OXFORD HOUSE MISSION--VISITED BY CANOE--DESCRIPTION OF THIS USEFUL
CRAFT-INDIAN SKILL--OXFORD LAKE--DR. TAYLOR--EDWARD PAPANEKIS--STILL ON
THE TRAIL BY BIRCH CANOE--NARROW ESCAPE FROM BEING CRUSHED BY THE ICE--
ON STORMY LAKE WINNIPEG--PIONEERING FARTHER NORTH--SUCCESSES--"SHOW US
THE FATHER, AND IT SUFFICETH US"--CHRIST ACCEPTED IN THE PLACE OF IDOLS.
I had received instructions from the Missionary Secretaries to visit
Oxford Mission as soon as possible, and to do all I could for its
upbuilding. This Mission had had a good measure of success in years
gone by. A church and Mission house had been built at Jackson's Bay,
and many of the Indians had been converted. But the village was too far
from the Hudson's Bay Company's Post, where the Indians traded, and
where naturally they gathered. For several years the work had been left
in charge of a native teacher. The people regretted the absence of an
ordained Missionary, and the place suffered accordingly. Making all the
arrangements I could for the successful prosecution of the work in my
absence, I left Norway House in a small canoe, manned by two of my
Christian Indians, one of whom was my interpreter. With this wonderful
little boat I was now to make my first intimate acquaintance. For this
wild land of broad lakes and rapid rivers and winding creeks, the birch-
bark canoe is the boat of all others most admirably fitted. It is to
the Indian denizen here what the horse is to his more warlike red
brother on the great prairies, or what the camel is to those who live
and wander amidst Arabian deserts. The canoe is absolutely essential to
these natives in this land, where there are no other roads than the
intricate devious water routes. It is the frailest of all boats, yet it
can be loaded down to the water's edge, and, under the skilful guidance
of these Indians, who are unquestionably the finest canoe men in the
world, it can be made to respond to the sweep of their paddles, so that
it seems almost instinct with life and reason. What they can do in it,
and with it, appeared to me at times perfectly marvellous. Yet when we
remember that for about five months of every year some of the hunters
almost live in it, this may not seem so very wonderful. It carries them
by day, and in it, or under it, they often sleep by night. At the many
portages which have to be made in this land, where the rivers are so
full of falls and rapids, one man can easily carry it on his head to the
smooth water beyond. In it we have travelled thousands of miles, while
going from place to place with the blessed tidings of salvation to these
wandering bands scattered over my immense Circuit. Down the wild rapids
we have rushed for miles together, and then out into great Winnipeg, or
other lakes, so far from shore that the distant headlands were scarce
visible. Foam-crested waves have often seemed as though about to
overwhelm us, and treacherous gales to swamp us, yet my faithful, well-
trained canoe men were always equal to every emergency, and by the
accuracy of their judgment, and the quickness of their movements,
appeared ever to do exactly the right thing at the right moment. As the
result, I came at length to feel as much at home in a canoe as anywhere
else, and with God's blessing was permitted to make many long trips to
those who could not be reached in any other way, except by dog-trains in
winter.
Good canoe-makers are not many, and so really good canoes are always in
demand.
Frail and light as this Indian craft may be, there is a great deal of
skill and ingenuity required in its construction.
Great care is requisite in taking the bark from the tree. A long
incision is first made longitudinally in the trunk of the tree. Then,
from this cut, the Indian begins, and with his keen knife gradually
peels off the whole of the bark, as high up as his incision went, in one
large piece or sheet. And even now that he has safely got it off the
tree, the greatest care is necessary in handling it, as it will split or
crack very easily. Cedar is preferred for the woodwork, and when it can
possibly be obtained, is always used. But in the section of the country
where I lived, as we were north of the cedar limit, the canoe-makers
used pieces of the spruce tree, split very thin, as the best substitute
for cedar that our country afforded.
All the sewing of the pieces of birch bark together, and the fastening
of the whole to the outer frame, is done with the long slender roots of
the balsam or larch trees, which are soaked and rubbed until they are as
flexible as narrow strips of leather. When all the sewing is done, the
many narrow limber pieces of spruce are crowded into their places,
giving the whole canoe its requisite proportions and strength. Then the
seams and weak spots are well covered over with melted pitch, which the
Indians obtain from the spruce and balsam trees.
Great care is taken to make the canoe watertight. To accomplish this,
the boat is often swung between trees and filled with water. Every
place where the slightest leak is discovered is marked, and, when the
canoe is emptied, is carefully attended to.
Canoes vary in style and size. Each tribe using them has its own
patterns, and it was to me an ever interesting sight, to observe how
admirably suited to the character of the lakes and rivers were the
canoes of each tribe or district.
The finest and largest canoes were those formerly made by the Lake
Superior Indians. Living on the shores of that great inland sea, they
required canoes of great size and strength. These "great north canoes,"
as they were called, could easily carry from a dozen to a score of
paddlers, with a cargo of a couple of tons of goods. In the old days of
the rival fur-traders, these great canoes played a very prominent part.
Before steam or even large sailing vessels had penetrated into those
northern lakes, these canoes were extensively used, loaded with the rich
furs of those wild forests, they used to come down into the Ottawa, and
thence on down that great stream, often even as far as to Montreal.
Sir George Simpson, the energetic but despotic and unprincipled governor
of the Hudson's Bay Company for many years, used to travel in one of
these birch canoes all the way from Montreal up the Ottawa on through
Lake Nipissing into Georgian Bay; from thence into Lake Superior, on to
Thunder Bay. From this place, with indomitable pluck, he pushed on back
into the interior, through the Lake of the Woods, down the tortuous
river Winnipeg into the lake of the same name. Along the whole length
of this lake he annually travelled, in spite of its treacherous storms
and annoying head winds, to preside over the Council and attend to the
business of the wealthiest fur-trading company that ever existed, over
which he watched with eagle eye, and in every department of which his
distinct personality was felt. His famous Iroquois crew are still
talked about, and marvellous are the stories in circulation about many a
northern camp fire of their endurance and skill.
How rapid the changes which are taking place in this world of ours! It
seems almost incredible, in these days of mighty steamships going almost
everywhere on our great waters, to think that there are hundreds of
people still living who distinctly remember when the annual trips of a
great governor were made from Montreal to Winnipeg in a birch-bark
Canoe, manned by Indians.