

FORT CHURCHILL. 213 



come in with the produce of the hunt, the little build- 

 ing is usually crowded. 



Mr. Lofthouse preaches in the Cree, Chippewyan and 

 Eskimo languages, and having won the esteem and af- 

 fection of his people, he has a powerful influence over 

 them, and is teaching them with much success. He and 

 Mrs. Lofthouse together conduct a day-school for the 

 benefit of the children of the permanent residents. 

 These number twenty-one, and the total population of 

 Churchill is only fifty-one. On visiting the school 

 I was much pleased with the advancement of the 

 children, even the smallest of whom could read from the 

 Bible. The girls were being taught by Mrs. Lofthouse 

 to do various kinds of needlework, and by way of 

 encouragement were being supplied with materials. 



At the trading station, besides Mr. Matheson, Capt. 

 Hawes and his family were staying at the time, he in 

 an unofficial capacity. He was shortly to succeed Mr. 

 Matheson, who was to be removed to some other post. 

 Although not so well acquainted with the Captain as 

 with Mr. and Mrs. Lofthouse, his face was also a fami- 

 liar one to me, as we had met at Churchill in former 

 years, when he was master of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's ship, Gam Owen, since wrecked on the coast. 



For nearly two hundred years it had been the prac- 

 tice of the Hudson's Bay Company to send out from 

 England every year one or two small sailing vessels 

 with supplies to their trading stations on Hudson Bay. 

 Almost without exception these little crafts were able 

 to make their passages successfully, deliver their cargo, 

 and return to England with a wealth of furs, oil, and 

 other goods obtained in trade from the natives. 



