a ee

PREFACE

VER since the Ryerson Press published (1928)
| Ey booklet on Father Morice, from the pen of

Dr. Thomas O'Hagan, it has been requested
that something fuller, illustrative of the various
activities of that versatile character, be issued as soon
as convenient. Dr. O’Hagan’s little biography con-
siders its subject almost exclusively from the stand-
point of the missionary, while, in many quarters, the
latter is better known as a writer and scientist.

The periodical publication of the Canadian North-
West Historical Society, of Battleford, has the follow-
ing on the same: ‘‘Students of history should receive
his works as most authoritative, especially his studies
of the Indian language. It is an important duty, after
spending forty-eight years as missionary among the
Skeena District Indians, now to write his reminis-
cences.”’

On the other hand, after reading Dr. O’Hagan’s
“Father Morice,”’ that greatest of authorities on the
North Pacific coast history, Judge F. W. Howay, of
New Westminster, wrote to the subject of the pamph-
let in March, 1928: ‘I have enjoyed it very much,
but would have preferred one more full. Of course,
I understand that it is only a little reader. I hope,
however, that you will see that a complete biography
is prepared. Your great work in history and ethnology
calls for such a work.”’

To quote but one more author, M. F. X. Chouinard,
editor of the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de
Québec, had written only a few weeks before: ‘‘ This
remarkable production does you justice, save that it

1X