SCHOOL WORK
In school work and teaching Mr. Horden took from first to last the
keenest interest. After he became bishop he still visited the Moose
School daily, whenever he was in residence. In earlier years he had for
a time the able assistance of a native master, Mr. Vincent. A small
boarding-school had been commenced in 1855 with two children, who were
supported through the Coral Missionary Fund.[1] The following year, two
more children were taken, and in 1857 the number on the list amounted to
eight; to these others were yearly added, supported by friends of the
Coral Fund.
Little Susan was one of these. Her unfinished sampler with the needle in
it was sent to England. The children’s histories were many of them very
sad and pathetic. Some were orphans. The parents of others were disabled,
or too sick and suffering to work. One little girl was described as
having so wild a look that a portrait of her scarcely resembled that of
a human being. Another, after remaining for a time in the school, fell
ill with the strange Indian sickness called ‘long thinking,’ a gypsy-like
yearning for the wild life of the forest, and she had to be sent back to
her widowed father. One boy died early of decline, a complaint to which
the Indian is very subject. Another was the child of a father who lay
sick and bed-ridden in a most deplorable condition—parts of his body
actually rotten. ‘He might’ have been the Lazarus of the parable,’ wrote
Mr. Horden. ‘He gets little rest night or day, but, like Lazarus, his
mind is stayed on God.’
A few children having thus been gathered together with the certainty of
support, Mr. Horden commenced building a school-house. He had from the
first assembled the children for daily instruction, but to board and
clothe them was impossible without some friendly help, all necessaries
at Moose being nearly double the price of the same articles at home.
At one time it was quite double. From this we may gather with what
delight was hailed, as the season came round, the arrival of the annual
ship, bringing to the missionary and his family the stores needed for
themselves and their charges for the year to come.
In 1864 very especially, Mr. and Mrs. Horden awaited in eager expectation
the ship’s appearance, for not only did they long to know that the wants
of the school children and the poor who depended upon them would be
supplied, but they were hoping themselves to return in her with their
little family for a well-earned rest and change in England, from which
country they had then been absent thirteen long years. The three elder
children were of an age to need an English education. The little son,
a boy of nine or ten, whose principal amusement was to go to the woods
with an axe over his shoulder to cut firewood, must, ere it was too late,
be weaned from the free life in the forest, and begin to measure his
powers of mind and body with other lads of his age and class at home. The
wife and mother yearned to see the relatives parted from long ago; the
hard-worked man hoped for stimulus and help in the society and sympathy
of his brethren and fellow-labourers.
These hopes and yearnings were doomed to disappointment. ‘You know,’
wrote Mr. Horden on January 25, 1865, ‘that it was my intention to be at
home this year, and I had expected to have reached England in October or
the beginning of November. But August passed and the ship did not arrive,
and anxiety increased daily. The 23rd came, the latest day on which the
ship had ever been known to appear, and then we began to despond and to
say, “No ship this year!” The schooner still remained outside, hoping
against hope, until October 7. That same night, in the midst of a most
fearful storm, we heard the report of large guns at sea; our excitement
was extreme, our hopes revived, and from mouth to mouth passed the joyful
exclamation, “The ship’s come! the ship’s come!” We lay down to rest,
lightened of a great weight of anxiety, dreaming of absent friends, with
a strange pleasant confusion of boxes, storms, ice, guns, and the many
other etceteras of the sailing, arrival, and unloading of our ship.
‘Morning dawned, the storm had subsided, a boat was despatched for
letters, the schooner was again ordered to sea, all hearts beat high,
and by ten o’clock our illusions were dispelled. The guns had been fired
by the York schooner, which had been despatched to Moose to acquaint us
with our misfortune, and to bring the little that had been saved from the
wreck. It was very little, yet sufficient to remove anxiety as to our
living for this winter, as we thus became possessed of flour and tea,
which we can only obtain by the ship, for in our wintry land no fields
of wheat wave their golden heads, and no sound of the reapers ever falls
upon the ear. Of the many packages sent me, the Coral Fund box was the
only one which came to hand, all the rest are at the bottom of the sea:
and of the contents of your box, everything was much damaged, except the
service book, now lying on the communion table at Moose. The packet-box
was saved, which accounts for my receiving your letter.
‘The Moose ship left England in company with the Hudson’s Bay Company’s
ship, bound for York Factory, which is a post about seven hundred miles
north of Moose, and came across the Atlantic and nearly through Hudson’s
Straits without any mishaps. On August 13 the two ships were together,
a few miles to the east of Mansfield Island; the captains visited and
congratulated each other upon having passed the most dangerous portion
of the voyage, and expected that within a week the one would be at York
and the other at Moose. But how blind is man! Within a few hours both of
them were ashore on Mansfield Island, about twelve miles distant from
each other. The York ship had a very large number of men on board, and
by almost incredible exertions she was got off, but not until she had
sustained such damages as necessitated the constant use of the pumps.
The Moose ship could not be got off, and still lies with nearly all her
valuable cargo on the rocks. The York ship came to her and took all the
crew on board, together with what had been saved, and proceeded to York
Factory. There she was examined, and then it appeared how near all had
been to death; the wonder was how she could possibly have kept afloat. To
return to England in her would have been madness, so she still lies at
York. Happily a second vessel had gone to York, which took home nearly
the whole of the crews of the two disabled ships.
‘When I last wrote I asked for the service book for my new church;
that edifice has now, I am happy to say, been opened; the interesting
ceremony took place on Whit-Sunday, May 15, 1864. The ice had entirely
disappeared from the river; the sun shone forth brilliantly, all Nature
smiled. A large congregation assembled at our usual hour for service,
and all seemed impressed with the solemnity of the occasion. The subject
of the sermon was the dedication of Solomon’s temple. At its close the
collection amounted to upwards of 4_l._, and after that a number of
Europeans, natives, and Indians, assembled round the table of the Lord.
It was the first time I ever administered a general communion, many of
the Indians not understanding English; but on this occasion I wished them
to see that, in spite of diversity of language, God is alike the God of
the white man and the red. Altogether it was a most interesting and happy
day. It is literally a church in the wilderness. I hope it will not be
long before others rise in this part of the country.
‘I have lately heard of my poor Eskimo brethren in the far-off desert;
that infant church has been much tried. Just one half of its members have
been carried off by death; there were but four, two of whom are gone, and
both somewhat suddenly. One of them was the young Eskimo interpreter,
who when I was last with them was of such very great service to me. Late
in the fall he went off in his kayak to set a fox trap. He did so, but
as he was getting into the canoe to return home it upset with him, and
the coldness of the water prevented him from swimming. His body was not
discovered until the evening of the following day. The other was the
only baptized woman, her name was Elizabeth Horden. These trials must be
necessary, or they would not be sent.’