HUM,. .tO] 



MISSIONS 



907 



1,200 111. to Athabasca lake on foot, and 

 thence by canoe and portages to Wiiuii- 

 pcg. Besides \vritingsoniei)ai)ei'.s rehiting 

 to tlie C'ree, he is the author of unnerous 

 ethnological and philosophical works, 

 dealing with the Chipewyan, Slave, Hare, 

 Dog-ril), Kutchin, and Kskinio tribes and 

 territory, chief among which are his 

 Dcnc-Dindjic dictionary (187(3) and his 

 'Traditions Indiennes' (188()). 



Throughout the INIackenzie region the 

 Catholics have now e.stablished regular 

 missions or visiting stations at every prin- 

 cipal gathering point, among the most 

 important being a mission at Ft Provi- 

 dence, beyond Great Slave lake, and a 

 school, orphanage, and liospital conducted 

 since 1875 by the Sisters of Charity at 

 Ft Chipewyan on .Vthabasca lake. 



Episcopal effort in the Canadian North- 

 west dates from 1858, in whii'h year Arch- 

 deacon James Hunter, already mentioned 

 in connection with the Cree mission, 

 made a reconnoitering visit to Mackenzie 

 r., as aresultof which Kev. W. W. Kirkby, 

 then on parish duty on Red r., was next 

 year appointed to that field and at once 

 took up his headcpiarters at the remote 

 post of Ft Simpson, at the junction of 

 Liard and Mackenzie rs., 62° n., where, 

 with the assistance of the Hudson's Bay 

 Go's officers, he built a church and school. 

 In 1862, after several years' study of the 

 language, he descended the Mackenzie 

 nearly to its mouth and crossed over the 

 divide to the Yukon, just within the 

 limits of Alaska, preaching to the Kutchin 

 and making some study of the language, 

 after which he returned to Ft Simpson. 

 In 1869 he was appointed to the station 

 at York Factory, on Hudson bay, where 

 he remained until his retirement in 1878, 

 after 26 years of efficient service in Mani- 

 tol)a and the Northwest. He is the au- 

 thor of a number of religious translations 

 in the Chipewyan and Slave languages. 



The work begun on the Yukon by 

 Kirkby was given over to Kev. (.\rch- 

 deacon) Robert INIcDonald, who estab- 

 lished his headquarters at St Matthew's 

 mission on Peel r., INIackerizie district, 

 "one mile within the Arctic circle." 

 Here he devoted himself with remarkable 

 industry and success to a study of the lan- 

 guage of the Takudh Kutchin, into which 

 he has translated, besides several minor 

 works, the Book of Common Praver 

 (1885) ,asmall collection of Hymns (1889), 

 and the complete Bible in 1898, all ac- 

 cording to a syllabic system of his own 

 device, by means of which the Indians 

 were enabled to read in a few weeks. In 

 1865 Rev. Wm. C. Bompa.s, afterward 

 bishop of Athabasca and later of Mac- 

 kenzie r., arrived from England. In the 

 next 25 years he labored among the Chip- 

 ewyan, bog-ribs, BeaverSj Slave, and Ta- 



kudh tribes of the remote Northwest, and 

 gave some attention also to the distant 

 Fskiino. Hins tlie author of a primer in 

 each of these languages, its well as in Cree 

 and Eskimo, together with a numlierof 

 gospel and other religious translations. 

 Another notable name is that of Rev. Al- 

 fred Garrioch, who began work in the 

 Beaver tribe on Peace r., Athabasca, in 

 1876, after a year's preliminary study at 

 Ft Simpson. He is the founderof Unjaga 

 mission at Ft \'ermili(>n, and author of 

 several devotional works and of a consid- 

 erable vocabulary in the Beaver language. 

 To a somewhat later period l)elong Rev. 

 W. D. Reeve and Rev. Spendlove, in the 

 Slave lake region. Among the ]irincipal 

 stations are Ft Chii)ewyan on Athabasca 

 lake, Ft Simjjson on the middle Macken- 

 zie, and Fts Maci)herson and Lapierre in 

 the neighborhood of the ]\Iackenzie's 

 mouth. AVork has also been done among 

 the Eskimo of Hudson bay, chiefly by 

 Rev. Edmund Peck, who has devised a 

 syllabary for the language, in which he 

 has published several devotional transla- 

 tions, beginning in 1878. The greater 

 portion of the Ei)iscoi>al work intheCana- 

 dian Northwest has been under the aus- 

 pices of the Church Missionary Society of 

 London. 



Greenland. — ( ireenland was first colo- 

 nized from Iceland in 985 liy Scandinav- 

 ians, who became Christian about a. d. 

 1000. Theaboriginal inhabitants were the 

 Eskimo, with whom in the succeeding cen- 

 turies the colonif^ts had frequent hostile 

 encounters, but there is no record of any 

 attempt at missionary work. Some time 

 shortly before the year 1500 the colony 

 became extinct, there being considerable 

 evidence that it was finally overwhelmed 

 bj' the P'skimo .savages. In 1 721 the Norse 

 LidJievnn minister, Rev. Hans Egede, un- 

 der the auspic'es of the government of 

 Denmark, landed with his family and a 

 few other companions n])on the s. end of 

 the island, in the belief that some de- 

 scendants of the lost colony might yet be 

 in existence. Finding no white inhabit- 

 ants, he turned his attention to the evan- 

 gelization of the native Eskimo, and thus 

 became the founder both of the Green- 

 land mission and oi the modern Green- 

 land settlement. A missi<in station which 

 was named (iodthaab was established on 

 Baal r. on the w. coast, about 64° n., and 

 l)ecame the center of operations, while 

 Egede was made bishop and superintend- 

 ent of missions. After some years of 

 hardship and discouragement the home 

 government was about to withdraw its 

 support, and it seemed as if the mission 

 would have to be al)andoiied, when, in 

 1733, the Morariuvfi volunteered their aid. 

 In the spring of that year three Moravian 

 missionaries, Christian David, and Mat- 



