Dr. Hills believes that the Indians are fitted
for Christianity and Civilisation. We string
the words the other way; believing that
Civilisation should come first. Savages may learn
off a few names by heart, and may assent
to a few circumstances which they accept as
so many historic facts; but this kind of religion
—the end and aim and crowning glory
of a missionary's life—does no earthly good
unless prefaced, supported, and vivified by
civilisation. The Red man accepts Moses in the
place of Hiawatha, and calls Kitchi Manitou
by another name; but he must be taught the
practical good of civilisation before he can
possibly understand the real meaning of the
Christianity he professes, or can judge of the
superiority of the white man's law. It is a
mistake to assume that the spiritual comes first;
and that we can elevate a man's soul before
enlightening his mind. We can teach him cant, but
not truth, unless we build up from material
foundations. After all, industrious and intelligent
colonists are the best missionaries to the
native "heathen." Example is the best teacher;
intercourse, the best school. In the more special
path of mission teaching, those men have had the
greatest success who have been powerful, handy,
common-sense men— enlightened citizens of the
world rather than passionate and exclusive sectarians.
Dr. Livingstone's manhood has done
more for him than his mission-hood; so, we venture
to say, will it prove with the courteous,
practical, and earnest Christianity of the free-
handed Bishop of Columbia.

But Columbia is not interesting only as a
mission place; its chief value lies in its
capabilities for successful colonisation, and the
historical future before it. For all persons who can
teach anything, for all handy persons, and men
with nerve, courage, and strength; for small
capitalists, who think twenty-five or thirty per
cent a good investment; and for practical
farmers; British Columbia affords admirable
opening. Domestic servants, and all manner of
female workers, can make their own terms there:
from twenty to thirty-five— in the case of
cooks, eighty— dollars a month, being the ordinary
rate of wages. It is curious to notice
the startling value of muscle in new countries.
A drayman gets from fifty to seventy dollars
per month; a hodman from two to three dollars
a day; a bricklayer from five to seven; a
blacksmith four dollars a day; with others in
like ratio; great monetary respect being paid
to well-developed thews and sinews. But any
one who can do anything, will find a fair field
and countless opportunities in Columbia, which
seems to be a fine swarming place for our old
overstocked hive at home.

Several harbour towns and islands bid fair to
become of great ultimate importance. There is
Nanaimo, on the north shore of an excellent harbour,
backed by a range of hills some three thousand
feet high, with a capital stock of salmon in
the inland rivers and harbour, and such facilities
for shipping coal, that a thousand tons a week
may easily be removed: in fact, it is the seat of
the coal district, and a rapidly advancing town.
Esquimalt Harbour, and Victoria, are of first-
rate capacities for harbourage and building,
but Victoria is less easy of access than Esquimalt,
because of a light bar of sand across the
mouth, passable only at certain tides. Other
valleys and islands of great beauty and
improvability wait the coming of the colonists
who are to people them, and develop their
resources.

A DAY'S RIDE: A LIFE'S ROMANCE.

CHAPTER XL.

THE two great figures I had seen looming
through the fog while standing in the stream, I
at last made out to be two horsemen, who
seemed in search of some safe and fordable
part of the stream to cross over. Their apparent
caution was a lesson by which I determined
to profit, and I stood a patient observer
of their proceedings. At times I could catch
their voices, but without distinguishing what
they said, and suddenly I heard a plunge, and
saw that one had dashed boldly into the flood,
and was quickly followed by the other. If the
stream did not reach to their knees, as they sat,
it was yet so powerful that it tested all the
strength of the horses and all the skill of the
riders to stem it; and as the water splashed
and surged, and as the animals plunged and
struggled, I scarcely knew whether they were
fated to reach the bank, or be carried down in
the current. As they gained about the middle
of the stream, I saw that they were mounted
gendarmes, heavy men, with heavy equipments,
favourable enough to stem the tide, but hopelessly
incapable to save themselves if overturned.
" Go back— hold in— go back! the
water is far deeper here!" I cried out at the
top of my voice; but either not hearing, or not
heeding my warning, on they came, and, as I
spoke, one plunged forward and went headlong
down under the water, but, rising immediately,
his horse struck boldly out, and, after a few
struggles, gained the bank. The other, more
fortunate, had headed up the stream, and reached
the shore without difficulty.

With the natural prompting of a man towards
those who had just overcome a great
peril, I hastened to say how glad I felt at their
safety, and from what intense fear their landing
had rescued me; when one, a corporal, as his
cuff bespoke, muttered a coarse exclamation of
impatience, and something like a malediction on
the service that exposed men to such hazards,
and at the same instant the other dashed boldly
up the bank, and with a bound placed his
horse at my side, as though to cut off my retreat.

"Who are you?" cried the corporal to me, in
a stern voice.

"A traveller," said I, trying to look majestic
and indignant.

"So I see; and of what nation?"

"Of that nation which no man insults
with impunity."