Metlakahtla and the North Pacific Mission of the Church Missionary Society

"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me"--Ps. cxxxix 9, 10

Shores of the utmost West Ye that have waited long Unvisited noblest, Break forth to swelling song High raise the note that Jesus died Yet lives and reigns the Crucified

NOTE

The third, fourth, and fifth chapters of this little book are substantially a reprint of parts of a pamphlet entitled, "Metlakahtla, or Ten Years' Work among the Tsimshean Indians," published by the Church Missionary Society in 1868. Almost all the rest, or three-fourths of the whole, is new matter--new, that is, in a separate form, for the greater part has appeared at various times in the Society's periodicals. One or two facts are taken from the Rev. J. J. Halcombe's excellent book, "Stranger than Fiction," which has done so much to make the Metlakahtla Mission known. For much valuable information I am indebted to Admiral Prevost.

E. S.

CONTENTS.

CHAP

I. THE FIELD OF LABOUR

II. THE CALL, AND THE MAN

III. BEGINNING WORK

IV. FIRST-FRUITS

V. THE NEW SETTLEMENT

VI. METLAKAHTLA--SPIRITUAL RESULTS

VII. " MATERIAL PROGRESS AND MORAL INFLUENCE

VIII. " TWO CHRISTMAS-SEASONS

IX. OUTLYING MISSIONS--KINCOLITH.

X. " QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLANDS

XI. " FORT RUPERT

XII. LORD DUFFERIN AT METLAKAHTLA

XII. ADMIRAL PREVOST AT METLAKAHTLA

XIV. THE DIOCESE OF CALEDONIA

METLAKAHTLA

AND

THE NORTH PACIFIC MISSION.

I.

THE FIELD OF LABOUR

British Columbia, now forming part of "The Dominion of Canada," includes within its limits several islands, of which Vancouver's is the principal, and that part of the continent of North America, west of the Rocky Mountains and east of Alaska, which is included between the 49 deg. and the 60 deg. parallels of north latitude.

English connection with this part of the world may be said to date from an exploratory voyage made by Captain Cook in 1776, when he landed at Friendly Cove and Nootka Sound, and took possession of them in the name of his sovereign. He supposed at the time that these places were on the mainland, and it was not until Captain Vancouver, an officer in the English Navy, was despatched in 1792 to the Pacific, that he discovered that Nootka and Friendly Cove were on the west side of the island which now bears his name, and which is sometimes spoken of as the gem of the Pacific.

In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, one of the most enterprising pioneers in the employment of the North-West Fur Company, who had already discovered the mighty river since named after him, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and pushed his way westward, until he stood on the shores of the Pacific. Some years later, in 1806, Mr. Simon Frazer, another employe of the same Company, gave his name to the great river that drains British Columbia, and established the first trading post in those parts. After the amalgamation of this Company with the Hudson's Bay Company, other posts were established, such as Fort Rupert, on Vancouver's Island, and Fort Simpson, on the borders of Alaska, then belonging to Russia, but subsequently sold by her to the United States.

In 1858, the discovery of gold in the basin of the Fraser river, on the mainland, attracted a large number of gold-diggers from California, and among them a considerable body of Chinese. To maintain order among a motley population of lawless habits, British Columbia was formed into a colony, with its capital at Victoria, on Vancouver's Island.