Metlakahtla

“ 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." ”

“ VIII. METLAKAHTLA—TWO CHRISTMAS SEASONS. Christmas is a joyous time at Metlakahtla, and the accounts we have of its services and festivities help not a little to bring the settlement before the eyes of our imagination. Two such accounts are subjoined. The first is from Mr. Duncan's Report for 1873. Christmas-day in that year is memorable for a visit paid to Metlakahtla by the Indians who still remained in the neighbourhood of Fort Simpson. These tribes had not been forgotten by their Christian fellow-countrymen. ”

“ VI. METLAKAHTLA—SPIRITUAL RESULTS. While the work at Metlakahtla was thus prospering materially, and increasing in general moral influence, under the blessing of Him without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, higher spiritual blessings were not withheld. Fresh classes of candidates for baptism had been formed during the last winter at Fort Simpson, and were continued diligently at the new settlement; and in April, 1862, the Bishop of Columbia, at Mr. Duncan's request, took the journey to Metlakahtla to baptize as many as might be found ready. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 having the effect of making the Indians fall away from such inhuman and heathenish practices, but they are also removing much of the deadly hostility which formerly existed among different tribes. More Indians are gradually coming in from the country round about and making Metlakahtla their home. ”

“ MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,—We, the inhabitants of Metlakahtla, of the Tsimshean nation of Indians desire to express our joy in welcoming your Excellency and Lady Dufferin to our village. Under the teaching of the Gospel we have learned the Divine command, 'Fear God, honour the King, and thus as loyal subjects of her Majesty Queen Victoria we rejoice in seeing you visit our shores. ”

“ A poor slave woman, still young in years, who had been stolen away when a child, and carried to distant tribes in Alaska territory, where she had suffered many cruelties, fled from her oppressors last summer, and, though ill at the time, took to the sea in a canoe all alone, and determined to reached Metlakahtla or perish in the attempt. ”

“ The annual fishing seasons have been a time of distinct blessing, the Christian Indians holding services for their heathen fellow-countrymen in the various camps, and many of the heathen joining them in resting from the fishing operations on the Lord's Day. Year by year the number of settlers has increased, and now exceeds two hundred, of whom three -fourths are baptized.
One chief, who joined on New Year's-day, 1877, was well known as the fiercest savage on the river. He was baptized by Bishop Bompas in March, 1878, taking, like Legaic at Metlakahtla, the name of Paul. ”

“ Duncan's wonderful settlement at Metlakahtla, and the interesting Methodist Mission at Fort Simpson, and have thus been enabled to realise what scenes of primitive peace and innocence, of idyllic beauty and material comfort, can be presented by the stalwart men and comely maidens of an Indian community, under the wise administration of a judicious and devoted Christian Missionary. ”

“ The Annette Islands are a group of small islands in southeastern Alaska. During the summer of 1887 some 800 Metlakahtla Indians emigrated from British Columbia and settled on one of these islands. The emigration and settlement were not only acquiesced in but encouraged by executive and administrative officers of the United States, [1] and subsequently were sanctioned by Congress through the enactment of section 15 of the Act of March 3, 1891, c. ”

“ Duncan's instructions the Indians of Metlakahtla have already made great strides in the direction of civilization and Christianity. He has laid the village out regularly, and given to each head of a family a large-sized lot of land. The houses, which have been erected under his direction, are much more comfortable and convenient than Indian domiciles generally, though somewhat accommodated in their plans to the peculiar habits and mode of living of the race. The houses which Indians build for themselves are without floors. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The text of his sermon that gray day in the surf-beaten, tundra-sweet city of Nome is the text that he is patiently and cheerfully working out in his noble life-work.
Mr. Duncan, at Metlakahtla, has given his life to the Indians who have gathered about him; but Bishop Rowe, of All Alaska, has given his life to dark men and white, wherever they might be. Year after year he has gone out by perilous ways to find them, and to scatter among them his words of love—as softly and as gently as the Indians used to scatter the white down from the breasts of sea-birds, as a message of peace to all men. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Duncan came to Metlakahtla, Samuel was one of the first to accompany him, and afterwards, when Mr. Duncan had to punish any of the Indians of the villages around who were guilty of crime, Samuel was always ready to go and assist in bringing them to justice. I was not afraid, because I knew he was doing right, and God would defend him and save him. Well, he continued to grow stronger in God's way, and was anxious to work for Him, wherever he went telling the people about the Son of God, the Saviour ”

“ 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. ”

“ Duncan's success. "Here is my work; let it speak for itself." He has devoted his whole life to his work, with no thought for the fame it may bring him. For the latter, he cares nothing.
This is the reason that pilgrims voyage to Metlakahtla as reverently as to a shrine. It is the noble and unselfish life-work of a man who has not only accomplished a great purpose, but who is great in himself. When he passes on, let him be buried simply among the Indians he has loved and to whom he has given his whole life, and write upon his headstone: "Let his work speak." ”

“ In ten years' time he had baptised nearly three hundred adult converts. In 1862 the Christian community was moved to Metlakahtla, where the spectacle of a cannibal and violent people living in peace and industry was long deemed one of the marvels of missionary enterprise.
I pass by such striking histories as those of Uganda, of the attempt of J. A. Robinson and Graham Wilmot Brooke to reach the Soudan from the Niger, and of the massacre of English women at Hwa-Sang in Fuh-kien, to recall romances of another kind. What could be more moving than the careers of some of the Society's converts? ”

“ Even the white traders in fire-water themselves were sometimes touched. The captain of one smuggling vessel, who was fined four hundred dollars by Mr. Duncan in virtue of his magisterial authority, "afterwards became one of his most active friends—a result partly due to the impression created by what he saw at Metlakahtla, and partly to the fact of Mr. Duncan having obtained restitution for him from the Indians at Fort Simpson for injuries done to his vessel." ”

“ Duncan has just added that of running a saw-mill—he was cutting up the first log in it this evening when the 'Amethyst' signalled her arrival by firing a gun. Mr. Duncan is a bachelor, a circumstance which, to many, will make the energy he throws into his work and the success of it all the more remarkable.
"The Indians of Metlakahtla gain their livelihood by fishing and hunting. Away up here, above the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude, the climate is such as would not admit of agriculture being extensively engaged in. Wheat cannot be brought to maturity. ”

“ Duncan six months afterwards, "they are now with us, and all behaving very well. The proud chief has become very docile and happy, and he and all declare it their intention to remain at Metlakahtla till death. Several of the foremost Christians make it their duty occasionally to visit them, and instruct and encourage them. Thus can God bring good out of evil."
The charge of the Chief Justice, Sir Matthew Begbie, at this trial is a most remarkable document, and must be printed here in extenso. Had the white man always treated the red man in such a spirit, what results might we not have seen. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”