near the river, from whence there is a fine view of the valley. Its
high cliffs, and their snow-capped tops, betoken a severe winter
residence, though on our return we crossed a meadow where cows and
calves were grazing. In the meanwhile my invitation to a feast had been
accepted, all were busily employed, and soon all were seated enjoying
the coffee and biscuits as at Metlakahtla. During the feast, a canoe
was seen passing down the river, and the universal wish was expressed
by all the leading men that the strangers should be invited to join
them. Oh, how the blessedness of the Gospel is daily brought before one
among these Christian Indians--"peace, good-will towards all men"! In
former years a watchman would have told of the approach of an enemy,
and all would have taken to arms to defend their lives. "Oh that men
would therefore praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful
works to the children of men!"
_July 5th_.--This was our last day at Kincolith. At 8 p.m., we
embarked in our canoe to return to Metlakahtla, taking leave of the
Mission greatly encouraged, and thankful for the bright prospects
before them, acknowledging with deep gratitude the Lord's hand in the
work, and earnestly praying that the young converts may be preserved
from the many trials and temptations which are brought nearer and
nearer to them year by year.
_July 10th_.--Before my departure from Metlakahtla, I assembled
the few who were left at the village, to tell them I was anxious to
leave behind some token both of my visit to them after so long an
absence, and also that I still bore them on my heart. What should it
be? After hours of consultation, they decided they would leave the
choice to me, and when I told them (what I had beforehand determined
upon) that my present would be a set of street lamps to light up their
village by night, their joy was unbounded. Their first thought had a
spiritual meaning. By day, God's house was a memorable object, visible
both by vessels passing and repassing, and by all canoes as strange
Indians travelled about; but by night all was darkness--now no longer
so--as the bright light of the glorious Gospel, had through God's mercy
and love shined in their dark hearts, so would all be reminded, by
night as well as by day, of the marvellous light shining in the hearts
of many at Metlakahtla. When Duncan first settled at Metlakahtla, even
the Indians who came with him were in such fear from the neighbouring
tribes, that they begged him not to have a fire burning at night or
show a light in his house. The system of murder was then so general,
that whenever an enemy saw a light he sneaked up to it, and the death
of the unsuspecting Indian was generally the result. Thus my selection
was a happy one, and I thanked God for it.
I fear the story of my visit to this interesting Mission will try the
patience of many of the readers. I would, therefore, affectionately ask
them to consider it from my point of view, viz., God's providential
dealings with me from my first acquaintance with the Indians in 1853 to
the present time. I claim no honour to myself nor to the C. M. S., but
for Christ--"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give
glory." Words cannot express my gratitude to God for permitting me to
see what I have see of the power of the Gospel of the Grace of God. He
who healed the deaf and dumb when upon earth still lives. When brought
to Christ, the same power still heals the spiritually deaf and dumb;
witness the great chief Legaic--He made him to delight in listening to
the same Gospel which once he so opposed, ridiculed, and despised, to
love the man whose life he so often attempted, and to join with him in
prayer and praise; and finally, at the time of his departure, to hear a
glorious testimony, that the sting of death had been removed, and he
was safe in the arms of Jesus.
XIV.
THE DIOCESE OF CALEDONIA.
As we have already mentioned, when Mr. Duncan went out in 1856 there
was but one clergyman of the Church of England on the whole western
coast of British America, viz., the Rev. E. Cridge, chaplain at
Victoria. The colony of British Columbia, however, grew apace; and in
1859 it was formed into a Diocese, Dr. Hills being appointed the first
Bishop. The visits of Bishop Hills and of more than one of his colonial
clergy to Metlakahtla have been noticed in the foregoing pages. By them
a large number of the Christian Indians were baptized. The C. M. S.
Committee have always desired to provide an ordained missionary for the
settlement; but for some years their effort seemed fruitless. It has
been before mentioned that the Rev. L. Tugwell, who went out in 1860,
and was privileged to baptize the first group of converts, was
compelled by failure of health to return home in the following year. In
1864, the Rev. R. R. A. Doolan, B.A., of Caius College, Cambridge,
offered himself for the work. He laboured zealously for three years,
and began the Mission on Nass River, as already related; and then in
1867 he, too, had to return to England. Both he and Mr. Tugwell found
important spheres of missionary labour in connection with the Spanish
Church Mission. In 1865, the Rev. F. Gribbell was sent out; but the
climate of Metlakahtla seriously affected his wife's health, and he
accepted colonial work offered him at Victoria by the Bishop of
Columbia. In 1867 the Rev. R. Tomlinson, B.A., was appointed to the
Mission, and he has providentially been permitted to continue in its
service ever since. He, however, took over the work on Nass River,
begun by Mr. Doolan, so that Metlakahtla still remained without an
ordained missionary. But the grace of God is not tied to a regular
ministry, and the settlement grew and prospered, spiritually as well as
materially, under the loving care of its lay founder. In 1873, Mr. W.
H. Collison joined the Mission as a schoolmaster, and in 1878 Mr. H.
Schutt went out in the same capacity, to leave Mr. Collison free to
begin new work in Queen Charlotte's Islands. In 1877 the Rev. A. J.
Hall, a young clergyman in full orders, was appointed to Metlakahtla;
but he, too, under the advice of his brethren, removed soon after his
arrival to Fort Rupert, to break up fresh ground. At length Mr.
Collison, having been ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Bompas, of
Athabasca, during the latter's visit to the coast in the winter of 1877
-8, and having been released from the work at Queen Charlotte's Islands
by the arrival of Mr. G. Sneath in 1879, again took up his abode at
Metlakahtla as pastor of the settlement.
In the meanwhile, certain unhappy disputes in Victoria, arising from
the extreme doctrinal views which found an entrance into the Church in
the Colony, as they have into the Church at home, had resulted in a
secession to the American "Reformed Church" under the leadership of the
Rev. E. Cridge. Mr. Cridge was greatly beloved by the Christians of
Metlakahtla, having given much godly counsel and help to the Mission;
and they not unnaturally felt much sympathy for him in the painful step
he had felt it his duty to take. In this state of things, the Bishop of
Columbia, anxious not to rouse feelings which it might be hard to
allay, with much wisdom and generosity refrained from visiting
Metlakahtla, and wrote to Bishop Bompas, of Athabasca, who is a devoted
missionary of the C. M. S., asking him to come over and visit the
coast, and to perform episcopal functions in the C. M. S. Mission.
Accordingly, in November, 1877, Bishop Bompas, reached Metlakahtla
after a long and difficult journey across the Rocky and Cascade
Mountains, and the wilderness of lakes and rivers stretching between
those chains. He remained three months on the coast, visited the
outlying stations, confirmed 124 of the Christian Indians, ordained Mr.
Collison deacon and priest, and assisted Mr. Duncan and the other
missionaries in maturing plans for the extension of the Mission.
[Footnote: Bishop Bompas' account of the Christmas he spent in
Metlakahtla is given at page 75. A narrative of his journey across the
Rocky Mountains appeared in the _C. M. Intelligencer_ of August,
1878.]
In 1879, Bishop Hills, being on a visit to England, arranged with the
Church Missionary Society a plan for providing its Missions with
episcopal oversight. He had come, charged by his Diocesan Synod to take
steps for dividing his vast diocese into three--Columbia, New
Westminster, and Caledonia--which would form an ecclesiastical province
on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, just as, on the east side, the
four dioceses of Rupert's Land, Moosonee, Athabasca, and Saskatchewan,
form the province of Rupert's Land. The northernmost of these three
divisions, Caledonia, would comprise the field of the C. M. S.
Missions; and the Society therefore undertook to guarantee the income
of the Bishop for this division, provided that the Committee were
satisfied with the appointment made. The scheme was happily consummated
by the choice of the Rev. Wm. Ridley, vicar of St. Paul's,
Huddersfield, who had been a C. M. S. missionary in India, but whose
health had been unequal to the trying climate of the Peshawar Valley.
Mr. Ridley was consecrated on St. James's Day, July 25th, 1879, at St.
Paul's Cathedral, at the same time as Dr. Walsham How to the Suffragan
-Bishopric of Bedford (for East London), Dr. Barclay to the Anglican See
of Jerusalem, and Dr. Speechly to the new diocese of Travancore and
Cochin.
The Diocese of Caledonia comprises the territory lying between the
Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with the adjacent islands, and
is bounded on the south by a line drawn westward from Cape St. James,
at the south end of Queen Charlotte's Islands, and on the north by the
60th parallel of latitude. It comprises, therefore, the mining
districts on the upper waters of the Fraser and Skeena and Stachine
rivers, with their rough white population, and many thousands of
Indians of the Tsimshean and Hydah nations on the coast, as well as
others in the interior.
Bishop Ridley sailed from Liverpool on September 13th for New York,
crossed the States by the Pacific Railway, took a steamer again at San
Francisco, and reached Victoria on October 14th. There he met Mr.
Duncan, and also Admiral Prevost, who had again gone out a few months
before, partly to prepare the way for the new Bishop; and a few days
after they sailed together for Metlakahtla. On November 1st he wrote as
follows:--
"Metlakahtla has not disappointed me. The situation is excellent.
There is no spot to compare with it this side of Victoria. During this
week the weather has been charming. Frosty nights, but the days mild,
as in Cornwall at this season. Numbers of the worn-out old folk have
been basking in the sun for hours daily. Squatting in the long grass,
they looked the very pictures of contentment. They all gazed on the
sea. No wonder if they loved it. Besides being the store-house from
which they took their food, it is the chief feature in one of the most
beautiful views I have ever seen. We are at the entrance of an estuary
that winds about, labyrinth-like, until it leads up to a stream more
than twenty miles distant inland. Outside are large islands, their
lofty heads pine-clad, and the same garment reaching to the very waves
on all sides. These are God's breakwaters. Inside, wherever the channel
widens, there are smaller islands, so disposed as to make it impossible
to say what is island and what continent. These are gems in a setting
that perfectly reflects the grass and pines fringing the sea's glossy
surface, as well as the background of snow-patched mountain.
"Yesterday the stillness was reverential, and quite in keeping with
Sunday rest. Scores of graceful canoes were drawn above the tide. Not a
paddle broke the silence. As Admiral Prevost and I stood in the Mission
garden we heard, in the distance, the howls of a pack of wolves. A
flight of crows or rooks claimed a moment's attention. Besides this,
nothing disturbed the calm sea, or the stillness, but the wing of some
wild fowl splashing the sea as it rose. Before we returned to the house
we were ravished with the splendour of the sunset. The giant that had
run its day's course transformed the scene. He touched everything, till
sea and sky vied with each other in glorious effects. The snowy peaks
to eastward blushed.
"But, after all, the Sun of Righteousness has produced a far more
beautiful transformation in the character of the Indian, and this
change is not fleeting. The church bell rings, and, from both wings of
the village, well-dressed men, their wives and children, pour out from
the cottages, and the two currents meet at the steps of the noble
sanctuary their own hands have made, to the honour of God our Saviour.
On Saturday I had made a sketch of the village. Mr. Duncan remarked, as
the people streamed along, 'Put that stream into your picture.' 'That
would never do,' I said, 'nobody would believe it.' Inwardly I
exclaimed, 'What hath God wrought!' It would be wrong to suppose that
the love of God alone impelled them all. All, without reasonable cause
to the contrary, are expected to attend the public services. A couple
of policemen, as a matter of routine, are in uniform, and this is an
indication that loitering during service hours is against proper civil
order. This wholesome restraint is possible during these early stages
of the corporate life of the community. At present one strong will is
supreme. To resist it, every Indian feels would be as impossible as to
stop the tides. This righteous autocracy is as much feared by the
ungodly around as it is respected and admired by the faithful. Thus are
law and Gospel combined with good results."
Before leaving England, Dr. Ridley had earnestly appealed for funds to
provide him with a small steamer--an absolute necessity if his
episcopal duties were to be performed safely and regularly. Without it
the long voyages up and down the coast, and among the islands, would
have to be made in native canoes. The perilous nature of such
travelling had been sadly illustrated only two years before, by the
loss of a boat which was conveying an excellent Hudson's Bay officer
from Queen Charlotte's Islands to the mainland. He and his crew of
Tsimshean Christians were all drowned except one Indian, who was in the
water four days and nights, lashed to a piece of the canoe, and was
drifted on to the Alaska coast. This Indian related how, when they were
all clinging to the capsized boat, Mr. Williams, the officer, seeing
death imminent, called on them to pray, and as their strength failed
they sank praying and singing hymns. The Bishop himself, in one of his
first voyages, within a fortnight of his arrival, was overtaken by a
gale in a canoe which two men could lift, and in which ten were huddled
together, and "as nearly lost as a saved man could be." "How I longed
for my steamer!" he wrote; "unless I get one, a new Bishop will soon be
wanted, for the risk in these frail crafts is tremendous, and a short
career the probable consequence."
The money required, we are glad to say, has been raised, and, the
steamer will (D.V.) soon be speeding up and down the coast on its
errands of love--preserved and prospered, we doubt not, by His goodness
who rules the winds and the waves.
* * * * *
It only remains to add the latest news from Metlakahtla, as
communicated in the annual letters of Mr. Duncan and Mr. Collison for
1879. Mr. Duncan writes, on March 8th. 1880:--
"In regard to secular matters, the year past has been one of marked
progress--the greatest year for building the Indians have ever known.
We have now eighty-eight new houses up, or in course of erection; and
when all the houses are erected, roads completed, and gardens, drains,
and fences finished, we shall have certainly a very attractive home.
But there remains a good deal to do yet. Our American neighbours are
being aroused to their duty for the poor Indians of Alaska,--
encouraged, they tell us, by what has been accomplished at Metlakahtla.
During the past year I have had several letters from, and interviews
with, American gentlemen (among whom were three generals of the army in
active service), who were anxious to learn from me my plans and modes
of dealing with the Indians. I am afraid they are attributing our
success too much to secular matters, and too little to the preaching of
the Gospel. I have strongly warned them not to commence at the wrong end.
"I have already opened up and discussed with the Indians the
desirability of their endeavouring to take into their own hands all the
secular work I have begun. If my hopes are realised, it will be a grand
termination of all my secular work. The Indians are delighted with the
idea, and will struggle hard to reach the goal.
"Our Church, Sunday School, and Day School are all prospering.
"The surrounding heathen tribes are not being neglected. I paid a
visit to the Kithratlas, in company with the Admiral, last Autumn, and
a native teacher--Edward Mather--is now being employed amongst them.
Other native teachers are about taking up work around, as the seasons
allow, and as the Indians are accessible.
"In the month of July Dr. Powell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs,
and Mr. Anderson, Commissioner for Fisheries, paid us their long
-promised visit in H.M.S. Rocket. Though only a portion of our
population were at home, our visitors expressed themselves as greatly
astonished and delighted at all they saw. Dr. Powell has since written
me an official letter, and read me his official report to the minister
at Ottawa, both which were highly commendatory, and Mr. Anderson has
published a long letter in the _Colonist_ newspaper about
Metlakahtla. The testimony of the latter gentleman was very telling
upon the community here, as he has lived in this country upwards of
fifty years, and is considered a great authority on Indian affairs."
Mr. Collison mentions that during the winter he conducted a class of
catechumens, and that, after due examination by Bishop Ridley, seventy
-two persons, men and women, were baptized on Sundays, Jan. 25th and Feb.
1st, of the present year, 1880. During the year under review sixty-three
children also were baptized. "Thus," writes Mr. Collison, "the visible
Church increases; but our greatest care and concern is that they may be
united to Christ by a living faith, and grow up in Him into a spiritual
temple, of which Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner-stone."
* * * * *
Such is the story of Metlakahtla and the North Pacific Mission. An
unfinished story, indeed, the plot of which is still unfolding itself,
and the issues of which, in this world, are known only to Him who sees
the end from the beginning. And yet a story which, embracing as it
does, the separate life-stories of many individuals, again and again
comes to a true "end," to an "end" for which we may well render
unceasing praise. What the destiny of Metlakahtla may be, none can say;
but what the destiny is of soul after soul that has passed away in
peace and hope, and that owed that peace and hope, under God, to the
influence of Metlakahtla, we do know. The day is coming--it may be very
soon--when Metlakahtla will, share the universal fate of the things
that are seen and temporal, and will have become a mere memory of the
past, while the men and women, and children, whom it brought to the God
and Father of all to be washed, and sanctified, and justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, live on and on in
the power of an endless life. No tall church spire, rising from the
inlet of Kahtla will then be needed to guide the mariner through the
Archipelago of the North Pacific coast, "for there shall be no more
sea." But the great temple of living souls will stand forth in all its
glory and beauty, and among the stones of that spiritual house will be
many hewn from the quarry in the Far West. Tsimshean and Hydah, and
many another Red Indian tribe, shall find a place in the building
which, fitly framed together, shall then have grown into a holy temple
unto the Lord. Happy indeed will those then be who have had a share,
however humble, in the work of raising it, stone by stone, to His
praise who will make it His dwelling for ever!
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
1776. Discovery of Vancouver's Island by Captain Cook.
1792. Further discoveries by Captain Vancouver.
1819. Attention of the C. M. S. Committee drawn to the Indian
Tribes on the North Pacific Coast.
1856. July. Captain Prevost's Appeal for British Columbia appeared
in the _C. M. Intelligencer._
" Contribution of L500 received to begin a North Pacific
Mission.
" Dec. 23. William Duncan sailed with Captain Prevost in the
_Satellite_.
1857. June 13. The _Satellite_ reached Vancouver's Island.
" Oct. 1. Duncan reached Fort Simpson.
1858 June 13. Duncan preached his first Sermon in Tsimshean.
" Nov. 19. Duncan opened a School for Indian children.
" Dec. 20. Legaic's attack on Duncan.
1859. Bishopric of Columbia founded.
1860. April. Duncan's first visit to Nass River.
" Aug. 8. Arrival of Rev. L. S Tugwell.
1861. July 26. First baptism of Indians--nineteen adults.
" Oct. 10. Return home of Mr. Tugwell.
1862. May 28. Foundation of the new Settlement at Metlakahtla.
1863. April. Visit of the Bishop of Columbia to Metlakahtla--Baptism
of fifty-seven adults.
1864. July 2. Arrival of Rev. R. A. Doolan.
" Nass River Mission begun.
1865. May. Second visit of Bishop of Columbia.
1867. May 27. Arrival of Rev. R. Tomlinson.
" Aug. Return home of Mr. Doolan.
" Kincolith Station established on Nass River.
1869. May 6. Death of Legaic.
1870. Jan. 28. Duncan left Metlakahtla for England.
" Mar. 13
to
Sept. 8. Duncan in England
1871. Feb. 27. Duncan returned to Metlakahtla.
" Oct. First baptisms at Kincolith by Archdeacon Woods.
1873. Aug. 6. First Stone of Metlakahtla Church laid by the Governor of
British Columbia.
" Nov. 9. Arrival of Mr. W. H. Collison.
1874. Dec. 25. Opening of Metlakahtla Church.
1875. Aug. 18. Duncan's plans for the Indians of British Columbia
adopted by the Provincial Government.
1876. Duncan's journey to Ottawa to confer with the Canadian
Government.
" Aug. 30. Lord Dufferin's visit to Metlakahtla.
" Oct. 16. Arrival of Mr. H. Schutt.
" Nov. 1. Mr. Collison began Queen Charlotte Islands Mission.
1877. Aug. 6. Arrival of Rev. A. J. Hall.
" Nov.
to
Mar. '78 Bishop Bompas's visit to the Mission.
1878. Mar. 12. Mr. Hall began Fort Rupert Mission.
" Mar. 17. Ordination of Mr. Collison.
" June 18. Admiral Prevost's visit to Metlakahtla.
1879. May 2. Arrival of Mr. G. Sneath.
" July 25. Consecration of Rev. W. Ridley to Bishopric of Caledonia.
" Oct. 14. Arrival of Bishop Ridley at Victoria.