An Apostle of the North: Memoirs of the Right Reverend William Carpenter Bompas (review)

Reviewed by: An Apostle of the North: Memoirs of the Right Reverend William Carpenter Bompas Myra Rutherdale An Apostle of the North: Memoirs of the Right Reverend William Carpenter Bompas. H.A. Cody, introduction by Willliam R. Morrison and Kenneth S. Coates. Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, 2002. Pp. xxi, 476 , illus. $29.95 Two of the most prolific northern Canadian historians, William Morrison and Kenneth Coates, have collaborated on yet another publication [End Page 622] related to northern Canada. This time they have turned their efforts to reissuing a biography of William Carpenter Bompas published first in 1908 and written by the Anglican missionary and inexhaustible author H.A. Cody. Coates and Morrison intended to write a biography of Bompas themselves, but concluded that he left little beyond what was included in this first biography. But what purpose is served by reproducing this text? According to Coates and Morrison, the mission era in Canada ended in 1950 and left a decisively 'bad historical taste in most people's mouths.' Their goal is to add a level of complexity to that sometimes one-sided perspective: 'By making this book available to a broader audience again, we hope to stimulate interest in both the lives of northern missionaries and to encourage greater understanding of the impact of Christian evangelists and their nonaboriginal companions on the First Nations in the Canadian North' (xxvii). Coates and Morrison's objective is admirable, but I for one would have preferred a new biography, despite the arduous digging required. I am not entirely convinced that Cody's hagiographic approach fully conveys the complexity of the mission endeavour. In fact, we are presented with a typical image of the dichotomous nature of mission work. The protagonist, according to Cody, 'trained himself to endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross,' to fight against the 'powers of darkness' (251). Cody employed all of the clichés used to describe the Wilderness Saints of the Victorian era mission enterprise. The non-Christians are portrayed as heathen and dark and Bompas as a force of enlightenment, light, and whiteness. Yet there is no doubt that this man is one of the more interesting of the hundreds of men like him who followed the call. He was raised in mid-Victorian London in a Baptist family. His father died when he was ten, and while his family was not destitute, they struggled to keep up appearances. William tried his hand at law, but did not go far with it. Instead, he found his calling through ordination in the Church of England. He was inspired to join the Church Missionary Society after hearing a sermon by the bishop of Rupertsland who was on furlough and recruiting for Canada's northwest. Bompas arrived at Fort Simpson prophetically on Christmas Day 1865. His life from then on would be dedicated to spreading the word of God to communities along the Mackenzie River and west to the First Nations in the Yukon. His career would span forty-one years. Throughout that time he was consecrated bishop of three dioceses: Athabasca, Mackenzie, and the Yukon. Over this long period, he left the Yukon only twice. His first trip 'out-side' in the spring of 1873 was for his consecration and marriage to his cousin Selina Cox. According to Cody, while he was expected to enjoy his London sojourn, he could not wait to get back to the north: 'The [End Page 623] restraints, conventionalities, and luxuries of civilized life worried him; the narrowness of the streets was unbearable, and he longed for the smell of the camp-fire, the free, fresh air of the North, the great untamed streams, the snow-capped mountains and his dusty flock' (151). Cody's biography is packed with racist assumptions and dichotomies between civilization and savagery common at the time. But apparently Bompas rejected much of what was considered 'civilization.' Bompas was indeed rather eccentric. Most male missionaries concentrated on translation, but Bompas took it one step further by reading and translating from the Syriac Testament and Lexicon sent to him by his wife in England. He was intensely committed to his work. According to Coates and Morrison...

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