YOUCON is our most advanced station in North-west America, close on the limits of the Arctic circle. [26/27] Here our Missionary, Mr. M'Donald, has been doing nobly, and been in labours most abundant. From his station the Gospel has been carried to the Esquimaux by converted and warm-hearted Indians. Peter, one of the Gens du Large Indians, when with his fellows among the Esquimaux last year for the purpose of trade, undertook to speak to them of the Gospel. He says that they all listened reverently. When told by him that he would speak to them of God, they immediately took their caps off their heads, and paid great attention to what was said. They were delighted on hearing the hymns.
Mr. M 'Donald had hoped soon to have visited these interesting people himself? Alas! his health has failed him. Exposure to the cold, and many hardships cheerfully undergone, so far enfeebled him, that he was compelled last year to leave Youcon. We hear this sad news from Mr. Kirkby, of Fort Mackenzie, of which station Youcon, though hundreds of miles distant, is an advanced post. "Oh that we had some one here," he writes, "to carry on this promising sphere of labour! A more interesting Mission we have not in the whole of the land. There is not a more anxious, submissive, and teachable set of Indians in the country."
Many hearts in England were moved to pray, "Lord, send some servant of thine to Youcon!" And God heard, and disposed the heart of the Rev. W. C. Bompas, a clergyman in Lincolnshire, to offer himself to the Society as a Missionary. The [27/28] need of this distant station was suggested to him. He immediately closed with the proposal, and, within three weeks of his first offer to the Society, was on his way to North-west America.
Mr. Bompas has promised to write to some of his old Sunday-school children, and we hope to let our readers have a sight of his letters when they come. But we must wait a long tune, for he has gone far, far away.