1827. 



Domestic and foreign. 



413 



As windmill blades, whan wind does happen, 

 Kin reeslilin' round and round, and rappin', 

 While, ever as the shafts gae swappin', 

 The grindin' graith below &acs clappin' ; 

 Sae quick, or rather mickle quicker, 

 Their ohaft-blades back and fore did bicker; 

 "Raith jaws, as if they vy'd thegither, 

 Sac quiver'd, nae man could tell whether 

 Gaed faster, th' upper or the nether; 

 Nor waur their lungs for wauchts were giftit ; 

 The siller stoups on heigh upliftit 

 Were tootitin a whip and tiftit; 

 Eat-weil, they say, is drink-weil's britber; 

 Or rather, ane may say, its mither; 

 But ca' it either tarie or tither, 

 That nicht they were leisch'd in thegither ; 

 Had Epicurus' sell been waitin' 

 Upon them as they pang'd their meat in, 

 He coaldna weil hae blam'd th' eatin' ; 

 Had Bacchus' sell been there, I'm thinkin', 

 For pumpin' bottles, and for skinkin', 

 He could ua wcil hae blam'd thedrinkin': * 

 Sae wliat wi' tootin', what wi' eatin', 

 Their hearts, whan they had got some hpat in. 

 Ware stapt frae dunlin', and frae beatin'. 

 Verbum non amplius go to the book 

 itself. 



A Journal of a Mission to the Indians 

 of the British Provinces in America, by 

 John West, M.A.; 1827. Mr. West some 

 time ago published a journal of his travels 

 among' the North West American Indians 

 during the years 1820,-l,-2, and 3, as 

 chaplain to the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 under whose auspices he was employed in 

 laying the foundation, as he says, of the 

 North West American Mission; and on 

 his return was requested by the New 

 England Company to visit the Indians of 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and 

 from thence to extend his survey to the 

 Mohawks on the Ouse, or Grand River, 

 in Upper Canada. The present publica- 

 tion is the journal of this tour and sur- 

 vey. 



Mr. West has as little of the missionary 

 phraseology which, to a layman's ear, is 

 not only uncouth but offensive and pro- 

 fane as a man so employed can be ex- 

 pected to have. Generally the missionary 

 is in a state of excitation, and will not of 

 course talk like a sober man. He believes 

 himself under the guidance of the Deity 

 in a more than ordinary degree; he is 

 peculiarly and immediately engaged in the 

 divine service, and naturally looks for 

 especial protection. Unless such were the 

 belief or feeling of the individual, he could 

 never as even Mr. West, who has very 

 little heat in him, does say of himself, on 

 crossing the Bay of Fundy, " under a pro- 

 tecting Providence," he landed on such a 

 day. He was but one of a crew, and of 

 numerous passengers, who, if he were 

 especially protected, must all of them have 

 been so protected. There was nothing to 

 single him out as the especial object of 

 protection, and if so, why make use of an 



expression, which implies more presump- 

 tion than piety, unless he beli'eve, that for 

 his sake, and the object of his mission, the 

 safety of the passengers and the crew, as 

 in the case of St. Paul, were distinctly 

 granted to him. But this is a pitch of 

 pretension far beyond Mr. West he is 

 manifestly below the boiling point of the 

 missionary. The truth is, so far as we 

 can see and that to us must be truth all 

 men are subject to the general laws of 

 nature, alike, without discrimination . 

 the good and the bad as we phrase it 

 these la\vs of nature, with all the qualities 

 of all things animate and inanimate, are 

 the appointments of a supreme intelli- 

 gence; and the great consolation, to the 

 man of genuine piety, is, that the sun 

 shines and the rain falls apparently with- 

 out respect of persons. The very mis- 

 sionary, who, in terms at least, arrogates 

 especial distinction, does not trust toil; 

 but himself makes use of all his expe- 

 rience, and provides, as he best may, 

 against the perils that too probably await 

 his hazardous enterprise. His purpose is 

 well-meant and amiable ; his means are 

 no more than human ; his stimulus the 

 consciousness of faithfully executing what 

 he believes a duty the admiration of the 

 world, or at least of his party, and his 

 reward, the hope of ample recompense in. 

 a world to come. 



That he fails nine times out of ten is 

 very far from being matter for wonder. 

 Generally zeal outruns judgment ; and 

 more attention is paid to dogmas than to 

 morals more to inculcate creeds than to 

 promote civilization. He has only, he 

 thinks, to teach religion, and civilization 

 will follow. This is manifestly beginning 

 at the wrong end. Civilization should 

 pave the way for religion. The teaching 

 of creeds has not the remotest tendency 

 to promote civilization (the wildest sa- 

 vages have a creed of some kind or other) 

 and in point of fact never does any 

 good ; but so far as it is accompanied by 

 efforts of quite another kind. 



The Indians of New Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia not probably in both pro- 

 vinces exceeding 3,000 are already con- 

 verted ; but they are all catholics, Mr. 

 West says, and are entrenched within the 

 bigotry and dominion of the priests. Cu- 

 rious language this, and the proof equally 

 curious : 



The child of a chief died. I offered to bury the 

 child, as they knew me to be a priest, but they re- 

 fused, with the remark, that it must be buried by 

 their priest; and the mother of the deceased child 

 took the corpse upon her back, and carried it the 

 distance of thirty miles to the French village of 

 Sissahoo, where the priest resided, for burial. I 

 merely observed to Adelah, on this occasion, that 

 I supposed Indians were all of the Roman Catholic 

 religion; he said "yes," adding," you know in 



