be noticed now. He was only absent a year. He left Metlakahtla, took
the long journey home, stayed six months, and went all the way back
again to Victoria, within the year 1870. During his brief stay in
England, he chiefly occupied his time in learning various trades, and
purchasing machinery, etc., for the settlement. He went to Yarmouth
purposely to learn rope-making and twine-spinning; at another place he
acquired the art of weaving: at a third, that of brush-making; at a
fourth, "the gamut of each instrument in a band of twenty-one
instruments." On his way back he stayed two or three months at
Victoria, arranging with the Government for the allotment of reserve
lands to the Indians of the settlement, which they might clear,
enclose, and cultivate for themselves. The Governor entered warmly into
his plans, and presented $500 himself to the Mission, to be laid out in
village improvements. At length he set sail again, and on February
27th, 1871, landed once more at Metlakahtla. His reception must be
related in his own words.--

"The steamer in which I was conveyed over the last 600 miles of my
journey had on board a crowd of miners, bound for the newly-discovered
gold-fields of Omineca, in the interior of British Columbia. These had
to be landed at the mouth of the Skeena River, about ten miles before
we came to Metlakahtla. It was Sunday afternoon when we arrived at the
landing, and though the weather was very stormy--snowing and blowing
hard--yet I could scarcely restrain myself from attempting to finish
the remaining ten miles of my voyage in a canoe, and thus take my
people by surprise, and be able to join them in their evening service.
After due reflection, however, I decided to remain in the steamer, and
go in her to Metlakahtla on the morrow. In the meantime, the news of my
arrival travelled to Metlakahtla, and on the following morning a large
canoe arrived from thence to fetch me home. The happy crew, whose