Thus has closed what has been in some respects one of the most eventful
years of the Mission. The plan of “Trusting in the Lord” for
support—“Muller’s plan,” as it is called, but which, in reality, dates
much further back—found at first but little favor in the eyes of our
friends. It might do, they said, for England, but not for Nova
Scotia,—as though the Lord were not the same everywhere. It was looked
upon as an experiment, and one that would probably fail. But a plan upon
which scores of ministers and missionaries both at home and in heathen
lands have acted for years, and acted successfully, can hardly be
regarded as an experiment. I cannot but hope that not only my own faith,
but that of many others has been somewhat strengthened already. My
desire to continue in the same course has been increased. The Lord can
and will give us more grace, and we will go forward in His strength,
giving to Him all the glory, and making mention of His righteousness,
even of His only.
* * * * *
OUR SUCCESS IN DISTRIBUTING THE
SCRIPTURES AMONG THE
INDIANS.
In order to have before us distinctly the subject, we must take into
account the condition of the Micmacs when we began our labours, the
obstacles we have had to encounter, and then the achievements that have
been made. The whole can be summed up very briefly.
I began my labours in the year 1840—nearly forty years ago. I was
thirty-six years old. The Indians, so far as civilization was concerned,
with very few exceptions, were in the same condition that they had been
for two hundred years before. Nominally they were Roman Catholics; they
had great confidence in their priests, but as to the Bible they did not
know there was such a book, and had they known there was such a book,
there was no possibility of their knowing what was in it. Not more than
one in a thousand could read English, even imperfectly, and that
one—and others to my certain knowledge—could not understand what he
read, even in the plainest spelling-book. Most carefully had they been
guarded against attending the Protestant schools, and adopting the
habits of the white people, and their priests carefully abstained from
teaching them to read, lest—as we have their own statements to
prove—they might read books that would undermine their faith. They have
not only not given the Indians the Holy Scriptures, but have used all
sorts of means, foul and fair, to prevent them from receiving them and
learning to read them. Such was the condition of things forty years ago.
This shows of itself what were some of the chief obstacles we had to
meet and overcome. But there were others, and these were formidable. To
have attempted to instruct them through the medium of the English
language would at the time have been simple folly. To have attempted to
teach them our language without understanding theirs, and while they had
no wish to learn ours, and no possible means of learning it, even had
they wished it, would have been simply the scheming of insanity. The
task of learning the Micmac language under the circumstances, without
books, without a competent teacher, and with all the zeal and ardor of
the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the prejudices and the suspicions of
the tribe aroused against us to prevent it needs only to be mentioned to
be appreciated. With all the natural talent with which God had endowed
me for the work, for which I am amply credited, if any one imagines the
task was easily accomplished, I can only say he is _very much mistaken_.
If the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ had not been with me,
encouraging and aiding me in a most marvellous manner, it never would or
could have been done. _But it was done_, blessed be His name forever!
And now what is the condition of things at the present day? Why the
whole New Testament, with several books of the old, viz., Genesis,
Exodus, Psalms,—in Micmac, and the Gospel of John in Maliseet, the
language of the St. John Indians, as they are sometimes called, have
been published. Scores of the Indians have learned to read them,
hundreds have heard them read; they know everywhere now that there is
such a book as the Bible. Scores of copies have been distributed among
them, and the priests are powerless to prevent it. Furthermore, numbers
have given evidence of having received the truth of the Gospel in the
love of it, and by their consistent lives and triumphant deaths, have
given proof of the reality of the grace they professed to have received.
And mark the change which has taken place in the condition of the tribe
in respect to _civilization_ since we began our labours, and as the
direct result of our labours. To what else is all this to be ascribed?
Certainly it has not been achieved by the Roman Catholic Church, because
it has been achieved _in spite of_ that church. The old dress both of
men and women has been discarded, and that of the white people adopted
very generally; you can no longer tell an Indian by his dress.
Comfortable houses and all the appearance of civilization, are
continually to be met with. Everywhere there is a determination to
obtain learning, and to learn the English language. Indian children to
some extent attend the English schools which are now open to all, and
many adults have mastered the mysteries of reading Micmac, one at least
now living, after forty years of age who never went to school at all. I
have, within the last three or four years, seen Indians all the way from
Topique, Fredericton, St. John, The Restigouche, Prince Edward Island
and Cape Breton; in all these places I have distributed copies of the
Scriptures and of a small volume entitled “A First Reading Book in
Micmac and English;” and in all these places I have found intelligent
Indians who could read them, and have been most kindly and cordially
received and listened to by them, as I read and preached and prayed and
sang hymns to them in their own tongue; and I have scarcely met with
what deserved the name of opposition.
I have never taken a particular account of books distributed, and I have
never charged the Indians anything for copies of the Scriptures. I could
never make up my mind to that. We have treated the Indians in this
Province with such outrageous wrong, that I would gladly undo that had I
the power. We have seized upon their lands, destroyed their means of
living, destroyed _them_, corrupted their morals in every way,—and for
Christian men, after all this, to say to them: “We will not _give_ you
the Word of God unless you _pay_ for it,” it seems to me would be the
wildest wickedness, from which all those who have any regard for God or
conscience, should devoutly pray: “_Good Lord deliver us!_”
The B. & F. Bible Society furnished the means of printing Genesis,
Exodus, Psalms and three of the Gospels and Acts in Micmac, and the
Gospel of John in Maliseet. The rest of the New Testament was
published—one thousand copies, by private subscriptions for that very
purpose, chiefly in England, but some of it came from France and other
places.
There are now in Halifax unbound about nine hundred copies. All that
were bound, about eight or nine years ago, have been distributed. What I
now ask is, that money may be furnished for binding a portion at least
of the rest. They can be bound for ——
I may add that I have in manuscript a translation of the Books of Job
and of Jonah, and some of the other narratives of the Old Testament.
Genesis is out of print, and so is the Gospel of John in Maliseet, the
greater portion of these having been destroyed by fire, the former in a
great conflagration in Halifax many years ago, and the latter in the
recent great fire in St. John.
I enclose herewith a few letters that have [been] received from
different places requesting books for the Indians, the most of them
written by Indians themselves. In very many cases I have taken down
their names, as I have been on my missionary excursions, at their
request, and sent them books by mail. These letters speak for
themselves. They prove two things; that there are Indians that can read
and write, and that they receive and value the books that are printed in
their own tongue.
The following extract from a letter dated Dublin, Feb. 28, 1880, from
His Grace Archbishop Trench, to myself, must surely find a response in
every true Christian’s heart:
“I thank you much for the two little books which you have been
good enough to send me. Let me congratulate you very heartily on
having been permitted to help so many to hear or read in their
own tongue the wonderful works of God.”
Surely we have no cause to _boast_ of our doings, but if there is one
thing the advocates of the Bible in Nova Scotia have reason to be glad
of,—not _proud_ of—it surely is that under God they have been
permitted to unfold their priceless volume to the long-neglected
Indians.
SILAS T. RAND.
[Illustration]
FIRST VERSE OF SCRIPTURE TRANSLATED
INTO MICMAC BY DR. RAND.
_Mudu Nikskam teliksatcus oositcumoo wedjeigunumooedogub-unn
neooktoo-bistadjul oocwisul, coolaman m’sit wen tan kedlamsitc
ootenincu, ma oonma-djinpooc, cadoo ooscoto apskooawe
memadjooocun._—JOHN III: 16.
* * * * *
“I can never forget the thrill of emotion that filled my soul and body
at the completion of this task—for _task_ it was, taxing all my powers
of mind and body.”—Extract from Dr. Rand’s private diary written during
the summer of 1849.