The times., 1898-11-27
TaE ESEINOS OF ALASKA
Witchcraft and Degradation
Prevalent Among Them.
FIGHT FOR CIVILIZATION
After Twenty Years of UntirinE
Work a ScGtchman Brfngs About
n Decided Reform-Babits of the
limits of Cape Pierce-Interesting
story of Christian Endeavor.

w. Macpherson, of Cape Pierce, Alaska,
is having Il season of rest and recupera-
tion among the orange groves and flowers
of Southern California, says The Times.
For nineteen years he has lived
and worked among the natives
known as Innuits-on the BehrinS
Sea coast of Alaska. and now, after cor
stant work and privations and hardships
that few men would endure voluntarily,
he has come down the coast Unto the
semi-tropics for a rest and change OF
six months The improvement in the
moral and industrial conditions of set
tlement of more than zo0 degraded Es-
kimos at Cape Pierce is the result of al
most his sole endeavors-
Mr.. MACPHERSON Is forty-seven years OF
age, but looks about thirty-iive. He was
born in the suburbs of Edinburgh, Scot
land, and was student at the university
of that city. He knew Robert Louis Ste
yenson there when the two were college
boys. He subsequently, went TO Cam
bridge and took minor degree as a diVin-
ity student Possessed OF ample means,
through an inheritance from an uncle,
he resolved TO devote his life and fortune
to carrying civilization and Christianity
to savage races. In 1875, when he was
twenty-foEr, he went as a missionary 10
South Africa under the auspices OF the
Christian League of Scotland but paying
his own expenses and providing himself
for the maintenance of mission school %
miles out in the bush from Cape Town.
Two years Of the intense heat OF the in
terror of Africa made him nervous
wreck. and, turning his mission school
and all It's equipment and appurtenances
over to the Christian League. he returned
to Scotland. as many friends believed. 10
die at his birthplace. That was in 1877.
In 1879 he had recovered his health in
the cold Northern climate. and his old
time zeal to alleviate the lot of baroirous
people returned. Robert Louis Stevenson.
who had been in San Francisco met Mr..
Macpherson one day in London and in the
course of a dinner told of the savasery
of the aborigines in Alaska. Mr.. Steven
son had lodged in San Francisco with
sea captain who had made dozen voy-
ages 10 Alaska and had observed the Es-
lIirnos along the coast. Races unacquaint-
ed with civilization had a peculiar fasci-
nation for AIr. Stevenson and he regret
ted thai he had not robust health so that
he couhi go and live among the Alaskan
savsges. Mr. Macpherson then and there
resolved to go and spend his life in bring
ing the barbarous people out of their deg
radiation Four months later he was at
Sltka, Alaska with several thousand dol
lars worth of supplies and means fo-
missionary effort among a bsrbarous pco-
pie
Some whalers had told him that the in
hab.tan;s OF Cape Pierce, up on BehrinS
Sea. were probably the nIusr unc!vilized
and degraded people in all that resi n,
and Mr.. MACPHERSON resolved to go there
RI mi 1ah
Mahlon W. Bowers, United States COM
missioner in Alaska. did all he could to
prevail upon the young Scotchman to
abandon his idea \ dozen men in Sitka,
who had been on voyages up Behr!ng Sea-
urged Nj. Macpherson TO keep away from
Cape Pierce because the natives there
would surely kill him and possibly eat
him They said that no more intractable
worth eSs race lived than the Innuits, or
Eskimos Of the coast along Behring Sea.
They told Of, how all the whaling crews
went ashore armed and watchful when
they had trading 10 do with the savages
of that region. and of narrow escapes
that even the hardy whalers had at Cape
Pierce. Nevertheless, Mr.. Macpherson
was determined to make at least an ef-
fort among the Innuits. The first whal-
ling vessel that came to Sitka on its an
nual voyage TO the north carried the mis-
When the boxes of provisions. Bibles
pamphlets. clothing and household arti-
cles were landed on the -nore at Cape
Pierce. the whole population came down
TO the waters edge. Nothing like that
had ever been seen there. with many
misgirings and almost fearful warnings
the sailors bade the Scotchman farewell
and sailed away to the north. They ex-
pected that he would be slain in less than
a week.
II was August, and the spectacle that
Mr.. Macpherson looked upon was dis
heartening. Two score great, clumsy,
black war canoes were hauled up on the
shore and covered with bark 10 protect
them from the weather. Rude tents of
ancient skins and discarded sail canvas
and caves dug in the earth cliffs were the
homes OF the swarthy population. Bones
of walrus and forest animals Uttered the
shore, and here and there were bones of
human beings who had actually been eat
en- in former years. Half nude men and
women, cold though the air was them
ran about the beach more dirty foul
smelling and uninviting assemblage of
human beings could scarcely be imagined.
In the apologies for tents and the dugout
habitations were drunken Eskimos. Even
children lay here and there under the ef-
fects of a powerful alcoholic decoction
changed for walrus oil. But this sDecta-
Gle only strengthened Mr.. MacPherson's
determination to be a missionary amid
this degradation. BY signs and the show
Ing OF silver pieces the young Scotchman
got several cf the more promising looking
Innuiis to carry his merchandise TO
spot In the woods half mile inland In
countless ways ne showed the savages
who came daily, when sober. and stared
at him from a, safe distance, that he was
armed and knew how TO defend himself
While he lived in a tent he paid several
of tire savages every day to guard his
place and person.
One day during his first fortnight at
Cape Pierce he was Mortified to see doz-
en- men dragging nude young woman
from the seashore, up the narrow pas
sage way. 10 the uppermost parts of the
cliffs along the coast. The woman was
screaming and moaning and the men were
beating her at every step. AT the top of
the cliff the woman's hands were bound
and she was pushed headlong over the
elf to fall some 100 feet below on the
rocks. SIR. MACPHERSON subsequently
learned that she had been accused of
witchcraft and OF having caused several
dogs 10 die by her occult powers. Almost
every month during the first two years
that the missionary was at Cape Pierce,
some one-generally a woman-was put
to death for some trivial reasons Sew
eral times there was reason to believe
the flesh of the victim was secretly gath
cred and eaten, but Mr.. Macpherson new
er cared to investigate the subject. There
was not the least knowledge of marriage
VOWS and Obligations. Children We're
taught 20 steal and We're only punished
by their mothers when caught at 1t.
Dreadful cruelties for witcEcraft were in
nicted. 4 little seven-year-old girl was
beaten with clubs and starved for several