CHAPTER II

MISSIONARY
[1882-1896]

E HAVE tarried on minor details of the first

\) years of Father Morice’s life perhaps more than

it will be necessary to do in those which are to

follow. We do not regret details in this connection,

the foregoing pages having given an idea of our sub-

ject’s temperament and his appetite for work, especially

extra, not routine, work. Since the child is the father

of the man, we can by this time easily foresee that

Father Morice was not to feel satisfied with a common,
colourless career.

His superior, kindly Bishop D’Herbomez, seems at
first to have intended him for work among the English.
Ever since his arrival in the country, when the levite
was as yet only in Minor Orders, he had been made to
preach little sermons the English of which was revised
by a lay brother who had been a steamboat captain.
For five weeks or so, he had to continue the same work
before a more refined audience, at St. Peter’s Cathedral
New Westminster, until a representative of the superior
general of his Order, Father Aimé Martinet, passing
through the country on an official visit, sent him up
to William’s Lake Mission, Cariboo, where he was for
some time at the head of a school for whites, a post
which was scarcely to his liking, yet where he did his
best to give satisfaction.

There is at least one person in Victoria who will
remember him at his desk, in that establishment.
This is none other than the Hon. Denis Murphy, of the

23

F.M.—3