How the Bible Came to Canada

In the spring of 1804, a young Mohawk chief named Teyoninhokarawen sailed for England to negotiate treaties with the English.

While in England, Teyoninhokarawen – also known as Captain John Norton – noticed that many of those working for the abolition of slavery drew their inspiration from the Bible. He came to believe that the Bible's message would benefit his people, too – if only it were available in Mohawk.

At the request of the Bible Society, he began translating the Gospel of John into Mohawk. It would become the first publication of the newly-formed Bible Society. Teyoninhokarawen, who spoke five European and ten native languages, completed the translation in just two months.

He set sail for Canada aboard HMS Mercury with five hundred copies of the Gospel translation. The ship finally arrived at a snowbound Quebec City, November 12, 1805, after fighting a raging storm for eleven weeks.

Bible Society work in Canada had begun.

In the Mohawk Chapel at Brantford, ON, there is a memorial window of unusual significance which portrays the distribution of the Gospel in Mohawk in 1806. The bottom panel of the window records Norton's Preface to his translation: "Let us strictly adhere to what the Lord has transmitted to us in the Holy Scriptures, that thereby the unbelievers may know that love we bear the commandments of God."