ABOKIGINAL LIFE OF THE SITKANS. 



41 



bore muskets, and succeeded in getting possession of this chapel, 

 behind the stout logs of which they were sheltered and able to do 

 deadly execution with their rifles in picking off the Russian officers 

 and men, as they hurried to and from the bastions and through the 

 streets of the town. When, however, one of the comi^any's vessels 

 hauled off the beach opposite the Indian village, and trained her 

 guns upon it and its people, the savages humbly sued for mercy, 

 and have remained in abasement ever since. 



Contemplating this Indian church at Sitka, which has stood here 

 for nearly three quarters of a century, and then glancing over it 

 and into the savage settlement that nestles in its shadow, it is im- 



Old Indian Chapel at Sitka. 

 [Gi'eek CalfioUc Church, June D, 187-1.] 



possible to refrain from expressing a few thoughts which arise to 

 my mind over the subject of the Indian in regard to his conversion 

 to the faith and practices of our higher civilization. Nearly a 

 whole century has been expended, here, of unflagging endeavor to 

 better and to change the inherent nature of these Indians — its full 

 result is before our eyes. Go down with me through the smoky, 

 reeking, filthy rancheries and note carefully the attitude and occu- 

 pation of these savages, and contrast your observation with that so 

 vividly recorded of them by Cook, Vancouver, Portlock, and Dixon, 

 and many other early travellers, and tell me in what manner have 

 they advanced one step higher than when first seen by white men 

 full a hundred years ago. You cannot escape the conclusion with 



