62 Sketches of an Excursion to Southetn Alaska. 



morality which will compare very favorably with that of the "whites" by whom 

 they are surrounded. They have also in a single year doubled the amount of 

 land which they cultivate. A careful observation of them under circumstances 

 very opportune for arriving at correct conclusions, bears evidence to the depth 

 and sincerity of their desire to adjust themselves to the new order of things 

 which they discover to be inevitable, and to which they expect to conform. 



This attitude of the people, which is maintained with almost perfect unani- 

 mity, finds an illustration in the existing desire for schools and churches. It 

 is a remarkable fact that the Hydahs in the Prince of Wales Archipelago, and 

 the Tlinkets occupying the country several hundred miles west of 54° 40" the 

 boundary line, without a single exception, concur in the same earnest request. 

 In support of this fact, I cite the testimony of Gen. Howard in his published 

 Reports ; Hon. J. G. Swan, U. S. Commissioner, Commander Beardslee, U. 

 S. Navy, and a number of the old intelligent residents of the Territory. 



This petition is not only unanimous, but importunate. It is expressed on all 

 occasions of formal conference with "the whites." The writer recalls nothing 

 in his interviews with these people, which impressed him more than the hungry 

 and searching look which emphasized their request for teachers. Theirs is not 

 therefore, a posture of stolid apathy, which needs to be stimulated into activity. 

 The occasion for "artifice or argument" is passed. Vaguely, but certainly, 

 they see that the "whites" possess powers which they do not — advantages 

 which they covet — and which they believe may l^e acquired by themselves. 



Let us not be too critical. Admitting that they have no adequate views of 

 the benefits of education, we must allow that they have an eminently practical 

 estimate ; and in this respect, no doubt, equal to the average found among 

 "the whites" — with this difference, that they long for a good, hitherto beyond 

 their reach, but which is now their only means of preservation. 



Hence their cry for it comes up from the depths of their convictions, like 

 the groimd-swell of their own seas. It is evoked by the necessities of their 

 situation, which demand of them the abolition of the old, and the adoption of 

 the new. It is the cry of the crew whose craft is nearing the breakers, or 

 drifting helplessly out to sea. We who stand on the shore or on the heights 

 above them, cannot regard their fate with indifference, neither should their cry 

 for lisfht be as the sigh of the wind in our ears, under the impression that they 

 know not the value ot the light, nor understand what things it reveals. How 

 much more than they do we comprehend the value of knowledge? We are 

 only a few steps in advance of them. That cry sweeping the shores of Alaska, 

 and waking the echoes of its mountains, is like the cry that crossed the Aegean 

 Sea, and smote the ear of Saul of Tarsus. \ 



Notwithstanding the absence of precedent or hint of the self-initiated ascent 

 of nation or tribe from chaos to cosmos — from primitive ignorance to civiliza- 

 tion ; yet here we have an illustration of some instinct or inward prompting 

 toward a higher state. Other instances of like nature have occurred. The 

 Nez Perces sent a delegation across the Continent from the unexplored wilds 

 of northern Idaho, asking for light. That people had seen the benefits of 



