THE CHIPEWYANS 157 



than those of this devoted missionary, the man who 

 taught a whole nation to read and write." 



These things I knew, and now followed up my 

 Jesuit source of information. 



"Who invented this?" 



"I don't know for sure. It is in general use." 



''Was it a native idea?" 



"Oh, no; some white man made it." 



"Where? Here or in the south?" 



"It came originally from the Crees, as near as we 

 can tell." 



"Was it a Cree or a missionary that first thought 

 of it?" 



"I believe it was a missionary." 



"Frankly, now, wasn't it invented in 1840 by Rev. 

 James Evans, Methodist missionary to the Crees on 

 Lake Winnipeg?" 



Oh, how he hated to admit it, but he was too honest 

 to deny it. 



"Yes, it seems to me it was some name like that. 

 'Je ne sais pas.'" 



Reader, take a map of North America, a large one, 

 and mark off the vast area bounded by the Saskatche- 

 wan, the Rockies, the Hudson Bay, and the Arctic circle, 

 and realise that in this region, as lar<2;c as continental 

 Europe outside of Russia and Spain, one simple, earnest 

 man, inspired by the love of Him who alone is perfect 

 love, invented and popularised a method of writing 

 that in a few years — in less than a generation, indeed — 

 has turned the whole native population from ignorant 

 illiterates to a people who arc proud to read and write 



