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STORIES FROM THE WILDERNESS.

would receive a Missionary. When Mr Hunt began to speak to the people about their souls and God, the chief, Mansuk, interrupted him, and said, that wherever their religion came, it drove the animals away, and that they would not let any Missionary come nearer to them than the Pas, and English river, and Carlton. He told Mr Hunt that he had heard that Mr Budd talked of coming among them; but he might tell him that if he came, they should tell him to go away and leave them alone; and if he would not go quietly, they would bind him, and put him in a boat, and send him down the stream. This was his message to Mr Budd.

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Mr Hunt says "I continued talking with this man for two hours or more. He is a shrewd, cunning, passionate man. His heart and mouth said, 'We want no God.' He declared, We are determined to have nothing to do with these matters: they have made a garden at the Fort, and they have spoiled the country : we want plenty of moose and buffalo.' At last, I made a personal application to his own heart and conscience, and this raised his anger. He held his scalping knife in his hand, and said, his brother, Joseph Cook, had been among them from Lac-la-Ronge, and had told them that I was a good man; but if any one else had said such things to him as I had done he would have fought him as an enemy. I then asked him to listen to a little of God's word; and having read to him the substance of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and

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pressed upon him the danger of choosing the good things of this life in preference to those of the life to come, I rose and left him, for I was very hungry and faint. He was evidently softened and impressed, and followed me, and sat beside me while I ate my first good meal for five days. He requested me to take his furs to the Fort for him, which I promised to do; and upon leaving them, I gave him a little present, for his brother Joseph's sake,' as I did also to our chief's brother, and a little tobacco to all, and a few gun flints, which were very acceptable to them. I bade them what cheer,' under the impression that they would reconsider their determination to have no Missionary near them, and that Mr Budd would have nothing to fear from them."

When Mr Budd heard old Mansuk's threatening message, it only made him pray more earnestly to God. He was still resolved to visit his tribe, the Nepowewins, or Thickwood Indians, though it seemed likely that he would have a rough reception.

To his astonishment, when he arrived at the place, the Indians helped him to carry up his goods from the boat, and seemed very friendly. When he visited Mansuk's tent, he found him sick, and all his fierceness seemed to have left him. Mansuk," says Mr Budd, “ began to tell me some very long stories, and said not a word of driving me away. He spoke very

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familiarly to me, and very kindly, too. I expected in every sentence he spoke, that he would mention the message he

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THE CHINESE IN FOREIGN LANDS.

had sent me, but he did not even hint | are not so bad as to take everything I at it."

The next morning the boat and crew set out on their return to Cumberland. As he stood watching the boat till it was out of sight, one of the Indians said:

"So, your boat is off, and your men have left you standing here. Why do you not go with them?"

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I do not mean to go back with them now," he replied, "I am come to spend the winter among you.' "Ah!" said the Indian, "but you will repent of that before the winter is begun. Stop till a large party of the Plain Indians come in, and they do what they please, and take everything you have from you: you will repent then that you allowed your men to leave you."

"It may be so, but I have no choice now. I must stop and make the best of it I can; I hope the Plain Indians

have without any provocation."

"You will see that, before long." said the Indian, " you will not be able to keep anything, either horses or cattle; and when you sow anything, they will steal it."

The Missionary thought this was not a very pleasant prospect, but, as he said, "there was no help for it now."

Indeed, he had made up his mind before he came, that he would have many hardships and dangers, and he trusted in God to give him strength to "endure hardness as a good soldier."

The Indians thought it was very strange that he should care to stay all alone with them, while at the Cumberland station he had friends, and his wife and children. He was following the example of Him, who, when only twelve years old, said, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

THE CHINESE IN FOREIGN LANDS.

CHAPTER II.-AUSTRALIA.

You read last month of the great numbers of Chinese who are to be found in California. If you were to go to Australia you would meet Chinese there too. They come in crowds, and are to be seen passing through the streets of the towns, on their way up the country. Some of them are working on the gold-fields, others are engaged as cooks, shepherds, &c. They generally wear the English dress, and have their hair cut and combed like other people; one of the first things they do when

they come to the country being to cut off the pig-tail which every Chinaman wears.

Many Christian hearts in Australia have long been distressed to see these poor Chinese living in heathenism round them, without any one to teach them the way of life; but it seemed that nothing could be done, for they did not pick up enough of English to understand instruction.

The Rev. J. L. Poore, who was formerly a minister in Manchester, but

THE HINDOO GIRL."

went to Australia, one day received a supply of two thousand Chinese Testaments. The young people of his old congregation in England had sent them to be distributed among the Chinese in Australia. For a long time the boxes of Testaments lay in his house useless. He was living in Melbourne, and though thousands of Chinese land in Melbourne, they only stay there a day or two to get ready for their journey up the country. Now, Mr Poore thought that if he gave the Testaments to these men, without being able to explain their value, they would be quite thrown away, for the Chinamen would not trouble themselves with a book on the long and trying journey which was before them. Mr Poore often thought of his boxes of Chinese Testaments, and wished he could make them of use. At last, to his great delight, he saw a notice in the shipping news that “two Chinese Evangelists had arrived from Hong-Kong, with letters introductory to the Rev. J. L. Poore." He lost no time in finding them out. The letters they had brought were from Dr

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Legge in China, who stated that these young men were sent by the native church at Hong Kong to teach their countrymen; they had been under his care for ten years, and he considered them well fitted, both by their piety and attainments, to be useful to their countrymen.

Mr Poore then called a meeting of ministers and Christians of different denominations, a sum of money was subscribed, and a society commenced for instructing the Chinese in Australia. The two Chinamen set out at once on their mission, taking with them the Chinese Testaments of the Manchester children. They got a hall at the dig gings, in which they preached to large congregations of Chinese.

A Missionary from China, the Rev. Wm. Young, was then visiting Australia for his health, and he, too, assisted in the good work. So here were Chinese Testaments, a Missionary, and two Chinese preachers-all met together, as people would say, "by chance," but as we would rather say, "by the good hand of God upon them."

THE HINDOO GIRL.

to play with her and amuse her. She loved her more and more, and as she grew older, she made her her companion.

A LITTLE Hindoo girl was one summer's | own, and she liked to have a little girl afternoon playing before her father's bungalow, when she was carried off, taken to Calcutta, and sold as a slave. She was a sweet and beautiful little girl, and the lady who bought her soon began to love her very much, and she thought she would not make her a slave. She had no children of her

When the little girl was stolen from her father, she was too young to have learned his religion. The lady who bought her was a Mahometan, and she

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brought up the little girl as a Maho- | out directly in search of a Brahmin or

metan too. Thus she lived till she was sixteen years old, and then all at once it came into her mind, she knew not how or why, that she was a sinner and needed salvation. She was in great distress of mind, and went to her kind mistress for comfort, but she could not tell her of a Saviour; all the lady could do was to try to amuse her, and make her forget her trouble; she hired rope-dancers, jugglers, and serpentcharmers, and tried all the sports of which the natives of India are fond, to give her pleasure. These were of no use, and the girl remained as miserable as ever. Her mistress, deeply grieved at the distress of one whom she loved dearly, next sent for a Mahometan priest. He had never felt the want of a Saviour, and he could not understand the girl's distress; however, he took her under his care, and did his best. He taught her a long string of prayers in Arabic, a language which she did not understand. She learned the long hard words, which had no meaning to her, and she repeated them five times a day, and each time she repeated them she turned towards Mecca, the birthplace of Mahomet, and bowed her face to the ground.

Did the poor girl find comfort in these dark words and idle ceremonies ? No; she felt there was no forgiveness, no salvation in these. When she had tried these prayers for three long years, the thought struck her that perhaps all the sorrow of mind was a punishment for having left the faith of her fathers, and become a Mahometan. She sent

Hindoo priest, and entreated him to receive her back into the Hindoo religion. How do you think the Brahmin answered her? He cursed her in the name of his god. She told him how unhappy she was, and how long she had suffered, and begged him to pity her, but he would not listen. She offered him a large sum of money, and then he was ready to do anything; so she put herself under his direction, and went again and again. He told her to make an offering of flowers and fruit, morning and evening, to a certain goddess, who was some way off, and once a week to offer a kid as a bloody sacrifice.

In India, the people have a language of flowers; each flower means something; and when you go into a temple, and see the flowers which have been laid on the altar, you may often tell what petitions have been offered. The flowers she brought as her offering, signified a bleeding heart. Oh, there was One who would not have refused such an offering! He only could have healed her broken heart, but she knew Him not. For a long, long time did she carry flowers, morning and evening, and once a-week offered a kid, and sprinkled the blood on herself and on the altar; but she found that "the blood of goats could not take away her sins," and very often she cried out in her deep distress, Oh, I shall die, and what shall I do if I die without obtaining salvation?" At last she became ill through the distress of her mind, and her mistress, with deep sorrow, watched her beloved companion

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THE HINDOO GIRL.

sinking into an early grave. But one day, as she sat alone in her room, thinking, and longing, and weeping, as her custom was, a beggar came to the door, and asked alms. Her heart was so full, that I suppose she spoke of what she wanted to all whom she met, in the hope that some one might guide her. She began talking to the beggar, and used a word which means salvation. The man started and said, think I have heard that word before." "Where, oh! where have you heard it?" she eagerly asked. "Tell me where I can find that which I want, and for which I am dying; I shall soon die, and oh, what shall I do if I die without obtaining salvation?"

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become an humble disciple of Jesus, and he was now an assistant missionary and preacher to his countrymen. This was the man of whom the beggar spoke. The Hindoo girl gave the beggar a trifle, and that very evening she set out in search of Narraput Christian, the man who would lead her to Jesus. She went from house to house, and inquired of every one she met "where INarraput Christian, the man who would lead her to Jesus," lived, but no one would tell her. They all knew, but they were worshippers of idols, and did not choose to tell her. It grew late and dark, and she began to be afraid of being seen out at that hour. Her heart was nearly broken, for she thought she must return as she came, without obtaining salvation. She was just turning to go home, when she saw a man walking along the road: she thought she would try once more, so she asked him the same question, "Where Narraput Christian lived, the man who would lead her to Jesus?" To her great joy, he pointed her to the house, and when she reached it, she met Narraput himself coming out at the door. She fell at his feet in tears, and wringing her hands in anguish, she asked, "Are you Narraput Christian, the man who can lead me to Jesus? Oh, take me to Him; I shall die, and what shall I do if I die without obtaining salvation?"

The man told her, the name of a charitable institution, where, once aweek, two thousand poor natives were supplied with rice, and before the rice was given out some Christian teacher, used to speak to them. "I have heard it there," he said, "and they tell of one Jesus Christ, who can give salvation." "Oh, where is he? Take me to him." The man cared nothing about this salvation himself. He thought she was mad, and was going away, but she would not suffer him to depart till he had given an answer; she dreaded lest: she should miss that prize which now seemed almost within her reach.

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Well," he said, "I can tell you of a man who will lead you to Jesus," and he directed her to that part of the town where Narraput Christian lived. Who was Narraput Christian? He was once a rich and proud Brahmin, but he had given up all his riches and honours to

Narraput did not receive her as the Hindoo priest had done. He raised her kindly from the ground, and led her into the house, where his family were met at their evening meal. " My dear young

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