Books: Owindia
C >>
Charlotte Selina Bompas >> Owindia
Another cry of sorrow was heard from Sarcelle, the brother of
Accomba, that same night, and on the day following. The poor fellow
was half distracted at the loss of his sister, more especially as she
seemed to have anticipated her fate, and to have prepared her friends
for it. Sarcelle's first impulse was to seize his gun and launch his
canoe, and to sally forth in pursuit of Michel; but he was a
Christian Indian, having been baptized at the little English Church
at Fort Simpson, and further instructed at the Mission School. The
conflict going on in his own mind between the desire to avenge his
sister's death, and the higher impulses which his Christian faith
suggested, were very touching. It ended in his throwing down his gun,
and bowing his head on his hands while he sobbed aloud, "My sister,
my sister, I would fight for you; I would avenge your cruel death,
but the Praying man says we must forgive as God forgives us. I throw
down my gun; I listen to the Good Spirit speaking to my heart; but
oh, it is hard, it is hard, my sister, I can see no light in this; I
feel unmanly to let _him_ go free, who shot my sister to the
heart, who made her shed tears, and did not comfort her; who made her
the mother of his children, and left them all so pitiful, with the
little one lying helpless upon the river side, and only the dogs to
guard her. I feel unmanly, unworthy of a 'Tene Jua,' but 'Niotsi N
Dethe' make it plain to me; oh, make me see how I can be a _true
man_, and yet forgive!"
* * * * *
It was but a few weeks after Minneha had received the rescued
infant, and promised to be a mother to it, that she discovered that
she had undertaken more than she was able to fulfil. It required no
very searching eye to perceive that the little one was not thriving;
in truth, she was dwindling away day by day, and those who were in
the habit of visiting the Camp gazed sadly at the little pinched face
and shrivelled limbs, and foreboded that it would not be long before
Michel's child rejoined its mother in the 'silent land.' "Owindia"
was the name given by the Indians to their deceased sister's child;
and in truth, Owindia, "weeping one," was well suited to the frail
creature who since that terrible night was continually uttering a
feeble moan unlike an ordinary infant's cry, but which appealed to
all hearts by its thrilling tones.
One day a little bundle was brought to the English Mission House at
Fort Simpson, by Sinclia, daughter of Minneha. The following message
accompanied the bundle, which was none other than the poor little
Owindia, smaller and more fragile-looking than ever: "I am sick; I
cannot work for the child; _you_ take her." And so it happened,
that after all his horror of the white man, and his shrinking from
intercourse with any of his kind, Michel should be destined by his
own act, to have his child received into the white man's house, and
to find there in all loving care and tender offices the home of which
he had deprived her.
Owindia still lives, and is become a strong and active child, full
of spirit and intelligence, with all the marvellous powers of
observation which mark the Indian. She was baptized by the Bishop
"Lucy May," but her name "Owindia" still clings to her, a fitting
memorial of the sad episode in her infant life, and of those long
seventeen hours [Footnote: The Indians have a wonderful knack of
measuring time by the sun and moon--"In two moons and when the sun is
_there_" (indicating a certain point in the heavens), would be
an Indian's version of "two months hence at three o'clock p.m."]
when, forsaken by all her earthly friends, God sent His blessed
angels to keep watch and ward around her, to guard her from perishing
from the cold and hunger, from the attack of wild beasts, from
falling down the steep river bank, or any other danger which
threatened the little fragile life. Surely by His Providence was the
timely succour brought out of its wonted course, and the relief
administered which one half-hour later would in all probability have
come too late!
Of the unhappy father of Owindia but little remains to be told. He
wandered about the woods for some time after his merciless deed;
having neither gun, nor ax, nor fish-net, he was utterly unable to
provide himself food. When reduced to the very last extremity of
weakness and starvation, he yet contrived to fasten a few boards
together and make himself a raft: on this he paddled across the
Mackenzie, and appeared one morning at Fort Simpson, such a miserable
object that some of the Indians fled at the sight of him. He was put
under arrest by the Hudson's Bay Company's officer in charge, who is
also a magistrate; and an indictment was made out against him. He was
committed for trial and sent out by the Hudson's Bay Company's fur
boat in the course of the summer to Prince Albert, some 1800 miles
distant, where the nearest Courts of Justice are held.
But the whole business of Michel's committal was a farce. The
Indians are as yet too ignorant and uncivilized to understand the
nature of an oath, and even if they did so, there is not one man
among them now living who could be brought to bear witness against
one of his own race and tribe. When last Michel was heard of, he was
under nominal restraint, but conducting himself with propriety, and
professing utter unconsciousness of the wild acts of his past life.
C. S. B.