But other fruit, though not so ripe, was now plainly visible, and had begun to attract public attention. In January, 1860, Mr. Duncan received a letter from the Rev. E. Cridge, the English chaplain at Victoria, conveying a message from the Governor, Sir James Douglas:—
"I am requested by his Excellency the Governor to express to you the great gratification he has received from conversing with several of the Indians who have been under your instruction at Fort Simpson, and who are now at Victoria; and his pleasure at witnessing the great improvement in manners, bearing, and religion which you have succeeded in effecting in their condition. His Excellency trusts you will continue to show the same energy, perseverance, and zeal which he is sure you must already have applied to the work, and that your labour will be rewarded by a still larger measure of success. His Excellency also wishes me to say that he would feel obliged by your reporting to him from time to time on the progress of your Mission. Any suggestions you may make with regard to measures which may occur to you as likely to prove beneficial to the Indians under your care, such as settling them in any particular locality, or setting apart a reserve of land for their use, will receive his Excellency's best attention; who will also, if necessary, represent any such measures, with his favourable recommendation to her Majesty's Government."
Commander Mayne, R.N., mentions in his interesting book, Four Years in British Columbia (p. 212), that Captain G. Y. H. Richards, of H. M. S. Hecate, who was in command on the coast at this time, was so much struck by Mr. Duncan's success, that he said to him, "Why do not more men come out? Or, if the missionary societies cannot afford them, why does not Government send out fifty, and place them up the coast at once? Surely it would not be difficult to find fifty good men in England willing to engage in such a work; and their expenses would be almost nothing compared with the cost which the country must sustain to subdue the Indians by force of arms. And such," adds Commander Mayne, "are the sentiments of myself—in common, I believe, with all my brother officers—after nearly five years' constant and close intercourse with the Natives of Vancouver's Island and the coast."
V.
THE NEW SETTLEMENT.
As early as July, 1859, Mr. Duncan had foreseen the necessity, if the Mission were not only to save individual souls from sin, but to exercise a wholesome influence upon the Indian tribes generally, of fixing its head-quarters at some place removed from the contamination of ungodly white men. "What," he wrote, "is to become of children and young people under instruction when temporal need compels them to leave school? If they are permitted to slip away from me into the gulf of vice and misery which everywhere surrounds them, then the fate of these tribes is sealed." What that fate would be may be gathered from one of Bishop Hills' first letters in 1860. He found that of one tribe more than half had been cut off in a dozen years by drink and dissolute habits; and the traffic in Indian females for immoral purposes was openly carried on, from L40 to L60 per head being paid for them. "Victoria," wrote Mr. Duncan, "although it is 500 miles from Fort Simpson, will always prove the place of attraction to these tribes, and to many even further away. There they become demoralised and filled with disease; and from thence they return, laden with rum, to spread scenes of horror too awful to describe."
The Tsimsheans who had come under Mr. Duncan's influence, themselves implored him to devise some way of escape from the ruin they saw impending on their nation. And he laid before the Society a plan for establishing a colony, where well-disposed Indians might be gathered together. His objects are thus succinctly stated in an official report presented by him to the Canadian Government some years afterwards:—
"1st. To place all the Indians, when they became wishful to be taught Christianity, out of the miasma of heathen life, and away from the deadening and enthralling influence of heathen customs.
"2nd. To establish the Mission where we could effectively shut out intoxicating liquors, and keep liquor vendors at bay.
"3rd. To enable us to raise a barrier against the Indians visiting Victoria, excepting on lawful business.