That was the turning-point; from that day Rob Nixon was an altered man.
Of course, I do not mean that he at once found all his difficulties
gone, his heart full of love, his prayers full of devotion; but from
this time he felt, as he had never felt before, that he was "blind, and
poor, and naked," and far away from his home. His good and faithful
friend, Peter, had given him wise and good advice, and had introduced
him to the excellent minister of the settlement, Archdeacon Hunter, who
soon became a daily visitor at Peter's cottage.
Skilful in imparting religious knowledge, he was able, by slow degrees,
to instruct the old hunter in the leading truths of Christianity. Once
comprehended, the old man grasped them joyfully; and though long
unaccustomed to the sight of a book, he set to work again to learn to
read, that he might himself peruse the sacred volume. He, of course,
learned in English, and it was curious to remark, how his countenance
beamed with pleasure as he recognised once familiar, but long forgotten,
letters and words, and how rapidly he recovered the knowledge he had
possessed as a boy. His great delight was to attend the
school-children's service, and to hear them afterwards catechised by the
minister; and the greyheaded, gaunt old man, might have been seen
constantly sitting among them, truly as a little child, imbibing the
truths of the Gospel. But, after a time, a change came over him. He
appeared no longer content to remain, as hitherto, quietly in the
cottage of his friend Peter, but spoke of wishing, once more, to be in
the saddle, following his calling of a hunter. His rifle and
accoutrements had carefully been brought home by Peter; but they would
be of no use without a horse, powder and shot, and provisions. The
autumn hunt, in which a large number of the natives of the Red River
settlement engage every year, was about to commence; and, to Peter's
surprise and regret, Rob Nixon expressed his intention of accompanying
them, should he be able to obtain the means of so doing. Peter trembled
lest his old friend's conversion should not have been real--lest the
seed, which he had hoped would have borne good fruit, had, after all,
been sown on stony ground. He delicately expressed his fears,
describing the temptations to which a hunter is exposed. A tear
appeared in the old man's eye, as he called Peter's eldest boy to him.
"Friend, you love this boy?" he said. "I do, fondly," was the natural
answer. "And you love his soul?" he asked. "Far more surely. It is
the most precious part of him," said the Christian father. "I, too,
have a son, and I love him; but I knew that he could take good care of
himself, and so I left him with little regret," said the hunter. "But
now, friend, I know that he has a soul which is in danger of perishing,
I long to seek him out, to tell him of his danger, to win him back to
that Saviour from whom he has strayed so far. I have a daughter and a
friend too, and that friend has children. To all I would show how they
may be saved. I loved them once, thinking nothing of their souls. How
much more do I love their souls now that I know their value!" Peter
warmly grasped the old hunter's hand, as he exclaimed, "Pardon me,
father, that I had hard thoughts of you. I understand your object, and
I doubt not that aid will be afforded you to carry it out, for it is
surely one well pleasing in God's sight. `He who converteth a sinner
from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide
a multitude of sins.'"
The whole matter being laid before the missionary minister the next day,
he highly approved of the old hunter's intention, and promised to aid
him as far as he had the power. He was on the point of setting out to
visit the settlements, as the Red River colony is called, and he invited
Robert Nixon to accompany him, that he might there obtain the necessary
aid for the accomplishment of his enterprise. It was agreed, in the
first place, that the old man should not undertake the journey alone.
The difficulty was to find a companion for him. Fortunately, two years
before, a young Sioux had been taken prisoner by a party of Crees, a
numerous, people, who inhabit the country round Lake Winnepeg, their
lodges being found far in other directions. They, like the heathen
Ojibways, are always at war with the Sioux, and no opportunity is lost
of taking each others' scalps. This young Sioux, to whom the name of
Joseph had been given, was anxious to carry the glad tidings of
salvation to his countrymen, and hearing of the old hunter's wish,
gladly volunteered to accompany him. Peter would willingly himself have
been his companion, but that he had his duties as a teacher to attend
to, and his family to care for; besides which, a Sioux would be able to
enter the country of his people with less risk of being killed by them,
than would one of the Cree, or Ojibway nation. Peter, however, insisted
on Nixon taking his horse. "You can repay me for the hire some day, or
your son can repay my children, should you bring him back. If it is not
God's will that you should succeed in your mission, yet I fear not that
He will repay me, as the loan is for an object well pleasing in His
sight."
A horse for the young Sioux, as well as provisions and articles as gifts
to propitiate any chiefs of tribes who might not know him, were still
considered necessary, and these could only be procured at the Red River.
The distance between the little colony of Prairie Portage and Red River
is about sixty-five miles, but this neither the old hunter nor his
companions thought in any way a long journey. The astonishment of
Robert Nixon was very great on finding a well-beaten road the whole
distance, over which wheeled carriages could pass with perfect ease;
still more when he passed several farms, even to the west of Lane's
Post, which formed the termination of their first day's journey. Their
course was in the same direction as that of the Assiniboine, which very
winding river they occasionally sighted. The banks were generally well
clothed with fine wood, and the soil everywhere appeared to be of the
richest quality. Considerably greater than before was the old man's
astonishment when, on the second day about noon, the party arrived at a
comfortable farm, where the owner hospitably invited them to rest, and
placed before them the usual luxuries to be found in a well-ordered
farm-house in the old country, such as good wheat and maize bread,
cheese, butter, bacon and eggs, with capital beer, and in addition,
preserves and fruit, several vegetables, and fresh maize boiled,
answering the purpose of green peas. A joint of mutton was roasting at
the fire, and potatoes were boiling. After this repast, the farmer
brought out a supply of tobacco which, he told his guests, grew on the
farm. "Indeed, gentlemen, I may say we here live in plenty," he
observed; "and all we want are people to settle down about us, and make
our lives more sociable than they now are. We have drawbacks, I'll
allow; and what farmer, even in the old country, can say that he has
not? Ours are--early and late frosts, though chiefly the latter;
grasshoppers, which will clear a field of every green thing in a night;
and, occasionally, wolves and bears; but those gentry don't like the
smell of our gunpowder, and have mostly taken their departure. On the
Red River farms they seldom or never hear of one, and the injury they
can do us is but slight."
This was the commencement of a long line of farms which extends, with
few breaks, the whole distance to the Red River, into which the
Assiniboine falls. Often the old hunter was silent, considering the
unexpected scenes which met his sight, though he occasionally indulged
in quiet remarks on them; but when, at length, the lofty and glittering
spire of a large cathedral, [note] appearing, as the rays of the evening
sun shone on it, as if formed of burnished silver--numerous edifices,
some of considerable dimensions, scattered about--public buildings and
dwelling houses--other churches in the distance--several windmills, with
their white arms moving in the breeze, high above the richly tinted
foliage of the trees, which formed an irregular fringe to the banks of
the river flowing beneath them, while near at hand, at the point where
the Assiniboine flows into the larger stream, rose the walls and
battlements of a strong fort, whose frowning guns commanded the
surrounding plains,--when he saw all this, the scene appeared to his
bewildered eyes as if it had sprung up by the touch of the enchanter's
wand, in the midst of the desert. "Well! well!" he exclaimed, "and I
have been living all this time, but a few weeks' journey from this
place, and never should have thought of it." The sight of the large
sails of the freighters' boats made him somewhat uncomfortable, lest he
should be carried off to sea, and he could scarcely be persuaded that he
was still not far short of two thousand miles from the Atlantic ocean,
and that there was no chance of his being kidnapped. He was even more
frightened than his steed when a steamer came puffing up to a wharf
below Fort Garry. "What creature is that they have aboard there?" he
exclaimed, "Where does the strange craft come from? What is she going
to do?" He sprang from his horse, and stood looking over the cliff at
the steamer. He at once recognised her as a vessel, though of a
construction wonderfully strange to his eyes, as no steamers had been
built when he left England, and he had never heard of their invention.
The stream of steam puffed off, and the loud screams accompanying it
made him somewhat incredulous as to the nature of the vessel. When,
however, all was quiet, and he saw a stream of people issuing from her
side, he was satisfied that she was of mortal build, and he was at
length persuaded to go down and examine her himself. It almost took
away his breath, as he said, to find that vessels of far greater size
now ploughed the ocean in every direction, and that continents were
traversed by long lines of carriages, dragged by single locomotives, at
the rate of forty miles an hour. After hearing of this, he was scarcely
surprised at any of the wonders which were told him, and of the numerous
discoveries and inventions which have been brought into practical use
during half-a-century. At the close of the day the travellers reached a
well-built rectory, on the banks of the river, where they were
hospitably received and entertained. While seated in the evening before
the fire with his host, the old man, as he looked round the room and
observed the various comforts which it contained, heaved a deep sigh.
"Ah! I feel now how sadly I have thrown my life away," he exclaimed.
"I might, but for my early folly, have enjoyed all the comforts of
civilisation, and played my part as a civilised man, instead of living
the life of a savage among savages."
"Friend," observed the minister, "this is not the only life. There is
another and a better--to last for ever.
"Then you have no desire to return to your former friends, the Sioux?"
the minister continued, after a pause. "Ah! yes; but not for the
pleasure such a life as they lead could give me. There is the friend of
my youth, and there are his children, and my children. My great desire
is to return to them to tell them that they have souls, and what the
Lord, in His loving kindness, has done for their souls." The object of
the old hunter was no sooner known in the settlement than he obtained
all the assistance he could require. Few persons who had for so long
led a savage life could have appreciated more fully than he now seemed
to do the advantages of civilisation, and yet none of them could turn
him from his purpose. Within five days he and his young Sioux
companion, Joseph, were ready to set out. They had a led-horse to carry
their provisions and presents, and they had arms, though rather to
enable them to kill game for their support than for the purpose of
fighting. "I pray that our hands may be lifted up against no man's
life, even though we may be attacked by those who are what we ourselves
were but a short time back, and should still be, but for God's grace,"
said the old man, as he slung his rifle to his saddle-bow. Once more
Robert Nixon turned his back on the abodes of civilised men. Had it not
been for the object in view it would have been with a heavy heart. "If
Tom and I had remained at school, and laboured on steadily, we might
have been like one of those ministers of the Gospel, or settlers, and
our children the same, instead of the young savages they now are,
ignorant of God and His holy laws." Thus he mused as he rode along. He
and his young companion did not neglect the usual precautions, when they
camped at night, to avoid discovery by any wandering natives who might
be disposed to molest them.
The young Indian, though possessing much less religious knowledge than
Peter, yet showed a sincere anxiety to fulfil his religious duties, and,
without fail, a hymn was sung and prayer was offered up before starting
on their day's journey, and when they lay down on their beds of spruce,
fir-twigs, or leaves, or dry grass, at night.
The travellers rode on day after day without encountering any material
impediments to their progress. There were no rugged mountains to
ascend, no dense forests to penetrate, or wild defiles amid which they
had to find their way. There were rivers and streams; but some were
easily forded, across others they swam their horses, and passed their
provisions and goods on small rafts, which they towed behind them.
Leaving British territory, and moving west, the country had a barren and
arid appearance. In many districts sand predominated, with sand-hills
of more or less elevation; in others grass, growing in tufts out of the
parched-up, stony ground, was the only herbage. Indeed, from north to
south and east to west, for many hundred miles, there exists an extent
of country, known as the Dakotah territory, unfitted, from the absence
of water, to become the permanent abode of civilised man. Here,
however, at certain seasons, herds of buffalo find pasturage on their
way to and from the more fertile regions of the north; and thus, with
the aid of fish, and other wild animals, and roots and berries,
considerable tribes of the Dakotah nation find a precarious existence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note. This cathedral belongs to the Roman Catholics, who have also a
large convent near at hand. They maintain a considerable number of
Missionary Stations in different parts of the country.