Who has been my companion during these ten years of labor; who has cheered me, and made a Christian home for me to run into as into a safe hiding-place, and who has been an example to the Indians,--these pages are affectionately inscribed. NOTE. Much of the information contained in the following pages has been published, especially in _The American Missionary_ of New York and _The Pacific_ of San Francisco. Yet, in writing these pages, so much of it has been altered that it has been impracticable to give quotation-marks and acknowledgment for each item. I therefore take this general way of acknowledging my indebtedness to those publications. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION 11 I. SKOKOMISH 15 II. PRELIMINARY HISTORY 17 III. EARLY RELIGIOUS TEACHING 21 IV. SUBSEQUENT POLITICAL HISTORY 26 V. THE FIELD AND THE WORK 28 VI. DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF RELIGIOUS WORK 33 (_a_) LANGUAGES 33 (_b_) THEIR RELIGION 37 (_c_) BESETTING SINS 53 VII. TEMPERANCE 60 VIII. INDUSTRIES 69 IX. TITLES TO THEIR LANDS 74 X. MODE OF LIVING 82 XI. NAMES 85 XII. EDUCATION 87 XIII. FOURTH OF JULY 93 XIV. CHRISTMAS 97 XV. VARIETY 100 XVI. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 105 XVII. SICKNESS 118 XVIII. FUNERALS 122 XIX. THE CENSUS OF 1880 132 XX. THE INFLUENCE OF THE WHITES 144 XXI. THE CHURCH AT SKOKOMISH 149 XXII. BIG BILL 158 XXIII. DARK DAYS 163 XXIV. LIGHT BREAKING 170 XXV. THE FIRST BATTLE 172