oo es

‘
q
4
°
a
Dy
he
‘
iP
et
7,
baal
mn
oes
maat
Sy
me Bt
&
a
k
"
Cait
is
;

134 Snapshots from the North Pactfe.

“Tt was difficult to get a crew to face a November ‘Skeena,’
which freezes in hummocks from end to end; but that same
day, with a year’s provision, we started... . It was a
dismal journey for both of us, camping and sleeping on the
snow being but the least of the discomforts. At the end of
fifteen days we arrived, and packed the provisions in the
snug log house. I offered my crew an extra pound a-piece
if they would delay their return but a single day, but nothing
would induce them to wait. So I left her behind among
Indians and miners, the only white woman within 170 miles,
and the first to ascend the river. The isolation was com-
plete. Events forced me to visit England, but I had
returned before she knew I had left the diocese, and travelled
14,000 miles! . . . At the end of a year I had found an ex-
cellent man for the new Mission, so that I was able to fetch
away my wife. The miners said she was the best parson
they ever had, and the Indians call her ‘mother’ to this
day. It was a hard time. Her entire household consisted
of two Indian schoolboys.”

In the letter announcing his great loss, the following

touching particulars are given :—
“ Metlakatla, Dec. 7th, 1896.

“The Indians, feeling their great loss, have already
clustered round Miss West to know if she will always stay
with them, and as they put it, wear my dear one’s clothes,
or as we should say, her mantle. ‘I am not worthy,’ she
replied, ‘but I will do my best.’ So she will take up the
pastoral work, and all the classes that have lost their head
will gather round the chosen successor of her who first formed
them. Indeed Miss West is the only one here who is com-
petent to do these things, because she alone can speak the
Native tongue. When the Indians found to their joy that
she consented to this new order they at once said they
would love her as Mrs. Ridley’s ‘ keepsake.’

“My darling laid down her work yesterday at 11 a.m.,
leading many souls to Jesus with her dying breath. Heaven
came down to us all. She was taken to church the Sunday