THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

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 RAINBOW IN THE NOETH. 
 
LONDON: 
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THE 
 
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THE 
 
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 A SHOKT ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 
 IN RUPERT'S LAND 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
 
 BY S. TUCKER, 
 
 M 
 
 AUTHOR OF "SOUTH INDIAN SKETCHES." 
 
 dfrurtft 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO. 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 M.DCCC.Ln. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS little volume was undertaken from the twofold 
 conviction that, while the interest felt in Missionary 
 work must very much depend on a knowledge of 
 its details, the length of time that has elapsed since 
 the commencement of many of our Missions ren- 
 ders their early history almost inaccessible to general 
 readers. 
 
 It is now sent out to bear, however feebly, another 
 testimony to the power, love, and faithfulness of our 
 God, and "to the praise of the glory of His grace 
 who hath made us accepted in the Beloved." 
 
 And the writer will have abundant cause for grati- 
 tude if it shall please Him to bless it, in any degree, 
 to the stirring up of the lukewarm, to the encourage- 
 ment of the faint-hearted, or to the increased thank- 
 fulness of the long-tried friends of Missions. 
 
 Hampstead, April 1851. 
 
 M3O4205 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EUPERT'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS . 3 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 THE FIRST MISSIONARY 19 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 FLOOD AND FAMINE 35 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 THE GRAND EAPIDS 51 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TRIALS ... 67 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 THE INDIAN VILLAGE 83 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 INDIAN VILLAGE continued PIGWYS 99 
 
Vlll CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGE RAPIDS BURNING OF PRAIRIES . 115 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THREATENED REDUCTION OF MISSIONS VISIT OF THE 
 BISHOP OF MONTREAL DEPARTURE OF THE REV. W. 
 COCKRAN . ........ 131 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 CUMBERLAND STATION ....... 14" 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LAC LA RONGE MOOSE LAKE MANITOBA LAKE . . 163 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF RUPERT'S LAND . . . 177 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 REV. R. AND MRS. HUNT SUMMARY OF THE MISSIONS 
 
 ORDINATION OF THE REV. H. BUDD . . . .193 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 EXTRACTS OF LETTERS FROM MR. AND MRS. HUNT . .213 
 EXTRACTS FROM LETTER OF THE REV. A. COWLEY . . 218 
 
Ctje JUhtta in tlj? 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BUPEET'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 
 "Having no hope and without God in the world." Eph. ii. 12. 
 
 WHO is there among us that has not watched with 
 interest the evening rainbow, when, after a black and 
 stormy day, the setting sun gleams out and paints the 
 distant shower with tints of varied light? Swiftly 
 and silently the bright vision steals across the sky, till 
 the how of heaven stands out complete in all its radiant 
 loveliness; making, it is true, the surrounding gloom 
 appear still more gloomy, but giving promise of fairer 
 and brighter days to come. 
 
 Surely there can scarcely be a more fitting emblem 
 of missionary work in a heathen land. When the first 
 missionaries begin their course, all is dark and cheer- 
 less, and for a time every step they take serves only to 
 make the darkness appear more impenetrable and the 
 prospect more discouraging. 
 
 But in His own good time, the Sun of Righteousness 
 shines forth, His quickening rays touch the dark mass 
 of heathenism, and light and beauty gradually appear. 
 
4 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 He owns the persevering labours of His faithful servants, 
 a little band of sincere believers stand out more and 
 more distinct from the heathen round them ; and faith 
 rejoices in the earnest of that glorious day when nations 
 shall walk in the light of the New Jerusalem. 
 
 To no mission, perhaps, can this emblem be more 
 truly applied than to that among the North American 
 Indians : no people were ever enveloped in a thicker 
 darkness, and in no spot has the light been reflected 
 in more vivid hues. And though the colours must 
 lose much of their brilliancy and beauty while being 
 transferred from the original journals to the present 
 pages, yet we hope that this attempt to trace the pro- 
 gress of heavenly light may lead our minds more deeply 
 to consider the degradation of man in his unconverted 
 state, and to magnify the power of the grace of God. 
 
 Every missionary field presents, of course, its own 
 ' peculiar features, and requires, in some respects, fts 
 own peculiar cultivation ; but the mission we are now 
 considering is, in many ways, so very different from any 
 other, that, in order to understand its special difficul- 
 ties and encouragements, we must enter somewhat at 
 large into the previous state of the country. 
 
 An impenetrable mystery still hangs over the early 
 history of all the nations of America : when that 
 vast continent was first peopled, how, or from whence 
 its first inhabitants reached it from the older countries, 
 are matters of only vague conjecture. 
 
 With regard to the northern part, we only know that 
 when first visited by European adventurers, it was found 
 to be peopled, by nations of wild uncivilised men, wbo 
 from the copper colour of their skin received the appel 
 lation of Red Indians. 
 
EUFERT'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 6 
 
 As fresh bands of settlers from Europe arrived from 
 time to time, these rightful owners of the soil began to 
 melt away before the white man ; and though even now 
 a few diminished tribes remain scattered here and there 
 in Canada and the United States,* yet many other 
 tribes became extinct, and the mass of the people were 
 gradually driven back into the immense tract of country 
 on the north and north-west of the white man's settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Here they still remain, roaming free and uncontrolled, 
 but enduring all the miseries and privations inseparable 
 from a state of barbarism. They are divided into tribes, 
 each with its respective chief, and each, as it would 
 seem, with a wide range of country, considered as its 
 own, for hunting or for fishing ; and are again subdi- 
 vided into smaller bands under the guidance of inferior 
 chiefs. 
 
 On the east of the Eocky Mountains they have nei- 
 ther town, nor village, nor farm, nor field. Seed-time 
 and harvest are unknown to them, nor have they even, 
 like the Bedouins of the Eastern deserts, flocks or herds 
 to supply their wants. 
 
 They live by hunting, shooting, and fishing; and 
 their food varies, both in kind and quantity, according 
 to their success. Sometimes the flesh of the buffalo or 
 the deer furnishes them with abundance ; sometimes a 
 flight of partridges or a flock of wild geese supplies 
 their wants ; and at others they find support from the 
 lakes and rivers. Very often they are for days together 
 without any food but the berries they may chance to 
 
 * It was among these that those devoted men, Elliott and Brai- 
 nerd, laboured, and were blessed in their labours. 
 
O THE EAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 meet with in the woods ; and there is many a fearful 
 tale on record of children and friends having heen sa- 
 crificed to appease the hunger of their parents or compa- 
 nions. 
 
 This great uncertainty, however, in their supplies 
 arises very much from their deeply-rooted hahits of 
 improvidence ; the present moment is all that an 
 Indian thinks of ; the memory of past suffering or dread 
 of the future never seems to occur to his mind. When 
 he has plenty, he eats to excess, lies down and sleeps, 
 or sits and smokes his pipe, till the cravings of hunger 
 drive him again to the plains, or woods, or rivers.* 
 
 They are a singularly wandering race, and their ha- 
 bitations are suited to their habits. Notwithstanding 
 the severity of their winters far beyond anything we can 
 realise in England they have no other shelter than a 
 t miserable tent, or wigwam, made by driving a few poles 
 into the ground, and hanging over them the skins of 
 animals roughly sewn together, or sometimes only long 
 strips of the thick soft bark of the birch-tree. A small 
 opening is left at the top for as much smoke as chooses 
 to find its way there from a fire of logs in the centre, 
 while the remainder fills, and helps to warm, the tent. 
 The only article of furniture is an iron pot for cooking 
 their meat, and their only implements are a knife, a 
 gun, a war-club, and some bows and arrows. Occasion- 
 ally, in summer, a fluctuating party of two or three hun- 
 dred families may be found congregated together for a 
 few weeks or months on the bank of some lake or river 
 where the fish are plentiful, but except on these occa- 
 
 * Occasionally, but very seldom, the women dry the flesh of 
 the "buffalo, and preserve it for future use. 
 
EUPEET'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 7 
 
 sions there are seldom more than two or three tents 
 ever seen together, and generally they roam about in 
 single families. When they have remained a few days 
 in one spot, and exhausted its resources of food, they 
 take off the covering of their tent, roll it up, and, 
 placing it either in their canoe or on the shoulders of 
 their wives, set off for some new abode. 
 
 The dress, and indeed the whole deportment, of the 
 North-west American Indians, differs greatly, according 
 to their locality The appearance of those among them 
 who border on either the English or American popula- 
 tion is miserable in the extreme. Some will be clothed 
 in dirty, ragged blankets ; others in still dirtier dresses 
 of worn and tattered hareskins ;* while others will be 
 seen with no other covering than a cloth round their 
 waist. Those who are better off will have, perhaps, a 
 leathern jacket, with a cleaner blanket over it, their 
 faces painted black, with circles of vermilion round their 
 eyes, and their long, black hair adorned with brass 
 thimbles, whicti. they have purchased from some neigh- 
 bouring trader. 
 
 The appearance of the tribes in the interior is more 
 manly and independent, and their clothing much more 
 substantial and comfortable. Some of their chiefs even 
 display a kind of savage magnificence in their attire ; 
 their leathern jackets are often worked with porcupine 
 quills and hair of the moose deer, dyed of various co- 
 lours ; and their robes and caps of fur are sometimes 
 very handsome. But with that strange propensity to 
 imitate the inferior creatures, they not only ornament 
 their head-dress with feathers, but often fasten into it 
 
 * See Bishop of Montreal's Journal, p. 32. 
 
8 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 the ears or horns of some animal. The hair of the 
 women is kept short, but the men encourage theirs to 
 grow ; it often is so long, that it reaches to their feet, 
 and sometimes trails upon the ground.* They divide 
 it into tresses confined by bands of quill-work ; and 
 when the natural hair does not grow long enough to suit 
 the fancy of the owner, he often glues on false locks 
 under these convenient bands. That portion of their 
 hair which grows at the top of the head is called the 
 scalp-lock, and is prized above all the rest. This scalp- 
 lock is the favourite trophy in Indian warfare ; and 
 when a warrior has slain his enemy, or made him pri- 
 soner, the scalping-knife is always at hand to cut off the 
 flesh of the upper part of the forehead and head. As 
 may be supposed, it is a dreadfully painful operation ; 
 but the dark places of the earth are full of cruelty; and 
 the scalp-lock of the sufferer is made into fringes for 
 the sleeves and robe of the conqueror. 
 
 In speaking of the dress of the Indians, we must not 
 omit their neatly-made leggings and mocassins, of soft 
 deer-leather, often very prettily ornamented with quill- 
 work, " and fitting," we are told, " as tightly as a lady's 
 glove. "| 
 
 It will readily be supposed, that the cultivation of 
 their minds forms no part of the employment of these 
 sons of the forest and the prairie ; they are entirely 
 ignorant of every art and science, though the poetical 
 eloquence of some of the impassioned addresses of the 
 chiefs, the skill shown in the work of the mocassins, 
 and in the rude, yet spirited, attempts at sculpture 
 
 * Eeversing what we are told in 1 Cor. xi. 14, 15, is the natural 
 order. 
 t " Hudson's Bay/' by R. W.Ballantyne. Blackwood and Sons. 
 
EUPEKT'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 9 
 
 occasionally seen on rocks, show that they are not defi- 
 cient in natural talent. 
 
 The education of the boys consists merely in training 
 them to the management of their horse, and to the use 
 of the how, the gun, or the war-club. Their first essays 
 in the art of destruction are against the beautiful but- 
 terflies or humming-birds that flutter round them, or on 
 the grasshoppers beneath their feet. By degrees, they 
 are suffered to engage with nobler enemies, till they 
 are thought worthy to accompany their fathers to hunt 
 the deer and buffalo, or to a savage conflict with their 
 enemies. 
 
 The most valuable articles of an Indian's property 
 are his horse and his canoe. The former he obtains 
 from the plains, which in many parts abound with them, 
 they are small, but very fleet and strong ; and an Indian 
 is never so happy as when, with his bow and quiver 
 slung upon his shoulder, and a shield of buffalo skin 
 upon his arm, he mounts his impatient steed to dart 
 upon his enemies, or to plunge into a flying herd of 
 buffaloes, and send his unerring arrow to the heart of 
 his selected victim. His canoe is made of birch bark, 
 lined with extremely thin flakes of wood, with some 
 light timbers to give strength and tightness to the fabric. 
 In this frail bark, generally from twelve to fifteen feet 
 in length, a whole Indian family will travel hundreds of 
 miles, through rivers and lakes innumerable now float- 
 ing swiftly down a foaming rapid, and anon gliding 
 across a quiet lake ; or when a waterfall or dangerous 
 rapid impedes its progress, it is so light as to be carried 
 on one man's shoulder along the " portage." 
 
 Their religion seems to consist in a vague idea of a 
 Supreme Being, whom they call " the Great Spirit," or 
 
10 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 " the Master of Life," and a scarcely less vague belief 
 in inferior spirits of evil, to whom they sometimes offer 
 sacrifices, and of whom images have occasionally been 
 found ; hut they have no temple or place of worship 
 even of the simplest description. 
 
 There is among them an universally received tradition 
 of the deluge, though mixed with the wildest fables. 
 They have some idea of a future state, where the evil 
 are condemned to dwell in perpetual ice, and the good 
 are admitted to a land where the hunting-grounds are 
 always good, where the sun for ever shines, the trees 
 are always green, and where there is an endless succes- 
 sion of feasting, dancing, and rejoicing. 
 * There is one very remarkable custom, evidently con- 
 nected with their religious ideas, which, though aban- 
 doned by the tribes on the frontier, is still observed by 
 those in the interior. It is, that every man must have 
 a " mystery* bag," to which he pays the greatest homage, 
 and to which he looks for guidance and protection 
 through life. This mystery bag is often actually wor- 
 shipped ; feasts are made in its honour, horses and dogs 
 are sacrificed to it ; and when it is supposed to have 
 been offended, days and weeks of fasting and mortifica- 
 tion are undergone in order to appease it. It consists 
 of the skin of some particular animal ; sometimes it is 
 a musk rat, a beaver, an otter, or even a wolf, or, it may 
 be, a snake, or a toad, or a mouse, or a sparrow. 
 
 The manner in which this indispensable possession is 
 obtained is as follows : When a boy is fourteen or fif- 
 
 * Or, as it is often called, a " medicine bag." The Indians con- 
 nect the art of healing with that of divination and mystery, and 
 having borrowed the term " medecin " from the French Cana- 
 dians, they apply it to everything mysterious. 
 
RUPERT'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 11 
 
 teen years of age, he leaves his father's tent and wanders 
 into some secluded spot in the woods, where he throws 
 himself on the ground, and remains in that position for 
 three or four, or even five days, without food, crying to 
 the " Great Spirit." When at last he suffers himself to 
 fall asleep, the first animal he dreams of is, he believes, 
 the one appointed for him by this mysterious being. 
 He returns to his father's tent, takes some food, and 
 sallies forth to procure the required animal. When he 
 has succeeded, he dresses the skin, ornaments it accord- 
 ing to his fancy, and carries it with him through life as 
 his strength in battle, and in death as his guardian spirit 
 who is to conduct him to the beautiful hunting-grounds 
 in the world to come. He values it above all price, 
 never can be induced to sell it, and should he lose it in 
 battle, can never replace it except by seizing on one 
 belonging to an enemy, whom he must slay with his own 
 hand. 
 
 The being who exercises the greatest influence over 
 the minds of the Indians is the conjurer, or " medicine 
 man," who, uniting in himself the offices of oracle and 
 physician, turns the superstitions and sufferings of his 
 countrymen to his own profit. 
 
 These poor people consider all diseases to be occa 
 sioned by an evil spirit, sent into the afflicted person by. 
 some other conjurer, at the instigation of a secret enemy. 
 This spirit is to be expelled by incantations, drumming, 
 and the use of certain herbs ; if tho sick man recovers, it 
 is considered as a victory of his own conjurer over the 
 supposed enemy ; or if he dies, it is of course attributed 
 to the superior power of the adversary. 
 
 It is not only in times of sickness that the " medicine 
 man" is consulted ; his advice is sought for on all occa- 
 
12 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 sions of importance, either of a public or private nature ; 
 he guides the decisions of the tribe as to war or peace, 
 and directs his inquirers to the best places for hunting 
 or for fishing. 
 
 When called upon to exercise their art, these impostors 
 dress themselves up in the most frightful and absurd 
 manner. We read of one who covered himself with the 
 skin of a bear, the head serving for a mask, and the 
 huge claws dangling from his wrists and ankles, the skin 
 itself being also adorned with those of frogs, bats, and 
 snakes. In one hand he held his frightful rattle, the 
 sound of which, continuing as it often does, through 
 night and day, and associated, as it must needs be, with 
 the degradation and superstition of which it is the token, 
 is described as one of the most depressing sounds ima- 
 ginable ; and in the other he brandished his magic spear, 
 jumping, dancing, yelling, and growling, as if he were 
 possessed by an evil spirit. And these men are the 
 religious guides of these poor people ! 
 
 The Indian possesses great control over the expres- 
 sion of his feelings ; whatever be his sufferings, his eye 
 is always bright, his cheek retains its colour, while his 
 power of endurance is almost beyond belief. The heart 
 sickens at the tortures borne with unflinching courage 
 by prisoners taken in battle ; while those voluntarily 
 undergone by the young men of a tribe to appease some 
 evil spirit, or to prove themselves worthy of being war- 
 riors, are scarcely less appalling. One of the latter 
 resembles the hook-swinging of the Hindoos, though 
 attended with far greater agony ; but the various kinds 
 of these self-inflicted sufferings are too numerous and 
 too frightful to be dwelt upon. 
 
 The Indian, as he still roams in his native plains and 
 
EUPEBT'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 13 
 
 forests, rarely trodden by a white man's foot, is, it is 
 true, less degenerate than his brethren of the border ; 
 and there is, among them all, a bravery and noble inde- 
 pendence, and an intense love for their tribe and kin- 
 dred, and especially for their children, that excite one's 
 interest ; but on the whole they are sunk to almost the 
 lowest point in the scale of humanity : haughty, vindic- 
 tive, cruel, and blood-thirsty, unable to appreciate either 
 moral or intellectual excellence ; indolent, improvident, 
 and selfish beyond conception, without hope and without 
 God in the world. 
 
 Thus low was their state when first visited by Euro- 
 peans, but a still deeper degradation awaited those 
 among them who, when the territory was claimed as 
 British territory, came in contact with so-called British 
 Christians. 
 
 It was in the year 1669 that King Charles II. granted 
 a charter to Prince Rupert and some other persons asso- 
 ciated with him, empowering them to undertake an expe- 
 dition to Hudson's Bay, in North-west America, for the 
 purpose of discovering a new passage to the South Seas, 
 and for various other objects ; and securing to the Com- 
 pany the exclusive right of trading in furs, minerals, or 
 any other productions of the country. 
 
 This right at first extended only to those countries 
 watered by the rivers that fall into Hudson's Bay, and 
 which are comprehended under the general name of 
 Prince Rupert's Land ; but as the Company increased in 
 wealth and influence, their power also increased, till now 
 their territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
 Pacific, and from within the Arctic Circle to the northern 
 boundary of Canada and the United States. 
 
 Throughout this vast region, east of the Rocky Moun- 
 
14 THE EAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 tains, there is, as we have already said, with the excep 
 ticn of the Eed River Colony, which will form the sub- 
 ject of the succeeding chapters, neither town nor village, 
 nor any work of civilised man, save the scattered stations 
 of the Company (called forts), established here and there 
 for the purpose of carrying on the fur trade with the 
 Indians of the neighbourhood, of which the principal 
 one is York Fort, on the western shore of the Bay. But 
 what these forts are, and how little they can affect the 
 general state or appearance of the country, will be better 
 understood by the following extract from a work by one 
 of their own servants.* 
 
 " Imagine an immense extent of country, many hundreds of 
 miles long, and many hundreds broad, covered with dense 
 forests, expanded lakes, broad rivers, and mighty mountains ; 
 and all in a state of primeval simplicity, undefaced by the axe of 
 civilising man, and untenanted by aught save some roving hordes 
 of Red Indians, and myriads of wild animals.f Imagine, amid 
 this wilderness, a number of small squares, each enclosing half 
 a dozen wooden houses, and about a dozen men ; and between 
 any two of these establishments a space of forest, or of plains, 
 from fifty to three hundred miles in length, and you will have a 
 pretty correct idea of the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, 
 and of the number and distance between the forts. It is as if 
 in the whole of England and Scotland there were three hamlets, 
 one in the north of Scotland, one in the south-east coast of Eng- 
 land, and the third at the Land's End, with altogether a popula- 
 tion of thirty men, six or seven women, and a few children." 
 
 We will not attempt to follow out the sad tale of sin 
 and suffering that ensued upon the planting of these 
 various forts ; we will only observe, that as the servants 
 
 * " Hudson's Bay," by E. M. Ballantyne. Blackwood and Sons. 
 
 f Chiefly buffaloes, deer, and wolves, besides a multitude of the 
 
 smaller animals, whose skins furnish materials for the fur trade. 
 
RUPERT'S LAND AND ITS INHABITANTS. 15 
 
 of the Company were generally young men of enterprise 
 and adventure, without any fixed religious principles, 
 removed so far from those early friends whose influence 
 might have restrained them, and left without any out- 
 ward means of grace, we can hardly wonder at their 
 falling into habits and courses of sin, from which, under 
 other circumstances, they might have been preserved. 
 Nor was the evil confined to the Europeans, for instead 
 of shining as lights among their heathen neighbours, 
 they led them into depths of thicker moral darkness. 
 
 The Indians near the forts were used like slaves ; in- 
 toxication and other sins spread rapidly among them ; 
 and disease and increasing misery followed in their train ; 
 an eye-witness writes 
 
 " The Indians are sunk to almost the lowest state of degrada- 
 tion to which human beings can be brought ; their life is spent in 
 struggles for its support, and they pass on from infancy to death 
 without comfort, without hope in this life, while no bright gleam 
 of future hope enlightens their dark and cheerless path, for no 
 one has ever told them of a ^Redeemer's love." 
 
 But besides the ungodly Europeans and the heathen 
 Indians, a new race had sprung up round each of the 
 Company's posts; the children and descendants of Euro- 
 pean fathers and Indian mothers. These neglected 
 u half-breeds " generally added the heathenism of their 
 mothers to the irreligion and immorality of their fathers ; 
 and, as they grew to manhood, in most cases returned to 
 the wild habits of their Indian relations. 
 
 This state of things was not much improved by a 
 colony formed on the Red River, in 1811, by Lord Sel 
 kirk, who invited persons from Europe (especially from 
 Scotland) and from Canada to settle on the spot, and 
 which was gradually increased by the retired servants of 
 
J6 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 the Company also taking up their abode there. The Cana- 
 dians were French Roman Catholics, and were occasion- 
 ally visited by a priest ; hut for the so-called Protestant 
 portion of the colony, no means of grace were provided. 
 It was in 1815, one hundred and forty-five years after 
 the country was taken possession of hy England, that 
 Major Semple, Governor of York Fort, when speaking 
 of the desolation occasioned hy a fierce struggle between 
 the Hudson's Bay and the North-West Companies, in 
 which he afterwards lost his life, thus writes of the Red 
 River Colony : 
 
 " I have trodden the burnt ruins of houses, barns, a mill, a 
 fort, and sharpened stockades, but none of a place of worship, 
 even on the smallest scale. I blush to say that throughout the 
 whole extent of the Hudson's Bay territories no such building 
 exists." 
 
 Could any prospect be more gloomy, or the state of 
 any people, whether we look at the Indians, the Euro- 
 peans, or the half-breeds, more dismal ? Yet even here 
 GOD was preparing a way for the manifestation of His 
 grace ; and in the next chapter we shall hope to trace 
 the first faint tints of the cheering Rainbow. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIKST MISSIONARY. 
 
 " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
 bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace !" Is. lii. 7. 
 
 IT was in the autumn of the year 1820 that a little 
 boat of birch-rind might have been seen to leave York 
 Fort, on the western side of Hudson's Bay. and after 
 coasting for a while along the shore, enter one of the 
 rivers that flow from the interior. 
 
 There was nothing in this circumstance to attract the 
 attention of a casual observer similar boats were con- 
 tinually arriving at, and departing from, the fort during 
 the few bright months of summer and early autumn ; 
 this canoe was, as usual, manned by natives, and, as was 
 frequently the case, an European gentleman was sitting 
 at the stern. 
 
 But if any of God's own people had seen that boat 
 depart, they would have watched it with the warmest 
 hope and joy ; and, as it gradually lessened to the view, 
 and soon was hidden from their sight by some projecting 
 headland, earnest prayer would have gone up that God 
 would speed that little vessel on its course, and give His 
 abundant blessing on its object. It was bound for the 
 Bed Biver Settlement, and was conveying to that distant 
 spot the first messenger of the glad tidings of salvation 
 that had ever visited these neglected regions. 
 
$0 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 The attention of the Hudson's Bay Company in Lon- 
 don had for some time before been drawn to the sad 
 state of this settlement, and they had endeavoured to 
 promote education among the people. But the plan had 
 met with very little success, and they now, in conjunc- 
 tion with the Church Missionary Society, resolved to 
 send out a chaplain, or rather a missionary, in the hope 
 of benefiting them. 
 
 The Rev. John West was appointed to this work ; he 
 arrived at York Fort in the end of August 1820, and it 
 was his boat that on September 3d might have been 
 seen to leave York Fort, and soon after to enter Port 
 Nelson River. 
 
 The Indian canoe, which has been already described, 
 is the only vessel that can be used in this country, where 
 the rivers are so often obstructed by rapids, cataracts, or 
 shallows, that more substantial craft would be useless. 
 Frail as they are, therefore, all the voyages are made in 
 them, and they are the only means for conveying goods 
 and stores to the inland posts. 
 
 Mr. West's course up the river was a tedious one ; not 
 only had the boat to make its way against the stream, 
 but it was often brought to a stand by what is called a 
 " portage," or carrying-place, that is, by a cataract or 
 rapid, where the men are obliged to land, unload the 
 boat, and carry both it and its contents on their shoulders 
 along the banks, sometimes for five or sriftsmles, over 
 broken rocks, or through deep and miry swamps, till 
 they come to smoother water again. 
 
 At night the party landed, lighted a fire of logs of 
 pine to warm themselves and dress their food ; and Mr. 
 West, wrapping himself in his blanket, laid down to 
 sleep on branches of the pine. 
 
THE FIRST MISSIONARY. 21 
 
 September in that country is as cold as January in 
 England, and some of the boatmen, finding how unac- 
 customed he was to the seventy of the climate, used 
 kindly to make a sort of rude tent to shelter him. They 
 themselves slept without any shelter, except that in 
 rainy weather they would creep under the canoe, which 
 was always drawn ashore and inverted for the night. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the care that was taken 
 every night to examine this fragile vessel, and to ascer- 
 tain whether the birch-rind had been injured by sharp 
 rocks or any other obstacle. A keg of resin and some 
 spare pieces of bark are always taken on these occasions 
 to spread over the seams, or to repair any more serious 
 injury. 
 
 In Mr. West's progress up the river he passed Oxford 
 House, one of the Company's posts, and in about a month 
 after he left York Fort he came to another station called 
 Norway House, on the north-east shore of Lake Winni- 
 peg ; or, as it might be more aptly called, the Sea of 
 Winnipeg, for this large sheet of water is not less than 
 300 miles in length and 50 in breadth. 
 
 The voyage from Norway House was much more rapid 
 and agreeable than it had been up the river. The little 
 sail was hoisted, and as the boat glided along the unruf- 
 fled surface of the lake, or danced over its blue waves, 
 Mr. West was able to enjoy the varied scenery of its 
 shor^v and the picturesque islands that adorned its 
 bosom. 
 
 There might now be seen sitting by his side two 
 young Indian boys, dirty, half-clad, and uncivilised. One 
 had been intrusted to him at York Fort by his father ; 
 the other was given to him at Norway House. They 
 knew but little of English, and nothing of God, but Mr. 
 
 c 
 
22 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 West was endeavouring to lead their minds to Him, and 
 teaching them to pray ; and the simple prayer, " Great 
 Father, bless me through Jesus Christ our Lord," was 
 often heard in broken accents from their lips. 
 
 On October the 13th the party entered the Eed River, 
 and two days more brought them to the settlement. 
 
 Mr. West had suffered much during this voyage of 
 800 miles ; for six weeks he had passed the whole day, 
 from sunrise to sunset, in an open boat, exposed to 
 every change of weather, his limbs cramped by want of 
 space, and benumbed by the wintry air ; but the spirit 
 that glowed within his breast was not to be quenched by 
 difficullies ; and though it was Saturday afternoon when 
 he arrived at the settlement, he would not lose one pre- 
 cious opportunity, but gave notice of Divine service on 
 the following day. 
 
 The population at Red River consisted at this time 
 (besides the Roman Catholic Canadians) of between 500 
 and 600 Scotch and English settlers, a large number of 
 half-breeds, and some native Indians, none of whom had 
 access to any means of grace, unless, as was very rarely 
 the case, any of the Europeans happened to have brought 
 a Bible with them from their fatherland. 
 
 Mr. West was much encouraged by finding on Sun- 
 day the large room at the Fort crowded, and the people 
 very attentive to the prayers and to the sermon ; and 
 he commenced- his labours full of hope. 
 
 To many among the congregation the words of our 
 beautiful Liturgy fell on the ear and heart as a long- 
 forgotten strain, bringing back many a thought of former 
 days and long-lost privileges, perhaps unappreciated at 
 the time ; but to the greater part of the assembly both 
 the prayers and the preaching were a new and unknown 
 
THE FIKST MISSIONARY. 33 
 
 sound ; for never before had the glad tidings of the 
 Gospel been heard in' that colony. 
 
 This first setting forth the message of salvation pro- 
 duced much emotion among the people ; and though 
 some of this afterwards proved to be like the early dew 
 that passeth away, yet to many the word of truth pro- 
 claimed on this and on succeeding Sundays proved a savour 
 of life unto life. One of the settlers in particular spoke 
 of the first Sunday that he had attended Mr. West's 
 ministry as the happiest day in his life, as it restored 
 to him the blessings of public worship, of which he had 
 been deprived for the last thirty years. 
 
 Mr. West found full employment among the Euro- 
 peans and half-breeds ; many of the former he prevailed 
 upon to marry, and among the latter, he baptized the 
 very few who were at all prepared, instructed those 
 who were willing to be taught, and established a school 
 under Mr. Garbage, in which he was much encouraged 
 by the progress of the children. But his heart espe- 
 cially yearned towards the native Indians, and the 
 thought of their sad condition weighed heavily on his 
 mind. His own appointed sphere of work reached 300 
 or 400 miles into the interior ; but his thoughts and 
 desires stretched far beyond, and he mourned in spirit 
 as he remembered, that from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
 no Protestant missionary had ever been sent, no word 
 of salvation had ever sounded. - 
 
 The Canadian Kornan Catholic priests had attempted 
 to do something among those tribes, by joining them- 
 selves to them, and conforming to their savage life ; but 
 the attempt failed, and except that the shores of the 
 Pacific have since been visited by the American mis- 
 sionaries, these Indians still remain in their heathen 
 
24 THE KA1NBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 state, unthought of and uncared for by any Protestant 
 church. There were, however, a considerable number 
 of these children of the forest within Mr. West's own 
 appointed limit ; and an expedition he made early in 
 the next year to two of the Company's posts (Brandon 
 House and Beaver Creek) gave him an opportunity of 
 seeing something of them in their own plains and fo- 
 rests. 
 
 He set out in the beginning of January (1821), in a 
 sort of sledge called a cariole, the only carriage that can 
 be used in that part of the country ; it was drawn by 
 dogs, and our readers will be surprised to hear that 
 when the track is good and the wind favourable, these 
 faithful, docile creatures will cany a person eighty miles 
 in the twenty- four hours. Mr. West's route lay across 
 hills and plains of frozen snow, unenlivened by the sight 
 of a cultivated field, an European dwelling, or even an 
 Indian wigwam. The only living beings that broke 
 the stillness of the snowy scene were occasional herds 
 of buffaloes, with their enemies the wolves following in 
 their track to seize upon the weary or the wounded. 
 He travelled the whole day, and as night approached 
 his attendants sought for a spot well supplied with 
 trees, where they lighted their fires, and hanging their 
 guns on the branches, prepared their evening meal. 
 The whole party then spread their blankets on the 
 frozen snow, and after amply replenishing their blazing 
 fires, covered themselves with cloaks of buffalo skin, 
 and lay down till morning. 
 
 On one of these nights they were aroused by the bark- 
 ing of their dogs, but found it was only a herd of buffaloes 
 that were travelling past. Another night they were 
 alarmed by hearing the drums of a hostile tribe of In- 
 
THE FIRST MISSIONARY. 25 
 
 dians, apparently very near them. They extinguished 
 their fires and watched till morning, fearing an attack ; 
 but this danger also was mercifully averted; and ex- 
 cepting on these two occasions, their only nightly dis- 
 turbance was the howling of the wolves around them in 
 search of prey. The cold, however, was intense, the 
 thermometer sometimes being forty degrees below zero 
 during the latter part of the night. 
 
 Mr. West was absent about a month ; he visited the 
 two outposts above mentioned, and had many opportuni- 
 ties of speaking to the very few Europeans and half- 
 breeds that were residing there. He had also some 
 interesting intercourse with some of the Indians ; but 
 though he was listened to both by Indians and Euro- 
 peans with attention and interest, the general impres- 
 sion made on his mind during this journey is thus 
 painfully expressed. Speaking of the occasional mag- 
 nificence of the sunrise, he says, 
 
 " The heavens do indeed declare the glory of Grod, and day 
 unto day uttereth speech ; but in this wilderness the voice of 
 God is not heard among the heathen, and His name is scarcely 
 known among the Europeans, except to be profaned." 
 
 In this journey Mr. West travelled between 500 and 
 600 miles, and returning to Eed Kiver early in Febru- 
 ary, resumed his work there with increasing ardour. 
 
 The plan which suggested itself to him as the most 
 hopeful, with regard to the Indians, was the formation 
 of an establishment for native boys, where they might 
 not only be instructed in the first rudiments of general 
 knowledge, and be taught the way of eternal life, but 
 where they might gradually become accustomed to agri- 
 culture, and might learn some of the simpler usages of 
 civilised life. 
 
26 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 To this plan, however, the wild and wandering habits 
 of the Indians presented formidable obstacles. Not 
 only would it be difficult to induce the boys to remain 
 long enough in one place to gain much profit, but he 
 knew that these Red men of the woods despised any 
 one who could not hunt, and fish, and shoot, and it 
 would therefore be necessary that these lads should be 
 permitted, while at school, to retain some of their na- 
 tive habits. 
 
 On the other hand, there was much to encourage him ; 
 the two boys he had brought with him from York Fort 
 and Norway House, as well as another who was after- 
 wards sent to him, were already able to speak English 
 tolerably well ; they were beginning to read, and could 
 repeat the LORD'S PRAYER, and he had been able to 
 excite in them a love for gardening, by giving them a 
 piece of ground to cultivate for themselves. The pro- 
 posed school had been a frequent subject of conversation 
 between himself and the Indians he had met with on his 
 late expedition, and had excited so much interest in 
 their minds, that several had promised to think about it, 
 and perhaps to bring their sons to him in the summer. 
 One little fellow, seven years old, was actually given up 
 to him at once, his friends saying, that as Mr. West had 
 been sent to them by " the Great Spirit," they could 
 refuse him nothing. 
 
 Some of these people fulfilled the hopes of Mr. West, 
 and brought their boys to him in the course of the 
 summer, so that in September 1821, he wrote, full of 
 sanguine hopes, that early in the following spring the 
 establishment would be completely formed, and a building 
 erected for the reception of "as many boys as British 
 benevolence would enable him to support." 
 
THE FIRST MISSIONARY. 27 
 
 In the summer of this same year he had visited York 
 Fort, and while there had the privilege of assisting Mr. 
 Garry, one of the Company's Directors, in the forma- 
 tion of an Auxiliary Bible Society, an immense boon to 
 the whole country, and especially to the colonists at 
 Eed River, who joyfully availed themselves of this first 
 opportunity that had been offered to them of providing 
 themselves with copies of the Word of God. 
 
 During the following winter the work went on as 
 usual, and in the summer of 1822 Mr. West paid another 
 visit to York Fort, where he had the gratification of 
 meeting with those two well-known men whose names 
 have since awakened emotions of admiration and anxiety, 
 of hope and fear, in every English heart. Sir John (then 
 Captain) Franklin, and Dr. (now Sir John) Richardson, 
 were returning from their perilous journey to the shores 
 of the Polar Sea ; and the accounts they gave, and the 
 interest they expressed for the Esquimaux among whom 
 their route had lain, and of the openings for schools 
 among them, kindled fresh zeal and desire in his heart 
 for extended missionary undertakings. 
 
 While there, he received from the Committee of the 
 Church Missionary Society the joyful news that they 
 had determined decidedly to adopt Red River as one of 
 their missionary stations, and had appointed to it the 
 Rev. David Jones, whose arrival might, if all was well, 
 be looked for in the following year. 
 
 He returned with renewed spirit to his labours at Red 
 River, and this prospect of permanency induced him to 
 attempt the erection of a special place for public worship. 
 He succeeded so well that early in 1823 a small wooden 
 church was opened for divine service, and shortly after 
 this he had the satisfaction of baptizing four of his Indian 
 
28 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 boys, two of whom were those he had originally brought 
 with him from York Fort and Norway House. 
 Alluding to these circumstances, he writes : 
 
 '' As I was returning the other evening from visiting some 
 settlers nine or ten miles off, the setting sun threw a lengthened 
 shadow from the newly-erected church and school, and the 
 thought that there were now in this wide waste a landmark of 
 Christianity, and an asylum for Indian children, filled my heart 
 with praise, and awakened the hope that the Saviour might make 
 them the means of raising a spiritual temple in this wilderness 
 to the honour of His name." 
 
 The expected arrival of Mr. Jones seemed to open to 
 Mr. West a favourable opportunity of returning to Eng- 
 land to fetch his wife and family, from whom he had 
 now been for three years separated, and in June 1823, 
 he left the settlement, as he then believed, for a tempo- 
 rary absence, though circumstances that afterwards arose 
 prevented his ever returning to it. Writing of his de- 
 parture, he says : 
 
 u On leaving Red River I addressed my farewell to a crowded 
 congregation, and after the administration of the Lord's Supper 
 we all joined in prayer, that the missionary who was on his way 
 hither might be tenfold, yea an hundredfold more blessed in his 
 ministry that I had been. I parted with tears from this anxious 
 and arduous scene of labour." 
 
 It was a love that " seeketh not her own " that prompt- 
 ed this prayer ; but when we trace back the labours of 
 Mr. West during the short time of his residence at Red 
 River, and the blessing that had attended them, we shall 
 see another instance of that truth that in spiritual as 
 well as in temporal things, " the hand of the diligent 
 maketh rich." During Mr. West's detention at York 
 Fort, he made a lengthened journey on foot along the 
 
THE FIRST MISSIONARY. 29 
 
 north-west shore of Hudson's Bay, to Fort Churchill ; 
 and his visit there quickened his anxiety that the Church 
 of CHRIST should at once enter in, and take possession of, 
 the whole country in the name of her Lord. 
 
 Soon after this he sailed for England, hut not hefore 
 he had had the satisfaction of welcoming the Rev. David 
 Jones to the shores of North America. 
 
 Mr. Jones arrived at Red River in October 1823, 
 and was rejoiced and encouraged by the evident blessing 
 that had been vouchsafed to the work of his predecessor. 
 A very different aspect of things now presented itself 
 from that which had so distressed the mind of Mr. West 
 on his first arrival three years before. Marriage, which 
 was then almost unknown, had now become general, and 
 had brought with it its attendant blessings of domestic 
 comfort and social improvement. Many of the parents 
 were availing themselves of the opportunities of educa- 
 tion provided for their children ; the Sabbath was well 
 observed ; and the public ordinances of the Church were 
 well attended. Nor were there wanting evidences that 
 some hearts had been truly converted to God ; and Mr. 
 Jones was much cheered by finding, that during the few 
 months that had elapsed between the departure of Mr. 
 West and his own arrival, a social prayer-meeting had 
 been established. 
 
 During the following winter the little church was 
 crowded with Europeans, half-breeds, and native Indians ; 
 and even the hunting grounds bore testimony to the 
 power of the Gospel ; for there were many even there, 
 who, far away for a time from the public means of grace, 
 resisted the temptations, and endured the ridicule of their 
 companions, and continued to keep the Lord's day holy. 
 
 It was not long before an additional place of worship 
 was required, and with the kind assistance of Governor 
 
30 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 Simpson, and by his own personal influence and exer- 
 tions, Mr. Jones succeeded in erecting a substantial 
 cburch, ten miles lower down the river, at Image Plains. 
 Tbis was opened in January 1825, and was soon as well 
 filled as the Upper Church, several of the congregation 
 coining from a distance of nine or ten miles every 
 Sunday. 
 
 The schools continued to go on favourably; 169 boys 
 and girls of all classes were on the Sunday-School books, 
 and the establishment for native Indians now contained 
 twelve boys, who were gradually improving in general 
 and scriptural knowledge. The two elder ones had 
 made such good progress in English, that Mr. Jones 
 hoped it would not be long before he should be able to 
 avail himself of their assistance in the arrangement of a 
 grammar of their own language the C ree. 
 
 Mr. Jones found much encouragement in his Sunday 
 evening meetings with these twelve Indian boys, and 
 he mentions one evening in particular, when, for the 
 first time, he observed anything like real feeling among 
 them. In giving out the hymn beginning " Lord, while 
 little heathen bend," &c., he was led to tell them of 
 the cruelties practised in the idolatry of the East, 
 which are alluded to in the hymn ; they were affected 
 even to tears, and one of them, an Assiniboine In- 
 dian,* asked, with great simplicity, " Sir, is there no 
 
 * Assiniboines (or stone-boilers) derive this name from the 
 singular mode in which they used to boil their meat. While the 
 other tribes made use of strong earthen jars, the Assiniboines 
 dug a hole in the ground, which they lined with the raw hide of 
 the animal, and filled with water. The meat was then put in, 
 and large stones, which had been made red-hot in a fire close 
 by, were thrown in till the meat was boiled. They now use iron 
 kettles purchased from the traders, except at their public feasts, 
 when they adhere to their ancient custom. 
 
THE FIEST MISSIONAEY. 31 
 
 schoolmaster there to tell them not ?" But early in 
 1825, Mr. Jones had the grief of losing two of these 
 promising pupils by death : the first who died, and to 
 whom the name of William Sharpe had been given, had 
 been sent from Churchill Fort soon after Mr. West's 
 visit there in 1823 (see p. 29); he was very young, 
 but gave satisfactory evidence of a real change of heart. 
 The other, Joseph Harbidge, was the Assiniboine boy 
 who had been promised to Mr. West on his first excur- 
 sion, early in 1821, to Beaver Creek (see p. 26), and who 
 had afterwards been brought to him by his father with 
 the remark, that as he believed him to have been sent 
 by the Great Spirit, he could refuse him nothing. The 
 conduct of some of the relations of this boy after his 
 death throws considerable light on the natural character 
 of these Red men of the woods, and shows how truly 
 they appreciated the kindness which had been shown to 
 this lad. Mr. Jones, writing on April 25, says 
 
 " While performing Divine service yesterday I observed a 
 strange Indian looking in at the window, whose features struck 
 me as being like those of poor Joseph Harbidge. I saw no more 
 of him till this morning, when he came and told me the boy was 
 his sister's son. I walked with him to the grave, and was sur- 
 prised at the feeling he manifested. As we approached his 
 countenance changed ; and at last he burst into a flood of tears ; 
 he threw himself on the grave moaning piteously, he then rose 
 up, took off his mocassins, and with the sod of an arrow, notwith- 
 standing my remonstrances, dreadfully lacerated his feet. He 
 walked back from the grave barefooted, his steps marked by the 
 blood from his self-inflicted wounds. How does one daily see in 
 these poor Indians the noblest of God's creatures in a state of 
 ruin ! " 
 
 Soon after this Mr. Jones one day picked up a small 
 leathern bag near the grave, and, on opening it, found 
 
32 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 in it the sod of the arrow, and a red substance like ver- 
 milion. 
 
 A few weeks after the visit of the poor hoy's uncle, 
 Mr. Jones observed some Indians, whose horses were 
 laden like those of the Assiniboines, come up to the 
 fence of his garden, but he took no particular notice of 
 them till he heard the women begin a melancholy dirge. 
 Suspecting from this that they must be friends of the 
 deceased, he sent for them into the house, and found 
 that his conjecture was right. They had come nearly 
 three hundred miles from Beaver Creek " to cry over 
 the grave," and said they had eaten nothing for six 
 days. Among them were the grandfather and the 
 mother of the lad. The appearance of the mother pre 
 sented a sad instance of the cruel practices of the Indian 
 warriors. She had been taken prisoner in her youth 
 by some hostile tribe, and been scalped ; and though 
 the wound had long been healed, and tufts of hair were 
 growing on the top of her head, yet the muscles of her 
 forehead and eyebrows had been so contracted, that her 
 appearance was truly hideous. The father had sent 
 Mr. Jones four moose-skins, saying that he was not 
 well enough to come himself, and besides, that "the 
 grave was too new." 
 
 Mr. Jones set before them some fish and potatoes, of 
 which they ate voraciously, and then lay down to rest 
 saying they would visit the grave in the morning. They 
 did so, accompanied by Mr. Jones's Indian servant, and 
 spent some little time there, making lamentable cries, 
 and lacerating themselves, as the uncle had previously 
 done. They then came back to the parsonage, and on 
 the following morning, after a long conversation with 
 Mr. Jones on the subject of Christianity, returned again 
 to their wild forests. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FLOOD AND FAMINE. 
 
 " It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might 
 learn Thy statutes." Psalm cxix. 71. 
 
 IT is sometimes profitable to dwell more at length on 
 the history of the earlier Missionaries, their difficulties 
 and their labours, partly that we may have a more clear 
 and definite idea of the mission in all its subsequent 
 workings, and partly that we may thankfully observe 
 how God is pleased to raise up peculiar instruments for 
 peculiar work, bestowing special gifts on those whom He 
 employs in laying the foundations of His Church in a 
 heathen land. 
 
 On these two accounts it is our purpose to enter 
 somewhat in detail into this part of the history of our 
 North West American Mission, intending to pass more 
 rapidly over intermediate events till we come nearer to 
 the present time. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that Red River is an 
 isolated settlement of civilised and half-civilised men in 
 the midst of an immense region of barbarism, and that 
 its inhabitants are obliged to depend entirely on their 
 own resources for the means of subsistence. 
 
 At the time of which we are speaking, a very small 
 portion of land had been brought into cultivation, and 
 this had been done almost solely by the European set- 
 tlers, who had also succeeded in rearing cattle in con- 
 
36 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 siderable numbers. The rest of the inhabitants, Cana- 
 dians, Half-breeds, and Indians, had recourse chiefly, 
 if not wholly, to the chase or to fishing for their sup- 
 port. 
 
 Their principal dependence was on the buffalo hunt, 
 which took place twice in the year, when, perhaps, 800 
 hunters would set out in pursuit of this animal, accom- 
 panied by their wives and children, and attended by as 
 many carts to bring home the spoil. 
 
 When the settlement was first established, the buffa- 
 loes were found in great numbers on the neighbouring 
 plains, but they had gradually retreated farther and 
 farther into the distant country, till now the hunters 
 had sometimes to traverse 200 or 300 miles before they 
 could meet with a herd. When, however, they did find 
 them, the slaughter was prodigious, and, on some occa- 
 sions, not less than 6000 were killed in one expedi- 
 tion.* Part of the flesh supplied them with food 
 
 * The herds of buffaloes are sometimes almost incredibly 
 numerous. " On one occasion we were going down the river in 
 a canoe when we saw an immense herd crossing just below us. 
 We had heard their roaring several miles distant, and when we 
 came in sight of them, we were actually terrified at the numbers 
 that were streaming down the green hills on one side of the 
 river, and galloping up and over the bluffs on the other. As it 
 would have been imprudent to have ventured among them, we 
 ran our canoe ashore, and waited for some hours to see the river 
 clear, but in vain. As soon as the numbers began to diminish 
 we ventured to push off, and at last made our way through them. 
 From the immense numbers that crossed the river at this spot, 
 the bank fifteen feet in height, had been torn and trodden down 
 so as to form a sort of road. This was only one instance in 
 which thousands and tens of thousands congregate and move 
 about together." Abridged from Catlin's North West American 
 Indians. 
 
FLOOD AND FAMINE. 37 
 
 during the hunting season, the rest the women either 
 dried or made into pemican * for future use. 
 
 From this statement it will be seen that if the season 
 should prove unpropitious, either to the hunters or the 
 agriculturists, the colonists must necessarily be brought 
 into great straits, as there was literally no external 
 source whatever from which their wants could be sup- 
 plied. 
 
 It was on this account that the Missionaries had, from 
 the first, found it necessary to cultivate land and rear 
 cattle, so as to raise their own supplies of provisions for 
 their families and schools, as well as to be able to assist 
 the number of starving half-breeds and Indians, whose 
 improvidence threw them on the bounty of others. 
 But for everything that they needed beyond the pro- 
 duce of their little farms, for all other articles of 
 food, for furniture, hardware, tools, books, clothing, and 
 the various minor things that contribute to our daily 
 comfort, the colonists were, and still are, entirely de- 
 pendent on England. 
 
 This inconvenience is increased by the impossibility 
 of obtaining any supplies from home except once in the 
 year. Hudson's Bay is blocked up by fields of ice, 
 except for a brief space during the summer months, so 
 that vessels can seldom reach York Fort before the end 
 of August, and are then obliged to unload and take in 
 their cargoes as quickly as possible, lest their return 
 should be cut off by a barrier of ice forming at the en 
 trance of the bay and preventing their leaving it during 
 the whole winter. This annual visit of the ships is also 
 
 * Pemican is made by pounding the fat and the lean together 
 in a mortar, and then putting it into leathern bags in which it is 
 often preserved for months without spoiling. 
 
38 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 the only opportunity of either sending or receiving 
 European letters, except that once in the course of the 
 winter, the Missionaries had the privilege of sending a 
 small packet with the official despatches via Canada. 
 
 But to retuni from this digression to the history of 
 the mission. 
 
 Mr. Jones's health had been greatly injured by the seve- 
 rity of the first winter, which had occasioned the breaking 
 of a blood-vessel in the lungs, from the effects of which 
 he afterwards frequently suffered. At the time of which 
 we are now speaking he was still alone in the mission, 
 and had not only Sunday and week-day services at the 
 Upper Church, but the same also at Image Plains ; and 
 we may judge of the difficulty and fatigue he often en- 
 countered by the following passage from his journal, 
 which is only one among many similar ones : 
 
 " March 26. Divine service as usual at Image Plains ; the 
 track was so bad that I was obliged to leave my horse, and wade 
 for the last three miles through water lodged on the surface of the 
 ice to the depth of eighteen inches ; a crowded congregation as 
 usual: returned to the services at the Upper Church; in the 
 evening my usual class of Indian boys." 
 
 Suffering as Mr. Jones now was from broken health, 
 deprived of all ministerial advice and sympathy, and shut 
 out for months together from all intercourse with his 
 native land, it required a more than usual measure of 
 strong faith, unwearying zeal, and ardent love, to prevent 
 his spirit from sinking and his heart from turning back. 
 But God endowed him richly with all these graces, and 
 there is a cheerfulness and devotedness in his journals 
 at this time that show how communion with God in the 
 Christian's daily walk will support and cheer him under 
 difficulties and privations. 
 
FLOOD AND FAMINE. 39 
 
 He had also granted to him much encouragement in 
 his work. The congregations at both churches conti- 
 nued to increase, and it was sometimes with difficulty 
 that he could make his way through the crowd to the 
 reading-desk. Often, when setting forth a Saviour's 
 love, he saw the deep feelings of his hearers, especially 
 among the half-breeds, manifesting itself in tears ; and 
 on one occasion he speaks of his own mind being much 
 affected at the manner in which the whole congregation, 
 English, Scotch, Swiss, Germans, Canadians, Norwe- 
 gians, half-breeds, and Indians, joined in singing " Crown 
 him Lord of all," little thinking, he says, when he first 
 read that hymn in Welsh, in the account of the forma- 
 tion of the London Missionary Society, that it would be 
 brought home to his heart with so much power and in- 
 terest in the American wilderness. 
 
 In October, 1825, Mr. Jones had the comfort of wel- 
 coming the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Cockran to Red River ; 
 and the female part of the population soon began to 
 find the advantage of having a missionary lady among 
 them. 
 
 It was not long after this arrival that the colony was 
 subjected to the most severe trial it had ever expe- 
 rienced ; and a short account of the circumstances will 
 serve to illustrate the trials of the Missionaries as well 
 as to show the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart 
 of many. 
 
 From some cause, which does not appear, the hunters 
 had failed in their winter expedition of 1825-6 against 
 the buffaloes ; so much so, that instead of bringing back 
 the usual supply of food for future use, many of them 
 had, even while in the plains, been reduced to the ex- 
 tremity, not only of devouring their dogs, but of eating 
 
40 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 old shoes, buffalo-cloaks, and the leather of their 
 tents. 
 
 This of itself was a severe trial to the colony, but a 
 far more severe and more general calamity was at hand. 
 As the spring of 1826 advanced, the river became 
 swollen from the melting of the unusual quantity of 
 snow which had, during the winter, fallen on the higher 
 lands; the thick crust of ice, with which it was bound, 
 was gradually raised to the level of its steep banks, till, 
 early in May, the frozen mass, four feet and a half in 
 thickness, was dislodged by the impetuous torrent and 
 borne towards the lake, carrying with it everything that 
 impeded its resistless progress ; young maple-trees, 
 oaks, and large elms, being uprooted and swept away. 
 
 Soon the water rose above the banks, and now began 
 a long course of varied calamities to the inhabitants. 
 The houses in the lower part of the settlement were 
 rapidly filled with water and deserted by their occupiers ; 
 and soon the higher ones shared the same fate ; the 
 cattle were driven to the few spots still left dry, where 
 their piteous wailings for food and shelter added to the 
 general distress of the scene. 
 
 All this time the thermometer continued five degrees 
 below freezing point, the weather was stormy, with sleet, 
 hail, and driving snow, and the suffering inhabitants 
 were driven to take refuge on the nearest hills. Some 
 fled towards the Lake, and pitched their tents on the 
 Cedar Hills, nine or ten miles distant from their 
 homes ; while 500 or 600 of the rest found safety in an 
 opposite direction, and fixed themselves on the Snake 
 Indian Hills, about the same distance from the settle 
 ment. 
 
 By degrees, the mission family and a few strangers, 
 
FLOOD AND FAMINE. 4J 
 
 who sought shelter from them, alone remained, their 
 house and the Upper Church were still untouched, but 
 all around was desolation. As far as the eye could 
 reach on every side, the mighty torrent was holding on 
 its way, always troubled, and sometimes lashed into 
 waves, several feet in height, hy storms of wind. On 
 one side, were seen many of the log-houses of the set- 
 tlers higher up the country carried by the flood across 
 what had before been plains ; while, on the other, their 
 eyes and hearts were pained by the sight of the property 
 and furniture of their nearer neighbours swept past by 
 the resistless current without the possibility of saving 
 them. Still the waters rose, and now the mission-house 
 itself began to be in jeopardy. The Missionaries endea- 
 voured to secure some of their own property and that of 
 the Society, by placing it in the roof of the Church; for 
 though the waters had entered the building, the walls 
 still stood firm. They also prepared a wooden platform 
 to which they might retreat in case of sudden necessity ; 
 and it was well they did so, for, in the course of the 
 night, the water suddenly burst into the house. 
 
 Sunday, May 14, " was a very dismal day; no people 
 assembling to celebrate the day of rest, no church to go 
 to ;" but they held Divine Service on the platform, now 
 the only abode of about forty persons, including, besides 
 themselves and the Indian boys, a few poor people who 
 had lingered near their ruined homes in the vain hope 
 of saving some of their possessions. 
 
 For three days, they continued there, but the flood 
 still rising, and the wind becoming so strong as to 
 threaten the safety of their fragile retreat, they deter- 
 mined to follow the example of their neighbours. With 
 some difficulty they procured" boats, and taking with 
 
42 THE KATNBOW IN THE NOETH. 
 
 them as many small articles of daily use and comfort 
 as they could, they rowed over fields and plains, now an 
 almost uninterrupted waste of water, to the Snake 
 Indian Hills. Here they pitched their tents, and here 
 they remained a month in anxious suspense, watching 
 the continual rising, and at length the subsiding of the 
 waters, with feelings of alternate fear and hope, sorrow 
 and thankful joy, till the 12th of June. 
 
 It was a month of much bodily as well as mental suf- 
 fering ; the weather was inclement and the cold severe ; 
 the encampment consisted of 130 tents, besides many 
 Indian wigwams; the want of furniture and other con- 
 veniences caused great discomfort, while the state of 
 Mrs. Cockran's health made every privation to be doubly 
 felt. 
 
 On one occasion a violent hurricane arose suddenly 
 in the middle of the night and blew down many of the 
 tents and all the wigwams : the scene was one of inde- 
 scribable confusion, and in the midst of it, their alarm 
 was wrought up to the highest pitch, by a spark from 
 one of the tents having set on fire the long grass with 
 which they were surrounded. The flame ran swiftly 
 along the ground, and destruction seemed inevitable; 
 but God in His mercy preserved them. 
 
 A torrent of rain was sent which extinguished the 
 fire ; the wind lulled, and all further danger was 
 averted. 
 
 It is refreshing to mark the spirit in which these 
 trials were received, not only by the missionaries them- 
 selves, but by their flock. Of himself and his fellow- 
 labourers, Mr. Jones says, 
 
 " Every recurrence of our devotional hours brings with it a 
 subject of gratitude in some visible proof of the care of our gra- 
 
FLOOD AND FAMINE 43 
 
 cious God for His unworthy servants. Let me beg that the 
 language of gratitude, as well as of prayer, be employed at your 
 assemblies in behalf of this infant mission. Our trials have 
 been great, though we have not dwelt much on them ; we would 
 rather join in thanksgiving to the Author and Giver of life, that 
 we are still monuments of mercy, and permitted to lift up ow 
 feeble voices in testimony to the goodness of Jehovah " 
 
 Again, he says, 
 
 " The people seem to receive all this as a chastisement from 
 God, and they await the issue from His gracious hand. House- 
 less as they are, their language is still, ' It is the Lord.' " 
 
 Then, after enumerating the deliverances and mercies 
 they had received, he adds that their chief concern was 
 for Mrs. Cockran, who, however, bore all these trials 
 with never-failing patience and cheerfulness. 
 
 An interesting anecdote is related of a little incident 
 which occurred about this time, and helped to cheer 
 them. A party of settlers, who were crossing the inun- 
 dated plains one Sunday morning in their canoes, 
 thought they heard the voice of singing. They rowed 
 towards the spot from whence the sound proceeded, and 
 found, on a wooden stage, not more than eighteen inches 
 above the water, a party of half-breed young women 
 singing hymns : they were resting for the day, anxious, 
 as far as might be, to keep it holy. The settlers passed 
 on, unwilling to disturb them, but not a little struck 
 with thus hearing, in the midst of surrounding desola- 
 tion, the sweet voices of those lately ignorant and de- 
 graded beings floating over the waters in songs of 
 praise. 
 
 On the 12th of June, the waters were sufficiently 
 abated to allow of the people's return ; but it was a 
 dismal scene that awaited them. Only three houses in 
 
44 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 the whole settlement were left standing : one of them, 
 to the joy and thankfulness of the missionaries, was 
 their own dwelling ; but they only found the outer 
 walls ; everything else was gone : the partitions be- 
 tween the rooms, the doors, the windows, and the fur- 
 niture, had all been swept away. 
 
 The Upper Church had suffered less than any other 
 building; but that on Image Plains had not fared so 
 well. 
 
 " The glass windows were driven out by the current, the seats 
 were shattered and mostly carried away, the pulpit swept from 
 the foundation, the doors battered down, and all the plastering 
 washed off, in short, the desolation," writes Mr. Jones, " was 
 complete. But," he adds, " I could not help thinking this might 
 be intended as a useful lesson to me, to teach me not to suffer 
 my mind to wander from the main object of my ministry by any 
 external circumstances. I had often looked on this church as 
 a child of my own rearing. I had worked at it many a day -\Aith 
 my own hands ; and with the aid of the settlers had brought it 
 to a tolerable degree of perfection : now my idol is completely 
 tarnished. Still I am thankful that we are not deprived of it as 
 a place of worship, and the Gospel will sound as well from behind 
 a table as from my handsome pulpit." 
 
 The return of the missionaries and the people to their 
 former abode was very melancholy: their houses in 
 ruins ; much of their stock of provisions, both for them- 
 selves and their cattle, destroyed by the flood ; and the 
 supply of preserved buffalo meat, as we have before said, 
 very scanty. But the trials of this eventful year did 
 not end here : the inundation had occurred just at the 
 season for sowing their crops, and though the spade and 
 plough were at work again as soon as the land was suffi- 
 ciently dry, it was too late for them to expect even a 
 tolerable harvest. Distress and famine seemed their only 
 prospect, and their fears were but too soon realised. 
 
FLOOD AND FAMINE. 45 
 
 The missionaries were often reduced to the extremity 
 of not knowing from whence the food for the next day 
 could be procured; and more than once, the only supply 
 for themselves and their household, including the Indian 
 boys, was some half-ripe barley. With a view of pre- 
 venting, if possible, a recurrence of the same distress, 
 Mr. Cockran, with his characteristic energy, determined 
 to bring a little more land into cultivation ; but having 
 no means of feeding another labourer, he was obliged to 
 plough it up with his own hands, while he taught two of 
 his Indian boys to drive the oxen. 
 
 The journals of the missionaries during this long 
 season of suffering are very interesting, but we will 
 only make the two following extracts from that of Mr. 
 Cockran : 
 
 " Being in difficulty from want of provisions, I took my man 
 with me, and went and cut ten sheaves of barley. It was not 
 fully ripe, but we had no other means of subsistence. We 
 threshed it and gave it to Mrs. Cockran to dry by the fire, that it 
 might be ready for the evening. I then went and ploughed the 
 appointed hours." 
 
 Soon after, he says, 
 
 " I spent an agreeable evening with two Christian friends. 
 We beguiled the time by talking of our ' Father's house, where 
 there are many mansions ;' and strengthened one another in the 
 Word of God, by freely communicating the manner in which 
 God had fed us day by day for the last three months. We found 
 He had fulfilled His promises to each of us. He had, as it 
 were, sent us manna every morning to supply our present wants, 
 but the bread of to-morrow we often knew not whence it would 
 
 The barley and potatoes, though from their having 
 been sown so late they did not come to perfection, yet 
 sufficed, with the greatest care, to keep the mission 
 
46 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 family through the winter from actual want of food; 
 but they were subjected to great privation, and many of 
 their neighbours suffered still more severely. Some 
 lived on hazel-nuts, some obtained an uncertain subsist- 
 ence by angling through holes cut in the thick ice, but 
 many suffered inconceivable hardships. 
 
 There could, of course, be no material improvement 
 in the state of things till the next harvest (1827), when 
 it pleased God to send them a fair crop, and they were 
 once more, after seventeen months of scarcity, able, as 
 Mr. Cockran expresses it, " to eat their bread without 
 weight, and their potatoes without measure." " We 
 trusted," he adds, " in the Lord, and have not been 
 ashamed. He gave us our portion of meat in due 
 season, and made it doubly sweet by the zest of a 
 grateful heart.'' 
 
 These outward trials were blessed by the Spirit of 
 God to the souls of many ; the Word grew and multi- 
 plied, and a spirit of earnest inquiry was poured out; 
 the churches were crowded, and the number of com- 
 municants continually increased, though none were ad- 
 mitted who were not, as far as human judgment could 
 penetrate, the subjects of Divine grace. 
 
 The language of many a heart might now have been, 
 
 " Father, I bless Thy gentle hand ; 
 
 How kind was that chastising rod, 
 That forced my conscience to a stand, 
 And brought my wandering soul to God ! " 
 
 All this improvement, however, was chiefly among 
 the Europeans and half-breeds ; the native Indians had 
 scarcely been reached, though here and there the mis- 
 sionaries were privileged to admit a Red brother or 
 sister to the fold of Christ. 
 
FLOOD AND FAMINE 47 
 
 One of these was an aged woman of the Saskatchewan 
 tribe, whose Indian name was " Rosebud," from her 
 youthful beauty. She had come from the north of 
 Hudson's Bay to reside with her daughter, who had 
 married a half-breed young man, one of the communi- 
 cants. She worshipped idols, and had one special fa- 
 vourite household god, to which she was devoted, and 
 which she kept carefully wrapped in a piece of red cloth. 
 She could not be prevailed upon to attend Divine wor- 
 ship or to join her son-in-law and daughter in their 
 family devotions, nor would she listen to any of their 
 persuasions. All this was a continual subject of sorrow 
 to her children, who little knew that under this appa- 
 rent resistance to the truth, the Holy Spirit was secretly 
 carrying on His work in her heart. One day the man 
 came to Mr. Jones to tell him that, to his wife's and his 
 own great joy, an unexpected change seemed to have 
 taken place in the poor old woman, and that she had 
 sent him to request the missionary to come and teach 
 her to worship the true God. 
 
 Mr. Jones gladly obeyed the summons : he found her 
 in a very inquiring state of mind, and after due pre- 
 paration he baptised her, " with hair so gray and fore- 
 head so wrinkled," yet brought to Christ at the eleventh 
 hour. Mr. Jones expressed one day a wish to see her 
 former idol. " Nay, my grandson," was her reply ; " to 
 hear of these things now pains my ears ; to think of 
 them troubles my heart ; I pray you therefore to pass 
 them by." 
 
 Another interesting case was that of a man called the 
 " Cask." He had heard something about the Gospel at 
 Norway House, and had come to Red River to get 
 further instruction. He built a dwelling for himself, 
 
48 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 and regularly attended the means of grace. During the 
 winter, he and his wife, who was like-minded with him- 
 self, gave a pleasing and encouraging proof that the 
 Word of God had not heen declared to them in vain. 
 
 They had joined a party of ahout three hundred people, 
 chiefly Canadians, on one of the annual fishing expe- 
 ditions on Lake Winnipeg : it was an ungodly com- 
 pany, and no difference was made between Sunday and 
 any other day. Our Indian and his wife had, however, 
 learnt differently, and continued to take up their nets 
 on the Saturday evening, that they might observe the 
 day of rest, though by so doing they exposed themselves 
 to much trouble and risk, as well as ridicule. Every 
 Saturday, as soon as they had removed their nets, their 
 companions invariably took possession of their ground, 
 and every Monday morning they were obliged to lose 
 much time in seeking for a fresh spot. 
 
 After their return home, they continued to go on 
 very satisfactorily, and Mr. Cockran looked forward to 
 their admission by baptism into the visible church ; but 
 before this could be done, it pleased God to take the 
 husband to Himself, though not till he had given satis- 
 factory evidence of his being a living member of the 
 mystical body of Christ. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE GRAND RAPIDS. 
 
 " Establish Thou the work of our hands upon us ; yea, the 
 work of our hands establish Thou it." Ps. xc. 17. 
 
 THIS was a very appropriate passage of Scripture for 
 our Missionaries as they pursued their various labours ; 
 but more especially might it have been the language of 
 Mr. Cockran's heart, when, in 1829, he settled with his 
 family at the Grand Rapids. 
 
 This name had been given to a part of the colony 
 several miles farther down the river than the Upper 
 Settlement, where Mr. Jones and Mr. Cockran had 
 hitherto resided ; and it included a tract of land lying 
 about twelve miles along the river, and stretching 
 several miles into the country. 
 
 The inhabitants were chiefly half-breeds, with but 
 few Europeans, and a still smaller number of Indians, 
 among them. With a very few exceptions, the half- 
 breeds here were, as elsewhere, scarcely raised above the 
 Indians ; they followed the same heathen practices, they 
 pursued the same mode of life, and were, indeed, in 
 most cases so identified with them, that it required an 
 experienced eye to distinguish between the two. At 
 the Grand Rapids the chief difference seems to have 
 been, that when they returned from their hunting or 
 fishing expeditions they could shelter themselves in a 
 more substantial dwelling than the Indian wigwam. 
 
52 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 There were, however, a small numher who were 
 rising a little above this state, and who were making 
 some rude attempts at tillage. But, except these few 
 patches of half-cultivated ground " few and far be- 
 tween " the whole was a wild, desolate, and swampy 
 plain, dotted here and there with the miserable log- 
 Mouses of the inhabitants, and too often resounding with 
 /*he dismal, discordant noise of the conjurer's drum. 
 
 The inundation of 1826, and the consequent suffer- 
 ings, which had, as we have seen, been blessed to many 
 of the people at the Upper Settlement, had not been 
 entirely without fruit at this place also. Several persons 
 had been awakened to a concern for their souls ; and 
 Mr. Cockran, in his occasional visits to them, was often 
 cheered by finding a considerable number (sometimes 
 as many as thirty) collected together to receive his 
 instructions. 
 
 The openings for usefulness appeared so promising, 
 that it was arranged that while Mr. Jones continued in 
 charge of the Upper Settlement, Mr. Cockran should 
 establish himself here ; and accordingly, in the summer 
 of 1829, he moved with his family into a log-house he 
 had built on the western bank of the river, about fifteen 
 miles below the Upper Church and Parsonage, and ten 
 miles from* Image Plains. 
 
 . Everything around was, as has been said, dreary and 
 uncivilised : the commonest necessaries of life could 
 only be procured from the Parsonage at the Upper 
 Settlement ; and for some months the only bread they 
 had was made of flour ground between two stones dug 
 from the bank of the river, and afterwards sifted 
 through a piece of parchment pricked with pin-holes. 
 
 Mr. Cockran soon saw that, not only for their tern- 
 
THE GRAND RAPIDS. 53 
 
 poral but for their spiritual welfare, it was of the utmost 
 importance to reclaim the people as much as possible 
 from their wild and wandering habits, and to lead them 
 to more settled and peaceful employments. While, 
 therefore, he took every opportunity of declaring to 
 them the Gospel in all its simplicity and power, of 
 endeavouring to lead them to a conviction of sin, and 
 of the need of a Saviour, he spared no pains, either by 
 argument or example, to induce them to turn their 
 minds to agriculture. He took a considerable piece of 
 land near his own house into cultivation, partly for the 
 support of his own family and his future schools, and 
 partly as an opportunity of accustoming the men to 
 labour. 
 
 The difficulties he found in this and in following 
 years, in teaching these people the use of the various 
 implements of husbandry, can scarcely be read without 
 a smile, though they must have been very trying to his 
 patience at the time. They would often throw down the 
 hoe or the spade, declaring they would use them no 
 longer, as they made their backs and arms so stiff.. If 
 a tree was to be felled, they complained that the hatchet 
 blistered their hands. But the sickle was their great 
 trouble ; as was to be expected, they at first frequently 
 cut their fingers in using it ; and rather than endeavour, 
 by care and practice, to overcome their awkwardness, 
 they would devise all kinds of new ways of reaping 
 thus often losing much of the few 7 precious days of fine 
 weather, during which alone the harvest could in that 
 country be gathered in. 
 
 The only thing in which they found no difficulty 
 was guiding the plough : the quickness of eye they 
 had acquired by their early training in shooting and 
 
54 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 hunting enabled them, from the first, to do that with 
 ease which our English labourers often are so long in 
 acquiring ; and their furrows were always straight. 
 
 We may understand something of Mr. Cockran's 
 position, at this time, by a passage in one of his letters 
 three or four years later : 
 
 " I am obliged to be minister, clerk, schoolmaster, arbitrator, 
 agricultural director, and many other things, to this mixed and 
 barbarous people; and it is no sinecure. They are scattered 
 over twelve miles of country, without roads, full of swamps and 
 miry creeks, where in wet weather I have the utmost difficulty in 
 reaching them. I have everything to teach them, to enter into 
 all their personal concerns, to be a peacemaker, and to teach 
 them to manage their temporal affairs. Wearying as all this is 
 to the flesh, it is very beneficial to the people : it leads them to 
 look on me as one of themselves ; they feel they can depend on 
 my friendship, they know that I shall advise them only for their 
 good ; and this leads them to listen with a willing ear when I tell 
 them of spiritual things." 
 
 Mr. Cockran soon began to see some results from his 
 patient, self-denying labours ; and though the people 
 did not entirely relinquish their former mode of life, 
 yet they set about the cultivation of the land and the 
 rearing of cattle in good earnest : so that it was not 
 long before the whole face of the country assumed a 
 very improving aspect. The few bright months of 
 summer they devoted to the care of their land ; and 
 though still obliged to eke out their subsistence by 
 hunting and fishing, yet, if their expeditions proved 
 unsuccessful, they found a sufficient supply in their own 
 farmyards to keep them from actual want. 
 
 Their spiritual progress kept pace with their external 
 improvement ; they eagerly sought for religious instruc- 
 tion ; many adults applied for baptism: and in 1831, 
 
THE GEAND EAPIDS. 55 
 
 only two years after his settling among them, Mr. Cock 
 ran's congregation had increased from thirty to three 
 hundred, while the alteration in their general habits and 
 moral conduct bore testimony to the reality of the work 
 within. 
 
 Many of his present congregation were Indians newly 
 arrived from distant places, drawn hither by messages 
 and invitations from their relations among the half- 
 breeds already settled here ; and the description Mr. 
 Cockran gives of the way in which these poor wanderers 
 were gathered in is very touching : 
 
 " When," he says, " I speak to my own people of our state by 
 nature, of a Saviour, of repentance and faith, and of the con- 
 dition of the heathen, I sometimes stop, and put this thrilling 
 question, ' Are not your relations in this state ? Are they not 
 heathen ? Are not their bodies perishing for want of food, and 
 their souls for lack of knowledge ?' This will often lead them to 
 think about their unfortunate relations in the wilderness, whose 
 numbers are diminishing from scarcity and hardships, and whose 
 souls are passing into eternity without ever hearing of Christ, 
 the only Saviour. They will tell their anxiety to some trusty 
 friend who is going to York Fort, where he will meet with men 
 from all parts of this vast continent. To some of them he com- 
 municates the messages, which pass from one to another till 
 they reach the persons to whom they are sent; and these 
 messages often induce them to come and see what this new 
 thing is." 
 
 It was especially among the tribe of the Swampy 
 Crees that these messages were listened to and followed. 
 They came to the settlement from various places in the 
 far north sometimes a family or two together, some- 
 times more ; and on one occasion a little fleet of twenty 
 canoes was seen making its way up the river on this 
 voyage of inquiry. They would land, pitch their tent 
 near any half-breed family with whom they could claim 
 
56 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 any relationship, and expect them to maintain them as 
 long as they remained. 
 
 It was a hard struggle to the settlers, who were 
 themselves hut just beginning to reap the fruit of their 
 newly-acquired habits, and were as yet scarcely able to 
 raise grain enough for their own consumption, to have 
 so many to support in addition to their own families ; 
 but their hearts had been enlarged by the Spirit of God, 
 and so anxious were they to rescue their relations and 
 fellow-countrymen from the state of heathenism and 
 ignorance of which they had themselves so lately expe- 
 rienced the misery, that they never discouraged them, 
 but would share with them their last mouthful, rather 
 than that they should be driven by hunger beyond the 
 sound of the Gospel. And their disinterested self-denial 
 was blessed : it was very seldom that any who came in 
 this way to the settlement ever left it again ; they 
 applied themselves to agriculture, listened to instruc- 
 tion, and in very many cases gave evidence of being 
 converted to God. 
 
 Mr. Cockran could not but rejoice at the gradual 
 improvement he witnessed year by year, even in the 
 outward condition of his people. 
 
 " Instead," he writes, " of seeing some poor Indian woman, in 
 the depth of winter, hauling her half-naked children on a sledge 
 over the frozen snow to some lonely creek, there to cut a hole in 
 the thick ice, let down her hook, and shivering wait for hours till 
 some fish lay hold of it to serve for their scanty meal, we now 
 see her and her children nicely and warmly clothed, with a 
 buffalo cloak folded neatly round them, in their own cariole, 
 drawn by their own horse or ox, bringing them to the house of 
 God to thank Him, as well she may, for all His temporal and 
 spiritual mercies." 
 
 On Mr. Cockran's first settling at the Grand Rapids 
 
THE GRAND RAPIDS. 57 
 
 he had collected together a good number of children, 
 and built a good-sized room to serve for a school ; and 
 hitherto it had been in this room that the congregation 
 had assembled for divine worship. But the increase in 
 the number of worshippers soon determined him to 
 attempt the erection of a church ; and poor as the people 
 still were, they came forward readily to assist him to 
 the utmost of their power. Great was his joy when 
 this new witness for God was completed, and stood out 
 as a testimony that His servants had obtained a footing 
 here. In 1831, he says : 
 
 " Three years ago my house, school, congregation, and church, 
 were all imaginary : the timber was growing in the forests, the 
 glass and nails were in England, and one-half of my congrega- 
 tion were wandering heathen, worshipping no God but profit or 
 pleasure, acknowledging no Saviour, and knowing no Sabbath. 
 But when the time appointed came, Death and Hell could no 
 longer hold their prisoners : their jubilee was come they must 
 go free; and, gathered from the shores of almost every river 
 between Hudson's Bay and the Bocky Mountains, they were 
 brought to this place, where God had provided for them the glad 
 tidings of salvation." 
 
 Mr. Cockran frequently mentions the regularity of 
 his people's attendance at the house of God : 
 
 " In England," he says, " it is a frequent and painful remark, 
 So many at market, and so few at church ! ' but here it is the 
 reverse. On week-days you may travel for miles, and not see a 
 human face ; but on Sundays, as the time of service draws near, 
 the track is covered with old, and young, and middle-aged, press- 
 ing forward to worship God in the congregation. It never comes 
 into their minds that a slight cold, or a soaking rain, or a violent 
 snow-storm, or a piercing frost, are any reasons to keep them 
 from public worship. They have made up their minds to be 
 found always in the house of God, and hitherto their strength 
 has been equal to their day. Be the weather ever so bad, none 
 ever stay away but the aged and the sick ; and when the ground 
 
 E 
 
58 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH 
 
 is too wet for the women and children to walk, they are put 
 into their little carioles ; while the men, carrying their shoes in 
 their hand, walk by their side through mud and water reaching 
 half-way to their knees." 
 
 We shall be better able to appreciate this regularity 
 of attendance when we consider the peculiar nature of 
 the climate : sometimes in summer the thermometer 
 would be at from 80 to 100 in the shade, while in 
 winter it was often 30 or 35 below zero, and occasion- 
 ally even 40. 
 
 On Sundays, the church being full, the winter cold 
 was not so severely felt during the time of service ; 
 but the external air congealing the breath of the people 
 as it rose, when the fire was extinguished the ceiling 
 would be covered with a coat of ice, while the desk, 
 pulpit, prayer-book, and Bible, shone with silvery par- 
 ticles of frozen vapour. On the week-days in winter, 
 when the congregation was smaller, Mr.Cockran describes 
 it as being, notwithstanding a good fire in the stove, like 
 " a temple of ice." 
 
 Mr. Cockran's constant intercourse with the people 
 during the week gave him an insight into their indi- 
 vidual character which he could not have obtained in 
 any other way, and which was particularly valuable to 
 him when candidates for the Lord's Supper presented 
 themselves to him. He was very strict on this point, 
 and would admit none of whose real religious principles 
 he was not well persuaded, or of whom the rest of the 
 communicants could report any inconsistency in their 
 daily walk. 
 
 The number of communicants, however, continued to 
 increase ; and although the natural taciturnity and 
 reserve of both Indians and half-breeds prevented him 
 
THE GRAND RAPIDS. 59 
 
 from enjoying the communion with them which he so 
 much desired, yet the correctness of their moral con- 
 duct, their habits of family devotion, and the tears of 
 deep feeling often drawn forth by the services of the 
 sanctuary, convinced their faithful pastor that his labour 
 among them had not been in vain in the Lord. 
 
 Sometimes, too, he was cheered by a clearer manifest- 
 ation of the work of grace, when some powerful emotion 
 or an attack of sickness would overcome their natural 
 reserve, and lead them to lay open more of the feelings 
 of their hearts. One of these cases was that of an 
 Indian woman, who, with her husband, had arrived at 
 the settlement in 1831. The man had, as is usual 
 among the Indians, taken two sisters as his wives. On 
 his arrival he had pitched his tent near one of the 
 settlers to whom he was related, and by whom he and 
 his family were for some time supported. 
 
 This relation, as well as some of his pious neighbours, 
 frequently endeavoured to lead the minds of the new- 
 comers to Christianity. They tried, also, to show them 
 the sinfulness of their present mode of life ; and by 
 degrees the two wives became so deeply impressed with 
 this, that they determined it should be so no longer. 
 It was decided that the woman of whom we are speaking 
 should leave her husband, and reside in a separate tent, 
 at some distance. They had constantly attended divine 
 worship, but had not sought for any personal intercourse 
 with Mr. Cockran, till, a short time after this separation, 
 the poor woman was taken very ill, and sent for him. 
 He found that as yet she knew little of divine truth, 
 but that little had reached her heart ; she felt its power, 
 and desired to be transformed into a new creature. In 
 her simple way she told him, 
 
60 THE KAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 " When I came here, fifteen months ago, it was to hear about 
 this new religion, and I intended to accept it if it proved as good 
 as it was reported. I came, I inquired : all was new, and asto- 
 nished me. Oh, I thought, if I can but escape the bad place, 
 and obtain the good one ! I was told that I must put away my 
 sins, and believe on Him who came into the world and died to 
 save sinners. I considered ; I felt willing to give up my Indian 
 ways; as I came to the knowledge of bad things, I put them 
 away, and I now go on putting them away." 
 
 Mr. Cockran had further conversation with her, and, 
 satisfied with her sincerity, yielded to her anxious desire 
 and baptized her. 
 
 Another case was that of a man who had been living 
 for some time at the Grand Rapids, but with whom 
 Mr. Cockran had sought in vain to get into religious 
 conversation. But on his visiting him during a severe 
 fit of illness, he seemed to forget his habitual reserve, 
 and exclaiming, " You know not how much God strove 
 with me before I would hear him," proceeded to give 
 some account of his own conversion. It seems he had 
 heard something of Christianity while still leading a 
 life of wandering, and had had many conflicts with 
 himself whether or not he would listen to the word of 
 God. At one time in particular, when chasing a moose- 
 deer in vain for several days, the thought occurred to 
 him that perhaps the " Master of Life " intended to 
 starve him because he would not attend to His message. 
 He set out, therefore, for the settlement, with his wife 
 and children, determined to attend the means of grace ; 
 but when he arrived there he could not persuade himself 
 to enter the church, fearing lest he should be arrested 
 by an invisible hand ; for at this time he looked on the 
 preaching of the Missionaries as similar to the incanta- 
 tions of the Indian conjurers His heart again turned 
 
THE GRAND EAPIDS. 61 
 
 to the Indian life, and he again set off with his family 
 for the plains. In his way he passed a spot where Mr. 
 Cockran was engaged with a carpenter in preparing 
 some work, and turned aside to have a little talk with 
 him, with no other purpose than to while away the 
 time. The carpenter was a pious man, and the conver- 
 sation soon turned to serious subjects. The Indian 
 became wearied with this, and soon left them ; but what 
 he had heard was not so easily to be got rid of : it was 
 as a nail fastened in a sure place. He could not sleep ; 
 and at last his life became so burdensome to him, that 
 he determined to return to the Grand Rapids, and fix 
 himself where he might hear the whole of God's truth. 
 
 " And," adds Mr. Cockran, " he was not an unprofitable hearer; 
 he became a true believer, and brought forth the fruits of the 
 Spirit, in faith, patience, and a tender conscience." 
 
 There are many other instances mentioned in Mr 
 Cockran 's journal which are very interesting, but it 
 would exceed our appointed limits were we to enter 
 upon them fully. We shall therefore content ourselves 
 with selecting only two or three, which in different 
 ways show that the work of the Holy Spirit produces 
 the same effects on the heart of the wild Indian of the 
 forest as upon the subtle, philosophising Brahmin, or 
 on the intellectual and polished European. 
 
 One of these was a man who one day, in conversation 
 with his minister, told him that when the word of God 
 came to him it made " his heart sore," and the sense 
 of 'his sins was as if he were in a thick wood, surrounded 
 by flies, from which he could not get free, till he found 
 the Saviour had made a beaten track by which he had 
 escaped. No one who has not been in that country can 
 
62 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 fully enter into the force of this simile, for he must 
 have experienced the torment of these insects hefore he 
 can know the relief of getting free from them. When 
 passing, in summer, through one of those pathless woods, 
 they surround you, hite you, dash into your eyes, sting 
 your face, hands, and neck ; you inhale them with every 
 breath, while slowly making your way among the trees 
 and bushes. But if you fortunately meet with a trodden 
 path, you rush forward, the current of air drives your 
 enemies behind you, and you can once more see and 
 breathe. 
 
 Another instance was that of a woman whom Mr. 
 Cockran visited in her illness, and who, in reply to 
 his questions as to what chiefly occupied her thoughts 
 while lying alone on her bed of sickness, mentioned 
 Matt. xi. 28, and John, vi. 37. " These words," she 
 added, "dwell in my mind day and night." Then, 
 clasping her hands, with the tears rolling down her 
 cheeks, she exclaimed, " Precious Saviour ! thou art the 
 best friend in the day of sickness ! " 
 
 The last case we shall mention was a man who, find- 
 ing himself very near his end, sent to Mr. Cockran to 
 come and see him. When he entered, he exclaimed, 
 " This is the last visit you will ever pay me. I know I 
 shall soon die, but I have no fear : I have a Saviour, a 
 friend in heaven, who hears my prayers, who draws 
 away my heart from all below, even from my wife and 
 children, and leads it to Himself. I have sent for you 
 to tell me all you know about this new state." Then, 
 stretching out both his arms, as a bird stretching out its 
 wings to fly away, he exclaimed, " I want to go and be 
 with Him who has washed away my sins in His own 
 blood, and now gives me rest and peace in the midst of 
 
THE GKAND KAPIDS. O3 
 
 pain and suffering." Five years before, as we find from 
 the journals, this man was a heathen ! 
 
 It was not the adults alone in whom Mr. Cockran 
 endeavoured to awaken a desire for useful employment : 
 he made his schools, as far as he could, schools of 
 industry ; the boys were instructed during part of the 
 day in husbandry, carpenters' work, &c., and the girls 
 were taught to spin. When they first began, the only 
 material to be procured in the country was buffalo's 
 wool, which is too short and coarse to make good thread ; 
 but soon afterwards Governor Simpson conferred a great 
 boon upon the colony by importing some sheep from 
 Canada ; and by degrees, as these multiplied, the girls 
 were able to produce a finer and more durable article. 
 
 And now, having brought the history of this station 
 down to the year 1836, we must pause, and in our next 
 chapter give some information of a more general kind, 
 though we cannot leave the spot till we have, in a few 
 words, placed before our readers the change which had 
 been effected there in the course of seven years. 
 
 The log-houses of the Christian part of the population 
 had been made neat and comfortable dwellings, each 
 with its little garden and farm-yard attached to it ; the 
 once dreary, swampy plains, were now covered with 
 herds of cattle, or adorned with waving corn ; a church, 
 school, and parsonage-house, had been erected ; and the 
 din of the conjurer's rattle was exchanged for words 
 of prayer and songs of praise. Above sixty children 
 attended at the day-schools; the number of commu- 
 nicants was nearly seventy ; and his flock, which was 
 continually increasing by the baptism of adults from the 
 remaining heathens in the settlement, now amounted to 
 six hundred. 
 
64 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 The Indian village had also heen commenced, but the 
 account of this we must reserve for a future chapter. 
 
 Mr. Cockran would unite with us in saying, " Not 
 unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give 
 the glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TEIALS. 
 
 " Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after 
 many days." Eccles. xi. 3 . 
 
 DURING the seven years of gradual improvement at 
 the Grand Rapids, of which we spoke in the preceding 
 chapter, Mr. Jones continued diligently to lahour in his 
 Master's service, hoth at the Upper Settlement and at 
 the Middle* Church, and the blessing of God rested on 
 his work. But these portions of the field of labour 
 had so nearly lost their direct missionary character, and 
 were passing so almost entirely into pastoral charges, 
 that we shall in future refrain from any regular account 
 of them, and only refer occasionally to some of their 
 details. Before we leave them we will give a few par- 
 ticulars which will interest our readers. 
 
 One of these was the accession to the Mission of a 
 most valuable labourer in Mrs. Jones, who accompanied 
 her husband, in 18*29, on his return from a visit he 
 paid to his native land. Mr. Jones was thus relieved 
 from all secular and domestic cares, which as the house- 
 hold, including the schools, amounted to seventy or 
 eighty persons, were neither few nor light. Mrs. Jones 
 also laid herself out in every way for the temporal and 
 spiritual benefit of all around her ; and soon after, her 
 arrival established a boarding-school for the daughters 
 
 * Before called " Image Plains." 
 
68 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 of the higher classes of the Company's agents, who had 
 hitherto been without any opportunity of education. 
 In this school she met with some trials and much en- 
 couragement ; two instances of the latter are recorded 
 by the Bishop of Montreal in his Journal, p. 25. 
 
 But it is the Indian boys' school that belongs more 
 to our present subject, that school which Mr. West had 
 established, and to the future effects of which he had 
 looked forward with so much hope ; and here also, 
 though there were some disappointments, there was 
 much, very much, that must have fulfilled his most 
 sanguine expectations. We shall select a few of the 
 cases which present; more or less, some peculiar features. 
 
 In the year 1825 Governor Simpson paid a visit to 
 the country west of the Rocky Mountains, where he 
 found the Indians in some respects similar, but in others 
 very superior, to their brethren on the nearer side. 
 The country was rich and productive, the people were 
 bold and warlike, divided into tribes, and very jealous 
 of encroachment from their neighbours, although well 
 disposed and friendly to the few Europeans scattered 
 here and there among them at the Company's posts. 
 They dwell in villages, and are very indolent, yet those 
 on the coast, particularly the Cheenock tribe in the 
 neighbourhood of Fort Vancouver, carry on a brisk 
 trade with the neighbouring nations, especially in slaves. 
 
 Slavery on the shores of the Pacific presents even a 
 more fearful aspect than on those of the Atlantic ; for 
 although the principal riches of the chiefs consist in 
 the number of their slaves, any act of disobedience is 
 punished with instant death ; and frequently several of 
 these poor creatures are offered up on the grave of their 
 master. 
 
INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONAKT TK1ALS. 69 
 
 The appearance of the Western Indians is less pre- 
 possessing than that of their brethren on the east of 
 the rocky barrier : their complexion is not so dark, and 
 they have even a tinge of red in their cheeks ; but their 
 black hair hanging over their shoulders, their high 
 cheek-bones, their artificially flattened foreheads, with 
 their large fiery eyes starting as it were from their 
 sockets, give them an almost unearthly expression. In 
 winter those who can obtain articles of European cloth- 
 ing choose it in preference to their own, but in summer 
 they wear no clothing at all. They are very eager for 
 information, especially on matters of religion ; and when 
 Governor Simpson spoke to them on the subject, he 
 found them not only favourably disposed, but earnestly 
 desirous of having teachers sent to them, to lead them 
 into the knowledge of the " Master of Life." 
 
 This report awakened increased interest in the heart 
 of Mr. Jones for these remote tribes ; he earnestly 
 longed that a Mission might be established among them, 
 and in the contemplation of this exclaims in on-e of his 
 letters : 
 
 " I hail the prospect of a Mission beyond the Eocky Moun- 
 tains with emotions of the liveliest joy. The exertions of the 
 Eastern and Western hemispheres seem hastening to a collision. 
 The North-West American Missionary may soon, perhaps, stand 
 on the summit of these mountains, and stretch forth his hands 
 towards the waters of the Southern Sea and hail his brother- 
 labourers in the Islands." 
 
 Eager as Mr. Jones's hopes then were, he would not 
 have ventured to anticipate the scene not long since 
 witnessed in the Cathedral of Canterbury,* when two 
 Bishops, the one for China, the other for Rupert's Land, 
 
 * May 29th, 1849. 
 
70 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 stood side by side, so soon to part, the one for the East, 
 the other for the Western hemisphere the waves of 
 the North Pacific alone separating, or rather uniting, 
 their respective dioceses ; and their next meeting, 
 perchance, to be on Vancouver's Island, or some other 
 spot in that mighty ocean. 
 
 But to return from this digression to the Indian 
 school. 
 
 The chiefs of these Western Indians, on the banks 
 of the Columbia, had given an earnest of their sincerity 
 in desiring religious knowledge, by entrusting two of 
 their sons to Governor Simpson to be brought up at the 
 Mission School. The autumn of 1825 saw them safely 
 lodged there, and their general conduct was so good, 
 and their progress in Scriptural knowledge so satis- 
 factory, that before Mr. Jones's visit to England in 1828 
 he baptized them by the names of Kootamey and 
 Spogan Garry. 
 
 During his absence Mr. Cockran was perplexed by 
 their expressing an earnest wish to visit their own coun- 
 try. He greatly feared that the love of home and 
 kindred would induce them to remain ; and he knew 
 that as yet their knowledge was too limited, and their 
 principles too unestablished, for them to become fitting 
 guides to their own people. However, he offered no 
 opposition, but committed them in faith and prayer to 
 Him who thus far had led them. 
 
 To his great joy they returned in the course of a few 
 months, bringing with them five other boys, four of 
 whom were also sons of chiefs, but of different tribes, 
 and speaking dialects so unlike, that their only inter- 
 course was by signs. 
 
 The hopes that Mr. Jones had formed of Kootamey 's 
 
INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TEIALS. 71 
 
 future usefulness were blasted soon after his return. 
 During his absence he had received some serious injury 
 by a fall, from which he never recovered, and after 
 much suffering he died on Easter Monday, 1830 ; 
 though not till he had given good evidence of his being 
 a child of God, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Mr. 
 Jones, while watching by his bedside, was much affected 
 by hearing him frequently, in his delirium, imagine 
 himself to be with his father, anxiously endeavouring 
 to instruct him in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
 
 His friend, Spogan Garry, continued at the school till 
 1832, when he returned to his own people. He was 
 well instructed in divine truth, and although Mr. Jones 
 saw in him no evidence of a change of heart, he hoped 
 that his residence among his friends might at all events 
 awaken in them a spirit of inquiry. 
 
 He heard nothing of him for several years, till, in 
 1836, he found by a letter from Mr. Finlayson, the 
 gentleman in charge of Fort Vancouver, that he spent 
 great part of his time in instructing his people, who 
 were so anxious to hear him that they brought presents 
 of various kinds, and indeed seem to have maintained 
 him in Indian abundance. 
 
 To Mr. Jones's surprise and gratification, he also found 
 from the same letter that during the visit of Spogan 
 Garry and Kootamey in 1828, these two lads took great 
 pains in instructing their friends in as much as they 
 themselves knew of the truths of the Bible ; that they 
 were listened to with the greatest attention ; that they 
 prevailed on some of them to observe the Sabbath-day ; 
 and that this little band on the banks of the Columbia 
 had remained faithful to their young teachers, and still 
 continued to keep the Lord's day holy. 
 
72 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 The anxiety of these poor people for instruction was 
 so great, that Mr. Finlayson speaks of his having heen 
 told that at the time the Government expresses were 
 expected to pass Colville House, they would send mes- 
 sengers to inquire if any " new doctrines had arrived." 
 
 " I had myself," he says, " a striking instance of this spirit of 
 inquiry among them. I had one day taken my station on an 
 elevated spot near the Kettle Fall, not far from Colville House, 
 that I might overlook the men who were carrying the baggage, 
 and was occasionally glancing at a book in my hand, when my 
 attention was attracted by the voice of a man who was approach 
 ing me, and haranguing me with increasing animation as he 
 drew nearer and nearer, while with passionate gestures he 
 pointed alternately to the sun and to the book in my hand. I 
 knew not his language, but I could evidently gather from his 
 action that he thought I could give him information on religious 
 subjects. I could only answer him by signs, and, afraid of con- 
 veying erroneous impressions, I made him understand that 
 Spogan Garry was at Colville. He repeated the name two or 
 three times, as if to satisfy himself that he had caught my mean- 
 ing, and darted off towards the place with the rapidity of lightning. 
 I am convinced that a man of piety, who knew something of the 
 language of these poor people, and devoted himself to their in- 
 struction, would soon obtain an unbounded influence over them, 
 and might expect a rich and abundant harvest. I do not know 
 any part of America where the natives could be so easily in- 
 structed as on the banks of the Columbia. 
 
 " Here then," adds Mr. Jones, " are regions far beyond us in 
 total darkness, stretching out their hands towards us ; and 
 yet we cannot meet them. There is, it is true, in this vast wil- 
 derness, a small vineyard ; there are three roofs * pointing to 
 heaven, and their congregations singing together the triumphs 
 of the cross ; but what is this ? It is but the oasis of the desert, 
 scarcely enough to relieve the sickening eye of the beholder as 
 he surveys the immense region of darkness and of misery." 
 
 It was ahout this time (1836) that the Americans es- 
 * Upper and Middle Churches and Grand Rapids. 
 
INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TRIALS. 73 
 
 tablished a Mission in this distant wilderness, the Rev. 
 J. Lee was stationed on the Wallamattee, Dr. Whitman 
 at Walla Walla, and the Eev. H. Spalding at Koskooska 
 (or Salmon River), 150 miles higher up the Columbia. 
 They found the chiefs and people very friendly ; Mrs. 
 Spalding had no difficulty in collecting 150 children of 
 various ages for her school ; and as soon as Mr. Spalding 
 was able to give them a little religious instruction, he 
 found them so eager on the subject that they would 
 sometimes spend whole nights in imparting to others 
 what they themselves had learnt from him. 
 
 We learn from other sources that the Americans were 
 induced to establish this Mission by a deputation of 
 Indians, sent to St. Louis from this western country 
 to inquire more particulars about the religion of the 
 " white men," and to request that teachers might be 
 sent ; and there seems little or no doubt that the mes- 
 sage came from some of those very people who had been 
 awakened to a concern for their souls by the visit of 
 these two youths, or perhaps more recently by Spogan 
 Garry's residence among them. 
 
 This persuasion is confirmed by a letter from one of 
 the Missionaries to Mr. Jones in 1837, in which he 
 mentions his surprise on his first going among them at 
 finding a large body of "Spogan Indians" in some 
 degree enlightened as to religious truth, and adds that 
 they had an efficient interpreter, who had been educated 
 at Red River (doubtless Spogan Garry himself), and that 
 he had enjoyed with them " a real Bethel in the 
 woods." 
 
 Cayouse Halket was the name of another boy at the 
 Indian school, who had come thither from beyond the 
 Rocky Mountains. He was a pleasing, thoughtful lad, 
 
74 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 and gave promise of future usefulness. He visited his 
 friends on the Columbia River in 1834. but not being 
 able to reconcile himself to their mode of life he re- 
 turned to reside with Mr. Cockran, to whom he made 
 himself very useful in various ways. He was always 
 diligent in his work, and passed his leisure time in 
 reading the Bible or some religious book. Mr. Cockran 
 thought very highly of him in every way, and among 
 other things employed him in endeavouring to teach the 
 Saulteaux Indians at the Lower Encampment (of whom 
 we shall hereafter have occasion to speak) to cultivate 
 the ground ; and although, after working hard for them 
 all the day, they would behave insolently to him, and 
 even refuse to give him any food, yet we hear of no 
 complaints from him, nor of any unwillingness to con- 
 tinue his labours for them. 
 
 After having been with Mr. Cockran about two years 
 he began to droop, and his watchful friend, finding from 
 the doctor there was no specific disease, feared he must 
 be under the influence of that peculiar complaint 
 incident to young Indians who apply themselves to the 
 arts of civilised life, and which the Indians themselves 
 call " thinking long." The patient loses his strength 
 and spirits without any apparent cause ; medical aid is 
 of no avail ; no endeavours to amuse or rouse him have 
 any effect, and he gradually sinks into the grave without 
 any specific disease. 
 
 It was too surely the case with poor Cayouse. Mr. 
 Cockran used every means to avert the danger, he made 
 him his almost constant companion, and sent him to 
 visit various friends in the neighbourhood. But it was 
 all in vain, nothing succeeded in restoring his strength, 
 or in removing the strong impressions of approaching 
 
INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TRIALS. 75 
 
 death. He lingered for some weeks, and suddenly 
 died when on a visit to one of his friends. " Pious, 
 obedient, and faithful," Mr. Cockran deeply felt his loss. 
 
 Another of these Indian scholars was Colon Leslie, an 
 Esquimaux from Fort Churchill. He had learnt read- 
 ing, writing, and arithmetic ; and the school being at 
 this time removed to the Grand Rapids, he w r as there 
 taught husbandry and carpenters' work. He was a very 
 promising youth, and Mr. Cockran looked forward to 
 his being very useful at the Indian Village ; but in 
 the spring of 1835 his health declined, and he was 
 soon after attacked with influenza, which was at that 
 time very prevalent in the colony. During his illness 
 he gave satisfactory evidence of being taught of God. 
 
 At one time he was in great concern for his own soul> 
 and for the spiritual state of his parents, who were still 
 at Fort Churchill. He wrestled earnestly in prayer to 
 God for them and for himself, and on one occasion, 
 when the distress of his mind was very great, he sent 
 for Mr. Cockran in the night, when the following con- 
 versation passed between them : 
 
 Mr. Cockran : " Leslie, what is it that so distresses you ? " 
 Leslie : " Sir, I am thinking about my poor parents ; they have 
 never heard that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sin- 
 ners : what will "become of them if they never hear of Him ! Oh, 
 write to them, and tell them that Christ will save them from 
 everlasting punishment if they believe hi Him." Mr. Cockran 
 replied : " Write yourself, that will be much better ; for if I write 
 they will say it is I that speak, not you." " I cannot write," he 
 exclaimed ; " see how my hands shake !" " Why," asked Mr. 
 Cockran, " have you not written to them long ago ?" His an- 
 swer is very affecting : " I did not then think of the value of my 
 soul ; it is only since I began to feel myself a miserable sinner, 
 and to pray in earnest for mercy to myself, that I have become 
 anxious about them. When I saw the wickedness of my own 
 
 F 
 
76 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 heart, and felt there was no hope for me but through Christ, 
 then the miserable state of my parents came to my mind. What 
 T\-ill they do if they never hear of Christ ?" 
 
 After this the poor fellow appeared to be recovering, 
 but one day when Mr. Cockran was writing in his study, 
 the servant ran in to say that Leslie was suddenly taken 
 worse, and before he could reach the sick room the ran- 
 somed spirit had fled. 
 
 The history of Jack Spense has appeared more than 
 once in the publications of the Church Missionary So- 
 ciety, but the lustre of divine grace in this poor Indian 
 youth shone so brightly as his life drew near its close, 
 that our '* bow of heaven" would be incomplete without 
 some short record of him. ^ 
 
 He was a native of Port Nelson River, and had come 
 to Red River in 1824, where he was received into the 
 Indian school, and remained in it for several years. 
 We are not told what became of him after he left school, 
 though probably he was employed in some inferior capa- 
 city in the Company's service. In the summer of 1836 
 Mr. Jones heard that he had returned to the neighbour- 
 hood, and was very ill. He went immediately to see 
 him and found him dying of consumption, and in the 
 lowest state of poverty and destitution. He was 
 with two old Indians in a small birch-rind hut, with 
 nothing but a few fern-leaves under him, and an old 
 blanket over him, which was in a condition not to be 
 described. As soon as Mr. Jones had recovered from 
 his astonishment he expressed his surprise at seeing 
 him in this state, and his regret that he had not sooner 
 known about him. The poor boy replied, 
 
 " It is very little I want now, and these poor people get it for 
 me; but I should like something softer to lie upon, as my bones 
 are very sore." 
 
INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TRIALS. 77 
 
 Mr. Jones then inquired as to the state of his mind : 
 to which he answered that he was very happy ; that JESUS 
 CHRIST, the Lord of glory, had died to save him, and 
 that he had perfect confidence in Him. Observing a 
 small Bible under the corner of his blanket, Mr. Jones 
 said, "Jack, you have a friend there ; I am glad to see 
 that : I hope you find good from it." Weak as the poor 
 fellow was, he raised himself on his elbow, held it in his 
 almost skeleton hand, while a smile played on his coun- 
 tenance as he said, 
 
 " This, sir, is my dear friend. You gave it to me when we all 
 went down to live at Mr. Cockran's. For a long time I have 
 read it much, and often thought of what it told me. Last year 
 I went to see my sister across Lake Winnepeg" (about 200 miles 
 off) "where I remained two months. When I was half- 
 way back through the lake, I remembered that I had left my 
 Bible behind me : I directly turned round, and was nine days by 
 myself tossing to and fro in the canoe before I could reach the 
 place : but I found my friend, and determined I would not part 
 with it again ; and ever since that it has been near my breast. 
 And I thought I should have it buried with me, but I have 
 thought since that I had better give it to you when I am gone, 
 and it may do some one else good." 
 
 He was often interrupted by his cough, and when he 
 had finished, sunk down exhausted with the effort of 
 speaking. Mr. Jones read and prayed with him, the 
 hut scarcely allowing him room to kneel upright. It 
 was an affecting and a memorable scene, as the evening 
 sun poured its rays through the holes in the bark with 
 which the hut was covered, and lighted up the counte- 
 nance of the dying youth. Mr. Jones lost no time in 
 supplying him with every comfort he needed, but his 
 time was come, and in a few days after this conversation 
 he was taken from sin and suffering, and his remains 
 
78 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 were laid among the "clods of the valley, there to await 
 the sound of the trumpet that shall summon the dead 
 from their graves." 
 
 Of many of the companions of these youths we have 
 no record whatever, but of others who are still alive, and 
 are permitted to labour in the LORD'S vineyard, we 
 shall have more to say hereafter. We will therefore now 
 return to the more general affairs of the Mission, and 
 mention that during this period most of the Indians who 
 had been converted by the instrumentality of Mr. Jones 
 had left the Upper Settlement and joined their friends 
 at the Indian Village. 
 
 The year 1836 was one of deep and varied trial. 
 Towards the end of August, just as the crops were ripen- 
 ing, a severe frost destroyed all the garden seeds and 
 seriously injured the corn and potatoes ; the buffalo- 
 hunters, too, returned once more with empty carts ; and 
 though the Missionaries had a sufficient store from the 
 produce of the preceding year to prevent their antici- 
 pating for themselves and their families the same actual 
 want of food which they had experienced ten years before, 
 yet they felt for their suffering people, knowing that all 
 the self-denial they could exercise would avail but little 
 to relieve the wants of so many. 
 
 " Those," they say, " who have their wants supplied from a - 
 regular market, replenished with abundance of home and foreign 
 produce, cannot fully feel how severe this calamity is to us 
 Separated from civilized society by thousands of miles of track- 
 less wastes, surrounded by savage and improvident tribes, who 
 never think of supplying a want till it is felt, when the produce 
 of our own industry fails, where can we look for help ?" 
 
 But this was not the only privation to which our 
 Missionaries were subjected in this trying year. 
 
INDIAN SCHOOL AND MISSIONARY TRIALS. 
 
 The boats had, as usual, started early in June for 
 York Fort, to take up the furs collected during the 
 winter at the different posts, and to bring back the 
 accustomed supplies from England. The return of 
 these boats was always looked forward to with intense 
 interest. 
 
 "When we have passed," writes Mr. Cockran to the Secretary, 
 " a long winter in solitude, and mixed only with barbarians, or 
 with half-civilized men, who have no European feelings or habits, 
 seeing everything and every person about us so different from 
 all we have been accustomed to, we can scarcely persuade our- 
 selves that we are part of the human family. But when we 
 receive our supplies and letters from England, and realize from 
 the tenderness of their expressions that our friends there sym- 
 pathize with us, and pray for us, we are reminded of our union 
 with the Church of God. Our souls revive, our strength is 
 renewed^ we take our harps from the willows and tune them 
 again to notes of praise." 
 
 We can well picture to ourselves the anxious hopes 
 and fears that would occupy the minds of our friends as 
 the usual time of the return of the boats drew near ; 
 but now day after day passed, and still no boats ap- 
 peared week after week, and still no boats. At length 
 they arrived, but it was only to say that, after waiting 
 as long as it was safe to do so, on account of the rivers 
 being closed by ice, they had returned empty, for that 
 no ships had reached York Fort. It subsequently ap- 
 peared that the vessels, after having been entangled 
 by icebergs at the entrance of the bay, had neared the 
 shore much later than usual, but before they could be 
 unloaded had been driven off by contrary winds, and 
 after encountering tremendous storms, were obliged to 
 return with their cargoes to England. The mail-bags 
 had, however, with difficulty been put ashore; and, 
 
80 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 after a delay of some weeks, the Missionaries had the 
 unexpected joy of getting their letters, though they had 
 to wait another year for the supply of all their other 
 wants. They were in consequence reduced to great 
 straits ; hut, says Mr. Cockran, " We have our Bible 
 left!" 
 
 The health, too, of both Mr. Jones and Mr. Cockran 
 had suffered considerably from the climate and from 
 their indefatigable labours, aud during the earlier part 
 of this year they were several times laid low with attacks 
 of serious illness. 
 
 But neither the destructive frosts of the summer nor 
 the disappointed hopes of the autumn, nor even the par- 
 tial failure of health, could touch the little missionary 
 band so keenly as the almost sudden death of Mrs. Jones, 
 in October of the same eventful year. 
 
 Gentle and unassuming, full of peace and love to God 
 and man, she had won the hearts of all, while her quiet 
 energy enabled her to conduct the whole affairs of 
 the missionary establishment without throwing any part 
 of the burden on her husband. Never did the death 
 of any Missionary's wife leave a greater blank in 
 the sphere she occupied, nor was there ever a deeper 
 and more affectionate sorrow manifested than by the 
 numbers who attended her funeral. All felt they had 
 lost a mother, but Mr. Jones, now left with five small 
 children, was almost overwhelmed ; and though, in the 
 midst of his distress, he could say from his heart, 
 " Good is the Lord, and I can still trust Him," yet 
 he found the care of his children, of the schools, and 
 congregations, too much for his enfeebled health; and, in 
 August 1838, bade adieu to the scenes of his joys, and 
 sorrows, and labours, for the last fifteen years. 
 
V --^^^ ::.* :> , . 
 
 Interior of i,n Indian Tent on the Red River, hi 1S3:;. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 
 
 " Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of 
 the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the 
 early and latter rain." St. James, v. 7. 
 
 EAKLY in the spring of 1833 Mr. Cockran stood on a 
 point of land formed by a sharp bend of the river, thir- 
 teen miles below his own dwelling at the Rapids, and 
 as he surveyed the scene before him his mind was 
 occupied with thoughts of the misery of the Indians 
 and with plans for their relief. All was a dreary waste ; 
 the sweep of the river had formed a kind of bay, the 
 shore of which was lined with wood and tangled thicket 
 that had never yet been disturbed by the hand of man, 
 while one solitary wigwam on the margin of the frozen 
 stream, with its wretched -looking owner breaking 
 through the ice and fishing for his scanty meal, rather 
 added to than relieved the desolation that reigned around. 
 
 In October 1835 he again stood on the same spot, 
 and thus records the change which, by God's blessing, 
 two years and a half of unwearying toil had wrought : 
 
 " Now, from the opposite side of the river, I see the village 
 standing along the crescent bay; twenty-three little white-washed 
 cottages are shining through the trees, each with its column of 
 smoke curling to the skies, and each with its stacks of wheat and 
 barley. Around them lie various patches of cultivated ground ; 
 here and there pigs are seen busily seeking for their food, cows 
 are lowing for their calves, while in the centre stands the school- 
 
84 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 house, where sixty merry children, 'just let loose from school,' are 
 leaping, running, or wrestling ; and all is life and cheerfulness. 
 It is," continues he, " but a speck in the wilderness, and a stranger 
 might despise it ; but we who know the difficulties that have at- 
 tended the work, can truly say that God hath done great things, 
 were it only that those sheaves of corn have been raised by 
 hands that hitherto had only been exercised in deeds of blood 
 and cruelty to man and beast." 
 
 It will be the object of the few following pages to 
 relate the steps which led to this result, and to trace 
 (though faintly) the history of one of the most encouraging 
 instances on record of the blessing bestowed upon strong 
 faith, prayerful hope, and persevering love. 
 
 The intercourse that Mr. Jones and Mr. Cockran had 
 with those Indians who had from time to time joined 
 their respective congregations, convinced them that the 
 only effectual mode of permanently benefiting this 
 people was by forming an exclusively Indian settlement, 
 where the peculiarities of their minds and habits could 
 more freely develope themselves, and be more effectually 
 directed, than when dwelling among a mixed population. 
 
 They foresaw many and great difficulties in this plan, 
 but they resolved to attempt it ; and having obtained 
 permission from England, Mr. 'Cockran undertook to 
 begin the work. 
 
 The chief difficulties arose from the character and 
 habits of the Indians themselves. Sunk as they were 
 in the scale of society, their pride and self-sufficiency 
 almost exceeded belief. The arts of civilisation, espe- 
 cially of husbandly, were looked upon by them as 
 derogatory to the free unfettered Red man, and only fit 
 for degraded Europeans ; and they turned with disdain 
 and strong aversion, not only from the religion of the 
 white man, but from all his modes of life. 
 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 85 
 
 Even in those cases where this prejudice had in some 
 measure given way, there were other difficulties to 
 contend with, in their ignorance of every art, in their 
 utter helplessness and indifference. 
 
 "When," says Mr. Cockran, "the Indian steps on shore from 
 his birch-rind canoe, his blanket thrown over his naked shoul- 
 ders, in one hand his gun, with which to procure his next meal, 
 and on his other arm a small hatchet with which to cut the poles 
 for his tent, followed by his family as peeled as himself a few 
 pieces of birch-rind for their tent, and a kettle to cook their food, 
 constituting the whole of their property; if such a man even 
 wishes to change his habits, how is he to do it ? He has neither 
 knowledge nor implements of husbandry, nor power of obtaining 
 either. All must be gratuitously bestowed upon them, if we 
 would locate them; and we must locate them before we can 
 preach the Gospel to them.* 
 
 A still more serious obstacle to the improvement of 
 the Indians arose from their almost universal habits 
 of intoxication. " Fire-water " had been but too freely 
 supplied to them in exchange for their furs, and though 
 about this time the authorities forbade the sale of it at 
 Bed Biver, the system was openly carried on at other 
 places, and clandestinely even there. 
 
 But Mr. Cockran 's mind and energies were only 
 quickened by difficulties, and early in 1830 he began to 
 take measures for the accomplishment of his long-che- 
 rished scheme. 
 
 Between the Bapids and the Lake lay a considerable 
 tract of country, called the Indian Beserves, be- 
 longing to a portion of the Saulteaux tribe ; and it was 
 
 * It must not be supposed that Mr. Cockran held the erro- 
 neous opinion that civilisation, in itself, in any degree facilitated 
 the reception of the Gospel, but the case of the Eed Indian was 
 a peculiar one and required a peculiar course of proceeding. 
 
86 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 on some spot within those limits that Mr. Cockran 
 desired to form the settlement. 
 
 The consent of Pigwys, the chief, must first, however, 
 be obtained ; and this was no easy matter, for, naturally 
 enough, the Indians are very jealous of any encroach- 
 ment on their lands, or on their liberty : they could 
 neither understand nor believe the possibility of dis- 
 interested kindness ; and they had no feeling of sin, or 
 fear of eternal misery, that would make them desire the 
 Gospel for its own sake. 
 
 " In vain," writes Mr. Cockran, " do we stand and cry, ' Come, 
 ye thirsty, and drink ! ' for the heathen thirst not ; in vain do we 
 invite them to buy pardoning mercy and renewing grace without 
 money and without price, for they feel not the want of either. 
 I do not, therefore, intend to go to Pigwys and his tribe with the 
 proposal of instructing them this would be useless. They think 
 themselves much wiser than we are, and when they intend to 
 compliment us, they will tell us we are almost as wise and as 
 good as an Indian. So I lay wisdom and goodness aside, 
 for I have found from six years' experience that making 
 pretensions to these will not obtain the desired end. The 
 Indian thinks himself cheated always and by every one, and 
 to offer religion to him for its own sake and his soul's sake 
 only raises new suspicions. My only hope of success is to induce 
 them to settle for their own temporal benefit, and at the same 
 time to preach to them the glad tidings of a Saviour's love." 
 
 Mr. Cockran had several conversations with the chief, 
 but without success. It was in vain that he represented 
 to him the advantages of settling, the greater certainty 
 of food, and a warm habitation for the winter ; that he 
 promised to come himself and help him, to supply him 
 with implements, and to build a house for him. The 
 old man still objected, giving as his chief reason that if 
 they forsook the customs of their ancestors, and laid 
 aside their "medicine," their drums, and their conjur- 
 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 87 
 
 ations, the Master of Life would be angry with them, 
 and would not prosper them in their hunting and fishing 
 expeditions. 
 
 It was strange that the unsoundness of this reason 
 did not strike him, as it was several times brought for- 
 ward on some of his frequent visits to Mr. Cockran's 
 house to beg from him some food for his family, especi- 
 ally for meal to thicken their musk-rat soup ! 
 
 Sometimes these conversations took place at the 
 chief's own abode, and Mr. Cockrau thus describes one 
 of his visits there : 
 
 " The lower part of his miserable tent was formed of birch- 
 rind, and the upper part of long grass. Five young children 
 dirty, and almost naked sat round a small fire in the middle, 
 the smoke of which filled the tent. His eldest daughter was 
 boiling a kettle of soup made of haws and water, having failed 
 in procuring anything more substantial." 
 
 It was rather a favourable opportunity to press the 
 subject of cultivation, for Pigwys complained of having 
 been very unsuccessful during the autumn, and of being 
 three hundred rats in debt, and seemed half inclined to 
 try some new experiment. 
 
 But he could not quite conquer his prejudices, and, 
 speaking of the altered condition of the Indians since 
 the white man had appeared among them, exclaimed, 
 
 '* Before you whites came to trouble the ground, our rivers 
 were full of fish and our woods of deer ; our creeks abounded in 
 beavers, and our plains were covered with buffaloes. But now 
 we are brought to poverty. Our beavers are gone for ever, our 
 buffaloes are fled to the lands of our enemies, the number of our 
 fish is diminished, our cats and our rats are few in number, the 
 geese are afraid to pass over the smoke of your chimneys, and 
 we are left to starve. While you whites are growing rich upon 
 the very dust of our fathers, troubling the plains with the plough, 
 
88 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 covering them with cows in the summer, and in winter feeding 
 your cattle with hay from the very swamps whence our beavers 
 have been driven ! " 
 
 The following winter proved a very severe one ; and 
 in the spring of 1831 Mr. Cockran renewed his pro- 
 posals, strengthening his arguments by a reference to 
 his own circumstances, 
 
 " Six times," said he, " has that river been frozen since I came 
 to your country, and as many times has it been open again. 
 Six tunes have the flocks of wild-fowl passed and repassed ; I 
 diminished not their number, nor retarded their flight. Yet you 
 see I have enough. Every time you have passed my house I 
 have fed you when hungry, and often sent you away laden with 
 provisions. Still I am not in want. I have a house, a field, a 
 garden, cows, and pigs. I have enough to feed my family, my 
 servants, and the Indian children, and to give to the passing 
 stranger. 
 
 " Now, if you will let me come and farm at your encampment, 
 it shall be entirely for the benefit of yourself and your tribe. I 
 will teach you ; I will supply you with hoes and with seed ; I 
 will send a man with oxen to plough the land ; I will help you 
 to build comfortable houses, and to preserve the corn and pota- 
 toes for winter use." 
 
 The sufferings of the winter had inclined the chief 
 to listen more favourably to this proposal ; he even 
 himself cordially acquiesced in it, and promised to 
 consult his tribe on the subject. Mr. Cockran was 
 quite encouraged. " If I can once," said he, "get a 
 footing among them, and make them see that I have a 
 desire for their welfare, their prejudices against myself 
 as a white man, and against the message I bear, will 
 soon vanish." Pigwys, however, found that the prin- 
 cipal men of his tribe objected to the plan; he himself 
 hesitated ; and again the summer passed without any- 
 thing being done. 
 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 89 
 
 The next winter was still more severe than the 
 preceding one, and the half-starved Indians seemed so 
 much more inclined to listen to his proposals, that our 
 Missionary determined without loss of time to seek for 
 an eligible spot. 
 
 About fifteen miles below the Kapids, on the oppo- 
 site side of the river, there was a part of the Indian 
 Eeserves called Netley Creek, much resorted to by the 
 Saulteaux of the neighbourhood. Here, in spring and 
 autumn, there was usually a large gathering of the 
 tribe to consult the chief conjurer on their good or 
 ill -fortune ; here many of them would encamp for a 
 few weeks at a time during their short summer, and it 
 was here that Pigwys' tent was generally to be found. 
 
 Mr. Cockran thought that this might be a promising 
 spot on which to begin his operations, and in April 
 1832 he set out to examine it. After a wearisome 
 journey partly on horseback through a succession of 
 swamps, and partly in a small canoe, making his way 
 between large blocks of ice piled one upon another 
 he reached the place ; and though he found it far less 
 suitable than he expected, he determined to begin at 
 once, and sent down two men and a yoke of oxen to 
 break up the ground. 
 
 But by this time the rivers were open, the fish was 
 plentiful, the Indians had forgotten the miseries of the 
 past winter, and they raised fresh difficulties. They 
 now determined to allow no further steps to be taken 
 till they had consulted their chief " medicine man," or 
 conjurer, who was preparing for the annual feast and 
 incantations : this took place at the end of May, and 
 Mr. Cockran was invited to attend. He found a large 
 
90 THE KAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 tent bad been pitcbed, and was directed to the east end, 
 where the chief was sitting, fanning himself with the 
 skin of a musk-rat. Pieces of riband and cloth were 
 hanging all round the tent, the offerings of these 
 poor people to the conjurer, who were "thus giving 
 what they could ill spare in order to be told a lie ; 
 while to the truth, which they might have had without 
 money and without price, they would not listen." There 
 were as many as one hundred and fifty, men, women, and 
 children, crowded together in the tent, the top of which 
 was open, and admitted the rays of a cloudless sun ; and 
 here the whole party were engaged in dancing, shouting, 
 singing, and drumming, shaking their rattles, and 
 running round and round the tent. The weather was 
 extremely warm, the skins of these naked barbarians 
 had been well rubbed with sturgeon-oil, and we shall 
 not wonder that our Missionary soon found himself 
 obliged to escape into the open air, without waiting for 
 the conclusion of the proceedings. Knowing that this 
 conjurer was a clever but ill-disposed man, and that 
 any improvement among the Indians would endanger 
 his craft, Mr. Cockran greatly feared that the oracle 
 would be un propitious ; but God in some way over- 
 ruled the expected opposition, and he was allowed to 
 proceed. 
 
 To those who have the opportunity and leisure to 
 read them, the details of this first establishment of the 
 Indian settlement afford a very instructive lesson. 
 Nothing could be more discouraging, whether we look 
 at the indifference and opposition of the Indians, the 
 nature of the only available land, or the amount of the 
 resources required compared with the very small means 
 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 91 
 
 that were within his reach. But Mr. Cockran con- 
 ferred not with flesh and blood, not even with his own 
 occasional misgivings : moved with compassion for the 
 people, and longing to extend his Master's kingdom, 
 he grasped the promises of God with an unyielding, 
 though sometimes a trembling faith, and all the warmth 
 of his heart and the activity of his mind were directed 
 to this object. His " work of faith and labour of love " 
 were unfailing ; but it is his " patience of hope " to 
 which we would especially direct the attention of our 
 younger readers. 
 
 Knowing the incalculable importance of the work, 
 and believing that, with God's help, it might be accom- 
 plished, he did not suffer his thoughts to be occupied in 
 considering whether it should be attempted, but con- 
 centrated his whole mind and energies on the best mode 
 of carrying it out ; and we only wish we could place be- 
 fore them more in detail the unconquered perseverance 
 with which he met and overcame his daily difficulties 
 and disappointments. 
 
 Determined to make at once a decided effort, he 
 left his home and congregation, and taking with him 
 two of his own servants and a yoke of oxen, set off for 
 Netley Creek. Here he pitched his leathern tent, and 
 though the men and oxen, as well as himself, suffered 
 much at times from want of proper shelter, he continued 
 here, week after week, returning to the Rapids on the 
 Saturday and back again to his work on the Monday. 
 
 At this time there were about two hundred Indians 
 in the encampment, but he could only prevail upon 
 seven of them to attempt cultivation, and even these 
 could not be depended on. If the weather were bad, 
 
92 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 they would not stir from their tents ; and if fine, they 
 were as likely to set off on a fishing expedition as to 
 assist in clearing the ground for their own crops. 
 
 One incident is too characteristic to be omitted. Some 
 of the ground was prepared, and Mr. Cockran wished 
 to send to the Kapids for the seed. He applied to 
 the chief for two of the young men to take a canoe 
 and fetch it, while he would ride home and prepare it 
 for them ; hut though it was solely for their own use, 
 not one would move, till at last one of the sons 
 of the chief offered to ride Mr. Cockrau's horse if he 
 would take charge of the canoe ! Unmoved by the 
 rudeness and selfishness of this proposal, Mr. Cockran 
 acceded to it, and in a moment the lad was mounted, 
 his blanket thrown over his right shoulder, his hair, 
 adorned with narrow ribands, streaming behind his 
 back, while his heel was diligently employed in urging 
 the horse to its utmost speed. Off he flew as proud as 
 possible, and was out of sight in an instant among the 
 tall poplars, leaving Mr. Cockran and his servant to 
 paddle the canoe fifteen miles against the current to 
 fetch seed for his own people ! 
 
 Thus it went on, day after day, till there was as 
 much seed sown as there was ground cleared to receive 
 it, Mr. Cockran taking every opportunity of bringing 
 forward some portion of Divine Truth, here a little and 
 there a little, as his hearers could bear it. 
 
 Much as Mr. Cockran suffered from fatigue and 
 anxiety, and occasionally from cold, and want of proper 
 food, this residence at Netley Creek was not without its 
 use. It not only brought him to a more intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the minds and habits of the Indians, 
 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 93 
 
 but it enabled him to form a more just and encouraging 
 estimate of the work that was going on in his own con- 
 gregation. 
 
 " While at home," he says, " and seeing the inconsistencies 
 and shortcomings of some of my flock, I am apt to imagine 
 things are going on badly with us, and I ask, ' Is the Lord 
 among us, or not ?' But when I go to Netley Creek, and see the 
 inhabitant of the forest with his miserable blanket wrapped 
 round him ; or when I witness the emblems of terror painted on 
 many a face, and hear the woods resound with the terrific notes 
 of the war-song, then I can see that the Lord has done great 
 things for us, whereof we may well rejoice. Such were some of 
 my own people, and such, but for Divine grace, might we all 
 have been." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Night and day do the woods at Netley Creek resound 
 with the deadening and depressing sounds of the conjurer's 
 drum and rattle. Every time he strikes his drum, regularly 
 and steadily as the ticking of a clock, and shouts out his 
 dismal Ho, ho, ho ! ' I feel my spirits sink, and an Indian 
 apathy seems to come over my whole frame. But when, on 
 Saturday afternoon, I return to my dear family and comfortable 
 home, all my better feelings are brought back again. One day 
 in the house of God is better than a thousand ; and my Sunday 
 services with my devout and increasing congregation (now about 
 250), make me forget the toils, the griefs, the gloomy thoughts 
 of the past week, and prepare me for the troubles of the next." 
 
 Three rude dwellings were soon constructed, one for the 
 chief, another for an Indian of the name of ** Red Deer," 
 who showed a desire to settle, and the third for a servant 
 of Mr. Cockran's ; but one shudders to read that the 
 man who assisted in the building these cottages was 
 called " Cannibal," from his having devoured nine of his 
 own relations in a time of scarcity. 
 
94 THE RAINBOW IN THE NOKTH. 
 
 The first few months were months of great anxiety to 
 Mr. Cockran. The summer proved wet and stormy, and 
 in August a sharp frost injured the potatoes ; the Indians 
 were discouraged, and even Pigwys himself returned to 
 his old idea that the " Master of Life" was angry with 
 these " troublers of the soil ;" while the " medicine men" 
 left no means untried to dissuade the cultivators from 
 reaping the very crops they had with so much difficulty 
 been persuaded to sow. 
 
 It was a time of anxious suspense, and Mr. Cockran r s 
 joy was great when, on September 3d, 1832, he found 
 the Indians beginning to reap their barley, and though 
 they would only work for an hour at a time, and then 
 would light their pipes and sit down to rest, yet in 
 the course of a few days their little harvest was safely 
 housed. Four out of the seven consumed the produce 
 immediately in Indian feasts ; and only three, one of 
 whom was Pigwys, reserved the produce for winter store. 
 But small as the quantity was, the advantage and com- 
 fort they found from it encouraged themselves and others 
 to future efforts, so that, in the following spring, the 
 number of cultivators was increased to fourteen. 
 
 Circumstances, however, induced Mr. Cockran to 
 think it advisable to form another settlement ; and with 
 the cordial consent of the chief he fixed on Sugar Point 
 (so called from the sugar-maple trees with which it 
 abounded), two miles nearer to the Eapids, as a more 
 suitable spot for a permanent establishment. One 
 motive that influenced him was the hatred and jealousy 
 that existed between the Saulteaux and the Crees, the 
 former being the more wild and ferocious, and the latter 
 having the reputation of greater skill in sorcery. 
 
THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 95 
 
 A touching incident occurred to Mr. Cockran in 
 illustration of this. He mentions a visit he paid to 
 the chief, whom he found in his tent with the conjurer, 
 and another man, a Saulteaux, whose face was black- 
 ened with charcoal in token of grief. It seems he had 
 lately lost two relations by sudden death, occasioned, as 
 he was persuaded, by the incantations of the Crees, and 
 his melancholy countenance told plainly his apprehen- 
 sions of soon sharing the same fate himself. He was 
 now taking counsel with the conjurer and with the 
 chief how best to avert the danger, and the conference 
 would probably have ended in the murder of some of 
 the Crees. Our Missionary entered into conversation 
 with him, showing him the improbability of the suppo- 
 sition, and the folly of thus attempting to avoid the 
 danger, even if it were real. 
 
 Sometimes, as he listened to these arguments, a gleam 
 of hope would brighten the countenance of the poor man, 
 and his eyes would sparkle at the idea that perhaps his 
 fears might be ungrounded, and his life be yet prolonged. 
 But soon the awful thought would return that, possibly 
 even now, some conjurer among the Crees was using 
 against him the fatal spell, and again his countenance 
 resumed its look of terror and despair. " How beautiful,'* 
 exclaims Mr. Cockran, after narrating the circumstance, 
 " does the Gospel appear when contrasted with such 
 gloomy superstition ! Well may the Christian rejoice 
 in his own clear light and peaceful prospects, and well 
 may he mourn over, and strive to remove, the awful dark- 
 ness of his fellow men !" 
 
 Mr. Cockran accordingly began the new s^tlemenr 
 at Sugar Point in the spring of 1833 ; it was one extre- 
 mity of the " crescent bay," of which we spoke before, 
 
96 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 and our readers will perhaps already have concluded that 
 this was the commencement of the Indian Village. 
 
 Henceforward it became the point to which the Mis- 
 sionary's attention was chiefly directed, and in the next 
 chapter we will relate something of the progress of his 
 work there. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGE CONTINUED PIGWYS. 
 
 " In due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal. vi. 9. 
 
 THE cultivation of the new settlement was, as we have 
 said, begun in the spring of 1833, and though the pro- 
 gress was slow, it was steady. A house was built for the 
 Chief, who willingly took up his abode here, and one 
 Indian after another (chiefly from the Crees) joined him, 
 and set to work in good earnest to clear the ground, to 
 sow their seed, and to build for themselves small and 
 rough, but substantial dwellings. The walls of these cot- 
 tages were made of logs of oak or maple, plastered with 
 mud, and neatly whitewashed ; the roofs were thatched 
 with reeds, and covered with earth ; and for their windows 
 they used the skins of fish. 
 
 One of Mr. Cockran's first cares was to build a school- 
 room, and, after much persuasion, he prevailed on the 
 parents to send their children for instruction ; but he 
 found the management of these untamed beings no easy 
 task. The Indians never control their children, nor will 
 they suffer them to be controlled by others ; and as 
 knowledge was as yet of no value in their eyes, the only 
 method of obtaining even an occasional attendance was 
 by giving them one meal in the day, and providing 
 them with warm clothing in the winter. The interior of 
 the schoolroom presented for some time a strange scene 
 of confusion and disorder. 
 
100 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH, 
 
 " If," says Mr. Cockran, " we had the same number of the 
 wildest birds in the forest let loose in a room, we should not find 
 it more difficult to move among them. They run in and out, 
 learn or play, according to their pleasure, quarrel with each other, 
 and always seek to settle their quarrels by the knife or the bow 
 and arrow. To assume anything like authority would be to drive 
 them away." 
 
 Mr. Cockran, however, was happy in finding a master, 
 Mr. Cook, who partook of his own devotedness and per- 
 severance ; and by gentle persuasion and almost imper- 
 ceptible restraint, succeeded by degrees in bringing the 
 school into something like order. The children began 
 to take pleasure in learning, the knife and the bows and 
 arrows were reserved for more fitting use, and in about 
 two years the school assumed the appearance which we 
 have described in the preceding chapter. Not that it was 
 possible ever to bring it to the regularity of an English 
 school. The susceptibility of the boys to the complaint 
 called " thinking long," made it necessary for Mr. Cook 
 to allow them to go out to hunt or fish whenever they 
 liked ; and yet even with this precaution several of them 
 died. 
 
 The first year that cultivation was attempted here the 
 crops were tolerably good, and Mr. Cockran urged them 
 to reserve a sufficient quantity for seed for the ensuing 
 spring ; but in vain : they could not overcome their own 
 habits of improvidence, nor resist the importunities of 
 their wandering relations. 
 
 " My relations from the woods," replied Red Deer to Mr. 
 Cockran, " come to me and say, * My brother, you are rich, you 
 have a house, you are warm, you eat, but we are cold and hungry ;' 
 so I let them come and warm themselves at my fire, and sleep in 
 my room. I cook for them, they eat ; and when they go away, 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE PIGWYS. 101 
 
 they say ' Give us a little to take away.' I give, I give, but they 
 are scarcely gone when others come. I cook, I give, I give, they 
 soon will have the whole." 
 
 It was easier to Ked Deer to give till all was gone, 
 &nd then to depend on Mr. Cockran for support, than to 
 refuse these idle wanderers, or to help them only on the 
 condition that in the spring they would help themselves. 
 
 The consequence was that they were left without 
 seed-corn or potatoes ; and as the store of the Mission- 
 aries was too low to afford them any effectual assistance, 
 their fields in 1834 would have remained unsown, and 
 all the improvement that had taken place would have 
 been lost, had not the people at the Rapids nobly come 
 forward to their assistance ; and though themselves strait- 
 ened by having to repair the injury done to their own 
 church by lightning, generously sent them a large supply 
 of wheat, barley, and potatoes, for seed. 
 
 Gradually, however, the Indians improved in these 
 respects ; and we have seen the testimony which Mr. 
 Cockran himself bore of the state of the village two 
 years and a half after its commencement. P. 83. 
 
 The erection of a mill had greatly aided in this im- 
 provement ; hitherto the people had been accustomed to 
 dry the corn in a pan and bruise it between two stones ; 
 but this mill not only enabled them to get proper meal, 
 and make it into wholesome bread, but it seemed to de- 
 velope a new character in them. Nothing that had yet 
 been done had served to rouse them so effectually from 
 their natural apathy as this did. On the day on which it 
 was first used, Mr. Cockran rode down to see it, and 
 found the whole village in a state of bustle and excite- 
 ment. Some were threshing their corn, some carrying 
 it to the mill on their shoulders, or dragging it on a 
 
102 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 sledge, while an eager group were at the mill itself, 
 waiting till their turn should come, or handling the meal 
 as it fell into the box, scarcely able to persuade them- 
 selves that this was indeed the produce of their own in- 
 dustry. 
 
 The improvement in their moral and religious state 
 kept pace with that of their social habits. From 
 the first, their minister had, while assisting tnem 
 in their work, taken every opportunity of scattering 
 the seeds of Divine truth, though for some time 
 there was no appearance of its taking root. In Decem- 
 ber 1833, he commenced a weekly evening meeting, but 
 for some time with little to cheer him. The attendance 
 was very small ; some were afraid of hearing their sins 
 condemned ; others were conjurers, who imagined that if 
 they listened to the Word of God their magical power 
 would depart from them ; and Mr. Cockran's homeward 
 ride of thirteen miles, often through storm and snow, 
 was saddened with the feeling that he was spending his 
 strength for nought. 
 
 But before very long a little gleam of light appeared ; 
 the few who did attend continued very steadily, and 
 seemed impressed. Early in the spring a woman ap- 
 plied for baptism, others followed her example, and 
 after a few months of diligent instruction the founda- 
 tion of a Christian Church was laid here by the baptism 
 of ten adults and as many children. 
 
 It was soon after this that Mr. Cockran was sum- 
 moned to a distressing scene. One of the Indians, who 
 had a cottage and field, and who had for many months 
 regularly attended the means of grace, and conducted 
 himself with the greatest propriety, had, for some time 
 past, wished to be baptized ; but his wife and mother so 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE PIGWYS. 103 
 
 violently opposed this that he deferred speaking to Mr 
 Cockran on the subject, hoping that their prejudice 
 would subside. After a while he was taken ill ; and the 
 wife and mother, notwithstanding his entreaties to the 
 contrary, sent for the conjurer, who invoked the spirits 
 of the wind, the forest, the sea, and the dead, to restore 
 him to health. 
 
 We may suppose the distress this caused to the poor 
 man, but it led him to a determination no longer to 
 delay sending for his minister, whom he entreated to 
 baptize him. Mr. Cockran, anxious to know the state 
 of his mind, attempted to enter into conversation with 
 him, but the two women, unmindful of the sick man's 
 suffering, assailed them both with such a torrent of 
 abuse, that conversation was impossible. With great 
 difficulty Mr. Cockran prevailed on them to leave the 
 house ; and then, when all was quiet, and he had ascer- 
 tained his fitness for the rite, he baptized him and two 
 of his children, who attended the school. Two days 
 afterwards he died in peace, the first-fruits of the Indian 
 Village. 
 
 A few months later, Mr. Cockran had the privilege 
 of baptizing several other persons, some of whose cases 
 were very interesting, and none, perhaps, more so than 
 that of the widow of the man above-mentioned, who, 
 having been softened and awakened to a concern for her 
 soul by the conduct and death of her husband, began to 
 attend the weekly meetings, received regular instruc- 
 tion, and at last joined herself to the people of the Lord. 
 
 In January 1835, Mr. Cockran began an afternoon's 
 service on the Lord's day; more he could not attempt, 
 for his own congregation occupied him in the morning 
 and the evening ; and he could expect no help from Mr. 
 
104 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 Jones, on whom lay the charge of the Upper and Middle 
 churches. Early in the following year, the number of 
 regular attendants had increased to 100; and the almost 
 unhoped-for prospect of an Indian Church began to open 
 upon him. His congregation at the Rapids took great 
 interest in the plan, and with their accustomed liberality 
 and kindness gave him all the help in their power, 
 some of them walking twenty-six miles to give him an 
 occasional day's work gratuitously. 
 
 The Indians themselves were very much pleased with 
 the idea, but whether from any remains of a supersti- 
 tious feeling, or only from their natural apathy, could 
 not be induced to set about digging the foundations, till, 
 in June 1836, Mr, Cockran began the work with his 
 own hands. They then readily joined him, and the 
 work was carried on with such spirit, that before the end 
 of the year the church was completed, and this fresh 
 testimony for God on the banks of Red River was added 
 to the pretty picture already described.* 
 
 This steady industry was the more encouraging, as 
 the want of the supplies from England (p. 79) prevented 
 Mr. Cockran from being able fully to remunerate them 
 for their work, or to give the usual supply of clothing 
 to their children. Their own crops, too, had failed, and 
 they were often entirely dependent for their support on 
 
 * Mr. Jones, alluding to a service he held here in the follow- 
 ing summer, speaks of the scene as most picturesque : 
 
 " The clump of trees in which the church stands was in full 
 foliage, the doors and windows were open on account of the heat, 
 and the eye caught glimpses of the river gliding past in glassy 
 smoothness between the trunks of ancient and decaying trees. 
 The people before me were all Indians, the feeble remains of a 
 nation passing into oblivion.*' 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE P1GWYS. 105 
 
 a hook or a net let down through ice three feet in thick- 
 ness. And yet these people would go entirely without 
 food, rather than either hunt or fish on the Lord's day. 
 
 At length the time arrived when the Church was to 
 be opened, and January 4, 1837, was fixed on for the 
 purpose. 
 
 It was not only the eye of the Indian that glistened 
 with thankful joy on that occasion. The weather was 
 stormy and bitterly cold, the snow fell so fast that the 
 track was invisible, yet so great an interest had been 
 felt in the erection of this Church, that all the officers 
 of the Company within reach, and a large number of 
 settlers from the neighbourhood, made their way through 
 storm and snow to be present at the opening of it. 
 
 The little Church was full, and few among the assem- 
 bled throng could remain unmoved at the sight of above 
 two hundred of these once half-naked savages, now 
 "clothed and in their right mind," joining with serious- 
 ness in the responses, listening attentively to the ser- 
 mon, or, with sweet and well- tuned voices, singing the 
 praises of Him who had done such great things for them. 
 Mr. Cockran's own heart overflowed with gratitude, and 
 even Mr. Jones's sorrow-stricken spirit was filled with 
 
 joy- 
 There was one present on that joyful day whose eye 
 shone as brightly, and whose heart glowed as fervently 
 as any there, and to whom Mr. Cockran looked for future 
 usefulness, but who was soon, in the inscrutable Provi 
 dence of God, called up from the congregation on earth 
 to join the company of the redeemed above. This was 
 one of the sons of the Chief, who had been brought up 
 in the school, and whose heart had been opened to 
 receive the truth as it is in Jesus. He had at his bap- 
 
106 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 tism received the name of George Prince; and rinding 
 he was a dlever lad, Mr. Cockran took him to reside with 
 him, that he might be further instructed in the Holy 
 Scriptures, and might acquire a better knowledge of 
 English. 
 
 Nothing could be more satisfactory than his conduct. 
 His anxious desire to impart to his countrymen a know- 
 ledge of the Saviour whom he had himself found and 
 loved, stimulated him to a steady application to his 
 studies, while, in the intervals of relaxation, he showed 
 none of the usual indolence and selfishness of the Indian 
 character. He would never see Mr. Cockran at work 
 without coming to assist him ; and though often scoffed 
 at by some passing Indians, who would call him " slave," 
 and hold him up to ridicule, this never moved him from 
 his purpose nor roused his spirit. 
 
 Thus he went on, " a faithful friend and willing 
 helper" to his benefactor, till the autumn of 1837, 
 when he seemed unwell; and Mr. Cockran, knowing the 
 prejudices still remaining in the Indian mind against 
 European nursing, sent him home : here he grew worse, 
 medical advice was of no avail; he lingered for three 
 weeks, and then fell asleep in Jesus. During this 
 period he gave abundant proof of the reality of the 
 work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. His faith and 
 hope rested unhesitatingly on Christ, whom he boldly 
 confessed before his people, begging his father and his 
 friends not to weep for him, as he was going to live 
 with God, where he should be for ever happy, and 
 urging on them to learn the way of salvation, so that 
 when they died he should meet them again. His 
 earthly remains now rest in the little churchyard of the 
 Indian Village. 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE PIGWYS. 107 
 
 During the last two years the settlement had heen 
 gradually increased by the arrival of families from a 
 distance, and now extended at intervals nearly three 
 miles along the river. Some of the inhabitants still 
 remained heathen, but at the time of the opening of the 
 Church there were, we are told, forty-seven Christian 
 families, consisting of two hundred and sixty individuals, 
 residing there, and listening to the sound of the Gospel. 
 Great had been the change effected by that sound. 
 Formerly they had been addicted to every crime, but all 
 had been renounced. Drunkenness and licentiousness, 
 heretofore so general, were now not to be found ; and 
 though they still had many peculiarities and infirmities, 
 and many old habits were still cleaving to them, yet 
 their hearts' desire was to serve God wholly, and to love 
 their neighbours as themselves. The congregation 
 averaged above two hundred, and nowhere could a more 
 devout and attentive one be met with. Their heathen 
 neighbours had become more orderly, for in 1835, when 
 Divine worship was first established, the services were 
 often interrupted by the din of the conjurer's drum, 
 but now all was quiet, and the Sabbath was as well 
 observed there as in any English village. " Little, 
 indeed, still," says Mr. Cockran, " when compared with 
 other Missions, or with the wide extent of heathenism 
 around, yet great when compared with former days, or 
 when viewed in the light of eternity." 
 
 The number of Christians continued to increase ; and 
 one interesting case, among others, was that of a noted 
 conjurer, who had taken up his residence here some 
 time before, but continued violently opposed to Chris- 
 tianity. When his children came to school, it was with 
 the imprecations of his gods upon their heads ; and 
 
108 THE RAINBOW IN THE .NORTH. 
 
 when his daughter, who was soon ahle to read, tried to 
 persuade him to listen to some of God's Word, he would 
 sneer at her, and tell her she was going to ruin. After 
 this he gave her in marriage to a heathen man, who had 
 come from some distant place ; and when the poor girl 
 entreated that she should not be obliged to accompany 
 him, her father forced her into the canoe with his own 
 paddle. Unable to endure the miseries of her new 
 life, she made her escape at the beginning of the winter, 
 and returned to the village. Soon after, she and two 
 of her brothers were taken ill, and were veiy anxious to 
 be baptized, when the strong feeling of parental affec- 
 tion overcame every other, and the father himself took 
 the message to Mr. Cockran. Mr. Cockran gladly con- 
 sented, but only on condition that he would himself 
 bring them to the Church, and publicly declare that he 
 would allow them the free exercise of their religion. 
 It was a great struggle for the poor man, for he feared 
 that if he entered a Christian place of worship his 
 occult art would depart from him ; but at last he ven- 
 tured to the door, and gradually moved into the Church 
 itself to witness the baptism of his children. It seems 
 to have made an impression upon him, for he soon after 
 put himself under Christian instruction, and was bap- 
 tized in the summer of 1837. After his conversion he 
 assured Mr. Cockran that his former conjuring was not 
 imposture, and that he was convinced he had the power 
 of invoking spirits, who would answer his questions, 
 and sing and dance at his command. He told him that 
 he had obtained the power by fasting for eight days for 
 this express purpose 
 
 But a still more interesting case was that of the Chief 
 himself, Pigwys, in whom we doubt not that our readers 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE PIGWTS. 109 
 
 have already felt some concern. They will remember 
 the doubts and difficulties with which he gave his con- 
 sent to Mr. Cockran to endeavour to form an Indian 
 settlement ; but from the time that consent was given 
 he never wavered, continuing firm and faithful, notwith- 
 standing the violent opposition of his tribe, who were 
 made still more angry by seeing the Crees profiting by 
 the advantages which they themselves continued to 
 refuse. 
 
 They went so far as to set up his eldest son as a rival 
 to him, intending to deprive him of his chieftainship, 
 but the scheme failed, and the young man left the 
 neighbourhood and joined a distant portion of the 
 tribe. 
 
 Throughout all this affair, Pigwys behaved with the 
 greatest moderation ; indeed, the whole of his character 
 was undergoing a complete change, his old habits of sin 
 were broken through, and he appeared not far from the 
 kingdom of God. He had for a long time regularly 
 attended all the means of grace, had sent his children 
 to the school, and, as we have seen, had allowed one of 
 them to be baptized. 
 
 The illness and death of this young man were se- 
 vere trials to his father's faith : his heathen friends 
 gathered round him, attributing his illness to his having 
 forsaken the religion of his forefathers, and eagerly 
 pressing to have the usual conjurations performed for 
 him. But the good old man steadfastly refused. 
 "Brethren," he said, "you are too late; I have given up 
 my heart to this new religion, and I intend to prove 
 that I can leave my son in the hands of God." 
 
 All this time Pigwys remained unbaptized ; he had 
 often applied for baptism ; he had given up his old sins ; 
 
110 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 and drunkenness, which had been his besetting one, 
 was no longer a habit ; but Mr. Cockran knew that he 
 could not always resist the invitation, when visiting at 
 the Upper Settlement, to take a little, which often grew 
 to more, and he still occasionally returned home in a 
 state very unfit for a Christian. 
 
 But by the grace of God this last chain of sin was 
 at last effectually broken through ; and in February 
 1838, his minister had the joy of receiving this faithful, 
 upright friend, into the fold of Christ's Church. 
 
 The distance of the Indian Village from the Rapids 
 was a great disadvantage to the people, for though, not- 
 witlistanding the failure both in his health and spirits, 
 Mr. Cockran never suffered either cold, or heat, or rain, 
 or melting snow to interfere with his Sunday service 
 there, yet it was but seldom that he could visit it during 
 the week, and both himself and the people deeply felt 
 the importance of having a resident clergyman among 
 them. 
 
 In August 1838, Mr. Jones visited the village before 
 he took his departure for England. He held divine 
 service in the Church, and gave a parting address, after 
 which Pigwys stepped into the aisle and said, " You have 
 spoken as you always do, as a father to his children, and 
 I wish all would listen to you. I send by you a letter to 
 the Missionary men in England : tell them not to forget 
 me I want the word of life to be always spoken in my 
 land." 
 
 Another Indian, a chief of the Muscaigoes, then came 
 forward and spoke to the same effect, adding with great 
 vehemence, " Tell them to make haste, time is short, 
 and death is snatching away our friends very fast ; tell 
 them to make haste." There were from 200 to 250 In- 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE P1GWYS. Ill 
 
 dians present, and as Mr. Jones stood at the church door 
 to shake hands with each one as he passed, there was 
 scarcely a dry eye among them. How different from 
 the stoical indifference of their former character ! 
 (P. 12.) 
 
 The following is the letter sent hy the Chief to the 
 Church Missionary Society, accompanied with a calumet, 
 or pipe of peace, made of the peculiar red stone con 
 sidered sacred among them : 
 
 " MY FEIENDS, " August, 1, 1838. 
 
 " It has never been my custom to leave off in the midst 
 of my work, hut to finish it off hand ; and what I said to you in 
 my former letter I intend to adhere to, to the end of my life. 
 My friends, my heart is sore to see our praying-master (Mr. 
 Cockran) driven ahout like a slave, to teach all the people here. 
 You cannot know how far he has to go ; I think you are killing 
 our friend ; you should send another to teach us. My friends, 
 what are you ahout ? There is not a summer hut some of the 
 French praying-masters arrive, hut I do not wish to go to them ; 
 I wish you alone to teach me the word of God. I am getting 
 very old, my friends, hut there are young people growing up who 
 are instructed to seek everlasting life, and I sincerely hope they 
 will find it. I do not now look so much to my hody as to my 
 soul, and I intend therefore to hold fast to your instructions. 
 It was fully my intention that my son, whose hand wrote to you 
 for me last year, should have been useful to you, but he is now 
 no more ; he has left me for ever ; he sleeps by your church, and 
 I hope to sleep there too. I hope, therefore, you will more par- 
 ticularly consider my case. You may, perhaps, be discouraged as 
 you hear that many of my young men do not wish to follow your 
 doctrine ; but, you know, perseverance goes a great way, and I 
 think in time many will be brought in. 
 
 "WILLIAM KING, 
 " Chief of the Red Ewer Indians." 
 
 So anxious was the good old man upon this subject, 
 that as Mr. Jones was getting into his canoe he again 
 
 H 
 
112 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 came up to him and said, " Do you send me a letter 
 next spring, that I may know what to expect." 
 
 Several others of the principal men sent also a letter 
 to the Committee, but we must reserve this for the 
 next chapter 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGE RAPIDS BURNING OF PRAIRIES. 
 
 " I will be as the dew unto Israel ; lie shall grow as the lily, 
 and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." Hose a, xiv. 5. 
 
 AT the end of the last chapter we promised our readers 
 that we would lay before them the letter sent to the Com- 
 mittee of the Church Missionary Society by some of the 
 principal men at the Indian Village, and though, as 
 they will find, it differs considerably from, that of their 
 chief, it contains, as that did, the genuine expressions of 
 the feelings of our Red brethren. It is as follows : 
 
 August 1, 1838. 
 " Servants of the Great God, 
 
 " We once more call to you for help, and hope our cry will 
 avail. You sent us what you called the word of God ; we left 
 our hunting-grounds, and came to hear it. But we did not alto- 
 gether like it, for it told us to leave off drunkenness and adultery, 
 to keep only one wife, to cast away our idols and all our bad 
 heathen ways ; but as it still repeated to us that, if we did not, 
 the great God would send us to the great devil's fire ; by the 
 goodness of God we saw at last it was true. We now like the 
 word of God, and we have left off our sins ; we have cast away 
 our rattles, our drums, and our idols, and all our bad heathen 
 ways. But what are we to do, our friends ? Mr. Jones is going 
 to leave us ; Mr. Cockran talks of it. Must we turn to our idols 
 and gods again ? or must we turn to the French praying-masters ? 
 We see three French praying-masters have come to the River 
 and not one for us ! What is this, our friends ? The word of 
 God says that one soul is worth more than all the world ; surely 
 then, our friends, three hundred souls are worth one praying- 
 
116 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 master ! It is not once or twice a-week teaching that is enough 
 to make us wise ; we have a bad heart, and we hate our bad 
 hearts and all our evil ways, and we wish to cast them all away, 
 and we hope in time, by the help of God, to be able to do it. 
 But have patience, our friends ; we hope our children will do 
 better, and will learn to read God's book, so as to go forth to their 
 country-people to tell them the way of life, and that many may 
 be saved from the great devil's fire. 
 
 " We hope you will pity us, and hear our cry, and send us a 
 father to live with us here to teach us. We thank you all for 
 what you have done for us, and for sending us the Word of Life, 
 and may the great God be kind to you all. We feel our hearts 
 sore when we think of you all, and the praying-masters that are 
 here : we pray for you and for them, and shall still do so." 
 
 These letters, as might be expected, were read with 
 great interest by the Committee ; and our readers will 
 be glad to find that, after some little time, they felt them- 
 selves enabled to answer the appeal. 
 
 In the meantime the departure of Mr. Jones left the 
 colony more destitute than before ; the care of the four 
 churches and their congregations, extending thirty miles 
 along the river, lay entirely on Mr. Cockran, and we can 
 only thankfully rejoice that he was enabled, though " in 
 weariness and painfulness," to continue thus alone at his 
 post for fourteen months, till the arrival of the Rev. W. 
 Smithurst in the autumn of 1839. 
 
 Except in summer, when boats could pass up and 
 down the river, the communication between the Rapids 
 and the Indian settlement was at this time very difficult. 
 There was no road for the latter half of the distance ; 
 and though, in winter, Mr. Cockran could ride with 
 safety along the frozen surface of the stream, in spring 
 and autumn this course was scarcely practicable. Often 
 the surface would thaw, and freeze again with a deceit- 
 ful crust of ice, too thin to bear his weight, and at every 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE. 117 
 
 step his horse's feet would sink, through several inches 
 of water, to the unthawed mass below, while the half- 
 thawed, half-freezing mud upon the banks was still more 
 perilous. 
 
 Though undeterred by these or any other difficulties,* 
 his progress was, of course, frequently delayed ; but his 
 congregations never seem to have been weary of waiting 
 for him, and on one occasion he tells us that he found 
 on his arrival they had been four hours in the church. 
 
 An occasional Sunday service was all that Mr. Cock- 
 ran could now give to the people of the Indian Village ; 
 yet, notwithstanding the scantiness of the means of 
 grace, evidences were not wanting that that Holy Spirit, 
 who, " like a dew from the Lord, tarrieth not for man 
 nor waiteth for the sons of men," was still carrying 
 on his work among them. 
 
 One case was that of a young man who had for some 
 time been under the influence of religion, and who 
 now lay on his dying bed. Mr. Cockran asked him 
 
 " ' Joseph, what do you wish me to do for you ?' ' I have sent 
 for you, sir, to pray for me just here,' pointing to his bedside. 
 * When I was strong and could go to church, I felt happy in the 
 
 * Speaking of his Sundays in the winter of this and other 
 years, he says " I leave home with my heart glowing with love, 
 and with a desire to praise God and proclaim the message of sal- 
 vation to my fellow-creatures. I ride on ; a snow-storm drifting 
 in my face almost blinds my horse and myself, my hands and my 
 feet are benumbed, my face perhaps blistered with the intensity 
 of the frost the chill reaches the heart, and I seem to have lost 
 all spiritual feeling. But when I hear two hundred voices join- 
 ing to sing the praises of Him whom lately they knew not, my 
 heart grows warm again ; I remember His promise who has said 
 1 1 will never leave thee nor forsake thee,' and I, too, can rejoice 
 in Him." 
 
118 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 worship of God ; and as long as I could kneel down here and 
 pray, I found my heart light : but now I cannot rise, my heart 
 is heavy and cold as ice, and I fear it is not well with me.' 
 * Do you/ asked Mr. Cockran, believe that the Son of God is 
 able and willing to save you ?' * Yes, entirely,' answered the 
 youth ; ' and it is by looking to Him that my heart has been 
 drawn away from the world ; and I now rejoice that I am going 
 out of it. In heaven I shall be near God, and He will make me 
 happy. I sometimes feel a little afraid when I think of the 
 change, but I say to myself that Jesus is there, and He will call 
 me to come near Him ; and then all my fears go.'" 
 
 More conversation of the same kind ensued, till a 
 poor woman who was present, quite overcome, hid her 
 face in her blanket, and began to sob, crying out, "Oh, 
 I would give the whole world if I could have such a 
 hope on my dying bed ! " 
 
 On the 20th of September, 1839, to the great joy of 
 Mr. Cockran, Mr. Smithurst arrived to take charge of 
 this congregation ; and, anxious to enter on his work 
 without delay, he took up his abode at once in an 
 unfinished dwelling, which had been begun for him near 
 the church. 
 
 Mr. Cockran assembled the people to introduce their 
 new minister, and to bid them farewell as no longer 
 his own flock. Drawing a picture of their former state, 
 he called on them to compare with it their present 
 condition, led them to consider the free mercy of God 
 in Christ Jesus, and, deeply affected himself, drew 
 tears from Mr. Smithurst and most of the congre- 
 gation. 
 
 Mr. Smithurst was surprised and encouraged by the 
 state in which he found the village. The congregation 
 was serious and devout, the school was regularly 
 attended, and the children were quiet and orderly in 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE. 119 
 
 their general conduct. There were now ninety-eight 
 in the day-school, and on Sundays these were joined by 
 fifty-eight adults.* 
 
 Mr. Cook, the schoolmaster, had regularly met as 
 many of the people as could come, for reading the 
 Scriptures and for prayer, every evening in the school- 
 room ; and another man, Peter Carrigel, instructed the 
 elder boys at his own house. It was pleasant also to 
 find, that when the men were absent on a hunting or 
 fishing expedition, it was their constant practice to 
 return home on the Saturday and go back on the Mon- 
 day (thus losing three days in every week), if within 
 reach ; or if too distant, they would spend the Sunday 
 together, reading the church service, singing hymns, 
 and talking over passages of the Bible. 
 
 We might here introduce details from Mr. Smithurst's 
 journal, which would enable our readers to realise some- 
 what of every-day life on the banks of the Red Eiver. 
 We could tell of the candles for his use being made on 
 the premises, of his corn being threshed on the frozen 
 river, of the store of provisions laid in in autumn for 
 himself, his farm-servants, and the passing stranger ; 
 no less a quantity than 2000 pounds of dried buffalo 
 meat, and a still larger proportion of beef and mutton, 
 which had to be frozen before it was stored up, as it 
 would be eight months before fresh meat could be again 
 procured. 
 
 * One of these was an old woman, who had attended regularly 
 for six years, without having yet accomplished learning the 
 alphabet; yet she would not give it up ; and some time after told 
 Mr. Smithurst with great joy that she now knew all the letters 
 except three ! A good example of perseverance to those with 
 better opportunities. 
 
120 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 Or we might describe our missionary's early rides * 
 on Sunday mornings to take the service at the Rapids, 
 while Mr. Cockran undertook the Upper and Middle 
 Churches ; sometimes through storm and snow, his 
 shoes freezing to the stirrup, and icicles of frozen hreath 
 hanging round his horse's mouth ; or sometimes, on a 
 brighter winter morning, filled with admiration as he 
 rode through woods of aspen, birch, and poplar, whose 
 stems and larger branches, catching the rays of the 
 rising sun, shone like burnished gold, while the icicles 
 on the smaller twigs sparkled like diamonds. 
 
 In summer it was a different scene that met his view 
 the trees were clothed with their varied foliage, and 
 adorned with a vast profusion of wild roses ; while here 
 and there, between their stems, the river was seen pur- 
 suing its onward course. And for the last five miles 
 the open country was covered with flowers of every 
 form and hue, among which the brilliant yellow lady's 
 slipper was the most conspicuous. 
 
 There was one feature in the prospect that never 
 varied. In all seasons, and in all weathers, no sooner 
 did our Sunday traveller come out upon the plains 
 than he saw persons gathering from all quarters, some 
 on foot, some in their carioles, hastening even at this 
 early hour to the church ; for the congregation had so 
 outgrown the place for its assembling, that those who 
 did not reach it an hour, or sometimes two hours, before 
 the time of service could find no admittance.! 
 
 * Mr. Smithurst had employed some of the people in making 
 a road along the banks of the river. 
 
 + There would at this time have been from 700 to 800 attend- 
 ants at public worship at the Eapids, had there been room : the 
 number of communicants was 145. 
 
INDIAN TILLAGE. 
 
 But we must not wander from the Indian Village ; 
 and we have better things to speak of there than plea- 
 sant rides and brilliant flowers even those things that 
 accompany salvation, but our limits will only allow of 
 our mentioning two of these. 
 
 The first relates to the good old chief, Pigwys, the 
 reality of whose Christian principles was about this 
 time put to a severe test. Our readers will remember 
 the undutiful conduct of his eldest son, and the sub- 
 sequent removal of this young man to a distance. He 
 had continued in his heathen state, still opposed to 
 Christianity, when in the winter of this year his father 
 was overwhelmed with the intelligence that this son, 
 still so dearly loved, had, in an agony of grief for the 
 loss of one of his own children, committed suicide. 
 
 Pigwys sent for the body, and, clinging to his child 
 even in death, requested that it might be interred in 
 the churchyard, close to the spot he had chosen for his 
 own grave. It was difficult to refuse him, but the mis- 
 sionaries felt that they had no alternative ; they softened, 
 however, the refusal as much as possible, by stating their 
 reasons, and offering that it should be buried just beyond 
 the boundary. 
 
 The feelings of the poor father were deeply wounded, 
 but after a short pause, during which, doubtless, pride 
 and parental affection were struggling with higher prin- 
 ciples, he acknowledged that they were right, and with 
 a touching gentleness submitted to the disappointment. 
 
 The corpse had been prepared after the Indian cus- 
 toms, sewed up in a blanket, with the hunting, fishing, 
 and war implements of the deceased ; the face was 
 painted red, red feathers were in the hair, beads in the 
 nose and ears, and a necklace round the neck. As soon 
 
122 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH 
 
 as it arrived, the chief had it stripped of every badge 
 of heathenism and put into a coffin, and employed 
 Christian bearers to carry it to the ground. It was in 
 January ; the wind was blowing a hurricane, the air 
 was darkened with drifting snow, the thermometer stood 
 at 8 below zero, and Mr. Smithurst, who could see the 
 whole proceedings from his window, concluded that as 
 soon as the grave was covered in, the party (for many 
 heathen relations had come to attend the funeral) would 
 disperse. But they still stood round the grave, and 
 presently he saw that the Chief was addressing them 
 with great earnestness ; the faith and love of the good 
 old man rose above his grief, and he was taking advan- 
 tage of the solemn occasion to invite his unbelieving 
 countrymen to Christ. 
 
 The other incident refers to some of the boat's crew 
 who had in the preceding autumn brought Mr. Smithurst 
 from York Fort to Norway House. They were seven in 
 number, and all were heathens ; the voyage lasted 
 twenty-one days, and fain would our missionary have 
 spoken to them of the things that would make for their 
 eternal peace, but they did not understand English, and 
 he had no interpreter. All he could do was to pray 
 for them. In the course of the voyage one of them was 
 taken suddenly ill, and appeared to be dying. 
 
 " I cannot," writes Mr. Smithurst, " describe my feelings ; we 
 were a hundred miles from any human habitation I knew he 
 was a heathen, I believed he was expiring in my arms, and I 
 was unable to say one word to him, or to point him to the Lamb 
 of God that taketh away the sins of the world. With uplifted 
 eyes he surveyed the blue expanse of heaven, and uttered a 
 piercing shriek, which told of suffering without hope. If ever 
 I prayed sincerely, it was that God would spare him till he 
 should hear the Gospel, and I heartily thank the Father of 
 
INDIAN VILLAGE. 123 
 
 mercies that He heard my prayers. I gave him some medicine I 
 had with me, and the disease abated ; but during the rest of the 
 voyage he was unable to do anything, and I was obliged to 
 attend to him myself till we reached Norway House." 
 
 At Norway House Mr. Smithurst parted from his 
 companions, and though we cannot doubt but that these 
 men were often remembered by him at a throne of 
 grace, yet he probably never expected to see them again 
 in the flesh. 
 
 But early in the next year (1840), he was told that 
 two Indians wished to speak to him, and to his surprise 
 and pleasure he found they were part of his former 
 crew, and that one of them was the very man who had 
 been so ill. He took the opportunity of thanking them 
 for all the kindness they had shewn him on the voyage, 
 and was affected by their answering, " that they knew 
 he had come to teach their countrymen the way of life, 
 and felt therefore that they ought to do all they could 
 for him." 
 
 One of them, it seemed, had visited the Indian 
 Village in the preceding winter, and what he then heard 
 from Mr. Cockran so impressed him, that he had given 
 up his heathen practices for some time past. They 
 had now both of them come from Norway House (300 
 miles) to put themselves regularly under Christian 
 instruction. After due time Mr. Smithurst baptized 
 them. " Little," says he, " did I think, while travelling 
 those 600 miles with them, that they would be the 
 first Indians I should baptize ! How mysterious are 
 Thy ways, Lord of Hosts ! O merciful Father, keep 
 them both by Thy grace through faith unto life eternal." 
 
 A few weeks later Mr. Smithurst had the privilege 
 of baptizing another of the crew, who had also come 
 
124 THE KAINBOW IN THE NOKTH. 
 
 down for the purpose ; so that now three of the seven 
 for whom he had so anxiously prayed, were Christians. 
 
 The occasion of his son's funeral was far from being 
 the only instance of Pigwys 1 endeavours to lead his own 
 people to Christianity. We have before spoken of his 
 anxiety on this point (page 109) ; and in September 
 1840, he convened a general meeting of all the Saulteaux 
 in the neighbourhood upon the subject, and invited 
 Mr. Smithurst to accompany him. 
 
 The men seated themselves in a circle, and the Chief, 
 Mr. Smithurst, and an interpreter, stood in the midst. 
 The Missionary first addressed them, setting before 
 them the leading truths of the Gospel, the fall the 
 consequent corruption of human nature the redemp- 
 tion offered to fallen man through the merits and death 
 of the Saviour, assuring them that there was " no 
 other name under Heaven given among men whereby 
 we must be saved." Pigwys followed, and spoke for 
 nearly an hour, with great energy and eloquence. He 
 urged them to attend to the message of salvation, to 
 send their children to the school, and to come them- 
 selves to church ; telling them, that in addition to his 
 prospects for eternity, his temporal condition was greatly 
 improved, and his mind was at peace. 
 
 But the Saulteaux continued unmoved, and not one 
 of the whole assembly was willing to follow the example 
 of their Chief and the few others of their tribe who had 
 joined the Crees at the Indian Village. 
 
 We will here introduce a few words from our Mis- 
 sionary's Journal, written in the first spring after his 
 arrival at his station : 
 
 " 1840. M*>7 4 and 5. In heart with friends at home, - 
 thought of this time last year, and longed to he among them, but 
 
THE KAPIDS. 
 
 remembered that here is the reality of the work. There is more 
 in seeing what God has done, than in hearing about it from 
 others. 
 
 " May 6. The Meeting of the Bible Society. Here are the 
 poor Indian children, reading the very Bibles the Society sup- 
 plied me with twelve months ago !" 
 
 The account of the Indian Village has so engrossed 
 us, that we seem to have almost lost sight of the 
 Eapids : but it is not really so ; and if space per- 
 mitted, we might continue at some length the history of 
 the work of grace there, that we began in our fourth 
 chapter. We must, however, content ourselves with two 
 instances. 
 
 Keturning from the Middle Church one Sunday after- 
 noon, Mr. Cockran fell in with one of his people, whose 
 son had gone on a long journey near to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. He entered into conversation with him, and was 
 thankful to find the spirit in which they had parted 
 from each other. The father earnestly pressed upon 
 the young man the importance of reading the Bible as 
 often as he had opportunity, and of never omitting to 
 pray at least twice in the day. 
 
 " My son," said he, " as long as you have lived at home, you 
 have seen me pray; you have gone to church and heard that God 
 is love. When you go through the plains you will no longer see 
 me praying, you will no longer be told of your God and Saviour. 
 There you will meet with men whose hearts are cruel, who would 
 like to drive an arrow through your heart, take the scalp from 
 your head, and drink your blood.* My son, when night comes on, 
 
 * This was no imaginary danger, for even several years later 
 the Missionary at the Cumberland Station (to which we shall 
 shortly introduce our readers) writes : 
 
 " Feb. 12, 1849. During last summer about forty Plain 
 Indians were killed by war parties on the banks of this very 
 
126 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 before you close your eyes in sleep, ask your God to look on you, 
 and spread his hand over you ; for that you are alone, far from 
 home, and have no other friend but Him. When morning 
 comes, ask Him to go with you on your way, to turn bad men on 
 one side, that they may not meet you. Never forget that the 
 blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Trust hi it ; God 
 has accepted it for your soul, and through it -you and I shall 
 meet in heaven." 
 
 The father added to Mr. Cockran : 
 
 " My heart was light when I saw my son take his Bible and 
 some tracts, and when he squeezed my hand with tears in his 
 eyes, and said, ' I will remember Him who is over all till we 
 meet again.' " 
 
 The other was a little girl, \vho was burnt by one of 
 those destructive fires with which the prairies of North 
 America are not unfrequently visited.* One of these 
 
 river on which we are residing (the Saskatchewan). On one 
 occasion, nineteen Black-Feet Indians came to the Cree camp, 
 near Fort Pitt, and being perceived by the Crees, the alarm was 
 given. The Crees immediately sprang to their horses, and in 
 less than an hour the whole nineteen of the Black-Feet Indians 
 were killed ; their scalps floating in the air, suspended to long 
 poles ; their hands and feet hung to the tails and necks of the 
 horses ; and the women mutilating the bodies hi the most 
 shocking manner." 
 
 * The burning of the prairies is spoken of as one of the most 
 beautiful and sublime scenes in the country. These prairies 
 sometimes extend for hundreds of miles and are covered with 
 grass ; where this is thin and short, as on the more elevated 
 lands, the fire creeps on slowly, giving the animals time to 
 escape, but sometimes the flames are driven forward by a strong 
 wind over prairies where the grass is seven or eight feet high, 
 and are then most terrific, often destroying whole parties of In- 
 dians, though on their fleetest horses. Not that the fire travels 
 as fast as a horse at full speed, but the grass is so entangled 
 with creeping plants that grow among it, that the only way of 
 getting through is by following the zigzag paths of the deer and 
 
BURNING OF PRAIRIES. 127 
 
 occurred in the neighbourhood of the Rapids, in October 
 1839. Driven by a strong south wind it came rolling 
 impetuously along the plain, like a sea of fire, the 
 flames curling over the outstanding stacks of hay and 
 corn, and spreading desolation for miles around. Much 
 property was destroyed, and several persons narrowly 
 escaped the flames, but this poor little girl and her 
 mother and two sisters were overtaken by them, and so 
 
 the buffalo. Sometimes too the dense cloud of smoke that is 
 swept before the fire alarms the horse, and he stands terrified 
 and immoveable, till the pieces of burning grass, tossed by the 
 wind, fall before him, and in a moment new fires burst out all 
 around. 
 
 The Indians believe these fires to be kindled by supernatural 
 means. " Over this beautiful plain," said one of them to Mr. 
 Catlin, when entering upon one of these magnificent prairies, 
 " dwells the spirit of fire. He rides on yonder cloud ; his face 
 blackens with rage at the sound of the trampling hoofs ; the 
 fire -bow is in his hand ; he draws it across the path of the In- 
 dian, and, quicker than lightning, a thousand fires rise to destroy 
 him." They had proceeded some distance, when Red Thunder 
 (for such was the name of this Indian) began to show signs of 
 anxiety ; he threw himself on the ground, presently started up, 
 and looked anxiously around, again threw himself down and lay 
 with his face to the earth. After a little he sprang again to his 
 feet, and stretching out his arm exclaimed with vehemence, 
 "White man, see that small cloud rising from the prairie ! He 
 rises! our horses' hoofs have waked him ; the Fire Spirit is 
 awake, this wind is from his nostrils and his face is towards 
 us ! " They flew to their horses, and urged them to their utmost 
 speed, the fire gained upon them, it was like the roar of a 
 distant cataract. The frightened eagle flew screaming over 
 their heads ; the heath-hen followed on slower wing, and the 
 antelope and long-legged hare bounded pass them, escaping for 
 their lives. They strained every sinew, and reached the barren 
 
 bluff only just in time, rescued from, as it were, a sea of fire 
 
 Abridged from Catlin. 
 
128 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 severely burnt that they all died in the course of a few 
 days. This child was the last survivor ; she had always 
 loved instruction, and, young as she was, had given 
 evidence of piety, and now in her last extremity she 
 knew where to find rest for her soul. During several 
 days of suffering her only comfort was in prayer ; every 
 one who came to see her she would ask to pray with 
 her ; and when Mr. Cockran visited her she would ask 
 him to talk to her " about heaven, where the saints of 
 God serve Him day and night where my father and 
 my little sisters are, and where I expect soon to see 
 them." 
 
 She afterwards begged Mr. Cockran, and those about 
 her, to sing to her " Jesu, lover of my soul," to the tune 
 it was sung to in church ; and her request having been 
 complied with, she said, " I cannot now kneel, I am 
 obliged to lie on my back day and night ; but be so 
 kind as to pray for me, and ask God not to be angry 
 with me, but to pardon all my sins through His dear 
 Son, and to take me to heaven." 
 
 Mr. Cockran commended her to God in prayer and 
 thanksgiving, and shortly after her happy spirit fled. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THKEATENED REDUCTION OF THE MISSION VISIT OF 
 
 THE BISHOP OF MONTREAL DEPARTURE OF THE 
 
 REV. W. COCKRAN. 
 
 " Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it . 
 or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 
 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 
 1 Cor. xii. 26, 27. 
 
 THE year 1S42 opened brightly on the mission-field 
 in Rupert's Land. We have seen the state of the 
 Indian Village, and of the congregation at the Rapids ; 
 and those of the Upper and Middle Churches had con- 
 tmued also to go on well. Nor was it only that the 
 stakes of this spiritual tabernacle were thus strength- 
 ened, she had likewise lengthened her cords : a new 
 station had been formed on Cumberland Lake ; and 
 tide Rev. A. Cowley, who arrived in 1841, had availed 
 himself of an apparent opening on the Lake Manitoba. 
 
 The only drawback was the state of Mr. Cockran's 
 health. The Committee at home had frequently urged 
 him to pay a visit to his native land, that he might 
 recruit his strength and refresh his spirits. This he 
 had steadfastly declined, fearing, he said, lest the 
 comforts of an English home should withdraw his 
 affections from his few poor sheep in the wilderness. 
 But at last his declining health had induced him to 
 
132 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 request permission to withdraw altogether from the 
 work, and he was only waiting to hear of the appoint- 
 ment of a successor before he should retire with his 
 family to Canada. 
 
 It was at this juncture that our Missionaries received 
 the unexpected and overwhelming intelligence that, in 
 consequence of the financial difficulties of the Society, 
 their Missions on the Red River must be reduced, and the 
 out-stations abandoned. It is not easy to conceive how 
 heavily this blow fell on the hearts of these devoted 
 men, who were spending their lives and strength in the 
 work. Must, then, all the ground that had been so 
 hardly won be given up again ? Must those few sheep 
 who had been gathered into the fold be driven back 
 into the wilderness of Heathenism, or the poisonous 
 pastures of Popery ? They could not bear to think of 
 it. Mr. Smithurst writes, 
 
 " If our friends at home did but know the anxiety your letter 
 has caused, I am sure they would redouble their efforts to pro- 
 vide a remedy. Were the Indians averse to instruction, or did 
 we see no fruit from our labours, we might relinquish our posts 
 with less regret ; but our churches are crowded, our schools are 
 crowded, and the cry is (from the Crees more especially), ' Send 
 us more teachers ; give us the word of God.'" 
 
 Mr. Cockran's appeal was still stronger : 
 
 " Thousands of pounds are not equal to the value of one soul, 
 and for this shall we abandon our Missions? Oh, no, dear 
 Christian friends, we must not so soon weary in keeping pos- 
 session for Christ ; we must occupy till He come. He who wept 
 over Jerusalem is surely ready to weep over us, when such a 
 thought enters our hearts. He seems to say to us from heaven, 
 *Have I not redeemed you? Have I not prepared a mansion 
 for you in my Father's kingdom ? Why regard your stuff? Is 
 
THREATENED REDUCTION OF THE MISSION. 13$ 
 
 not the land where God dwells your own, and is not He Himself 
 your portion ? Will ye, then, suffer My cause to fail from love of 
 this world?'"* 
 
 Nor did the Missionaries content themselves with 
 words ; they endeavoured, by the most rigid economy 
 and self-denial, so to reduce the expenses of the Mis- 
 sions as to avert the threatened blow. Mr. Cockran 
 gave up for the present his intention of removing into 
 Canada, and as he received a small stipend from the 
 Hudson's Bay Company as chaplain, determined to 
 make that suffice ; and for two years forbore to draw 
 from the Church Missionary Society the portion of his 
 salary due from thence,f though we find, from some of 
 his neighbours, that by so doing he and his family were 
 subjected to privations not often experienced even by 
 industrious cottagers at home. 
 
 By the good providence of Him in whose hands are 
 the hearts of all, the income of the Society increased 
 again during the year ; and the letters received in 1843 
 relieved the minds of the Missionaries from their sus- 
 pense of twelve months, and enabled them to pursue 
 their work with fresh energy. 
 
 * See how any diminution of the income of the Society is 
 felt in its most distant missions ! And let us individually 
 remember, that by withdrawing our own annual sovereign or 
 weekly penny, we are ourselves bearing a part in causing this 
 distress. 
 
 t This was not the first instance of the kind, for a similar 
 reduction of the Mission had been contemplated some years be- 
 fore, and we find, in consequence of this, the following entry 
 among the benefactions for June 1830 : 
 
 " Rev W. Cockran, arrears of salary which had accumulated 
 during four years ^54 Ss. Od." 
 
134 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 In the summer of 1844 the hearts of our brethren 
 were cheered, and their hands strengthened, by a visit 
 from the Bishop of Montreal, who, with a kindness and 
 self-forgetfulness which can scarcely be too warmly 
 appreciated, undertook a journey of twice one thousand 
 eight hundred miles in an open canoe for the benefit of 
 this infant Mission. 
 
 His route lay across the Lakes of Nipissin and 
 Huron, along the treacherous waters of Lake Superior, 
 and then through rivers rendered almost impassable by 
 frequent cataracts and rapids, till, after thirty-eight 
 days of exposure and fatigue, he entered Lake Winnipeg, 
 near the mouth of the Red River, on June the 22d. 
 
 We will not spoil the interesting account of this 
 expedition, which the Bishop allowed to be published, 
 by attempting to abridge it ; we will only make a few 
 extracts, which will throw additional light upon our 
 subject. 
 
 It was Saturday when he and his little party entered 
 the lake, and they hoped to reach the Indian Village 
 before nightfall ; but a violent storm obliged them to 
 lay to under the banks, and they did not arrive till 
 Sunday morning, after a night of weariness and dis- 
 comfort. The Bishop then proceeds : 
 
 " It was about nine o'clock, and within half an hour of the 
 time for Divine "SVorship. The -sight that greeted us was one that 
 can never be forgotten by me, and the recollection will always be 
 coupled with feelings of devout thankfulness to God, and warm 
 appreciation of the blessings conferred by the Church Mission- 
 ary Society. After travelling for above a month through an 
 inhospitable wilderness, and meeting, at intervals, with such 
 specimens of the heathen savage as I have described, we came 
 at once, and without any intermediate gradations in the aspect 
 of things, upon the establishment formed on the low margin of 
 
VISIT OF THE BISHOP OF MONTKEAL. 135 
 
 the river for the same race of people in their Christian state ; 
 and on the morning of the Lord's own blessed day we saw them 
 already gathering round their pastor, who was before his door, 
 the children collecting in the same manner with their hooks in 
 their hands. All were decently clothed from head to foot, and 
 there was a repose and steadiness in their deportment, the seem- 
 ing indication of a high and controlling influence on their charac- 
 ters and hearts. Around were their humble dwellings, with the 
 commencement of their farms ; cattle were grazing in the mea- 
 dows ; the modest parsonage, with its garden, and the simple 
 but decent church, with the school-house as its appendage, form- 
 ing the leading objects in the picture, and carrying on the face 
 of them the promise of blessing. We were amply repaid for all 
 the toils and exposure of the night. My chaplain naturally felt 
 as I did ; and my servant, an Englishman, to whom everything 
 in the journey was new, told me afterwards that he could hardly 
 restrain his tears. Nor was it a worthless testimony that was 
 rendered by one of our old voyageurs, a French Canadian Koman 
 Catholic, when, addressing my servant, he said, ' There are your 
 Christian Indians ; it would be well if all the whites were as 
 good as they are.' 
 
 " We were greeted by Mr. Smithurst at the water's edge ; and 
 having refreshed ourselves under his roof, we proceeded to 
 church. There were, perhaps, two hundred an 1 fifty present, 
 all Indians ; and nothing can be more reverential and solemn 
 than the demeanour and bearing of these people in public wor- 
 ship. Their costume has a hybrid kind of character, partly 
 European and partly Indian. The women, for the most part, 
 still wear the blanket, or else a piece of dark cloth thrown over 
 the head, with the hair parted smoothly on the forehead. All 
 wear mocassins, as do the missionaries, and almost all the Eu- 
 ropeans in the colony. 
 
 "The Morning Service is in English, but the Lessons are 
 rendered into the Indian tongue by Mr. Cook, the schoolmaster, 
 who also rendered my sermon sentence by sentence. 
 
 " The Evening Service is in the Indian language, which Mr. 
 Smithurst has mastered to a considerable degree, but the Lessons 
 are read as in the Morning. About two-thirds of the congrega- 
 tion are said to understand a simple address in English ; and, 
 
136 THE KAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 as far as this settlement is concerned, the time, I conceive, is 
 fast approaching when no other language will be required. But 
 let it be hoped that instruction will be carried far and wide to . 
 men of other tongues. 
 
 " I visited the Sunday-school, and found a large attendance. 
 Mr. Smithurst made the more advanced read to me in the Bible, 
 and then examined them in the Catechism and the Thirty-nine 
 Articles. The amount of their knowledge was greater than I 
 could have expected ; and from all that I could gather, the Crees 
 appear to be a thinking and intelligent tribe. 
 
 " After the Evening Service the church was shut up by an old 
 Indian, acting as a sort of sexton, who had formerly been a noted 
 sorcerer or medicine man. The day altogether was one of ex- 
 traordinary interest ; and if the scenes which it presented could 
 have been witnessed by friends of the Society at home, they 
 would have needed no further appeal to ensure their liberal 
 support." 
 
 The Bishop then speaks of the confirmations he held 
 at each of the four churches. The number of the 
 confirmed amounted in the whole to eight hundred and 
 forty-six, and would have been about one thousand had 
 not many of the candidates been absent; some were 
 engaged in the buffalo hunt on the prairies, and others 
 were gone with the annual boats to York Fort. 
 
 He held preparatory meetings of the candidates at 
 each of the different stations, and expresses himself 
 as greatly satisfied with the result. He speaks par- 
 ticularly of one at the Rapids, where he says, 
 
 " I was much struck by the correct and serious deportment of 
 about seventy young girls, who were brought together without 
 their mothers or elders of any kind to restrain them ; and I could 
 not help thinking that it would have been difficult to collect the 
 same number in an English parish who would have preserved 
 the reverence which these girls did, even in the vacant intervals 
 before and after the service, and during the calling over of their 
 names by Mr. Cockran." 
 
VISIT OF THE BISHOP OF MONTREAL. 137 
 
 Mr. Cowley came from Manitoba Lake to receive 
 priest's orders ; and the Bishop ordained Mr. M'Allum, 
 then in charge of a school at the Upper Settlement, 
 both deacon and priest. Altogether, he spent seventeen 
 days in the colony ; and, speaking of its general state, 
 he says, 
 
 " It was truly a very interesting spectacle to behold the 
 churches filled at the confirmation, and at the other public ser- 
 vices, by a people thus brought under the yoke of the Gospel, 
 the great body of whom have Indian blood in their veins, and 
 most of whom were originally heathens ; and the interest was 
 indescribably heightened by the deep attention with which they 
 listened, and the devotion with which those who were confirmed 
 knelt to receive the imposition of hands ; the comfortable hope 
 shedding its ray over the solemnity, that they did in sincerity 
 devote themselves to Christ. 
 
 " I must not, however, be understood to mean that in all the 
 pleasing pictures I have given, the old Adam does not anywhere 
 lurk in disguise, nor to express an unqualified hope that among 
 those who now re-enrolled themselves as soldiers of the Cross 
 there will not be instances of mortifying inconsistency, perhaps 
 of unhappy defection : the Indians have strong passions, and are 
 often thrown into circumstances unfavourable to holiness : but, 
 allowing for the necessary intermixture of tares with the wheat, 
 I believe that the congregations at the Ked River may be called 
 exemplary ; and that the Church has taken root in the colony, 
 with the fairest prospect of a continuance and increase of blessed 
 fruits of a practical kind." * 
 
 This visit of the Bishop had been most welcome to 
 the whole colony, and the inhabitants vied with each 
 other in showing him all possible attention. He re- 
 
 * The Bishop confirms what has been remarked by other 
 travellers as to the superiority, in the steady and correct habits 
 of the people, of the Protestant portion of the colony over the 
 Roman Catholic population, and does not hesitate to attribute it 
 to the difference of their religion. 
 
138 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 ceived addresses of thanks from the Clergy, from the 
 Protestant inhabitants generally, and a special one 
 from the Indian congregation 
 
 " We were," he says, " loaded with presents : several of the 
 Indian women were busy, up to the last moment, in finishing 
 for us some little token of remembrance, and we received some 
 beautiful specimens of their work either in beads, or in dyed 
 hah 1 of the moose deer, or in porcupine quills. One woman, 
 with the peculiar modesty of manner so general among the 
 Indians, came forward just as I was stepping into my canoe with 
 a simple bark basket of her own workmanship." 
 
 The Indian Village, as it had been the first, so it was 
 the last spot which the Bishop visited. In the morning 
 of July 10, Pigwys and his wife, men, women, and 
 children, gathered round to bid adieu to their " Great 
 Praying Father;" and the Bishop set out on his fa- 
 tiguing voyage again, followed by the prayers and 
 blessings of the whole community. 
 
 It had been just before this visit from the Bishop, 
 that Mr. Cockran had had an affecting proof of the 
 attachment and kindness of his own people at the 
 Rapids. A fire broke out upon his premises, which 
 speedily consumed the barn filled with wheat ; cow- 
 houses, stables, fences, were all destroyed ; and the 
 house, which was of wood, and thatched with reeds, 
 would have shared the same fate, had it not been for 
 the exertions of the neighbours. The wind, too, pro- 
 videntially changed, and their dwelling was preserved. 
 Several persons watched all night, lest a spark should 
 be hidden in the thatch ; and the next day Mr. Cockran 
 found a number of them making plans to repair the 
 mischief, with as little loss as possible to himself. 
 Some promised to bring logs, others would contribute 
 
VISIT OF THE BISHOP OF MONTREAL. 139 
 
 posts, many engaged to come and work ; while another 
 party assured him that he should not feel the want of 
 wheat, for that they would supply him. Governor 
 Finlayson also called to offer him everything he could 
 want to repair this calamity; and the sympathy and 
 kindness they experienced enabled Mr. and Mrs. Cock- 
 ran to rejoice even in their losses. 
 
 The church at the Rapids, as we have already said, 
 was now far too small for the congregation, not more 
 than three-fourths of whom could find admittance, and 
 the school children could never be present. Mr. Cock- 
 ran, looking forward to the future, determined to make 
 an effort to build a new one of stone, instead of wood, 
 which should be large enough for the increasing wants 
 of the settlement. Accordingly, he called a meeting of 
 the people. 
 
 " Silver and gold," he writes, " they had none ; but stones, 
 lime, shingles, boards, timber, and labour were cheerfully pro- 
 mised, to an extent that perfectly astonished me. The shingle- 
 makers proposed to give ten thousand shingles each, the lime- 
 burners each four hundred bushels, and boards and timber were 
 promised in the same liberal manner. One black curly-head, 
 descended by his father's side from the sons of Ham, stood up 
 in his leathern coat, and said, c I will help to the amount of 1QL' 
 The eyes of all were turned upon him, and I saw a smile on 
 every face. I said, ' I believe our brethren think you will not 
 be able to raise such a sum.' Raising his arm he exclaimed, 
 ' Here is my body : it is at your service. It is true I cannot 
 square a stone, nor lay one, but there will be the floor and the 
 roof: turn me to them, and you will see, if God gives me life 
 and health, if I will not work out the value.' " 
 
 In the summer of 1845 the new church was begun, 
 but, notwithstanding the efforts of the people, Mr. 
 Cockran found his resources beginning to fail, when he 
 was greatly relieved by the unexpected donation of fifty 
 
140 THE RAINBOW IN fHE NORTH. 
 
 pounds from one of the officers of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company ; and soon after, his son, who was now in 
 England for education, sent him thirty pounds, which 
 had been collected for him by a clergyman at home. 
 
 All this while there was no improvement in the 
 health of our Missionary ; and now the time arrived 
 when he was to leave, as he believed for ever, the scene 
 of his labours for so long a period, and his people were 
 to part from one who had for seventeen years been their 
 pastor, their adviser, their friend, and to whom, under 
 God, they owed every temporal and spiritual blessing. 
 
 The Rev. R. James was expected in the autumn of 
 1846, and Mr. Cockran was obliged to leave the Rapids 
 in the preceding June. Mr. Cowley, who had come 
 from his own station to take the temporary charge of 
 this, thus writes : 
 
 " Sunday, June 14. The trying hour was come. Never do I 
 expect to forget the last look which some of the people gave their 
 pastor, as they retired from the church, where, from its first 
 erection, they had heard the voice of him whom they now should 
 hear no more. Their hearts were too full for utterance ; and 
 the only expression they could give to their feelings was a flood 
 of tears, as each came up, embraced his hand, and turned away 
 without a word. 
 
 " June 15. Early all was bustle, the dawn was seized upon for 
 prayer. Before breakfast was over the canoe was in sight. It 
 was too early for a large crowd to assemble to try his feelings by 
 another farewell, yet a considerable number awaited him at the 
 water's edge, and received his final blessing. My own spirits 
 were overcome, and my inmost soul was pierced." 
 
 In October, the Rev. R. and Mrs. James arrived ; 
 and we would transcribe Mr. James's account of his 
 surprise and pleasure, as he came up the river, at the 
 sight of the Indian Village, with its happy-looking in- 
 
DEPAKTUKE OF THE EEV. W. COCKRAN. 141 
 
 habitants and merry children, greeting him as he passed 
 along, were it not that it would be almost a repetition 
 of the description given by the Bishop of Montreal. 
 
 Nor was he less pleased with his own immediate 
 charge the Rapids. One thousand eight hundred 
 people were now scattered along an extent of twelve 
 miles ; the old church more than filled, the new one 
 was progressing, and the number of communicants had 
 increased to a hundred and fifty. 
 
 Mr. James carried on with zeal and energy the work 
 begun by his predecessor; and as we turn over the 
 pages of his journal, and read of one soul and another 
 brought to a concern for their eternal welfare, or watch 
 the last hours of many a rejoicing believer, we are 
 tempted to enter more fully into detail. 
 
 But the number at the head of this chapter warns us 
 to forbear ; for we have still to ]ay before our readers 
 the history of distant stations, and after a few brief 
 notices of the next three years on the banks of the Eed 
 River, we intend in the two following chapters to carry 
 them to Cumberland and Manitoba Lakes. 
 
 One passage, however, we must transcribe from Mr 
 James's journal, not only as a testimony to our former 
 Missionary, but as an instance of the way in which a 
 generous mind will appreciate the work of others : 
 
 "January 20, 1847. Thermometer, 47 below zero. Cold 
 intense, yet my ride to the Indian settlement was not uncom- 
 fortable. The roads were delightful, and as I dashed along 
 their glassy face my thoughts were necessarily carried back to 
 the time when things looked so different; when Mr. Cockran 
 could with difficulty thread his way through the tangled wood, 
 when there were no neat cottages on this hand or that; no 
 traveller's Christian greeting, no distant view of sheltering par- 
 sonage or house of God. Literally nothing to cheer the way of 
 
1 42 THE KAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 that devoted man whose zeal nothing could tire, whose ' patience 
 of hope 1 was never exhausted, before whose resolve every ob- 
 stacle gave way, and whose success is neither thirty, nor sixty, 
 but an hundred-fold, even in this present life." 
 
 Mr. Cockran had retired to Toronto, where the rest 
 and freedom from responsibility were blessed to the 
 partial restoration of his health ; his heart was still 
 among his former flocks, and in 1847 he gladly re- 
 sponded to an invitation from the Hudson's Bay Com 
 pany to undertake the chaplaincy of the Upper Church 
 and settlement. 
 
 There he still is, and there may he long remain, to 
 proclaim the Gospel that he loves, and to witness to 
 the faithfulness of God, who has promised, " As thy 
 days, so shall thy strength be." 
 
 We must not, however, leave the Red River, without 
 mentioning a Missionary Meeting that was held in the 
 church at the Rapids on Dec. 2, 1847. 
 
 It was a day of great interest, for it was the first 
 public meeting that had ever been held in Rupert's 
 Land ; and people came from all quarters to hear of 
 the work of God among other heathen nations. They 
 had hitherto known very little on the subject ; but 
 grounds of appeal could not be wanting to a people on 
 whom the Society had for the last twenty-seven years 
 been conferring such inestimable benefits, and who 
 were still continually reminded of what they had them- 
 selves once been, by the sound of the conjurer's drum 
 and melancholy shout whenever any of the heathens 
 encamped in their neighbourhood. 
 
 Everything they heard surprised and moved them : 
 many an eye was moist, and though they were again 
 suffering from two Drears of scarcity, yet " the abundance 
 
DEPAETUKE OF THE BEV. W. COCEHAN. 143 
 
 of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the 
 riches of their liberality ; " and the collection, beyond 
 all expectation, amounted to 101. 9s. %d. : 5Z. was also 
 collected here, and 5Z. 18s. Id. at the Middle Church 
 on the following Sunday, altogether, 21 1. 7s. 3d. ; a 
 large sum under all the circumstances of the case, 
 though, as one good old man said, " It was all too little 
 to offer to the Society, but it was a beginning, and he 
 hoped the Society would forgive them for not stirring 
 sooner." 
 
 Three weeks afterwards, a man, who had literally no 
 money in his possession at the time, brought Mr. James 
 five shillings, the first he had received since the day of 
 the meeting. 
 
 We shall now leave the Eed Kiver, only returning 
 to it hereafter to give a brief account of its present 
 state, and shall close the chapter by mentioning the 
 circumstances that led to the opening of a Mission at 
 Cumberland. 
 
 Anxiety for the spiritual welfare of their relations 
 and countrymen had, from the first, been a characteristic 
 feature in the Christians at the Red River ; we have 
 seen how this feeling manifested itself among the con- 
 verts at the Rapids,* and those at the Indian Village 
 soon showed the same earnest desires. 
 
 Among the settlers there, were several families from 
 the neighbourhood of Cumberland Lake, whose hearts 
 expanded towards their former companions in the 
 wilderness ; their conversion was the frequent subject of 
 their prayers, they took eveiy opportunity of sending 
 them some awakening message, and the answers to these 
 
 * Page 56. 
 
144 THE EAINBOW IN THE NOBTH. 
 
 messages were so encouraging that it was at length de- 
 cided to send a labourer to the spot. 
 
 The ordained Missionaries could neither of them be 
 spared, but it was thought that a native Catechist might 
 prepare the ground by opening a school, and giving the 
 people some elementary instruction, and it only now 
 remained to seek for a fitting agent. 
 
 How far this search was successful, our next chapter 
 will show. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CUMBERLAND STATION. 
 <{ The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. Is. xxxv. 1. 
 
 Do our readers remember the two boys mentioned in 
 our second chapter, who, dirty, wild, and ignorant, had 
 been brought by Mr. West to Red River in his own boat ? 
 The simple prayer from their stammering lips had been 
 heard and answered ; they were among the four whom 
 Mr- West baptized before his return to England ; * and 
 both of them gave evidence of being Christian's indeed. 
 
 John Hope, as one of them was called, had settled at 
 the Indian Village, and was leading a quiet and consistent 
 life ; and the other, Henry Budd, was now the person 
 fixed on by the Missionaries to lay the foundation of this 
 new station. After he left the Indian school under Mr. 
 Jones, he had gone into the service of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, but quitted it in 1837, intending to settle at 
 the Rapids, where he might have the privilege of a re- 
 gular ministry. Mr. Jones, however, invited him to 
 take charge of a school at the Upper Settlement, where 
 he evinced a steadfastness of principle and intelligence of 
 mind that marked him out as fitted for a more respon- 
 sible situation ; and it was accordingly arranged that he 
 should be sent to Cumberland. He had, moreover, the 
 advantage of belonging to the same tribe (the Crees), 
 and would not therefore have a new dialect to acquire. 
 
 * Pages 21 and 28. 
 
148 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 He set out in the summer of 1840, accompanied by 
 his wife and mother, for to him it was given to see a 
 parent brought to Christ, and after a voyage of between 
 400 and 500 miles, through lakes and rivers, arrived 
 safely at the scene of his future labours. 
 
 It would be difficult to convey an idea of the desola- 
 tion that met their view, a wide-spread lake, bordered 
 with swamps, and shut in on all sides by a forest of 
 unknown extent. There were, of course, no signs of 
 cultivation, and a few Indian tents were the only human 
 habitations. The banks of the lake afforded no spot on 
 which they could fix their abode, but they found a few 
 patches of dry ground upon an island, on which Mr. 
 Budd pitched the tent, and hastened to provide some 
 more substantial dwelling for the winter. 
 
 This was no easy task ; there was no wood fit for build- 
 ing within several miles, and he had no cattle to bring 
 it from a distance ; nor was there any one to assist him 
 in the erection of a house except the boat's crew who 
 had brought him here, and they must not tarry long, 
 lest the approach of winter should hinder their return. 
 But the once untaught Indian lad had become as diligent 
 and persevering in temporal as in spiritual things ; 
 partly by persuasion, and partly by giving some of his 
 own clothes in payment, he at last prevailed on a few of 
 the Indians to assist him, and before the winter set in 
 he had. succeeded in erecting a small log-house for his 
 own family, another for his hoped-for school, and a third 
 to serve as a store-house. This last was a very necessary 
 appendage to their dwelling ; for, knowing that no 
 food could be procured there but by fishing or shoot- 
 ing, the Missionaries at the Eed River had supplied 
 them not only with domestic utensils, tools, &c., but with 
 
CUMBERLAND STATION. 149 
 
 as much flour and pemican as would, they hoped, be 
 sufficient for them till the rivers should again he open, 
 and they could send them a fresh supply. 
 
 Cumberland Lake is a favourite resort of the Crees ; 
 the fish is plentiful, and there is a trading-post of the 
 Company on its banks ; and though the Indians never re- 
 mained long stationary, yet a considerable number might 
 at times be collected together. Their reception of Mr. 
 Budd was very friendly, and from the first they showed 
 so much desire for instruction, that when absent from the 
 spot a few of them, who were within reach, would return 
 on the Sunday to attend Divine service ; and some of 
 them very soon placed their children under his care. 
 
 We have not sufficient details of the next two years to 
 be able to give any connected account of the progress 
 made among these wild people ; but it seems that our 
 Catechist had, in the meantime, moved to a more eligible 
 spot, called the Pas, on the banks of the Sasketchewan 
 River, where he had begun to cultivate a piece of land. 
 How far the blessing of God rested on his spiritual 
 labours will be best judged of by the results. 
 
 In consequence of the strong desire expressed by Mr. 
 Budd for a visit from one of the Missionaries at Red 
 River, Mr. Smithurst left the Indian Village on May 26, 
 1842, and proceeded along the western shore of Lake 
 Winnipeg to the mouth of the Saskatchewan River. His 
 boat was manned by ten young men of his own congrega- 
 tion ; and those of our readers who remember how his heart 
 was pained and his spirit stirred during his voyage from 
 York Fort to Norway House,* will not wonder at his 
 being forcibly struck by the contrast between his former 
 
 * Page 122. 
 
150 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 and his present circumstances, surrounded as he now was 
 with intelligent Christians with whom he could hold in- 
 tercourse, and with whom he could daily unite in wor- 
 shipping their common God and Saviour, and enjoy the 
 rest and privileges of the Sabbath. He thus describes 
 the scene on one of these occasions : 
 
 " June 3. At our evening worship I was seated in a small tent 
 on a high bank, looking over the wide expanse of water, dotted 
 here and there with picturesque pine-clad islands : my own men 
 were on the ground by my tent door, and behind me were three 
 heathen Indians beside a small fire, miserably clothed in the 
 remains of an old blanket, contrasting strongly with the well-clad 
 cheerful looking Christians of my own party. We began by 
 singing, 
 
 From all that dwell below the skies,' 
 
 when suddenly the whole lake and islands near us appeared en- 
 veloped in flame. Almost uninterrupted flashes of brilliant 
 lightning glided along the surface of the lake, and seemed to 
 gather round the tall pines with which the islands are covered. 
 The peculiar locality, the companions by whom I was sur- 
 rounded the voice of prayer and praise mingling with the peal- 
 ing thunder, the roaring of the wind among the trees, and the 
 dashing of the waves against the rocks, conspired to raise feelings 
 I cannot describe. It was probably the first time that prayer 
 and praise had ever ascended from that little island. May they 
 have gone up as incense, acceptable through the Beloved ! " 
 
 In the hurry of setting off, Mr. Smithurst had omitted 
 to tell his men to bring their books with them, and was 
 not a little pleased to find that they all had, of their own 
 accord, brought their Bibles and prayer-books, and some 
 had also brought their hymn-books, &c. Contrary winds 
 and stormy weather frequently detained them for hours, 
 and sometimes for days, on the same spot ; and it was a 
 pleasant sight to see them passing their leisure time in 
 
CUMBERLAND STATION. 151 
 
 reading and committing to memory a hymn or a passage 
 of Holy Scripture. Mr. Smithurst remarks upon this : 
 
 " Had I been travelling in England with ten young people, 
 their ages varying from seventeen to thirty, I doubt if I should 
 have seen them thus, while halting by the way, refreshing their 
 souls with the words of Eternal Life. Oh that the Lord would 
 pour His Spirit upon Britain, lest in the last great day the poor 
 Indian should be found to have improved his two talents better 
 than she has done her five." 
 
 The unfavourable weather made this voyage a very 
 tedious one, and they had some difficulty in ascending 
 the Saskatchewan River. Sunday, June 19, was spent on 
 the shores of Cedar Lake ; and Mr. Smithurst writes : 
 
 " This is the third Sunday we have passed in this western 
 wilderness, far from the abodes of civilised men, where day after 
 day passes without the sight of any human being. Here is the 
 wide-spread lake, clothed in verdant foliage the lofty cedar and 
 towering pine raise their heads towards heaven in majestic gran- 
 deur the pelican, the crane, the swan, the eagle, and the other 
 feathered tribes, show forth the glory of their great Creator; 
 woods and rocks echo back the songs of praise and voice of 
 prayer : but no human tongue unites with us in giving honour, 
 glory, praise, and power to Him who died for us." 
 
 The voyage lasted twenty-six days, and it was not till 
 Wednesday, June 22d, that they reached the Pas. The 
 first sight that greeted them was a party of school children, 
 who, as soon as they espied the boat, ran down in the 
 midst of a pouring rain to the hank of the river, to 
 welcome the " white praying-master ;" and it was not 
 long before Mr. Smithurst found a shelter and an affec- 
 tionate greeting beneath the roof of Mr. Budd. 
 
 Almost all the Indians were absent deer-hunting or 
 fishing, but on the afternoon of Saturday, Mr. Smithurst 
 
152 THE KAINBOW IN THE NOKTH. 
 
 was delighted to see a whole fleet of canoes, containing 
 sixty or seventy persons, making their way down the 
 river. It was a pretty and a joyful sight as the Indians 
 jumped ashore, made their little boats secure for the 
 night, and then, after saluting Mr. Smithurst, proceed to 
 pitch their tents by the side of the Missionary dwelling. 
 " Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their 
 windows ?" 
 
 One of Mr. Smithurst's objects in visiting the station 
 was to baptize any who should be prepared for the sacred 
 rite, but his mind misgave him when he found how large 
 a number presented themselves as candidates. He could 
 not imagine that so many could be properly prepared ; 
 and knowing that the Roman Catholic priests had from 
 time to time visited the neighbourhood, and, without 
 giving them any instruction, had baptized all who were 
 willing, tying a metal cross round their necks, and assur- 
 ing them they were safe, he could not repress the fear 
 that, notwithstanding Mr. Budd's faithful Scriptural in- 
 struction, some of the people must have imbibed erro- 
 neous views. During Saturday evening and the early 
 part of Sunday morning, he examined them individually 
 and searchingly, and to his grateful satisfaction found, 
 that not only were their minds informed, but their hearts 
 awakened. A deep sense of their own lost state by 
 nature the necessity of a change of heart by the opera- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit a dependence on Christ alone 
 for acceptance, and an entire renunciation of all self-de- 
 pendence, were evident in them all ; and many of them, 
 when speaking of their past lives, were greatly affected. 
 Their " hearts," they said, " were so sore they were ready 
 to break in pieces." All had given up their heathen 
 practices, regularly attended every means of grace in their 
 
CUMBERLAND STATION. 
 
 153 
 
 power, and had endured considerable opposition from 
 their heathen neighbours. 
 
 The doubts and fears which had harassed the mind of 
 Mr. Smithurst were now changed into gratitude and joy, 
 as, in the afternoon of Sunday, he admitted into the fold 
 of Christ thirty-eight adults with their children, eighty- 
 seven in the whole, thus "called out of darkness, "and 
 brought into " marvellous light." And it would be vain 
 to attempt to describe the glowing thankfulness with 
 which Mr. Budd must have witnessed this result of his 
 devoted and self-denying labours. 
 
 The next day Mr. Smithurst married thirteen couple, 
 and expected the whole party would have immediately 
 returned to their distant hunting-grounds ; but they were 
 unwilling to depart, and, though short of food, lingered 
 on till Wednesday, when he was obliged to leave them ; 
 and thankful for all he had seen and heard, and bidding 
 a cordial " farewell" to Mr. Budd, he set out on his re- 
 turn. Floating swiftly down the river, and having a 
 fair wind on Lake Winnipeg, he reached his home in 
 seven days by the same route that had taken him nearly 
 a month on his way to Cumberland. 
 
 Time passed on, Mr. Budd continued his work of faith 
 among the people ; one heathen family after another 
 joined the congregation, the weekly school increased, 
 and on Sundays many adults assembled to learn to read, 
 and to attend Divine service. But the want of an or- 
 dained minister was increasingly felt, and many a prayer 
 ascended to God, and urgent entreaties were sent home, 
 that this boon might be conferred upon them ; but the 
 difficulties in which, the Society was then placed* pre- 
 
 * Page 132. 
 
154 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 vented their acceding to this request till the year 
 1844. 
 
 In the meantime Mr. Budd had been, in the summer 
 of 1843, greatly tried by the arrival of a Romish priest, 
 who came with the undisguised intention of drawing 
 away the people. He erected a large wooden cross, 
 marked out the site of his intended house, and after bap- 
 tising about twenty of the heathen in the neighbourhood 
 (for all who were in the habit of attending Mr. Budd's 
 instructions stood firm), returned to the Red River, in- 
 tending to come back in the spring to take up his per- 
 manent abode there. But on his way he met with a 
 fearful death, and, thankful as our catechist was that his 
 people were preserved from temptation to error, he could 
 but be greatly shocked at the manner in which his diffi- 
 culties were removed. 
 
 In August 1844, the Rev. J. and Mrs. Hunter arrived 
 at York Fort, and lost no time in proceeding to the Pas. 
 They had a tedious and uncomfortable voyage of thirty- 
 eight days, sometimes covered with fog or frost, some 
 times drenched with rain, and more than once they 
 were in considerable danger from the storms on Lake 
 Winnipeg. 
 
 But all the toils, fatigues, and discomforts of the way 
 were forgotten when, on the evening of Sept. 26, their 
 place of destination came in sight, and they saw forty 
 or fifty school children, with their happy faces, running 
 down to the water's edge to give them the same welcome 
 greeting that they had before given to Mr. Smithurst. 
 Presently the men appeared, and as Mr. Hunter con- 
 trasted the quiet frankness of their manner and address 
 with the heathen he had seen upon his route, he felt 
 what cause there was for thankfulness and hope. It was 
 
CUMBERLAND STATION. 165 
 
 more than time for them to have gone to the winter 
 hunting-grounds to get food and procure furs, wherewith 
 to pay for the clothing and ammunition they had pur- 
 chased from the Company, and many had set off some 
 weeks before. But these had still waited from day to 
 day, hoping, before they went, to see their own " white 
 praying-master," and to be by him admitted into the 
 visible Church of Christ. 
 
 Thirty-one adults and thirty-seven children were bap- 
 tized on the following Sunday, after an examination as 
 satisfactory to him as a similar one had been to Mr. 
 Sinithurst two years before. The candidates came up 
 to the font in families, fathers and mothers giving up 
 themselves and their children to the service of their 
 Lord, while the frequent tear or the loud sob testified to 
 the deep emotion with which they entered into covenant 
 with their God. 
 
 A few families found sufficient food in the neighbour- 
 hood to allow of their remaining at the Pas through the 
 winter ; but the rest set off to their distant haunts, and 
 Mr. Hunter grieved to think how long a time would 
 elapse before they would again be under any regular in- 
 struction. But it was pleasant to hear them diligently 
 inquiring the exact time of Christmas Day, and express 
 their hopes of being then within reach of the station ; 
 and he found from Mr. Budd, that while absent they 
 never failed to keep holy the Lord's day, besides having 
 frequent prayer-meetings among themselves. 
 
 Nothing could be much more comfortless, as to out- 
 ward things, than the first winter that Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hunter spent at the Pas. Except a few things they had 
 brought in their own boat, they had been obliged to leave 
 all their furniture, baggage, and English stores behind 
 
156 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 them at Norway House, and there was no possible way 
 of getting them from hence till the following August. 
 Mr. Budd had used every effort to provide a dwelling for 
 them ; but without proper timber, and with only inex- 
 perienced Indians to assist him, the best habitation he 
 had been able to construct, and which consisted of only 
 two small rooms, was so imperfect that it admitted in 
 their turn " rain, wind, snow, and musquitoes." 
 
 The store of provisions from Red River (for though 
 Mr. Budd had brought some land into cultivation, it 
 yielded but a small proportion of what was required), fell 
 short before the winter was half over ; the school children 
 lived for five months exclusively on fish, and the Mis- 
 sionary families would have had no other food, had not the 
 gentleman in charge of the nearest fort (above a day's 
 journey off) kindly spared a little pemican and flour 
 from his own winter store. 
 
 But, far beyond all these things, was the anxiety they 
 felt on account of Mrs. Hunter's state of health far as 
 she was from all civilised society, and beyond the reach 
 of the most common comforts. It pleased God, how- 
 ever, to endue them both with a large measure of pa- 
 tience and cheerful contentment ; Mrs. Hunter was 
 brought safely through her trial, and Mr. Hunter was 
 able to write : 
 
 " Since our arrival here I have had much to cheer and en- 
 courage me. Of difficulties, trials, and privations we have had a 
 full share, these however we were prepared to find in this secluded 
 spot. But when I look at the number of Indians I have been 
 permitted to baptize, their increasing desire for instruction, and 
 the general consistency of their lives ; when I think also of the 
 number of Indians from all quarters who come to visit us and 
 send us their children, I cannot but be cheered, and look on all 
 
CUMBERLAND STATION. 157 
 
 my trials as nothing compared with the abundance of my joy. 
 Most thankful are we for the prayers of our friends in England, 
 they have not been in vain." * 
 
 Several interesting circumstances occur from time to 
 time in the journals of the station at Cumberland Pas, 
 but the only one we shall notice is the baptism of an 
 Indian of the name of Wetus. He was the son of a 
 chief, and himself held some kind of authority in the 
 tribe. His parents had been baptized by a Roman 
 Catholic priest when he was quite a child, but they had 
 suffered him to remain a heathen, and as he grew up he 
 became a noted conjurer. 
 
 His attention had been drawn to Christianity from 
 the time of Mr. Budd's first arrival, and he was so far 
 moved by it as to attend at Divine worship, and to lay 
 aside many of his heathen practices. He even encou- 
 raged his people to examine into this new religion ; he 
 resisted all the persuasions of his heathen and Roman- 
 
 * Mrs. Hunter did not long live to share her husband's la- 
 bours, she died about three years after her arrival in Eupert's 
 Land. Few ladies have been called to suifer the privations to 
 which she was exposed, but none could have borne them with a 
 more uncomplaining cheerfulness. Her end was peace. Taking 
 leave of her husband and her only child, her expression was, 
 " Dearly as I love you, I love my Saviour more." And truly she 
 had shewn that love by her endeavours to bring others to love 
 Him too. The women and children of the congregation were 
 her peculiar charge, but even the young men would sometimes 
 look to her for advice and instruction. One of the last times 
 she is mentioned was at Christmas 1846, when she made the 
 school girls very happy by a treat of the unwonted luxuries of 
 tea and cake, and by distributing among them some simple pre- 
 sents sent her for the purpose by a lady in England. Mr. 
 Hunter has since married again. 
 
158 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 Catholic relatives to persecute the converts, and often 
 attended their prayer-meetings in the hunting-grounds. 
 
 But the world had not quite lost its power ; the posi- 
 tion he held among the heathen was too dear to him to 
 be as yet relinquished, and he continued to halt hetween 
 two opinions ; till at last, by the grace of God, the snare 
 was broken, and he was enabled to range himself on the 
 Lord's side. On Easter Day, 1847, he was baptized 
 with his wife and children, and received the name of 
 Louis Constant. 
 
 From that time he has continued to grow in grace, 
 and his uprightness, intelligence, and piety render him 
 a valuable assistant in the work of religion among his 
 people. He a ad another chief named Cook are inde- 
 fatigable in their endeavours to lead others to Christ, 
 and their efforts have been blessed to the bringing in 
 of several heathen.* 
 
 In 1845, Mr. Hunter had paid a visit to the Red 
 
 * Some time since he put into Mr. Hunter's hands the last 
 relic of his former superstition. It is a roll of birch rind, about 
 four feet long and nearly a foot broad, and on the inner surface 
 are scratched with some pointed instrument various hieroglyphic 
 devices, intended to mark out the straight road to long life and 
 happiness. This road is guarded on one side by figures of the 
 sacred goose, and on the other by a corresponding row of the 
 heads and arms of some of their other deities, while the supposed 
 paths of the wicked diverge from the main road and are lost. 
 But the whole is so uncouth, that it is only worthy of attention 
 as a proof of the extravagancies into which the human mind is 
 sufiered to fall when it has departed from the living God. And 
 yet it cannot rest satisfied without a guide, real or self- created. 
 
 Louis Constant told Mr. Hunter that he used to regard this 
 roll with the same reverence he now felt for his Bible, but that, 
 as might be expected, it had since his conversion been to him a 
 source of shame and sorrow. 
 
CUMBERLAND STATION. 159 
 
 Eiver, where not only was his spirit refreshed by inter- 
 course with his brethren, but the sight of the Indian 
 village, with its little church, its white- washed cottages, 
 and its fields of waving corn, encouraged him to look 
 forward with eager hope to a time when the banks of 
 the Saskatchewan might look as bright and smiling. 
 
 Nor was it very long before his hopes began to be 
 realised. Gradually the Indians became willing to ex- 
 change their erratic habits for a more quiet and civilised 
 life. Several of them fixed themselves on an island, 
 which was soon covered with wheat, barley, potatoes, 
 turnips, and peas ; and five little dwellings were shortly 
 after erected on it. Other cottages were grouped round 
 the Mission House, and some were built on the opposite 
 side of the river, near the spot which Mr. Hunter had 
 fixed upon for his future church. 
 
 In 1848 we read, that nearly all the Indians who 
 frequented the Pas had put themselves under Christian 
 instruction ; four hundred and twenty-four had been 
 baptized, and though among these there still lingered 
 some prejudices and superstitions, yet they were all 
 more or less adorning their profession by holy and con- 
 sistent lives. 
 
 In summer there were often as many as four hundred 
 at public worship ; there were fifty-seven communicants, 
 some of whom, if absent at Christmas or at Easter, 
 would return on foot* from a distance of one or two 
 hundred miles, to gather round the table of the Lord. 
 
 A spirit of piety and devotion was cultivated in their 
 families their social and domestic comforts increased ; 
 and could we by some magic power transport ourselves 
 
 * With their strange-looking snow-shoes. 
 
160 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 to the shores of the Saskatchewan, we should see that 
 there, as everywhere else, godliness has the promise of 
 the life that now is as well as that which is to come. 
 If our visit were in winter, we would cross the frozen 
 river with our Missionary and his wife, enter some of 
 the cottages, and compare with some dirty Indian tent 
 the scene that would greet us here the bright fire, the 
 clean and comfortable room, the family gathered round 
 the cheerful hearth, and thankfully rejoicing in their 
 altered circumstances. Or if we made a summer flight, 
 we might stand at the close of some calm day at 
 the door of the Mission House, and listen while we 
 heard on the nearer shore a father conducting the devo- 
 tions of the family ; or, borne across the water from the 
 farther bank, in the stillness of the evening air our ears 
 would catch the sound of many voices mingling in 
 praises to Redeeming Love. 
 
 We shall have occasion to refer once more to this 
 station at Cumberland Pas before we close our history. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LAC LA KONGE MOOSE LAKE. 
 
 " Prom you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in 
 Macedonia and Achaia, hut also in every place your faith to God- 
 ward is spread abroad." 1 Thess. i. 8. 
 
 THE rays of heavenly truth that had penetrated to the 
 neighbourhood of Cumberland Lake did not stop there ; 
 they travelled onward through the dense forest and ex- 
 tended plain ; and it shall be our present object to trace 
 somewhat of their farther progress. 
 
 The Cumberland Indians, in then* various expeditions, 
 frequently met with people from different places, and of 
 other tribes. To these they would speak of Christ and 
 His salvation ; and, led by their example and persua- 
 sion, persons from various quarters often arrived at 
 the Mission Station to hear what " this new thing " 
 might be. 
 
 One of the earliest of these inquirers was a chief 
 named Heche Hookemow, from Lac la Ronge,* four 
 hundred miles to the north-west of Cumberland. No 
 Missionary, or even native catechist, had ever visited 
 those distant regions ; but he had, while hunting, heard 
 of the Gospel from some of Mr. Budd's first converts ; 
 and now, in 1842, came down to make inquiry for 
 himself. 
 
 Mr. Budd received him gladly, gave him as much in- 
 
 * There is a small outpost of the Company at Lac la Konge, 
 dependent on the still more distant post of He de la Crosse. 
 
164 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 struction as the shortness of his stay permitted, arid on 
 his departure supplied him with some elementary* 
 books, by which he might continue to improve himself. 
 His appetite for further knowledge was quickened at 
 every step he took ; again and again Jie re- visited the 
 Pas, each time gathering up from Mr. Budd or Mr. 
 Hunter some fresh crumbs of eternal truth, and on his 
 return home distributing them to those around. 
 
 So anxious were these poor people to hear of Christ 
 and His salvation, that on these occasions they gave 
 their chief no rest. One party after another came into 
 his tent to listen to his tidings ; when some retired to 
 seek for rest or refreshment, others took their places ; 
 the night as well as the day was spent hi telling and 
 hearing of the love of God ; and on one occasion Heche 
 Hookemow was thus kept up for four successive nights. 
 His desire for knowledge still increased ; and in 1 846 
 he paid a longer visit to the Pas, put himself under 
 regular instruction, and was, in June of the same year, 
 baptized by the name of Paul ; his wife and two children 
 being admitted to the same privilege. 
 
 A few weeks earlier, Mr. Hunter had also baptized 
 another of the Lac la Ronge Indians, whose history 
 runs, in some respects, parallel with that we have just 
 related. His heathen name was Mistinisquavoo ; he 
 was a noted conjurer, and a leading man among his 
 people. But there was something in him that attracted 
 the attention and awakened the interest of Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, the gentleman then in charge of the post ; and 
 about the same time that Heche Hookemow first visited 
 Mr. Budd, Mr. Mackenzie took Mistinisquavoo to 
 Norway House. There he remained for some months, 
 * Probably spelling-books, &c. 
 
LAC LA KONGE MOOSE LAKE. 165 
 
 under the instruction of a Wesleyan Missionary, and 
 returning to Lac la Konge spoke to others of the things 
 he had himself received. 
 
 Anxious for farther instruction, and for admission into 
 the fold of Christ, he and his wife went to Cumberland 
 early in 1846, and were, as we have said, baptized by 
 Mr. Hunter, receiving the names of Abraham and 
 Sarah. 
 
 The spirit of inquiry among the Lac la Ronge In- 
 dians was not confined to the two cases we have men- 
 tioned ; others had visited the Mission Station, but 
 could not remain long enough to gain much knowledge ; 
 and Mr. Hunter had already, in 1845, sent thither 
 James Beardy, one of his own Indians, to help them 
 forward as far as he could.* 
 
 Beardy found twenty families ready at once to em- 
 brace Christianity. He became so much interested 
 in his work, as to determine to remain there through 
 the winter. Though but a beginner in the school of 
 Christ, he diligently laboured to teach them all he knew 
 himself, aiming, to use his own words, to " make them 
 feel that they were sinners and had broken God's holy 
 law, and thus stood in need of the salvation which God 
 has provided for us in the blood and righteousness of 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 * One of these visitors was a man who, with his wife, set off 
 in the summer of 1844, in a canoe, taking with them the two 
 daughters of one of their friends, who were to be left behind at 
 the school. Before they had gone much above half-way, the 
 frost set in and the rivers were impassable. Nothing daunted, 
 they pitched their tent where they were, supported themselves 
 and their young companions as best they could during the 
 winter, and as soon as the rivers were again open pursued 
 their voyage. 
 
166 THE EAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 He daily taught and prayed with any that were within 
 reach, and on Sundays met them in the large room at 
 the fort, which was kindly lent to him for the purpose, 
 and which was always completely filled. 
 
 In 1846, Mr. Hunter sent Mr. James Settee* as cate- 
 chist to this promising station; and provided, as Mr. 
 Budd had heen in 1840, with flour, pemican, clothes, 
 tools, and everything he was likely to want till the fol- 
 lowing spring, he set out early in June, and in about 
 three weeks arrived at his destination. 
 
 He found the people in as promising a state as he had 
 expected ; but soon after his arrival he experienced a 
 severe trial in the death of many of the converts from 
 measles. Five men and twelve women, besides several 
 children, were thus carried off, and it was a grief both 
 to themselves and their teachers that they had had no 
 opportunity of being received into the visible Church of 
 Christ. That many, if not all, w r ere living members of 
 His mystical body, there is every reason to hope ; all 
 bad forsaken their heathen practices, regularly attended 
 every means of grace, and were in the habit of daily 
 family prayer ; and many of them, with their dying lips, 
 declared their simple reliance on the Lord Jesus, often 
 using such expressions as these : " I love my Lord 
 and my Saviour, and I will praise Him while I have 
 breath." 
 
 In the summer of 1847, Mr. Hunter himself visited 
 this new station, and one or two incidents that occurred 
 on the way are worth mentioning. One of these was 
 
 * Mr. Settee had, like Mr. Budd, been one of Mr. West's 
 earliest pupils in the Indian School (p. 26) ; like him, he was 
 bringing forth the fruit of the seed then sown, and was now 
 sent forth to be another proof of the value of native agency. 
 
LAC LA EONGE MOOSE LAKE. ] 67 
 
 his meeting with Kinnakahpoo, chief of the Rat River, 
 and his wife, who were on their way to Cumberland, 
 anxious to be received into the Church of Christ. Mr. 
 Hunter had a good deal of conversation with them, and 
 finding them well instructed in the chief truths of our 
 holy faith, he baptized them both on the banks of the 
 river. A few days after : he met with two other canoes 
 full of Indians, also on their way to Cumberland ; but 
 as then: knowledge was far below that of Kinnakahpoo 
 and his wife, he persuaded them to turn back, and ac- 
 company him for farther instruction. 
 
 When he reached the lake, he proceeded to a small 
 dwelling which Mr. Settee had built for himself, under a 
 lofty rock of granite, on the opposite bank to the Com- 
 pany's fort. A number of Indians had pitched their 
 tents round the fort, and as soon as they espied Mr. 
 Hunter's boat, they came paddling their canoes across 
 the water, and welcomed him with an overflowing joy 
 that almost overcame him. 
 
 He found a school already established, at which thirty 
 boys and twenty-three girls received daily instruction, 
 and on Sundays the adults who attended raised the 
 number to sixty-eight. 
 
 The day after his arrival, he examined the candidates 
 for baptism, and found them sufficiently well instructed 
 to allow of his baptizing forty-eight adults and fifty-nine 
 children on the following Sunday. Besides these, several 
 had been previously baptized at Cumberland, fifty or sixty 
 more were candidates for the sacred rite, and not one hea 
 then now remained among the Indians of Lac la Ronge 
 
 One of the men who was at this time baptized by Mr. 
 Hunter, and who had received the name of John Venn, 
 died soon after. He was ready for the summons, and 
 often said to his wife, " Prepare your mind, my wife ; I 
 
168 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 must soon die. I am looking for the time when my 
 Saviour shall send for me. I hope I am ready for Him 
 who has so loved me as to die for my sins, and on whom 
 I wholly cast myself. Pray to Him, my wife, pray to 
 Him for our little girl, that we may all be saved in the 
 day of His appearing." 
 
 When Mr. Settee was appointed to Lac la Ronge, 
 James Beardy pushed on to the neighbourhood of an- 
 other of the Company's trading ports, called He de la 
 Crosse, four or five hundred* miles still farther in the 
 interior, and from whence Mr. Hunter had received 
 many applications for a teacher. 
 
 When Beardy arrived there, he found that two Roman 
 Catholic priests were in the neighbourhood, and that 
 some of the poor people, despairing of obtaining a 
 teacher of what they called " the English religion," and 
 yet unwilling to remain in heathenism, had been bap- 
 tized by them. The priests had, after their baptism, 
 tied round their necks the same kind of cross we have 
 spoken of before, and instead of giving them instructions 
 from the Word of God, had distributed among them a 
 paper, " marked in small dark lines with the names of 
 patriarchs and apostles, representations of heaven, earth, 
 angels, saints, stars, churches, the flood, Solomon's Tem- 
 ple, &c. ; the principal object being a straight road lead- 
 ing to heaven, intended to represent the Roman Catholic 
 religion, with branch roads marked ' Pretended Reforma- 
 tions,' &c., leading, of course, to a very different place. "f 
 
 * These calculations are, of course, but vague ; the distance 
 represented on the map is a very imperfect guide, as the wind- 
 ings of the rivers and lakes often double the apparent length of 
 route, which can only be judged of by the time it occupies. 
 
 f Let our readers compare this with the heathen roll mentioned 
 in the last chapter, as having been given up by Louis Constant. 
 
LAC LA KONGE MOOSE LAKE, 169 
 
 Some of these Indians had, however, resisted all the 
 solicitations of the priests ; ignorant as they were, they 
 seem to have felt that these outward things could not 
 satisfy their souls ; and they had still waited for an Eng- 
 lish teacher. Several even of those who had heen bap- 
 tized had, soon after, of their own accord, thrown away 
 their crosses, and were anxious to receive instruction. 
 
 The desire for instruction had spread still further 
 than even He de la Crosse and Lac la Eonge, and in 
 1848, our Cumberland missionary received a message 
 from a chief named Tripe de Roche,* near Fort Chippe- 
 wyan, in the Athabasca country, said to be a thousand 
 miles from He de la Crosse, speaking of his own and his 
 people's unwillingness to put themselves under the Ro- 
 man Catholic priests, and earnestly requesting a teacher ; 
 but hitherto there have been no means of complying with 
 this request. 
 
 The influence of the Cumberland Indians was not felt 
 only in these distant places ; several of the inquirers who 
 visited the Pas were from nearer parts of the country. 
 Some were from among the Nippeweens, a tribe import- 
 ant, not only on account of its own numbers, but as 
 being in continual communication with the fiercer and 
 still more numerous tribes, called the " Plain" Indians. 
 Others came from Moose Lake, a secluded spot, two 
 days' distance from the Pas, where the officer in charge 
 of the Company's post had a care for the souls of the 
 Indians round him, and added his own instructions to 
 the information they had obtained from their companions 
 in the hunting-grounds. 
 
 Mr. Hunter several times visited this place, and in 
 
 * Rockweed. 
 
170 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 his different journeys had opportunities of seeing more 
 of the Indian idolatry and superstitions than he had be- 
 fore witnessed ;* but our limits forbid us to linger here, 
 and we must only add, with regard to Moose Lake, that 
 several of the Indians who frequent it have been bap- 
 tized, and that it is considered so promising a field, that, 
 as we shall hereafter see, steps have been taken to make 
 it a permanent station. 
 
 MANITOBA LAKE. 
 " Let patience have her perfect work." St. James, i. 4. 
 
 We have taken a new motto for the concluding part 
 of this chapter, for it will contain a history very differ- 
 ent from those we have already related, and will afford 
 
 * On one occasion he passed a sacred stone, round which the 
 Indians would often meet, smoke their pipes as an act of adora- 
 tion, and present to it offerings of tobacco, beads, or broken 
 earthenware, depositing them in holes with which the stone was 
 perforated. Several times he observed in the more frequented 
 spots a kind of idol, made by a long pole being driven into the 
 ground, with a head rudely carved upon it ; sticks were fastened 
 across for arms, and rags of various colours were hung about it. 
 Persons saluted it as they passed, but Mr. Hunter could not 
 learn that it was intended for any particular deity. More than 
 once he passed their feasting- tents, while the ceremony was 
 going on. One of these was to ensure an abundant supply of 
 wild geese, and on these occasions, decked out in any finery they 
 could procure, their faces painted red, and with red feathers in 
 their hair, men, women, and children, with frightful yells and 
 shouts, would dance round and round the figure of a goose, and 
 then feast to excess on provisions that had been stored up for 
 the purpose. 
 
MANITOBA LAKE. 171 
 
 another proof that though a Paul should plant, or an 
 Apollos water, it remaineth with God alone to give 
 the increase. 
 
 The Rev. A. and Mrs. Cowley arrived from England 
 in the autumn of 1841 ; and, early in the summer of 
 1842, they proceeded to what had for some time ap- 
 peared a promising station on the shore of the Lake 
 Manitoba. This lake lies to the north-west of the Red 
 River, and the spot proposed now to he occupied is 
 about three hundred miles from that settlement. It 
 is partly accessible by land, and Mr. and Mrs. Cowley 
 performed most of the journey in the rude carts of the 
 country, carrying with them, as usual, provisions for 
 the next twelve months, and a little live stock for the 
 commencement of a mission farm. After a very fatiguing 
 journey they arrived at the spot, and were delighted 
 with the landscape all around. Before them was the 
 lake, stretched out in quiet grandeur, reflecting, as in a 
 glassy mirror, the scene around ; the shores were bor- 
 dered with a belt of pasturage, and beyond lay what 
 seemed interminable woods of oak and poplar ; while 
 the numerous fish that sported in the clear waters, and 
 the birds that skimmed along their surface, gave life 
 and animation to the whole. 
 
 Far different was the moral prospect : the Indians 
 that frequented the neighbourhood were of the Saulteaux 
 tribe, and we have before * spoken of the fierceness of 
 their character, and their impatience of control, even on 
 the banks of the Red River ; and here, where the silver 
 trumpet of the Gospel had never yet been sounded, they 
 were still more wild and untamed. 
 
 * Page 94, 109, &c. 
 
172 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 A tent was soon pitched for our wearied travellers ; 
 and Mr. Cowley, with the help of a servant he had 
 brought with him, set about the erection of a more sub- 
 stantial dwelling. 
 
 It contained only two rooms, sixteen feet square ; 
 one of which was for their own use, and the other for 
 their servant's : but, small and inconvenient as it was, 
 they were thankful to take possession of it in the fol- 
 lowing October, though they were still destitute of bed- 
 stead, chairs, or any other article of furniture, except 
 one table given them by Mrs. Cockran. 
 
 There is a Company's trading-post on the shores of the 
 Manitoba Lake, and this, added to the unfailing abun- 
 dance of fish, renders it a favourite resort of the Indians, 
 who sometimes collect there in considerable numbers. 
 
 As was the case with Mr. Hunter at Cumberland, 
 Mr. Cowley came in contact with many Indian super- 
 stitions which had long before disappeared from the 
 neighbourhood of the Red River. The Saulteaux chief 
 here had in his possession a birch-rind roll, very similar 
 to the one we have before described as having belonged 
 to the Cree chief, Louis Constant ; and on one occasion 
 Mr. Cowley observed an instance of superstition different 
 from any we read of elsewhere. He says : 
 
 " One day I saw something hanging on a tree, and went to 
 look at it. It consisted of twenty small rods, peeled and painted 
 red and black, and fastened together in a plane, with cords of 
 bark. A piece of tobacco was placed between the tenth and 
 eleventh rods, and the whole was suspended perpendicularly 
 from a branch of the tree. It belonged to the old chief, who 
 told me that when he was a young man he lay down to dream,* 
 and that, in his dream, the moon spoke to him, and told him to 
 make this charm, and to renew it every new moon, that he might 
 
 * See page 11. 
 
MANITOBA LAKE. 173 
 
 have a long life. He had regularly done so ever since, till the 
 preceding summer, when he almost forgot it, and was taken so 
 ill as to be near dying ; but he remembered it, his friends did it 
 for him, and he recovered." 
 
 Is not this an example of untiring perseverance worthy 
 of a better cause ? 
 
 From the time of their first settling among them, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Cowley left nothing undone to win these people 
 to the truth. Their small house was open to them by 
 night as well as by day, for conversation, or for shelter, 
 or for food ; they never sent them away, but on more 
 than one occasion submitted to the dirty and disgusting 
 habits of their visitors for two or three days together. 
 
 The people seemed disposed to listen to the Gospel ; 
 those on the spot generally attended at the daily family 
 devotions, absent ones would, if possible, return to the 
 Sunday services, and while near, they would send their 
 children to the school. But these fair promises bore 
 no fruit ; after a little while they would suddenly 
 decamp, take their children with them, and not return 
 for months, while their own hearts remained unmoved. 
 
 Mr. Cowley 's journals, though interesting in them- 
 selves, do not afford many materials for our present 
 purpose. A narrative of blighted hopes and disappointed 
 expectations, though borne with constancy and patience, 
 and firm reliance on the promises of God, would not be 
 interesting in detail ; and we shall, therefore, only touch 
 on a few points that may convey to the reader some idea 
 of the work at Manitoba. 
 
 The outward trials and privations of our Missionaries 
 were not, perhaps, greater than those of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hunter at Cumberland, and they were borne with equal 
 cheerfulness; but their souls were cast down within 
 
174 THE RAINBOW IN THE NOETH. 
 
 them at the little effect produced by the preaching of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Occasionally Mr. Cowley's hopes were raised by one 
 and another coming to ask what he must do to be saved ; 
 but all was as a morning cloud, and melted away before 
 the next temptation. This was particularly the case 
 in the autumn of 1845. Many had appeared more 
 serious, and seemed to feel more interest than they had 
 hitherto done in the truths of the Gospel ; one man in 
 particular, who went by the name of Robert, gave up 
 his medicine bag and his heathen ways, and declared 
 his intention to become a Christian. But just before 
 the Christmas of the same year a trader arrived with a 
 large quantity of rum, which he offered to the Indians 
 in exchange for furs, or for anything else they possessed. 
 They eagerly sought to procure the "fire-water;" every- 
 thing they had was parted with to obtain it, and the 
 scenes of intoxication and riot that went on for two or 
 three weeks baffle all description. Not one escaped 
 the snare ; even Robert fell into it, and we never read 
 of any after- change in him. 
 
 Had these poor creatures exercised only their reason, 
 they would have been struck with the contrast their own 
 condition at this time presented to that of two Indians 
 from Red River, who happened just now to be at the 
 station. They also were Saulteaux ; but the grace of 
 God had some years before taken possession of their 
 hearts, and they were among the very few of their tribe 
 who had, with Pigwys, settled at the Indian Village. 
 They had left their home for some of the Saulteaux 
 hunting-grounds near the Manitoba Lake, and had now 
 come down to enjoy the Christmas services. They 
 remained some little time with Mr. Cowley, receiving 
 
MANITOBA LAKE. 175 
 
 the Lord's Supper, attending Divine worship, regular in 
 their own morning and evening devotions, and resisting 
 every temptation ; while their quiet bearing, and their 
 happy, peaceful countenances, gave additional proof of 
 the Spirit that dwelt within. 
 
 Year after year rolled away Mr. and Mrs. Cowley 
 had fixed their permanent abode at a place called Part- 
 ridge Crop ; the word was preached " in season and out 
 of season," but still there was no response. Civilisation 
 was, however, beginning to make some progress ; eight 
 little cottages were to be seen beneath the shade of 
 spreading oaks near the margin of the lake ; each 
 with its potatoe ground, one with its field of wheat 
 and barley, while the owner of another was master of 
 several head of cattle. The schools, too, went on well ; 
 and it often refreshed our Missionaries' drooping hearts 
 to see these little ones neatly and comfortably clad in 
 the garments they had given them, sitting round tho 
 room reading the word of God, or joining with their 
 sweet voices in some simple hymn. 
 
 Occasionally, too, some little incident would occur to 
 encourage hope : once, for instance, when Mr. Cowley 
 was, as usual, taking advantage of the general absence 
 of the Indians to go to some distant spot, he visited a 
 chief called Kakepi, who was for a while encamped at a 
 place forty or fifty miles from Partridge Crop. On his 
 arrival, he was, to his surprise, shown into a new tent 
 neatly lined with brushwood, and with a supply of logs 
 for fuel ; and he found it had been prepared for him, 
 because, as the people said, he would want to pray, and 
 their tents were too dirty for the purpose. 
 
 A gratifying proof was also given to our Missionary 
 that his unwearied efforts were not wholly unappreci- 
 
176 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 ated, when, in 1847, the question was raised whether 
 the station should not he abandoned. The Indians, 
 hearing something of it, came to him, earnestly request- 
 ing him not to leave them, and saying, that though they 
 were themselves too old to change, they wished their 
 children to become " praying people." One man strik- 
 ingly added, " I believe your message to be true, but if 
 it is, why did you not sooner come and tell us ? We 
 might now have been a praying people, instead of having 
 grown up heathens." What answer has the Christian 
 Churcji to give this man ? 
 
 The suspense in which Mr. Cowley remained till he 
 could know the decision of the Parent Committee on 
 this point, tested his own feelings ; it proved that his 
 affections were so drawn out to those people that, almost 
 fruitless as his labours had been, he could not bear the 
 thought of leaving them, and great was his thankful- 
 ness when, in the following year, the answer came from 
 home, " We must not yet give up the Saulteaux." 
 
 Even up to the last account, things still remain in 
 nearly the same state ; at times there seems a shaking 
 among the dry bones, as though the Spirit of God were 
 breathing upon them.. But again all is still ; and we 
 can only commend the Manitoba Station to the special 
 prayers of our readers, concluding our account with an 
 extract from one of Mr. Cowley 's letters : 
 
 " Iu God is my trust, and in Him is my confidence. He will 
 not, He cannot, fail me in time of my greatest need. The as- 
 surance of your prayers and the prayers of my friends is a great 
 comfort to me, but I pray to be kept from placing you or them 
 in the stead of Christ. His merits and gracious offices of love 
 are all-prevailing ; I embark my all upon the ocean of His love, 
 and trust His word of promise for every emergency." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AEKIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF BUPEBTS LAND. 
 
 " We are come as far as to you also in preaching the Gospel 
 of Christ." 2 Cor. x. 14. 
 
 THIS was the appropriate text, chosen by tlie first 
 Bishop of Rupert's Land, for the first sermon he 
 preached in his new diocese, at York Fort, on August 
 19th, 1849. 
 
 The appointment of a Bishop to this vast territory 
 forms so important an era in the history of our Missions 
 there, that we shall not hesitate to enter rather at large 
 upon the subject. 
 
 Our Missionaries had long felt the importance of 
 having among them a chief pastor, to whom they might 
 look for counsel and encouragement, whose presence 
 would strengthen the work they had begun, and under 
 whom a native ministry might be raised up to carry the 
 Gospel into hitherto untrodden regions. And we can 
 well understand the anxiety they would feel that, when- 
 ever their desire should be granted, the appointment 
 should fall on one who himself knew and possessed 
 " the unsearchable riches of Christ," and the desire of 
 whose heart would therefore be that they should be 
 ''preached among the Gentiles." 
 
178 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 We may then suppose how great was their thankful- 
 ness to hear that, in the good providence of God, Dr. 
 Anderson had been selected for the office, and to know 
 that no one could have heen chosen more fitted to 
 encounter the difficulties of a newly-formed diocese, more 
 competent to guide the studies of a future native minis- 
 try, more calculated to revive the drooping heart of the 
 Missionary, or to keep alive and quicken the spirit of 
 vital religion. 
 
 The consecration took place on May 29, 1849, in the 
 Cathedral Church of Canterbury (p. 69), and on June 7th 
 the Bishop, with his sister and his three sons, embarked 
 at Gravesend on board the Prince Rupert, accompanied 
 by the Rev. R. and Mrs. Hunt, and Mr. Chapman. 
 
 They had a prosperous voyage, and found much to 
 engage their attention in the new and strange sights 
 that met them on their way. Some of these are so gra- 
 phically described in a letter from the Bishop to his 
 young friends in England, that we shall make a few 
 extracts from it : 
 
 " Surely * they that go down to the sea in ships, see the 
 works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep!' We saw 
 them not in the gale or storm, for we were mercifully spared 
 from anything of the kind ; hut we saw enough of the icebergs 
 to realise the chief danger of the Arctic Sea. I cannot describe 
 to you their figures or infinitely-varied appearances. Some are 
 like churches, others like castles with towers, many like animals ; 
 in some you see the arches of bridges, with the water rolling be- 
 neath ; while the smaller pieces floating about are like the 
 frosted ornamental vases that are seen at home. 
 
 " Some were of the purest white, the surface generally of dead 
 white, the effect of the snow ; the lower part had a beautiful tint 
 when they approached the sea, either from the action of the 
 water, or from the clearness of the ice showing the colour of the 
 sea. Their height was very various ; many rose above the top- 
 
AKKIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF KUPEET S LAND. 179 
 
 mast ; and one, which was not much higher than the rest, was 
 150 feet. And when the effect was heightened by a bright sun- 
 shine, and each piece and mass was reflected in the water, we 
 gazed for a time to see whether the whole were not an illusion. 
 
 " I might also dwell on the tokens of God's goodness in the 
 enjoyment which seems to fill the tenants of the sea : they seem 
 to sport and play about in the very ecstasy of being ; whether the 
 whale sending up the column of water into the air ; or the seals 
 and porpoises crowding round the vessel ; or the little stormy 
 petrel following close behind, and picking up fragments ; or the 
 white polar bear, scarcely to be distinguished from the masses 
 of ice by its side all these we saw in their turn, and they re- 
 minded us how ' God openeth His hand, and satisfieth the desires 
 of every living thing.' We felt that the sea was a world in itself; 
 in every part of it bearing witness to God, and that, though we 
 cannot hear the voice, there is a tribute of praise ever ascending 
 from it, that the ice, and frost, and snow, as well as the expanse 
 of the calm and quiet sea, praise the Lord and reflect His glory." 
 Psal. cxlviii. 8 
 
 The Bishop also makes special mention of the beau- 
 tiful Aurora Borealis, " shooting up in streams of bril 
 liant light, and covering the whole of the zenith."* 
 
 One day in particular is spoken of as of surpassing 
 beauty. They lay becalmed among the ice in Hudson's 
 Straits, a few icebergs were in the distance, and much 
 field-ice about, large pieces of which occasionally floated 
 past the ship. One of the party writes, 
 
 " It was Sunday ; all around was calm and still as a smooth 
 lake, and we were forcibly reminded of the sea of glass men- 
 
 * God has not left Himself without witness even in these 
 inhospitable regions. The beauty and grandeur of the deep 
 forests, the broad rivers, the foaming cataracts, the glorious 
 firmament, and though last, not least, the mysterious Northern 
 Lights, testify that our common Father cared for His " red " child- 
 ren, before the Sun of Eighteousness arose upon them, and the 
 Gospel began to " cheer the shivering natives' dull abode." 
 
180 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 tioned in the Revelation. The sun was bright, the sky lovely , 
 and clouds, sun, and sky, all and everything were reflected in 
 the clear water. It seemed as if there were two heavens ; and, 
 perhaps, none of us had ever seen or imagined so lovely a sight 
 on earth." 
 
 As they proceeded into the bay they found the cold 
 severe, and on one occasion were "fast" in the ice for 
 some hours ; but they were soon free again, and shaping 
 their course towards the south, anchored off York Fort 
 on Thursday, August 16th. 
 
 Before they left the ship, the Bishop once more as- 
 sembled the companions of his voyage to join with him 
 in prayer and praise ; and standing on the deck beneath 
 the open canopy of heaven, they united in singing " Praise 
 God, from whom all blessings flow," then knelt down to 
 pray, and the Bishop pronounced the blessing. 
 
 It was with varied emotions that the little party first 
 set foot on this distant shore, adopting it, as it were, for 
 their present home, and the probable scene of the " un- 
 known to-morrow " of so many of their future years. 
 
 The chief factor at York Fort received the Bishop with 
 every mark of respect and kindness, and it was an ad- 
 ditional gratification to him to hear him speak of the 
 Missionaries who had been previously sent ; he had seen 
 and known them all, and assured the Bishop that better 
 men could not have been selected for the purpose, dwell 
 ing more especially on Mr. West and Mr. Cockran. 
 
 The Bishop soon gave token of the spirit in which he 
 had entered on his new diocese, and the next Saturday 
 we find him visiting the tents of some Indians in the 
 neighbourhood. About eighteen collected round him, 
 and attentively listened while himself and his chaplain 
 (Mr. Hunt) spoke to them, through an interpreter, the 
 
AREIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF RUPEBT's LAND. ]81 
 
 words of peace and salvation. Many were deeply affected, 
 and expressed their sorrow that their forefathers had 
 known nothing of the true God. 
 
 The Bishop commenced his public ministrations in his 
 new diocese on the Sunday after his arrival (August 19), 
 when divine service was held in the large hall of the 
 Fort, all the Company's servants and about fifty Indians 
 being present. 
 
 The text chosen by this truly missionary Bishop for 
 his first address was, as we have already said, from 2 Cor. 
 x. 14 ; and aware that many of the Indians would know 
 enough of English to understand much of what he said, 
 and that they would probably talk over with their friends 
 what they might hear, he addressed part of his sermon 
 especially to them, setting before them the Gospel, and 
 telling them it was chiefly to them and their countrymen 
 that he had been sent thus far "in preaching the Gospel 
 of Christ.''* 
 
 " So manifestly," we are told, " did his heart yearn over them 
 that, gradually and unconsciously, he moved from behind the 
 desk on which his Bible lay, and, with extended arms, advanced 
 towards that part of the room where they were sitting, his voice 
 meanwhile becoming tremulously expressive of the anxious 
 Christian affection which possessed his heart." 
 
 In the afternoon of the same day his lordship, with 
 some of his party, again visited one of the Indian tents. 
 As they approached they heard singing, and discovered, 
 to their surprise, that it was a hymn in Cree, set to 
 the tune of the Old Hundredth Psalm. When they 
 entered the tent, they found a fire of wood kindled, and 
 the ground covered with leaves and small boughs to keep 
 their feet from the grass. One or two boxes had been 
 
 * See text at head of chapter 
 
182 THE KATN130W IN THE NOI?TH. 
 
 provided for seats, and about forty Indians placed Uem 
 selves round them on the ground. 
 
 The Bishop and his chaplain had an animated and 
 pleasant conversation with them, and were much struck 
 with the good effect evidently produced by the distant 
 missionary stations. None of these people were Christ- 
 ians, but they had acquired a partial knowledge of the 
 truths of holy Scripture, partly from the annual visits 
 of Christian Indians from the fled River, but chiefly 
 from the Wesleyan missionaries at Norway House, from 
 whom they had learned several Cree hymns and English 
 tunes. They had some idea of sin, and some feeling of 
 the need of a Saviour ; they frequently talked together 
 on religious subjects, were in the habit of praying and 
 singing hymns every morning and evening, and most 
 urgent for further instruction ; and the Bishop could not 
 help agreeing with them that " it did seem very hard to 
 leave them without a teacher : " but there was no remedy, 
 for none could be spared. 
 
 Before they left the tent they taught them the prayer 
 of the Publican, and another short prayer for the Holy 
 Spirit, to whose immediate teaching they commended 
 them in the almost total absence of all human means. 
 
 During the Bishop's stay at York Fort four Indians 
 applied for baptism. Two of them resided on the spot 
 They were half-brothers ; and it appeared that one of 
 them, who went by the name of John, had, four years 
 before, visited Norway House, \vhere he heard the 
 Gospel preached by one of the Wesleyan missionaries. 
 Anxious to know more, he procured a copy of the Cree 
 alphabet, of which he soon made himself master; he 
 then obtained a Catechism in the same language, which, 
 with indefatigable perseverance and by embracing every 
 
AEKIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF BUPEET's LAND. 183 
 
 opportunity* of help from others, he learnt to read. 
 He communicated his knowledge to his brother Joseph, 
 whose heart was also touched, and they were now both 
 of them candidates for admission into the visible Church. 
 
 The other v two were also brothers ; they came from 
 Fort Churchill, 180 miles to the north of York Fort, 
 and had, it seems, long ago received religious in- 
 struction from one of the Company's officers, Mr. 
 Harding.f His departure, four years before, had de- 
 prived the Churchill Indians of all opportunity of 
 instruction, but these two brothers could not be satisfied 
 without learning more. They found that some Christian 
 Indians from Norway House went annually with the boats 
 to York Fort, and they had, every year since Mr. Hard- 
 ing's departure, come down to meet them there and to 
 get what information they could from them. They were 
 only able to have two or three days of intercourse with 
 them on each occasion ; yet so well had they improved 
 these short opportunities, and so much had their own 
 conversation and prayer with each other been blessed, 
 that they were now also considered fit to be baptized. 
 
 As we might suppose, " the knowledge of all the four 
 was confined to a few fundamental articles of our faith, 
 but their religious experience appeared by no means so 
 scanty, their hearts and consciences seemed to have 
 been divinely taught, and that with so little external 
 help that their attainments were the more remarkable." 
 
 * These were but rare, as the alphabet and Catechism were in 
 peculiar characters, invented by the late Mr. Evans, a Wesleyan 
 missionary. 
 
 f What a striking contrast does this, and similar instances 
 which we have mentioned, present to the state of these forts as 
 depicted in our first chapter ! Praised be God ! 
 
 M 
 
184 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 They were baptized by tbe Bishop himself on the fol- 
 lowing Sunday, August 26, in the afternoon service, in 
 the presence of a large congregation, the majority of 
 whom were Indians. 
 
 His lordship, in relating these circumstances, adds : 
 
 " They all came afterwards to our family prayers, and you 
 would have been much pleased with their devout demeanour ; 
 they are, as far as we can see, very humble, and anxious to be 
 guided into the way of salvation. We are very sorry to leave 
 them, but shall not cease to pray for them as our first-fruits 
 here. Among those present at the baptisms was Henry Prince, 
 the son of Pigwys, who has come here with the Red River boats, 
 I was delighted with him. There are three other Christians 
 also here from the Indian Village, and they quite astonish me as 
 to their manner and intelligence, and also (though I have not 
 yet had so much opportunity of testing it) as to their knowledge 
 of the word of God. Let me say here, that what I have seen of 
 the Indians, as yet, exceeds my expectations." * 
 
 The Bishop and his party remained ten days at York 
 Fort, and after a favourable passage up Port Nelson 
 River to Norway House, and thence along Lake 
 Winnipeg, arrived at the Red River on Wednesday, 
 October 3. 
 
 After stopping for a few hours at the Indian Village, 
 
 * During his stay at York Fort the Bishop met the Indians 
 every evening for reading and prayer. Besides those from the 
 Indian Village, there were fifteen from Norway House, and a 
 satisfactory testimony was borne to these men by five or six 
 English sailors, who were returning from Sir John Richardson's 
 last unsuccessful expedition, and who had been their companions 
 from that place. They spoke of them as one of the best be- 
 haved and happiest boat's crew they had ever met with ; they 
 never omitted their morning and evening prayer and singing, 
 and formed, they said, the greatest possible contrast to the 
 awful cursing and swearing of the Canadian Roman Catholic 
 voyageurs. 
 
ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF RUPERT'S LAND. 185 
 
 where they were delighted with the appearance of com- 
 fort all around, and where " the little church, the school- 
 house, and the parsonage, looked almost like an English 
 village," they proceeded to the Lower Fort,* where 
 comfortable rooms had been provided for them by the 
 Hudson's Bay Company. 
 
 They had intended to remain there through the winter, 
 but the death of Mr. Macullumf altered their plans, 
 and induced the Bishop to remove with his family to the 
 Upper Settlement, where his anxiety for the education 
 of the native youths led him to undertake for a time the 
 superintendence of the school. 
 
 The first church at which the Bishop preached was 
 the old one at the Eapids, on the Sunday after his 
 arrival. 
 
 " It was densely crowded, and many were outside at the doors 
 and windows endeavouring to see and hear. T preached again 
 from the same text as at York Fort, wishing to place it before 
 them as the text that dwelt most on my own mind in meeting 
 them for the first time. In remembrance of the many mercies 
 we had experienced by land and sea, I invited them to the Lord's 
 
 * The Lower Fort is on the river side, four or five miles below 
 the Eapids, and eight or nine above the Indian Village. 
 
 f The death of this good man took place just as the Bishop 
 was entering the Eed Kiver, at sunrise, on October 3. He had 
 been ordained by the Bishop of Montreal in ] 844 ; but failure 
 of health obliged him to relinquish ministerial work, and to con- 
 fine himself to tuition. He was at the head of a school at the 
 Upper Settlement for the sons of the officers of the Company, 
 where all his energies were devoted to the mental and spiritual 
 improvement of his pupils. He was a man of ability and solid 
 piety, and his loss was deeply felt in the colony. His anxious 
 desire had been to be permitted to see the Bishop, but this was 
 withheld from him, and his lordship's first appearance at the 
 Upper Church was to attend his remains to their resting-place. 
 
186 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 Supper on the following Sunday, and although it was not one of 
 their usual periods for the administration of the Sacrament, I 
 was not a little delighted to find no less than 167 communicants, 
 and this in a church which would not hold above 300. The 
 appearance of the congregation is very devotional ; they respond 
 well, they sing with heart and soul. The first burst of music, 
 when they all joined in the psalm of praise, quite upset and 
 overpowered me ; indeed I have not heard any sound sweeter to 
 my ear since I left England. The more I have seen of this 
 congregation and its pastor, the more I like them." 
 
 The people had been very anxious that their new 
 church should have been ready before his lordship's 
 arrival, but with all their efforts they could not get it 
 completed till the middle of December. 
 
 " The 19th," writes the Bishop, " was fixed on for the conse- 
 cration. The morning was very sharp and cold, and we had to 
 start betimes to accomplish the distance (fourteen miles) in 
 time. The sight on the river was a very pretty one, and if it 
 could have been witnessed by friends at home, it would have 
 been very gratifying to them. We were quite a cavalcade twelve 
 carioles, one after another, from this part of the settlement (the 
 Upper) ; and as we went on many more fell into the line. 
 At times the sun shone brightly on the pure surface of the 
 snow, and caused a dazzling reflexion, while the whole effect 
 was heightened by the pleasing sound of bells on many of the 
 horses. The church was extremely well filled before the com- 
 mencement of the service ; every one was interested, and I 
 cannot describe my own personal feelings ; my gratification, at 
 witnessing such a sight the Indian and the Briton uniting in 
 dedicating a fresh temple to the living God, and my thankful- 
 ness for being permitted to take any part in this good work. I 
 cannot reflect without self-abasement on the toil and labours 
 which others have endured in laying the foundation of the 
 Church of Christ in this land, while I have at once so much 
 enjoyment in reaping the fruit of their self-denial, of their days 
 and years of constant hardships. May God bless and guide me 
 in raising the superstructure : may He enable me in His mercy 
 to strengthen and consolidate the whole !" 
 
ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF RUPERT S LAND. 187 
 
 The next Sunday, December 23, the Bishop ordained 
 Mr. Chapman, when, many having come from the other 
 congregations, there was a still larger assemblage than 
 on the preceding Wednesday. The Bishop had given 
 notice of the Lord's Supper, and to his surprise 250 
 responded to the invitation. 
 
 " All drew near in the most devout and reverent manner ; I 
 saw the lips of" many moving in secret prayer, and several of 
 them were in tears. It was indeed a day of joy, the first Sabbath 
 and the first communion in that church,* and the ordination of 
 another minister of God's word." 
 
 On Christmas Day the Bishop officiated at the Indian 
 church. Circumstances had prevented his doing so 
 before, but, as he told the people, there could not have 
 been a more suitable day for his first addressing them 
 than that on which we hail the glad tidings of great joy 
 in the birth of a Kedeemer. He had gone down to the 
 village on the preceding afternoon, to be ready for the 
 services of the morrow, and our readers will like to hear 
 his own account of this Christmas Eve : 
 
 " The ride from the Lower Fort to the Indian church is the 
 prettiest in the settlement, and the day was bright and beautiful, 
 so that I saw it to advantage. The greater part of the way you 
 drive through the woods, till you suddenly come on the river at 
 a small island, where it widens and forms a large sheet of water 
 almost like a lake,f between the island and the Indian church. 
 The flag was hoisted before the houses of Mr. Smithurst and 
 the Chief Pigwys in honour of my arrival. In the afternoon I 
 visited the chief, and conversed with him for some time ; and 
 finding that his grandson was to be baptized the next day, I 
 promised to do this myself. In the evening, according to good 
 old English customs, Mr. Smithurst distributed meat and vege- 
 
 * The name of St. Andrew's had been fixed on by the people 
 for their church before the arrival of the Bishop, 
 f Or crescent bay ; see page 83. 
 
188 THE RAINBOW IN THE NOKTH. 
 
 tables among the poor : every widow six pounds of beef and a 
 quarter of a bushel of turnips. We then had service in the 
 church, as it is always Mr. Smithurst's custom to have a short 
 service on the evening before the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper. 
 
 " The following morning the weather had changed, a very high 
 wind, with a severe and drifting snow-storm : but we found no 
 empty seats in church, above 250 assembled to celebrate the 
 birth of their Saviour ; and out of these, 86 joined together to 
 commemorate His dying love at His holy table. 
 
 " There is a remarkable stillness in the Indian church during 
 divine service, and great reverence of manner ; and we noticed 
 here, as we had done at the Rapids, that many were in tears 
 while kneeling to communicate. 
 
 " I preached in the morning from Luke, ii. 1ft. In the after- 
 noon the first part of the service was read by Mr. Hunt in 
 English, the remainder in Cree by Mr. Smithurst. I baptized 
 the grandson of the chief, the child of his eldest Christian son ; 
 after which there was a short sermon in Cree read by the 
 schoolmaster, who had translated it from one in Jowett's ' Christ- 
 ian Visitor.' This is found to be generally a better plan than 
 the words of the clergyman being translated, sentence by sen- 
 tence, by an interpreter. The singing was remarkably good, and 
 the people seemed to enjoy it ; they have been taught by Mr. 
 Smithurst, and since Mr. Hunt's arrival he has kindly assisted. 
 We had the usual Christmas hymns, * While Shepherds,' ' High 
 let us swell,' and ' Hark, the herald angels sing ;' and at the 
 conclusion, the Evening Hymn to Tallis's beautiful melody. 
 I could not restrain the expression of my pleasure after all was 
 finished, and told them how much I had enjoyed the services of 
 the day, and how delighted I was to find that they could join in 
 such a way in the praises of our Heavenly Father." 
 
 The next morning, before the Bishop left the village, 
 the chief called to present him with a calumet of peace : 
 it was a very pretty one, with an ornamental handle, and 
 the mouthpiece was made of the celebrated red stone 
 mentioned by Catlin. 
 
 We shall conclude this chapter with a few notices of 
 
ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF RUPERT'S LAND. 189 
 
 the general state of the Missions on the Red Eiver up 
 to June 1850. 
 
 The Bishop had examined several of the schools 
 supported hy the Church Missionary Society, and was 
 much pleased with them, and mentions the universal 
 excellence of the writing and accuracy of spelling ; but 
 we have no farther particulars of any except the prin- 
 cipal one at the Rapids, where we are told that " while 
 the knowledge of sacred things takes precedence of all 
 other, the hoys of the first class are almost masters of 
 the maps and globes, and have made good progress in 
 English history." 
 
 On the 10th of January, 1850, a Missionary Meeting 
 was held, and a Church Missionary Association for 
 Rupert's Land was organised : sermons were also preached 
 in the different churches. The Governor made a muni- 
 ficent donation of 50?., and the congregations contributed 
 largely, considering their circumstances ; viz. 29Z. 9s. 
 in money, and wheat, barley, and cloth, to the amount 
 of nearly 50?. in addition. 
 
 In May, 1850, the Bishop held a confirmation, when 
 nearly four hundred persons renewed their baptismal 
 vows. 
 
 Mr. Chapman had, upon his ordination in December 
 1849, been appointed to the Middle Church, and Mr. 
 James was by this arrangement enabled to devote his 
 whole time and energies to the Rapids. Writing in 
 June 1850, he says : 
 
 " You will not expect to hear of the conversion of heathen in 
 my district, for though there are still numbers all around us, 
 there is not one remaining within its limits. I frequently, how- 
 ever, meet with some, and have close conversation with them. 
 They are generally Saulteaux, and their prevailing sentiment 
 may be expressed in the words of one of them to whom I lately 
 
190 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 spoke, * We like our ways as much as you do yours.' On my 
 telling him that on my knees I daily prayed that the Holy Spirit 
 might convert them all from darkness to light, he angrily re- 
 plied, * We shall be what we are.' But among our Christian 
 people the work of the Holy Spirit has been deepened, and the 
 life of Jesus more manifested. Especially among our adult 
 youths, I trace a decision and seriousness which calls forth the 
 thankfulness and joy of my heart. 140 were confirmed last 
 May; and the number of communicants (though I have lately 
 thought it right to exclude a few) amounts to 211, all of whom 
 I believe adorn their professions, and walk in newness of life. 
 Our spacious church is not far from full, and Sabbath dese- 
 cration is a thing I never witness." 
 
 We must add a word or two from our former friend, 
 Mr. Cockran: 
 
 " We do indeed rejoice in our excellent Bishop. He is truly 
 a missionary in all his feelings and operations, and his heart 
 burns with ardent zeal to spread the Gospel among the be- 
 nighted Indians. He has consecrated the Rapids Church, 
 ordained Mr. Chapman, and held four confirmations* in this 
 settlement, in which he has confirmed about 400 persons. 
 Those, with the 800 confirmed by the Bishop of Montreal in 
 1844, make a band of 1200 confirmed Christians among us. 
 At these four stations we have above 400 communicants. In 
 the burying -ground at the Upper Church lie the bodies of 425 
 persons, many of whom departed this life in the faith, and fear, 
 and love of God, and are now before His throne, and serve Him 
 day and night in His temple. Thus you see we have a Church 
 triumphant in heaven, as well as a Church militant on earth. 
 We may well ask, * What shall we render imto the Lord for all 
 the blessings He has bestowed upon us ? 'He hath done great 
 things for us, whereof we rejoice.' " 
 
 On June 6, 1850, the Bishop left the Red River on 
 a visit to Cumberland Pas, where his presence had been 
 most anxiously desired by Mr. Hunter and his Indians. 
 
 He was accompanied by the Rev. R. and Mrs. Hunt, 
 
 * This is exclusive of one at Cumberland station. 
 
AEEIVAL OF THE BISHOP OF EUPEET's LAND. 191 
 
 who had, it will be remembered, come out with him i~ 
 the Prince Kupert, and who had been appointed to 
 the remote district of English Eiver. 
 
 They came in sight of the Pas on Saturday evening, 
 June 29th, just as the sun was setting ; " at the very 
 moment," the Bishop writes, " that I would have chosen 
 for my arrival, and for my first view of the spire of this 
 pretty church." 
 
 " This pretty church" is as yet a stranger to our 
 readers, though they will remember that Mr. Hunter had 
 long ago fixed on a site for it on the bank of the river 
 opposite to his own house. 
 
 The Indians had been willing to help, and contributed 
 labour and materials to a considerable amount ; but, al- 
 though they had learnt enough of carpenter's work to 
 build their own log-houses, there was no one competent 
 to undertake the erection of so large a building as a 
 church. Mr. Hunter devoted much thought and time 
 and labour to the subject, but all would have been of 
 little avail, had it not been for one of those providential 
 circumstances, which so often occur, but which we are 
 sometimes so slow to acknowledge. 
 
 Some of the English sailors attached to Sir John 
 Richardson's last and, alas ! fruitless expedition, had been 
 sent forward to be in readiness to start with him, and 
 were, during the winter of 1847-48, located at Cumber- 
 land Fort, a day and a half distance from the Pas. One 
 of the men was a carpenter, and he readily and kindly 
 gave Mr. Hunter all the assistance in his power while 
 he remained in the neighbourhood. The church pro- 
 gressed considerably under his directions, and when lie 
 went away, Mr. Hunter was able to procure another car- 
 penter from Norway House. 
 
192 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 At last the church was completed.* It stands in a 
 neatly -fenced burying - ground, and is surrounded by 
 several Indian dwellings; the parsonage stands among 
 other cottages on the opposite bank, and the whole is 
 striking and picturesque. 
 
 During his short sojourn here, the Bishop consecrated 
 this church by the name of Christ's Church ; he also 
 examined and confirmed a hundred and ten candidates,! 
 with whose " intelligent and experimental knowledge of 
 our most holy faith," he expressed himself as having 
 been much surprised. He also arranged with Mr. Hunter 
 that a steady and consistent Christian Indian, named 
 John Humphible, should be sent to Moose Lake, as the 
 commencement of a permanent station there. 
 
 We do not attempt any further account of the Bishop's 
 visit to Cumberland Pas, because, though his lordship 
 speaks of the station as far exceeding his expectations, 
 and as likely to form the centre of widely-extended 
 missionary operations, he has given us the hope of 
 receiving an account of it from his own pen. 
 
 We shall therefore only say, that leaving Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hunter greatly refreshed and encouraged by his 
 kind and seasonable visit, he set out on his return home 
 on Monday, July 8, taking with him Mr. Budd, with 
 his eldest son, and the eldest son of Mr. Settee ; the 
 two latter to be placed in the seminary, and the former 
 to study under the Bishop's own eye, with a view to his 
 future ordination. 
 
 * See engraving in "Church Missionary Intelligencer" for 
 December, 1850. 
 
 f Two of these were Abraham and Paul from Lac \\ Ronge. 
 See pp. 164, 165. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BISHOP'S VISIT TO CUMBERLAND MR. AND MRS. HUNT'S 
 JOURNEY TO LAC LA RONGE RECENT INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 " Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after 
 many days." Eccles. xi. 1. 
 
 OUR chief object throughout this little volume has been 
 to lay before the friends of Missions as intelligent and 
 connected a view as we could, of the work of God in this 
 interesting field, not only that they may be led to glorify 
 the power of His grace, but also that they may be able 
 the better to follow up its future history, as it will be 
 recorded in the periodical publications* of the Church 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 For this reason we are unwilling to leave the subject 
 without giving, as far as possible, the actual present 
 state of the whole Mission ; some of the present chapter 
 will, therefore, be occupied in a kind of summary of the 
 different stations ; and we must crave the indulgence of 
 our readers if, on this account, they find it more uncon- 
 nected and less interesting than some of the preceding 
 ones. 
 
 Before, however, we enter upon this, we must give 
 some account of Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, and their progress 
 
 * " Church Missionary Intelligencer," " Eecord " " Gleaner," 
 and " Juvenile Instructor," all published monthly, and in the 
 Annual Keport. 
 
194 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 to their newly-assigned district of English River,* in 
 the far north-west; and that we may do so the more 
 satisfactorily, we will return to the time of their depar- 
 ture from the Red River. 
 
 They had remained during the winter and spring of 
 1849-50 at the Lower Fort ; Mr. Hunt rendering valuable 
 help to Mr. James at the Rapids, Mrs. Hunt assisting ii 
 the education of some young women, and hoth of them 
 diligently engaged in learning the language. They had 
 much enjoyed these nine months of retirement and Chris- 
 tian intercourse ; but the rivers were now open, and they 
 would not delay their departure. 
 
 Their friends at the Red River had left nothing undone 
 that affectionate anxiety could suggest, to lessen the an- 
 noyances of the voyage, or to remove some of the diffi- 
 culties of their first settling. 
 
 A large boat had been prepared for their personal ac- 
 commodation, with an awning of oilskin to shelter them 
 from rain or heat. They were well supplied with the 
 usually provided stores for such occasions. A few articles 
 of necessary furniture, tools, locks, hinges, window-frames, 
 glass, &c. formed part of their cargo ; to which were added 
 provisions for themselves and their crews for the two 
 months' voyage ; clothes, flour, pemican, and all other 
 articles of food for themselves for the next fifteen months ; 
 besides blankets, warm clothing, and flour, for the des- 
 titute Indians by whom they would he surrounded. 
 
 The numerous presents they received were very grati- 
 fying to them ; among other things, the congregation at 
 
 * The district of English River is computed to be 600 miles in 
 length and 400 in breadth, covering a larger portion of the earth's 
 surface than England, Scotland, and Ireland united. It includes 
 the stations of Lac la Ronge and He de la Crosse. 
 
BISHOP'S VISIT TO CUMBERLAND. 195 
 
 the Kapids presented them with 50 cwt. of flour for dis- 
 tribution among the Indians, promising them the same 
 supply annually till they should be able to raise it for 
 themselves. One poor woman sent them a couple of 
 fowls, another two dozen of eggs, a young girl brought a 
 pair of Indian shoes, while one man begged their ac- 
 ceptance of a basket of salt, which, strange as the present 
 would seem to us, was no inconsiderable gift, where 
 English salt is rare and expensive, and is sold at ] 6s. 
 the bushel. 
 
 It was a lovely day, when, on the 6th of June, their 
 friends pressed round them on the river-side to bid them 
 farewell, and to wish them every blessing; and they 
 entered the canoe which was to bear them into the dis- 
 tant wilderness, far away from every English friend and 
 from all civilised society. The parting could not be 
 otherwise than solemn and affecting, as, with feelings of 
 deep emotion, they turned to take a last look at friends 
 and scenes endeared to them by many happy hours. But 
 it was no look of lingering regret or of sorrowful mis- 
 giving ; they had counted the cost, they felt they were 
 called to that distant sphere, they knew they should find 
 a people whose hearts the Lord had prepared, and they 
 rejoiced " that they were counted worthy to suffer" 
 trials " for His name." 
 
 It was a great comfort to them to have the company 
 of the Bishop for the first half of the way ; his cheerful- 
 ness and ever-ready kindness encouraged their spirits 
 and beguiled many a weary hour, and as long as they 
 were with him, they felt they had not parted from every 
 friend. 
 
 We shall not attempt any description of their route 
 to Norway House, but cannot quite pass by one little 
 
196 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 incident, which must have served in some degree to 
 initiate our Missionaries into their future wilderness life. 
 As they were passing up Lake Winnipeg a violent thun- 
 derstorm obliged them to run the boats into a little bay, 
 where they landed, pitched their tents, and remained a 
 few hours, till the weather allowed them to proceed. 
 While there, an infant was brought to be baptized. 
 Where its parents came from, or how they happened 
 to be on the spot at the time, we are not told ; pro- 
 bably some Christian Indians, on their way from one 
 or other of the Company's posts, had seen the boats of 
 our travellers, and finding there was a " praying-master" 
 among them, availed themselves of the unexpected op- 
 portunity. 
 
 Be this as it may, the whole scene was wild and pecu- 
 liar. Sabina, a female servant whom Mrs. Hunt had 
 brought with her from Red River, held a bason filled 
 with water, which served as a font ; one of the men held 
 an umbrella over Mr. Hunt to shade him from the sun, 
 which had gleamed out with scorching heat ; the father, 
 mother, and godparents of the child presented it for 
 baptism; the crews of the boats gathered round; and 
 there in the open air, on the shores of that mighty lake, 
 with its pine-clad islands and its picturesque rocks, the 
 little Indian " Catherine" was received into the fold of 
 Christ's church, and was signed " with the sign of the 
 Cross, in token that," wherever her future lot should 
 be cast, " she should not be ashamed to confess Christ 
 crucified." 
 
 The party were much refreshed by a quiet Sunday 
 they passed at Norway House ; and then, setting out 
 again, they crossed the Lake and soon entered the Sas- 
 ketchewan River. Their next Sunday was spent at the 
 
ME. AND MRS. HUNT'S JOURNEY. 197 
 
 " Great Falls " upon this river, when, spreading the sails 
 of their boats between two trees, they had divine service 
 under the welcome shade. Their own crews, and some 
 Eed River Indians who happened to be there, made 
 quite a congregation ; and here, in the midst of wood and 
 water, they enjoyed our beautiful Liturgy.* 
 
 As we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, they 
 arrived, in company with the Bishop, at Cumberland 
 Pas on Saturday, June 29, and found their short visit 
 there very refreshing after the fatigues of the last three 
 weeks. 
 
 It must have been almost like leaving home again 
 when they quitted the Pas, and left behind them the 
 last spot of civilisation and Christian society. But they 
 well knew that, 
 
 " Of the brooks upon the way 
 
 We may taste, but not delay ; 
 Nor must our high emprize be for love of such forsworn."f 
 
 And so, after two days of rest and pleasant intercourse, 
 they bade adieu to their kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Hun- 
 ter ; and, strengthened and encouraged by the earnest, 
 affectionate prayers of their " dear and valued Bishop," 
 set out again on the 1st or 2d of July, accompanied by 
 Abraham and Paul, and kindly supplied by Mr. Hunter 
 with a stock of fresh provisions for the way. 
 
 And now began the most difficult and trying portion 
 of the voyage. Except on Sundays, when Mr. Hunt 
 insisted on resting for the whole day, they generally 
 
 * The Missionaries in their solitary stations often speak of 
 the great comfort they find in our Liturgy, linking them, as it 
 were, with so many of God's people in distant lands. 
 
 f From an unpublished poem by the late Dr. Arnold. 
 
198 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 started at three o'clock in the morning, and seldom 
 stopped till seven or eight in the evening. As they 
 advanced into the interior, the country became more 
 rocky and mountainous, and, consequently, the " por- 
 tages " were more frequent and the rowing more diffi- 
 cult. At every rapid the heavy-laden boats were to be 
 unloaded and loaded again ; and, even when thus 
 emptied, it required skill and indefatigable labour to 
 drag them up the stream, and through the foaming 
 waters, over rocks and beds of shingle, or to carry them 
 along the steep and rocky banks. Meanwhile, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hunt had to scramble over stones and stumps of 
 trees, or to make their way through the thickly-woven 
 underwood, till they could join the boat again. 
 
 To a lady, the hardships experienced must have been 
 very great ; but Mrs. Hunt, like the rest of the sister- 
 band of Missionaries in Kupert's Land, was largely 
 endued with that true feminine courage, which, though 
 it will not invite toil, or hardship, or suffering, yet does 
 not shrink from them when they come, and meets 
 them with cheerful, uncomplaining, " high -enduring 
 strength." 
 
 Nothing strikes an English person more than the 
 loneliness of these wilds. Our travellers passed many 
 days without seeing a human being, save their own 
 boats' crew ; and often, during the long hours they 
 passed sitting at the stern of their little vessel, nothing 
 was heard to break the deep silence except the song of 
 some unknown bird, the sound of the rippling waters, 
 or the measured splash of oars. 
 
 Thus passed days and weeks ; they had left the Pas 
 on the 1st or 2d of July, and it was now the 26th. 
 The river Sasketchewan had long been left behind, and 
 
MR. AND MRS. HUNT'S JOURNEY. 199 
 
 for more than a fortnight they had been ascending one 
 of its tributary streams. They had arrived at the Frog 
 Portage, where, quitting the stream altogether, the boats 
 and their cargoes were dragged over rough and rugged 
 ground for half-a-quarter of a mile to the Eapid River ; 
 and they were now within one short day's journey of the 
 Company's post, and not quite- two from the place of 
 their destination. Here it had been arranged that 
 Indians from Lac la Ronge should meet them with 
 canoes, and convey them the remainder of the way ; 
 but they were much disappointed to find, on their arrival 
 at the appointed spot, that the people, tired of waiting, 
 had all gone back, except three men with one small canoe. 
 
 What was to be done ? The boats' crews who had 
 brought them hitherto, worn out and dispirited with the 
 length and difficulties of the way, refused to go further, 
 and nothing remained but for Mr. Hunt to get into the 
 Lac la Ronge canoe, and proceed to the Fort to 
 endeavour to obtain assistance. There was no room 
 in it for Mrs. Hunt or her maid, and although it 
 required some little faith and courage, she cheerfully 
 consented to remain behind in the boat till Mr. Hunt's 
 return, which could not be till the middle of the follow- 
 ing day. Situated as she was, alone among so many 
 Indians, we can well understand that the present of a 
 moose- chop from one of the crew was no unwelcome 
 token of good- will ; and, commending herself and Sabina 
 to the care of Him, " who never slumbereth nor sleepeth," 
 they both " laid them down in peace, and rose again, 
 for the Lord sustained them." 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning they were summoned 
 to leave the boat, and walking some little distance to a 
 tent that was pitched for them, where they enjoyed a 
 
 N 
 
200 THE RAINBOW IN THE NOKTH. 
 
 refreshing beverage of wild gooseberries boiled in water, 
 they quietly awaited the return of Mr. Hunt. 
 
 He brought back the required help, and before night- 
 fall they reached the eastern shore of Lac la Ronge, 
 where they found a kind and hospitable welcome from 
 Mr. Lewis, the gentleman in charge of the Company's 
 post there. The next day was Sunday, and Mr. Hunt 
 was glad of the opportunity of holding divine service. 
 On Monday, July 29, they left the fort early, and 
 crossing the lake, arrived at Mr. Settee's dwelling in 
 the course of the afternoon, " our clothes and pro- 
 visions," writes our Missionary, " nearly in the same 
 condition as those the Gibeonites brought with them to 
 Joshua ; but here we are, and most heartily we thank 
 God for it." Two rooms had been prepared for them- 
 selves and their servant, and here they were to pass the 
 eight months of the ensuing winter. 
 
 Their first impressions on arriving at the lake were 
 anything but favourable as to its fitness for a permanent 
 residence. Nothing was to be seen but rocks and water, 
 except that here and there a little soil had drifted into 
 the chasms, and afforded a precarious nourishment to a 
 few trees. At one part the granite rocks had once 
 been covered with herbage ; but twelve years before, a 
 prairie fire had swept over them, and no trace of vege- 
 tation now remained. 
 
 As they approached the Missionary station, however, 
 the aspect of things rather improved. Mr. Settee had 
 succeeded in finding a spot where the granite rock had 
 given place to a cold, damp clay, covered in some places 
 with vegetable mould to the depth of five or six inches. 
 It was thick with underwood, among which were found 
 the wild gooseberry, raspberry, strawberry, and cran- 
 
ME. AND MES. HUNT'S JOUENEY. 201 
 
 berry. Many pines, poplars, and birches, grew there 
 also ; and Mr. Hunt was encouraged to hope, that by 
 clearing and draining, the land might eventually be 
 made capable of cultivation. This would, however, re- 
 quire a long time and much labour ; and till then they 
 must depend for their supplies of flour, potatoes, &c., on 
 the settlement at Eed River.* Of animal food they 
 were likely, during great part of the year, to find a good 
 supply on the spot. The moose-deer are often plentiful 
 in the neighbourhood; ducks and geese may also be 
 procured ; and, in their season, there would be pheasants 
 and grouse. 
 
 At the time of our Missionaries' arrival there were 
 not more than ten Indians at the place ; but they hoped 
 soon to see a larger number assembled from their distant 
 grounds. 
 
 The appearance of the children was very miserable, 
 and excited the compassion of Mrs. Hunt ; but as her 
 last letter was written only on the day after her arrival, 
 she had not then been able to form any definite plan. 
 A schoolroom had been begun, but was not finished, 
 there being no parchment at hand for the windows ; and 
 for some time past, Mr. Settee had been so entirely 
 occupied in his other duties, that the school had been 
 suspended. 
 
 The temporal condition of the poor Indians in this 
 wilderness seems to be most wretched, and their suffer- 
 ings during the winter are sometimes fearful. Mr. Hunt 
 relates the cases of no fewer than seventeen individuals 
 whom Mr. Settee had, during the preceding winter of 
 
 * Should cultivation prove impracticable, the station will, 
 probably, be removed to Green Lake, another of the outposts of 
 He de la Crosse, and a more promising spot. 
 
202 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 1849-50, been the means of saving from destruction, 
 and from becoming a prey to the hungry wolves that 
 roam throughout these howling wastes. Some par- 
 ticulars of these will interest our readers : 
 
 " On January 26, 1850, an Indian arrived at Mr. Settee's in 
 a state of almost starvation. Food was given him, and, while 
 eagerly eating it, he fell backward from exhaustion, and was 
 only just able to say that he had ' thrown away ' his family, 
 meaning, that he had left them so worn out with cold and hun- 
 ger that they could go no further. Abraham happened to be 
 just then at the station, and with his characteristic zeal and 
 energy set out in search of them, though the only traces he had 
 of them were the footsteps of the man on the moss and snow. 
 He walked all that night, all the next day, and following night. 
 The cold was severe, the walking in the snow fatiguing ; but he 
 would not give up the search. At last he found them a 
 woman, two young men, and three children huddled together 
 in the snow, but still alive. He lighted a fire, made broth of 
 some fish he had brought with him, and carefully fed them with 
 this till they were sufficiently revived to return with him." 
 
 A fortnight later, another family Henry Bear, his 
 wife, and child arrived at the missionary dwelling. 
 They were wasted with cold and hunger, having eaten 
 nothing for seven days ; * but by kind and judicious 
 treatment their lives were preserved, though the infant 
 continued very unhealthy. 
 
 Before the month of February had closed, two half- 
 famished women made their appearance, and stated that 
 their husbands and three children were perishing in the 
 snow from want of food. An Indian, who was suffering 
 greatly from a wound in his neck, set off in search of 
 them, and after five days brought them all safely to this 
 house of mercy. 
 
 * The Indians have great power of abstinence, and it is said 
 that some have been known to fast for ten days together. 
 
MR. AND MRS. HUNT'S JOURNEY. 203 
 
 Mr. Hunt adds, 
 
 " One more tale of pity for the Dorcases of our Society. 
 Among the children whom I found here, hoarded, clothed, and 
 educated at the Society's expense, are four, whose history I must 
 relate. 
 
 " One day, Mr. Settee saw a canoe on the lake, drifting to- 
 wards the station ; it was nearly filled with water, and a young 
 child was attempting to paddle it with a stick. As he watched 
 it, three other little heads appeared. He went to it as it neared 
 the shore, and recognised the children whose mother he had 
 huried not long before. He found from them that their father 
 had taken them ashore, and after striking a light and giving it 
 to the eldest, laid down, as they supposed, to sleep. But he 
 slept so long that they were frightened : they called to him, hut 
 he did not answer ; they pushed him, but he did not stir ; so 
 they got into the boat and came away. Mr. Settee went imme- 
 diately in search of the poor man, and found him dead upon the 
 shore. He buried the body, and took the children to his own 
 house." 
 
 More widely separated as Mr. and Mrs. Hunt are 
 from all civilised and social intercourse than any of 
 their fellow-labourers, they seem to claim our peculiar 
 sympathy and interest.* Roughly estimated, their dis- 
 tance from Cumberland is above 400 miles, and not 
 less than 800 from Red River ; yet if they have the 
 presence of their God and Saviour abiding in their 
 hearts, and if they are permitted to form another oasis 
 
 * If any friends are disposed to assist this station, or any 
 other in Eupert's Land, by presents of warm clothing for the 
 people, or of articles for the use of the schools and for rewards, 
 they will be most thankfully received ; and, if sent to the Church 
 Missionary House, Salisbury Square, by the middle of May, will 
 be forwarded by the ships of the same season. Those sent to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hunt will not, however, probably reach them for 
 fourteen months, as they will have to remain during the winter 
 at Norway House. 
 
204 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 of Christianity and civilisation in that moral desert, 
 they will not feel the loneliness of their position, but 
 will rejoice in Him who maketh " the wilderness a pool 
 of water, and the dry land spiings of water." 
 
 Before we leave the neighbourhood of Lac la Ronge, 
 we must recall to our readers the still more distant 
 station of He de la Crosse,* to which, they will remem- 
 ber, James Beardy proceeded, when his place at Lac la 
 Ronge was supplied by Mr. Settee. We have not any 
 very recent particulars from it ; the last we have heard 
 of it was a visit Mr. Settee paid in the winter of 
 1849-50. There were at that time not many Indians 
 there, but the few he saw were in a very promising 
 state of mind. 
 
 An interesting incident occurred on his journey thither. 
 Observing a great smoke at some little distance, he 
 made towards the spot, and found one man and four 
 women, with several children, sitting on the ground in 
 great grief. They were mourning over the loss of a 
 brother, to whom they were strongly attached, and 
 seemed inconsolable. Mr. Settee spoke to them of Him 
 who is " the Resurrection and the Life ; " and their 
 softened hearts were so interested that they begged him 
 to remain with them a little while and tell them more. 
 He did so : the rest of the day and the greatest part of 
 the night were passed in telling them of Him who came 
 into the world to save sinners ; and when he left them 
 on the following morning to pursue his journey, they 
 promised to await his return at the same spot. On his 
 way back, a fortnight after, he found them still there. 
 He again remained a day and a night with them, and 
 taught them the Lord's Prayer and two hymns. They 
 * Ten days' journey beyond Lac la Konge. 
 
RECENT INTELLIGENCE. 205 
 
 seemed seriously impressed, and declared their intention 
 of relinquishing their heathen practices, of no longer 
 worshipping wood and stone, and of coming to his school. 
 
 We hope the next accounts will tell us more of these 
 poor people. 
 
 We must now return to the Bishop and Mr. Budd, 
 whom we left on their way from Cumherland to the 
 Eed River. 
 
 Mr. Budd remained for several months at the Upper 
 Settlement, pursuing his studies under the kind care of 
 the Bishop, and winning the approbation and affection 
 of the Missionaries and the people, till, on December 22, 
 after a strict and very satisfactory examination, he was 
 admitted to holy orders. 
 
 Mr. Chapman and Mr. Taylor, the latter of whom 
 had lately arrived, were ordained priests at the same 
 time; and, under date of January 1851, the Bishop, 
 speaking of this ordination, writes : 
 
 " December 22d will long be remembered by us all, and also 
 the Missionary Meeting of January 3d. The ordination, Decem- 
 ber 22d, was throughout a most solemn and impressive service. 
 All the clergy were present, except Mr. Hunter and Mr. Hunt ; 
 Mr. Cowley having arrived the previous afternoon. Many were 
 present from all the different congregations, and St. Andrew's 
 church was filled to overflowing. The sight on the river was 
 beautiful ; there might have been two hundred carioles passing 
 to the house of God. The number within the walls was about 
 eleven hundred ; and the number of communicants at the con- 
 clusion was nearly three hundred. All the clergy present took 
 some part in the service. Mr. Budd read the Gospel, Matt. 
 ix. 36 ; a very suitable one from his lips. 
 
 " I felt much the solemn responsibility and high privilege of 
 ordaining the first native minister; and I believe all present 
 shared in the feeling." 
 
 Our newly- ordained Missionary read prayers on Christ- 
 
206 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 mas Day for the first time, and preached in Indian in 
 the afternoon, from the words, " The dayspring from 
 on high hath visited us ; " and in consequence of the 
 urgent request of the people at the Rapids, he preached 
 there also in Indian on Monday, Decemher 30. There 
 were at least five hundred persons present, and, as most 
 of the people there are either Indians or half-breeds, he 
 was well understood. Among them were many Indians 
 from the neighbourhood, who still reject the Gospel; 
 they appeared absorbed in what they heard, and kept 
 their eyes steadily fixed on Mr. Budd. One of his 
 hearers was his own mother ; her countenance express- 
 ing every emotion which might be supposed to fill the 
 heart of a Christian Indian mother at thus witnessing 
 her son as the first "ambassador for Christ" from 
 among her own people. Mr. James adds, " I listened 
 and gazed, and thanked God for what I saw and heard." 
 
 Mr. Budd preached also at the Indian Village, and at 
 the Upper Settlement ; and so strong was the feeling 
 towards him on the part of his fellow Indians through- 
 out the colony, that it was difficult to convince them 
 that his sphere of duty lay far distant. Those of the 
 Middle Church district, when they found he must leave 
 them, agreed together to promise him assistance in his 
 new station, wherever it might be ; and engaged, as soon 
 as the spring was sufficiently advanced, to send him 
 eighty bushels of corn, sixty yards of printed cloth, and 
 3Z. or 4:1. in money. " This was not only a delightful 
 proof of their good feeling, but will prove a substantial 
 help to him." 
 
 On January 6, 1851, he left the Red River, pro- 
 ceeding to Partridge Crop in company with Mr. Cowley, 
 from whence he was to travel the rest of the way on 
 
BECENT INTELLIGENCE. 207 
 
 foot to Cumberland, to remain for the present with Mr. 
 Hunter, and soon, it was hoped, to form a permanent 
 settlement at Moose Lake. The Bishop speaks of him 
 with affectionate kindness, and with earnest desires for 
 the fulness of the Divine blessing upon him and upon 
 his work. 
 
 May he indeed follow him whose honoured name he 
 bears, as he has followed Christ ! But we must not forget 
 that, as the first clergyman of the Church of England 
 from among his own countrymen, he will be exposed to 
 peculiar temptations, and will especially need the prayers 
 of the people of God, that Satan may not get an advan- 
 tage over him. 
 
 And now, shortly to sum up the present state of our 
 Mission in Rupert's Land. 
 
 The Bishop, beloved and respected by all, resides at 
 the Upper Settlement, where, in addition to his other 
 duties, he interests himself in the education of the youths 
 in the seminary ; intending, if so permitted in the 
 providence of God, at some future time to establish a 
 college where young men may be prepared for ordination. 
 Mr. Cockran is also at the Upper Settlement, as chaplain 
 to the Hudson's Bay Company ; still active, energetic, 
 and with a heart as devoted as ever to the work of his 
 Lord and Saviour. 
 
 The Middle Church is prospering under the charge 
 of Mr. Chapman ; and Mr. James still lives in the hearts 
 of his people at the Rapids, though the state of Mrs. 
 James's health will, it is feared, oblige them soon to pay 
 a visit to England. 
 
 Mr. Smithurst remains at the Indian Village ; a slight 
 cloud, that for a moment hung over some of the people 
 there, has passed away, and all again is bright. 
 
208 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 Mr. Cowley continues at Manitoba Lake, his health a 
 good deal shaken ; but labouring among the still indif- 
 ferent Indians with the same unwearying love and un- 
 murmuring patience that have always marked his course. 
 His hands have been lately strengthened by the acces- 
 sion of a valuable assistant in Mr. Charles Pratt, a con- 
 temporary at the Indian School of Mr. Budd and Mr. 
 Settee, like them a pure Indian, and giving the same 
 promise of future usefulness. 
 
 A new station is about to be commenced at Moose 
 Fort,* at the head of James's Bay; and the Bishop, in 
 speaking of the many promising openings for Missionary 
 stations, enumerates the following: York Fort, including 
 Churchill ; Fort Alexander, on the River Winnipeg ; 
 Fort Pelley, near the Lake ; and Swan River, between 
 Manitoba and Cumberland; besides several new out- 
 stations from Cumberland and Lac la Ronge ; and Fort 
 Chippewyan in the Athabasca country. 
 
 We must pause here, earnestly to lay before our 
 readers the responsibility that lies upon us all, as mem- 
 bers of a Church that holds the pure faith of the Gospel, 
 not only of doing all that in us lies to supply the wants 
 of this and our every other mission, but more especially 
 of cultivating an habitual spirit of prayer, that " the Lord 
 of the harvest would send forth labourers into His 
 harvest." 
 
 The passage of Scripture at the head of this chapter 
 gives us every encouragement ; let us turn to it and 
 recall the events of the last thirty years. 
 
 Looking back to the time when the Prince of Dark- 
 
 * This must not be mistaken for Moose Lake, near Cumber- 
 land. 
 
RECENT INTELLIGENCE. 209 
 
 ness held undisputed sway over this whole land, when 
 no ray of light had as yet penetrated an Indian wigwam ; 
 and, recalling the first faint gleams that shone round the 
 path of our earliest Missionary, let us contrast with this 
 the present state of things. 
 
 It was in September 1820, that Mr. West taught 
 Henry Budd, his first Indian boy, that short and simple 
 prayer " Great Father, teach me, for Jesus Christ's 
 sake;" and in December 1850, Henry Budd is ordained 
 as a herald of salvation to his countrymen. 
 
 On October 4, 1820, the Missionary lifted up his soli- 
 tary voice, in a room at the Upper Fort, to proclaim 
 publicly, for the first time in Rupert's Land, the glad 
 tidings of great joy for all people. In December 1850, 
 we have seven * stations with eight ordained clergymen 
 of the Church of England (at five of which suitable and 
 substantial churches have been built) ; at two f other 
 places, native catechists are in charge ; and a tenth J posi- 
 tion is about to be occupied ; while over the whole is 
 placed a chief pastor, whose earnest desire it is to feed 
 and guide the several flocks according to the word of 
 God. 
 
 When we look at the extent of Rupert's Land, we 
 
 * Viz. Upper and Middle Churches, Eapids, Indian Village, 
 Cumberland, Manitoba, and Lac la Eonge, and churches at the 
 five first. 
 
 f Moose Lake and He de la Crosse. 
 
 J Moose Fort. 
 
 Nor would we omit the labours of other Societies who en- 
 terdd the field later than our own. The Wesleyans have for 
 many years been very active in the neighbourhood of Norway and 
 Oxford House, and the Americans are still on the west of the 
 Eocky Mountains pursuing their work of love, while the blessing 
 of God rests on the labours of both. 
 
210 THE RAINBOW IN THE NORTH. 
 
 sadly feel how little all this is compared with what is 
 needed ; yet surely we may ask " Has not the bread 
 cast upon the waters been found after many days ?" 
 
 We must now bring our history to a conclusion, but 
 not till we have introduced a few words from one of 
 the Bishop's letters to the Committee of the Church 
 Missionary Society : 
 
 " Let me," writes his Lordship, " assure your noble President 
 and the Committee that the labours of the Church Missionary 
 Society are most gratefully acknowledged here. All in the settle- 
 ment feel that they are what they are, as regards their religious 
 hopes and privileges, through your gratuitous exertions. They 
 are sensible, and painfully so, that they can do little to repay 
 you; but they know that you look to something higher and 
 nobler, even to a rich harvest of souls, rescued from the power 
 of Satan through the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. Let 
 me beg, very affectionately, your earnest and continued prayers, 
 that a more abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit may attend 
 the preaching of the Word of Truth, through the length and 
 breadth of this mighty land." 
 
 And now, what remains but to bless God who has 
 thus planted the bow of His everlasting covenant in 
 those dark regions ? May it still spread onward, till the 
 whole continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, be 
 spanned by its glorious arch. And should it indeed be 
 that darkness shall once again cover our older world, 
 may these Western Churches retain their purity and 
 light, until He come before whose brightness all reflected 
 glory shall be dim ; when clouds and darkness, sin and 
 suffering, shall for ever flee away ; and when the " city 
 shall have no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to 
 shine in it : for the glory of God shall lighten it, and the 
 Lamb shall be the light thereof ! " 
 
 Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 
 
FBOM 
 
 A JUBILEE HYMN 
 
 BY 
 
 THE LATE H. W. FOX. 
 
 I HEAR ten thousand voices singing 
 
 Their praises to the Lord on high : 
 Far distant shores and hills are ringing 
 
 With anthems of their nation's joy 
 " Praise ye the Lord ! for He has given 
 
 To lands in darkness hid His light : 
 As morning rays light up the heaven, 
 
 His Word has chased away our night." 
 * # * * * * 
 
 O'er prairies wild the song is spreading, 
 
 Where once the war-cry sounded loud ; 
 But now the evening sun is shedding 
 
 His rays upon a praying crowd 
 " Lord of all worlds, Eternal Spirit ! 
 
 Thy light upon our darkness shed ; 
 For thy dear love, for Jesu's merit, 
 
 From joyful hearts be worship paid." 
 
 Hark ! hark ! a louder sound is booming 
 
 O'er heaven and earth, o'er land and sea: 
 The angel's trump proclaims His coming, 
 
 Our day of endless Jubilee 
 " Hail to Thee, Lord ! Thy people praise Thee : 
 
 In every land Thy name we sing : 
 On heaven's eternal throne upraise Thee, 
 
 Take Thou Thy power, Thou glorious King !" 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 SINCE the foregoing pages were written, a private letter 
 of a later date has been received from Mrs. Hunt, ex- 
 tracts from which have kindly heen placed in our 
 hands, and as we are sure they will interest our readers, 
 we have decided to insert them in the form of an 
 Appendix : 
 
 " Lac la Ronge Station, 
 " August 19, 1850. 
 
 * * * " Let me tell you, in the first place, and tell it to the 
 praise of our God, to whom all praise is due, that we are very 
 comfortable indeed. I felt happy and comfortable at Eed Biver, 
 but I am more so here ; and I am more and more convinced 
 that when the Lord directs us to any place, He Himself goes 
 with us, and prepares the way. Goodness and mercy follow us 
 would that we were more faithful to Him, and served Him 
 better ! I ardently long for this. 
 
 " As to our daily temporal mercies, they abound ; and I do 
 feel that, while the Lord is so watchful and tender over us, we 
 should indeed give up our all for Him and His service. We 
 arrived here, as you know, on July 29, three weeks ago, but are 
 hardly yet settled. The station consists of our house, Mr. 
 Settee's house, a school-room, and M'Cleod's house. A short 
 distance from us are several huts where the Indians live, and 
 round us is wood. In front, a very rough path leads down to 
 the lake, and here the trees have been cut down. Mr. Hunt 
 has had the ground drained, and we hope to have it planted in 
 the spring. 
 
21 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Mr. Settee has an enclosed piece of ground, where there are 
 potatoes and a few turnips. M'Cleod has been making hay: 
 there is plenty of grass neai the lake in patches, and as we 
 hope soon to have a cow, it is necessary to have hay made. 
 Our house, which consists of two rooms, is really very com- 
 fortable. Sabina (the servant we brought with us from Ked 
 River) cooks, &c. in Mr. Settee's kitchen. 
 
 " We are very happy, and feel little, or not at all, the want 
 of society ; indeed, our time is so fully occupied that it is a great 
 comfort not to be called away from our daily duties. 
 
 " Now for a little account of our days : Prayers in the' 
 school-room at seven o'clock. Mr. Hunt rings a bell a few 
 minutes before to give notice, as our watches and dial are the 
 only time-pieces here. After prayers we have breakfast, which 
 generally consists of cocoa, biscuits, and excellent fish, caught 
 that same morning. After this, and a little time to myself for 
 reading, I go to the school from nine o'clock to twelve. We 
 dine at two, and in the afternoon are again busy till six, when 
 I meet the women in the school-room, and teach them to read 
 till seven, when we have evening prayers ; and after this, we 
 often have to speak to one or two, to whom we are giving 
 medicine. 
 
 " This week Mr. Hunt is meeting the candidates for baptism. 
 Mr. Settee is a good schoolmaster, and there are at present 
 about twenty children in the school. I have been much occu- 
 pied in cutting out and making clothes for them. I could not 
 let them remain in the naked state they were in when we came 
 here, while it was in my power to help it. The first week after 
 our arrival we got a dozen clothed, as some frocks, which Miss 
 Anderson (the Bishop's sister) had given me, were ready-made. 
 The next week the same children had their second set of clothes 
 made, and this week the others are being attended to. M'Cleod's 
 wife, who is an Indian, works fast ; and when the children had 
 their new clothing, she washed them and cut their hair. 
 
 '* It is a great pleasure to help them, but I greatly long to be 
 able to speak to them in their own language, and tell them more 
 fully of the love of Jesus. Although they are young, they are 
 not too young to be made lambs in His fold : though ignorant, 
 they are not too ignorant to be taught of the Spirit and led to 
 
APPENDIX. 215 
 
 believe on Jesus. Will you not pray that God's Holy Spirit 
 may indeed work in the midst of us, and that many may be 
 savingly converted? 
 
 " There have been some marriages and some baptisms since 
 we came. A little baby, that has long been ill, died this 
 morning. The parents sent it to the school-room, as the Indians 
 do not like to have a dead body near them ; so there is no 
 school to-day. It is the baby that was saved last winter with 
 its father and mother, as was mentioned in Mr. Hunt's letter 
 to the Committee.* May this event be of use to some here ! 
 The Indians are particularly fond of their children. 
 
 " We have made some raspberry jam, and preserved some 
 suska, a fruit we never met with till we saw it here. The women 
 go out and gather the fruit, and we pay them for it. They 
 generally subsist on fruit during the season. The fish is 
 remarkably good, and caught every morning and evening. How 
 gracious is God, in these far-off parts where there are no shops, 
 to provide for His people's wants as it were from His very own 
 loving hand ! If we want anything more than fish or fruit, or 
 what we brought with us (bacon, ham, peas, flour, &c.), we send 
 a man to kill a duck or a goose, or even to go out to hunt for us, 
 and when he kills a moose-deer we pay him the fixed price for 
 it. Everything is paid for in goods, for which purpose we 
 brought supplies of blankets, knives, cotton handkerchiefs, belts, 
 tobacco, shawls, shirts, cloth, &c. 
 
 " On the Sunday we have prayers and lecture early ; morning 
 service begins at eleven o'clock ; school at three o'clock. Mr. 
 Hunt, Sabina, Mr. and Mrs. Settee, and myself teach. After 
 school, Mr. Hunt addresses the children, and prays. There is 
 also singing before and after school. Evening service at six 
 o'clock, chiefly in English, as the morning service is in Cree. 
 
 ''It is indeed pleasant work to be thus engaged; but how 
 dead all would be without God's Spirit breathing upon us 
 Oh, that dead sinners may be converted, and living souls 
 strengthened ! The anxious inquiry before the Lord is, ' Has 
 He not some among these dear people whom He has ordained 
 to eternal life ?' and, 'Will He not graciously send a word to 
 
 * Page 202. 
 
216 APPENDIX. 
 
 such, and manifest them as His own, call them by His grace, 
 and make them His ?' ' His people shall be willing in the day 
 of His power.' 
 
 " If you were to see only the exterior of our house, you 
 would think, ' What ! and do they live there ?' But if you could 
 walk in, and especially were you to pass through the large room, 
 and enter our own apartment, your tone would be changed, and 
 you would be compelled to think, ' What comfort, and, I hope, 
 happiness, dwell there !' It is about sixteen feet by twelve ; the 
 walls are plastered with mud, but look neat as if coloured drab. 
 There are three small windows, one of which is parchment, but 
 the blind is kept down over it. The other two are glazed, and 
 have also white blinds. We have also mosquito curtains, which 
 look pretty and nice ; and several large buflalo-robes cover the 
 floor." * 
 
 The following extract from a letter of the same date, 
 from the Rev. R. Hunt, gives a farther insight into the 
 present position of our Missionaries in this distant 
 
 spot : 
 
 " Lac la Ronge, 
 "August^, 1850. 
 
 * * * " There are but few Indians at present here, but, as 
 the winter approaches, we expect many more. We have now 
 twenty individuals entirely dependent on us ; among them are six 
 orphans, and a widow with her two children : we hope to be able 
 to support them by fish from the lake. We shall also be fre- 
 quently obliged to support the Indians who visit the station, and 
 it is, therefore, very important to increase our internal resources. 
 In order to bring the land into cultivation, the heavy, wet clay, 
 and the swampy, mossy ground, must be drained ; the stony soil, 
 covered with firs, must be cleared of stumps and stones ; sand 
 must be procured from a distance to lighten the clay ; the rocky 
 
 * We must, however, so far qualify Mrs. Hunt's cheerful view 
 of her present habitation, as to tell our readers that the two 
 rooms of which the house consists are very low and not altogether 
 water-tight ! 
 
APPENDIX. 217 
 
 margin of the lake must contribute its aquatic plants and its su- 
 perfluous fish for manure ; and by these means we hope in time to 
 raise potatoes, oats, and barley, garden herbs, and hardy vege- 
 tables. As yet nothing has been planted, except two bushels of 
 potatoes and a few turnips. This work will not only, we hope, 
 supply some of our many wants, and render us by degrees less 
 dependent upon external help, but will afford employment to 
 the Indians. 
 
 " At present I am alternately blacksmith, carpenter, and plas- 
 terer. Out of doors, I am now in the drain, now at the fence ; 
 the axe, the spade, the hoe, and the hammer, are becoming 
 equally familiar to me. Meanwhile the school is not neglected ; 
 and I am also engaged in instructing the Indians, and preparing 
 some of them for baptism. In the winter, when all are assem- 
 bled, I hope to have regular adult classes. 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Settee have done much and suffered much 
 since their arrival ; but if it is decided for us to remain here, 
 the Bishop has promised to send us a carpenter from the Eed 
 Eiver next summer, when we hope to have a house built, and we 
 shall all be more comfortable." 
 
 In another letter, Mr. Hunt, after speaking of the 
 destitute state of the Indians at Lac la Ronge, says : 
 
 "Tor these, and others such as these, we want prompt aid, in 
 the shape of articles for clothes. The coming long and cold 
 winter will consume all we brought with us, and we are not 
 certain that we can receive anything that may come out by the 
 ships next May, before July 1852, unless we have an opportunity 
 of sending to Lake Winnipeg some time in September 1851. 
 We shall heartily thank God, and our dear friends who assisted 
 us in 1849, and any others whom God may dispose to clothe our 
 naked people, if they will kindly send to the Church Missionary 
 House, Salisbury Square, by the middle of next May, and any 
 following year, such articles as those mentioned below, for the 
 use of the English-Eiver Mission : 
 
 Blankets, small and large. 
 
 Strong warm flannels, white, red, or blue. 
 
 Stout washing prints. 
 
218 APPENDIX H. 
 
 Woollen shawls. 
 
 Strong unbleached calico. 
 
 Strong, coarse woollen cloth, for coats, &c. (Stroud's). 
 
 Strong striped cotton for men's shirts, blue or pink. 
 
 Strong common combs, for use after washing. 
 
 Needles, thimbles, and scissors. 
 
 Strong pocket-knives. 
 
 Fire-steels and gun-flints. 
 
 Twine for fishing-nets, Nos. 1, 6, and 10. 
 
 Large cod-fish hooks. 
 
 Any useful article of clothing for man, woman, or child. 
 
 " ' Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' " 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 SINCE the second edition of this work has been pre- 
 pared for publication, a recent letter from the Rev. 
 A. Cowley has been kindly placed in our hands, and 
 we cannot forbear adding some extracts from it, feeling 
 assured that those friends who have sympathised with 
 him and Mrs. Cowley in their trials and discourage- 
 ments will thankfully rejoice with them in the brighter 
 prospects that appear to be opening before them. 
 
 Extracts from letter of the Rev. Abraham Cowley to 
 a friend in England : 
 
 " Fairford, Manitoba Lake, 
 "July 15,1851. 
 
 * * * " I am, believe me, acutely sensible of the 
 obligations I am under to you for your kindness from time to 
 
APPENDIX II. 219 
 
 time, when I needed all the consolation, support, and encou- 
 ragement, that love itself could convey, on account of the then 
 very untoward state of my station here. I am happy, and do 
 praise God that I am at last able by His grace to report some 
 better things. 
 
 " You know that the Bishop had promised us a visit, and on 
 the 28th of February last, to our no small gratification, he 
 arrived here. It was late in the evening, the duties of the day 
 were over, and though we were expecting him, the reality of his 
 coming seemed scarcely credible, and I knew not how to believe 
 my own eyes, or to refrain from rude expressions of delight and 
 surprise, when I beheld the good Bishop seated by our own fire- 
 side. It was such an event after being for six years shut out 
 from all clerical society, unless I travelled some twice two hun- 
 dred miles to obtain it, and indeed from all other society, except 
 that of the poor people about me, and the Company's servants 
 passing and re-passing once a-year on their way to and from 
 York Fort. 
 
 " I fear the Bishop must have thought me troublesome, but 
 my joy was too great to be easily restrained, and we kept him up 
 to a late hour. I could have wished to have given him better 
 accommodation, but I do not think he cares much about such 
 matters ; and, therefore, having done the best we could, we felt 
 the less on this point. 
 
 " As my station presented but little work for episcopal hands, 
 I had done my utmost to make that little interesting. 
 
 " There were a few candidates whom I had been preparing 
 for confirmation,* and one Indian for baptism, and I had re- 
 served the final examination of all these for his lordship. We 
 had, at his own request, arranged to celebrate the Lord's Sup- 
 per during his stay, and he would, I hoped, meet the few com- 
 municants on some previous evening, as I am in the habit of 
 doing. 
 
 * None of these were from Mr. Cowley's own Indians ; some 
 seem to have been his own servants, and some came from a 
 distance. One woman had walked sixty miles for the occasion ; 
 another had been baptized by Mr. West, at Brandon House, in 
 1821. 
 
220 APPENDIX II. 
 
 " But scarcely had the Bishop's labours commenced, than 
 they began to multiply. Luke's baptism seemed a signal for 
 others to come forward; one after another presented them- 
 selves, till the number amounted to twenty, all of whom the 
 Bishop baptized himself. 
 
 " This unexpected increase of work kept our hands pretty full 
 all the week, and the days passed with a rapidity scarcely cre- 
 dible. While here his lordship took the lecture almost every 
 evening, and preached on the Lord's days, I reading prayers in 
 the native language. Besides the baptisms, and confirmations, 
 and examination of the candidates, he married two couple, ad- 
 ministered the Lord's Supper to fourteen communicants, met 
 the heathen Indians, visited all the settlers' houses, and, not- 
 withstanding the deep snow, walked over all the mission. Be- 
 fore he lel't he changed the name of the station from Partridge 
 Crop to Fairforcl, in remembrance of my birthplace. 
 
 " Of all his labours here, nothing, as far as I can judge, gave 
 him greater pleasure than the Sunday School ; but as he mil, 
 doubtless, write to you himself, I shall leave all farther particu- 
 lars to him. Suffice it to say how extremely we enjoyed his 
 visit, and how thankful we are for it. 
 
 " You must not suppose that those baptized by the Bishop 
 were moved by any momentary excitement occasioned by his 
 visit. The fire had long been burning underground, and his 
 coming among us gave it an impetus, and fanned it into a flame 
 of love to Jesus and His cause. 
 
 " So great was the effect of this upon my catechist, Mr. 
 Charles Pratt, that he was overwhelmed with astonishment. He 
 had been with me a year and a half, and had not perceived the 
 change that was silently going on in the minds of these Indians. 
 I was myself greatly affected, although I was, in a measure, 
 prepared for it by constant intercourse and observation for years 
 past. 
 
 " Although the number of these converts is still so small 
 compared with what the Church Missionary Society has been 
 the blessed means of adding to the Church, year by year, in 
 other parts, yet as a triumph of the Gospel over the hearts of 
 men, it is perhaps second to none. 
 
 " For many years it has been my painful duty to report of my 
 
APPENDIX II. 221 
 
 people as the most callous and indifferent to spiritual things on 
 the face of the earth ; and though latterly there have been indi- 
 cations of better things, yet that twenty-two (for I have baptized 
 two more since the Bishop's visit) should have been in so short 
 a time added to the Church from such a people, is matter for 
 praise and thanksgiving to the whole Christian world. There 
 are a few others who, I hope, will, ere long, follow their example ; 
 and for these, and for all, I trust you will not cease to pray. 
 
 " We were in considerable difficulties last winter from scarcity 
 of provisions. We usually lay in 14,000 white fish in the autumn, 
 for our school and household; but, owing to my own illness, 
 the scarcity of fish, and other causes, only 4000 were procured 
 last fall. The 10,000 had to be made up in any way we could, 
 and had it not been for the produce of the farm, I know not what 
 we could have done. We had many nets made, and two men 
 were constantly employed to fish under the ice ; and yet, after all, 
 we could hardly get enough. You cannot easily imagine my 
 anxiety during that distressing time, nor my joy when spring 
 returned. I thank God that none perished ; and I pray that 
 my health may never again lay me aside at the important time 
 of ' fall-fishing,' as it is called. 
 
 " You will be glad to hear that we are beginning to do a little 
 for the Swan River district. Mr. Charles Pratt is a native of 
 that part of the country, and many of his relations trade at Fort 
 Pelly and Shoal River. Knowing the value of his own soul, he 
 has long been deeply anxious for theirs, and has desired to do 
 something to forward their salvation. He therefore gladly ac- 
 ceded to my proposal that he should leave me, and carry the 
 Word of God to his kinsmen according to the flesh. On the 16th 
 of May he and his family left me for the Ked Kiver, and, after 
 receiving instructions from the Bishop and the Corresponding 
 Committee there, proceeded, on the 18th of June, to his future 
 destination, as the Bishop writes me word, in good health and 
 spirits, and sanguine of success. 
 
 " Fort Pelly is a very important station, on account of the 
 number of Indians that trade there, and is also very eligible in 
 an agricultural point of view, as well as affording facilities for 
 buffalo-hunting. To occupy it properly, so as to have two out- 
 stations at Shoal River and Beaver Creek, would cost at least 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 600Z. per annum: but what is that when compared with the 
 prospect it holds out ? I wish I had the means, and the men to 
 place there ; it should not long remain unoccupied. Oh ! how I 
 long to possess the country in the length and breadth of it ! May 
 God hasten labourers into his vineyard ! 
 
 " Do not be angry if I still continue to intercede for the poor 
 dying heathen around me. The Berens River Indians are still 
 on my mind, and I long to do something for them. I have 
 received a very urgent appeal from Mr. Gumming, who is in 
 charge there, and who tells me the Indians are eagerly desiring 
 instruction. 
 
 " But what can be done ? If a school were opened, it could 
 not, I fear, be kept up for less than 150/. per annum. The 
 country is very, very poor, and the distance that these Indians 
 roam in quest of furs is almost incredible. 
 
 " I can find nothing to induce you to take up this spot, but 
 extreme poverty, degradation, ignorance, superstition, sin, stub- 
 bornness, self-complacency, and misery. Will these be sufficient ? 
 or must we still mourn over the forlorn hopes, the eternal death 
 of this people ? Means, I know, are hard to be got but may 
 God send them ! 
 
 " Yours, &c. &c. 
 
 "ABRAHAM COWLEY." 
 
 We very much, regret that want of space prevents 
 our inserting any portion of the Bishop's very animated 
 and graphic description of his visit to Fairford, but we 
 are happy to find that it will appear in the " Church 
 Missionary Intelligencer " for November, to which we 
 would beg to refer our readers. 
 
 October 14, 1851. 
 
 London : Printed by G. BAHCLAY, Castle St. Leicester Sq. 
 
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