Rev A Brandram No 77
Montreal, 6th January 1839
My Dear Friend,
I have now the pleasure of addressing you a second time from this country and city. In my former communication dated 20 December, I mentioned that it was my intention to set out very soon on a Bible tour up the course of the River Ottawa. I set out accordingly on the 24th four days after writing you. I was accompanied by two valuable and esteemed friends, the Rev. Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Curry.
It would be neither news, nor information, to say, that the morning on which we set out was cold; for you must needs know that every morning and day here is cold, and cold enough during the winter season. Nevertheless, allow me to tell you, that that enter two items into our cold here, one of them visible, I may say, and the other sensible. The visible one is indicated by the degree on the thermometer; and the other one, which is sensible and felt, arises from the super-added wind; and I may say that the second is in many respects the severer of the two. We had both these items in the weather on 24 December when your three servants set out on their Bible tour. The thermometer was at eight degrees under zero, and the wind was brisk and right in our face. The cold was severe indeed. There sat and moved onwards in an open vehicle, your poor West Indian, just come out of the torrid zonian oven, and, by one leap, brought to this frozen pole. I need not tell you, that under these circumstances I thought, and thought again, of the warm and delightful days of Jamaica, which I had so recently left. I could not help thinking how foolish it was in me to leave the sunny clime of the West Indies, to come to this dreadfully cold place to be frozen to death or to uselessness. In truth my body was dragged along in the coldness of Canada, but my mind was in Jamaica. My two companions were better used to the cold of this country than I was; but even they felt this day to be very severe; and every body we spoke with on the road, declared by their looks and words, the severity of the cold. Indeed in different parts of the country I have heard since of that day as being, in a marked manner, keen and piercing. I knew not whether it is policy to confess, but to tell you the truth I felt I know not what kind of pleasure in perceiving everybody affected by the cold in the degree neatly or altogether like myself. There was a gleam of hope in this which naturally give pleasure in the midst of pain.
Well, we vehicled along over the snow sliding and straddling in this thing they call a sleigh without wheel or any other rotatory, and in which article it seems all ride here in the winter, from the governor to the peasant.
At 21 miles from Montreal we reached the town of Eustache, where we saw the effects of war and rebellion in burnt down houses, and here we perceived also proofs of the commotion state of this country at the present time, in observing the bands of soldiers stationed here, and in full military vigilance. We passed the sentinels and barracks, and nobody said anything to us; but lo and behold, when we had got 3 miles beyond, a sleigh flew past us like an arrow, and then stood right across our path, out of which issued a soldier gun bayonet and all, and ordered us to stop and return to the village. We thought this hard, and endeavoured to show the soldier that we were loyal men and no spies nor rebels; and what is the matter, said we, and what have we done? The soldier nobly replied, "I know nothing of your matter, I am only a private, and have orders to bring you back." Of course there was no resisting of this authority, and back we turned. In about a mile's travel however we met an officer, and so explained things to him that he let us turn and pursue our way. Seven miles onward we stopped at a house a little after dark. But we were not long there when two soldiers entered the place with noise and authority, and one of them was the commanding officer of the district. It should seem that suspicion fell upon us after we were let go, and off post haste came this officer and his man on horseback pursuing us for seven miles. He questioned us, and we replied, showing our passports, which fortunately we had brought with us. We then became friends and friendly, and so passed over all this affright and affray.
In this house we were most kindly invited to stay the night; and we accepted the invitation, as we had passed a severe and long day, though a short one, in the midst of the cold. We should have reached the place we aimed at had not the drifted snow injured the roads and impeded our way. In this house we were very kindly treated by Mr. and Mrs. Clare, whom we found to be friends of the Bible Society, and Bible readers and followers themselves.
Next day we started, and it snowed upon us all the way; but the weather was considerably milder than on the preceding day. We came to St. Andrews, where we had appointed a meeting for that evening. We held the meeting accordingly, which was fairly attended, and a Society was formed. We met with some obstacles here in the way of a full unity, but are in hopes they will by and by be removed, for Bible Societies often remove differences, and in truth the Bible we carry about should always make differences disappear, and unite all in one, under the banner of God and Christ. This place has helped our Bible work already, and we hope it will do so much more now through means of this Society.
On the following day we moved on, and up the River Ottawa, and which we crossed once on the ice for breach. We came to L'Orignal, and to the place of the Sheriff of the Ottawa district embracing to counties. At Hawkesbury a few miles before reaching this place, we were met and accompanied by the Rev. Mr. M'Killican, who has been twenty-two years in this country, and been engaged in preaching to the Gaelic settlers in this neighbourhood. At L'Orignal we held a meeting, and formed the Ottawa District Bible Society, with Mr. Treadwell, the sheriff, at its head. Our Committee, we considered, was formed of useful Bible men, and there is a good hope that this will prove a valuable Branch Society. At L'Orignal, our good friend and companion Mr. Wilkes left us, being obliged to return to Montreal.
On the 27th Mr. Curry and Mr. M'Killican and I went on to a place called Van Kleik's Hill on a rising ground which separates the waters which flow into the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers. Here we were to have held a meeting at noon but from some mistake in the notice nothing was done. From this we set out to Mr. M'Killican's house where we were kindly treated, and in the evening went a few miles onward to hold a meeting of the Bredalbane Bible Society. We had a good meeting in the Baptist chapel, in which the Rev. Mr. Fraser officiates, and hope some Bible Society good was done on the occasion. This district of Bredalbane is settled chiefly by persons speaking the Gaelic language, and most of whom are Protestants. A good many copies of the Scriptures have been circulated in this district through the Bible Society here, and the work of circulation goes on. We learned that there were some Bible and Gospel openings among the Catholic population in this quarter. The Society will look out for means of doing them good, as far as the getting the Scriptures into their hands is concerned. This, among other circumstances, shows the advantages of a local Bible Society.
After leaving Mr. Frazer's, where we had passed the night, and pursuing our way to a place where we had an appointment in the evening, we called that an intermediate distance on the Rev. Mr. McIsaac a Scotch clergyman who was stationed in that quarter. We found him friendly, and disposed to cooperate with us in the Bible committee embracing that place. We set forward again and some miles onward we stopped to dine with Mr. Catanach who is a warm friend of the Bible Society in every way. At his store there is kept constantly a Bible sale; and soon after we entered we saw a man carry off a great armful of the blessed books. At Mr. Catanach's we were gratified at meeting a Mrs. Mackenzie, who with her son had come seven miles to meet us, and to carry us to her house where we were to lodge. This was very kindly done, and we felt the kindness. After dinner we spoke a little to some people who came to see and you to us. We recommended the Bible, and forthwith a young woman bought a copy and took it home with her.
In the afternoon we started for Mrs. Mackenzie's, she and her son leading the way in their own vehicle. We reached her house, and were very kindly received by her husband Captain Mackenzie and her family. In a house adjoining to this we had a good meeting in the evening; the Gaelic tongue, and with which all of them were familiar. We surmounted this difficulty through our good friend Mr. M'Killican, who continued to accompany us. I told the good people present about the Blacks in the West Indies, giving out what I had to say piecemeal, and then sitting down to Mr. M'Killican and had stated the same in Gaelic. This intervaling of our addresses, and the two languages, and the notices about the West Indies and other places rendered our meeting, as we all thought, interesting. It was the Kenyon Bible Society that was addressed on the present occasion, and we hope it may be animated to go on with increasing vigor by what was thus brought before them. We have at least one Catholic with us, and our friends were gratified that he had an opportunity of hearing how readily many Catholics in Spanish America had received the Scriptures, priests and all; and they thought the circumstance might lead himself and others of his persuasion to receive the Scriptures in like manner.
Next morning we left Mrs. Mackenzie and her family, she earnestly recommended to me to see and speak with the son of hers who lived in a distant place, which I said I should probably visit in the course of the winter. She wished him to be brought to the Bible, and to God, and to Christ, where she herself stood.
About the middle of the night it had commenced snowing, and in the morning we had eight inches of new snow. At eight o'clock we set out; it still continued to snow heavily, and did so all the way, and it attained before we stopped to fifteen inches. As it was and had been perfectly calm, the roads were deeply covered all over and obliterated, so as to make it exceedingly difficult at times for our experienced guide and good friend Mr. M'Killican (who still accompanied us onward,) to find the way in the cross roads through which we had to go, and once, and again, and a third time we had to get some help, which was afforded in a very kind and frank manner. In passing through the woods the scene was beautiful. All the trees were loaded almost to breaking, with the snow that had just fallen on them. We safely reached the house of Mr. Kennedy, an excellent Christian man, living in what is called the Indian Lands, where we were to have a meeting that evening. Mr. M'K. and I stayed here, whilst Mr. Curry went on some twelve miles further to meet another appointment we had, and to prepare for further measures next day. In the afternoon the weather greatly changed, and in the evening we had quite a storm, consisting of a strong wind, a heavy drift of snow, and severe cold. It was such a night, Mr. Kennedy said, as he had seldom seen, and nothing worse had he witnessed since he came to this country seventeen years ago. You would say, of course, we had no meeting with such weather. But we had a meeting notwithstanding all, and our audience amounted to about thirty. We all seemed to enjoy the occasion, and perhaps things were heightened by the comparison of our sheltered situation, in the midst of the storm, and our Bible communications. There was a resemblance here to the safety and heavenly employments of the city of God upon earth, in the midst of a stormy world, which is like the raging sea, or a wild Canadian winter-storm, in the midst of which we were.
Our audience on this occasion also was mostly of the Gaelic tongue, not all understood English, so that the services of our good interpreter were not required. Both in these Indian Lands, and in all the county of Glengarry, as well as in many other places in this neighbourhood, the Gaelic language is extensively spoken. Of those using this tongue a good many are Catholics, and they too much resemble Catholics who are the Romans elsewhere. We hope however to get the Bible more or less introduced among them, and our local societies, as I said before, will most likely be greatly useful in this way. It was the West Glengarry Bible Society that we met on this occasion; and we endeavoured to animate it to new exertions.
On the Sunday morning following the stormy night all was calm and peaceful, but the cold was intense, the thermometer standing at 24° under zero. We had two appointments that day, 13 miles off, and the other 12. After breakfast we set out with a beautiful day, though of course severely cold. At our first place, in the house of Mr. Peter MacDougall, who is a member of the North West Glengarry Bible Committee, we had a very good meeting, and our addresses were of the nature of the Bible society sermons, combined with statements of what has been done, and what is still to do. We formed no new society here as we were within the sphere of the one above mentioned, and still on the Indian Lands. As soon as the service was over we set out for Martin Town, 9 miles onward, and we hastened because we were late, and the roads were bad from the heavy fall of snow and drift of the previous day. It was after dark before we reached. Here we met our good friend Mr. Curry, and were gratified that he had met with no accident in the bad weather of the Saturday. He had prepared for us a meeting, and we had a good audience, and forthwith formed a new society under promising circumstances. We passed the night that Mr. Malcolm McDiarmid's, where, as usual on all our way, we were treated with all Bible courteous attendance.
On Monday, 31st December Mr. Curry returned direct to Montreal, and I with Mr. M'Killican went on to Cornwall, a town lying on the north bank of the St. Lawrence. In this place Mr. M'Killican introduced me to the Episcopal minister Mr. Archbold, and to the Scotch minister Mr. Urquhart. Having done this he returned to Martin Town on his way homeward. The services of this good friend deserve to be particularized. He met us first north of his own house on the Ottawa on the Wednesday, and carried us afterwards to his own house, and then accompanied us, as I have noticed, day by day south of his own residence on to Cornwall on the St. Lawrence. His services have been efficient and gratifying, and I shall often recollect the superior nature of his conversations as I sat beside him in his own vehicle during part of our movements. May the God of the Bible reward him, and bless all his family, and prosper his ministry in this district.
In Cornwall, I had several interviews with the ministers above named, and saw other persons who might be of service in our Bible cause. Not the least of these other persons was Colonel Philpotts, brother to the Bishop of Exeter. This gentleman and soldier diligently studies the Bible, and is well-known in this country as the friend and advocate of Bible Societies. At present his name stands as one of the vice presidents of the Toronto Bible Society. Col. Philpotts entered warmly into the object of forming a Bible Society in his present residence the town of Cornwall; and through his services and influence, and through those of the two ministers mentioned, a society was in effect formed, and I hope under good prospects.
The whole of this country at present is in a military attitude, and drilling bodies and posted sentinels are to be seen here and there in all directions. But Cornwall and other frontier spots are filled with military men and things. The state of matters was of course unfavourable to the establishment of a Bible Society, but nevertheless we succeeded. Our meeting to form it was held in a private way, and its aspect fully partook of the military appearances of the place and country. We had three Colonels with us, and the dangling of swords was heard with every movement. In this warlike, but peaceful manner, we met and entered into resolutions to supply the place and neighbourhood, and all the world, with the Book of peace and righteousness. The three Colonels entered into the number of our office-bearers. There is just one more colonel in this place, but he is a Catholic and commands the Glengarry regiment, in which county as I mentioned before, there are many Catholics.
This meeting was held, and this society formed in Cornwall on 3 January. On the evening of the fourth as it grew dark I left that place in the stage, and at daylight next morning I arrived in Montreal.
Thus and thus as above described was begun and performed my first tour in this mission, and my first encounter I may say of a Canadian winter, I have mentioned to you at the beginning of this letter the severity of the cold on the day we set out, and what were some of my feelings both as to body and mind. I may now say to you at the close of this tour, that I feel more reconciled to my cold lot here than I did that day. The truth is, we had not another day of equal keenness during the whole tour. And although we had the thermometer down to 24° under zero, even that was less severe in feeling than the 8° under zero when we started. The difference arose from the presence and absence of the wind on the two days respectively, as I hinted to you before.
I have travelled all weathers during this tour, and in all hours of the day and the night. My health has not suffered at all, I may say, in this exposure, nor have I even had a common cold. I ought to feel most thankful to God for dealing with me in this gracious manner under the great change of climate I have experienced, and so suddenly. God will bestow upon me, I trust, a portion of the spirit of gratitude for such mercies, and will also animate me, I humbly hope, to persevere in his and your service in this country until I have completed, if God spare me in life and health, the visitation with which you have entrusted me.
I may now state, in reviewing this tour, that I am much gratified with the manifestations I have observed from place to place in favour of the great Bible cause, and I have been cheered with the many excellent Christian people I have met with. The Scriptures are much needed throughout this country at large, but I think there are materials that may be turned to account as media for supplying them with that accuracy and advantage which local institutions only can meet. The natural and extensive forests and wildernesses, which but a few years ago entirely covered this country, are now changed in part, and we see wherever we travel spots of cultivation amidst surrounding forests. So it is with regard to the possession of the Bible and the possession of religion in and over this country. There are many spots which are spiritually cultivated, and are now yielding the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. The forest here is fast giving way, and will, by and by, disappear.
Thus onward also is moving the kingdom of God, and it is much more certain that the reign of God shall prevail over the world, than that cultivation shall prevail over this land. Every Bible tour in the country extends the kingdom of heaven, and hastens on the halcyon and glorious days when the Son of man and of God shall rule on the earth. In these days, says the prophet Zechariah, "the Bells of the Horses shall be holiness unto the Lord." Every horse here during sleigh times, is by express law obliged to wear bells, and most needful this regulation is, to prevent accidents from the nearly noiseless sleigh over the snow. Thus moved on your Bible servants in the tour above described, with our horses bells ringing as we went along; and considering the Prophet's words, and our movements in fulfilling them, we thought the bells said and sung ever and anon as they sounded - "Holiness to the Lord."
I remain, My dear Friend, affectionately yours,
James Thomson.