The principal trading post, Massett, is on the northern coast of the northern island, Graham Island. Here Mr. and Mrs. Collison, with their two little children, landed on November 1st, 1876—
"On our arrival I had intended to have wintered in one of the Indian houses, as the winter season was too far advanced for building, but Mr. Offut, the officer in charge of the H. B. Co.'s post on the island, kindly offered us a small house, in which goods had been stored, and as it was within 100 yards of the Indian encampment, I gladly accepted the offer. This I immediately put under repair, covering it with barks outside, and putting up a stove inside. The house was very small, measuring eighteen feet by twelve, and, in order to secure a little privacy, I partitioned off eight feet, leaving for all purposes an apartment ten feet by twelve. This has usually been well filled with Indians, sitting almost on each other, and as we were both to entertain such numbers at meals, we have often had to remain without food all day. Of course this, with many other difficulties, will be overcome by a command of their language, but any attempt to carry out order without a fair knowledge of their tongue might only insult and estrange them."
To the privations thus endured were soon added those attendant on sickness First, their eldest child was attacked by fever, and for some weeks his life was despaired of, and then Mr. Collison himself was struck down and brought nigh unto death Both, we need not say, were tenderly nursed by the wife and mother, and both, by the mercy of God, were raised up again.
In the same letter Mr. Collison describes a remarkable peculiarity of the Hydah villages—
"In approaching a Hydah village from a distance one is reminded of a harbour with a number of ships at anchor, owing to the great number of poles of all sizes erected in front of every house. These are carved very well, with all kinds of figures, many of them unintelligible to visitors or strangers, but fraught with meaning to the people themselves. In fact, they have a legend in connection with almost every figure. It is in the erection of these that so much property is given away. They value them very highly, as was instanced lately on the occasion of the Governor-General's visit. He was most anxious to purchase one, but they would not consent to it at any price."
Patiently and prayerfully for the next two years and a half, with one or two intervals for visits to Metlakahtla, did Mr. Collison labour among the Hydahs, on the same lines as Mr. Duncan had done originally among the Tsimsheans; first, diligently trying to pick up their language, and making himself known as their friend; then opening a school; then seeking to win them from some of their most degrading customs. Very quickly he gained a remarkable influence over them, and though the medicine-men were, of course, bitterly hostile, greater was He who was with the Missionary than those that were with his opponents; and the tokens of the working of the Holy Ghost were manifested sooner than even an ardent faith might have anticipated.
During the winter of 1877-8, school was conducted daily, women and children attending in the morning, and men in the evening, and the Sunday services were generally attended by three hundred and fifty Indians. Gambling, heathen dances, and the manufacture of "fire-water" from molasses, began gradually to diminish; and Mr. Collison's growing influence was well tested on the occasion of the death of a principal chief:—
"I visited him during his illness, and held service in his house weekly for the five weeks preceding his death. On the morning of the day on which be died I visited him, and found him surrounded by the men of his tribe and the principal medicine-man, who kept up his incantations and charms to the last. He was sitting up, and appeared glad to see me, and, in answer to my inquiries, he informed me that he was very low indeed and his heart weak. I directed him to withdraw his mind from everything, and look only to Jesus, who alone could help him. He thanked me again and again whilst I instructed him, and when I asked him if he would like me to pray with him he replied that he would very much. I then called upon all to kneel, and, with bowed head, he followed my petitions earnestly. He informed me that, had he been spared, he would have been one of the first in the way of God, but I endeavoured to show him that even then he might be so by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Afterwards I sent Mrs. Collison to prepare some food for him, and make him comfortable, and about mid day he sent for me again, but why he sent for me, or what he wanted to say to me, I never learned, as before I reached his house he expired.
"His death was announced by the firing of several cannon which they have in the village. On my entering the house, the scene which presented itself was indescribable—shrieking, dancing, tearing and burning their hair in the fire, whilst the father of the deceased, who had just been pulled out of the fire, rushed to it again and threw himself upon it. He was with difficulty removed, and I directed two men to hold him whilst I endeavoured to calm the tumult.
"I was very much shocked to find that a young man—a slave—had been accused by the medicine-men as having bewitched the chief and induced his sickness. In consequence of this he had been stripped, and bound hands and feet in an old outhouse, and thus kept for some days without food. I only learned this about one hour before the death of the chief, and it was well I heard it even then, as I learned that they had determined to shoot him, and a man had been told off who had his gun ready for the purpose. I lost no time in calling the chiefs and the friends of the deceased together, and showed them the wickedness and sinfulness of such proceedings, and how, by their thus acting, they had probably kept up a feeling of revenge in the mind of their friend who had just expired. They accepted my advice, and had him unbound, and he came to the Mission house to have his wounds dressed. His wrists were swollen to an immense size, and his back, from hip to shoulder, lacerated and burned to the bone by torches of pitch pine. He was deeply grateful to me for having saved him.