our ability to raise, are, I am happy to say, now fixed, and fixed
well, in their places, and all by Indian labour. Especially am I
thankful to report that, though the work is attended with no little
danger, particularly to inexperienced hands, as we all are, yet have we
hitherto been graciously preserved from all accidents.

"The Indians are delighted with the appearance the building has
already assumed, and you may gather from the amount of their
contributions (L176) how much they appreciate the work. They propose
again subscribing during the coming spring, and I only wish our
Christian friends in England could witness the exciting scene of a
contributing day, with how much joy the poor people come forward and
cast down their blanket or blankets, gun, shirt, or elk skin, upon the
general pile 'to help in building the house of God.'"

By the end of that year the church was finished, and on Christmas Day
it was opened for the service of God. "We had indeed," wrote Mr.
Duncan, "a great struggle to finish it by that time--the tower and
spire presenting very difficult and dangerous work for our unskilled
hands--yet, by God's protecting care, we completed the work without a
single accident. Over seven hundred Indians were present at our opening
services. Could it be that this concourse of well-dressed people, in
their new and beautiful church, but a few years ago made up the
fiendish assemblies at Fort Simpson! Could it be that those voices, now
engaged in solemn prayer and thrilling songs of praise to Almighty God,
are the very voices I once heard yelling and whooping at heathen orgies
on dismal winter nights!"

The progress in building operations and the secular affairs of the
settlement generally at this time are succinctly described in an