WESLEYAN MISSION--MR. EVANS--ENCOURAGEMENT GIVEN BY THE
COMPANY--MR. EVANS'S EXERTIONS AMONG THE INDIANS--CAUSES OF
THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE COMPANY'S SUPPORT--CALUMNIOUS CHARGES
AGAINST MR. EVANS--MR. E. GOES TO ENGLAND--HIS SUDDEN DEATH.
Allusion has been made in a former chapter to the Company's
encouragement of Missionaries; I shall now add a few facts by way of
illustration.
The Rev. Mr. Evans, a man no less remarkable for genuine piety than
for energy and decision of character, had been present at several of
the annual meetings of the Indians at Manitoulin Island, and had felt
his sympathy deeply awakened by the sight of their degradation and
spiritual destitution. While thus affected, he received an invitation
from the American Episcopal Methodists to go as a Missionary among
the Indians resident in the Union. Feeling, however, that his services
were rather due to his fellow-subjects, he resolved to devote his
labours and his life to the tribes residing in the Hudson's Bay
territory. Having made known his intentions to this Canada Conference,
he, together with Messrs. Thomas Hurlburt, and Peter Jacobs, was
by them appointed a Missionary, and at their charges sent to that
territory. No application was made to the Company, and neither
encouragement nor support was expected from them. Mr. E. and his
brother Missionaries began their operations by raising with their own
hands, unassisted, a house at the Pic; themselves cutting and hauling
the timber on the ice. They obtained, indeed, a temporary lodging at
Fort Michipicoton, but they not only found their own provisions, but
the comforts of the establishment were materially increased by Mr.
E.'s and his interpreter's success in fishing and hunting. Late in the
fall, accompanied by two Indian boys in a small canoe, Mr. E. made
a voyage to Sault Ste. Marie for provisions: and on this expedition,
rendered doubly hazardous by the lateness of the season, and the
inexperience of his companions, he more than once narrowly escaped
being lost.
Returning next season to Canada for his family, he met Sir G.
Simpson, on Lake Superior. Having learned that the Mission was already
established, and likely to succeed, Sir George received him with
the utmost urbanity, treating him not only with kindness but
with distinction; he expressed the highest satisfaction at the
establishment of the Mission, promised him his utmost support, and at
length proposed that arrangement, which, however apparently auspicious
for the infant Mission, was ultimately found to be very prejudicial to
it.
The caution of Mr. E. was completely lulled asleep by the apparent
kindness of the Governor, and the hearty warmth with which he seemed
to enter into his views. Sir George proposed that the Missionaries
should hold the same rank and receive the same allowance as the
wintering partners, or commissioned officers; and that canoes, or
other means of conveyance, should be furnished to the Missionaries for
their expeditions; nor did it seem unreasonable to stipulate that in
return for these substantial benefits, they should say or do nothing
prejudicial to the Company's interests either among the natives, or in
their Reports to the Conference in England, to whose jurisdiction the
Mission was transferred. The great evil of this arrangement was, that
the Missionaries, from being the servants of God, accountable to Him
alone, became the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, dependent
on, and amenable to them; and the Committee were of course to be the
sole judges of what was, or was not, prejudicial to their interests.
Still, it is impossible to blame very severely either Mr. E. or
the Conference for accepting offers apparently so advantageous, or
even for consenting to certain restrictions in publishing their
Reports:--with the assistance and co-operation of the Company great
good might be effected;--with the hostility of a Corporation all but
omnipotent within its own domain, and among the Indians, the post
might not be tenable.
For some time matters went on smoothly: by the indefatigable exertions
of Mr. E. and his fellow-workers, aided also by Mrs. E., who devoted
much of her time and labour to the instruction of the females, a great
reformation was effected in the habits and morals of the Indians.
But Mr. Evans soon perceived that without books printed in the Indian
language, little permanent good would be realized: he therefore wrote
to the London Conference to send him a printing press and types, with
characters of a simple phonetic kind, which he himself had invented,
and of which he gave them a copy. The press was procured without
delay, but was detained in London by the Governor and Committee; and
though they were again and again petitioned to forward it, they flatly
refused. Mr. E., however, was not a man to be turned aside from his
purpose. With his characteristic energy he set to work, and having
invented an alphabet of a more simple kind, he with his penknife cut
the types, and formed the letters from musket bullets; he constructed
a rude sort of press; and aided by Mrs. E. as compositor, he at length
succeeded in printing prayers, and hymns, and passages of Scripture
for the use of the Indians. Finding their object in detaining the
press thus baffled, the Governor and Committee deemed it expedient to
forward it; but with the express stipulation, that every thing printed
should be sent to the commander of the post as _censor_, before it
was published among the Indians. This was among the first causes of
distrust and dissatisfaction.
Another source of dissatisfaction was Mr. E.'s faithfulness in
regard to the observance of the sabbath. As the Indians became more
enlightened they ceased to hunt and fish, and even to carry home game
on the sabbath day; and, as a matter of course, they would no longer
work for the Company on that day. But Mr. E. was guilty of equal
faithfulness in remonstrating with those gentlemen in the service with
whom he was on terms of intimacy in regard to this point of the Divine
law; and several gentlemen, convinced by his arguments, determined to
cease from working and travelling on the sabbath.
One of them, Mr. C----l, while on a distant expedition, acted in
accordance with his convictions, and rested on the sabbath. The voyage
turned out unusually stormy, and the water in the rivers was low, so
that it occupied several days longer than it had formerly done; and
the loss of time, which was really owing to the adverse weather,
was charged on his keeping of the sabbath. From that day forth,
the encouragement given to the Missionaries began to be withdrawn;
obstacles were thrown in their way, and although nothing was openly
done to injure the Missions already in operation, it would seem
that it was determined that, if the Company could prevent it, no new
stations should be occupied--at least by _Protestant_ Missionaries.
Not long after, Mr. E., finding that the Missions he had hitherto
superintended were in such a state of progress that he might safely
leave them to the care of his fellow-labourers, resolved to proceed
to Athabasca and establish a mission there. Having gone, as usual, to
the Commander of the post to obtain the necessary provisions, and a
canoe and boatmen, he was received with unusual coldness. He asked
provisions,--none could be given; he offered to purchase them,--the
commander refused to sell him any. He begged a canoe,--it was denied
him; and finally, when he intreated that, if he should be able to
procure those necessaries elsewhere, he might at least be allowed a
couple of men to assist him on the voyage, he was answered that none
would be allowed to go on that service. Deeply grieved, but nothing
daunted, Mr. E. procured those necessaries from private resources,
and proceeded on his voyage. But a sad calamity put a stop to it; in
handing his gun to the interpreter it accidentally went off, and the
charge lodging in his breast killed him instantaneously. He was thus
compelled to return, in a state of mind bordering on distraction.
Mr. E.'s zeal and piety promised the best results to the spiritual
and eternal interests of his Indian brethren. His talents, energy,
and fertility of resource, which seemed to rise with every obstacle,
had the happiest effects on their temporal well-being; and his mild
and winning manners greatly endeared him to all the Indians. But his
useful and honourable career was drawing to a close. The mournful
accident already alluded to had affected his health, and he now
received his deathblow.
Yet, obnoxious as he had become to the Company, and formidable to
their interests as they might deem one of his talents and indomitable
resolution to be, the blow was not struck by them. It was dealt by
a _false_ brother; by one who had eaten of his bread: by a "familiar
friend, with whom he had taken sweet counsel." Charges affecting his
character, both as a man and a minister, of the foulest and blackest
kind, were transmitted to the Conference by a brother Missionary. To
answer these charges, as false as they were foul, he was compelled
to leave the churches he had planted and watered, to bid adieu to the
people whose salvation had been for years the sole object of his life,
and to undertake a voyage of 5,000 miles to appear before his brethren
as a _criminal_. As a criminal, indeed, he was received; yet after
an investigation, begun and carried on in no very friendly spirit to
him, truth prevailed. He was declared innocent, and the right hand
of fellowship was again extended to him. He made a short tour through
England, and was everywhere received with respect, and affection, and
sympathy.
But anxiety, and grief, and shame had done their work. Scarce three
weeks had elapsed, when, having spent the evening along with Mrs.
E. in the family of a friend, whose guest he was, with some of his
wonted cheerfulness, Mrs. E. having retired but a few minutes, she was
summoned to the room where she had left him in time to see him pass
into that land where "the wicked cease from troubling." The cause
of his death was an _affection of the heart_. And that man--the
slanderer--the murderer of this martyred Missionary--what punishment
was inflicted on him? He is to this day unpunished! and yet lives
in the Hudson's Bay territory, the disgrace and opprobrium of his
profession and his church.
Such are a few facts connected with the establishment of the Wesleyan
Mission in the Hudson's Bay territory, and illustrative of the sort
of encouragement given by the Committee to Protestant Missionaries.
By way of rider to these, I may just remind the reader that Roman
Catholic Missionaries have since been freely permitted to plant
churches wherever they pleased, even in districts where Protestant
Missions were already established.
After all, this is not much to be wondered at, since Sir G.
Simpson openly avowed to Mr. Evans his preference of Roman Catholic
Missionaries; one reason for this preference being, that these never
interfered with the Company's servants, nor troubled them with any
precise or puritanical notions about the moral law.