Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians | Page 5

gave them a short address, Wagimah acting as my
interpreter.
We now had to drive to Southampton, a distance of eight miles, and it
was 6.30 p.m. when we reached it. My interpreter left me here to return
to his home by the way we had come, and I took steamboat to Goderich,
and from thence by train to London, where I rejoined my wife.

My next trip was to Brantford, and my wife accompanied me. We
started on the 5th of August, and on our arrival there, were hospitably
entertained at the Rev. Mr. Nelles' house. From there I went to visit the
Indians on the New Credit Reserve, a considerable distance off. I called
on Chief Sawyer, a tall, fine man, with a sensible-looking face. He said
there were about 300 Ojebway Indians on the Reserve, and that many
of them were most desirous of having a Church of England teacher.
The result of all these visits was, that after much earnest prayer for
Divine guidance, we finally decided upon making Sarnia our
headquarters, and on the 8th of August I paid a second visit to the
Indians there, and told them that I had decided to come and live
amongst them. We expected there would be a little difficulty at first, as
the Methodists were already in the field, and might oppose our coming;
but as the Chief and quite a large number of the people were already
professed members of the Church, having been frequently visited by
the Rev. Mr. Chase, the native minister at Muncy Town, it seemed only
fair that their oft-repeated petition to the Bishop of Huron should be
attended to, and that a Church of England Mission should be
established among them. On the 11th of August a Council was held, at
which some fifty Indians attended. They sat about indiscriminately on
benches, some smoking their pipes, others chewing tobacco. In a few
plain words I told them, how it was my own earnest desire to devote
myself as a Missionary to the Indians, and how I had been sent by a
great Society in England to search out and teach the Ojebway Indians
of the western part of Canada. I had already, I said, visited the Indians
of Cape Croker, Saugeen, Sauble, and the Grand River, and had now
made up my mind to make Sarnia my head-quarters, and to build a
church in their midst. We would not, I said, put up a large expensive
one,--we would begin with a small rough one, and see how we got
on,--an Indian had already promised us land, and now I wanted all
Indians whose hearts were in the work to lend us a helping hand and
aid in erecting the church; it should be a small log building, and cost
not more than 200 dollars. Mr. Chase was also present, and spoke very
nicely after I had finished. After the council was over I proposed to Mr.
Chase and a few other Indians that we should kneel down and ask
God's blessing, and so we knelt down and laid our case before God and

asked Him to guide and direct us, and to incline the hearts of the
Indians to favour our undertaking. Next morning I returned to London,
and on the 15th we moved down to Sarnia, and took up our abode
temporarily at Mrs. Walker's boarding-house.

CHAPTER III.
OUR ARRIVAL AT SARNIA.
Mrs. Walker's boarding-house was a frame, white-painted house situate
in the town of Sarnia, a little way back from the main street. The Indian
Reserve almost adjoined the town, so that a quarter of an hour's walk
would take us on to their land. In front of the town and flowing down
past the Indian Reserve is the broad river St. Clair, connecting Lake
Huron with Lake Erie, its banks on the Canadian side dotted over with
the boats and fishing nets of the Indians.
I at once invested in a horse and buggy, and also engaged Wagimah as
my interpreter. I could already read the service in Indian, but required
an interpreter's aid for conversing with the people and preaching. Our
Sunday services were held in a vacant log hut, in which we had a little
desk rigged up and some forms arranged as seats. On my first Sunday
among them I baptized two children, an infant in arms named Jacob
Gray, and a child of four or five named Thomas Winter. Both of these
boys some nine or ten years afterwards became pupils at the Shingwauk
Home.
Our great object now was to build a log church and also a Mission
house for our own use with as little delay as possible. There was a
quaint old Indian, or rather half-breed, for he was partly French, with