the established church under whose direction schoolmasters and mistresses
are to be placed at such stations as afford the means of support for the
establishment of schools. The offspring of the voyagers and labourers are
to be educated chiefly at the expense of the Company; and such of the
Indian children as their parents may wish to send to these schools are to
be instructed, clothed, and maintained at the expense of the Church
Missionary Society which has already allotted a considerable sum for
these purposes and has also sent out teachers who are to act under the
superintendence of the Reverend Mr. West, the principal chaplain of the
Company.

We had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman at York Factory, and
witnessed with peculiar delight that great benefit which already marked
his zealous and judicious conduct. Many of the traders and of the
servants of the Company had been induced to marry the women with whom
they had cohabited; a material step towards the improvement of the
females in that country.

Mr. West, under the sanction of the Directors, has also promoted a
subscription for the distribution of the Bible in every part of the
country where the Company's Fur Trade has extended, and which has met
with very general support from the resident chief factors, traders, and
clerks. The Directors of the Company are continuing to reduce the
distribution of spirits gradually among the Indians, as well as towards
their own servants, with a view to the entire disuse of them as soon as
this most desirable object can be accomplished. They have likewise issued
orders for the cultivation of the ground at each of the posts, by which
means the residents will be far less exposed to famine whenever, through
the scarcity of animals, the sickness of the Indians, or any other cause,
their supply of meat may fail.