which the distinguished visitors were taken to see the church, the
school house, and one of the Indian residences. Subsequently all the
people were assembled in the open air, and the younger portion of them
sang, under the direction of Mr. Duncan and Mr. Collison, a number of
songs and hymns, both in their native tongue and in English. They
pronounced the words of the pieces that were in the latter language with
a remarkably good accent, although every effort to induce any of them to
converse in it was futile. Lord Dufferin endeavoured to get some of them
to talk with him about their studies, but was not successful in
extracting from any of them, including a young Indian woman whom Mr.
Duncan has placed in the position of an assistant teacher in the school,
any more definitely English expression than a simper. Mr. Duncan stated
that many of his pupils understood English very well, but were somehow
averse to speaking it. The voices of the singers sounded very well, when
allowance is made for their bashfulness. Some of their pieces were of a
fugue character and the time which was kept in singing them was
remarkably good, considering that there was no accompaniment to them.

"After some time had been spent in singing, a young man advanced and
read the following address in excellent style:--

_"To His Excellency the Earl of Dufferin, Governor-General of the
Dominion of Canada_.

"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,--We, the inhabitants of Metlakahtla,
of the Tsimshean nation of Indians desire to express our joy in
welcoming your Excellency and Lady Dufferin to our village. Under the
teaching of the Gospel we have learned the Divine command, 'Fear God,
honour the King, and thus as loyal subjects of her Majesty Queen
Victoria we rejoice in seeing you visit our shores.