Читать книгу Arctic Searching Expedition (Sir John Richardson) - comprehensive & illustrated - (Literary Thoughts Edition) онлайн

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June 25th.—A strong gale blowing this morning detained us at the post, and the day being Sunday our voyagers went to mass at the Roman Catholic chapel, distant about a mile from the fort. This mission was established in 1846 under charge of Monsieur La Flêche, who has been very successful in gaining the confidence of the Indians, and gathering a considerable number into a village round the church. In the course of the day I received a visit from Monsieur La Flêche and his colleague Monsieur Taschè. They are both intelligent well-informed men, and devoted to the task of instructing the Indians; but the revolution in France having cut off the funds the mission obtained from that country, its progress was likely to be impeded. They spoke thankfully of the assistance and countenance they received from the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company. The character they gave the Chepewyans for honesty, docility, aptness to receive instruction, and attention to the precepts of their teachers, was one of almost unqualified praise, and formed, as they stated, a strong contrast to that of the volatile Crees. They have already taught many of their pupils here to read and write a stenographic syllabic character, first used by the late Reverend Mr. Evans, a Wesleyan missionary, formerly resident at Norway House, but which Monsieur La Flêche has adapted to the Chepewyan language. On asking this gentleman his opinion of the affinity between the Cree and Chepewyan tongues, both of which he spoke fluently, he told me that the grammatical structure of the Chepewyan was different, the words short, and the sounds dissimilar, bearing little resemblance to the soft, flowing compounds of the Cree language.