The Chairman, the now sainted Wm. Pollard, was his superintendent, and watched over him to the last. He said David’s death was the most triumphant he had ever witnessed. In a letter dated January 14th, 1873, he said: “The death of David Sallosalton was a sad blow to this mission and to the Indian work in general. He was deservedly popular, and he was pious, eloquent and useful. He was universally beloved and almost idolized by the Indians.”
The late Rev. Cornelius Bryant, then missionary at Sumas, who had known David from his childhood, in referring to his death, paid this tribute to the worth of Indian Missions: “If no other had been saved than David Sallosalton, our Indian brother, whose glowing experience I heard in the church a few months ago, and who is doubtless now a glorified inhabitant of the skies, we had been well rewarded for all missionary effort.” Mr. Pollard wrote the following obituary of him:
“The subject of this notice belonged to the Nanaimo tribe of Indians, and he was born in Nanaimo camp about 1853. His parents were pagan, and David’s early education was pagan. About 1860 our missionaries visited Nanaimo, and the Gospel was introduced among the Indians; this was a new era in David’s history. He when a little boy welcomed the messengers of mercy, and as far as he could comprehend the light he walked in it, but it was not until he was eleven years of age that he was converted. He attended the mission school then conducted by the Rev. T. Crosby, and was the fruit of his pious and earnest ministrations. This zealous missionary discovered in his pupil piety and gifts of more than ordinary promise, and spared no pains to train him to future usefulness. David from the time of his conversion maintained an unblemished character, and labored earnestly and continuously to teach his countrymen the way of life. In September, 1871, he came to Victoria to attend the English school and act as assistant missionary to the Songees Indians. He made great progress in his work, often preaching to them every evening in the week, besides twice on the Sabbath, and the Lord gave him great favor with both the whites and the Indians. Great hopes were entertained that he might long be spared as a missionary to his people. He was not only remarkable for his piety, but had extraordinary natural qualifications for public speaking in his own language. The Rev. Dr. Punshon, who heard him when on a visit to this country, pronounced him one of the greatest natural orators he had ever heard. Last spring his health began to fail, and though everything was done to prolong his valuable life, yet it was evident that consumption was undermining his constitution. The only desire that he seemed to have was to live that he might preach Christ. During his illness he often spoke of heaven, especially as a place where there would be no temptation, no whiskey, no devil. Shortly before his death, when asked what portion of Scripture he wished to have read, he said: ‘Read to me the death of Christ.’ A few minutes before he died a friend quoted the first part of the fourteenth chapter of John. He expressed great joy that Christ had gone to heaven to prepare mansions for his children, and said: ‘In a very short time I shall be in my Father’s house.’ He then closed his eyes, folded his hands, as if intending to pray, and thus fell asleep without a pain or a doubt, on the 29th of October, in the nineteenth year of his age, David Sallosalton, the most perfect Christian we ever knew.”
The Old Captain of Sumas Lake.
Tsit-see-mit-ston, the old warrior chief of the Sumas, whose home was at Nah-nates, round the head of Sumas Lake, was a convert of our first camp-meeting at Chilliwack in 1870. I remember well the tall, rather fierce-looking man, who impressed one by his stalwart, athletic form and proud bearing that he might have been a great hunter and a fierce fighter in his day. We learned afterwards that he had been in many terrible scenes of bloodshed. Years gone by, when the Coast Indians came up the Fraser River on their slave-taking expeditions, many a slave-seeker found his death at the hands of this stalwart warrior. He had a powerful frame and unflinching nerve, and was alert and agile to the very end.
His curiosity was aroused when he heard the people were camping in the bush, and so he, with some of his people, came to attend the camp-meeting. As the blessed Spirit came in power upon the Indians in that place, “Old Cap.” (as he was called by the whites) said: “I felt so miserable I did not know what to do; and when asked to speak my body trembled and shook. It was not fear, for I had never been afraid of anything. But what could I say? I could not utter a word. And when the good people saw how I was, they commenced to pray for me, and led me to the foot of the cross, where I laid down my burden of sin, and God gave me a new heart. My difficulty in speaking was soon gone, and I felt that I wanted to talk all the time in telling of the joy that had come into my soul.”
The great old warrior would shout and talk, and seemed never to tire of telling of the love of God in his soul. He became a missionary to his own people, and by precept and example pointed them to the Saviour of men. He had the unspeakable joy of seeing every adult member of his band make public profession of conversion ere he passed to the land of light and glory. We often stayed all night at his camp, and night and morning he would call all his people in to prayers, and it was then we had times of refreshing coming from the Lord.
The old man was wonderfully energetic, and in order to have all his people at church on Sunday—for they had to journey a distance of fifteen miles or more—he bought a number more horses, so that he might have one each for them to ride. These horses he kept on the prairie during the summer, and in the fall he had a lot of his young men cut enough wild hay to keep them through the winter. It was remarked again and again that no matter how stormy the day, “Old Captain” and his people would be seen at church.
Finally age told upon him, and one day he “fell on sleep,” and died happy in the Lord. Years have gone by since he passed away, and we still see the effect of his life upon his people. What a change the Gospel makes from a savage to a saint.