Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians — John Shaqi
Missionary Work Among the Ojebway IndiansWilson, Edward Francis
History
Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians
Wilson, Edward Francis
Indians of North America -- Missions; Ojibwa Indians
"When we arrived at Ahmejewunoong (Sarnia), the fire-waggons (railway
cars) were almost ready to start; so I still had to fast, and not until
we had started on our way to Pahkatequayaug (London), did the black-coat
know that I had been all that time without food. Then he was very sorry
indeed, and from that time began to take great care of me, and I told
him plainly what was my object in coming. It is not necessary for me to
say anything about London. The black-coats met together in council to
elect the great black-coat Chief (Bishop Hellmuth), and I went to the
big church to see them all. But I had nothing particular to say to them,
for their great black-coat had nothing to do with my people. I was
impatient to get on to Toronto to see the chief black-coat who has
authority to send teachers to my people on the great Ojebway Lake. We
arrived in Toronto on the sixth day of the week when the raspberry moon
was twenty-two days old. I was glad to see the great city again, for I
had seen it first many years ago, when it was but a papoose, and had but
a few houses and streets. We went to the place where the black-coats who
have authority over missions meet, and I opened my heart to them and
divulged its secrets. I said that at Garden River we were well content,
for we had had the Gospel preached to us now for forty winters, and I
felt our religious wants had been well attended to; but when I
considered how great and how powerful is the English nation, how rapid
their advance, and how great their success in every work to which they
put their hands, I wondered often in my mind, and my people wondered
too, why the Christian religion should have halted so long at Garden
River, just at the entrance to the great Lake of the Ojebways; and how
it was that forty winters had passed away and yet religion still slept,
and the poor Indians of the great Ojebway Lake pleaded in vain for
teachers to be sent to them. I said that we Indians know our great
mother, the Queen of the English nation, is strong, and we cannot keep
back her power any more than we can stop the rising sun. She is strong,
her people are great and strong, but _my_ people are weak. Why do
you not help us? It is not good. I told the black-coats I hoped that
before I died I should see a big teaching wigwam built at Garden River,
where children from the great Ojebway Lake would be received, and
clothed, and fed, and taught how to read and how to write, and also how
to farm and build houses, and make clothing, so that by-and-bye they
might go back and teach their own people. The black-coats listened to
what I said, and they replied their wish was the same as mine.
Afterwards I saw the Bishop of Toronto (Strachan), and he said that it
was his own wish that Mr. Wilson should become our Missionary. My heart
rejoiced more and more, and I felt now that the great object of my
journey was accomplished, and I could return again to my people. But
they did not wish me to go home yet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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