An Indian Class-Leader.
Shee-at-ston was a native of the Songees tribe of Indians, who lived opposite the City of Victoria, B.C. He was born about the year 1855. He was a high caste Indian, in the line of succession from Chee-at-luk (old King Free-zee), the hereditary chief of that district.
In his early life he was doubtless introduced to all the abominations of paganism, and was, when I first knew him, still carrying out the practices of a real heathen life. He, with others of his people, had become victims of the white man’s fire-water, being so close to a town where so many were ruined by it.
He must have long desired a better life, for on several occasions he found his way into the old Pandora Street Methodist Church, Victoria, and was asked by the kind usher to take a seat. About this time the attention of a number of Christian workers of that church had been directed to the depraved condition of the Indians, not only at their camps, but of the numbers who were wandering about the towns in dissipation and shame, and they were moved to take up work among the Songees people.
Shee-at-ston was one of the first to come to the little Sunday-school which these Christians were conducting. There he heard the word of life, and after awhile gave his heart to God and was baptized, “Amos Shee-at-ston.”
As soon as he became a Christian he built himself a neat little house, and moved out of the old lodge with its associations of heathenism. Some fourteen of the Songees Indians were converted and formed into a class, which met in Amos’s house, and of which he became the leader.
His conversion to God created great excitement and aroused a good deal of persecution from his heathen people. Many a time evilly disposed ones, who may have been put up to it by wicked white men, would bring their bottle of the accursed fire-water to tempt him again to drink, but by the grace of God he was kept faithful.
Amos was a great help to the workers after they hired the old bar-room in town for evangelistic purposes. He was always in his place at the time of religious service, and ready to give his testimony to the power of grace, either in the Chinook or in his own language. Thus saved from heathenism and a life of degradation and drunkenness, he was the means of helping many of his friends to the true light. His wife became converted, and her sister as well. They afterwards lived happy Christian lives, and then went triumphantly home to the skies. The wife of Amos was christened “Sarah.”
When the summons came to devoted Amos Shee-at-ston, though sudden, he was ready to obey the call. That terrible disease, the smallpox, had spread among his friends in the “rancheree,” and finally seized our faithful and devoted class-leader, and in a short time he exchanged the garments of earth for the robes of heaven.
How gladly would we make extended reference to many others who witnessed a good confession and went triumphantly home, but our space will not permit. There was true-hearted Charley Thit-sa-mut, the chief who succeeded “Old Captain” at Sumas Lake, who for twenty years lived such a faithful life that whites and Indians alike bore testimony to his worth of character; and “Big Jim” Shee-ah-tluk, of Squi-a-la, who also was one of the converts of our first camp-meeting, an earnest-hearted Christian, who always delighted to have the missionary come to his house, and was ever ready in the olden times to ferry the preacher across slough or river in his canoe; and Chief Dick, of Achelitz, quiet, conscientious and devoted; and Thomas Sallosalton, the brother of David, who lived a happy life among his own people till God said, “Come up higher”; and his sweet-spirited sister, Mrs. Sunneah, who, when she was passing over the river, called her friends to see the white-winged angels who had come to take her home.
Then there was August Jackson, of our Victoria Mission, who was converted to God in his youth and became a most devoted assistant to the missionary. Besides his work in the church, he was a council-man in the Songees tribe, and much respected by all who knew him. I know Brother Tate hoped he would be called into the work as an agent of the church. He married a bright girl from Coqualeetza Institute, at Chilliwack, and all seemed to promise fair, when, by an accident in the saw-mill in which he worked, he received a wound from which he never recovered. He died July, 1903, at the early age of thirty-three years. Bro. Tate, his pastor, speaking of him, said, “He was, without doubt, one of the best men I ever knew.”
And, finally, we must mention poor old Annie Lay-why-eton, who died of smallpox after successfully nursing her son through that awful disease. She was a sincere member of the Church for many years, and in her eagerness to hear the Word used to trudge in feebleness from Kultus Lake, on the Upper Chilliwack, to the church at Skowkale, a distance of about five miles, and back. She was blind, and had to cross the river on a single log. The very last time she attended church she spoke at the class-meeting, and told how she thought that morning she could not get to church, but she felt such a longing desire to have her soul fed once more that she made the attempt. Coming to the log she feared she could not get across, but looking up to God for help, she got down on her hands and knees and crawled over. What a rebuke to the careless indifference of many professed Christians to the privileges of religious worship.
We rejoice as well in the faith and devotion of many who are still with us, among whom are Capt. John Sua-lis, who for thirty-five years or more has been our faithful native assistant at Chilliwack, and Chief Wm. Sapass, our devoted class-leader at Skowkale. When the “roll is called up yonder,” we are persuaded many will answer to their names who went up to the glory-land from the various bands and tribes of the An-ko-me-num people.
Before leaving Chilliwack and Sumas, the kind friends of that valley gathered to bid farewell, and presented me with the following address, which I have treasured in loving memory of the precious years spent with them and among the Indians of the Fraser River. I insert this letter because I believe my readers will sympathize with me in my declaration of the exceeding comfort and encouragement which it gave me in the prosecution of the work to which I had devoted my life.
Sumas and Chilliwack,
September 22nd, 1873.To Rev. Thos. Crosby,—
We wish to take the opportunity of your leaving this district for Ontario to express our hearty admiration of the untiring efforts you have put forth in the work of evangelizing the natives of this land, a work in which you have been eminently blessed by God. But as you have materially helped the work of God amongst our own race by preaching to the scattered settlers in various parts of this province, and especially so on this mission, which you were mainly instrumental in founding, we beg to assure you of our sincere sympathy and love as you leave us on a visit to the mother churches of old Canada, and to your friends and relatives living there. At the same time we tender you the accompanying purse as a small expression of our affectionate regard, hoping that after you have fully accomplished your mission East we shall have the pleasure of welcoming your return. We subscribe ourselves, on the part of the lay-official members and friends of the Wesleyan Methodist Church on this mission,
D. McGILLIVARY.
GEO. W. CHADSEY.A. C. WELLS.
D. W. MILLER.ISAAC KIPP.
SKOWKALE CHURCH.
SKOWKALE MISSION PEOPLE.
CHAPTER XX.
LAY AGENCIES—SALVATION IN A VICTORIA BAR-ROOM.
“Work for the good that is nighest,
Dream not of greatness afar;
That glory is ever the highest
Which shines upon men as they are.”
—W. Morley Punshon.
It was in the fall of ’69 that a few Christian friends in the City of Victoria undertook the organization of a Sunday-school and other services among the Indians who lived in and about the city, as well as the Songees people on the reservation opposite. In February of the following year, Amos Sa-hat-son, a Songees chief, and two others of the same tribe, experienced the converting grace of God through the instrumentality of these services.
In many cases it was native or lay agents who first commenced practical mission work and so prepared the way for the regular missionary. The efforts of our brethren and sisters in the various centres where the Indians congregated is worthy of all praise. It is my joy to speak kind words of appreciation of the help given by Brothers Bryant, Raybold, Raper, Brinn, Tate, Green, and others in Nanaimo; by Father McKay, Sister Russ, Brothers J. Bullan, J. E. McMillan, and others in Victoria. At New Westminster, too, Brothers Dawson, D. S. Curtis, R. Wintemute, and other young men, assisted by the pastor’s wife (Mrs. A. E. Russ), held meetings and carried on a Sunday-school on behalf of the hundreds of Indians who lived near that point. After the revival referred to at Chilliwack, Brothers A. C. Wells and J. Whitfield commenced a Sunday-school at Atchelitz, and carried it on successfully.
These Sunday-schools and locally conducted services were a great blessing, not only to the natives, for whose benefit they were held, but also to the teachers themselves. There is nothing like some form of Christian activity to keep the spiritual life strong and healthy.
As we look about us on the many lines of missionary need—Chinese, Japanese, Hindu and Indian—we cannot help feeling that our young people and Leaguers are missing an opportunity, which God has placed at their door, if they do not endeavor to reach out for these “strangers within our gates.” An opportunity, too, which, if made use of, brings its own reward—the joy of unselfish and successful service on behalf of others.
In all our mission fields we should make a more general use of the talents of our native converts. What matter if they are not educated. When their hearts are filled with love and zeal get them to work—as class-leaders, exhorters, local preachers, visiting the sick, in evangelistic efforts of every kind—and out of a full, happy heart they will tell, as did the early Methodists, what the Saviour has done for them, and what He will do for others. When Amos Cushan, our first native preacher at Nanaimo, went out he could not read, but he could tell of the disease and the cure. When Sallosalton commenced his work on the Coast the people marvelled and asked, “Where did he get this wisdom?” Unsaved, hardened men melted before his burning words and loving heart, and his Christian friends were led to rejoice as they listened to him. Many others of our native brethren, like Capt. John Sua-lis and August Jackson, have been mightily used of God in spreading the Gospel among their people.