e must be quick to see where success can be most
easily attained. Here was a people who were fishermen and hunters,
living far north of the agricultural regions. As hunters, they were
ever on the go, so that it was almost an impossibility to keep them long
enough in one place to teach them to read in the ordinary way. Over
these difficulties Mr Evans pondered and worked and, after any amount
of experimenting and failure, succeeded in inventing and perfecting that
is known as the syllabic characters.

These very simple characters each represent a syllable, so all the
difficulties of learning to spell are done away with. In prosecuting
his work, Mr Evans had to labour under many disadvantages. Living in a
land so remote from civilisation, he had but little material on which to
experiment, and but few facilities to aid him. From the fur-traders he
begged a few sheets of the lead that lines the interior of tea chests.
This he melted into suitable pieces, out of which he carved his first
type. For paper he was obliged at first to use birch bark. His ink was
manufactured out of the soot from his chimney and sturgeon oil. Yet
with these rude appliances he succeeded in being able to print portions
of the Scriptures and some hymns in the language of the Cree Indians.
When the story of his marvellous invention reached England, generous
friends came to his assistance. From some of his types, as models, a
generous supply was cast; these, with a good hand printing press and all
necessary supplies of paper, ink, and other essentials, were shipped to
him by the Hudson Bay Company, to Norway House. For years the work of
printing portions of the Word of God was there prosecuted, until at
length the British and Foreign Bible Society took up the work, and now,
all the Bibles the people require are most cheerfully furnished them by
that most generous and glorious society.

The love of the Christian Indians for their Bible is very gratifying.
So great a comfort and solace is it to them in their solitary wigwams
and lonely hunting-camps, that nothing will induce them to leave it out
of their pack. The trail may be rough and the journey of many days
duration; food may have to be carried on their backs for days together
so that every pound of weight has to be determined upon; days of hunger
must be faced ere the journey ends and abundance of game is reached, yet
the Great Book is ever carried as the most prized of all their
posses