Eugene Stock

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And, indeed, if the white men intended to do harm to the Indians, the whites could destroy them off the face of the earth. The whites could send up one man-of-war, which could easily, and without landing a man, destroy all their houses and canoes and property, and drive them naked and helpless into the woods to starve. No canoe could venture to go fishing. In one year the white men could destroy all the Indians on the coast without losing a man. One of our cannon could swallow up all the muskets of your tribe. ”

“ About 100 children are attending the day schools, and 100 adults the evening school. About forty of the young men have formed themselves into two classes, and meet for prayer and exhorting each other. The instruments of the medicine-men, which have spell-bound their nation for ages, have found their way into my house, and are most willingly and cheerfully given up. The dark and cruel mantle of heathenism has been rent so that it cannot be healed. Numbers are escaping from under its deadly embrace. ”

“ The Government of Canada is proud to think that there are upwards of 30,000 Indians in the territory of British Columbia alone. She recognizes them as the ancient inhabitants of the country. The white men have not come amongst you as conquerors, but as friends. We regard you as our fellow -subjects, and as equal to us in the eye of the law as you are in the eye of God, and equally entitled with the rest of the community to the benefits of good government, and the opportunity of earning an honest livelihood. ”

“ 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." ”

“ That church is in itself a monument of the way in which you have profited by the teachings you have received. It does you the greatest credit, and we have every right to hope, that, while in its outward aspect it bears testimony to your conformity to the laws of the Gospel, beneath its sacred roof your sincere and faithful prayers will be rewarded by those blessings which are promised to all those who approach the Throne of God in humility and faith. ”

“ The Indians stared, and said, 'Coutzee um tsakah ahket,' or 'The grease of dead people.' The whites then tendered the rice and molasses to the Indians, but they only shrank away in disgust. Seeing this, to prove their integrity, they sat down and enjoyed it themselves. The sight stunned the Indians, and again they all died. Some other similar wonders were worked, and the profound stupor which the Indians felt each time come over them they termed death. The Indians' turn had now come to make the white strangers die. ”

“ But since the foundation of the settlement, there has been no day like the 18th of June, 1878, when Metlakahtla had the joy of welcoming, for the first time, the beloved and revered originator of the Mission, Admiral Prevost.
He had never been in that part of the world since the migration from Fort Simpson in 1862, and had never seen the wonderful issue of his own plan. That he should see it now was a privilege rarely enjoyed. To few men is it given in the Providence of God to initiate such an agency of blessing, and to still fewer is it granted to behold such far reaching results. ”

“ Not a few are enquiring earnestly for the way of life. At a little social meeting which I had a few days past, the principal chief said: 'I was careless and unconcerned about the message which the white chief brought us, but I can be so no longer. Even at night, when I lie awake on my bed, I cry to God to pardon my many sins and save me. I know now it is true—all true, and I want to be safe in the Ark, even in Jesus the Saviour' ”

“ Then, when the Indians saw that the white men were good and confiding, and saw a little bread, and a saw and some tools, and a musket and a pistol, the devil came to them and said, 'Kill these white men, do not stop because they gave you bread when you were hungry; kill them, and take the saw and the musket and the bread.' These things the devil put on his hook with which he was fishing for the souls of the Indians, as men put a small fish on a hook to catch salmon and halibut. ”

“ A way from everyone whom he loved, in a little bark hut on a rocky beach just beyond the reach of the tide, which no one of his relatives or friends dared to approach except the one who nursed him; in this damp, lowly, distressing state, suffering from the malignant disease of small-pox, how cheering to receive such words as the following from him: 'I am quite happy. I find my Saviour very near to me. I am not afraid to die; heaven is open to receive me. Give my thanks to Mr. Duncan: he told me of Jesus. I have hold of the ladder that reaches to heaven. ”

“ I feel myself a sinner in God's sight. I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. God sends down His Spirit to make us good. Jesus is in heaven, and is writing our names in God's book. ”

“ After all the property the chief is to receive has thus been openly handed to him, a day or two is taken up in apportioning it for fresh owners. When this is done, all the chiefs and their families are called together, and each receives according to his or her portion. Thus do the chiefs and their people go on reducing themselves to poverty. In the case of the chiefs, however, this poverty lasts but a short time; they are soon replenished from the next giving away, but the people only grow rich again according to their industry. One cannot but pity them, while one laments their folly. ”

“ I am anxious that even the trading vessel should be in our own hands, first, because the Indians would, on that account, feel a deeper interest in her, and exert themselves the more to keep her well and profitably employed, secondly, the profits of the vessel would redound to the village, and, thirdly, it is necessary to avoid having intercourse with that barbarous class of men who are employed in running the small vessels up the coast, which, by trading in intoxicating drink, are all doing a work not easily described, and not readily believed by those who do not witness it. ”

“ For to many who have joined me, the surrendering their national and heathen customs performed over the sick—ceasing to give away, tear up, or receive blankets, etc., for display, dropping precipitately their demoniacal rites, which have hitherto and for ages filled up their time and engrossed all their care during the months of winter—laying aside gambling, and ceasing to paint their faces—had been like cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye. ”

“ Legaic interrupted him, and said, 'I am a chief, a Tsimshean chief. You know I have been bad, very bad, as bad as any one here. I have grown up and grown old in sin, but God has changed my heart, and He can change yours. Think not to excuse yourselves in your sins by saying you are too old and too bad to mend. Nothing is impossible with God. ”

“ All people hate murder, all people seek to have revenge for murder. This is the law among Indians also. If a white man kill an Indian, the Indians desire that white man to be put to death. Now my people come to me and ask for satisfaction. The law among the whites is that they cannot have revenge unless I permit it. Now my people come and ask me for revenge. But many snows have fallen upon this blood, and they hide it from my sight. Many snows have fallen also on my head; my head is very white, and I have seen many things. When the head is white, the heart ought to be prudent and moderate. ”

“ The slow progress of the Indians in this cause cannot be matter for wonder when we consider—first, Their ignorance and inaptitude to find out for themselves any fresh and permanent modes of industry; secondly, Their want of capital, owing to which civilization may tend to the impoverishment of the Indians by calling for an increased outlay in their expenses without augmenting their income. Having these facts before me, I have endeavoured to help and guide the males under my influence to fresh modes of industry, and though our success has not been very great, it is at least encouraging. ”

“ All the men of the village were assembled in the market-house, and were permanently enrolled in ten companies, the members of each company receiving rosettes of a distinguishing colour. Each company has in it, besides ordinary members, one chief, two constables, one elder, and three councillors, who are all expected to unite in preserving the peace and order of the village. The ten chiefs all spoke in the market-house on New Year's-day, and in sensible language promised to follow the teaching they had received, and to unite in promoting what is good. ”

“ Not many days, however, elapsed before the dreaded cloud overshadowed the coast. Small-pox broke out at Fort Simpson, and seized upon the Indians; and although for awhile they were content to ward it off, as they thought, by incessant conjuring, yet when some of the leading medicine men themselves fell victims to the disease, a great fear fell upon all, and they fled in all directions, but only spread the fatal scourge more widely by so doing. Many came to Metlakahtla, and though Mr. Duncan refused to receive some, he could not refuse all. ”

“ Or, if the missionary societies cannot afford them, why does not Government send out fifty, and place them up the coast at once? Surely it would not be difficult to find fifty good men in England willing to engage in such a work; and their expenses would be almost nothing compared with the cost which the country must sustain to subdue the Indians by force of arms. And such," adds Commander Mayne, "are the sentiments of myself—in common, I believe, with all my brother officers—after nearly five years' constant and close intercourse with the Natives of Vancouver's Island and the coast." ”

“ I was very much shocked to find that a young man—a slave—had been accused by the medicine-men as having bewitched the chief and induced his sickness. In consequence of this he had been stripped, and bound hands and feet in an old outhouse, and thus kept for some days without food. I only learned this about one hour before the death of the chief, and it was well I heard it even then, as I learned that they had determined to shoot him, and a man had been told off who had his gun ready for the purpose. ”

“ Our first work of a secular kind was to establish a village store; for, having left Fort Simpson, we soon felt the want of supplies. I may here explain the Hudson's Bay Company refused to establish a shop in our midst, and I feared to encourage the trading schooners to come to us, as they invariably carried intoxicating liquor for sale, so we determined to keep the village trade in our own hands and appropriate the profits to the public works of our settlement. ”

“ Sunday, 23rd.—To me, all days at Metlakahtla are solemnly sacred, but Sunday, of all others, especially so. Canoes are all drawn up on the beach above high water mark. Not a sound is heard. The children are assembled before morning service to receive special instruction from Mr. Duncan. The church bell rings, and the whole population pour out from their houses—men, women, and children—to worship God in His own house, built by their own hands. ”

“ Duncan, "although it is 500 miles from Fort Simpson, will always prove the place of attraction to these tribes, and to many even further away. There they become demoralised and filled with disease; and from thence they return, laden with rum, to spread scenes of horror too awful to describe."
The Tsimsheans who had come under Mr. Duncan's influence, themselves implored him to devise some way of escape from the ruin they saw impending on their nation. And he laid before the Society a plan for establishing a colony, where well-disposed Indians might be gathered together. ”

“ I hope you will understand that your White Mother and the Government of Canada are fully prepared to protect you in the exercise of your religion, and to extend to you those laws which know no difference of race, or of colour, but under which justice is impartially administered between the humblest and the greatest of the land. ”

“ In their heathen days this difficulty with white men would have been met with murder and destruction. In 1859, I was present at an assemblage of chiefs, when gold was first discovered in British Columbia, and when more than twenty thousand white men rushed into that country, bringing with them vice and disease. The question was asked by the head chief, "How shall we treat these strangers? Shall we cut their throats?"—going through the motion of doing so in an unmistakable manner. In God's providence, the man in authority had great influence over the Indian mind and action. ”

“ The isolated germ of a Christian community gathered strength year by year, while every opposing force in the vicinity gradually weakened and at last succumbed. The law has triumphed. The liquor-selling vessels have long since ceased their traffic. The Indians who took up the trade with their canoes have also been stopped. Drunkenness, or even liquor-drinking, over a very large district are now things of the past. The rushing to Victoria has subsided into rare and legitimate visits, and peace, order, and security reign in all the country round. ”

“ There is much in the character of the Natives to encourage missionary effort. They are not idolaters: they believe in the existence of two great Spirits—the one benevolent, and the other malignant; and in two separate places of reward and punishment in another world. They are by no means bigoted. They manifest a great desire and aptitude to acquire the knowledge and arts of civilized life; and, although they are addicted to some of the vices generally prevalent amongst savages, they yet possess some virtues rarely displayed by them. ”

“ The idea they entertain of God is that He is a great chief. They call Him by the same term as they do their chiefs, only adding the word for above—thus, 'shimanyet' is chief, and 'lakkah' above: and hence the name of God with them is Shimanyet Lakkah. They believe that the Supreme Being never dies: that He takes great notice of what is going on amongst men, and is frequently angry, and punishes offenders. They do not know who is the author of the universe, nor do they expect that God is the author of their own being. ”