the
fish, a cooked rabbit, or it may be a piece of venison or bear's meat.
However, the great "stand-by," as they say out in that land, was the
fish.

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Every summer hundreds of Indians from other places visited us. Some
came in their small canoes, and others with the Brigades, which in those
days travelled vast distances with their loads of rich furs, which were
sent down to York Factory on the Hudson Bay, to be shipped thence to
England. Sometimes they remained several weeks between the trading post
and the Mission. Very frequent were the conversations we had with these
wandering red men about the Great Spirit and the Great Book.

Some, full of mischief, and at times unfortunately full of rum, used to
come to annoy and disturb us. One summer a band of Athabasca Indians so
attacked our Mission House that for three days and nights we were as in
a state of siege. Unfortunately for us our own loyal able-bodied Indian
men were all away as trip men, and the few at the Mission village were
powerless to help. Our lives were in jeopardy, and they came very near
burning down the premises.

Shortly after these Athabasca Indians had left us I saw a large boatload
of men coming across the lake towards our village. Imagining them to be
some of these same disturbers, I hastily rallied all the old men I
could, and went down to the shore, to keep them, if possible, from
landing. Very agreeable indeed was my surprise to find that they were a
band of earnest seekers after the Great Light, who had come a long
distance to see and talk with me. Gladly did I lead them to the Mission
House, and until midnight I endeavoured to preach to them Jesus. They
came a distance of over three hundred miles; but in that far-off
district had met in their wanderings some of our Christian Indians from
Norway House, who, always carrying their Bibles with them, had, by
reading to them and praying with them, under the good Spirit's
influence, implanted in their hearts longing desires after the great
salvation. They were literally hungering and thirsting after salvation.
Before they left for their homes, they were all baptized. Their
importunate request to me on leaving was the same as that of many
others:

"Do come and visit us in our own land, and tell us and our families more
of these blessed truths."

From God's Lake, which is sixty miles from Oxford Lake, a deputati