Maintained at the expense of the Church
Missionary Society which has already allotted a considerable sum for
these purposes and has also sent out teachers who are to act under the
superintendence of the Reverend Mr. West, the principal chaplain of the
Company.
We had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman at York Factory, and
witnessed with peculiar delight that great benefit which already marked
his zealous and judicious conduct. Many of the traders and of the
servants of the Company had been induced to marry the women with whom
they had cohabited; a material step towards the improvement of the
females in that country.
Mr. West, under the sanction of the Directors, has also promoted a
subscription for the distribution of the Bible in every part of the
country where the Company's Fur Trade has extended, and which has met
with very general support from the resident chief factors, traders, and
clerks. The Directors of the Company are continuing to reduce the
distribution of spirits gradually among the Indians, as well as towards
their own servants, with a view to the entire disuse of them as soon as
this most desirable object can be accomplished. They have likewise issued
orders for the cultivation of the ground at each of the posts, by which
means the residents will be far less exposed to famine whenever, through
the scarcity of animals, the sickness of the Indians, or any other cause,
their supply of meat may fail.
