The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 9, September, 1882Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 9, September, 1882
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
On the trip to an Indian logging camp one evening, to hold a
meeting, my companion and myself found the tide up so high that we
had to “coon” the logs, as they were rolling in the water, in the
dark, wade a part of the time, and improvise a lantern out of cedar
sticks split up rather fine.
A Sabbath day’s work appears as follows: Began services with the
Indians at Jamestown about ten o’clock, which continued until
half-past twelve; then returned three-quarters of a mile to my
boarding-place, went into the cupboard and took a very little
lunch in my hands; walked four miles or more to Dunginess, where
I preached to the whites at two o’clock, without even a chair or
anything to sit down on; walked back two miles to the house of
a friend, where I sang and played on the organ about all of the
time, except while eating supper, until half-past six or seven,
when I walked back to Jamestown and held services from eight to ten
o’clock—thus walking thirteen miles, besides holding service over
five hours, and singing an hour or two.
The variety of one trip of about two hundred miles is recorded
thus: As to food, have done my own cooking, eaten dry crackers
only for meals, been boarded several days for nothing and bought
meals. As to sleeping, have stayed in as good a bed as could be
given me, free of cost, and slept in my own blankets in an Indian
canoe, because the houses of the whites were too far away and the
“phleeze” were too thick in the Indian houses. They were bad enough
in the canoe, but the Indians would not allow me to go further
away for fear that the panthers would catch me. As to work, have
preached, held prayer meetings, done pastoral work, helped clean
up the streets of an Indian village, been carpenter and painter,
dedicated a church, performing all the parts, been organist,
studied science, acted as agent, taken hold of law, in a case where
whiskey had been sold to an Indian, and in a will. As to traveling,
have been carried ninety miles in a canoe by Indians, free, paid
an Indian four dollars for carrying me twenty miles, was carried
twenty miles on a steamer at half fare and twenty more on another
for nothing; rode horseback, walked fifty miles, and “paddled my
own canoe” for forty-five miles.
A note is made of some people very hungry for preaching. One
lady just recovering from sickness was hardly able to walk
three-quarters of a mile to church, and as they had no horse her
husband took her on a wheelbarrow more than half the way. An
old lady, seventy-six years of age, walked over three miles to
church where the services were mainly for the Indians, then a mile
further, where the preaching was for the whites, and then returned
home.
* * * * *
INDIANS AT HAMPTON.
BY REV. H. B. FRISSELL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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