16 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
In the meantime the work of Evans as Missionary Superintendent 
and explorer was extending so rapidly that the local work of the station 
at Norway House, teaching, translating, printing and preaching, fell 
almost entirely to the younger assistants among whom were both Mrs. 
Evans and Mrs. Mason. 
In January 1842 we find him starting on a three months’ trip follow- 
ing the Saskatchewan River, visiting all the Hudson Bay posts, the 
thermometer reading 25° 30° 35° and 40° below zero, pushing west as 
far as Saskatchewan Station and south to the Assiniboine River. Next 
he makes a trip that extends as far north as Dunvegan and Athabasca 
Landing, and he writes home of his ambition to plant a mission station 
at every Hudson Bay Company’s post. But the energetic spirit had 
already nearly worn out his athletic body and the end was hastened by 
painful cireumstances which now crossed his path. On two points 
disagreement arose between him and the chief officers of the Company, 
the observance of the Sabbath and the furnishing of intoxicating liquors 
to the Indians. Although he had given pledge that he would not inter- 
fere with the business interests of the Company, on these two points 
he could not yield, but held that the best interests of the Company 
would not be injured, but promoted by the course which he believed 
to be right. Persecution arose and his personal character was grievously 
maligned. Then by a sad accident in crossing a lake his gun was dis- 
charged and his faithful friend and assistant, Thomas Hassell, instantly 
killed. Then followed a journey to the far north to give himself up, 
according to the Indian law, to the family of the deceased by them to be 
killed or else adopted in place of the lost son. They chose the latter, 
it is said through the entreaty of Hassell’s mother, and from that day 
he devoted a part of his salary to their support. Next he was called 
to return to England to face the false charges which had been raised 
against him. His Christian friends secured a complete refutation of 
the charges, in fact a confession by the witnesses themselves that they 
had been suborned to swear to these charges, and he was triumphantly 
vindicated. But these things had literally broken his heart, and on 
the 23rd of November, after an evening meeting at which he had held 
an audience entranced by his eloquent description of the missionary 
work in the distant territory, he suddenly expired in the forty-sixth 
year of his age. 
But his great work of giving a nation writing and literature still 
moved forward. The master mind indeed was gone. Various unto- 
ward events occurred to hinder progress. But the movement had in 
itself a living force sufficient to overcome all these. It met the need of 
a nation, and the people were awakened to a sense of that need and of 
the priceless value of that which was offered them, A demand had 
