Page:Life and journals of Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by.djvu/172

 and faith in Christ their Saviour, and on their determination to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil. This part of our duty was very tedious, as we had to give each person an English Christian name, retaining their Indian names for surnames. Prayer meeting in the evening.

Monday 16th. — Resumed this morning the task of taking down the names for baptism, anticipating some difficulty from those Indians who had two or three wives. The first we went to, was Kenewahsenoo, a brother of Chief Yellowhead. He had two wives. When I enquired about them, he appeared rather surly, and would not give a direct answer to my question; but after telling him plainly that he could not be enrolled with the Christian Indians unless he parted with the last one he took, he said that she might do as she thought best; so I went to her, and after showing her the impropriety of these things, I asked her if she was willing to leave the man she had been living with? She answered in the affirmative, and said, that she thought more about serving the Great Spirit than any thing else, and was willing to do any thing that was right in the sight of God. So this was all settled. We then called forward the next person from whom we apprehended the most difficulty — the Chief from Matchedash, called John Asance. He had three wives, whom he called in broken English, "all dree brothers." I asked him if he was resolved to become a Christian, and give up all his bad ways? He replied, that he was willing to become a Christian, and do all that the ministers would tell him. I then asked, him what he would do with his wives, as it was contrary to the christian religion for any man to have more than one wife? He made the following reply: "I have now embraced Christianity, and am willing to do anything you tell me. I took these women when I was blind, and did not know that it was wrong; for we have been taught that a man might have as many wives as he could