PREFACE

I have been asked to write this narrative of the life of Bishop Bompas for boys and girls. The scenes among which his strenuous course was run—the lands of the Red Indians and Eskimo—have always appealed to the imagination of the young; and the endurance which he showed in his amazing journeys, and the dauntless courage with which he faced innumerable perils for his Master’s sake, give to his labours a character of heroism which they will be sure to recognize.

I have been able to add some new matter to that which appeared in “An Apostle of the North.” Part of the chapter on “How the Bishop got his Mail” has been taken from an article of mine which appeared in the Pacific Monthly Magazine in 1908, and which the publishers have kindly given permission to use.

I am indebted to Miss Agnes C. Laut for extracts from her most interesting book, “Pathfinders of the West.”

This work was begun at Whitehorse when the thermometer stood at 60° below zero. It was continued a few weeks later among the roses and orange groves of sunny California, and is now completed in far Eastern Canada, at St. John, the grey old loyalist city by the sea.

I hope and trust that it may kindle in the hearts of some of those who read it a longing to follow in the footsteps of Bishop Bompas, and to volunteer, like him, for service in these distant outposts of Christ’s Church militant here in earth.

H. A. C.

Easter, 1910.