We were still two miles from Rossville. Our new friends manned a boat and took us over. Here we found the Rev. Robt. Brooking and family; and as no news had preceded us, we brought them word of their being relieved. Great was their joy, and ours was not a little, for we had now reached our objective point for the present. Here was our home, and here were we to work and labor, each according to his ability. CHAPTER VIII. New mission--The people--School--Invest in pups--Dog-driving--Foot-ball--Beautiful aurora. Rossville is beautifully situated on a rocky promontory which stretches out into the lake. All around are coves, and bays, and islands, and rivers. The water is living and good, the fish are of first quality, and in the season fowl of many kinds were plentiful. Canoe and boat in summer, dog-train in winter--these were the means of transport. The only horse in the country belonged to the Mission, had been brought there by James Evans, and was now very old. We used him to plough our garden, and sometimes haul a little wood, but he was really a "superannuate." The Indians were of the Cree nation, and spoke a dialect of that language, known as the Swampy Cree. As there is a strong affinity between the Ojibway and the Cree, I began very soon to pick it up. As Peter Jacobs had told me, these Indians were the best we had ever seen--more teachable, more honest, more willing to work, more respectful than any we had as yet come across. Their occupation was, in summer, boating for the Hudson's Bay Company and free traders, and in winter, hunting. There were no better, no hardier tripmen in the whole Hudson's Bay country than these Norway House Indians. Between Lake Winnipeg and York Factory there are very many portages, and across these all the imports and exports for this part of the country must be carried on men's backs, and across some these big boats must be hauled. No men did the work more quickly or willingly than the men from our Mission at Rossville. When we went to them their great drawback was the rum traffic. This was a part of the trade, but I am glad to say that soon after this time of which I write, the Hudson's Bay Company gave up dealing in liquor among the Indians. This was greatly to their credit. No wonder the Indian drank, for almost all white men with whom he came in contact did so; and even some of our own missionaries, greatly to my surprise, had brought into this Indian country those Old Country ideas of the use of stimulants. But father soon inaugurated a new _régime_, and many of the Hudson's Bay people respected him for it, and helped him in his efforts against this truly accursed traffic. In a few days Mr. Brooking and family left on their long journey to Ontario, and we settled down to home-life at Rossville. My work was teaching, and I had my hands full, for my daily average was about eighty.