18 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
ment was finished. That in England Mason alone should be recognized 
as the translator both by Dr. Hoole and the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, though an injustice to the men of native blood who did the 
larger part of the work, is not more surprising than that in a recent 
printed fly sheet, the Bible Society should ascribe the revision of this 
transaction solely to Archdeacon MacKay, although other Cree scholars 
like MacDougall and German and natives like Egerton Steinhauer, were 
members of the Committee by which the work was done and of which 
the learned Archdeacon was president. 
We have endeavoured to furnish a full statement on this subject 
because the native workers in this early effort to provide a literature 
in the Cree language have been so largely ignored although some of 
them, as the two Steinhauers, father and son, were quite as well edu- 
cated as some of the Europeans with whom they were associated and 
did probably a larger share of the work. 
In the investigation of this disputed point I have been materially 
assisted by the published works of Dr. Maclean and by letters and notes 
from Dr. Maclean and Dr. Macdougall. 
But this work of translating and publishing in the Cree Syllabic 
was now to pass far beyond the labours of the first band of Mission 
workers at Rossville. They had by 1856 translated and printed a hymn 
book, the Lord’s prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the first 
chapter of Matthew, a Catechism, one or more sermons, the Gospel of 
St. John, and four epistles viz., Ephesians, James, I. Peter and I. John; 
and Mr. Hurlburt, now superintendent of the mission says in the Mis- 
sionary Report published in 1856, ‘ We will require paper, ink, and 
binding material for 2,000 copies of the entire New Testament, and by 
the time these articles arrive we will be prepared to proceed with the 
work.” 
But already the Right Rev. Bishop Horden had translated and 
printed the Book of Common Prayer at Moose Factory. And he has 
followed this by no less than sixteen other works or new editions as his 
contribution to Cree literature. 
Besides their joint work on the Bible, Mrs. Mason contributed a 
translation of Watts’ Catechism in 1859 and the Lord’s prayer, the 
Creed, and the Ten Commandments, and Mr. Mason a volume of hymns. 
The Rev. Archdeacon Hunter also adopted the Syllabic in 1856 
and published his translation of the Book of Common Prayer and Mrs. 
Huuter’s translation of I. John. 
Pere Lacombe adopted the Cree Syllabary in 1871, publishing a 
translation of the New Testament in 1872. Instructions on Catholic 
Doctrine in 1875, a Book of Prayers 1880, a Catechism in 1881, the 
story of the Cross, in 1886, Prayers, Chants, and Catechism in 1880, 
