would come true. But now we Indians at Garden River are no longer
heathen, we have all now accepted Christianity and we have our church
and our missionary. The desire of my heart is to see our religion
spread among the other Indians; we want more Missionaries to be sent to
us, and greater efforts made to extend the blessings of the Gospel. We
want our children to be taught to follow civilized trades as the white
people do. We feel that the time is past for the Indians to live by
hunting and fishing as our forefathers used to do. We wish to give up
our old habits and adopt the customs of the pale faces. In order to
accomplish this we propose that a big teaching wigwam should be built
at Garden River where our sons may be taught to carpenter and make
boots and other such things as are useful, and where our daughters may
learn needlework and knitting and spinning. This is the desire of my
heart, this is the cause for which I have come to plead. We Indians are
too poor to help ourselves, and so we look to you white people who now
occupy our hunting grounds to help us. We know that our great Mother
Queen Victoria, loves her Indian subjects; often have we fought for her
and we are ready to fight her battles again. We have readily given up
our hunting grounds to you, and all that we ask of you is that you will
help us in improving ourselves and in educating our children."

After this the Chief put on his Indian dress and sang a war song. Much
interest was stirred up by his address and the collection which was
made after the meeting amounted to upwards of L11.

The following Sunday the Holy Communion was administered at the old
parish church of St. Mary's, and among those who knelt at the rails to
receive the sacred emblems of our Lord's passion and death, was the
Indian Chief Buhkwujjenene. I repeated the words to him in his own
tongue as I administered the bread and wine.