CHAPTER IV 



Hudson's bay 



" I was in prison and ye came unto Me." 



ABOUT half a century has elapsed since 

 a Church Missionary Society's mission- 

 ary first had the opportunity of presenting the 

 Gospel of Christ to the Eskimos. On April 29, 

 1853, a party of them visited Fort George, on the 

 eastern side of Hudson's Bay, where the Rev. E. A. 

 Watkins had lately arrived. That post, however, 

 remote and solitary as it was, was too far south to 

 be much frequented by them ; and subsequently 

 Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Horden more than once 

 travelled northwards to Little Whale River, the 

 furthest point to which the trading agents of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company have advanced, and was 

 privileged to admit three or four into the Church. 

 Three native teachers in succession were sent by 

 him to work among them ; but all three died, and 

 for several years nothing could be done. 



Here, then, we must return to Mr. Peck, whom we 

 left in the first chapter responding to the call, 

 " Who will go for us ? " The Eskimos had been 

 waiting long, but at last a missionary was to be sent 



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