o the River Credit Indians.

At the Conference of 1826, I was appointed Missionary to the Indians at
the Credit, but was required to continue the second year as preacher,
two Sundays out of four, in the Town of York, of which my elder brother,
William, was superintendent, including in his charge several other
townships. He was aided by a colleague, who preached in the country, but
not in the town.

The Chippewa tribe of Indians had a tract of land on the Credit River,
on which the Government proposed to build a village of some twenty or
thirty cottages, with the intention of building a church for them and
inducing them to join the Church of England, upon the pretext that the
Methodist preachers were Yankees. As my Father had been a British
officer, and fought seven years during the American Rebellion for the
unity of the Empire, was the first High Sheriff in the London District
(having been appointed in 1808); and had, with his sons, fought in
defence of the country in the war of the United States with Great
Britain, in 1812-1815, and my father's elder brother having been the
organizer of the Militia and Courts of the London District, the name
Ryerson became a sort of synonym for loyalist throughout the official
circles of the province; and my appointment, therefore, as the first
stationed Missionary among the Indians, and from thence to other tribes,
was a veritable and standing proof that the imputation of disloyalty
against the Methodist Missionaries was groundless.

When I commenced my labours among these poor Credit Indians (about two
hundred in number) they had not entered into the cottages which the
Government had built for them on the high ground, but still lived in
their bark-covered wigwams on the flats beside the bank of the River
Credit. One of them, made larger than the others, was used for a place
of worship. In one of these bark-covered and brush-enclosed wigwams, I
ate and slept for some weeks; my bed consisting of a plank, a mat, and
a blanket, and a blanket also for my covering; yet I was never more
comfortable and happy:--God, the Lord, was the strength of my heart,
and--

"Jesus, all the day long, was my joy and my song."

[Illustration: Indian Village at the River Credit in 1827--Winter.]

Maintaining my dignity as a minister, I showed the Indians that I could
work and live as they worked and lived.

Having learned that it was intended by the advisers of the
Lieutenant-Governor, on th