EMBARKED FOR THE RED RIVER COLONY. DIFFICULTIES OF THE NAVIGATION.
LAKE WINIPEG. MUSKEGGOWUCK, OR SWAMP INDIANS. PIGEWIS, A CHIEF OF THE
CHIPPEWAYS OR SALTEAUX TRIBE. ARRIVAL AT THE RED RIVER. COLONISTS.
SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. WOLF-DOGS. INDIANS VISIT FORT DOUGLAS. DESIGN OF
A BUILDING FOR DIVINE WORSHIP.

On the 27th of May, 1820, I embarked at Gravesend, on board the
Honourable Hudson's Bay Company's ship, the Eddystone; accompanied by
the ship, Prince of Wales, and the Luna brig, for Hudson's Bay. In my
appointment as Chaplain to the Company, my instructions were, to reside
at the Red River Settlement, and under the encouragement and aid of the
Church Missionary Society, I was to seek the instruction, and endeavour
to meliorate the condition of the native Indians.

The anchor was weighed early on the following morning, and sailing with
a fine breeze, the sea soon opened to our view. The thought that I was
now leaving all that was dear to me upon earth, to encounter the perils
of the ocean, and the wilderness, sensibly affected me at times; but my
feelings were relieved in the sanguine hope that I was borne on my way
under the guidance of a kind protecting Providence, and that the
circumstances of the country whither I was bound, would soon admit of
my being surrounded with my family. With these sentiments, I saw point
after point sink in the horizon, as we passed the shores of England and
Scotland for the Orkneys.

We bore up for these Isles on the 10th of June, after experiencing
faint and variable winds for several days: and a more dreary scene can
scarcely be imagined than they present to the eye, in general. No tree
or shrub is visible; and all is barren except a few spots of cultivated
ground in the vales, which form a striking contrast with the barren
heath-covered hills that surround them. These cultivated spots mark the
residence of the hardy Orkneyman in a wretched looking habitation with
scarcely any other light, (as I found upon landing on one of the
islands) than from a smoke hole, or from an aperture in the wall,
closed at night with a tuft of grass. The calf and pig were seen as
inmates, while the little furniture that appeared, was either festooned
with strings of dried fish, or crossed with a perch for the fowls to
roost on.

A different scene, however, presented itself, as we anchored the next
day in the commodious harbour of Stromness. The view of the town, with
the surrounding cultivated parts