magistrate. He writes:--"The proposal was made to me quite unexpectedly
by the head of the Government, and I did not feel justified in
declining the offer. Already good begins to result from it. The hearts
of the well-disposed are strengthened, while the ill-disposed whites
are restrained from molesting the native settlers."




X.

OUTLYING MISSIONS--II. QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS.


On the group of islands named after George the Third's Queen, dwell
the finest and the fiercest of the coast tribes. The Hydahs are a
manly, tall, handsome people, and comparatively fair in their
complexion; but they are a cruel and vindictive race, and were long the
terror of the North Pacific coast. They even ventured to attack English
ships, and in 1854 they plundered an American vessel, detaining the
captain and crew in captivity until they were ransomed by the Hudson's
Bay Company. No tribe, moreover, has been more fearfully demoralised by
the proximity of the white man's "civilization." Drunkenness and the
grossest vices have spread disease and death among them.

But the Hydahs have not failed to recognise the advantages that
Christianity has conferred upon their neighbours on the mainland.
Trading expeditions up the coast took them occasionally to Metlakahtla,
and the peace and prosperity they saw there deeply impressed their
minds. A striking instance of the moral influence of the Christian