near.’ Dr. MacGregor asked the captain’s name and address and found that he had 
     
     not yet started for Pictou. In fifteen minutes he was sailing out of the harbor for 
     
     home.”" 
     
    
   
   
    
     “I felt very happy and thankful,” said Rev. Dr. MacGregor. The captain told 
     
     him he was ready to sail the previous day. The wind was fair. He felt he could not 
     
     go but knew what hindered him. The devout passenger felt convinced that the 
     
     captain had to wait for him. He told the captain of his delays and detentions and his 
     
     anxiety for a passage. The captain’s reply was that he was pleased to be the means of 
     
     serving him. Rev. Dr. MacGregor reached home in a couple of days and was happy 
     
     in telling his own people of what had been done in Prince Edward Island. The mis— 
     
     sionary believed without reserve in the particular providential care of God. He was a 
     
     man of fine faith, and he remembered the apostolic injunction, pray without 
     
     ceasing. He had spent six weeks among the destitute Scottish people of the Island — 
     
     weeks that he could ill spare from his own arduous and exacting home field. He 
     
     sowed seed that has borne abundant and most precious harvests ever since.”"2 
     
    
   
   
    
     6. THE VISIT TO PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND; IN RETROSPECT 
     
    
   
   
    
     “The ministrations of Rev. Doctor MacGregor were thoroughly appreciated 
     
     wherever he went, and not a few heard for the first time a service conducted by an 
     
     ordained minister. The absence of any church organization and the eagerness of the 
     
     people for the church of their forefathers, was pathetic in the extreme. Doctor 
     
     MacGregor’s brief visit had won some to the side of truth and righteousness and had 
     
     kindled the enthusiasm of the faithful, who had for years been longing for a church. 
     
     The impression made upon him is best set forth in his own words: ‘1 represented the 
     
     destitute shape of Prince Edward Island (to the Synod) in general; that I had not 
     
     preached in Charlottetown nor in a number of other small settlements which never 
     
     had the gospel preached to them; that Rev. DesBrisay seldom preached but in town; 
     
     that the only other clergyman on the Island was a Catholic priest, and that the most 
     
     gospel they got was from Methodists. But all the answer I got next summer was that 
     
     the synod sympathized with me, but could find no one willing to come to my 
     
     assistance.’ ”"3 
     
    
   
   
    
     7. TYPICAL EXPERIENCES OF A PIONEER MISSIONARY 
     
    
   
   
    
     “In Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and New Brunswick, the missionary travelled ex- 
     
     tensively, through lonely forests, guided, perhaps, by pocket compasses, or a blaze, 
     
     and often going long distances without any distinct indication of direction. He 
     
     became a skilled forest ranger. He did not hesitate to explore the country in any 
     
     direction that indicated inhabitants, however scattered or remote. He lodged in the 
     
     log cabins of the pioneers as thankfully as in the homes of the wealthy, and relished 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     8] Murray, op. cit.. pp, 17-18. 
     
    
   
   
    
     82 Murray, op. cit., pp. 18-19. 
     
     83 Fullerton, op. cit., p. 306A. 
     
    
   
   
    
     239