186 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 



Evans (James). The ] speller and inter- 

 preter, I in I Indian and English, | for 

 the use of | the mission schools, | and 

 such as may desire to obtain | a knowl- 

 edge of the I Ojibway tongue. | By 

 James Evans, Wesleyan Missionary. | 

 [Picture.] | 



D. Fanshaw, printer, | No. 150 Nas- 

 sau-street, I New-York. | 1837 



Title verso blank 1 1, preface in English (dated 

 from the "Wesleyan Mission, River St. Clair, TJ. 

 Canada, 25th Sept., 1837), pp. 3-13, text pp. 14- 

 195, 16°. In Ojibway and English. 



Copies seen: Boston Athenge'ura, Massachu- 

 setts Historical Society, Powell, Trumbull. 



Sabin's Dictionary, no. 23166, titles an edition 

 of this work New York, D. Fanshaw, 1831. It 

 is, I think, a typographic error. 



[The Cree syllabary.] 



In the Canadian Methodist Magazine for Oc- 

 tober, 1882, is an article by the Rev. John Car- 

 roll, relating to Mr. Evans, biographic in its 

 general character, but containing some account 

 of the invention of the syllabic characters ; ex- 

 tracts from this article will be found in the biog- 

 raphy of Mr. Evans, given below. In the next 

 issue of the magazine, Nov. 1882, the Rev. Eger- 

 ton R. Young speaks more fully upon the sub- 

 ject, and from this article I extract as follows : 



"The invention of what are known as the 

 syllabic characters was undoubtedly Mr. Evans' 

 greatest work, and to his unaided genius be- 

 longs the honour of devising and then perfecting 

 this alphabet which has been such a blessing to 

 thousands of Cree Indians. The principle on 

 which the characters are formed is the phonetic. 

 There are no silent letters. Each character 

 represents a syllable, hence no spelling is re- 

 quired. As soon as the alphabet is mastered, 

 the student can commence at the first chapter 

 in Genesis and read on, slowly of course, at first, 

 but in a few days with surprising facility. 



"Mr. Evans' hope when he commenced this 

 great work, was the invention of some plan by 

 which the wandering Indians, who never could 

 remain in one place long enough to acquire the 

 art of reading in the ordinary way, but were 

 ever on the move after the game on which 

 they lived, might acquire the ability to read 

 God's word in their own language. In this his 

 most sanguine expectations were more than re- 

 alized. 



" It is a cause for righteous indignation that 

 some have been found unprincipled enough to 

 try and wrest the honour of this wonderful in- 

 vention from him to whom it so justly belonged. 

 One especially, who went out from among us, 

 and was for years employed in another Church, 

 arrogated to himself this honour, and even had 

 the audacity to have published in some English 

 papers articles in which he received all the 

 credit as theinventor of the Cree Syllabic Char- 

 acters. Let it be known to all, that long before 

 Wm. Mason reached Norway House, the Rev. 



Evans (J.) — Continued. 



James Evans had not only perfected his inven- 

 tion, but had so far utilized it, that portions of 

 the Gospels, and also several hymns, had been 

 printed by himself and his Indian helpers. He 

 whittled out his first types for patterns, and 

 then using the lead furnished him by the Hud- 

 son Bay Company's empty tea chests, he cast 

 others in moulds of his own devising. He made 

 his first ink out of the soot of the chimneys. His 

 flrstpaper was birch-bark, and his press was also 

 the result of his handiwork. Afterwards, thanks 

 to the kindness of the English "Wesleyan Mis- 

 sionary Society, he was furnished with a large 

 quantity of type, paper, and a capital press, and 

 the sum of five hundred pounds sterling was 

 given towards the erection of a printing-house. 

 For years catechisms, hymn-books, and large 

 portions of the Word of God were printed at 

 Norway House. 



"When the invention became more exten- 

 sively known and other Churches desired to 

 avail themselves of its benefits, the British and 

 Foreign Bible Society nobly came to the help of 

 our own and the kindred Churches having mis- 

 sions in the Northwest, and with their usual 

 princely style of doing things, for years have 

 been printing and gratuitously furnishing to 

 the different Cree Indian missions, all the copies 

 of the Sacred Word they require." . . . 



I regret to be unable to reproduce in fac-sim- 

 ile this syllabary in its earliest form as used by 

 Mr. Evans or his contemporaries. I know of 

 no work by Mr. Evans in which they are used, 

 and of no copy of the earlier works which con- 

 tains the syllabary with powers or values of the 

 characters. The reproduction on the opposite 

 page, taken from a Cree hymn-book by Messrs. 

 McDougalland Glass (q. v.), printed in 1888, 

 shows, perhaps, the latest and most approved 

 form. 



The use of these characters has extended 

 much beyond the people for whom they were 

 invented, books having been printed in them in 

 the Eskimauan language, in a number of dia- 

 lects of the Athapascau, and, in addition to the 

 Cree, in the Chippewa, Sauteux, Moose, and 

 Moosonee divisions of the Aigonquian. 



As these pages are being put in type (April, 

 1890), I learn from the Rev. John McLean (q.v.), 

 of Moose Jaw, Northwest Territories, that he 

 has in press a work entitled "James Evans, 

 Inventor of the Syllabic System of the Cree 

 Language," of about 250 pages, in which will 

 appear a full discussion of the history of the 

 syllabary, well illustrated with specimens of 

 the type. Perhaps it will appear in time to 

 enable me to include its title and description in 

 thisbibliographyunder the nameof its author. 



In the Proceedings of the Canadian Insti- 

 tute, vol. 7, p. 109 (October, 1889), there appears 

 an article by Father A. G. Morice, O. M. I., of 

 Stuart's Lake, British Columbia, entitled " The 

 "Western D6n6s, their manners and customs," 

 in which the following language is used: "In 

 these latter years, however , an effort has been 



