On Mr. Doolan's retirement from the Mission in 1867, the work on the Nass River was taken up by the Rev. R. Tomlinson, who had just arrived. By Mr. Doolan's efforts some fifty Indians had been influenced to abandon their heathen customs and to desire to live together as a Christian community; and a settlement similar to Metlakahtla was now planned. This settlement received the name of Kincolith; and here Mr. Tomlinson earnestly laboured from 1867 to 1878, when he left to go forward into the regions beyond.
The work proved to be one requiring much patience and courage. For two or three years it was much retarded by hostilities between two tribes. But Mr. Tomlinson was encouraged by the zeal and intrepidity of his wife, who accompanied him on his visits to the combatants, and everywhere disarmed opposition by her presence. Subsequently the trading store, which had been established on the Metlakahtla plan, turned out a failure, and the Indian settlers, about sixty in number, depressed by the losses they incurred, showed signs of wavering, and of returning to their heathen friends, who were manifesting the most bitter antagonism to the Mission. But towards the close of 1870, by the mercy of God, the tide seemed to turn, and when Archdeacon Woods visited the station at the Bishop of Columbia's request, in October, 1871, he found a peaceful Community, an attentive congregation, and several candidates for baptism, of whom he admitted twenty adults (with seven children) to the Church, making, with nine previously baptized, thirty-six altogether.
From that time the Kincolith Mission, though not exhibiting rapid success, has been steadily growing, and not a few of the Nishkah Indians who were accustomed to attend Mr. Doolan's services, but had fallen back, have joined the community, and some have been baptized. The store was re-opened in 1874 with improved prospects. A dispensary was established by Mr. Tomlinson, and has been highly appreciated by the Indians. A saw mill has been erected, which not only supplies material for building new houses, but also gives employment to those of the settlers who are neither fur-hunters nor skilled workmen. The annual fishing seasons have been a time of distinct blessing, the Christian Indians holding services for their heathen fellow-countrymen in the various camps, and many of the heathen joining them in resting from the fishing operations on the Lord's Day. Year by year the number of settlers has increased, and now exceeds two hundred, of whom three -fourths are baptized.
One chief, who joined on New Year's-day, 1877, was well known as the fiercest savage on the river. He was baptized by Bishop Bompas in March, 1878, taking, like Legaic at Metlakahtla, the name of Paul. He was very penitent for his past life, and was earnestly trying to follow good ways, when illness and death overtook him. Just before he died, he gave very clear testimony that he had found pardon and peace in Jesus. At the funeral service the people sang Sankey's hymn, "There will be no more parting there." His son, a young man of twenty, has since been baptized, also by the name of Paul, and has been married to the Christian daughter of another leading chief—a girl named Rhoda.
As already mentioned, Mr. Tomlinson has now moved forward into the interior to carry the Gospel to the Kitiksheans and other tribes up the Nass and Skeena Rivers and among the Cascade Mountains, and has established a station near a place known as the Skeena Forks, where three branches of that river unite. At Kittackdamix also, at the end of the navigation on the Nass, a native Christian teacher has been stationed, towards whose expenses the Kincolith Christians contributed L12 in money and kind. A site has been selected there for another Christian village, and several Indian families propose settling on the spot. The Kincolith station is now under the charge of Mr. H. Schutt, a schoolmaster sent out in 1876.
Mr. Tomlinson, like Mr. Duncan, has lately been appointed a magistrate. He writes:—"The proposal was made to me quite unexpectedly by the head of the Government, and I did not feel justified in declining the offer. Already good begins to result from it. The hearts of the well-disposed are strengthened, while the ill-disposed whites are restrained from molesting the native settlers."
X.
OUTLYING MISSIONS—II. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS.
On the group of islands named after George the Third's Queen, dwell the finest and the fiercest of the coast tribes. The Hydahs are a manly, tall, handsome people, and comparatively fair in their complexion; but they are a cruel and vindictive race, and were long the terror of the North Pacific coast. They even ventured to attack English ships, and in 1854 they plundered an American vessel, detaining the captain and crew in captivity until they were ransomed by the Hudson's Bay Company. No tribe, moreover, has been more fearfully demoralised by the proximity of the white man's "civilization." Drunkenness and the grossest vices have spread disease and death among them.
But the Hydahs have not failed to recognise the advantages that Christianity has conferred upon their neighbours on the mainland. Trading expeditions up the coast took them occasionally to Metlakahtla, and the peace and prosperity they saw there deeply impressed their minds. A striking instance of the moral influence of the Christian settlement occured in 1873. Many years before, a young Tsimshean woman had been captured by a party of Hydahs, and carried as a slave to Queen Charlotte Islands, where, after a while, a son was born to her. Five and twenty years passed away, and then she was restored by her owner, for a consideration, to her relatives at Fort Simpson. The Hydahs seem to have thought this a good opportunity to make friends with their old enemies, and they sent a deputation to Metlakahtla with her son, now a grown man, to give him up as a voluntary peace-offering. "We had," wrote Mr. Duncan, "a solemn peace-making at the Mission-house. Several excellent speeches were made, and a document was drawn up and signed by the relatives of the young man, expressive of their reconciliation with their ancient foes."