Читать книгу In the Wake of the War Canoe - W. H. Collison - Страница 8

July 24th, the Lord's Day.—A large whisky feast going on. Went to the second village and collected in Kadonāh's house ten men and fourteen children. A short address given. Went to the third village, where we got together fifteen men and ten children.

July 25th—Engaged all the morning looking out for a site for our house and school. One of our hostesses (as our host has three wives) was busy painting herself before the fire with pitch and a decoction of berries. Above the fire, hung on horizontal sticks, are salmon and salmon spawn drying, as our host went out on Saturday night and brought home as many as thirty large salmon, some weighing thirty pounds. In the chair of state sits the lord of the house. Two little children, one with nothing but a short skirt on, run about the house. Boxes of grease line the sides, and nets hang up here and there. Two old women, wrapt in dirty blankets, squat round the fire. In another corner is our tent and boxes, and near us are three young men learning to read.

August 4th.—Heard this morning that the Indians are having a whisky feast at Lak-Ankidā. Watched them most of the day. I did not think it expedient to go over. Saw the party go from one house to another, and at last they stopped at the house of a young man for whom they were yesterday working. Saw an instance of temptation. An old man led on by Kinzadak, a chief who is doing all in his power to undermine our work. He had his arm around the man's neck, who seemed to be going very reluctantly. When he got within a hundred yards of the house, down he sat. Kinzadak was now joined by another man, and, between the two, the old man was led step by step into the house. I thought of the devil and his agents, and how impossible to resist him but for the grace of God. The drunken feast was carried on far into the night, as at ten o'clock I still heard the drums (or what they use for substitution, simply boxes) beating.[3]

Thus the Nass Mission was fairly established. It will be noted from the above account that intoxicating liquor was even a greater hindrance to the work of the Mission than heathenism. On one occasion Mr. Doolan had a very narrow escape. As he was passing along in front of one of the villages, a drunken Indian attempted to shoot him. He lifted his gun, which was loaded, and, aiming at him, pulled the trigger. Providentially the gun missed fire, and he was disarmed before he could make a second attempt. After some three and a half years' labour, Mr. Doolan was compelled to resign, but not before he was joined in the Mission by the Rev. R. Tomlinson. Together they decided to remove the headquarters of the Mission further down the river towards the mouth. Accordingly they selected the present site, known as "Kincolith," or the "Rock of Scalps," and Mr. Doolan assisted in the removal of the Mission to the new quarters before his departure. The Mission had been commenced at Abanshekques, a village some twenty miles from the mouth, where it was carried on during Mr. Doolan's charge. This village has long since been abandoned, many of the Indians having moved to the new site on becoming Christians. The site has been gradually swept away by the encroachments of the river. One by one the great totem poles, elaborately carved, fell before the advancing tide, and the last two I observed were two years bending over the river before they also fell in.

Thus the old order of things was passing away—their heathen customs, including the medicine men's evil practices, in the tearing of flesh both human and animal, and their whisky feasts and fights, in which many were killed or injured; and soon the light of the glorious Gospel would illuminate their beautiful river, reminding them of the pure river of the water of life which causeth everything to live whithersoever it floweth.