ME. WEST'S NARRATIVE. 



175 



pany, aided and encouraged by the Church Missionary 

 Society. Mr. West's instructions were to reside at Red 

 River Settlement, and endeavour to meliorate the condi- 

 tion of the native Indians.* The following extract from 

 Mr. West's journal shows the state of the settlement at 

 this period : — 



" On the 14th of October we reached the settlement, 

 consisting of a number of huts widely scattered along the 

 margin of the river ; in vain did I look for a cluster of 

 cottages, where the hum of a small population at least 

 might be heard, as in a village. I saw but few marks of 

 human industry in the cultivation of the soil. Almost 

 every inhabitant we passed bore a gun upon his shoulder, 

 and all appeared in a wild and hunter-like state. The 

 colonists were a compound of individuals of various coun- 

 tries. They were principally Canadians and Germans of 

 the Meuron regiment, who were discharged in Canada 

 after the conclusion of the American war, and were mostly 

 Catholics. There was a large population of Scotch emi- 

 grants also, who with some retired servants of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company were chiefly Protestants, and by far 

 the most industrious in agricultural pursuits. There was 

 an unfinished building as a Catholic church, and a small 

 house adjoining, the residence of the priest ; but no Pro- 

 testant manse, church, or school-house, which obliged me 

 to take up my abode at the Colony Fort (Fort Douglas), 

 where the charge-d'afFaires of the settlement resided, 

 and who kindly afforded the accommodation of a room 

 for Divine worship on the Sabbath. My ministry was 

 generally well attended by the settlers, and soon after my 

 arrival I got a log-house repaired about three miles below 

 the fort, among the Scotch population, where the school- 



* The Substance of a Journal during a Residence at the Red River 

 Colony, &c. &c, by John West, A.M. London, 1827. 



