " and no man farther than he follows it." All this while, one of their sons, about fifteen years of age, had given the greatest attention to what was said, and seemed anx- ious to hear more of it. But his father looking out, saw a man passing by in a canoe. " There," said he, " is an opportunity for you to get over the creek';'' so I departed. I no sooner got into the canoe, than I learnt that the whole family were professed Roman Cptholics, Perhaps Providence ordered the matter for the instruction of the young lad. May the Lord add his effectual blessing ! The lake along which I had been passing, is call- ed East Lake. I soon got into West Lake. Here the settlers are more, if not all of them Protestants ; and a few of them are Baptists. These last men- tioned have a social meeting on the Sabbath. I advised them to add to it a school for the children, which they promised to attend to afterwards. Leav- ing this place, I prosecuted my way to the Bay of Fortune. I had at times to pass through woods, where, had it not been for a chip upon the trees, one would have thought the foot of man had never trode. At other times I travelled on the shcj, where the print of a solitary traveller's foot upon the sand was the most heart-cheering sight I could see. At last I reached the settlement of Souris or Colville Bay. The inhabitants are descendants of the first French settlers, and are Roman Catho- lics. I was pressed to stay over night in the first house I came at; but the master of the second knew me, and it was impossible to resist his kind- f3 ii t d i i IB \ 106 TEAVELS IN PEINCE EDWARD ISLAND. a a^ ' t • •f' I i ness. Here a piece of honour was done me I did not understand at the time, nor properly appreciate. It was no sooner reported to the neighbours that a traveller was at the house, and that he was re- spectable, than they gathered in, and kept me com- pany till it was time to go to rest. This, I was told afterwards, was a custom among these French settlers when they wanted to show the highest re- spect in their power to a stranger. Their counte- nances wore the smile of- cheerfulness and love, and their conversation was both friendly and animating. After the master of the house and I had finished supper, they all joined in prayer before they parted. This may well put Protestants to the blush, and perhaps some who esteem themselves very good Christians. The master of the house repeated the prayer, or prayers, from his memory, and continued a long while at this exercise; but as it was all in French, I could not judge of the petitions. But it was at the time my supplication to him, who is styled the hearer of prayer, that he would teach these people to pray aright, that they may no longer rest in the form, but attain to the spirit and the purity of true worshippers. After we had risen from our knees, they all shook hands with me, and bade me a hearty good night. Next morning while the breakfast was preparing, I took some tracts to read. The old mistress and her son, the master, seated themselves on each hand of me upon the same bench, and hearkened with great attention. I read the tract, entitled, Hopes for Eternity. Another, The Sinner Directed to the Sa- viour, by Flavel ; « Behold the Lamb of God that taTceth away the sin of the world."* On hearing this, the old woman was greatly affected with the doctrine it contained. I said, if they would read them after- wards, I would leave them for their future perusal. She said, they could not read them in English ; but TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 107 ! I did reciate, that a vas re- e com- I was French est re- sounte- ^e, and mating, inished parted. b, and good ted the itinued ; all in . But who is h these longer nd the !n from d bade paring, >ss and h hand d with pesjhr he Sa- d that g this, octrine I after- erusal. i; but if I would be so kind as leave them, they would get them read, and then they could understand them pretty well. So I looked out about half a-dozen of what I thought most suitable, and left them in their hands, wishing that they might be blessed of God to the saving of their souls. The old woman now got very free, and told me all their reasons for using the sign of the cross. She said, they esteemed it an ef- fectual charm against all the efforts of the devil to hurt them. I was sorry I had not time to point out the great and only means of deliverance from all the machinations of the wicked one, for her son was now ready to put me over the bay in a boat. But this is the great error of the church of Rome. She has led the attention of her votaries from Christ himself, with all his fulness of saving power and grace, to the piece of wood, (or a motion of the hand in the form of it,) on which he hung, while he suffered and made atonement for the sins of men. As I left the house, I begged the old French wo- man to get the tracts carefully read, and I hoped they would make her acquainted with a surer de- fence against all evil, than the sign of the cross. Her son and I now passed on to the bay or river, which was more than half a mile distant. And both before we set out, and on our way to the river, I got some historical information, which I shall narrate in its proper place. But the religious part I shall here detail. I began by commending them for their punc- tuality in attending to prayer ; but said, I would re- commend, in addition to this, that they would get the word of God and read it attentively, so as to be able to frame their prayers according to it, or rather from it. " In that blessed book, you will find," said I, " petitions suited to the condition of every saint, and every sinner, words put into your mouth of the Holy Spirit's dictating, and such words as we are sure God will hear, when they are presented to him in faith ; F 4 \ ; 4 If' 108 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. V »» 'i :■ and there you will learn also the way of access to God, and every thing respecting his worship and ser- vice." All this he assented to ; but expressed his sur- prise how little some of the Protestants attended to prayer, and mentioned some of them by name. I said there was much profanation in the houses he had mentioned, but little prayer. " But," said he, " there is a kind of people called Baptists near East Point. I think, said he, these be well meaning people; for they always meet on Sunday for prayer as we do ; and I have a very high opinion of them, for they seem to be most given to prayer of any Protestants I know of in this quarter." After I passed over the river, I had still a number of French settlers before me, and also the next set- tlement called Rollo Bay. I found them all of the same obliging and prepossessing manners ; and I was sorry I had to leave them so soon. How beautiful- ly might not the graces of true Christianity shine if they were engrafted upon such an assemblage of na- turally fine dispositions ! I heard that a number of Bibles in French had been distributed amongst them. I am afraid, however, they ar^ neither well read nor understood ; but if a number of suitable tracts in French were introduced among them by a proper hand, they might have a good effect. But Protes- tants in general would require to be more reformed themselves, in order to become successful reformers of others. After I reached the Bay of Fortune, I prosecuted my way by the old circuitous course to Three Ri- vers, As I passed Charlotte Town, I heard of a vessel then loading, bound for Cork in Ireland. As I intended to embrace this opportunity of getting so far in my way home, I hastened to wind up my af- fairs at Three Rivers in order to get back in time to take my passage from town. When I arrived there, I found the Highlanders had not so much as put TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 109 pen to paper in framing the petition formerly men- tioned. It was now the last week of September, and their harvest was not concluded, and it was difficult to get a meeting upon a week day. But with the assistance of a Mr. William M'Laren, a Highlander, a man of good sense, and, I hope, of serious godli- ness, a scroll of the petition was extended on the Sa» turday, and read to a very full meeting on the Sab- bath, and met with universal approbation. And, as the Monday was the first of the month, when they held a prayer meeting at the meeting-house, it was hoped a goodly number would attend, and put their names to the petition, when copied over again. But the fineness of the day caused few at the meeting, and those who attended were greatly displeased with those who had not. I therefore applied for a few more Highland names at Lot 48, on my way to town, which amounted to thirty-five in all. Had I extend- ed the petition three months sooner, and carried it with me, I might have procured some hundreds of subscribers ; but I expected several petitions from other settlements in their own name, but these were not got up nor forwarded in time. None of the agents of government were at liberty to join in such a petition, although several of them told me they heartily approved of its object, and wished it great success. The narrative of my travels and labours upon that island is now brought to a close ; for I left it on the 24th of October. Had it been written earlier, there might have been more of it. But I hope there is enough stated to show the destitute condition of these islanders, and enough to excite the compassion of the mother country, and cause her, in this case, as in many others, to lend her helping hand. F 5 no TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. W I 'J h CHAP. X. It now remains that I give a summary view of the history and present state of the various bodies of religious professors upon the island. When the island was taken by the British, they designated it an Epis- copal settlement, regardless where the people might emigrate from, or what profession they might be of who settled upon it. The island was divided into counties, lots, and parishes, by government survey- ors. And one hundred acres of land in each parish was set apart for the clergyman, and fifty or sixty for a schoolmaster. But these lands are all lying unoc- cupied every where. And, however convenient they might be for accommodating a minister of the people's own choosing, if they do not belong to the Episcopal church, they must not set a foot upon them nor put an axe into them. But so careless has the Church of England been to propagate even her own faith there, that, except the garrison chaplain, Mr. Desbri- say, formerly mentioned, no other clergyman has been sent till about three years ago. Indeed, I may affirm, that the Episcopal has succeeded the worst of any form of church order adopted upon the island. Those who might be expected to be its warmest friends and supporters, I mean emigrants from Eng- land, are some of them its worst enemies. For when they had received no spiritual profit from their teach- ers at home, their teeth were set on edge against the clergy by the oppressive nature of the tithes. I found a happy contrast to this among the emigrants from Scotland ; they almost all entertained a high ve- neration for, but none of them any antipathy to, the establishment there, whether they had profited by it little or much. May that church now show her- self worthy of this ailFection by sending them every help in their power ! 2 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. Ill view of odies of e island n Epis- 3 might it be of ed into survey- parish ixty for unoc- nt they )eopie's )iscopal lor put urch of faith Desbri- an has I may i^orst of island, warmest n Eng- ►r when : teach, nst the les. I igrants Igh ve- to, the \ by it w her- every The first settlers upon the island were from France, and when it was taken by the British, many, if not all of them, were rather inclined to return home, than come under the British government ; and many, I was told, who meant to go home, went on board vessels not sea- worthy, and never reached their na- tive shore. The few families left behind, perhaps for want of vessel-room, retired into the woods, and were not known to the British garrison for some years. But when they were discovered, they were required to take the oath of fealty to their new masters. Their priests having all left them, there was none to ex- plain the nature of what they were required to do, and they, foolishly imagining that they were required to change their religion, refused all compliance, what- ever might be the consequence. In this condition matters stood for some time, the soldiers, at every vi- sit, and on every refusal to take the oath, driving oft* all the live stock they could find about their houses. How long this distressing state of things continued I am not sure, but I suppose till some of their priests again came among them. I was informed that the state of New England, perhaps to suppress Popery round all their borders, published an offer, that they would give £50 to any person who would bring them a Romish priest, and that the first priests who returned to this oppressed flock, came at the risk of being kidnapped and carried to Boston. Yet they did come, and even celebrated mass sometimes in the houses of Protestants. This I had from a woman at Belfast, who told me they had once done so in hers. The priest they have at present is a Highlander, who has been a long while upon the island. He has lately been advanced to the rank of bishop, and has got an assistant, a Frenchman. He is well respected as a man, even by the Protestants. He has gone through more bodily fatigue in attending to the du- ties of his office, than any other man I know of in the F 6 :; ' «■ 112 TRAVELS IN PRINCK EDWARD ISLAND. ill •;* island. I have been told they have eleven places of worship there, and he is continually attending atone or other, besides celebrating mass and baptism at pri- vate houses, visiting the sick and dying, &c. But, with all his good qualities, and I may allow, with truth, that he has many, yet at the same time he must be considered as no proper minister of the gos- pel of the grace of God, if it be in the Scriptures alone that that gospel is made known in its purity and saving power ; for he never recommends the per- usal of that word to those who can read it, nor does he wish those who cannot read it to be taught to do so. Recollect what he said about the Indians. It is lamentable, that not long ago the half of the whole population of the island were followers of such a spi. ritual guide, and even at present, I suppose they amount to one-third or two-fifths. But the late emi- grants have been, many of them, of a different faith. I wish I could also add that they were all of a supe- rior practice. With regard to the Protestant rehgion, I have al- ready obwserved, that there was no preacher of it on the island, many years, except the garrison-chaplain. I remember of reading an extract of a letter from that island, I suppose from a preacher, inserted in the London Evangelical Magazine, more than twen- ty years ago, stating that this preacher had met with individuals there who had not heard a Protestant ser- mon for thirty years by past. Who this was I never learned, but when I met with Mr. M'Gregor of Pic- tou, he told me it was not he who sent that commu- nication. But he said, when he first came upon the island, he found persons in the Malpeque Settlement, nineteen years of age, who had not so much as seen Si Protestant preacher, and were, at the time, unbap- tized. All this time the Romanists had nothing to hinder proselytizing to their own faith ; and I be- lieve several were gained among the Highlanders, TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 113 particularly after they got a Highlander for a priest. Some of these I met with personally, as formerly mentioned ; others I was told of who did not fall in my way. But the very first Protestant preacher I could hear of, who was any way fixed upon the island, was a Mr. Urquhart, originally, I believe, from Scot- land, but had come from the States to the island. But how long he resided there, or whether he died there, I did not learn. The next Protestant Presbyterian minister was a Mr. Gordon from Scotland. The memory of this valuable servant of Christ is yet dear to all who knew him. He was of a slender and delicate bodily frame, and, feeling deeply for the perishing condition of ♦hose around him, ne laboured so greatly beyond his strength, that he literally wore himself out. But this would bring him sooner to his rest, and the crown which is promised to all who continue faithful to the death. I may add the following anecdote which I heard of him : " A Mrs. Higgins, belonging to the Cove Head Settlement, one day was crossing a bay or creek with him in a canoe ; the wind was high, and the water much troubled. Mr. Gordon discover- ed some evidence of fear, Mrs. Higgins rallied him, by saying, *' Mr. Gordon, you seem to have no faith ; what makes your faith so weak .f*" " I wish," said Mr. Gordon, " to have some foundation for my faith ; I never wish to build a strong faith upon a bad foun- dation, but this canoe is very unsteady at present in- deed." Mr. Gordon's widow is now married to Mr. M*Gregor of Pictou." The next Presbyterian minister who went to the island was a Mr. John Keir, of Malpeque, formerly mentioned. He preaches there, and at New London and Bedeque. I have said all that is needful to be said about him. He is of a weakly constitution, and labours beyond his strength. • The next Presbyterian minister who went to the island was a Mr. Pidgeon, formerly mentioned also. lU TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. m\ He was sent out by the London Missionary Society to the Bay of Chalcurs, with some support, I believe, from the Society. But he came to the island of liis own accord, and joined the Presbytery of Pictou, and got a settlement at St. Peter's, about fourteen or fif- teen years ago. But three years ago some misun- derstanding took place between him and his flock, and they dissolved connection, with the concurrence of the presbytery. He had found no new situation when I left the island, and is not well off, with a large family. The next I may mention of the same connexion, was a Mr. Nicol, from Teviotdale, Scotland. He went there four or five years ago. He was stationed on Lots 13, 14, and 16, on the western side of Richmond Bay. I believe he was not fixed to his charge eigh- teen months till he died. The cause of his death was a mortification in one of his legs, upon which there was an old sore. 1 heard him spoken of in the high- est terms of approbation, by all who knew him, and who had heard him preach. He was reckoned the best composer and deliverer of his discourses of any Presbyterian preacher whom the people who gave me his character had heard in that island ; and his death was considered a loss which would not soon be repaired. The next Presbyterian minister who went there was a Mr. McGregor from Scotland. He went in summer, 1820. He is placed over Mr. NicoFs charge, and I hope will be both useful and comfortable. There is also a Mr. Robert Douglas from Teviotdale, in Scotland, now occupying Mr. Pidgeon's place at St. Peter's. He had been placed at Onslow, Nova Scotia, a £ew years ; but was removed to St. Peter's in harvest, ISJiil. He preaches there, at Cove Head, the Bay of Fortune, and East Point. The nearest of these stations to St. Peter's, where he resides, is twenty-two miles distant, and the farthest near forty. TRAVELS IN PBIXCE EDWAUD ISLAND. 115 Society believe, d of his tou, and 1 or fit'. I misun- ,s flock, lurrence lituation • with a mexion, He went >ned on chmond ge eigh- ?ath was ih there ie high- im, and ned the of any gave and his soon be t there vent in charge, artable. iotdale, 3lace at Nova Peter's 1 Head, nearest ides, is • forty. There remains only another minister of this connex- ion to be mentioned, a Mr. Hyde. He was from the English Independents ; but when he came upon the island he joined the Presbyterians. He was preach- ing, but not placed for want of support, when I left the island, at Elliot or AVest River and Tryon. I have since learned that he is now only occupying Tryon. Indetd I found the prevailing opinion of the settlers was th/it English preachers did not an- swer the island, at least in the Presbyterian connec- tion. He came to the island near three years ago. The Methodists maintain two regular preachers there; the one was a Mr. Robert Alder from Berwick- shire, and the other a Mr. Millar from Ireland. These were removed the second summer I was upon the island, and a Mr. liamford was sent to Char- lotte Town ; the other preacher's name I do not recollect, and I never heard him preach. They oc- cupy several preaching stations on the island, Char- lotte Town, Murray Harbour, Tryon, and Bedeque, with other parts where they preach occasionally, viz. Lot 49, Cove Head Road, and Three Rivers, &c. They have so many excellent local preachers, that they seldom want sermon in all their regular places of wor- ship; and it must be acknowledged that wherever the Methodists abound, vice and immorality is made in a great measure to hide their head, and every man and woman is taught to pray. The members of their churches are mostly from England, or the is- land of Guernsey, and their regular preachers have part of their support from home. It only remains upon this subject that I take a lit- tle more notice of the Baptists. It has been observed already that they are the offspring of Mr. Haldane's connection in Scotland, and consequently have fol- lowed his views of church order and ordinances. There are eight different stations where they hold regular meetings for worship on the Sabbath ; and I f,-'-' 116 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. IS ' m was told there was about 100 members in full com- munion altogether. At every one of these stations the life of religion is kept up. They have regular worship in their private dwellings ; and they attend the gates of Zion on the Sabbath regularly with a hope of partaking of her divine provision. This hope is, I trust, not disappointed ; for though some of the hands that break the bread of life among them may be little versant in human learning, yet it is still the bread of life they have among their hands, while they are making the word of God the daily subject of their anxious inquiry, and reading it in the ears of all, that they also may be edified, built up, and comforted. For it must be allowed on all hands that the word of God is the grand instrument in the hand of the blessed Spirit for converting souls, and not the eloquence of man, although at times it may prove a very useful auxiliary ; and I hope the promise will be verified in their happy experience, " That they shall know if they follow on to know the Lord." To encourage common unlearned men to speak in the public assemblies in Scotland, may be thought unnecessary or unlawful ; but on that island it ap- peared to be quite otherwise ; for if the assistance of common men is not called to aid in edifying the peo- ple, the inhabitants must remain long in a great mea- sure unchristianized. And I tliink God has ap- pended the seal of his blessing to the labours of some of them already. For there are some now walking as children of the light, who not long ago were grop- ing in midnight darkness, and living according to the course of the world. Whether ultimately through the weakness and imperfection of human nature, this scheme may not have some unhappy results attending it, I must not stop to inquire ; but I would observe, that if it be proper for ministers of the gosj)el to covet the best gjfts^ it must also be proper for the people to procure the best gffted, as far as they are able. ). TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 117 iill com- stations regular y attend y with a 'his hope e of the lem may still the lile they of their all, that mforted. word of i blessed Lience of y useful rifled in know if speak in thought d it ap- itance of the peo- ?at mea- has ap- of some walking re grop- g to the through re, this tending observe, to covet I people re able, both for their own spiritual profit and that of others around them. I am so far, however, from discourag- ing their endeavours to make known the word of God to the best of their ability, that, on the contrary, I would encourage others to imitate them till they can be better provided. CHAP. XL I HAVE, as above, given a cursory view of the dif- ferent public professing parties upon that island. I have stated every thing as I saw it, with a mind, I hope, as unbiassed as possible. I have praised what I thought was praise-worthy, and censured what I thought deserving of blame. And what are the re- flections which ought to be made upon the whole ? I think the following may be mentioned. That many of the Protestant settlers who have emigrated there, although they left a Christian country, in name at least, carried little religious knowledge along with them, or the means of attaining it after they emigrat- ed, some of them not even a Bible, nor ability to read it ; — that, living so long without any means of instruc- tion, there was nothing to be expected but that many vices would be indulged in, and evil habits contracted ; — that new accessions of emigrants are still repairing to the island, who are not generally the religious part of society, and, therefore, not likely to steoi, but rather to increase, the current of corruption ; — that those settlements among the Presbyterians, who have preachers, are but ill supplied with the gospel, and many other settlements are not supplied at all ; — that the Highlanders, who cannot read their own language, or understand the English, are truly in a pitiable condition ; and, lastly, that it is the duty of every Christian church, to the best of their ability, to lend 118 TRAVELS IN tEINCE EDWARD ISLAND. their helping hand, but it must be more pre-emi. nently the duty of that church from under whose wings these people emigrated, to send them spiritual help, and to send it without delay, lest generation after generation follow one another to the cham- bers of death, nearly as ignorant as the beasts that perish. I would now fondly hope, after the Christian read- er of every denomination has perused the preceding narrative, the historical sketches, and the petition from the people's own handy, which will be found in the Appendix, and has been published already in many of the religious magazines, tha*^^ they will see the propriety of something being done for th.ese des- titute people, and willing to hearken to prudent ad- vice upon the subject. I shall therefore v;'nture to propose the following suggestions. In the first place, that a society be formed for the express purpose of attending to the spiritual wants of the British Colonies in North America, or that some of the other societies take charge of this part Or the Lord's vineyard. And that such attention is neces- sary, cannot be doubted, when it is considered how many thousands of our countrymen have emigrated thither in a state of wretched poverty, both a& to their spiritual and temporal interests. And I am persuad- ed that many of them who had set very light by the Christian privileges which they formerly enjoyed so plentifully at home, would prize them more, and im- prove them better, in that new country, after the hard- ships they have endured, and the difficulties they have had to encounter, if faithful preachers, free of ex- pense for a time, were sent to labour among them, manifesting no other motive but that of Christian love. Perhaps some will reply to this, that it was supposed when people got to America, they were gone to a land of Goshen ; and that if they wished to have preachers, they could not be at a loss for plenty, as i w. TRAVELS m PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDi 119 e pre-emi. ier whose n spiritual generation the cham- jeasts that stian read- preceding I? petition ; found in already in ij mil see these des- udent ad- vi'nture to led for the il wants of that some )art Or the n is neces- dered how emigrated a» to their ii persuad- >ht by the enjoyed so e, and im- r the hard- I they have ree of ex- ong them, Cliristian hat it was were gone id to have plenty, as there is enough of that article to be had for paying for. Alas ! this supposition is founded in a mistake. All new settlers, who emigrate poor, which most of them did, must continue poor for a number of years, when every inch of ground is to be cleared of heavy timber before it is worth any thing ; and when their children are grown up, and might be expected to help and comfort them, it is very likely that, by their ignorance of God, and all that is good, evil habits are " growing with their growth, and strengthening with their strength," so as to blast all hopes of pros- perity in the present world, or preparation for the next. Does it not now appear, as clear as a sun- beam, that the gospel should be sent them for a time upon as easy terms as possible, if ever we would wish them to become both able and willing of themselves to support it. I would also urge upon the atten* tion of the Society which I wish to be formed, or that may take charge of this work, to send one Gaelic preacher at least to itinerate among the Highlanders as early as possible. Many of the old people among them, who cannot read, must have minds nearly as dark in regard to the pure gospel, as those who never heard of the Saviour's name. Some of them also who have no learning themselves, are so indifferent about getting their children educated, that they have been heard to say they would as soon hear the geese cackle as hear their own children read. In the second place, I would suggest to the Society the propriety of sending out a number of plain men of ordinary learning, but well fitted to communicate religious knowledge to children, to be employed as schoolmasters, several of whom ought to be able to speak the Gaehc. I think they would cost the So- ciety little more than a free passage ; for they might obtain from £M to ^£^30 a year, with board, part in cash, and part in produce. If these were worthy, pious, prudent men, I think they might get a com- f uo TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. fortable support in many of the settlements, and might prove a blessing to unborn generations. In the third place, I would recommend to the So- ciety to send out a proper supply of School Bibles, Testaments, Psalm Books, Gaelic do. and every other book needful for both Sabbath and week day instruc- tions. All the books intended for school reading ought to be bound in strong canvas. The great heat of their fires, and the dryness of the air, cause the leather-bound books to break immediately. The school Bibles might be divided into several parts, and the Gaelic Psalm Books should have the Scotch version bound with them, as both are often sung at the same meeting the same day *. A good supply of plain practical orthodox divinity books are also greatly wanted. All these books to be furnished at first gra- tis, but to be sold upon the island at prime cost prices, in order to keep up a continued supply for further use ; so that this continued supply may always be sold upon the same terms, without subsequent aid from the Pa- rent Society. This will allow their further bounty to be bestowed upon other destitute colonies ; and many of them, I am persuaded, are as destitute as the island I am pleading for, but I had not funds to enable me to visit them. In order to carry this scheme into proper execu- tion, the islanders must be apprised that it is their duty to find a librarian, either to do the work gratis, or to be remunerated by themselves ; otherwise the books must be sold at home retail prices, which will fitiil be near one-third lower than they can be got 'h * They have plenty of English and Gaelic Bibles in the Bible Society's Depository at Charlotte Town, but not at re- duced prices, consequently they are both too good in quality, and too high in price, to be appropriated to school reading. And having been ordered from London, they have no Psalms bound with them at all. ). TRAVELS IN PBINCE EDWARD ISLAND. Hi nd might 3 the So- 1 Bibles, ?ry other instruc- reading reat heat ause the le school and the version he same of plain greatly first gra- >t prices, her use ; M upon the Pa- ' bounty es; and titute as funds to execu- is their k gratis, wise the >ich will be got s in the lot at re- 1 quality, reading. Psalms there at present, and many of them cannot be got at all. But the odd volumes which may be given by private individuals at home, I would recommend to be lent out a reading into the different settlements, where it is expected they will be read, attended to, and returned. This would have a tendency to beget a desire for knowledge, both of a rational and reli- gious kind ; and I hope, whenever the attention of ray native countrymen is rightly called to this object, a good supply of divinity, history, biography, mis- sionary reports, old magazines, &c. will be handed into the Society, in order to be forwarded to the island and adjacent parts, that these silent messen- gers of heavenly wisdom may find their way to the abodes of ignorance, error, and vice, carrying along with them gospel light and truth. I have said all that I think needful by way of ad- vice to the Society, in regard to the supply of that island. But when they have accomplished all that I have recommended, as to the object first in hand, they will find their work only begun, or rather " be- ginning to begin.*" In many parts of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton *, New Brunswick, Upper Canada, and Newfoundland, I am persuaded they stand in need of the same helping hand, otherwise many of * The following aflfecting circumstance was told me of a set- tler on Cape Breton. He had been settled there several years, but could find no religious companion among all bis neighbours, nor any who regarded the Sabbath for any pious purpose. At last a new settler came, who was acquainted with the Bible, and willing to join with him in acts of religious worship. When he understood this, he clasped him in his arms for joy, and exclaimed, " Now God has heard my prayer, and sent me one fellow-traveller on the heavenly road. 1 have lived here these six years, and could find none ; but you are hke an angel sent from heaven to comfort me. I hope I shall have no more silent Sabbaths, but one to assist me in raising the song of praise, reading the word of God, and in offering up our joint ' prayers at the throne of divine mercy." t i U2 TRAy£LS IN PBINCE EDWAUD ISLAND. e I i the people must remain long in a state much like the wild desert around them, producing nothing but that which springs naturally from a benighted mind and a corrupted heart. The present is a favourable time to step in to their relief; for, when the springs of their temporal enjoyments are fallen low, they will the more easily be persuaded to draw from those foun- tains of heavenly bliss which never run dry. I suppose the most of my readers will assent to the propriety of what has been recommended above. But the question will occur, where shall the ministers and the money be got to carry all these plans into execution. There is only one thing requisite, and we shall then have plenty of ministers, saying, " Here am I ; send me." And the requisite wanted is, a willingness to endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Let the same spi- rit which animated the apostles be diffused through all the ministers of the Gospel, established and dis- senting, and there will be no lack on this head. It will no doubt be objected by such as have got charges, for I am addressing such, that they cannot leave them, or they will be pulling down one house while attempting to build another. To this I would answer. Have you been honoured of God to erect a holy temple for him which is become an habitation of God through the Spirit ? Then I would say, You need not be so alarmed at leaving your churches twelve or fifteen months to go upon such an errand. If they get less preaching, they may give themselves more to reading the word of God and prayer, and they will have more errands to a throne of grace than ever, and the more the better. For the more we feel and pray for the good of others, we are the more likely to receive abundantly the b'^osbgs we need ourselves. But as I must suppose this objection principally to come out of the mouths of dissenters, ). TRAVELS IN PEINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 128 like the but that ind and a able time prings of they will iose foun- assent to ed above, ministers lans into site, and ^, " Here ted is, a Vs sakes, lich is in 3am e spi. through and dis- lead. It lave got y cannot ne house I would ;o erect a itation of ly, You churches 1 errand, emselves jrer, and race than e we feel the more we need objection issenterSy for a case exactly in point, they might inquire whe- ther the church of Mr. John Campbell of Kings- land was scattered by his going twice to Africa ? I have not heard that he has had to look out, on his return, for a new situation. Nay, I would think that any church, embued with the spirit of true Christian philanthropy, would feel the flame of love burn much stronger in their breasts to their pastor for his offering to go and distribute a portion of heavenly provision to them for whom nothing is prepared. Perhaps I shall be told, there are plenty of young preachers : let these go. I would say, these general- ly do not answer so well; The sermons of such of- ten glitter so much with the fire-edge of the college, that they do not answer to be delivered to a set of uninformed people ; besides, they cannot preach of- ten enough. Could not every presbytery in the Lowlands of Scotland, both in the establishment and among the dissenters, spare a preacher to go for a limited time upon such a mission as this, and fill their pulpits pretty regularly in their absence? There is nothing to be afraid of. The climate is healthy^ and tlie people are hospitable ; and I hope they would receive them as the messengers of the Lord of Hosts. But where shall Gaelic preachers be had ? I would say. Wherever they can be got, regardless of the name they are called by, if they follow Christ, and are likely to preach his gospel. And if none can be spared at home, there is one upon the island, a very acceptable preacher among his countrymen : send him some help, to encourage him to itinerate more extensively. There are also some students attending the Academy at Pictou, who, I was told, would soon be ready to preach, and are able to speak the Gaelic. They might be engaged for a while to itinerate among the Highlanders there, when they are iinii^ed with lU TRAVELS IN FRINGE EDWARD ISLAND. their studies, were some support and instructions for- warded to the presbytery of Pictou to that eflPect. But how is the money requisite to be raised in these distressing times? I confess this is a difficult matter, if there is not a willing mind. But there are two fa- vourable things in this case. Little money will do, and I hope it will not long be needful. That coun- try is yet in the weak, helpless, and sickly state of infancy, and needs the ibstering hand of a parent to be lent it yet for a little. But if its spiritual health were restored, temporal prosperity may be expected to follow in its train. And this once attained, I hope the inhabitants would soon be able, not only to do for themL.lves, but to return the kindness that had been shown them in the days of their youth by the mother country. But to return to the subject of raising the money for this purpose. I would have it understood that I do not wish it to be drained from those sup- plies that are at present appropriated to the support of missions among the heathen. I wish to get upon new ground, and is there not plenty of it? Are there not many parishes in Scotland, who have hith- erto given nothing to the support of Bible or Mis- sionary societies ? Is this the fault of the people or their pastors ? Have the pastors pled with the peo- ple in behalf of this object like men in earnest, and could get nothing ? or have they pled at all ? I be- lieve some have not. Reverend gentlemen, let me expostulate this mat- ter seriously with you. What are the reasons which have induced you to stand by idle, and not put your shoulder to the work that has been going on these thirty years ? I mean, the endeavours that have been made by Christians of every name to spread the light of divine truth over the dark places of the earth. Do you say it is not the Lord's work that has been going on ? Can you prove this from his own word ? Can you find a proof there to your D. ;tions for- ?ffect. d in these it matter, re two fa- y will do, hat coun- y state of parent to lal health expected ;d, I hope to do for had been le mother aising the nderstood [lose sup- e support get upon it ? Are lave hith- or Mis- people or the peo- nest, and ? I be- this mat- )ns which put your ; on these lave been read the s of the tvork that from his ) to your TRAVELS IX PUINCE EDWARD ISLAND. If25 purpose, which you can boldly take in your hand to the judgment-seat of Christ? Nothing less, nothing else, will serve your purpose. Do you say it is not the Lord's time for accomplishing this work, and therefore vain for man to attempt it ? Have you got a peep at the secret record of the purposes of Jeho- vah, or can you tell us pointedly when the set time will come ? If you cannot do this, it is evident you have got no new revelation from God upon the sub- ject, and the old revelation which he has already given is all against you. Was it not the last com- mand which Christ enjoined upon his disciples, to " go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature ;" adding for their encouragement, '* Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." To account any lime since these words were spoken by Christ, not the Lord's time for the spread of the Gospel, is to disobey his command, to disbelieve his promise, and hold him as a liar. Let no man among you deceive himself If you cannot prove that this is not the Lord's work, or that it is not the Lord's lime for attending to it, then what follows, but for you as well as others to conclude that you are not the Lord's servants, and never had a heart to his work. Then hasten, I beseech you, out of the Lord's vineyard ; you never had a right to be there. Is there not a woe pronounced against such as are at ease in Zion, still standing in force ? You have professed to believe the Scriptures, but has your belief of them ever led you to tremble lest you should not be found obeying, as well as professing to believe ? But if your faith were once genuine, I have no doubt but that your practice would soon be reciified. Allow me then to ask you, do you believe that it is " a faithful saying, and worthy of all accept- ation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ;" — with that other scripture declaration, " Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there 126 TRAVELS IN PRINCE EDWAUD ISLAND. l\ ■t is none other name under heaven, given anion^r men, wherebv we must be saved." Can you really say you believe these solemn scripture declarations, and sit with your hands folded, and the world perishing around you, without making the least effort to have that Saviour^s name and his saving power made known as far and wide as possible ? Did not the Old Testament prophets prophecy of the enlargement of the Redeemer's kingdom ? And did not Christ, in the days of his flesh, preach the Gospel ? and did he not command his apostles to preach it to every creature ? and did not these set about the work as soon as fully prepared to do so ? and did they not strain every nerve in making it known to the ut- most of their power, believing it to be the alone way by which a sinner, an?/ sivmer^ could be saved ? And shall all these prophecies, promises, commands, and animating examples, be set before a minister of the Gospel, who believes what he preaches, and loves the master whoni he pretends to serve, and he still remain cold and indifferent ? It is impossible ! If that which occupied the thoughts of Jehovah from eternity, which brought the LLviour from heaven to earth, from happiness and glory to meanness, poverty, and suffering ; if that which can alone make heirs of hell, heirs of heaven, and meet for it ; — if that does not arouse the energies of every man, much more of every minister of the Gospel, to do all in his power to extend it to the ends of the world, can he be said to have either faith or feeling, or to desire the enjoy- ment of what God has promised in the Gospel ? In order to repel the above charges brought against you, perhaps you will say, you have got a corner in the Lord's vineyard to cultivate, and that, although you have made no effort to send the Gospel abroad^ you have been diligent and faithful in making it known at home. If this is the case, so far you must be held excused. But if this plan had always been TRAVKLS IN PRINCE EDWA ISLAND. 127 1^ men, illy say ns, and erishing to have r made not the rgement Christ, and did to every work as hey not the ut- e alone I saved ? nmands, lister of nd loves he still pie ! If ah from javen to poverty, heirs of lat does more of is power ; be said e enjoy- el? t against orner in dthough abroad, aking it ou must jiys been acted upon, the Gospel had never Vk iclu U S^ eland. Had no Christian church ever sent oi t and t .pport- ed missionaries to the heathen, the boundarit'b of th' Church of Christ must have been very limited, evem. to the present day ; and if no more are sent out, "^ must here remain stationary, or rather begin to con- tract, till it disappear altogether from the earth. In any of these cases the promises of God must fail ; the animating prospect set before Christ, to encourage him to suffer and die, must never be realised, and the best boon of heaven for removing the wretchedness of a sinful and suffering world must remain hid in n corner, and all through the criminal indifference of those to whose hands the sacred deposit has been in- trusted. Did not you say you were preaching the Gospel to your own people, and instructing tliera faithfully ? I ask then, do not you allow that your labours are needful for their spiritual welfare ? This you must allow, unless you admit that it is all wasted money that is given for your support. But supposing a number of your people should be thrust out of their farms, 6r a way of obtaining a subsistence at home, and be compelled to seek this in a foreign land, would they not still be in want of such a spiritual instruc- tor ? And supposing they should be so poor for a number of years after emigrating, that they could not pay for one, would no obligation lie upon you to use every effort in your power to have one provided for them ? Would the mere circumstance of govern- ment making no provision for their spiritual wants, their poverty, or their removal to another part of his Majesty's dominions, render their souls of no value, and not worth caring for ?. If you believe in this manner, you must also believe that the preaching of the Gospel is not for the saving of the soul, but a mere political scheme for the peace and order of so- ciety,— a kind of plaything to amuse, or a bugbear g2 I 1^8 TRAVELS IN I'niNCE EDWARD ISLAND. 1.' ■ I 1 1 to overawe the people. O ! for shame, gentlemen, will you believe in this manner, or act as if this wer*- the ultimatum of your faith upon these subjects.^ And if you would not have others to suppose that you hold these opinions, come forward with cheerful- ness to this work to which I here call you. Come forward, although your countenances should be co- vered with the blush of shame. Whatever objec- tions you may have to missions to the heathen, I know of none you can have to this. The most of those I am pleading for have gone from our native land, some of them from your own parishes. They arc yet the subjects of, and warmly attached to, the same government. Some of them still remember the songs of Zion, but their harps are hung upon the willow trees. Might not some of you, who are competent to undertake such a journey, get your pulpits supplied for a twelvemonth or so, and pay them a visit, and again cause the joyful sound to salute their ears ? It would no longer be to some of them a foreign land, had they once more the privileges of Zion. And might not a collection be gathered once a-year in all your churches for this work, till these people are able to do for themselves ? I know your people will give all that is needful, if you will con- descend to ask ; and to ask like men feeling the infi- nite importance of the cause you are advocating. But, in conclusion, I would say, that I have drawn this bow at a venture, with a very weak and unskilful arm, hoping that God, who alone can change the heart, will direct the arrow of conviction to the joints of the harness. Consider, 1 beseech you, whether this message is from him ; and if from him, then I hope you will attend to it. But if you refuse to do so, because of the meanness of the messenger, re- member that God has made use of the most stupid of animals to reprove the madness of a prophet. 3 , tlemen, lis wer»* bjccts ? )sc that leertul- Come be co- ' objec- then, I most of native They to, the iber the )on the ho are jt your md pay salute them a eges of ed once 11 these >w your ill con- he infi- i drawn nskilful ige the e joints vhether then I e to do jer, re- ;upidof APPENDIX. The humble Representation and Petition of a few Highland Settlers at Three Rivers, and on Lot 48, near Charlotte Town, Prince Edward Island, North America ; ad- dressed to all the Friends of Christ and his Cause in Scotland, their Mother Country. Dearly Beloved Brethrex, Although we are separated from you by the great Atlantic Ocean, we can honestly say, we feel all that ardent affection for your welfare, as if we had still resided amongst you. We feel deeply interested in all your joys and sorrows, and our prayer to the God of all grace is, that he may make the former more and more to abound, and the latter to work together for your eternal advantage. MVq have been greatly revived hy hearing of the noble efforts you, and the inhabitants of the sister kingdoms are now mak- ing, for the extension of the Redeemer's cause in all lands and isles of the sea. We pray that the blessing from on high may accompany these efforts with abundant success, and make Great Britain the honoured instrument of extending the word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the utmost corners of the inhabited world. We only lament that, from the po- verty of our circumstances, we cannot join you in this labour of love. Indeed, if we may be allowed to state the truth con- cerning the greater part of the inhabitants of this isle, — ^liow lit- tle rehgious knowledge they possess, — ^how few their religious privileges are, — how small their pecuniary means of having these enlarged, — the immoral habits they have contracted, and their deadness and insensibility, notwithstanding they are in such a deplorable condition : — we may say, although they cannot ab* solutely be called Heathens, yet their situation is so destitute in all these respects, as certainly to render our isle an object of Christian commiseration and missionary effort. Ji ■iy 130 APPENDIX. i But should any of our Christian brethren feel surprised at the above statement, a due consideration of the following things, we hope, may remove it. The inhabitants of this isle may al- most all of them be styled refugees of one kind or another. Of these, some fled from the United States, for their loyalty to their British Sovereign. These were not likely to bring much religion with them from a scene of political strife and blood- shed. Others fled from their mother country, to escape the horrors of imprisonment for debt, or for higher crimes. A part fled from threatened want, or in hope of gaining worldly riches — a hope seldom realized. And of a great number who came from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, of which your petitioners form a part, some were involved in Popish darkness before they left their native country, and still remain so ; and with regard to others, we may say the light of the Gospel had but dimly shone in their native Highlands before they emigrated, many of them could read none, and having no teachers in their native tongue, they remain still in the same state of deplorable ignorance of that truth, which is able to make them wise unto salvation ; and many of their children remain untaught to the present day. But as worldly motives of one kind or other seem to have drawn most of the settlers here, it has pleased Provider-ce to give them in general but a scanty portion of the same. But had it been given in abun- dance, it would, with many, have been consumed upon their lusts ; for God was not in all their thoughts, and no man cared for their souls. No church. Established or Dissenting, sent a messenger of good tidings after those few sheep that had wan- dered from their own folds, to direct their souls to the rich pas- tures of redeeming love, or comfort their minds with the hopes and joys of a better world, whilst they were enduring every fa- tigue, and suffering every privation in the present, of which hu- man nature is susceptible. Consider also how long some of the settlers here have been without a preached Gospel, and some till lately without a Bible, and not yet able to read it, or any other book in any language whatever. Some have been upon the island near twenty years, others thirty, some forty, and a few nearly fifty years, in this state of deplorable want of al- most all means of religious instruction ; and yet they are re- taining the name of Protestant, but at the same time knowing nothing of real Protestantism but the name. Some born upon the island, we have been told, and cannot disbelieve it, have arrived at the age of twenty without hearing a Protestant scr- kuon ; and some have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, merely from ignorance of its noble principles, and of the absur- dity of the Romish faith, which they have now embraced. From what we have stated, (and much more might be add- APPENDIX. 131 irprised at ing tilings, le may al- )r another, loyalty to ring much and blood- escape the s. A part ig worldly imber who , of which in Popish jtill remain ght of the ands before md having in the same I is able to }ir children dly motives the settlers leral but a n in abun- upon their ) man cared ting, sent a it had wan- he rich "pas- h the hopes ig every fa- f which hu- ng some of jospel, and ) read it, or I have been le forty, and want of al- they are re- ne knowing ! born upon eve it, have testant str- forefathers, f the absur- braced. :ht be add- ed, had we time and ability to do justice to the subject, but we are unlearned men that address you,) what a heart-rending view might be given of the religious and moral character of the inhabitants of this island ! Our eyes have seen it, but with what we have said, we must leave it to your own imagination to draw the melancholy picture. From this statement, we hope also, you will see what our wants are. We want ministers of the Gospel, who can preach in Gaelic and English, both able and willing to labour abundantly, who will teach from house to house, be instant in season and out of season, content with coarse fare and homely lodgings — none else should come here. We are in want of religious schoolmasters, capable of teaching our children the different branches of common learning, and also able and v^illing to wait upon them on the evenings of the Sabbath, in order to teach them the first principles of the ora- cles of God. Were such preachers and teachers to visit or re- side amongst us, we could promise them but little temporal re- ward ; but we hope the Master whom such do serve, would give them many souls for their hire, and an eternal reward in- tinitely exceeding the powers of human calculation. We are in want of religious books, Gaelic and English, such as are sound and savoury : — these are seldom to be had upon the island, and when offered for sale, the price generally demand- ed puts it out of our power to purchase them. Were you to have the Christian compassion upon us, to send us a few of your old Divinity books, such as you have read yourselves till they have become familiar to your minds, and are now, per- haps, lying upon your shelves covered with dust, we would read them in our social meetings on the Sabbath, from house to house, and from settlement to settlement, and hope that, by the blessing of God accompanying this exercise, religious know- ledge would be greatly increased, and much spiritual pro&t reaped by immortal souls. Dearly beloved brethren and countrymen, we have ventured to lay before you this very imperfect statement of our spu'itual wants, from a persuasion that the Christian inhabitants at large of our mother country do not know them, and never had their attention rightly called to send us help ; and, surely, a cry for help, so loud and so urgent as ours ought to be considered, cannot be made to the head-quarters of the king of Zion, and no help be sent. Send us ministers, if ministers will come, but let them be of the right cast. Those who are old and ex- perienced would do best to set things in order, if their stay were even the shorter. And plain pious men, capable of teach- ing children on the Sabbath evenings, might be of infinite ser- vice to the rising generation, and to others also j and valuable ii 132 APPENDIX. books, catechisms, religious intelligence, tracts, and ticket*, might all, by the blessing of God, be useful. As the Christian world is at present so much divided, and in no place more so than in this island, it may, perHaps, be more satisfactory to some of our Christian brethren in Scotland, to say what distinctive name we are called by. Some of us who subscribe this are Baptists, and others Presbyterians. But we have represented the wants of all as honestly und fully as we are capable of ; and we would say to the Established Church, and almost all classes of Dissenters in our mother country, there are many here attached warmly to each of them, and have long waited for help, but have hitherto waited in vain. We send this by the hands of Walter Johnstone, a native of Dumfries-shire, who has been occasionally visiting us these sixteen months past. We can bear the most ample testimony to his Christian conduct, and great exertions to erect Sabbath Schools all over the island, wherever proper- teachers can be found to carry them on afterwards. By his instrumentality one was instituted here, which has prospered beyond our high- est expectations. He is now about to return to his family at Dumfries ; it is, therefore, our prayer to the Father of mercies, that he may be carried home in safety, and that many such may come to visit or reside amongst us. We authorize him to receive and forward any thing our Christian friends at home may please to send us, and we believe him fully qualified to answer every inquiry both as to our spiritual and temporal con- dition. Farewell, Christian brethren and countrymen ; forget us not in your prayers. — We are yours entirely in the bonds of Christ- ian love. r I The Author of the preceding Narrative would reqtiest, in the most I'espectful manner, that those ministers and others who would wish to promote the objects of the foregoing Petition, would send their Contributions or Collections to Mr. David Brgwn, Book- seller, the Publisher, 16, South St. Andrew's Street ; Mr. Wil- liam Oliphant, 22, South Bridge Street ; Mr. Kenneth Treasurer, 10, High Terrace, who will take charge of any siuns of money or books committed to their care, until a Commit- tee can be appointed, which the Author hopes soon to be able to announce. And should any wish to correspond with the Author himself, he will be found at No. 53, Glasgow Street, Maxwelltown, by Dumfries. FINIS. Printed by Balfour and Clarke. nd ticket»> ded, and in ps, be more Icotland, to of us who s. But we fully as we 3d Church, ;r country, [1, and have hi. a native of ig us these I testimony ct Sabbath lers can be umentality 1 our high- s family at of mercies, many such rizehim to Is at home c[ualified to nporal con- V >rget us not J of Christ- in the most who would would send iWN, Book- Mr. WlL- Kennetii arge of auy 1 a Commit- I be able to the Author axwelltown, V X.