CiPLEND/D UVES SER/ES
v A Life on fhe
"^^^ Shores of Hud

by
RBUCKLAND

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1937

JOHN HOKDEN, BISHOP OF MOOSONEB.
[From a photograph talcen about the time of his conseoration. I

JOHN HORDEN
MISSIONAR V BISHOP

REV. A. R. gUCKLAND, M.A.
AUTHOR OF *'tHE HEROIC IN MISSIONS*

SEVENTH EDITION

LONDON:
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION
57 AND 59 LUDGATE HiLL, E.C. 4

MRS. HORDEN

FOR MANY LONG YEARS

THE COMPANION

HER HUSBANDS MISSIONARY LIFB

NOTE

For the material contained in this Life I am
indebted to Bishop Horden's Iptters, published in
the Periodicals and Beports of the Church Mis
sionary Society, and in the columns of the Record ;
to the volume. Forty-two Years amongst the Indians
and Eskimo, compiled by the Editor of the Coral
Magazine, from letters addressed to her; to the
account of Bishop Horden amongst the Brief
Sketches of Church Missionary Society Workers; and
to information privately communicated.
A.E. B.

CONTENTS

OnAP. PAGE
I. A boy's AMBITION . . . . .11
II. THE DEPARTURE FOR MOOSONEE . . .20
III. FIRST LABOURS AMONGST ESKIMO AND INDIANS . 32
IV. "IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN" .... 42
V. ENGLAND VISITED ..... 54
VI. OUT-STATIONS ..... 61
VII. A NEW RESPONSIBILITY . . . .68
VIII. LEAVES FROM BISHOP HOKDEN'S DIARY . . 77
IX. YEARS OF TRIAL ..... 97
X. TO ENGLAND FOR THE LAST TIME . . . - 110
XI. HOME AGAIN . ... . . . 125
XII. CLOSING SCENES ..... 184

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

' JOHN HORDEN, BISHOP OF MOOSONEE
ESKIMO WOMAN AND CHILD
AN INDIAN CHIEF ....
LOADING CANOE FOR A RIVEK JOURNEY
ESKIMO MAN . ' .
YORK FACTORY ....
AGED CREE MAN ....
bishop's COURT, SCHOOLHOUSE, AND TENT, AT
FORT .....
MAIN STREET, WINNIPEG
INDIAN TRAPPERS ....
HUNTING DEER ....
ASCENDING A RAPID.
CREE CHURCH, YOKK FACTORY

PAGB
Frontispiece, 23 30
35 49
57
62
69 79
91
115121
126

10

John Horden
MISSIONARY BISHOP

CHAPTEE I
A boy's ambition
A Child's Resolve and a, Life's Devotion— John Horden at
Home and at School — A Book that made a Missionary —
Apprentice Days and Work at Home — Accepted for the
Mission-Field. /

T is hard to find a healthy and
intelligent boy, who does not,
sooner or later, make up his mind
what ' he would " like to be."
It happens now and then that he chooses
something unsuitable, or that he has made up his
mind under the influence of a merely temporary
11

12 JOHN HORDEN
interest. It happens, too, that ambitions cannot
always be gratified. But these things do not
keep the majority of boys in each generation
from choosing or seeking to choose for themselves.
The missionary-bishop whose Hfe will be told in
this book was one of the boys who made up their
minds early. He was also one of those who found
that other people's views as to his future did not
agree with his own. Yet happily he is to be counted
amongst the boys who, disappointed at first of their
cherished ambition, were afterwards able to realise it
in full. John Horden as a child resolved that, God
willing, he would be a missionary. He had at first
opposition and disappointment to face. But in due
time his' wish was granted ; he lived and died a
missionary in one of the hardest fields of labour
known to the modern evangelist.
Horden gives us an example of a lifelong devotion
to a single cause. This marks him off at once from a
large number of the best-known workers in the foreign
mission field. William Carey was thirty-three when
he volunteered to go out as a missionary, and his

A LIFE'S DEVOTION 13
sign-board had borne the notice "Second-hand shoes
bought and sold " before he became a schoolmaster
and preacher. Adoniram Judson had yearned for
distinction in many paths, had taught in a school, and
had travelled with a company of actors, before the
turning-point in life which saw his decision for God
and his resolve to be a missionary. Allen Gardiner was
a iiaval officer, from childhood warmly interested in
the service, before he took up missionary work in
Zululand, or made the heroic attempt which led to
his death in Tierra del Fuego. To come to more
modern instances. Dr. John G. Paton had preached
the gospel earnestly at home before he was called to
enter on his marvellous experiences in the South
Seas. Hannington, the martyr-bishop, was taken
from a coxmtry parish ; Alexander Mackay, from
work as an engineer; Mr. Monro, some time head
of the Metropolitan Police Force, from well-earned
repose after an active life ; and many others, whose
names the world has not heard of, have laid
down secular occupations, iu order to work amongst
the heathen or Mohammedans abroad.

14 JOHN HORDEN
Again, there are young people who in early life
make up their minds what they would " like to be,"
but discover, after a brief trial, that they have made
a mistake, and turn, more or less readily, to something
else. Many a boy inspired by the delightful sea-
stories so popular with every generation, has resolved
to be a sailor, and has insisted^ against advice and
entreaty, that a sailor he will be. With a good
many of these a single voyage is enough. They
find out with amazing promptitude that the one
thing for which they are peculiarly unfitted is the
sailor's life. Happy are those who discover such
mistakes before they have gone too far, and are
saved the unhappiness which falls in life to the lot
" of the round man in a square hole." It was other
wise with John Horden. He formed his resolution
early in life ; to, it he was always constant ; and in
the exercise of the calling he had chosen he died in
a green old age.
John Horden was born at Exeter in 1828, the
eldest son of William and Sarah Horden. His father
was a printer by trade, and the family were iu

AN EARL Y DECISION 1 5
humble circumstances. But the parents were
devout Christian people, and, despite their early
views about the calUng of a missionary, they- had
much to do with the framing of their son's career.
At seven years of age John Horden entered
St. John's School, Exeter, a charity the origin of
which goes back to the twelfth century. When
Horden was a boy it was a school in which a varying
number of orphans and others were clothed, educated,
and prepared for a useful life. There, too, he was
under religious influenfees, a,nd there John Horden
definitely accepted Christ as his Saviour. Some
observers look with suspicion upon all signs of
religious conviction in boys and girls. They declare
that it is unnatural, and can only end in disappoint
ment. The theory is contradicted by many a
consistent life which began in early childhood the
conscious service of God, and the life of John Horden
is a case in point. The convictions of boyhood
remained the convictions of his manhood.
In the Thirties and Forties there were not many
books dealing in a popular way with foreign

1 6 JOHN HORDEN
missions. Such enterprises were less numerous,
were less cared for, less known, less talked of, than
in these days, when the lives and work of such men
as Livingstone, Patteson, Hannington, Gilmour, and
Paton, have made some sides of missionary work
familiar to "the man in the street." But if the
books were fewer, they_ had their readers. One came
into the hands of Horden, and, under God, decided
. his future for him. It dealt with India, and the
horrors of heathenism as there -displayed. Horden
read it, and decided upon his career in life. He
would be a missionary, a missionary to India, a
bearer of the glad tidings to those who lay in the
grasp o^the cruel superstitions described.
Eesolutions of this kind are easily formed, and as
easily forgotten. In Horden's case they were
cherished. He had not made up his mind in a fit
of exaltation; in everyday language, he "meant
business." But he was not his own master. There
was home to think of, his parents to consult, and his
father strongly opposed his plan. It would be easy,
of course, to condemn Mr. Horden for standing in

FRUITFUL OPPOSITION 17
the way of so noble a decision ; but remember the
times. Those were not the days in which the
foreign missionary was a familiar object. The
Church of Christ in our land is still but poorly and
feebly, doing its duty by heathendom; but it is a
miracle of zeal and industry compared to what it
was in the Thirties and Forties. John Horden only
met with the opposition which was so general in his
times, and has always had to be counted with in one
way or another. As a matter of fact, too, that early
opposition was justified ; it ended in Horden becom
ing much better equipped for the Work of his life
than if hfe had from the first entered on the special
training fo;- a missionary. ,
When John Horden left school he was apprenticed
to a trade, and, like an honest Christian lad, worked
at it with intelligence and vigour. The result was
a readiness at manual labour, a skill 'in the use of
tools, and a capacity for making the best of unpro
mising material, which, in after life, stood him iu
better stead than the regular course of seminary
training could have done. ;

i8 JOHN HORDEN
But, whilst working with his hands, he never
forgot his great ambition. In his spare time he
plodded steadily on with his books, toiling at the
Greek and Latin, of which, if his hopes were ever to
be realised, a knowledge would be demanded. He
succeeded so far that, when his apprentice days
were over, and the opportunity came, he laid aside
manual labour and became a schoolmaster. But
though he did this it was not because he had any
foolish contempt for working at a trade, for even as
a bishop he was always ready to take up tools
himself, and that not as playthings, but for
practical ends,.
In the meantime his spiritual life, and with it his
ambition, was fostered under the happiest influence.
The Vicar of St. Thomas's, Exeter, encouraged an
interest in foreign missions. In connection with the
church there existed a little group of young men who
met regularly for Bible study and gave their leisure
to Christian work. Horden was not alone amongst
them in looking forward to a life in the mission-
field. But until the door should open, they prepared

ACCEPTED FOR SERVICE 19
for the work of evangelists abroad by acting as
evangelists at home. It was the way to keep
their resolution aUve. It seems only natural to
learn that, of this little band, six eventually became
missionaries. As for Horden, he was no longer a boy but
a man when, in 1850, he was able to offer hirfiself
to the Church Missionary Society. ' He was
accepted, and although it seemed probable that some ¦
time would elapse J)efore he would be sent to the
field, he had at last drawn within reach of his
ambition. Its actual realisation came,' as a fact,
much sooner than he could have ventured to hope
for.

CHAPTEE II . ^
THE DEPARTUKE FOE MOOSONEE
A Land of Eomance — Moose Factory — The Call for a Man — Horden
Chosen — A Hasty Departure — First Impressions of Hudson's
Bay — Moose and its People.
0 many generations of English boys
the vast regions of the Far West
, have been a land of romance.
To-day, when railways span the
continent of Ainerica from Atlantic to Pacific,
when the isolated settlements of a generat&n .
ago are already large towns, and' when " the noble
red man " is threatening to become as extinct as the
dodo or the great auk, that old interest in the land
is gone. But, as the continent has become better
20

A VAST PARISH 21
known, we are the more able to realise its enormous
area. Horden, as we shall presently see, went out to
a diocese which measured some 1500 miles from top
to bottom and side to side, and had'some 3000 miles
of coast. Yet it is a mere corner of Uorth America.
If you look at the map of that continent, you will
find the great arm of the sea, called Hudson's Bayj
thrusting itself far into the land. Its south-eastern
extremity is called-James' Bay. Into this a river
discharges, and on that river, on an island, a few
miles from its mouth, stands a village known as
Moose Fort or MooSe Factory. As its name suggests,
it is a station of the Hudson's Bay Company,
to which it owes its existence . and the presence
of a small European population. The post is still
cut off from the world by almpst- impenetrable
forests, and by the ice-bound waters of the bay.
Once a year, in the Fifties and much later, a ship
came from England with stores and news; when
it left, the door seemed again to shut on the
outside world. The natives of the regions were
Eskimos, Chippeways, Crees, and Ojibbeways. Now

22 JOHN HORDEN
the vast area, from the border line of the United
States to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and
from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific Coast, is dotted
with mission-stations ; bu,t then much of the land in
the south, now open to settlers, was still unexplored.
As for Christianity, thousands of Indians are
now living consistent, God-fearing lives, where
then no missionary had so much as preached the
Word. , But Moose Fort enjoyed some privileges of its
own. The European population included men of
Christian character, and a Wesleyan missionary
had worked amongst the natives. The field was
not, therefore, entirely uncared for; but little had
been done.
In May 1851, the Church Missionary Society
was infdrmed that the Wesleyans were about to
withdraw from Moose Factory. There were those
who felt that the position ought to be occupied,
and as the Church Missionary Society was extending
its work in the north-^esti why should it not
occupy this admirable centre upon the shores of

ESKIMO WOMAN AND CHILD.

A HASTY DEPARTURE 25
the Hudson's Bay ? The call seemed imperative ;
it was resolved to fill the vacancy.
Joljn Horden's opportunity was come. The
committee resolved to send out a lay missionary,
and the offer of the young Devonshire schoolmaster
was remembered. He seemed to be the very man
for the post ; but could he go ? If he went at all,
he must sail a married man, and the one ship of
the year was to leaVe in two or three ^eeks.
But the genuine soldier of the cross is always
ready. On May 10, 1851, Horden received a letter
from Henry Venn, the honorary secretary of the
Church Missionary Society, announcing his appoint
ment to Moose Factory. On May 24, Hordefa left
h!s work at school ; on May 25, he was married ; on
May 28, he left for London on the way to his post in
the mission-field.
Horden had not to choose a wife with the haste
which this statement might suggest. At the time
when he first offered himself to the Church Mission-
1
ary Society he became engaged to Miss Elizabeth
bke, who was not only a member of the same congre-

26 JOHN HORDEN
gation as himself, but was filled with the same desire
to be a missionary. She, too, had prepared for the
foreign field by working at home. When the call to
Moosonee came, the decision rested with her. With
out hesitation she resolved to go, and the hasty
wedding began a married life of singular happiness
and of long duration. '
Horden and his wife joined their ship at Graves-
fend on June 8, 1851. The voyage out was slow and
uneventful, but the time was not wasted. The
young missionary did not believe in keeping his
message only for Indians and Eskimo. He acted
as chaplain whilst on board ship;^ and so, in his
missionary work, began that consistency, of life
which, from first to last, won for him the respect
of aU who knew him. He worked, moreover, at the
language he would have to use, and, with an eye to
brightening the services with the natives, he leamed
to play the accordion. Nor was Mrs. Horden idle.
One of the passengers on board came from Hudson's
Bay Territory, and in this woman Mrs. Horden found
her first pupU.

LAND HOI 27
On July 26th, Horden noted in his diary their
arrival at the entrance of Hudson's Bay. His own
words convey an excellent impression of the land to
which he had been sent : —
" The sun shone very brightly in the, morning and
we saw several large icebergs. In the afternoon the
atmosphere became very thick and cold ; all felt that
they were experiencing the rigour of winter in the
month of July. About six the mist almost instan
taneously cleared off, the sun Shone forth, and land
was visible. Yes! we had entered the straits — Ee-
solution being to our right — a b,arren, bleak, but
lofty and majestic shore ; while on our left lay an
immense field of ice, extending many miles. We
passed thousands of pieces of every description and
size, some resembling churphes, others hills, vaUeys,
mountains, and houses. It was most amusing to
hear the sailors give names to the several pieces —
This is such a head ; that is Tbhe hull of such a vessel
or barge, and so forth." .

28 JOHN HORDEN
Horden went on to describe the voyage up the
bay, the perils of which from ice and fog and
tempest every year made the advent of the annual
ship a matter of extreme anxiety. The navigation
of the bay, with its slow progress, its demand for
unceasing watchfulness, its alternation -of hopes and
disappointment, its constant demand upon the
voyager to "endure hardness" — ^was, in a way,
both a preparation for and a figure of the difiiculties
through which Horden would ha|Ve to pass in his
spiritual work bn the land before him. Here, for ,
example, kre three entries from his account of the ..
voyage :—
"Aug. 10. — Surrounded with ice, atmosphere very
thick. It fell calm about tea, and we anchored to a
very large piece of ice, and filled our water tank.
The ice opening, and a, good breeze springing up,
we got under way about seven, sailing through very
thick ice. Having sailed a few mdes, we were again
fast, and .for fpur hours gained nothing.
"Aug, 11. — We anchored to a large piece of ice at

FOOTBALL ON THE ICE 29
four A.M. It rained or snowed almost the whole day.
The wind blew very strongly but did not open the
ice. Some of us went on to the piece to which we
were fastened. It was about two miles in circum
ference. "Aug. 12.: — About three a.m. we loosed from the ice,
and, having proceeded six miles in five hours and a
half, we were obliged to anchor again, the ice being
very close and heavy around us. In the evening the
men enjoyed themselves by playing football on tlje
ice, which happened to be very fiat."
The ship remained locked in, the ice for a' week;
then- they were able to make some progress, and at
last, on August 23, they anchored in the outer Moose
^oads, about forty miles from the Fort. ^ Three days
later Horden was at Moose Fort, which, from that
day until his death, was the centre of his work.
The first sight of the place and its people left a
vivid impression on his mind. The diary, which
formed his first letter to the , Church Missionary
Society, gives us a summary of his impressions : —

30 JOHN HORDEN
" On reaching the Fort, which stands on a rather
large island, wigwams, houses, and inhabitants began
to present themselves. We saw first three Indian

AN INDIAN CHIEF.

boys, dressed in fiannel coats, playing on the beach,
then a house, then many Indian wigwams, and the
old fa9tory and stores. Some way beyond, on the
same side of the river, stood a neat little church with

THE PEOPLE 31
a suitable tower, while still farther on were a few
Indian tents. After dinner we visited almost every
one on the island, including nearly 150 Indians, all of
whom were very glad to see us. Most of their tents
are' of a poor description, but some are silperior, in
the form of marquees. Most of them were dirty.
The general clothing of the men is a flannel coat
bordered with red, with trousers of the same
material; some, however, have decent cloth coats
and trousers. A part of the women wore gowns,
others a petticoat with a blanket thrown over their
shoulders. " A contrast, this, to Devonshire ! "

CHAPTEE III

FIKST LABOURS AMONGST ESKIMO AND INDIANS

Place and People— Horden's Training — Cut off from the World —
Getting to Work-r-Learning Oree — A LaughaWe Blunder—
A Visitor at Moose' — Horden Ordained — A Man of many
Tasks.

. OEDEN" had reached the scene of his
labours, and it is time, therefore, to
say somethiilg more as to the place
and the people.
His m^sionary interest had been first drawn out
towards the teeming miUions of ItadifL But he
had been called to an almost Arctic climate, and
not tb a field under the tropics ; to a few scattered
sheep in a veritable wilderness rather than to
the dense population of the Indian cities.

A LONELY POST 33
At Moose Fort the European was cut off from the
outside world. Once a year — if no accident happened
_— a ship came and went, but so difficult was naviga-,
tion that those who depended upon the ship for
supplies were never free from anxiety on its behalf.
Even on that moving subject _news travelled slowly.
One year the ship was held fast by ice in the
bay. The tidings reached England before they were
known at Albany, a hundred miles from Moose.
Inland communications were no less difficult.
Eoads there were none. In summer the birch-bark
canoe made the readiest vehicle, but even its use
meant much hard labour. In winter the choice lay
between the dog-sleigh and the snow-shoe. Food
was never very plentiful.. The natives and even the
Europeans knew what scarcity and sometimes famine"
meant. The extremes' of temperature have an
alarming look to those who know only anJJnglish
climate. In summer the heat might reach 100°, and
the busy mosquito add its torment to the trials of
the season. In winter the mercury would fall many
degrees below zero. It will be seen at once that a
3

34 JOHN HORDEN
missionary in such a place had need of pluck and
endurance. Horden had to shepherd a vast region,
which meant occasionally journeys which extended to
a thousand miles or more. He had to camp out„ to
share the food of his Indians, to be ready for any of
the contingencies which may befall the traveller in a .
land of wood and stream, where men are few and -
roads are not. But the early disappointment,
which gave him a training in manual labour, had
hardened his muscles, and educated hand and eye
It had been, after all, the right way for him.
In like manner his after experience as school
master had prepared him for the very serious task of
teaching himself new languages and teaching others
the gospel story.
One advantage Horden had which does not often
fall to the lot of a pioneer missionary. There were
Christian men and women to meet him at his coming.
The head of the Company's station warmly welcomed
the young missionary and his wife. In company
with the few other Europeans he rejoiced at the
advent of a religious teacher, alike for the sake of

35

ALREAD Y AT HOME 37
the white men and of the Indians, Of the latter,
too, some few had, under the teaching of the
Wesleyan missionary, become devout and consistent
Christians. Thus Horden began his life-work with
some advanta,ges on his side. From one point of
view they were especially useful ; they enabled the
young missionary and his wife at once to feel that
Moose was their home. It is not often that this is
the case ; but with Horden the shores of Hudson's
Bay were henceforth home, and England was but a
place to visit. They lived, as he himself put it a few
months before his death, " buried in the interminable
forest, the door of our grave being opened but
seldom." It was hard, perhaps, but he was able
to add : " I doubt there being many happier .
communities than the one to be found where the
hand of God has placed me ; the wheels of our little
society move smoothly ; and with God in our midst
we envy none the advantages they possess, and are
contented with our own diminutive world."
Horden lost no time in getting to work. When he
reached Moose there were three or four hundred

38 JOHN HORDEN
people in the place; he visited them all within a
few hours of his arrival The next and most urgent
task was to learn Cree, the language used by the
majority of the Indians within reach. He began
this systematically, on the day after he reached
Moose. With the aid of a native interpreter, he
composed a short address, which he read to his
congregation that same evening. So hard did he
work that in a few short months he could preach
without aid. And Cree is not an easy language^
He found it more trying than Greek and Latin,
possibly because he lacked the aids which every
schoolboy has for the learning of these languages.
But his first sermon drew from an Indian woman
this reply : " I thank you for your kind words ; I will
keep them to my heart." It was, no doubt, Horden's
rapid progress with their language, and his resolve
to become one of themselves, which so soon gave
him a secure place in their affections. In eight
months, to their surprise and joy, he could preach
to them in Cree without an interpreter. But he
had, of course, his difficulties and his blunders.

ADAM'S "PIPES" 39
Once, for example, he was explaining to a class of
young men the story of the Creation. " God," he
said, "created Eve out of one of Adam's — " he
meant to say "ribs," but, as the laughter of his
hearers showed him, he really said "pipes." But
that is the kind of mistake which every learner is
likely to make.
It must not, however, be assumed that Horden
had come to a place where a missionary's life was
likely to be one of ease. The more he knew of the
people the more he saw how sadly they needed the
gospel he had come to preach. Crime of the
grossest character abounded. Men made little of
murdering their aged parents or their young
children, and cannibalism resulted in the times
of famine. The European's life was not always safe,
and his property was the object of attentions with
which he would often have willingly dispensed.
Horden himself, however, had little reason to
complain of the people. Indeed, it was their own
liking which became the means of keeping him
in their midst.

40 JOHN HORDEN
It had been the Society's plan to send a clergyman
to Moose and allow Horden to prepare for ordination
at Eed Eiver, under the eye of the 3ishop of
Eupert's Land. That plan was never carried out.
Instead of the young missionary going to the bishop,
the bishop came to him.
Bishop Anderson reached Moose at the end of a
six weeks' journey. He had travelled 1500 miles
over lake and river to reach this outlying post. He
had expected to find a novice ; he found an expert.
Horden knew the people and knew the language.
They were distressed at the bare thought of losing
him. What was to be done? The bishop's good
sense solved the difficulty. He examined Horden
carefully, ordained him deacon and priest, left him
at Moose, and arranged that the other clergyman
should go elsewhere.
Bishop Anderson had made no mistake. Horden
settled down with quiet enthusiasm to his work.
Cut off though they were from the world, there was
variety of labour. In the winter the population of
the village was small; but the people, old and

MANY LABOURS

41

young, could be taught. Occasionally there was
building work to be done, in which Horden's manuab
skill was of great use. And always there was the
task of translating the word of God into the
language of the people. To this task Horden early
gave his attention, and upon it he was still engaged
»in his last months of life.

CHAPTEE IV
"IN JOUENEYINGS OFTEN"
A Winter Journey — Dogs and Snow-Shoes — A Famine in the Land
— And a Flood — Amongst the Eskimo — A Long Day's Work
— The Bible for the People — A New Trade Learned — Early
Fruits. ' N" summer it became possible to
travel, and then the outlying stations
called for care. At distances vary
ing from 50 to 430 miles from
Moose there were posts at which, at certain seasons,
bodies of Indians were to be found. One of the
first stations visited was Albany, a hundred
miles north of Moose. His own account gives a
vivid picture of the difficulties met by the in
experienced traveller : — 42

ON SNO W-SHOES

43

"I started," he wrote, "from Moose on January
5th, 1852, in a sleigh drawn by five dogs and ac
companied by two Indians. After riding eight or
nine miles I walked for a time, but found myself
unable to keep pace with the dogs. We were
obliged to walk about two miles through thickly-set

A PAIR OF SNOW-SHOES.

willows, in snow-shoes, sinking at every step a full
foot in the snow. Being unaccustomed to this kind
of marching I found it very fatiguing, and, having
never before placed snow-shoes on my feet, had two
or three falls, ai\d, the snow being so deep, was
unable to rise without assistance. Could you have
seen me then in full armour, with ,a flannel and fur

44 JOHN HORDEN
cap on my head, pilot-coat, scarf, mittens, and snowr
shoes, I little think you would have recognised in
me the young man sitting before you in your study,
whom you asked whether he wished to come to this
country." A fortnight was spent at Albany, and the return
was made " with few mishaps," though," in the same
letter, we learn that " during two days the cold was
most intense, our faces being frost-bitten — mine not
considerably, as it was quickly discovered." This
incidental way of alluding to hardships will be foimd
in all the bishop's letters from first to last. He
never " makes a fuss " ; difficulties, trials, sufferings —
all are in " the day's work." In 1854 there was great
scarcity of food, amounting to famine — that was a
trial always to be feared and often to be faced. In
June 1857 danger of another kind threatened the
settlement. Immense quantities of snow had fallen
in the winter, and the break-up of the ice in the
river was expected with more than usual anxiety.
A flood was looked for, and a flood came.

FLOODS AT MOOSE ' 45
" On the night of May 21st the noise, as of distant
thunders, told of the conflict going on between the
rushing waters and the still compact ice, great
masses of which were being occasionally thrown up
in heaps. Soon the alarm bell rang, which told us
of our danger, and some gentlemen from the Factory
instantly came to conduct us thither, as our house is
in a very exposed position. The river was now
twenty feet above its usual level, and large hills of ice,
twenty feet high, were thrown up in several places.
The water continued to rise, until it was five feet
higher, by which time every house on the island,
except the Factory, was fiooded; the water, as we
afterwards ascertained, having been five feet nine
inches deep in my own kitchen."
Happily, although much damage was done, no
life was lost. But such effects are long felt by
the Indians, for the rabbits which supply them
with food and covering are swept off by the flood.
There was another visitation of the kind in the
spring of 1860, when the wooden church, then

46 " JOHN HORDEN
building, was floated off and carried nearly a quarter
of a mile from its foundation. In the fall of the year
the same danger seemed to be upon them.
But there was a bright side even to these visita-
.tionSj for they meant the break-up of the long, gloomy,
trying winter, the prospect of a change of food, a
change of work, and news from distant friends. In
the long frost-bound months the Indians felt the
hardship of dwelling in a barren land; so little
stood between them and actual starvation. At one
post, early visited by Horden, out of 120 Indians
a sixth died of hunger in one season.
At that station one man had saved his life at the
expense of his children. There were six little ones ;
he killed and ate them all. The desolation of the
land, which yields so little to man, was brought home
to the missionary on that journey. He had 430
miles to travel, and, "during the whole way," he
wrote, " I saw no tent or house, not even human
being, until I arrived within a short distance of
the post. I appeared to be passing through a foreign
land."

OFF TO WHALE RIVER 47
Yet a land of even greater desolation was under
his care. At Whale Eiver there were Eskimo, and
to these Horden early paid a visit. In 1862 he was
able to give them more attention.
Keen student of languages as Horden was —
and he even learned something of Norwegian, in
order to be able to minister to the Europeans at
Moose — he was dependent partly during this visit
on the help of an interpreter. That interpreter is an
interesting reminder of the way in which one mission
helps another. For the young Eskimo who served
Horden had formerly- lived on the coast of Labrador.
Whilst there he had come under the instruction
of the Moravian missionaries, and had carried to
Whale, Eiver, on the shores of Hudson's Bay,
some knowledge of their teaching. He could speak
a little English, knew some texts, and remembered
some hymns well. Thus the Moravians in far-off
Labrador had, all unknown to themselves, prepared
the way of the gospel in another land.
The journey to Whale Eiver was trying, but the
missionary felt well repaid. He wrote home in the

48 JOHN HORDEN
following year, that " those eight days were indeed
blessed ones, and will not soon be forgotten by me,
for they were amongst the most successful missionary
days I have had since I have been in the country." -
His day's work amongst them was much as
follows. At six in the morning he began with a
service for the Eskimo, to which some came " dressed
very much like working men in England," in
imported garments ; others in the seal-skin clothing
popular amongst theip ; and one woman in "an
English gown, of which she seemed not a little
proud." The service was a mixture of worship and
instruction, with as much singing as possible.
This over, the missionary went to breakfast.
After breakfast came a service for the Indians,
who were less eager than the Eskimo, although more
advanced in knowledge.
When Horden had ended his lesson to the Indians
he went to school himself — that is to say, he took
a lesson from his Eskimo interpreter. This over,
he began visiting the homes of his flock — seal
skin tents, and not the ice-houses of which we

ESKIMO MAN.-

ESKIMO QUALITIES 51
hear at other times. Then came a walk; then
another service with the Eskimo; then another
with the Indians; an English service for the few
Europeans at the station ; another hour learning
Eskimo ; a half an hour's social chat ; and at last,
" with feelings of thankfulness at having been placed
as a labourer in the vineyard of the Lord, I retired
to rest."
Horden was' greatly drawn towards these Eskimo
of Whale Eiver ; they seemed so gentle, so contented
under many hardships, so ready to learn, so sincere
in their new faith. Three were baptized during this
visit, two of whom afterwards became man and wife.
This little church was soon sorely tried, for the young
interpreter was drowned, and the Christian wife
died. One other department of work, in which Horden
made great strides during his first period of residence
in Moosonee, remains to be noticed. Every wise
missionary wishes his people as soon as possible to
have the Bible, or at least some^of it, in their own
tongue. Horden was fuUy alive to this part of his

52 ' JOHN HORDEN
duty, and from the first worked at translation. But
the busiest writer finds himself hard pushed, unless
he can have the aid of the printing-press. Something
had been done for the mission at home, but more
was to be done by Horden himself at Moose.
To his great joy the ship one year brought out
every requisite for a small printing-office. It was
true that Horden knew nothing of type-setting, or of
taking impressions from the type when set; but
his early training again came in useful. ITothing
daunted, he set to work at the new trade, and taught
a small boy to help him. It was slow work, and so
different from the means they had seen him use
before, that some of his faithful Indians feared this
new task had turned his braia. But when the first
eight pages were printed off their delight was almost
as great as his own. To the occupations of translator
and printer Horden added that of a poet, with the
result that, before he took his first holiday to
England, he had given the Indians the Four Gospels,
a prayer-book, and a hymn-book in the Cree
language.

EARLY FRUITS 53
But these labours were not without a drawback.
Working early and late, with much anxiety of many
kinds, he found, when his book of the Gospels was
complete, that his strength was overtaxed. " I
have felt," he wrote, " that even a very strong consti
tution has limits, which it may not pass* with
impunity." That he did not caution himself without
good cause will easily be believed when Horden's
many tasks are kept in mind. Thus, apart from all
other work, he learned Cree, Ojibbeway, and Eskimo,
for the benefit of the natives ; Norwegian, for some
of the Company's staff; and Hebrew, that he might
be the better able to translate the Old Testament in
time. His labours were not in vain. Before he thought
of visiting England for his first holiday, he was able
to estimate that 1800 Indians in his district had
either been baptized or were waiting for the rite. .

CHAPTEE V
ENGLAND VISITED
The Coming of the Ship — A Wreck — A Perilous Voyage —
Rest and Eetum to Work.
HE Hordens left England in 1851;
they wished to go home for a few
months in 1864. We shall all agree
that they had earned a holiday, but
it was not any yearning for " rest and change " that
caused them to return. Children had been born to
them, and three were then at an age at which it was
desirable that they should go to English schools.
Horden planned, therefore, to leave Moose by the
ship of 1864, and to reach England in the October
or November of that year. fit

SHIPWRECK 55
The coming of the ship with its cargo of food, of
clothing,' of merchandise, and of news was always
eagerly looked for by Europeans knd natives alike.
It was expected all through August. When the
23rd, and the latest known date for its appearance
had gone, despair began to be felt. Something had
happened ; they would have to get on as best they
might for twelve more months. But some hoped.
Yet September passed, and there was no ship.
October came, and then on the 7th, in the midst of a
fearful) storm, they heard, "the report of large guns
at sea."
" The ship's come ! " was the cry.
The people slept that night in pleasant anticipa
tion of joy on the morrow.
But the morrow brought disappointment. The
guns came from ^ schooner sent from York Factory
to break the bad news. The Moose ship had been
wrecked within the bay, and little save the letters
had been saved.
The ship of 1865 fared better, but she too had"
been in perils, had been injured by the ice, and had

S6 JOHN HORDEN
to be patched up at Moose before the return voyage
could begin. When fairly afloat it was soon clear to
the Hordens that the voyage would be a very differ
ent one from their first. His own account of the
early dangers is, as usual, "vivid : —
" We left Moose "with a fair "wind, which took us
in safety over our long, crooked, and dangerous bar;
but" we had not proceeded above half a day's sail
before a hea'vy storm came upon us. Dangers were
around us, the dread of all coming to Moose Fac
tory, the Gasket Shoal, was ahead ; the charts were
frequently consulted ; the captain was anxious, sleep
departed from his eyes. We are at the commence
ment of the straits ; we see land — high, rugged, barren
hills ; snow is lying in the valleys, stern winter is
already come ; it seems a home scarcely fit for the
white bear and the walrus. ' What are these solitary
giants, raising their heads so high, and appearing so
formidable ? They are immense icebergs, which have
come from regions still farther north, and are now
being carried by the current through Hudson's Straits

¦iHOiov.! aaoA

"A FEARFUL NIGHT" 59
into the Atlantic Ocean. The glass speaks of coming
bad weather, the topsails are reefed, reefs are put to
•the mainsail ; and now it is on us, the wind roars
through the rigging, the ship plunges and creaks.
Night comes over the scene ; there is no cessation of
the tempest ; it howls and roars — it is a fearful night !
One of the boats is nearly swept away, and is saved
with difficulty ; we have lost some of our rigging ;
one man is washed overboard, and washed back
again. The sea >^breaks over the vessel, and dashes
bto the cabin ; but One mightier has said, ' Hitherto
shalt thou come and no farther.' By the morning,
the morning of the Sabbath, the wind had abated."
The voyage which began in this way continued to
be one of weariness. But at last they reached home,
and were able to spend some months amidst familiar
scenes at Exeter. The old objection tb missionary
work was now no longer felt by Horden's father,
and both parents now found themselves fully in
sympathy with the son's work in life.
Having placed some of their children at school,
and obtained a little of the rest so well earned, Mr.

6o JOHN HORDEN
and Mrs, Horden went back to the field in 1867.
This time they approached their desolate home from
the south, travelling by steamer and rail as far as
Montreal, and then covering the last 1200 mUes in
canoes. For Horden himself tMs would not have
meant much hardship ; but Mrs. Horden had her
two youngest children with her, and for them the
long journey was not without its dangers. The
party had, of course, to camp out at night, and
• occasionally the canoes reached places where all the
passengers had to land whilst " portages " were made.
But they reached their destination safely, and were
warmly welcomed. They returned in time to be of
help to their neighbours in a winter of great scarcity
and hardship.-
Mr. Horden was at once plunged into.his former
occupations, and added to them a new one. A
harmonium had been provided for the little church
at Moose, and he learnt to play it.

CHAPTEE VI

OUT-STATIONS

A Canoe Journey — Fighting the Ice — Simple Worshippers —
Indian Liberality-pMissionary and Mechanic — The Decay
of Heathenism.

¦ OEDEN now began a series of
missionary journeys, longer than
any he had hitherto attempted.
In May 1868 he started for
a post called -Brunswick House, which lies
far to the south-east, near Lake Superior. The
journey, made" by canoe, lasted eleven days. The
river was full of ice, and the travellers were several
times in serious danger. Horden spent nine days
amongst the Indians at Brunswick House, and then
turned home again; A few days were spent at
61

62 JOHN HORDEN
Moose, and then he was away once more ; this time
heading to the north-east to Eupert's House. There
he found some three or four hundred Indians, many
of whom had known and practised the worst e"vils
of heathenism, but who were now honest Chris-

W^

\
¦i

w

^%vf'

AGED

okSb man.

tian people. Two Sundays were spent at Eupert's
House ; then the missionary turned due north along
the coast of James' Bay (the southern extension
of Hudson's Bay), travelling by canoe to Fort
George, doing the two hundred miles in four days
FIGHTING THE ICE 63
and a half. Here he had pleasant intercourse with
another body of Christian Indians under a native
teacher. Only a few days could be spent at Fort George,
after which passage was taken by a schooner to go
still farther north. Their destination was Great
Whale Eiver, but the journey threatened to be
disastrous. Horden himself thus pictures the ex
periences of this journey: —
" We get half-way, then, as the vessel cannot move
forward, I leave it, and, accompanied by two native
sailors, proceed in a small boat. Two days bring us
to an encampment of Indians. I now leave my boat
and enter a canoe, having with me Keshkumash, his
wife, and their young son ; two other canoes, each
containing a man and his wife, keep us company.
We have to work in earnest. Sometimes we go
along fast ; then we were in the midst of ice, and
could not move at all ; again we were chopping ji
passage for the canoes with our axes; and then,
when we could do nothing else, we carried it over

64 JOHN HORDEN
the rocks and set it down where the ice was not so
closely packed.
" After two days and a half of this we came to a
standstill, and I determined to go on foot. I took
one Indian with me, and we set off. Our walk was
over high, bare hills ; rivers ran through several of
the vaUeys, these we waded."
Arrived at last at his destination, there were
heathen Indians to deal with, some of whom received
his message, whilst some did not. But Horden had
not yet reached his farthest point north, and there
fore pushed on to Little Whale Eiver, where he was
amongst the Eskimo. Then, and not tUl then,
did he return south.
In 1870 came another series of long journeys,
marked by so much hardship that Horden's health
suffered. He left Moose in June, and travelled up
the river to New Brunswick, having for his com
panions during a part of the time some Indians, who,
before they knew a white missionary, had leamed
from a Christian Indian how to worship God.

A GOOD COLLECTION 65
Their way was very simple. One gave out the verse
of a hymn ; another repeated a text of Scripture ;
then came more of the hymn, and then more texts.
After this they knelt, and some half a dozen began
to pray aU at once. The heathen observers found
opportunity to speak, and one explained that he had
been favoured with a visit from a spirit, which
declared that it would withdraw its protection from
his children if he gave -them up for Christian
teaching. From New Brunswick Horden went on to the
south-east, to a station called Matawakumma.
There the Indians were decreasing in numbers, but
not in their love for Christ. For amongst them
Horden made what ho called "the largest com
parative collection I have ever made in my life, no
less than £8, 2s. 8d." The liberality of these little
scattered communities was indeed remarkable. If
they could not give in coin they could in
kind. One collection from an Indian congregation
-- produced fifty - eight beavers, then equal to a

66 JOHN HORDEN
sum of £8, 14s. When Horden was building a
school at Moose, they gave part of their aid in
labour, and worked to the value of £20. Before
Horden returned a second time to England, he
had buUt five churches, not one of which could
have been raised without the hearty co-opera
tion of the Christian Indians. That in the building
of them he had reason again and again to be
thankful for the early training which made him a
good artisan, is plain enough from his letters. But,
Hke Mackay, he knew that he could be serving God
just as weU whien working with hammer and chisel
as when praying with a little group of Indians
encamped for the night by some swift stream, or
preaching in one of the churches raised in part by
his own labour, or when brightening with the sure
promises of God the deathbed of some believing
Indian. But a new responsibility was about to fall on
Horden, and, in preparation for this, he went to
England in 1872.
When he left Moose, heathenism was almost ex-

A GROWING CHURCH

67

tinct there. Twelve native teachers, trained by him,
were ministering to their brethren ; and the number
of declared Christians in his district was estimated
at 1625.

CHAPTEE VII

A NEW RESPONSIBILITY

Horden Consecrated Bishop of Moosonee — A Great Diocese, Few
People — At Work once more — A Day's Tasks ^ An In
terrupted Service, and Scolding Mothers — An Ordination
Sermon. '
OEDEN was called to England that
he might be made a bishop. The
country round Hudson's Bay had
formed a part of the immense
aiocese of Eupert's Land, but, with the advance of
missionary work and the increase of the white
population, it had been resolved to divide it.
An irregular slice of territory surrounding Hud
son's Bay became the new diocese of Moosonee,
and was placed under Horden's care. No better
63

CONSECRATED BISHOP

69

choice could have been made. He was in the prime
of life, and had seen twenty-one years of service in
the field. He had shown qualities which are rarely
found together in one man.

bishop's qOUET, SCHOOLHOUSE, AND TENT, MOOSE FOKT.

He was consecrated at Westminster Abbey on
December 15, 1872 ; one of the prelates who laid
their hands on him being that very Bisliop Anderson
who, just twenty years before, had ordained him at
" Moose.

yo JOHN HORDEN
The new diocese had this peculiarity, that on one
side it had no boundary. Towards the north it
extends as far as you please; towards the south it
is now bordered by the Canadian Pacific Eailway;
eastward and westward it runs up by the shores of
the great bay. The inhabitants perhaps numbered
10,000; a few Europeans, some half-breeds, with
Crees, Ojibbeways, Chippewyans, and Eskimo. There
was no rich person in the diocese, and the Indians
in particular had many hardships to face. But the
popiUation was so scattered that, when Horden was
summoned home this time, he had, as he put it, just
returned from "a five months' walk" in his own
"parish." Bishop Horden left England in May, and went
home overland — that is to say, he again approached
Moose from the south. It was another case of hard
work, hard fare, and hard dealings from the mos
quitoes, which had no more reverence for a bishop
than for a curate.
Of course there were rejoicings at the return of the
bishop, but Horden himself settled down at once to

WINTER WORK 71
everyday work. He had his plans for the diocese,
dividing it into districts, in the hope of placing a
clergyman in each. Into the work of translation he
threw himself with new zest, using upon this the long
days when the rivers were in the grip of the ice, and
little traveUing could be done. Thus, in writing on
May 5th,1874, the date of the great Church Missionary
Society meeting of the year, in the Exeter Hall, he
gives us a glimpse of one such quiet day at
Moose : — ¦
" Outside it is very gloomy ; it is stiU very cold ;
the snow is very deep on the ground ; the ice in the
river is nearly as strong as it was in the middle of
winter, and we do not anticipate a break-up for a
fortnight, and when the break-up comes we fear a
flood. " And, now, how shall I spend the day ? Princi
pally on my translations, which, I thank God, are
progressing very favourably. I am now engaged on
the Psalms, which are to-form the commencement of
the book I have in hand. See me, then, as I shall be

72 JOHN HORDEN
half an hour hence, pen and ink and manuscript
book -before me, Scott's Commentary opened
at the ninetieth Psalm, with Mason's Bible, Cree
Dictionary, Prayer - book, Cruden's Concordance,
arrayed around me, and I shall be deep in
the beauties of that solemn Psalm. At nine
I take Bertie and Beatrice for an hour, and
then return to my translations untU dinner
time. Afterwards I shall go out to see some
of my people, notably a very aged woman,
grandmother of our schoolmaster; she has lived
over a century."
But with these cares in his mind he always had
an eye for the ordinary life of the settlement. He
could help with the rest in preparing for the
winter; in seeing that a potato crop was got in;
that a stock of fish was caught, and salted or
frozen ; that pigs and cattle were killed and
frozen; that great stores of firewood were brought
in. For those who were healthy there were
amusements too. The bishop's boys — like any

. SPORTS AND PASTIMES 73
other boys — enjoyed wielding an axe, and were
never better pleased than when out in the
woods. Then they could taste the keen joy
of rushing through the crisp air on a toboggan,'
which even those who have only known the
sport as it is practised in winter in Switzerland
will envy them. There was fishing too; cold
work with the temperature "a little below zero,"
so that the trout froze hard soon after they
left the water. But the bishop knew the secret
of contentment, and writes down his own view in
these words — /
" T'hx, happiest man is he who is most diligently '
employed about his Master'^ business."
Perhaps Horden's new dignity added weight to
his words. At all events, it was soon after his
return as a bishop that a curious interruption
stopped for a moment one of his services. He had
been up the bay, when, during the journey, he saw
a body of Indians in the distance. As usual, he at
once arranged a service for them. A good many

74 JOHN HORDEN
young people were present, to whom the bishop
spoke. Suddenly there was a stir amongst the hearers,
and cries were raised.
He stopped for a moment in astonishment; but
then their voices told him the cause of the
tumult. The. mothers were making the most of
his advice.
" Do you hear ? " t|iey cried to their daugh
ters ; " isn't this what we are always teUing
you?" Then the daughters were hauled to the front,
whilst their mothers shouted : " Come here, that he
may see you; let him see hoW ashamed you look,
you disobedient children."
This interlude over, the sermon went on to a
happy end.
Bishop Horden had for years been training some
natives, with a view to the ministry, and two were
speedily ordained by him. His own summary of
his first ordination sermon wiU interest those
who care to know the spirit in which Horden

' A SERMON TO EVANGELISTS 75
worked, and the spirit he desired for his helpers.
The text was Heb. xii. 2, and the summary runs
thus —
" 1. Look unto Jesus, to learn in what spirit your
work should be. performed.
" 2. Look at Jesus, and see in Him how a minister
of God should pray.
"3. Look unto Jesus, and learn from Him how
to improve opportunities which arise in the course
of your fflinisti'y. When paddling with an Indian,
over one of the lakes, teach him to look to Jesus,
who walked on the waves of the Lake of Gennes
aret. In the lonely bivouac, speak to him of Jesus
who had not where to lay His head. In the squalid
tent, of Him who, though He was rich, yet for our
sakes became poor.
"4. Look unto Jesus, and learn from Him how
best to convey instruction.
" 5. Look unto Jesus in His holiness, and fashion
your life in the same faultless mould.

76 JOHN HORDEN
" 6. Look unto Jesus, for the fulfilment of His
promises. " 7. Teach those to whom you are sent to look
unto Jesus."
The bishop's words were, his hearers knew, but
the reflection of his own life. ,

CHAPTEE VIII
LEAVES FEOM BISHOP HORDEN's DIARY
More Helpers — A Roundabout Way to the Far North^A Terrible
Journey-^Ari Arctic Home — Lonely Churchill — An Indian
Heroine — The Fruits of Christianity — Another Year of Rest.
»N the settlement of teachers for the
little communities under his care
the bishop felt the greatest joy. He
was able to place two native clergy
men amongst the Ojibbeways. York Factory, an
important trading-post on the south-west shore
of the bay, had an English clergyman, Mr., after
wards Archdeacon, Winter ; another English clergy
man, the Eev. J. H. Keen, worked at Moose, and
then at Eupert's House ; and then Mr. E. J.
Peck, who had begun life in the navy, came out to
77

78 JOHN HORDEN
work amongst the Eskimo. Mr. Peck was ordained
by th'e bishop in 1878, and is still attached to the
same mission.
But it must not be supposed that the help thus
given made Horden himself less active. He
"laboured more abundantly than they aU," and
with the same cheerful humility. He made a
journey to the south-west to attend a Synod at
Winnipeg, and thence proceeded, by way of con
trast, to the north-west that he might "visit York
Factory. This curiously iUustrates an old saying
as to the "longest way round " being the " shortest
way there." York Factory lies far to the north-west
of Moose on the shores of the Hudson's Bay, at
the mouth of the Nelson Eiver. To reach it
Horden went almost due south to Mattawa; then
westward by the Canadian Pacific EaUway. A
stay was made near Winnipeg ; then he went
still farther west by steamer and boat before
striking to the north through a desolate land
to York Factory. Here the bishop was busy as
ever, conducting an EngUsh school, — for desolate as

79

THIRTY DEGREES BELO W ZERO 8 1
the spot is, the fur trade h^s gathered a little colony
of English there, — helping the resident missionary to
learn Cree, and teaching the natives.
From York Factory Horden pushed on to Fort
Churchill, the most northerly spot inhabited in
his diocese. This, too, is on the shores of the bay.
The bishop's diaty of this expedition shows the
life which a missionary must be content to lead
who would preach Christ 'in the far north. Here
it is : —
"Feb. 1st; 1880.— At four o'clock. Soon after the
close of the Indian service, drove from York Factory
8 miles, through wUlows and woods to a house
occupied by wood-cutters. Temperature, 30 degrees
below zero.
"Feb. 2nd. — After service and breakfast, set out on
our way to Churchill ; the cold was severe and the
wind high, so high indeed that the guide had some
doubts about crossing Nelson Eiver, which we reached
' soon after starting. Where we crossed it was 8 miles
wide and, very rough,^the ice piled high ipost of the

82 JOHN HORDEN
distance ; it was the most difficult travelUng I have
ever experienced ; we were obliged to cross mUes
higher up than the route some of my companions
had taken in coming to York only a few days
previously, the ice having been broken up by the
fierce winds which have lately raged. Having
crossed without accident we went down the northern
bank of the river towards the sea ; at noon we took
dinner, when our guide thought we had better put
up for the night. We all went to Benjamin Kayam-
awilUew's tent ; he was very kind, and enlarged his
' tent so as to accommodate the whole of us ; we spent
a very pleasant evening, I conducting our service
in English and Cree. Temperature, 27 degrees
below zero. We had among us two carioles, two
sledges for baggage and pro"visions, and sixteen
dogs. " Feb. Zrd. — After prayers and breakfast, resumed
our journey for a short time through woods, and then
over more open country. The wind was high and
eold, and the drifting of the snow did not permit us
to proceed after twelve o'clock. We had a very good

A TERRIBLE JOURNEY 83
encampment at Island Bluff. Temperature, 23
degrees below zero.
"Feb. Ath, — Bitterly cold, with a cutting wind,
blowing directly in our faces; our way lay over
plains interspersed with belts of trees; encamped
between one and two o'clock at Partridge Creek.
Temperature, 30 degrees below zero. '
"Feb. .5^^.. T— Cold still more severe; wind as
yesterday, right in our teeth ; could not travel after
eleven o'clock, when we encamped at the edge of
Stoney Eiver Plain. With the exception of myself,
all were frozen; the guide and James Isaac, my
special attendant, very severely. Temperature, 36
degrees below zero.
" Feb, &th. — ^No change for the better, but obliged
to proceed, as food for both men and dogs was but
limited ; the crossing of the large plain was terrible,
and all suffered a great deal. At three o'clock we
encamped at Owl Eiver. Temperature, 38 degrees
below zero.
" Feb, *lth, — We had very bad weather to-day, the
wind very high and cold, with a little snow and

84 JOHN HORDEN
much drift ; could not proceed after eleven o'clock,
when we encamped on the edge of the Big Plain.
Indians killed two deer to-day. Temperature, 32
degrees below zero.
"Feb, 8iA.— We started very late, and at once
faced the plain. In looking over it, one could
fancy himself beholding the frozen surface of the
sea ; no trees or bushes break the uniform level bf
white, and over it we jogged as rapidly as possible.
Eiding in a cariole over such a surface is by no
means agreeable; one does not experience the
sense of rapid movement over a smooth surface,
one rather feels as if moving slowly over a rough
road; more than anything else, it resembles that
of beiug in a springless cart in a rugged country
lane, for the snow lies in ridges, hardened by the
wind,, over which the cariole is incessantly jumping.
At eleven o'clock we reached Bwaak, and proceeded
no farther; it was terribly cold. Temperature, 46
degrees below zero.
" Feb. ^th, — Started early ; weather not so cold.
At two P.M. reached the south end of a belt of

CHURCHILL 85
woods, called Eobinson's Bluff, when it was snowing
somewhat thickly, and as this was a good place, with
plenty of good wood, we encamped for the night.
Temperature, 28 degrees below zero.
" Feb, X^th.—1\i.% weather somewhat better, and
we made a good day, encamping in the evening
among the eastern woods. Temperattire, 31 degrees
below zero.
"Feb, Wth,—k. fine day, bright and pold, without
wind ; passed over several plains and small lakes, and
through some belts of woods. At noon , we took
dinner at Statchookem Eidge, and there, 15 mUes
from Churchill, naade a good smoke to signal our
approach; 8 miles farther on, we made another,
and were soon met by men from the post, with a
team of dogs, by which we sent forward our
doctor, who, with his fresh team and drivers, could
get on much faster than . we could do. We now
made a descent of a couple of miles through , a
wood, which brought Us to the bank of the Churchill
Eiver, here 4 miles wide; the crossiing was some
what disagreeable, from the great roughness of the

86 JOHN HORDEN
ice, although it was nothing like as bad as that
which covered the Nelson Eiver. At half - past
four o'clock, I arrived at ChurchUl House, where the
warmest of receptions was given me by Mr. Spencer,
the Hudson's Bay Company's agent, and his wife.
In the evening, held a service attended by all at the
post. Temperature, 30 degrees below zero.
" The temperature given is that registered within
the Fort at York Factory. The actual cold we
experienced on the trip would be, at least, two
degrees more in intensity than those I have given, on
account of our exposure and of our journeying,
northward. Every evening, from an hour to an
hour and a half was expended in preparing our
barricade, on which much care was bestowed ; the
snow was first cleared from the ground, a wall
rf pine-trees, with the brush on, was then raised,
over 4 feet high, so as to protect us effectually
from the wind ; at some distance in front of this
the fire was laid, the whole space between it and
the wall being thickly pUed with pine -brush,
which formed an agreeable carpet and bed; the

CAMPING OUT

87

quantity of firewood cut was enormous ; a smaU fire,
and one not constantly replenished, would make but
little impression on air 40 degrees below zero. Cook
ing and taking supper occupied some time, and then
we would sometimes get a story from one of our

A HUNTER VISITING HIS TKAP.

companions of his traveUing or hunting experiences,
in which pluck, endurance, and self-reliance shone
with becoming lustre. All closed with a service, in
which everyone seemed to join with great heartiness.
In the morning before starting, another service

88 JOHN HORDEN
was always held. From all, I experienced the
greatest kindness; my faintest wish was compUed
with, if it had not been already anticipated. AU
were wUUng, all were cheerful; an angry look or
an angry word was not interchanged the whole way."
Churchill is nojb a place which any European
would choose as a home if duty did not call him
there. The cold is believed to be as intense there as
in almost any other spot on the earth's surface,
and the isolation is so great, that the wife of
the agent in charge was "often years without
seeing the face of a ci"vUised woman." Nor shaU
we wonder, since it is a place where the land
sees eight months of continuous winter, vyith only
some six weeks of real summer. There also, however,
Bishop Horden was able to place a resident mission
ary, with so much blessing that, in recent years,
nearly all the adults have regularly met at the table
of the Lord. A few sentences from a comparatively
recent letter wiU show that, desert as the land may
be called, it has been fruitful before God.

SNO W IN CHURCH 89
"Constant and regular attendance," writes the
missionary, " at all services is some proof of a desire
to serve Christ at Churchill, for I am quite sure there
are many real Christians iu England whose place in the
house of God would often be vacant if they had such
a church as we had last winter : it was no uncommon
thing to see minister and congregation covered with
snow, and often have I gone through the' full servic^
with the thermometer a long way below freezing-
point, yet all were as reverent and devout as if in a
comfortable English church. Thank God, we have
now got our new church opened ahd in use, so
that I hope we may escape rain and storm,
though to get the church fairly warm, with the
thermometer 50 degrees below zero, requires good fires
and good wood ; the latter is an impossibility tb
get at ChurchiU."
The bishop's letters", during the period of service
over which we have been looking, include many testi
monies to the character and worth of the Christian
Indian^ both men and women. The "noble Eed-

90 JOHN HORDEN
man" does not always appear in fiction or in fact
with much true nobUity of character ; yet under the
gospel of Christ, men and women such as had once
kUled their own kindred, to save themselves from
starving, proved themselves genuine heroes. Such a
woman was Eliza, whose history Bishop Horden
often alluded to. It is given in fuU in the. letter
which speaks of her death. Here it is in his own
words —
" When I came to Moose, five - and - thirty
years ago, among my first scholars was a young
Indian girl, named Eliza Crow ; she was very
industrious in her studies, and was not long
in acquiring the power of both speaking and
reading English, and her Bible soon became
her greatest delight. After a while, ,the family
with whom she was living was sent far away
into the interior to take charge of a, trading-
post, and she went with them. Here she
married a Christian Indian, who was in the
service of the Hudson's Bay Company. Leaving'

INDIAN TRAPPEBS. 91

AN INDIAN HEROINE 93
that employ, they went to Albany, her husband's
home, where they obtained their UveUhood ias
fur -hunters. One winter they hunted on the
Island of A^omske, the English interpretation of
Ukamuske — 'the land on the other side of the
water.' Food was "very scarce, and became more
so, until their two youngest children succumbed
,to starvation. They were upwards of seventy
mUea from Albany, the nearest point at which
assistance could be obtained. This must be
reached, or all would starve. Eliza tied her
two remaining children, a boy and girl, well
wrE^^ped up, on her sledge, and, preceded by
her husband, now in a state of great exhaustion,
began the weary tramp. Bravely they toiled on,
until the husband's strength was spent. She
then made up a small tent, lit a fire, and
made him as comfortable as possible. She then
pushed on with her load, reached the leading
establishment, and fainted away. Nature had held
out longer than coilld have been anticipated.
Kind and busy hands were, without a moment's

94 JOHN HORDEN
delay, engaged in ministering to the wants of
the famished ones. As soon as she could
speak, Eliza evinced her anxiety for her hus
band, stating the condition in which she left
him, and beseeching that help might be sent
to him at once. Eskimo dogs were harnessed,
and suppUes instantly despatched. The tent
was reached, but succour had come too late. -
The remains — cold, stiff, and emaciated — of the
sufferer were alone there. These were buried, and
the organisers returned to Albany. In the foUowing
summer Eliza came on to Moose, where she supported
herself and her chUdren by her industry ; she was
after a time married to her second husband, Norman
Mardevela, a European,' to whom she was a faithful
and attached wife, and by whom she became the
mother of four children, and these she brought up in
an exemplary manner. Her last iUness was a long
one, which she bore with great patience. As the
end approached, she seemed very anxious to
be gone, saying that her Saviour stood waiting
for her; her end was peace. She was held in

A CONTRAST 95
honour by all at Mtjose, and she will long live
in our memory."
This story of fighting hunger' is but too sadly com
mon in the simple records of Indian life. Amelia's
case was not unlike that of Eliza's ; she too lost her
husband in the vain effort to reach help. In the
midst of this anguish a child was born, and that Uttle
one Amelia succeeded in carrying alive to Moose.
There was the wife of Jacob Matamashkum, who
saved her husband from starvation by feeding him
with the milk nature had given her for her child.
" In the summer," wrote the wife of a native pastor
at one station, " we ' depend altogether on our nets,
and if fish faUs, then there is nothing at all."
There are people sitting quietly at home in
England, who sometimes doubt the value of
Christianity to such as these Indians. The contrast
between the heathen who in time of death saved
himself by cannibalism, and the Christian who
showed the courage and faith of Eliza and Amelia,
is worth their consideration.

96 JOHN HORDEN
The bishop went back fiom ChurchUl to Fort
York, and hence, by the annual ship, went to England
for rest after his first eight years of work as a
bishop.

CHAPTEE IX
"YEARS OF TRIAL
Moosonee Once More — Pestilence and Famine — A Perilous Journey
— :A Forest Fairyland — A Long Eide Behind Dogs.
ISHOP HOEDEN returned to Moosonee
in 1882. His friends in England
had seen a marked change in him
since he was last amongst them,
and even those ' who, like myself, had never met
Bishop Horden until this period, could not help
noticing that he seemed physically unequal to the
long, tiring journeys, and the extremes of heat and
cold, and the exposure- to which he was about to
return. But at Moose their one anxiety was to have
him with them.
7

98 JOHN HORDEN
Horden travelled again by the southern route.
The progress of the Canadian Pacific Eailway was
making a change along the lower part of his
diocese. Mattawa, when last he went that way to
Moose, consisted of three houses. He now found
it a flourishing Uttle town. But the railway could
not carry him north to Moose, and when once
more in the canoe he found the weight of years
beginning to tell upon him. But his spirits did
not fail him.
In his diary he looks to the pleasure of meeting
his own people ; writes gleefully of the joy shown
by a few Moose folk whom he met as they
drew near the settlement ; then of the Uttle tumult
that ensues when the news of his arrival is
announced by voice and flag and beU ; and, . lastly,
of the service which is almost at once held in the
church. Progress had been made in the bishop's absence,
but there were sore trials to face. In the summer
' of 1883 an epidemic of whooping-cough broke out at
Moose and Albany. At the latter station forty-foui

MANY SORROWS 99
died out of the smaU community; at Moose the disease
was scarcely less fatal. In August a severe storm
did much damage at Moose, and threw the more
gloom over the settlement because the yearly ship
was then expected. September came, day succeeding
day without the expected arrival. It had been a
time of great suffering, and the prospect of Christmas
without the supplies expected filled all with alarm.
Medicines were exhausted, candles were nearly all
gone, only half a crop of potatoes was available, and
even clothing was getting scarce. It was not until
September 21st that the joyful cry, " The ship's
come," was heard.
The anxiety told so much on Horden, and, the
results of another shipwreck would have been
so serious, that he resolved to lay in a year's
supply of all necessaries for all the stations, and
so to lessen the risk of starvation. The money
was found, and their yearly dread was therefore
gone. But there were more sorrows to meet. The year
1884 was one of much sickness and distress, which

loo JOHN HORDEN
had to be fought on all sides. Early in the summer
the bishop made a journey up the Moose to Long
Portage House. It was the kind of work which now
tried him — the canoe journey hard, and the weather
cold for camping out. Yet he was repaid by the
pleasure of ministering to the little group of people
at the station. On the journey out they met in five
days but one famUy. On the return they came upon
a smaU body of Indians. They stopped at once, and
a service which lasted for three hours was held. The
bishop went into camp at half-past ten, and was up
and in the canoe again at four.
In the September of that year he had only just
returned from the hard journey, when the news that
influenza was raging at Albany sent him off on
another journey of 100 mUes again.
And his presence there was sorely needed. The
epidemic threatened to sweep off the whole population,
and was especiaUy fatal to the young men. There
were five funerals in one day, as many as for the
. most part occurred in a year. " To aggravate the
evU," writes the bishop, " the weather was terrible;

A WELCOME BISHOP loi
for it was raining almost every day, whUe suitable
food was not obtainable. Of flour, salt pork, and
salt geese there was abundance, and they were
distributed with a liberal hand ; but in the sijimmeir
there are no birds in the Albany marshes — no fish in
the Albany river ; it is always, as the Indians say,
Kitemakun, tapwa naspich Mtemakun — 'It is poor;
truly it is very poor.' "
Horden's coming seemed to give all new life. He
was, compared with them, in health, and full of the
bright, cheerful faith which they had seen him shoW
in times of hardship before. He was here, there,
and everywhere amongst them, distributing medicine
and food ; comforting the dying, burying the dead,
consoling the bereaved; setting the convalescent to
such tasks as they were fit for. After five weeks
of such. work he was able to turn his face home
wards, lea"ving not one Indian seriously ill behind
him. At Eupert's House, too, sickness and death had
been busy. It was one of the brightest spots in the
land. The Indians had all received the gospel, and

102 JOHN HORDEN
held it faithfuUy; they were orderly, industrious,
weU-to-do people ; starvation rarely threatened their
Httle community. But now Horden found every
thing changed. Such suffering had come upon them
as was usuaUy seen in less prosperous settlements.
" Now," wrote the bishop in his annual letter, " I
looked around and inquired, ' Where is this Indian ?
where that? what became of this chUd's father?
where is this child's mother ? '
" And the answer came : ' He died of starvation
four winters ago; he was starved to death three
years since ; she and aU the rest of her chUdren were
cut off two years ago.'
"'And what losses were sustained by you, last
winter ? '
"And I am told — four men, three women, and
nineteen chUdren ; they were all baptized Christians."
Once in returning from Eupert's House the
bishop nearly lost his Ufe. They were crossing
part of the bay in a dog-sleigh, and were nearly
ten miles from land, when, looking seaward, they saw.

A NARROW ESCAPE 103
the ice breaking up before the tide, and a stick struck
vigorously upon the ice near them went through!
They turned at once, happily reaching Rupert's
House in safety.
The next catastrophe was the wreck of the annual
ship, The Princess Boyal. Happily for the settlers
it was upon her return voyage ; but the crew were
for some months prisoners at Moose.
The autumn of 1885 was a trying one, for . the
weather turned warm when it should have been
cold. This was hard for those who dwelt on Moose
Island. "We can generally," he wrote, "cross the
main channel of our river about Nov. 10th, on
the ice, while this season we could not do sc until
a few days since. This is by no means to our advan
tage, as most of our firewood and a good portion of our
food are obtainable at a distance from our island, to
which we are confined until the river is firmly frozen;
as it was, it lay for weeks quite impassable, with too
much ice in it for navigation by boat or canoe, and
too little for, either sledge or snow-shoe."
But amidst the anxieties of this time Horden still

I04 /JOHN HORDEN
had an eye for the beauties of nature. In one letter
he describes the forest as converted into a fairyland/
in a way to which even his long experience does not
seem to have furnished any paraUel.
" A light raiii fell for several hours, and froze at
once on touching the houses, trees, and bushes ; con
sequently the windward sides , of the houses were
covered with innumerable small icicles, depending
from the lower edge of the weather boards; the-
trees, and especially the poplars,, were thickly coated
with ice, every branch being apparently encased in
transparent glass ; whUe the bushes, almost fiattened
to the ground by their weight of beauty, presented a
most curious and striking appearance. Nor was this
all, for a few days subsequently some very fine snow,
or rather perhaps frozen mist, feU on the transpar
encies, the result being the most fairy Uke imaginable;
and in a walk in the forest one would not have been
at aU surprised had he met with troops of elves, pixies,
and fairies, with whose history we were made so
well acquainted in the days of our chUdhood. But

FAIRYLAND 105
this beatity was very destructive; the branches of
the trees could not bear this unaccustomed burden,
and numbers of them were continua,lly breaking off,
so that it was somewhat dangerous to walk under
them, and of the bUshes many were entirely (destroyed.
The birds and herbivorous animals must have suffered
severely for a time, as it was impossible for them to
obtain food ; even the blades of grass which appeared
above the snow were all as thick as ropes. Things
are better now, although they have not yet reached
their normal condition."
At the end of the same yeat the bishop made
another joyrney to Albany. His account, published
in England in the following April, is marked by all
his old power of picturesque description. It wUl
help the reader to understand the Ufe which Horden
still found it a joy to lead. The start was made on
Dec.' 18th, when, directly after breakfast, accom
panied by his faithful fellow- workers, he \Valked to the
Hudson's Bay Company's establishment, whence they
were to start. The sledge was already on the river..

.io6 JOHN HORDEN
" Soon the dogs, twelve in number, and as beautiful
creatures as were ever in harness, were led down the
bank, and each with his separate trail fastened to
the sledge, which was firmly moored to prevent the
dogs running off with it untU aU was ready. This
was soon effected; I said good-bye to the many
friends assembled to see me off, the dogs in the
meantime jumping, howling, tugging at the sledge
in their eagerness to start ; the mooring-rope was soon
loosened, and a moment afterwards we were at the
gaUop, passing down the river in front of the houses
standing oh its northern bemk, the inmates cheering
us onward. At the end of the first half-mUe we
passed the last house, and were soon in the wUder
ness, away from the sight and soimd of everything
except ourselves. For a short time, whUe we were
among the islands, the ice was rough, occasioned
by the currents of the river and the action of the
tides in the narrow spaces between the islands, but
presently this was at an end, and the running
became as smooth as the most fastidious traveUer
could desire. The temperature was deUghtful, no

BEHIND THE DOGS

107

wrapping up being required ; it was simply perfec
tion, and tlie mind felt a degree of elasticity to
which it had long been a stranger. After going
about fourteen mUes, we came in sight of the ill-

¦"^#--" ' /¦'-'¦f^'^ I.

fated Princess Boyal, lying about six miles from the
shore, and a little farther on we reached North Bluff
Beacon. There we remained half an hour to give
^ the dogs a Uttle rest, and take a little refreshment

io8 JOHN HORDEN
ourselves; then on again; the splendid dogs, with
their tails curled over their backs, required no whip
to urge them forward, but either at full gaUop or
fast trot, went on to our tent at Piskwamisk. We
had done 40 mUes in little over six hours, one of
the best and most pleasant traveUing days I have
ever experienced. We soon made ourselves comfort
able, and then saw to the comfort of our hard
working beasts, removing their harness, tmd fastening
each with a chain to a separate tree stump to
prevent their indulging in a fight, giving each a bed
of pine brush, and then supplying him -vrith a good
supper of frozen white-fish, which, having most
greedUy devoured, and seeing that nothing more
was forthcoming, he coiled himself up on his bed
with his taU over his. head, and relapsed into perfect
silence for the night.
• .' "The following morning the weather was, very
rough, and the atmosphere so thick that nothing
seaward was visible, so we remained in camp, and
passed most of the day in reading. The weather
was not very inviting on our third morning,

A PLEASANT JOURNEY 109
but we had only a short stage before us to
Cock Point, which it was absolutely necessary
for us to reach so as to secure food for our
dogs. Four hours took us there, and six hours
and a' half brought us the next day to Albany,
where I found all weU."

CHAPTEE X
TO ENGLAND FOR THE LAST TIME
The Coming of Summer — Break-up of the Ice — The Three Cows
of Churchill — Eskimo Dog Teams — ^Farewell Services — A-
Polyglot Preacher — In the Canoe Once More^A Critical
Moment — Horden in England,
HE coming of the summer of 1886
was not "without its alarm and
danger for the dwellers at Moose.
The ice broke up earlier than had
ever been known before. An Indian came
in on April 16th to warn the settlement that the
ice was rotten. Four days later the ice could
be seen some six miles off to be standing in high
mounds. Big guns were fired — the warning to
all Indians hunting at the river mouth. There was
110

BREAK-UP OF THE ICE iii
no immediate change, but at three the next morning
the crash came. "There was," wrote the bishop»
" a roar as of heavy artiUery. The ice broke right
across the river, and began to heave and plunge, and
a large body of it moved onwards. A huge field of
it, rising above the river's bank, rushed forward as
if it would destroy the mission premises, and stopping
but a few feet from my front gate, all became quiet
again. The river, packed with piled and broken ice-
blocks looked wild and threatening, and we anxiously
waited to see what the result of future shores would
be. The water ebbed and fiowed, and an occasional
movement took place, but there was no cause for
alarm, untU eleven o'clock at night, when the water
rose very high and the ice was borne forward with
great velocity, the field of ice in front of my house
being brought up to our fence, and the water lying
deep in my garden."
All that summer the bishop was busy. There
were still translations to be made ; there were stiU
teachers to train ; there was still the ordinary work
of the evangelist and pastor to discharge. Amidst

1 1 2 JOHN HORDEN
it all he finds time to write long letters home for
publication, for Bishop Horden knew that the way
to excite and keep aUve an interest in missionary
enterprise is to teU people how it is going,
and how men fare in the land where the worker
is. So Horden trained himself to write almost as
fully of the everyday life of his people as of
the work of grace which was manifest amongst
them. '
Thus, in one letter, he has a long account of Fort
ChurchiU, " the last house in the world," i.e, the
nearest to the North Pole. He devoted a good deal
of space to the three cows of Churchill — ^valuable
beasts, fed in winter chiefly on the white moss
beloved of the reindeer. They were a strange trio.
One was so small as to be almost a dwaif. The
other was " so supple, that she required no milkmaid
to mUk her ; she did it herself." The third was the
proud owner of an artificial tail. This distinction
she owed to an encounter with wolves. Not being
far from home, she succeeded in reaching a place of
safety alive. But the wolves were not wholly un-

THE WONDERFUL TAIL 113
successful, for one got near enough to bite off the
fugitive's tail.
The loss was serious. Nowhere does a cow want
her tail more than at ChurchiU. Flies swarm there,
and without the weapon nature has provided she
must die under their attacks. But art came to the
help of nature. Somebody remembered that there
was a dead cow's tail lying in the store. Happy
thought ! It was brought out ; secured firmly to the
stump of the lost member, the join neatly covered
with canvas and tar ; and then the cow was able
once more to hold her own against the flies.
In another letter he gives a long account of the
dogs which play so useful a part in the life of their
almost Arctic settlement. It is suggested by the
unexpected appearance at Moose of a large body of
men coming up the river, hauling a heavy sledge
behind them. As such work is generally done by
dogs, the Moose people knew not what to make of
the exhibition, unless the arrivals were strangers
from parts unknown. They were, however, no
strangers, but neighbours from Albany, who had

1 14 JOHN HORDEN
been compelled to harness themselves to their sledge
and come to Moose for supplies, as their dogs had
been attacked by a fatal epidemic which had carried
off nearly the whole of them.
The bishop then describes the character and
work of the dogs upon which the settler has to rely
for so much aid in the hardest season of the year.
" These dogs, of pure Eskimo breed, are invaluable
in winter, and large teams of them are kept at
Albany, Eupert's House, Whale Eiver, York, and
ChurchiU. The Albany team was a particularly
fine one, great care having been taken of late years
in the selection of animals for breeding. They
were well taken care of, were very tractable, and
the pride of their famous driver, Harvey, who loved
them almost as much as he does his children,
and treated them most mercifully, an undeserved
blow being never inflicted, and who, when on a
journey, saw that every evening they were weU
fed, and, what is equally necessary, weU bedded.
In summer they do nothing, and are then voted a

HUNTING DEER.
US

BUSY DOGS 117
great nuisarice, as they are very dangerous to the
calves, and require to be hea"vily blocked, which
by no means improves their temper, and gives
them a sadly haiigdog look. In winter they do
no work at Albany itself, but the whole season
ply between Moose and Albany, bringing from there
quantities of provisions, and taking back ' sledge-
loads of dry goods. The Eupert's House team
is used in a simUar manner ; Moose, from the
large number of inhabitants, receiving all the food
the neighbouring posts can spare, and being the
dep6t of the country, supplying all the goods
required for use and trade. At Whale Eiver,
where no cattle are kept, dogs haul all the fire
wood consumed at the station, and as the wood
is cut seven miles distant from the place, and the
consumption is very great, they are kept very
busy, and I think work much harder than at the
more southern stations. A very large team, or
indeed several teams, are kept at York Factory,
and are employed in haiUing venison, the principal
food of the station, from the various places where

1 18 JOHN HORDEN
the hunters have succeeded in kUUng it. The
ChurchiU team, too, is a splendid one, and the
principal driver, George Oman, is almost as exceUent
in his way as Harvey of Albany. I have seen these
dogs as playful and gentle as kittens, and as fierce
and cruel as a pack of wolves ; sometimes they are
playing with and fondling each other and persons
of their acquaintance, although there is perhaps less
personal attachment in the Eskimo dog than in any
other ; and, again, I have seen dogs Ijdng dead, kUled
by their companions in their terrible battles. As
a rule, they are not dangerous to people, but they do
occasionaUy attack them, and commit great outrages."
The time was now coming for the bishop to
make his last "visit to England. Mrs. Horden had
remained before when the bishop saUed for Moosonee
in 1882, and the separation had now been a long one.
Yet, if Mrs. Horden was in England, he had blood-
ties "vrith Moosonee, and to him that still was home.
It was on the last day of May 1888 that he began
the long journey. The preceding Sunday was

FAREWELL SERVICES 119
marked by a general solemnity on all sides, for, as
he wrote, " every one at Moose is to me as a son or
a daughter." The first gathering of the day was an English
service, at which the congregation numbered 200,
although Only sis were Europeans^ There were
forty communicants, and the offertory was £35.
Mr. Eichards was ordained, and, as the bishop
afterwards told an English audience, his accomplish
ments were many and varied. He could preach
" a very good sermon " in English, and a " very
good sermon " in Cree, "and a " very tolerable sermon "
in Ojibbeway, besides making himself understood in
Eskimo. In addition he could "paddle his own
canoe "with the best of them — a useful accomplish
ment in a land where the bishop himself had been
clergyman, doctor, blacksmith, and schoolmaster.
But to return to the service. That over, there
was one for the Indians at 7 A.M., to which they
brought their own Bible and prayer-books, bought
with their own money. At 1.30 the Sunday school
began. At 3.30 the cathedral was again crowded.

120 JOHN HORDEN
Every person present was baptized, and every adult
had been confirmed. The collection was £20. So
ended the public services of a busy and a heart-
moving day.
At last the hour of parting came, and from his
place in the canoe, the bishop gave "a fatherly
blessing " to the crowd gathered on the shore. His
daughter and her chUdren went a day's journey with
the party, and a young grandson accompanied the
bishop as far as Canada. At night they encamped
by the river bank ; supper was cooked by a roaring
fire, and " a very solemn service closed the day."
The next day saw more fa,rewells, and then the
jburney began in earnest.
It was not without its perUs, as the canoe was
poled or tracked up the river. At times they had to
land, and feel their way as best they could through
the pathless woods. Once they were face to face '
with a sudden death. " We had ascended a terrible
and long rapid, and had got by the easiest side of the
stream just opposite the foot of our longest portage,
but between us and it ran the swollen and fiercely

A CRITICAL MOMENT 123
flowing river. We all grasped a paddle firmly, and,
bending with our full strength, dashed out into the
stream; we could get no farther, and were swept
down like lightning into the boUing rapid. The
sight was the most dangerous I had ever witnessed ;
but the men were equal to the emergency. Turning
round in the canoe, the bow became the stern, and
we were kept clear of the rocks which threatened
our destruction."
The voyage to Canada was made without mishap,
and soon the bishop was once more in England. It
was not a time of idleness, or even of rest. There
was much yet to be done in making known the work,
and in pleading for the means to still further
extend it. At the Church Missionary Society anni
versary of 1889 the bishop was a conspicuous figure. ~"
He was warmly greeted, when, with other bishops, ^
he appeared on the platform at Exeter Hall in the
morning, and in the evening he took the chair.
Few who heard that speech will forget the veteran
who made it. He had come, he told the vast
audience, from the great Lone Land, where he had

124 JOHN HORDEN
spent thirty-eight years of his life. He showed
them, in a graphic anecdote, the old condition of the
Indians there. Then, by way of contrast, he took
them back to that last Sunday in his diocese, already
described. In a few days the bishop said farewell
once more to his friends in England. He had
turned his back upon the old scenes he was never to
look on again.

CHAPTEE XI
HOME AGAIN
Last "Visits to Outlying Stations — An Eskimo Congregation— The
Disabilities of Old Age — Still an Active Bishop — A Sunday
at Whale Eiver. ^
ISHOP HOEDEN travelled again by
way of Canada, and it was like Horden
that, upon the railway car in the
journey westward, he lectured every
day to the people.
He went first to the north-west of his diocese,
visiting Oxford House, and then going on to York
Factory. " A pleasant week's journey," he called it,
although few Europeans at his age would find it so.
From York Factory he went on by boat to Churchill.
125

126 JOHN HORDEN
The weather was beautiful and bright every day, but
the nights were very cold, and the sleeping out in
the open boat was, in the bishop's words," not always
comfortable ; but," he adds, " that mattered Uttle, as

CREE CHURCH
AT
YORK FACTORY,

long as we were proceeding." In five days they
were sailing up the Great ChurchUl Eiver, and
landing at the utmost limit of civiUsation. The
place was full, and the people were just as busy as
the myriads of mosquitoes; which in the short

DEA THS B Y HUNGER ~ 127
summer help to make life hard for man and beast.
After a few days he returned to York, and thence
went on by schooner to Moose.
It was dark when Horden landed, after his last
absence, amongst his people ; but they were on the
beach in crowds to meet him. Here he was " really
at ^home " and " felt sd overjoyed and so thankful."
From Moose he went on to Eiipert's House. Here
Christmas and the spring were spent. It was a time
of trial for the natives, for the harvest of geese very
largely failed them, and there was. much suffering.
The goose harvest was always important.
" When," the bishop wrote, " would the first goose
be killed ? Who would be lucky enough to kill it ?
Geese stands were made at intervals of about half
a mile all down the river. Decoy geese were in
abundance, but the real geese were very shy.. They
rewarded the hunters' patience and skill but
moderately ; but, in the poor times we were experi
encing, every single goose was a prize, and often a
hunter sat in his stand two or three days without
securing one. Eupert's House is not noted for geese.

128 JOHN HORDEN
the marshes being very limited in extent ; and this
year the birds can find no food, in consequence of
the great depth of snow, and on certain spots hun
dreds were found frozen, starved to death. '
The results were often of the saddest. When the

bands of Indians came in
districts there were yapi
Eighteen had perished
As summer canu'
out once more
travels, this
north. He
Main Eiver,
stered to a
Indians who
saw a clergy-

CHURCH AT FORT GEORGE,

from outlying
iu their ranks.
one party.
the bishop set
upon his
time to the
visited East
and mini-
group of
very rarely
man. Then

he went on to Fort George, and then still farther north
to the Great Whale Eiver. It was a wonderful proof
of the thorough way in which those desolate lands
had been evangelised that, as they journeyed along
the coast of the bay they came one morning upon a
body of Eskimo who were brethren. The bishop

CHRISTMAS A T MOOSE 1 29
was amongst them at once, and heard them all read
from their books. Only one of the flock, a woman,
was at all deficient. For her they made apologies ;
she had only just got her books; but they were
teaching ,her every day. Horden's heart had long
yearned over the Eskimo, and few things gave him
more joy than their earnest attention.
That Christmas was spent at Moose. The school
children were well thought of, for the bishop
provided the nearest possible approach to such a
"treat" as many enjoy at home in England. The tea
was there and cake too, and a Christmas tree filled.
The following summer proved a sickly one. In
fluenza again broke out, and at Eupert's House the
bishop had once more to be doctor, nurse, and pastor.
He himself fell ill, and regained his strength but
slowly. August brought an important visitor to Moose. Hor
den had for some time felt that increasing years and
declining strength made it desirable for him to place
the work in the hands of some younger man. In
the. Eev. J. A. Newnham— now Bishop of Moosonee
9

130 JOHN HORDEN
— he beUeved that he had been directed to the right
person. He was happy in this thought, but deferred
his own return to England in order that he might
see his future successor instructed in the work, and
also that he might complete the translation of the
Bible into Cree.
Christmas was spent at Albany with Archdeacon
Vincent. It is a tiring joumey. His flrst visit there
had been made just forty years before. " I was then,"
he wrote, " young and active, and thought nothing of
hardship; I could sleep in the open, bivouac with
the cold bright sky overhead, with the thermometer
40 degrees below zero." But those days were gone
for ever. "They tell me," he regretfully adds, "that,
for the future, winter travelling must not be indulged
in." And then he adds: "We must bow to the
inevitable ; we cannot always be young ; the halting
step and the grey head wUl come, and why should
we dread their approach, when we know that ' if the
earthly house of bur tabernacle be dissolved, we
have a buUding from God, a house not made vvith
, hands, eternal in the heavens ' ? "

CREE TRANSLA TION FINISHED 131
It was a cruel winter though a mild One, for the
dreaded influenza was again amongst the people.
In the following May, the bishop was able to
reach the last words of his translation of the Bible
into Cree. He stUl hoped to give it complete and
most careful re"vision, and this was now never long
out of his thoughts.
Yet at this time he could still visit his distant
flocks. One of his last long journeys was to Whale
Eiver. The account of his "visit offers a striking
Ulustration of the change which the acceptance of
the gospel makes in the native life. He was eagerly
welcomed, and at once plunged into work. Here is
-the list of the Sunday engagements : —
The first service was at 6.30 in the morning ; that
was for the Indians. All were present, some being
men whom he had not seen for years. Service over,
there was breakfast. After breakfast, the first
business was a service for the Eskimo. Now they
were not reluctant. "You see before you," wrote
Horden, "a .goodly number of clean, inteUigent -
looking people, short and stout ; you see that they

132 JOHN HORDEN
have books in their hands, and notice that they
readily find out the places required ; they sing very
nicely." This is not by any means the popular view
of the Eskimo, and the change which has brought'
this about must be a very real one.
The Eskimo dismissed, it was time for dinner ; and
dinner over, a second Indian service was held. This
must have been rather a group of ser"vices than one
service, for the bishop married four couples and
baptized twelve children. In scattered communities
of this kiad, people must be ready for services of
such a nature just as the opportunity may occur.
But it is possible that these Indian brides were not
troubled by the necessity of preparing elaborate
trousseaux, so that merely a few hours' notice of
the ceremony would not occasion them any great
alarm. These ser"vices over, the bishop had a Uttle leisure
— time indeed for a short walk in the fresh air ; a
welcome release after breathing an atmosphere which,
in his own patient way,, he merely describes as " a
Uttle close." After the walk, tea ; not a very

A BUSY DAY 133
sumptuous repast for a bishop, but welcome enough.
On the table were tea, preserved mUk, sugar, bread,
and, instead of butter, marrow fat.
After tea came yet another service, this time in
EngUsh. These EngUsh services, the mention of
which so often occurs in Horden's letters, are a
useful reminder of one side of missionary work too
rarely remembered. In the desolate, sparsely-peopled
lands of the Hudson's Bay Territory, and in many
other parts of the world, there are English-speaking
people who owe their only opportunities of joining
in divine service to the missionaries. Perhaps only
those who have been for months at a time cut off
from all such advantages can understand the joy of
once more reaUsing the pleasure of common worship,
though no more than "two or three are gathered
together " in the name of Christ.
After the English service came " a Uttle con
versation," and then bed. At six the next moming
Horden was again at work, taking a final service
before bidding good-bye to the people whose faces
he could never hope to see again.

CHAPTEE XII
CLOSING SCENES
Translational "Work — A Sudden Blow — " He has been Tery,
"Very Good " — Death — Memorials.
N the autumn of that year Horden was
f '^ busy upon his translations, when he
was struck down with rheumatism.
He described the attack .thus, in a
letter to myself, dated from his " sick chamber," just
a week before his death : —
" My translational work I divided into two por
tions; in the morning of almost every day I was
engaged on the revision of my Cree New Testament,
while every afternoon my much valued Indian
131

STR UCK DO WN 135
assistant sat vvith me in my study, when we carefully
examined all my last winter's translations from
Joshua to Esther. This is now all but completed,
and will, I hope, be entirely so long before this letter
leaves Moose.
" I continued on my New Testament work until
November 21, when my pen dropped from my hand,
and I have not since touched it. I had completed
the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and eleven
chapters of St. Luke. On the preceding day I had
felt perfectly well; I had preached at the English
service from Malachi iii. 14, 17. I had taken my
large class at the Indian school, and had then
preached at the Indian service from Jeremiah
xxiii. 5, on a greater deliverance than that from
Egypt. " On Monday I arose quite well and strong before
it was light, and at a quarter past seven sat down to
write, beginning the twelfth chapter of St. Luke. I
worked on steadily for a quarter of an hour, when I
received what seemed to me a terrible blow on the
lower part of my back. I thought it a stroke of

136 JOHN HORDEN
rheumatism, and supposed its effects would pass off
in the course of a few minutes^ but in this I was
disappointed : blow succeeded blow, until I could
scarcely move.
" I sat up, however, until after prayers and break
fast, when I was conducted to my bed-chamber,
and put to bed. Almost directly an automatic
torture-machine of the finest temper and of the
most exquisite sensitiveness estabUshed itself near
my left hip, and, at my every movement, set
to work with horrible intensity and regularity.
What I suffered it is impossible to describe, and,
even if I could ,describe it, it would not be under
stood by those who have not passed through a
similar ordeal.
" Eheumatism and myself had been companions
for many years, as was to be expected from the
great exposure to which I have been subjected,
in my summer and winter journeys through the
mighty diocese of Moosonee, with the thermome
ter varying from 100 degrees in the shade to 50
degrees below zero. I had suffered in back, legs.

PAIN AND PEACE 137
feet ; I had been so bad occasionally that 1 could not
walk down over the stairs, and when assaulted by
my unpleasant companion out of doors I have been
pften obUged to exercise my strongest force of will
to prevent myself from being thrown down in the
snowy road.
" All these things I did not mind much ; I could
bear pain ; and they did not interfere materi
ally with my work, and as long as that could go
on I was content. But it was a different thing
now. With increased pain came inability to work,
and for a week I lay almost unfit for anything. I
seemed for a whUe to make progress towards re-
coveryi and, three weeks after the attack, was able
to walk from my bedroom to my study with a little
assistance ; then a relapse occurred, and I scarcely
have been out of bed smce, and when I shall' again
God alone knficws.
"But He has been very, very good; He has
kept me in peace ; He has kept me in fairly good
bodily health, and endued me with as much cheer
fulness as I ever had possessed. Our young medical

138 JOHN HORDEN
man has been indefatigable in his efforts for my
recovery; he has rubbed and kneaded me; he has
mustard-plastered and blistered me, until the whole
of my left leg bears testimony to the constancy of
his attentions. I was to have gone to Winnipeg
in the coming summer, and then to have returned
finally to England after my long ser-vice. At present
I see no probability of my being able to take that
journey, as, before aririving at the railroad, there is
more than a fortnight's hard work up one large
river, which is impeded by many rapids and falls,
necessitating frequent porteraging, which is utterly
beyond my present powers. I suppose I shall be
obliged to return (home by the annual ship, but I
dread this much, ag there is no accommodation on
board, and especially for one in my condition. I
know that every effort will be made, were I obliged
to return home this way, to make me as comfortable
as circumstances permit for I meet with nothing but
the greatest kindness from everyone connected with
the Hudson's Bay Company. I need not trouble
myself much about this ; I can trust all to the hand

THE END 139
of God; He "wUl provide that which He deems
sufficient for my case."
This letter was never finished. The following
postscript was appended by Mrs. Broughton : —
Jan. 2\th. — " Since the above was written, my
dear father, the Bishop of Moosonee, has passed
away ; he died quite unexpectedly on the morning
of January 12th. C, S. Broughton."
In a subsequent letter, Mr., now Bishop, Newnham
described the bishop's end. Early in January he
had felt better, but in the second week of the
month signs of weakness began to show themselves,
and the doctor grew anxious. On the night of
January 11th, all save the doctor went to bed,
hoping to find the patient better in the morning.
The doctor sat up till one A.M., and returned at five.
By eight o'clock the bishop was so weak that his
daughter and son-in-law were called into the room ;
but almost before they reached him he had passed
away, from failure of the heart's action.

I40 JOHN HORDEN
As he lay in his coffin, the people, young and
old, came to take one last look at him tha,t had
dwelt in the place for forty years. The final
scene of aU is thus described by a young Indian,
whom the bishop had for some years been teaching : —
" Saturday, Jan. 21st, — We had the funeral The
coflin was closed in the presence of four clergy. It
was a lovely afternoon, almost spring-Uke, when
the beautiful Burial Service was read, and the first
Bishop of Moosonee's body was committed to the
grave before his bereaved people. The whole adult
population went to the church and to the grave.
There he was laid amongst his fiock, as he had said
he wished to be. While stUl lying in the church,
young and old came to take the last farewell of the
face they loved so well, and who went in and out
of their homes, over forty years, as a missionary,
pastor, friend, and bishop."
Horden's grave is beside that of a daughter and
a grandson.

"FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH" 141
So ended a work of forty-two years in a land
of many hardships, yet also of many triumphs.
Horden's successor found the diocese fully organised
— one native clergyman, and twenty-six" native lay
teachers at work, and nearly 3600 baptized native
Christians; the Bible in the hands of the people,
and other literature also. And the work^ under
God, was mainly Horden's.
In the Cathedral of Exeter, the town of Horden's
birth, a monument has been raised to the memory of
their townsman. Another is found in the wall
of the school under whose roof he first resolved to
be a missionary. A simple statement of the main
facts of his life is there foUowed by this short text,
which aptly describes his career —
"SflWgfuf unfo ®eafg."

THE END.

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