The Rev. E. J. Peck visited Fort George and Great Whale River, and started from Little Whale River for the distant station of Ungava, at the entrance of the Hudson’s Straits, to see the Indians and Eskimo of that quarter. He was then to embark on board the Hudson’s Bay Company’s steamer for Quebec, whence he was to proceed to England.
‘The Rev. H. Nevitt remained at Moose all the summer, conducting services and school, and attending to the numerous needs of our large summer population.
‘As soon as the river broke up, I set off for Long Portage House, a station one hundred and twenty miles distant, on the way to Canada. The Indians there are Ojibbeways, and as yet have not made much progress in the religious life; but they received my message with attention, and I trust will yet become emancipated from the superstitions which oppress them. Returning from Long Portage House, I remained a short time at Moose, and, making all necessary arrangements, went in my mission boat to Rupert’s House, which I formerly visited yearly, and where I have long wished to see a missionary permanently settled, and for which I had too fondly hoped to see one arrive from England last autumn.
‘Sad troubles have come upon my much loved people there during the last few years, numbers of them having died of starvation from the failure of deer, which were formerly very numerous in their hunting-grounds. I trust that such stories of misery and death as I was constrained to listen to will never fall on my ears again. My mission was very successful, for I was enabled not only to minister to all the Rupert’s House Indians and residents, but likewise to the Indians of the far interior, who came in the different trading brigades from Mistasinnee, Waswanepe, Machiskun, and Nitchekwun. These are all Christians, many of them communicants, and the greater part of them read and write the syllabic characters very well. Rupert’s House is a great centre of trade, hence the vital necessity of the establishment of a strong mission there.’
In returning from Rupert’s House on a former occasion, somewhat late in the cold season, the bishop very nearly lost his life. He set off in a cariole, with a train of dogs, accompanied by two young Indians, travelling by night, to escape the danger of snow blindness from the glare of the sun on the snow. They crossed Rupert’s Bay, and at Cabbages Willows took breakfast with an Indian woman whose husband was goose-hunting. After resting some hours they went on to the east point of Hannah Bay, intending to cross that night, but the air had become warm, and rain indicated a possible breaking up of the ice, so they reluctantly turned into the woods and encamped. In the morning the weather was again cold with a strong wind, so on they went. When they had reached the middle of the bay, about ten miles from the nearest land, the guide suddenly exclaimed:
‘What is this! the tide is coming in, and the ice is breaking up.’
They looked seaward, and saw mass after mass rise up on end and fall again. The guide had a small stick in his hand; he struck the ice on which they were standing, and it went through; clearly there was but a step between them and death.
‘Get into the cariole at once!’ cried he, ‘and let us hurry back. We may be saved yet!’
The bishop did so, and almost instantly the hinder part of the cariole went through the ice into the sea. Faces blanched a little, but happily the dogs seemed aware of the danger and made no halt, but hurried onward as fast as they could go; there was no stoppage for a moment.