frequently been not much short of that.




VIII.

METLAKAHTLA--TWO CHRISTMAS SEASONS.


Christmas is a joyous time at Metlakahtla, and the accounts we have of
its services and festivities help not a little to bring the settlement
before the eyes of our imagination. Two such accounts are subjoined.
The first is from Mr. Duncan's Report for 1873. Christmas-day in that
year is memorable for a visit paid to Metlakahtla by the Indians who
still remained in the neighbourhood of Fort Simpson. These tribes had
not been forgotten by their Christian fellow-countrymen. Bands of
evangelists from the settlement frequently went up the coast in canoes
to the Fort on Saturday to hold services on the Sunday, and their
efforts received a manifest blessing. This work has since then been
interrupted by the establishment of a Canadian Methodist Mission at the
Fort.

The second account was sent home by Bishop Bompas, of Athabasca, after
his visit to the coast in 1877-8.

CHRISTMAS, 1873.

_From Mr. Duncan's Report._