kind friend, Mr. Duncan. You must understand that I have not come for my
own pleasure, but that the journey has been long and laborious and that
I am here from a sense of duty, in order to make you feel by my actual
presence with what solicitude the Queen and Her Majesty's Government in
Canada watch over your welfare, and how anxious they are that you should
persevere in that virtuous and industrious mode of life in which I find
you engaged. I have viewed with astonishment the church which you have
built entirely by your own industry and intelligence. That church is in
itself a monument of the way in which you have profited by the teachings
you have received. It does you the greatest credit, and we have every
right to hope, that, while in its outward aspect it bears testimony to
your conformity to the laws of the Gospel, beneath its sacred roof your
sincere and faithful prayers will be rewarded by those blessings which
are promised to all those who approach the Throne of God in humility and
faith. I hope you will understand that your White Mother and the
Government of Canada are fully prepared to protect you in the exercise
of your religion, and to extend to you those laws which know no
difference of race, or of colour, but under which justice is impartially
administered between the humblest and the greatest of the land. The
Government of Canada is proud to think that there are upwards of 30,000
Indians in the territory of British Columbia alone. She recognizes them
as the ancient inhabitants of the country. The white men have not come
amongst you as conquerors, but as friends. We regard you as our fellow
-subjects, and as equal to us in the eye of the law as you are in the eye
of God, and equally entitled with the rest of the community to the
benefits of good government, and the opportunity of earning an honest
livelihood. I have had very great pleasure in inspecting your school,
and I am quite certain that there are many among the younger portion of
those I am now addressing who have already begun to feel how much they
are indebted to that institution for the expansion of their mental