red some from openly avowing
themselves as willing to accept the truths of Christianity. Others were
polygamists, and were unwilling to comply with the Scriptural
requirements. To have several wives is considered a great honour in
some of the tribes. For a man to separate from all but one is to expose
himself to ridicule from his pagan friends, and also to the danger of
incurring the hostility of the relations of the discarded wives. Some
of the most perplexing and trying duties of my missionary life have been
in connection with this matter of re-organising, on a Christian basis,
the families of once heathen polygamists, who, desirous to do what was
right, have left the matter entirely in my hands. At first my
convictions and views were that the first wife should always be the one
to remain with the man, and the others should go away. Like all the
other Missionaries in the country, I had to modify these ideas, and
decide differently in some peculiar cases.

For example, a man came to me who was much impressed by the truth, and
desired to be a Christian. I questioned him closely, and found him very
sincere and earnest in his resolves. The Spirit was undoubtedly working
in his heart and conscience. He told us he had two wives, but was
willing to put one away. Which one should go, he said he would leave to
the Missionary to decide. His first wife was much the older woman, but
she had no children, while the younger wife had quite a family of little
ones around her. So poor are they in this cold northern land that it is
hard for the best of them at times to get along. Very sad is the
condition of the widow, or those women who have no able-bodied men as
husbands, fathers, or sons, to hunt and work for them. Worse still is
it if they have helpless little children to be cared for. So the
decision we came to was, that the wife with the family of little ones
should remain with the man, and the one who had no children should leave
him.

We tried to arrange that a certain quantity of help should be rendered
to the wife, or wives, put away by the husband. But we found that there
was a certain amount of danger in this, the nature of which will be
evident to the reader; and so, while we insisted on the one or more who
left receiving as large a share as possible of the man's "worldly
goods," we endeavoured to make the separation complete and final. To
help those who for conscience sake thus acted was often a very heav