The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-05-17
CONVERTING
ESK|MOS
A Priests Journey to
the 3 Frozen
North.

ton of one of the largest tribes of Es-
pending upon the result. of a conference
between the chief, Nyrimayok, who
reigns as absolutely as any other earth
ly king, and a Roman Catholic mis-
sionary, Father Arsene Turquetil, who
has started out on a 1000 mile journey
to keep a tryst made with the copper
colored monarch a year ago.
The uncounted thousands of Nyrinna-
yok's subjects roam the wilds of the
frozen north from Hudson Bay to the
Bea ufort Sea- 1t is believed that the
chiefs conversion is assured, and this
viii mean the conversion of all his
people. There is quite little romance
about the chiefs invitation to the mis-
sionary to meet him in the far north,
and in connection with the readiness
of the other to undertake the perilous
journey of 1000 miles upon which he
is now engaged.
For many years Nyrimayok. with
the suspicion and reserve characteris-
tic of his race, had scowled at every
suggestion of Christianity, at no time
Showing open hostility to the mission
Iaries, but always doggedly refusing to
follow their advice. For hours at
time he would sit and listen to their
patient explanations. Then he would
grunt and stalk off into the woods,
with no appearance of having been
affected by their story
It is understood that he was much
impressed by the peril and suffering
endured by the priests for the sake of
the natives for endurance of physical
pain is the test of superiority
among the uneducated, -unchristianized
red men.
One day last spring. just before the
caribou began their northward migra-
ton, the Eskimo chief, who was then
at the northernmost point of Reindeer
Lake. in Athabasca, called at st.
Peters Mission there, and with some
show of ostentation, though with his
usual kingly dignity somewhat changed
by his apparent sincerity, invited Faith
err Turquetil to, visit his camp, 1000
miles north as the crow flies. He also
told him that if he would make his
home among his people he would build
him a hut and provide suster ahce for
him.
Bishop Pascal, under whom Father
Turquetn is working, and to whom he
told the story of Nyrimayok, has not
only encouraged him to undertake the
difficult mission, but declares it to be
as important as any which has sever
come before the missionary branch of
the Church.
OF the journey before Father Tur-
quetn subscription is given by Father
no y~ax -alI eaI
miles of the distance as long ago as
1868, when he was the first white man
7 to traverse the country. Parties of
surveyors are the only other white men
known to have ventured into these
barren wilds.
Before undertaking his journey north
ward from ST. Peters Mission Father
Turquetil had to travel 900 miles from
Prince Albert to reach the mission.
The first eco miles is easy--a four days
paddle. down the broad Saskatchewan
River
Across Cumberland Lake the passage
is not hard, save that it is the first
long stretch of constant rowing against
thestream for from Reindeer Lake down
through a series of rivers and little
lakes the water rushes rapidly on it's
way to the Saskatchewan, Lake Win
nipeg or Hudson Bay
The portages further north are long
and bad, and almost the whole of the
last 500 miles has to be tramped, for in
that distance the stream rushes with
a noisy roar in a close series of cata-
racts among giant dragged rocks al
ways half buried in the foam into
which the water is churned. This
part of the trip sometimes takes six
or seven weeks, and it is hoped that
Father Turquetil got over it and reach
ed ST. Peters Mission before the whit
er frost set in
North of Reindeer Lake the country
which the father is now supposed to
be traversing is the real frozen north
of today. 1t is being made on ski and
sledge It takes indomitable will and
great physical endurance.
There will be tramping, shutting day
after day over the binding snow, even
at this season of the year, and much
later, though calm and blow, either
meaning a temperature of many de-
grees below zero, across a succession
of dreary wastes, broken here and there
by great masses of rocks and glaciers
over which the traveller on foot must
stumble and slip; by forests whose
fallen tree trunks and tangled under
growth, the accumulation OF centuries,
make travelling discouragingly difficult,
and again by streams whose cataracts
defy the cold to freeze them.
And then there viii be night after
night in which the father and his
guides must dig deep down into the
snow to build a little shelter into which
they can cuddle in their furs when the
cold is extreme. If the dogs are tame,
which few of them are. they will be
taken into these little excavations, so
that the humans may enjoy the warmth
which is given off from their bodies.
If they are wild, the faithful little
bTutes will sneak off by themselves
when night draws nigh and they have
had their evening meal. and will dig
holes in the snow and make their own
sleeping places therein
The most powerful potentate of the
polar regions. whom Father Turquetil