the
neglected tribes in the Hudson's Bay Territories, the Reverend James
Evans was the man appointed to be the leader of the devoted band. In
order to reach Norway House, which was to be his first principal
Mission, his household effects had to be shipped from Toronto to
England, and thence reshipped to York Factory on the Hudson Bay. From
this place they had to be taken up by boats to Norway House in the
interior, a distance of five hundred miles. Seventy times had they to
be lifted out of these inland boats and carried along the portages
around falls and cataracts ere they reached their destination.

Mr Evans himself went by boat from Toronto. The trip from Thunder Bay
in Lake Superior to Norway House was performed in a birch bark canoe.
Hundreds of Indians listened to his burning messages, and great good was
done by him and his faithful companions in arms, among them being the
heroic Mr Barnley, and Mr Rundle, of the English Wesleyan Church.

The great work of Mr Evans' life, and that with which his name will be
ever associated, was undoubtedly the invention and perfecting of what is
now so widely known as the Cree Syllabic Characters. What first led him
to this invention was the difficulty he and others had in teaching the
Indians to read in the ordinary way. They are hunters, and so are very
much on the move, like the animals they seek. To-day their tents are
pitched where there is good fishing, and perhaps in two weeks they are
far away in the deep forests, where roam the reindeer, or on the banks
of streams where the beavers build their wonderful dams and curious
homes. The constant thought in this master Missionary's mind was, "Can
I possibly devise a plan by which these wandering people can learn to
read more easily?"

The principle of the characters which he adopted is phonetic. There are
no silent letters. Each character represents a syllable; hence no
spelling is required. As soon as the alphabet is mastered, and a few
additional secondary signs, some of which represent consonants, and some
aspirates, and some partially change the sound of the main character,
the Indian student, be he a man or woman of eighty, or a child of six
years, can commence at the first chapter of Genesis and read on, slowly
of course at first, but in a few days with surprising ease and accuracy.

Many were Mr Evans' difficulties in perfecting this invention and
putting it in practical use, even after he had got the sche