26 FIFTY YEARS IN WESTERN CANADA

culprits gave the name of another Chilcotin who had
massacred a white man, his wife, and children.

Such were the Indians confided to the care of the
inexperienced young priest, Father Morice. Lack of
a sufficient number of missionaries had resulted in
complete religious neglect, and the result was apparent.

The first care of the new missionary was to learn
their language, a rather hard undertaking, consider-
ing that, in his case, continued residence among his
charges could not be thought of. His home remained
at William’s Lake Mission, from which he was periodi-
cally to sally out to visit them.

The Chilcotins are, in British Columbia, the
southernmost branch of that great family called the
Dénés, or Men, a race which is elsewhere rather
progressive, peaceful and prone to imitate, even in
religious matters, those whom they deem superior to
themselves.’ This, however, is not a rule without
exceptions, even outside of British Columbia, as the
reader can realize when told that the Apaches of the
Far South belong to the same race.

The Chilcotins, in temperament and general dis-
positions, can be said to resemble the Apaches more
than their immediate relatives to the east of the
Rockies. They were then wholly unredeemed savages.
Hence Father Morice felt elated at the prospect ahead
of him, and he to-day claims the distinction of being
probably the only living missionary who ever saw

3 Hence it can be seen that, no doubt to enhance the merits of our
missionary, the author of Father Morice rather overdoes at their expense
the contrast he wants to establish (pp. 2 and 3) between the Crees and
Blackfeet, on the one hand, and the British Columbia Dénés, on the
other. Father Morice assures us that the latter are much more easy to
convert; the trouble, the difficulty, he adds, is to keep them converted,
that is to see that, once baptized, they conform their life to the standard
which has been proposed to them as a model (Cf. Father Morice, by Dr.
Thomas O’Hagan; Toronto, s.d.).