This extensive reformation, has been effected and continued, by means, which, to all human appearance, are altogether inadequate to the accomplishment of such a work. A school at the Grand River containing thirty scholars, one at the Credit forty, another at Belleville upwards of thirty, and one lately established at Lake Simcoe containing forty, and the missionaries who have been employed amongst the Indians, together with the boarding of a number of Indian boys, have only amounted to a little more than £150 per annum. It is of the last importance to perpetuate and extend the impressions which have already been made on the minds of these Indians. The schools and religious instruction must be continued; and the Gospel must be sent to tribes still in a heathen state. But in doing this our energies are weakened, and the progress of Christian labour much impeded by serious difficulties which it is in the power of the government to remove. These obstacles are principally confined to the Lake Simcoe Indians, the most serious of which is occasioned by the traders, who are Roman Catholic Frenchmen, employed to accompany the Indians in their hunting for the purpose of procuring their furs, and who are violently opposed to the reformation of the Indians. These traders are about eighty in number, and have long been accustomed to defraud and abuse the Indians in the most inhuman manner; they have even laid violent hands on some of the converted Indians, and tried to pour whiskey down their throats; but, thank God, have failed, the Indians successfully resisted them. To shake the faith of some, and deter others from reforming, they have threatened to strip them naked in the winter, when they were at a distance of 100 miles from the white settlement, and there leave them to freeze to death.
Col. Givens, when he was up issuing their presents about a month ago, threatened the traders severely if they disturbed the Indians in their devotions, or did any violence to their teachers. He also suggested the idea of your Excellency issuing a proclamation to prevent any further abuses. Sir Peregrine replied:
"When the Legislature meets, I shall see if something can be done to relieve them more effectively, but I do not think that I can do anything by the way of proclamation. If, upon deliberation, I find that I can do something for them, I shall certainly do it." I observed: The civil authority would be an ample security, while the Indians are among the white inhabitants; but these abuses are practised when they are one or two hundred miles from the white settlements. The traders follow them to their hunting grounds, get them intoxicated, and then get their furs for one fourth of their value, nay, sometimes take them by force. These Frenchmen are able-bodied men, and have abused the Indians so much they are afraid of them; and, therefore, have not courage, if they had strength to defend themselves. Under these circumstances your Excellency will perceive the Indians have no means of obtaining justice, and from their remote situation the power of civil authority is merely nominal in regard to them. His Excellency observed, "I am very much obliged to you for this information; I shall do all in my power for them."
FOOTNOTES:
[8] When about fourteen years of age, an abridged "Life of Benjamin Franklin" fell into my hands, and I read it with great eagerness. I was especially attracted by the account of his mechanical education and of its uses to him in after years, during and after the American Revolution, when he became Statesman, Ambassador, and Philosopher. My father was then building a new house, and I prevailed on him to let me work with the carpenter for six months. I did so, agreeing to pay the old carpenter a York shilling a day for teaching me. During that time, I learned to plane boards, shingle, and clapboard the house, make window frames and log floors. The little knowledge and skill I then acquired, was of great service when I was labouring among the Indians, as well as my early training as a farmer. I became head carpenter, head farmer, as well as missionary, among these interesting people, during the first year of their civilized life.
[9] See note on p. [85]; also Chapters vi. and viii.—H.
CHAPTER V.
1826-1827.