Of this happy visit, the Admiral himself has kindly supplied for these
pages the following deeply interesting account:--

_Admiral Prevost's Narrative._

Three a.m., Tuesday, 18th June, 1878. Arrived at Fort Simpson in the
U. S. Mail Steamer _California_, from Sitka. Was met by William
Duncan, with sixteen Indians, nearly all Elders. Our greeting was most
hearty, and the meeting with Duncan was a cause of real thankfulness to
God, in sight, too, of the very spot (nay, on it) where God had put
into my heart the first desire of sending the Gospel to the poor
heathens around me. Twenty-five years previously H.M.S. "Virago" had
been repaired on that very beach. What a change had been effected
during those passing years! Of the crew before me nine of the sixteen
were, to my knowledge, formerly medicine men, or cannibals. In humble
faith, we could only exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" It is all His
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

It did not take long to transfer ourselves and our baggage to the
canoe, and at 4.30 a.m. we started against wind and tide, rain, too, at
intervals; but having much to talk about of past events and future
plans, the twenty miles of distance soon disappeared, and about noon we
crossed the bar and entered the "inlet of Kahtla." On the north side of
the inlet stands, on an eminence, "the Church of God;" on either side
of it, spreads out the village of Metlakahtla, skirting two bays whose
beaches are at once a landing-place for its inhabitants and shelter for
the canoes. As we approached the landing-place two guns were fired and
flags displayed from house to house--conspicuous by a string of them
reaching the Mission House verandah, inscribed, "A REAL WELCOME TO