Invention of the Syllabic Characters--The wandering habits of the Indians--In search for food--Alphabet--Thirty-six Characters--Type of tea chest lead--Ink of soot and sturgeon oil--Translation begun--School formed--The birch bark books--Popularity of the invention--A Catechism printed--Helped by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
THAT which will give James Evans the most enduring fame, and keep his name prominent among the greatest missionaries and benefactors of his race, is the fact that he invented and perfected what are known as the Cree Syllabic Characters. From the time Mr. Evans was taken by Rev. Mr. Case from his country schoolhouse and set to work among the Indians, the investigation of their languages and the mastery of them, as far as possible, was one of his lifelong pursuits. While in the old Province of Upper Canada, now better known as Ontario, he studied with such diligence that he became quite proficient in Ojibway, and some other languages of the Indians among whom he so industriously toiled. As has already been said, he spent some considerable time, and all of his available cash, in going to New York, for the purpose of there putting through the press certain portions of the Word of God, as well as a catechism and a number of hymns, which he himself had translated for the benefit of the Indians.
When he reached Norway House, he found the condition of the Indians very different from that of those among whom he had formerly laboured. In Upper Canada, their reservations were where the land was fertile, and the climate everything that could be desired for the production of abundance of grain and vegetables. If any of the Indians still occasionally went on hunting expeditions, it was by choice, not by necessity, as the same labour expended on the soil brought them far greater returns.
The case was far different in the northern fields. There the summer was so short and the quantity of good land available so limited, that the products of the soil afforded at the best but a small proportion of the essential support of the people. They were obliged to depend almost entirely upon their hunting and fishing. The great lakes and rivers abounded in the finest of fresh-water fish. But even fish have their migrations, and in order to obtain them in sufficient quantities, the Indians had to move with them. What was true in reference to the fish, was even more true in reference to the game. Some animals are ever on the move. The great herds of reindeer roam over vast areas. Bears also are great wanderers, and so are some other animals. They are instinctively drawn to those sections of the country where their food can be obtained at the different seasons of the year. Then there are certain sections of the country which abound in valuable fur-bearing animals, which can only be hunted at certain times.
As a result, Mr. Evans found that those Indians who would make a successful living must be very much on the move. For a time, when fish were abundant in Playgreen Lake and vicinity, they could live at Norway House. Then as the fish disappeared, the Indians had to seek a living elsewhere. Some went far away into the interior, among the smaller streams, looking for the industrious beaver. Others went after the fierce black bear; and others sought for the otter, or fisher, or wolverine, or the many varieties of the fox, from the rich and valuable black and silver, to the common red and the beautiful white. Living as they did from hand to mouth, and never having a reserve of food, or the ability to purchase it, they were obliged to take their wives and children with them on these almost constant wanderings from one fishing or hunting ground to the other.
It followed, therefore, that Mr. Evans had here to face a condition of things entirely new. He could preach to the Indian hunters as they came in from their hunting grounds with the furs which they exchanged for supplies, and remained for a few days at Rossville, ere they returned to their distant hunting lodges far away in the forest But their wives and children were far away, and would not return until the spring opened and they could travel by their canoes. In the summer, as the men had to spend most of their time as tripmen in the transportation into the interior of the country, of the goods of the company, and the bringing out of the furs for shipment to England, it was difficult to teach them to read in the ordinary way. Even the women and children had become so accustomed to lead these ever roving lives, that the slightest report that fish or rabbits were more numerous at some point twenty or thirty miles away, was quite sufficient to excite them to removal, and so, all summer, while the men were absent the women and children were thus roaming about.
At first, with his usual courage, he tried to remedy the evil; but the all-essential problem of the food supply was there before them, and he found that at least for some years to come, the Indians would have to continue in the same style of living, unsatisfactory though it was.
The great wheat fields of Manitoba and the regions west of them, were then the feeding grounds of the buffalo. Flour was almost unknown among the Indians. Bread had never been heard of. So destitute then was the language of the very idea of bread that in the Lord's Prayer, the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread" is written: "Meyenan anooch kake-seekak kaooche pe mah teseyak," which, literally translated, is, "Give us this day something to keep us in life." The question of food was paramount, and so the Indians had to continue their wanderings or starve. To teach them how to read, no matter how great their anxiety to learn, was under such conditions almost an impossibility. It is true that some persevering spirits did succeed even against all these difficulties, and became fairly good English scholars, but the great majority necessarily remained in ignorance. Mr. Evans was troubled in spirit, and mourned over such a state of things. After seeing at the missions in Upper Canada hundreds of Indians learning to read the Word of God in their own language, it was peculiarly trying that the Crees, equally intelligent and anxious, should not enjoy the same advantages.
While pondering over this matter and making it the subject of much prayer, there flashed into his mind this thought: "Why cannot a simpler, easier method of learning to read be invented, than our old, slow, cumbersome one with the alphabet?" This thought took such possession of him that it became all-absorbing. He could not get it out of his mind. It seemed such a delusive thing, that while he pondered over it, the uppermost thought for a long time was that it was only as a dream. However, it so abode with him, that he set himself to work out the problem with his usual energy and perseverance.
His first work was to so study the language, as to find the number and character of the sounds used by the best speakers in the tribe. Fortunately the Cree is one of the finest of the Indian languages, and Mr. Evans was not long in discovering its beauty and its strength.
He found out that its principal sounds were thirty six in number, and that with some slight variation and a few affixes, the whole could be expressed. After much study and many experiments he succeeded in arranging them in rhythmic order, so that they could be much more easily committed to memory than the alphabet. Having mastered the sounds, the next thing was to devise signs or characters to represent them. Among his other acquirements, Mr. Evans had quite a knowledge of phonography, and this was now found to be of great use. So, after a good deal of experimenting, he decided upon the thirty-six characters which we here append.
When the discovery thus far was made, great indeed was his joy. As he tested them, and wrote down in them the conversation and utterances of the people, and above all when he found that all the translations thus far made of portions of the Word of God and of some beautiful hymns . could really be expressed more accurately, as regards the sounds, than by the ordinary alphabet, his rejoicing was almost without measure.
The next thing was to make his invention of practical value. Thus far what had been done had been accomplished with the pen, this of course would not go very far, and so the next thing was to get it in type, and thus be able to print with it. But a more unfortunate mission-field the world hardly possessed than Norway House, for the possession of the requisites to set up a printing press. There was no type, no paper, no ink, no press, not even a building, beyond the little mission house, in which to carry on the work. But Mr. Evans' ingenuity and fertility in expedients soon made him master of the situation. With such an invention in his possession, and with the possibilities of accomplishing such glorious results, in so easily teaching the Indians to read in their own language the Word of God, he set to work to do the best he could with the limited materials at his disposal, for the present; certain that as soon as the news of his discovery became known to the outside world, material assistance would be forthcoming.
So remote from civilisation, and so difficult of access was Norway House, and above all, so expensive was it to get in supplies, that Mr. Evans resolved to begin with the resources within his reach. The material he used for the manufacture of his type was the thin sheets of lead which are found in the tea chests. This he begged from the fur traders, who sell large quantities of tea to the Indians. Having carefully carved out little models of his characters, he made casts of them in soft clay, and then pouring into these moulds the melted lead, he secured, after many failures, type sufficient for his use. He made his ink out of the soot of the chimneys mixed with sturgeon oil. He had no paper, and so had to be content with birch bark as a substitute. It did better than a person would first imagine it would. He manufactured his own printing press. A jack screw used generally by the traders for the packing of the bales of furs, was kindly loaned him for his work of printing. This gave him the requisite power, and so with these primitive appliances, the work of furnishing the Indians portions of Scripture and Hymns in their own language, began.
The beauty of these Syllabic Characters is that they can be acquired so easily, and then that when this is accomplished, the art of reading by them, is only a matter of a very few days. Each character is a syllable, as the name indicates, so there are just as many characters in a word as there are syllables. All then that is necessary for the Indians, from the boys and girls of six or eight years of age, up to the old men and women of ninety, is just to master the syllabic alphabet, and then begin to read. There is no spelling required. No first book or second book; no dictation lessons. Then there are no cross teachers to say to the class, "I am sorry so many words were wrongly spelt." How strange this sounds to our boys and girls, this being able to read easily and correctly, without ever having to spell a word.
It is a marvellous invention, and has been a benediction to thousands. Great indeed was the astonishment of the Indians when this discovery was revealed to them. There were diverse impressions created. When those who had become Christians, and had thus broken the claims of superstition, had the method explained to them on their visits to Rossville, they were eager students, and were soon able to read as fast as new copies could be made. Not only this, but they became teachers themselves, and carried to distant hunting camps the knowledge they had acquired, and gladly explained to others this wonderful invention.
With a rude sort of stylus or wooden pen, they carefully multiplied copies of the passages of scripture first given them by Mr. Evans, even before he was able to begin his crude printing operations. These caused intense excitement, as they went from camp-fire to camp-fire, and from wigwam to wigwam in the wilderness. That birch bark could "talk," and above all that it could talk about the Great Spirit, and say His words, was indeed a thing of mystery and astonishment. Nothing else for a time could be talked about. The Christian Indians rejoiced, but the conjurers and medicine-men were enraged, and declared that terrible calamities would follow. Superstitious Indians were frightened, and nothing could induce them to touch the magic birch bark that could thus talk.
The one great absorbing feeling of the grand man who had so well succeeded in his work, was gratitude to God, who had enabled him with the Divine blessing, thus to triumph beyond his most sanguine expectations, in putting within the reach of these wandering Indians, the power of learning to read the Bible in their own tongue. As the Spring opened the next year after the discovery of these characters, and the circulation of portions of Scripture, Mr. Evans was delighted and encouraged by the numbers of men and women and children too, who had in their faraway hunting lodges, obtained a knowledge of the syllables, from those who had visited the mission, during the previous winter, when they had come in with the bales of furs.
As soon as possible, after their arrival, a school was organised, and all were invited to attend, no matter what was their age. On a large blackboard, made with his own hands, Mr. Evans marked out these wonderful characters, and there for hours every day, the work of instruction went on. Some could not attend very regularly. The nets had to be visited, and fish secured for food. Then some time must be spent in preparing land for potatoes, and other things, for the missionary had secured seed for those who would have the gardens ready in time. But school was going on all the time, and now there were many teachers, for each Indian was ambitious to show to the late arrivals how much he knew.
When the printing press began to do its work, and the piles of beautiful pieces of birch bark which the industrious women had collected, went under so clean and white, and came out all covered with some of the sweetest passages of the divine Word, their joy knew no bounds. Quite a number of copies of the first set were struck off, and then another collection of beautiful verses was set up, and printed off in like manner. This went on until a dozen or so of different pages were printed. These the happy people stitched together with deerskin covers, and thus were formed the first books among them.
Long ago these first crude little volumes disappeared; but they served their purpose well, and were a joy and benediction to many. They were carried back to their distant hunting grounds, and were nightly read by the light of the camp-fire. Pagan Indians who came in to gamble as in previous years, were awed by what they heard, and while some mocked, others were so interested, that they too mastered these Syllabics, and learned to read, and afterward to pray. Truly " the Word of the Lord was precious in those days."
The first hymn translated by Mr. Evans for these Cree Indians and printed in the Syllabic Characters is here given. The first verse in English being;
"Jesus my all to heaven is gone,
He whom I fix my hopes upon;
His path I see, and I'll pursue
The narrow way till Him I view."
The story of this marvellous invention spread far and wide. Scholars in America and Europe heard of it with great interest. The English Wesleyan Missionary Society sent for a set of the Syllabic Characters, and sending them to a type-foundry had a large quantity of type made. These with a good hand press, roller, ink, paper and all the other essential requisites, in addition to a donation of five hundred pounds for the purpose of erecting a building of sufficient dimensions for carrying on all the printing operations, they sent out to Mr. Evans. These things all arrived in due time, although it was slow and labourious work getting them up from York Factory, where they had come by the Hudson's Bay Company's ship from London.
Then the work proceeded more rapidly. Mr. Steinhauer, with John Sinclair and others raised up in the country, and who had now, thanks to Mr. Evans' ability and industry, acquired quite a good education in English, as well as in the Syllabics, were able to render a good deal of service. Translating, type-setting and printing went on steadily, and soon quite lengthy portions of the blessed book were bound in little volumes and distributed among the people. The good that was thus done eternity alone can fully reveal.
A catechism was also printed, and was well received and studied by young and old. Familiar hymns, full of the gospel, were translated, and proved a blessing and a joy to multitudes.
The Indians have no music of their own worth preservation. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were both sweet singers, and so they taught the people to sing the old tunes to these translations of the sweet words, with which they have been ever associated. Very quickly did the people learn these tunes, and it was ever a source of astonishment, as well as pleasure, for the passing stranger, to hear how grandly the people here could sing.
Still farther travelled the reports of this wonderful invention, until at length other churches at other mission fields inquired about it, and gladly was the knowledge of it imparted by its generous inventor.
The time at length came when the calls upon Mr. Evans from outside missionary work were so numerous that he was obliged to be away often for months at a time, on his extensive journeyings of some thousands of miles, through summer storms and winter's terrible gales. That the work at Rossville might not suffer, he called to his help one who had been placed at another post with the hope that he there would have succeeded, as did Mr. Rundle in the Saskatchewan, or as Mr. Evans had at Norway House. Brought to Rossville, and under the direction of Mr. Evans who ever treated him with the greatest kindness, he did good service for a time, but eventually he turned in the dark and cloudy days against his best friend, and not only tried to crush him to the earth, but had the audacity in after years to claim the invention of the Syllabic Characters as his own invention, and even had his name put on the title page of the Cree Syllabic Bible, when the fact is that he never even saw the characters until long after the happy converts of James Evans were reading portions of the Scripture and hymns printed in them in the unique birch bark books. We do not put his name here on our pages; though long ago, both he and James Evans passed into the presence of the Judge of all the earth.
The Syllabic Characters are still in use. The British and Foreign Bible Society now furnish all these northern missions with Bibles and Testaments free of cost. Hundreds of Indians are reading out of them every day of the year. Missionaries to other tribes have utilised these Syllabics for other languages, by adding additional signs for sounds not found among the Crees. Methodists, Episcopalians, Moravians, Roman Catholics and others use these Syllabics of James Evans and find them of incalculable value.
All honour to the man who invented them! After seeing the ease with which pagan bands could acquire a knowledge of them, even when only marked with a burnt stick from our camp-fire on the side of a granite rock, and then from that little knowledge, by perseverance, learning in a few days to read the Bible with ease and delight, we bring our wreath of immortelles, and with thankfulness to God for giving such a helper to those Indians and to the world, we gladly give him the name he deserves above all others who there have toiled,--the name of "the Apostle of the North."
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