Ryan, one of the first group baptized by Mr. Tugwell in the preceding
year. A touching account is given of his end:

"He died in a most distressing condition, so far as the body is
concerned. A way from everyone whom he loved, in a little bark hut on a
rocky beach just beyond the reach of the tide, which no one of his
relatives or friends dared to approach except the one who nursed him;
in this damp, lowly, distressing state, suffering from the malignant
disease of small-pox, how cheering to receive such words as the
following from him: 'I am quite happy. I find my Saviour very near to
me. I am not afraid to die; heaven is open to receive me. Give my
thanks to Mr. Duncan: he told me of Jesus. I have hold of the ladder
that reaches to heaven. All Mr. Duncan taught me I now feel to be
true.' Then, saying that he wished to be carried to his relatives, his
words were, 'Do not weep for me. You are poor, being left; I am not
poor: I am going to heaven. My Saviour is very near to me: do all of
you follow me to heaven. Let not one of you be wanting. Tell my mother
more clearly the way of life: I am afraid she does not yet understand
the way. Tell her not to weep for me, but to get ready to die. Be all
of one heart and live in peace.'"

Notwithstanding this heavy trial, the infant settlement grew and
prospered; and in the following March, 1863, Mr. Duncan, in a letter to
the Society, summed up the results of the Mission so far in these
remarkable words:--

"The Lord has sustained His work, and given marked evidence of His
presence and blessing. Above one-fourth of the Tsimsheans from Fort
Simpson, a few Tongass, Nishkah, Keethrathla, and Keetsahlass Indians
(which tribes occupy a circle of about seventy miles round Fort