Conscience condemned, and darkness and distress followed. Oh, Lord, henceforth help me _to do my duty_!
_July 9th.--Sabbath._--I was called this evening to a drunken, dying man. He was entirely ignorant both of his bodily and spiritual danger. What a scene! An immortal soul just plunging into h.e.l.l, and yet hoping for heaven! How awful is the state of one whom G.o.d gives over to believe a lie! His life is ended, his family dest.i.tute, and his soul lost!
_July 19th._--Surely nothing can afford more pleasure to an enquiring mind bent on historical researches, than the perusal of doc.u.ments relating to the ancient chosen people of G.o.d. That a people who could, according to their legitimate records, number more than eight hundred thousand fighting men, should slip from the records of men, hide themselves from human observation, and inhabit limits beyond geographical research, is a phenomenon unprecedented in the world"s history; and that they should remain in this state more than two thousand years, among the vast discoveries which travellers have made, is still more surprising. Such is the wonderful government of Him whose ways are past finding out. I trust the day is not far distant when the lost will be found, and the dead be alive!
_July 26th._--For several days I have been holding meetings and conferences with the Indians. Their hearts are open to receive instruction, and their hands extended to receive the bread of life.
If the Lord will open the way, I will try to acquire a knowledge of their language. My soul longs to bring them to the Word of Truth.
_July 30th._--A day or two since I had the pleasure of seeing a brother whose ecclesiastical duties have separated us for nearly a year. How many tender recollections of G.o.d"s care and merciful dealings, since our last meeting rushed upon our minds. But while enabled to rejoice together, we were called upon to mourn the loss of one brother, taken away to the world of spirits.
_August 17th._--Scarcely a day pa.s.ses without beholding new openings to extend my ministerial labours. To-day, in an affecting manner, I witnessed the hands of suffering humanity stretched forth to receive the word of life. More than five hundred aborigines of the country were a.s.sembled in one place. In a moral point of view, they may be said to be "sitting in the valley of the shadow of death." "The day star from on high" has not yet dawned upon them.
Alas! are they to perish for lack of knowledge? Can not the dry bones live? Oh, thou who art able to raise up children unto Abraham! speak the word, devise the means, and these long lost prodigals shall return to their father"s house! I noticed activity, both in body and mind, superior skill in curious workmanship; genius flashed in their countenances; and yet shall these n.o.ble powers be bound fast in the cruel chains of ignorance, and these immortal spirits go from a rayless night to midnight tomb? Oh, Thou Light of the World, shine upon them! One of their nation whom G.o.d has plucked as a brand from the burning, attempted to explain the Christian religion to them. They listened and bowed a.s.sent, saying "ha, ha." Oh, Lord, if Thou wilt qualify me and send me to dispense to them the Bread of Life, I will throw myself upon Thy mercy, and submit to Thy will.
_August 20th._--Amongst all the authors with whom I am acquainted, who treat on Church Government, the Rev. Dr. Campbell is the most clear and satisfactory. With a great deal of talent, penetration, and research, he exhibits the Church in all her various forms, till her power made empires tremble, and her riches bid defiance to poverty. His excellent lectures have enlarged my mind on the subject of ecclesiastical polity, and rendered my feelings more liberal. I am convinced that form of government is best which most secures order and union in society.
_August 20th--Sabbath._--To-day closes my ministerial labours at York, where I have been stationed for two years. Many precious seasons have I enjoyed; and, blessed be the Lord, He has set His seal to my labours, and I think I can call G.o.d to witness that I have not failed in my feeble way to declare the whole counsel of G.o.d. Oh, Lord, seal it with Thy Spirit"s power!
FOOTNOTES:
[6] A fuller reference to this subject will be found in Chapters vi. and viii.--H.
[7] Letters to the Hon. W. H. Draper on "_The Clergy Reserve Question; as a Matter of History, a Question of Law, and a Subject of Legislation_." Toronto, 1839, pp. 11, 12.
CHAPTER IV.
1826-1827.
Missionary to the River Credit Indians.
At the Conference of 1826, I was appointed Missionary to the Indians at the Credit, but was required to continue the second year as preacher, two Sundays out of four, in the Town of York, of which my elder brother, William, was superintendent, including in his charge several other townships. He was aided by a colleague, who preached in the country, but not in the town.
The Chippewa tribe of Indians had a tract of land on the Credit River, on which the Government proposed to build a village of some twenty or thirty cottages, with the intention of building a church for them and inducing them to join the Church of England, upon the pretext that the Methodist preachers were Yankees. As my Father had been a British officer, and fought seven years during the American Rebellion for the unity of the Empire, was the first High Sheriff in the London District (having been appointed in 1808); and had, with his sons, fought in defence of the country in the war of the United States with Great Britain, in 1812-1815, and my father"s elder brother having been the organizer of the Militia and Courts of the London District, the name Ryerson became a sort of synonym for loyalist throughout the official circles of the province; and my appointment, therefore, as the first stationed Missionary among the Indians, and from thence to other tribes, was a veritable and standing proof that the imputation of disloyalty against the Methodist Missionaries was groundless.
When I commenced my labours among these poor Credit Indians (about two hundred in number) they had not entered into the cottages which the Government had built for them on the high ground, but still lived in their bark-covered wigwams on the flats beside the bank of the River Credit. One of them, made larger than the others, was used for a place of worship. In one of these bark-covered and brush-enclosed wigwams, I ate and slept for some weeks; my bed consisting of a plank, a mat, and a blanket, and a blanket also for my covering; yet I was never more comfortable and happy:--G.o.d, the Lord, was the strength of my heart, and--
"Jesus, all the day long, was my joy and my song."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Indian Village at the River Credit in 1827--Winter.]
Maintaining my dignity as a minister, I showed the Indians that I could work and live as they worked and lived.
Having learned that it was intended by the advisers of the Lieutenant-Governor, on the completion of the cottages, to erect an Episcopal Church of England for the absorption of the Indian converts from the Methodists into that Church, I resolved to be before them, and called the Indians together on the Monday morning after the first Sunday"s worship with them, and using the head of a barrel for a desk, commenced a subscription among them to build a house for the double purpose of the worship of G.o.d and the teaching of their children. Never did the Israelites, when a.s.sembled and called upon by King David, (as recorded in the 29th chapter of the first book of Chronicles) to subscribe for the erection of the Temple, respond with more cordiality and liberality, in proportion to their means, than did these converted children of the forest come forward and present their humble offerings for the erection of a house in which to worship G.o.d, and teach their children. The squaws came forward to subscribe from shillings to dollars, the proceeds of what they might earn and sell in baskets, mats, moccasins, &c., and the men subscribed with corresponding heartiness and liberality of the salmon that they should catch--which were then abundant in the river, and which, I think, sold for about twelve and a half cents each.
On the same day, a plan of the house was prepared, and I engaged on my own individual responsibility, a carpenter-mason, by the name of Priestman (who had been employed by the Government to build the Indian cottages), to build and finish the house for the double purpose of worship and school, and then mounted my horse and visited my old friends in York, on Yonge Street, Hamilton, and Niagara Circuits, and begged money to pay for all, and at the end of six weeks the house was built and paid for, while our "swell" friends of the Government and of the Church of England were consulting and talking about the matter. It was thus that the Church-standing of these Indian converts was maintained, and they were enabled to walk in the Lord Jesus as they had found Him.
My labours this season were very varied and severe. I had to travel to York (eighteen miles) on horseback, often through very bad roads, and preach two Sundays out of four (my second year in town). After having collected the means necessary to build the house of worship and school-house, I showed the Indians how to enclose and make gates for their gardens, having some knowledge and skill in mechanics.[8]
Between daylight and sunrise, I called out four of the Indians in succession, and showed them how, and worked with them, to clear and fence in, and plow and plant their first wheat and corn fields. In the afternoon, I called out the school-boys to go with me, and cut and pile, and burn the underbrush in and around the village. The little fellows worked with great glee, as long as I worked with them, but soon began to play when I left them.
In addition to my other work, I had to maintain a heavy controversy with several clergymen of the Church of England on Apostolic Ordination and Succession, and the equal civil rights and privileges of different religious denominations.[9]
A few months after my appointment to the Credit Indian Mission, the Government made the annual distribution of presents to the Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe Indians--all of whom were a.s.sembled at the Holland Landing, on the banks of the Holland River, at the southwest extremity of Lake Simcoe. They consisted chiefly of the Snake tribe, the Yellowhead tribe (Yellowhead was the head Chief), and the John Aissance tribe. Peter Jones and I, with John Sunday, had visited this tribe at Newmarket, the year before, and preached to them and held meetings with them, when they embraced the Christian religion, and remained true and faithful. Peter Jones and myself attended the great annual meeting of the Indians, and opened the Gospel Mission among them. In my first address, which was interpreted by Peter Jones, I explained to the a.s.sembled Indians the cause of their poverty, misery, and wretchedness, as resulting from their having offended the Great Being who created them, but who still loved them so much as to send His Son to save them, and to give them new hearts, that they might forsake their bad ways, be sober and industrious; not quarrel, but love one another, &c. I contrasted the superiority of the religion we brought to them over that of those who used images. This gave great offence to the French Roman Catholic Indian traders, who said they would kill me, and beat Peter Jones. On hearing this, Col. Givens, the Chief Indian Superintendent, called them together and told them that the Missionary Ryerson"s father was a good man for the King, and had fought for him in two wars--in the last of which his sons had fought with him--and that if they hurt one of these sons, they would offend their great father the King; that Peter Jones" father had surveyed Government lands on which many of the Indians lived. This representative of the Government, a man of n.o.ble feelings and generous impulses, threw over us the shield of Royal protection.
After the issuing of the goods to the Indians, Peter Jones remained with the Huron and Georgian Bay Indians, and preached to them with great power; while I went on board a schooner, with the Yellowhead Indians, for the Narrows, on the northern sh.o.r.e of Lake Simcoe, near Orillia, where the Indians owned Yellowhead (now Chief) Island, and which I examined with a view of selecting a place for worship, and for establishing a school. A Mission-school was established on this island.
It was afterwards removed by Rev. S. (now Dr.) Rose and others to the mainland at Orillia, and was faithfully taught by the late William Law (1827) and by the Rev. S. Rose (1831).
An amusing incident occurred during this little voyage on the schooner, which was managed by the French traders who had threatened my life two days before. The wind was light, and the sailors amused themselves with music--one of them playing on a fife. He was attempting to play a tune which he had not properly learned. I was walking the deck, and told him to give me the fife, when I played the tune. The Frenchmen gathered around my feet, and looked with astonishment and delight. From that hour they were my warm friends, and offered to paddle me in their canoes among the islands and along the sh.o.r.e wherever I wished to go.
By the advice of some of my brethren, I called on the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, after I arrived in Toronto, for the purpose of giving him a general account of the progress of the Christian religion amongst the Indian tribes I said to him:--
"The object I have in view is the amelioration of the condition of the Indians in this Province. The importance of this, both to the happiness of the Indian tribes, and the honour of the government under which they live, has been deeply felt by the parent state, so forcibly that a church was built and the Protestant religion introduced amongst the Six-Nations at the Grand River, about the beginning of the century. This effort of Christian benevolence has been so far successful as to induce some hundreds of them to receive the ordinances of the Christian religion. But the Chippewa tribes have hitherto been overlooked, till about four years ago, when the Methodists introduced the Christian religion amongst them.
In a short time about one hundred embraced the religion of Christ, exhibiting every mark of a sound conversion. Their number soon increased, and a whole tribe of Mississaugas renounced their former superst.i.tions and vices, and became sober, quiet Christians. They then felt anxious to become domesticated; their desire being favourably regarded, a village was established at the Credit, and houses built for them.
They have this season planted about forty acres of corn and potatoes, which promise an abundant harvest. About forty children attend the common school, nearly twenty can write intelligibly, and read the Holy Scriptures and the English Reader.
At Belleville a change especially interesting has been effected.
The work was commenced there about two years ago, and now in their whole tribe, numbering about two hundred, there is not one drunkard! They are also becoming domesticated and are building a village on one of their islands in the Bay of Quinte, which they had squandered away in their drunken revels, but which is now repurchased for them by some benevolent individuals. A Day and Sunday School are established in which upwards of fifty children are taught.
From the Belleville Indians the Gospel spread to the tribes which inhabit the country adjacent to Rice Lake. Here also may be seen a wonderful display of the "power of G.o.d unto Salvation to every one that believeth." In less than a year, the whole of this body, whose census is 300, renounced their idolatrous ceremonies and destructive habits, for the principles, laws and blessings of that kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
They are all, save a few, converted and changed in their hearts and lives, and earnestly desire a settled life.
The uniform language of all, so soon as they embrace the Christian religion is, "Let us have houses, that we may live together in one place, learn to till the ground, hear the word of the Great Spirit, and have our children taught to read the good book." Another field of Christian labour is already ripe amongst the Lake Simcoe Indians, who number about 600 souls. About two months ago an opportunity opened for introducing the Christian religion to them, and such was their readiness to hear and believe the words of salvation, that more than 100 have already professed the Christian faith, and are entirely reformed. A school is established in which forty are taught by a young man named William Law, lately from England.
This extensive reformation, has been effected and continued, by means, which, to all human appearance, are altogether inadequate to the accomplishment of such a work. A school at the Grand River containing thirty scholars, one at the Credit forty, another at Belleville upwards of thirty, and one lately established at Lake Simcoe containing forty, and the missionaries who have been employed amongst the Indians, together with the boarding of a number of Indian boys, have only amounted to a little more than 150 per annum. It is of the last importance to perpetuate and extend the impressions which have already been made on the minds of these Indians. The schools and religious instruction must be continued; and the Gospel must be sent to tribes still in a heathen state. But in doing this our energies are weakened, and the progress of Christian labour much impeded by serious difficulties which it is in the power of the government to remove. These obstacles are princ.i.p.ally confined to the Lake Simcoe Indians, the most serious of which is occasioned by the traders, who are Roman Catholic Frenchmen, employed to accompany the Indians in their hunting for the purpose of procuring their furs, and who are violently opposed to the reformation of the Indians. These traders are about eighty in number, and have long been accustomed to defraud and abuse the Indians in the most inhuman manner; they have even laid violent hands on some of the converted Indians, and tried to pour whiskey down their throats; but, thank G.o.d, have failed, the Indians successfully resisted them. To shake the faith of some, and deter others from reforming, they have threatened to strip them naked in the winter, when they were at a distance of 100 miles from the white settlement, and there leave them to freeze to death.
Col. Givens, when he was up issuing their presents about a month ago, threatened the traders severely if they disturbed the Indians in their devotions, or did any violence to their teachers. He also suggested the idea of your Excellency issuing a proclamation to prevent any further abuses. Sir Peregrine replied:
"When the Legislature meets, I shall see if something can be done to relieve them more effectively, but I do not think that I can do anything by the way of proclamation. If, upon deliberation, I find that I can do something for them, I shall certainly do it." I observed: The civil authority would be an ample security, while the Indians are among the white inhabitants; but these abuses are practised when they are one or two hundred miles from the white settlements. The traders follow them to their hunting grounds, get them intoxicated, and then get their furs for one fourth of their value, nay, sometimes take them by force. These Frenchmen are able-bodied men, and have abused the Indians so much they are afraid of them; and, therefore, have not courage, if they had strength to defend themselves. Under these circ.u.mstances your Excellency will perceive the Indians have no means of obtaining justice, and from their remote situation the power of civil authority is merely nominal in regard to them. His Excellency observed, "I am very much obliged to you for this information; I shall do all in my power for them."
FOOTNOTES:
[8] When about fourteen years of age, an abridged "Life of Benjamin Franklin" fell into my hands, and I read it with great eagerness. I was especially attracted by the account of his mechanical education and of its uses to him in after years, during and after the American Revolution, when he became Statesman, Amba.s.sador, and Philosopher. My father was then building a new house, and I prevailed on him to let me work with the carpenter for six months. I did so, agreeing to pay the old carpenter a York shilling a day for teaching me. During that time, I learned to plane boards, shingle, and clapboard the house, make window frames and log floors. The little knowledge and skill I then acquired, was of great service when I was labouring among the Indians, as well as my early training as a farmer. I became head carpenter, head farmer, as well as missionary, among these interesting people, during the first year of their civilized life.
[9] See note on p. 85; also Chapters vi. and viii.--H.
CHAPTER V.
1826-1827.
Diary of my Labours Among the Indians.