st of Wrangell,
to take their census, confer with their chiefs and report upon their
condition, with a view to establishing schools and churches among them.
The most of these tribes had never had a visit from a missionary, and I
felt the eager zeal an Eliot or a Martin at the prospect of telling them
for the first time the Good News. Muir's mission was to find and study
the forests, mountains and glaciers. I also was eager to see these and
learn about them, and Muir was glad to study the natives with me--so
our plans fitted into each other well.

"We are going to write some history, my boy," Muir would say to me.
"Think of the honor! We have been chosen to put some interesting people
and some of Nature's grandest scenes on the page of human record and on
the map. Hurry! We are daily losing the most important news of all the
world."

In many respects we were most congenial companions. We both loved the
same poets and could repeat, verse about, many poems of Tennyson, Keats,
Shelley and Burns. He took with him a volume of Thoreau, and I one of
Emerson, and we enjoyed them together. I had my printed Bible with me,
and he had his in his head--the result of a Scotch father's discipline.
Our studies supplemented each other and our tastes were similar. We had
both lived clean lives and our conversation together was sweet and
high, while we both had a sense of humor and a large fund of stories.

But Muir's knowledge of Nature and his insight into her plans and
methods were so far beyond mine that, while I was organizer and
commander of the expedition, he was my teacher and guide into the inner
recesses and meanings of the islands, bays and mountains we explored
together.

Our ship for this voyage of discovery, while not so large as
Vancouver's, was much more shapely and manageable--a _kladushu etlan_
(six fathom) red-cedar canoe. It belonged to our captain, old Chief
Tow-a-att, a chief who had lately embraced Christianity with his whole
heart--one of the simplest, most faithful, dignified and brave souls I
ever knew. He fully expected to meet a martyr's death among his heathen
enemies of the northern islands; yet he did not shrink from the voyage
on that account.

His crew numbered three. First in importance was Kadishan, also a chief
of the Stickeens, chosen because of his powers of oratory, his kinship
with Chief Shathitch of the Chilcat tribe, and his friendly relations
with other chiefs. He was a born courtier, learne