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CHAP. II.

MISSION IN LABRADOR.

LABRADOR lies on the east side of Hudson's bay, extending from latitude 57° to 60° north. Although this latitude is not as high by several degrees as that of Greenland, yet the cold here is far more intense*. During the winter Fahrenheit's thermometer often falls thirty or more degrees below the O; and though the houses of the missionaries are heated by large cast-iron stoves, the windows and walls are all the winter covered with ice, and the bedclothes freeze to the walls. Rum freezes in the air like water, and rectified spirits soon become thick like oil. From December to June the sea is so completely frozen over, that no open water is to be seen. Some of the missionaries venturing once, during the month of February, to make a journey from Nain to some Esquimaux, living at the distance of forty miles, endured extreme hardships from the cold. Though wrapped in furs, yet their eyelids froze together in such a manner that they were continually obliged to pull them asunder, and by constant rubbing prevent them from closing. One of them returned with a pain in his side; another with his hands frozen and swelled like a bladder; and it was a mercy of God, that their lives were preserved. It is no uncommon casc for some of the natives to be found frozen to death in winter. The few summer months, on the other hand, are so much the hotter, the thermometer sometimes rising to the eighty sixth degree of Farenheit. Swarms of musketoes infest the air, whose sting frequently causes swelled faces.

* The reason assigned for this is, that the north-west wind, which is the severest, comes over an arm of the sea to our settlements in Greenland, by which means the cold is lessened: on the contrary this severe wind, which prevails the greater part of winter in Labrador, comes to that coast over an immense frozen continent. Brief Account of Mission among Esquimaux Indians.

The coast is but thinly inhabited; and the Esquimaux differ little in their general manners and mode of living from the Greenlanders, of whose language theirs is only a dialect. In summer, they live in tents like the Greenlanders, but their winter houses are differently formed. For this purpose they choose a large drift of snow, dig an oval hole in it, in size corresponding with the dimensions of the intended house. They then cut pieces of snow, three feet long, two in breadth, and one foot thick. These they place in the form of an arch over the hole. Instead of a window, they cut an aperture in the arch, in which they fix a slab of ice, and which gives tolerable light. The entrance into the dwelling is long, winding and very low, and a slab of frozen snow answers the purpose of a door. In the middle of the house they leave an elevation of about twenty inches high, which they cover with skins, and this serves them for a place to rest and sleep on. Since our brethren have settled in the country they have by degrees built winter-houses for themselves, constructed after the manner of those in Greenland, described in page 6.

For the purposes of travelling they make use of a sledge drawn by a species of dogs, resembling a wolf in shape. They never bark, but howl very disagreeably. They are kept by the Esquimaux, in greater or smaller packs, according to the wealth of the proprietor. They quietly submit to be harnessed, and are treated with no great mercy by the heathen, who make them do hard duty for but a scanty allowance of food. This consists chiefly of offals, old skins, entrails, &c.; or should their owner not be provided with these articles, they must shift for themselves, and seek dead fishes or muscles on the beach. When pinched with hunger they devour almost any thing; and on a journey it is necessary to secure the harness during the night, for otherwise the dogs will eat it, and thus render it impossible to proceed. In the evening, after being unharnessed, they are left to burrow in the snow wherever they please; and in the morning they are sure to return at the call of the driver, as they then receive some food. In putting them to the sledge, they are never suffered to go abreast, but tied by separate thongs of unequal lengths to a horizontal bar on the forepart of the

sledge; an old dog leads the way, running ten or twenty paces a-head, directed by the driver's whip, which is of ten twenty-four feet long, and can be well managed only by an expert Esquimaux. The other dogs follow like a flock of sheep; if one of them receives a lash, he generally bites his neighbour; and the bite goes round. Their strength and speed, even without food, are astonishing. The Esquimaux, however, find it more convenient to go from place to place in their boats, when the sea is open, than in their sledges over the ice, as they are thus less exposed to the cold. Their journeys therefore are more frequent in summer than in winter.

Their ideas relative to God, and religious and moral subjects, are as confined as those of their brethren in Greenland; and in their superstitious notions and practices there is no discernible difference between the two nations. In their pagan state the Esquimaux appear rather more depraved.

Their kajaks, skin-boats and other implements are of the same construction with those of the Greenlanders.

The missionary settlements lie on the eastern coast.

THE disposition on the part of the Brethren, to attempt the conversion of the Esquimaux, originated with our missionaries in Greenland, who were led to conjecture, that the Esquimaux were a branch of the Greenland nation. Matthew Stach, in particular, entered with great ardour into this scheme, and for that purpose applied, in the year 1752, to the Hudson's bay Company for permission to preach the gospel to the Indians belonging to their factories: but no attention was at that time paid to his application. In consequence of this failure some of our Brethren in London, joined by several well disposed merchants, fitted out a vessel to trade on the coast of Labrador. Christian Erhard, who, in the capacity of mate on board a Dutch ship, had been several voyages to Davis's Straits on the whale fishery, and had visited at New

herrnhut, where he had learned a little Greenlandish, and was now residing in the Brethren's settlement at Zeist in Holland, offered himself to go with the vessel; and four, other brethren expressed their willingness to settle on that coast, in order to learn the language and preach the gospel to the natives.

This company sailed from London on the 17th of May 1752, and on the last day of July entered a fine bay on the coast of Labrador, which in honour to one of the owners of the ship, is still called Nisbet's Haven. Here they resolved to settle, and for this purpose erected a house, the frame and materials of which they had brought with them. They called the place HOPEDALE. A few weeks after Erhard sailed farther to the north, for the purposes of trade. He could make himself tolerably understood by the Esquimaux; and as they were afraid to come on board, on account of the guns, he and five of the crew went, in an unarmed boat, into a bay between the islands. Here they were probably all murdered by the savages. As the captain had not another boat, no search could be made for them at that time; but on the return of the ship the next season, some of their remains were found, with evident marks upon them of having been murdered. This melancholy event obliged the captain to represent to those four brethren, who had come out as missionaries, that having lost six of his men, he could not return to Europe, unless they would consent to go with him, and assist in working the ship. Though they deeply regretted the necessity, yet under existing circumstances, they could not refuse his request. The ship sailed again to the coast the following year; and the house was found still standing, but it was not deemed expedient to renew the mission at that time.

The undertaking, however, though relinquished for a few years, was never lost sight of. Jens Haven, a missionary in Greenland, who even before he went to that country in 1758, had cherished an ardent desire for the conversion of the Esquimaux, was induced again to offer his services for this enterprise, after having learned the Greenland language. His offer being accepted by the

directors of the missions, he came to England in 1764. After many fruitless attemps to attain his object, he was at length recommended to the governor of Newfoundland, Sir Hugh Palliser, who received him with great kindness and offered him a passage on board his own ship. This, however, was declined by Haven who only requested a letter of recommendation to the governor of St. John's, which being readily complied with, he went with the first ship sailing for that station. The governor, immediately on his arrival, issued a proclamation in favour of our missionary, stating the object of his voyage to Labrador, and ordering that every assistance should be given him. After various delays and vexations, he at last landed on the coast of Labrador, at Quirpont, where he arrived just in time to prevent a murderous plot. Some people had collected there, and were holding a council for the purpose of destroying the Esquimaux. He went boldly up to them, shewed the governor's proclamation, and succeeded, though not without difficulty, to divert them from their barbarous design.

*

His first interview with the natives excited the liveliest joy in our missionary, I shall relate it nearly in his own words: "September 4th 1764," saith he, "was the welcome day, when I saw an Esquimaux arrive in the har-bour. I ran to meet him, addressed him in the most friendly manner in the Greenland language; and to my inexpressible joy found he understood me. I desired him to return, and bring four of the chiefs of his tribe with him, to which he readily consented. Meanwhile I put on my Greenland dress, and met them on the beach, inviting them to come on shore. They cried, "Here is an Innuit (a countryman of ours.") I answered, "I am your countryman and friend." They seemed astonished, behaved very quietly, and I continued the conversation for a long time. At length they desired

This proclamation contains the following sentence, "Hitherto the Esquimaux have been considered in no other light than as thieves and murderers, but as Mr. Haven has formed the laudable plan, not only of uniting these people with the English nation, but of instructing them in the christian religion; I require, by virtue of the power delegated to me, that all men, whomsoever it may concern, lend him all the assistance in their power." Brief Aceount of Mission among Esquimaux Indians.