30 CHEPEWYANS. 



to the study of the 'Tinne language, and were soon 

 enabled to teach many of their converts to read 

 and write. 



By sympathising with their people in all their 

 distresses, taking a strong interest in every thing 

 that concerns them, by acting as their physicians 

 when sick, and advisers on all occasions, the priests 

 of the mission have gained their entire confidence. 

 It is not likely that Protestant missionaries, coming 

 later into the field, will succeed in introducing 

 their more spiritual but less imposing form of 

 worship among a people whose first teachers have 

 been so successful. 



When the fur traders first penetrated to the Elk 

 Eiver, the Athabascans had only a small breed of 

 dogs useful for the chase, but unfitted for draught ; 

 and the women did the laborious work of dragging 

 the sledges. Now the cultivation of a stouter race 

 of dogs has in some respects ameliorated the lot of 

 the females, and within a few years the acquisition 

 of horses by many of the natives on that river has 

 introduced a still greater improvement. Houses are 

 beginning to be built, and the more provident and 

 staid of the people have fixed homes to retire to. 

 With the means of securing their property and 

 provisions, new ideas respecting them spring up, 

 and a revolution in the opinions of the nation is 

 evidently in progress. Kecently, also, it has been 



