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Visions from James Evans' Diaries

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Visions from James Evans' Diaries Changing Perspectives: Visions from James Evans' Diaries LISA PHILIPS VALENTINE University of Western Ontario James Evans (1801-1846), a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, is best known in Algonquianist circles for his work on the Cree and Ojibwe syllabaries. He left an amazing literary legacy with his promotion of Aboriginal writing systems and translation, but he also left a remarkable collection of letters and diaries which open up his world and his mission. When I sat down with these diaries and letters (courtesy of the J. J. Talman Regional History Room at the University of Western Ontario, and later in the special collections at Victoria University in Toronto), I was amazed to discover an intense personality emerging from Evans' writings which did not fit my stereotype of either missionary or early Victorian traveller. I was intrigued by the ways that Evans presented "the other" in areas of land(scape), people, and politics in both Ontario and Manitoba in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Evans' journals fit the category of "the travel journal" which "records occurrences in time and space: while travelling, everything noteworthy is registered daily" (Huigen 1996:215). As opposed to hagiographic litera­ ture, designed to create an abstract narrative of religious life and service (Tudela 1996), or ars apodemica which also "aims to produce text ab­ stracted from time and place" (Huigen 1996:215), travel journals are not systematized and are tied more or less closely to the immediate context. We find this true of Evans' diaries from 183 8 to 1841: 1 his entries tend to be most consistent (with the longest descriptions) at those times he was on trips- indeed, the further the trips took him from predominantly white urban centres, the more he wrote, usually of the events he experienced. These were often closed with a line with a somewhat more abstractable moral: 1 The entries in these diaries were transcribed by Virginia Beveridge in 1931-32 with admirable precision. The transcripts are in the 1. J. Talman collection at the University ofWestem Ontario along with one of the original diaries. The other diary, without transcript, is in the collections of Victoria University in Toronto. The excerpts here follow Beveridge's typed approximations ofEvans' handwritten tran­ scription conventions, including punctuation or lack of it and crossouts and erasures. VISIONS FROM JAMES EVANS* DIARIES 353 [4 June 1839] Mon 4 This has been a hard day we have walked landed abou 8 times to walk 4 times half unloaded our canoe and then drew her & half the load up the falls while two men remained in her to steer her clear of the rocks. And four three times we had to unload all & carry over canoe & baggage. We eat well drink well & sleep well thanks to the Father of all our mercies Charles has been sick yesterday & today and B Jacobs had to carry him on his back, in fact we each have had our load It would make our good friends both shed a tear & smile to see our cavalcade. ... Had we some of our sickly puny pampered Canadians who want appetites & want health & want sleep — they would find a sure cure in that they would not want what the[y] most need — Exercise When he reached a settlement of any sort, Evans often made, at best, cursory notations of activities. Note especially 8-11 July 1839: Sunday 8 Had prayers with the Indians. Mon. 9 preparing our canoe & writing letters Tues 10 Left about nine wind bound on rabit [sic] island. Wed 11. Started at day light, evening found us about 1/2 of the voyage to the peak. However, deviations from this tendency to write concretely of his travels occurred during times of ritual significance such as the first of January, on the event of his birthday (18 January), near Christmas, on the first entry of a month, or on the Sabbath. On these ritual occasions, Evans' discourse changed markedly to a more abstract discussion of the impor­ tance of such ritual and its relationship to spiritual matters. In the example below, the entries were written while Evans was in a single camp — there are only seven entries between 1 February and 21 May 1839 when Evans finally left the camp after breakup. On the other hand, there are numerous letters from this period in the files. [1839] Janyl. Welcome another year. My unfaithfulness during the past is subject matter of deep regret & my many resolves & reresolves without due improvement & amendment, almost deter me from any new reso­ lutions, as least rash ones. Bent on much improvement in knowledge I entered on the past year with my mind intent on study — but the cares of my former charge the business of the mission, the business of conference & a three month's canoe excursion and last of all in the wilderness a dearth of books, has left me "to die in Bagdad." My want of love to God — and the corruptness of my heart, — my startling sceptical temptations — and my strong attractions to leave the wilderness & settle in society, sometimes greatly alarm me — but still I desire to love God more. I groan to be delivered from the indwelling sin of my nature. I am determined through grace to believe in the Truth, and to live & die in the ministry into which God has been pleased to bring me. 354 LISA PHILIPS VALENTINE Jany 18th My birth day reminds me of the mercy of God who has still spared the barren fig tree. May my spared life be more than ever devoted to his service. Feby 1st The Lord still preserves me I find much satisfaction in endea­ vouring to improve those whose instructions I have taken in hand. I am reading with care Milnes [?] Church History I am in ten thousand straits. I am at times a fool — at times a sceptic at times a believer. I am in fact well nigh undone if, I write it with trembling if Christianity as a Divine system be true — where is it? Where has it been? If Methodism be true where is it. where are the Perfect holy sanctified? An additional ritual space which invited more hagiographic overtones was the initial entry in a new journal: [August 1841] 1841 Thou art my Alpha & my Omega. May this Journal bear ample testimony to the riches of thy grace, and be filled for thy glory. Wednesday 25th Aug' At 5 pm Left York Factory, where I have enjoyed 5 blessed sabbaths, with a people whose marked attention to the means of grace, and evident satisfaction in listening to the word of life, has given me the greatest pleasure, but what is still more encouraging is that, I have every reason to believe that several have profited by the word preached. I baptized 5 adults and 3 children during my visit.2 Encamped 16 miles from York, having stemmed the current with a stiff breeze. Note that in this case the abstractions are followed by increasingly specific details, a reversal of Evans' usual entries. It appears that Evans was a very consistent writer — when stationary, he wrote long letters to family, friends, and co-workers. When located at a mission station, he wrote of various literary works in progress: he was apparently working on a history of Indian customs and languages; he wrote of translations of scriptures and hymns in Ojibwe, Cree and Chippewayan; and he even mentioned a treatise he would like to write on how the languages of America come from Asia and are not closely related to Hebrew as was commonly thought. The travel diaries provided him an outlet for (written) communication when others were not available. In this paper, I focus on three interrelated topics of great importance in Evans' diaries: images of the land (found in both his diaries and sketch­ books), people, and politics. In each section, I attempt to present the perspective which emerges from Evans' own writings and drawings. The 2 The journals probably served as a register, as well as a reminder to the missionaries, which would then be sent back to the home base. VISIONS FROM JAMES EVANS' DIARIES 355 visions suggested in the title are those which Evans himself created over a century and a half ago. LAND: THE SKETCHES Evans' drawings, aside from several views of sailing ships, one sheet of architectural details, one sketch of a basket of flowers (incomplete), and an unfinished sketch of a wigwam, were of a single type. The majority were found in a single book (located at Victoria University, and not available for casual copying), the rest in another sketchbook from the Talman collection. Most of the finished pictures are titled and represent specific locales from Evans' journeys. After examining the corpus, I came to realize that the perspective was almost invariably from the water — this is the perspective of the traveller. I made the following list from the drawings in the sketchbook from the Victoria University collection. Most of the pictures were titled — these are given below — but in some cases I have included more information about the content of the pictures in square brackets: 1. Island Portage Duck Portage Fall 2. Oxford house from the Lake [fort on small hill, two people in a canoe in the water, wigwams outside fence] 3. First Portage Below Oxford Lake 4. Island Portage Fall 5. Entrance of Oxford Lake 6. First fall below Norway House 7. Another view on Windy Lake [includes ducks and a canoe upside-down on shore] The first few pictures were still attached in the book but the rest may not be in their original order: 8.
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