continent, it became a part of the Dominion of Canada. Its population, made up of Eskimos, halfbreeds, and Indians, principally of the Cree, Ojibway, and Chippewyan or Finné tribes, together with a few Europeans in connection with the Hudson Bay fur-trading posts, now numbers about ten thousand.

The Company's post on the Moose River, from which the country itself takes its name, is almost the only settlement in the whole region, for the Eskimos and Indians, living entirely by the chase and fishing, do not form permanent settlements; but move from place to place as game and fish are to be found. In the winter-time the sole residents even of Moose - the Company's post —are the missionary and his family, some officers of the post with their servants, and a few sick and aged Indians.

This desolate region forms the scene of those heroic missionary labours which Bishop Horden carried on during forty-two years in behalf of the Church of England Missionary Society. In this same field the Rev. James Evans, brother of Rev. Dr. Ephraim Evans, well known to many of the older Methodists of Canada, and the Rev. George Barnley and other devoted missionaries of the Methodist Church had for some time laboured under the auspices of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in England. But for some reason the Society withdrew from the field about 1850, and immediately afterward the Church of England Missionary Society sent John Horden as a lay missionary to teach the people and to instruct them in the doctrines of Christianity. On three weeks' notice he sailed from England with his newly-married wife, and after a tedious voyage, in which they encountered many hardships, they landed at Moose Fort- the most southern point on James' Bay-where they were welcomed by the officers of

the Hudson Bay Company's post, the Indians and Eskimos.

With the least possible delay Mr. Horden set about his work, commencing almost immediately the study of the language, which seems to have been peculiarly involved and difficult, with many striking peculiarities. Being devoid of the infinitive mood, and having the verb and personal pronoun inseparable, as well as two different forms for the first person plural; according as one wished to say "I and you" or "I and he," it was very puzzling. By indefatigable perseverance, however, he was able to master it so that in twelve months he could preach without the aid of an interpreter, although sometimes he made ridiculous mistakes, as when, on one occasion, he was describing the creation of Eve, instead of saying God made Eve out of Adam's rib (ospikakun), he said ospwakun, which meant one of Adam's pipes-a rather laughable mistake.

At the end of twelve months Mr. Horden was ordained to the work of the ministry by Bishop Anderson of Rupert's Land, of which diocese Moosonee formed a part. Of the long and difficult journey from Red River (where the bishop lived) to Moose, we may form an idea from the fact that it took him six weeks to accomplish it by canoe and on foot. Having now been duly appointed to the full work of the ministry, Mr. Horden visited all parts of his field preaching, baptizing and administering the Lord's supper to the people scattered through the vast region he called his parish. In his journeys he visited Albany, which lay one hundred miles to the north of Moose, and where, in winter, there were eighty families of Indians and Eskimos; Hannah Bay, fifty miles to the east, where fifty families made their home in winter; Rupert House, one hundred miles to northeast, with sixty families; Kevoogoonisse, 430 miles to the south, with

thirty families; Martin's Falls, 400 miles to the north; Osnaburg, 600 miles to the north-west; Flying Post, 530 miles to south, and New Brunswick, 630 miles to the south-east,-the whole making a field sufficiently large to tax all the energies of the strongest man.

To visit all portions of this vast region even once during the course of the year was a great undertaking, as the only way of travelling was on foot and by canoe in summer, and on snowshoes or by dog-train in winter. The journey which had to be taken in the course of the round of these places, lay through trackless wastes intersected by rivers, many of which were well-nigh unnavigable even for canoes by reason of rapids and cataracts, and through forests rendered almost impassable by reason of myriads of fallen trees blown down by storms or felled by lightning stroke. Sometimes for several hundreds of miles not an inhabitant would be encountered, and on some parts of the route not a human dwelling was to be seen for several weeks together. Sometimes, also, great dangers were encountered in ascending the rapids on some of the larger rivers, when seven or eight stout Indians paddling the missionary's canoe and endeavouring to make headway against the current would find their frail bark irresistibly driven back, and only the greatest skill on their part in reversing their paddles so as to make the bow the stern for the moment, would save them from destruction. In such cases a second attempt would only be a useless risk of death, so nothing remained but to portage or carry the canoe and its load of provisions, utensils and other things necessary for such a prolonged journey around the rapids and re-shipping them on the upper side to pursue their way.

Sometimes it proved just as dangerous to descend the rapids; for

foaming waters, would be torn on some hidden rock, and could be saved from sinking only by being forced to the shore at all hazards. Having reached the shore, however, there would be a delay of an hour or two only, for the Indians, with bark stripped from the birch tree and fibres from the roots of some plant for thread, to patch the rent and to make it water-tight with pitch, always carried to meet such emergencies.

When the journey to some of these stations had to be taken in winter, which usually began toward the end of September and was prolonged to May, the dangers were still greater. The piercing cold, which often for days together was down to 35° below zero, the dreadful snowstorms and driving blizzards, and the great depth of snow constituted dangers that threatened the life of the traveller. On one occasion when Mr. Horden was going to Hannah Bay, which was about fifty miles only, to the east of Moose, he had a very narrow escape for his life. He set out with a dog-train in the very early spring, and in order to avoid snow-blindness, which frequently results to the traveller in those northern climes from the glare of the sun upon the snow, he travelled by night and rested during a portion of the day. Taking a short cut on the ice across one of the inlets of the bay, he reached by the next morning a spot where a few Indians and Eskimos were encamped. Resting there that day, he resolved to cross the next inlet during the following night; but in the evening the weather seemed to promise rain, so he did not set out at the usual hour. Towards morning, however, the weather turned cold again, and he started on his journey; but when he had made about ten miles, he discovered that the tide was coming in and was breaking up the ice in all directions. Not a moment was to be lost or escape would be im

possible. So turning his dogs, and with his Indian guide running at their side, he urged them back over the tracks they had just made, and by almost superhuman efforts reached the land in time. A few minutes more and he would have been caught amidst the breaking ice and been hopelessly battling among the broken masses that for many miles were tossing upon the waves.

While the dangers of the journeys and the hardships of a life among circumstances of such an inhospitable nature taxed the energies of the missionary, and sometimes, perhaps, tested very severely his faith, there were many things to compensate him. The Eskimos were very docile, being, as Mr. Horden says, "the most teachable of men"; while the Indians, though somewhat fickle, were as a rule very receptive and gladly listened to his instructions. Many both of the Indians and Eskimos had formerly come under the influence of Methodist missionaries or under that of the Moravians and were able to read; but the most of them were still not only very ignorant, but also extremely superstitious. Of the simple and childish character of their beliefs we may form some idea from their opinions as to the origin of the sun and moon. 66 Long ago," say they, "not long after the creation of the world, a mighty Eskimo lived to whom nothing was impossible, and being a great conjuror, no other profession was able to stand before him. At length this world became too small for him, so taking with him his sister and a small fire, he raised himself up to the heavens. Heaping on the fire immense quantities of fuel, he formed the sun, which has been burning ever since. For a time he and his sister lived together in harmony; but after a while he began to ill-treat her, and his conduct toward her became so violent that he burned her face, which was of great beauty. On this

she fled from him and formed the moon. Ever since, her brother, the sun, has been in pursuit of her; but although some times he gets near her he will never catch her. When it is new moon the burnt side of her face is toward us, and when the full moon appears that is the other side of her face."

The Indians were not so teachable as the Eskimos and were much more ignorant and superstitious: but they were still further depraved by the cruel customs that had from time immemorial prevailed among them. Until they became Christianized, they never allowed themselves to be burdened very long with their sick, or with the aged and infirm. So soon as any serious sickness seized any one of them the friends held a consultation, and, if it was thought in the interest of all that the sick should be put to death, it was not long before the decision was put into effect. Or, if age or infirmity prevented one of them from bearing his proper share of the burdens of the family or immediate community, he was either left to starve or, by some more speedy death, put out of the way. We are not surprised, therefore, that Mr. Horden says that he knew of no place of which it was more literally true "that the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty," than it was when he first entered the work in the region in which he laboured.

Even after the missionary had succeeded in mitigating the evils of cruelty, superstition and ignorance among the people they still suffered, sometimes in the most pitiable manner, from sickness and even from hunger which, in many cases, issued in starvation. As the winters were extremely cold and the abodes of the people of a very rude and primitive kind, that constituted even at the best a poor protection against wet or cold or storm, both Indian and Eskimo were very liable to diphtheria, consumption, and all

varieties of chest diseases. At one time at one of the stations whoopingcough broke out, and before it could be checked no less than forty-four persons were carried off. Under these circumstances Mr. Horden was compelled to combine with his ministerial labours the duties of physician, which in his case included very often the no less arduous tasks of the nurse.

To the sufferings brought by sick ness and disease were frequently added the horrors of starvation. As the people depended very largely for their supply of food on rabbits and wild geese, as staple articles, whenever these failed in consequence of forest fires, diseases, or unfavourable climatic conditions, starvation was pretty certain to ensue. The first winter Mr. Horden was in the country, he says that about onequarter of the people in one region died of starvation, or were killed and eaten to save the rest from perishing.

No wonder, therefore, when the missionary found himself in the presence of such great and urgent needs that he laboured with ceaseless energy at his chosen work. He recognized, however, that in order to extend the influences of his labours most widely and to make them permanent, he must provide the people with books-the Scriptures especially. Accordingly, after he had mastered the language so as to use it with some degree of fluency, he set about that task, although it was no easy matter on account of the difficulties that are common to all such undertakings, as well as on account of special difficulties arising from the different dialects spoken in different parts of the field. Yet he did not hesitate to confront the task.

His way had, however, been cleared in considerable measure by the invention of the Cree syllabic character by the Rev. James Evans, the Methodist missionary to whom we have already referred as one of