is against the wind, but
afterwards they appear to be driven by its course, and fall, as a
scourge, as they become exhausted by flight. "_The land may be as the
garden of Eden before them, but behind them it is a desolate
wilderness._"

CHAPTER III.

NORWAY HOUSE. BAPTISMS. ARRIVAL AT YORK FACTORY. SWISS EMIGRANTS.
AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY FORMED. BOAT WRECKED. CATHOLIC PRIESTS. SIOUX
INDIANS KILLED AT THE COLONY. CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES AMONG THE
COLONISTS. SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. FISHING UNDER THE ICE. WILD FOWL.
MEET THE INDIANS AT PEMBINA. THEY SCALP AN ASSINIBOINE. WAR DANCE.
CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH A CAPTIVE BOY. INDIAN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE
FOR THE EDUCATION OF HIS CHILD. STURGEON.

The late Earl of Selkirk having suggested that, "In the course of each
summer, it would be proper that the minister should visit the Hudson's
Bay Company's factory at Norway House, and also at York Fort, as a
great number of their servants are assembled at these places, for a few
weeks in summer, and have no other opportunity for any public religious
instruction;" I left the settlement on the first of August, and met, at
Norway House, one of the Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a
gentleman of the North West, on their route from Montreal to York Fort,
to make arrangements for the future trade of the country, in consequence
of a coalition between the two Companies. This was a circumstance which
I could not but hail, as highly encouraging in the attempt to better
the condition of the native Indians, and likely to remove many of the
evils that prevailed during the ardour of opposition.

The 12th of August, being Sunday, we had divine service; after which I
baptized between twenty and thirty children, and married two of the
Company's officers. On the 14th, we left this Post, and arrived at York
Factory, the 27th, where we found a considerable number of Swiss
families, who had left their country, as emigrants to the Red River
Colony. They shewed me a prospectus, which had been circulated in the
Swiss Cantons, by a gentleman who had been in Canada, but had never
seen the Settlement; and were anxious in their inquiries whether it was
rising to prosperity. They appeared to me to be a different description
of settlers, from what the colony, in its infancy of improvement, was
prepared to receive; as consisting principally of watchmakers and
mechanics. The hardy husbandman was the character we wanted; who would
work his