CHAPTER VII. 

 THE PACIFIC COAST AND ISLANDS 



Crossing the &quot;Great Divide&quot; we find the same 

 two Societies, the S. P. G. and the C. M. S. re 

 sponding to the needs of the native tribes, and 

 laying deeply in that strata of society, the founda 

 tions of the Church of England in Canada. 



A member of the North West Fur Company, 

 &quot;A highly-respectable Canadian merchant,&quot; was 

 the first to interest himself in the spiritual welfare 

 of the West Coast natives, and appealed to the 1819 

 Church Missionary Society &quot;to establish a 

 Mission among the Indians beyond the Rocky 

 Mountains.&quot; 



In response to applications by the Rev. Mr. 1354 

 Bayley and the Bishop of Rupert s Land, the 

 S. P. G. &quot;set apart funds for establishing a 1857 

 Mission to the heathen&quot; in Vancouver Island. R CV . R. Dow- 

 Its first Missionary was the Rev. R. Dowson, %&. znffils* 

 who, on arrival, found&quot; Victoria a strange assembl 

 age of wooden houses, with a mixed population 

 of every nation numbering about 1,500.&quot; Near 

 the town was one small village of Indians, the 

 men of which were &quot;idle and diseased.&quot; He 

 therefore started &quot;on a voyage of discovery to 

 the north of the Island, and so on to Fort Simpson 

 upon the mainland.&quot; His description of the 

 state of affairs at Fort Rupert indicates the con- Fort Simpson 

 ditions then prevailing on the coast. He says: 



