Colonial Despatches

I had the honor of enclosing with my Despatch No 2 of the 18th February 1860, a report from Mr Duncan Church of England Missionary at Fort Simpson, and I have now the pleasure of transmittinganother another communication which I lately received from the same gentleman giving an interesting account of the subsequent progress of his Mission, and what is, especially, worthy of attention entering into details illustrative of the moral and social condition of the settlement and exhibiting the satisfactory results which have attended the police and fiscal regulations establishedthrough through his own act, for its good government.

2. Mr Duncan has successfully carried into effect the design he had for some time previously entertained of founding a Mission at "Metlakahtla" a place situated about 20 miles South of Fort Simpson; his object being to withdraw the converts as much as possible from contact with the Members of their Tribewho who have not yet joined his communion.

3. "Metlakahtla," now the Chief seat of Mr Duncan's Missionary labours, has already grown into a populous village; the inhabitants having themselves erected comfortable wooden dwellings, in the American style, and residing therein with their families.

4. The successful issueof of Mr Duncan's efforts to introduce the knowledge and practices of christianity among the Natives of British Columbia, is one of the extraordinary facts of the day; and unless we suppose them to be gifted with a singular degree of intelligence and aptitude, the mere labour of imparting instructions to the christian neophytes, in reading, writing andarithmetic arithmetic, must of itself have been overwhelming to any one individual, and yet Mr Duncan has accomplished all this, and in addition, has, by this example, done much to prove that the permanent elevation of the aboriginal races is not altogether a hopeless attempt.