MICMAC MISSION 35

And now what is the condition of things at the present day? Why the whole New Testament, with several books of the old, viz., Genesis, Exodus, Psalms,—in Micmac, and the Gospel of John in Maliseet, the language of the St. John Indians, as they are some- times called, have been published. Scores of the Indians have learned to read them, hundreds have heard them read; they know everywhere now that there is such a book as the Bible. Scores of copies have been distributed among them, and the priests are power- less to prevent it. Furthermore, numbers have given evidence of having received the truth of the Gospel in the love of it, and by their consistent lives and triumphant deaths, have given proof of the reality of the grace they professed to have received. And mark the change which has taken place in the condition of the tribe in respect to rz'vz'lizatz'on since we began our labours, and as the direct result of our labours. To what else is all this to be ascribed? Certainly it has not been achieved by the Roman Catholic Church, because it has been achieved in .rpz'z’e of that church. The old dress both of men and women has been discarded, and that of the white people adopted very generally; you can no longer tell an Indian by his dress. Comfortable houses and all the appearance of civilization, are con— tinually to be met with. Everywhere there is a determination to obtain learning, and to learn the English language. Indian children to some extent attend the English schools which are now open to all, and many adults have mastered the mysteries of reading Micmac, one at least now living, after forty years of age who never went to school at all. I have, within the last three or four years, seen Indians all the way from Topique, Fredericton, St. John, The Res- tigouche, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton; in all these places Ihave distributed copies of the Scriptures and of a small volume entitled " A First Reading Book in Micmac and English;” and in all these places I have found intelligent Indians who could readthem, and have been most kindly and cordially received and listened to by them, as I read and preached and prayed and sang hymns to them in their own tongue; and I have scarcely met with what deserved the name of opposition.

Ihave never taken a particular account of books distributed,