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diff --git a/75927-0.txt b/75927-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e58584 --- /dev/null +++ b/75927-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5349 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75927 *** + + + + + +Transcriber’s Note + +Page 23—the word ‘redpoles’ have been left as originally spelt. + +Page 62—presbyterian changed to Presbyterian. + +The Footnotes have been changed to a numeric order and placed at +the end of paragraphs they relate to. + +The book cover is labelled - “Labrador and its people, Grenfell”, +whereas the book is officially entitled, “Vikings of to-day, or +life and medical work among the fishermen of Labrador.” + + + + +VIKINGS OF TO-DAY + + +[Illustration: S.S. PRINCESS MAY.] + + + + + VIKINGS OF TO-DAY + + OR LIFE AND MEDICAL WORK + AMONG THE + FISHERMEN OF LABRADOR + + + BY + + WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.R.C.S.E., L.R.C.P. + _Holder of the Board of Trade Certificate of Competency + as Master Mariner_ + + + ILLUSTRATED FROM + ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS + + [Illustration] + + FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY + NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO + _Publishers of Evangelical Literature_ + + + Dedicated + + BY KIND PERMISSION TO + + HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF YORK, + + _whose practical and gracious interest in the welfare of + these far-off “Toilers of the Deep” has served in + no small way to assist this enterprise, and to + fire with loyal affections the hearts of + England’s sons across the sea_. + + + + +PREFACE + +BY FREDERICK TREVES, F.R.C.S., + +_Surgeon to the London Hospital. Examiner in Surgery at the University +of Cambridge. Chairman of the Hospital Committee of the Mission to Deep +Sea Fishermen._ + + +At the present time—near to the close of the nineteenth century—we +are being constantly reminded, with somewhat unpleasant persistence, +that the human race is degenerating and that the changes of decay are +most marked among the most civilised people. It is among the young +men especially that these unwelcome signs of the times are assumed to +be the more noticeable. It is claimed that the splendid physique and +the heroic courage of the British race are both deteriorating, and +that those who seek for the time of noble deeds and sturdy hearts must +turn back to the days of Elizabeth—to the stirring times of Drake and +Raleigh. + +There is said to be no longer a field for that pluck and daring, or for +that determination and persistency, which at one period made the name +of the British famous throughout the world. + +It would be idle, in this place, to inquire into the substance of these +moanings and regrets, and it would be reasonable perhaps to allow +that there may be some real or apparent element of truth in these +lamentations over the man of the present. + +Be this as it may, it will be agreeable to those who are most concerned +in these forebodings to turn to the record contained in this volume, +while those who view with some disgust the fashionable youth of the +day, with his many effeminacies and affectations, will find in the +pages which follow some wholesome relief to their distaste. + +Dr. Grenfell’s narrative will take the reader away from the heated, +unnatural and debilitating atmosphere of the modern city, from the +enervated crowd, from the pampered, self-indulgent colonies of men and +women who make up fashionable society, and will carry him to a lonely +land where all conventionalities vanish, and where man is brought into +contact with the simplest elements of life and with the rudimentary +problems of how to avoid starvation and ward off death from cold. + +The present volume deals with a land of desolation, with a country +hard, relentless, unsympathetic and cruel, where, among fogs and +icebergs, a handful of determined men are trying to hold their own +against hostile surroundings and to earn a living in defiance of dreary +odds. + +When the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen resolved to send an expedition +to Labrador, it was evident that the man to go with it was Grenfell. +He was well known both at Oxford and in London as a hardy athlete; he +was a skilled and able surgeon; he was profoundly interested in Mission +work; and the sea had for him that magical attraction which a few +centuries ago emptied nearly every little cove and fishing hamlet in +Cornwall and Devon of its heartiest men, and carried them over the high +seas to the ends of the earth. + +Grenfell went, and the good work of the Mission was established on the +Labrador. It was no little matter to bring into the hard and desperate +life of the Labrador fishermen a touch of kindly and practical sympathy +from the old country. It was no little matter to travel for many +hundreds of miles along a grim, inhospitable coast, where buoys and +beacons are unknown and where there is scarcely a bay or island which +has not been the scene of some lonely disaster. + +It will be seen from this book that the race of Vikings is not +yet extinct, on the one hand, and that on the other the spirit of +enterprise and daring is not yet lost to the English people, and that +the modern rover of the sea differs from his predecessor in little save +the motive of his expedition. + +Those who know how to value the comforts of an English home, and who +can appreciate the quiet content and the beauty of an English village, +will be induced by this book to feel no little sympathy for those whose +lives are cast among the dreary islands and deserted bays of Labrador. + + FREDERICK TREVES. + + + + +AUTHOR’S PREFACE + + +This book is intended to give a general account of the country and +people of Labrador, and to summarize the efforts made by the council +of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, during the past three years, +to brighten the lives of the many brave toilers of the sea on that +desolate coast. + +I have avoided the use of scientific terms, and have ventured to quote +from some of the few books on the subject without the permission of the +authors. Amongst these are Dr. Nansen’s _Eskimo Life_, Mr. Packard’s +_The Labrador Coast_, Dr. Harvey’s _Newfoundland, the Oldest British +Colony_, Crantz’s _Explorations in Greenland_, Hinde’s _Explorations in +Labrador_, Cartwright’s _Journals_, Rev. J. Moreton’s _Life and Work in +Newfoundland_. + +The universal kindness and hospitality extended to the Mission Staff in +Labrador, Newfoundland and Canada, and the almost unlimited scope for +work, have made these three years, three of the most enjoyable in our +lives. + +To his Excellency the Governor of Newfoundland Sir Terence O’Brien, +K.C.M.G., Chairman of the St. Johns Committee, among many others, our +warmest thanks are due. + +The illustrations in this volume are from photographs taken on “Barnet +Plates” kindly presented to the Society by Messrs. Elliot & Fry. + + WILFRED T. GRENFELL. + + _March, 1893._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I. + + THE COUNTRY 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + NATURAL FEATURES 10 + + + CHAPTER III. + + OF THE BIRDS AND LARGER FISHES 17 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + OF THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS 28 + + + CHAPTER V. + + WE GO TO LABRADOR AND START WORK 40 + + + CHAPTER VI. + + DO PEOPLE LIVE IN LABRADOR? 50 + + + CHAPTER VII. + + JUST HOW FISH ARE CAUGHT 66 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE TRUCK SYSTEM 76 + + + CHAPTER IX. + + RESULTS OF THE FIRST VISIT 85 + + + CHAPTER X. + + OUR SECOND SEASON 102 + + + CHAPTER XI. + + OUR VOYAGE CONTINUED 114 + + + CHAPTER XII. + + CONCLUSION OF SECOND VOYAGE 131 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + ON DOGS AND DIFFICULTIES 143 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + ON SEALS AND SEALERS 157 + + + CHAPTER XV. + + ON THE ESQUIMAUX 174 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + THE DEEDS OF HEROES 194 + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + WE APPEAL FOR CANADIAN SYMPATHY 202 + + + APPENDICES. + + _A._ SOME MEDICAL STATISTICS 213 + + _B._ SPIRITUAL AGENCIES IN LABRADOR 218 + + _C._ TESTIMONIES TO THE WORK 221 + + _D._ POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE 235 + + _E._ THE FISHING SCHOONERS 238 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + S.S. _PRINCESS MAY_ _Frontispiece_ + + ENTRANCE TO ST. JOHNS HARBOUR 5 + + A SHOAL OF CAPLIN JUMPING OUT ON TO THE BEACH 10 + + ICEBERG IN AUGUST OFF TUB HARBOUR 17 + + MY FIRST CARIBOU AND GUIDE 21 + + ESKIMO BOYS 28 + + A BEAVER 33 + + THE ALBERT IN BATEAUX HARBOUR 45 + + HUDSON BAY COMPANY’S POST AT RIGOLETTE 50 + + FIELDS OF FISH DRYING IN THE HARBOUR 53 + + BOAT RETURNING FROM THE TRAP 66 + + SNUG HARBOUR 69 + + CARTWRIGHT STAFF 76 + + A VISIT FROM ESKIMO 85 + + MORAVIAN STATION, HOPEDALE 89 + + THE _PRINCESS MAY_ IN HAMILTON INLET 102 + + INTERIOR OF MALE WARD, INDIAN HARBOUR 105 + + A NEWFOUNDLANDER’S HUT, LABRADOR 114 + + INTERIOR OF INDIAN HARBOUR HOSPITAL 117 + + THE S.S. _PRINCESS MAY_ IN MERCHANTMAN HARBOUR 131 + + AN ESKIMO FAMILY, HOPEDALE 137 + + TEAM OF DOGS IN HARNESS 143 + + ESKIMO FAMILY 151 + + THE S.S. _SIR DONALD_ 157 + + ESKIMO ON AN ISLAND NEAR OKKAK 165 + + ESKIMO IN REINDEER TENT, OKKAK 174 + + TAKEN FROM AN ESKIMO GRAVE AT LONG ISLAND 181 + + ESKIMO BRASS BAND 205 + + + + +VIKINGS OF TO-DAY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_THE COUNTRY_ + +[Illustration] + + +It is said that a recent trial, over a dispute about the fishery of +a small natural harbour in Labrador, called Tub Harbour, had reached +its third day, when his lordship, leaning over the desk, whispered to +counsel, “Where is Labrador”? Not to be caught, however, the counsel +whispered back, “In Tub Harbour, my lord.” Geography, it seems, is a +sadly neglected science. + +Such being the case, I have ventured to describe the general features +of the country in the terse, accurate, graphic, and authoritative +words of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_. + +“Labrador, properly so called,” says the _Encyclopædia_, “is the +peninsular portion of North America, bounded by the Gulf of St. +Lawrence, the North Atlantic, Hudson Straits, Hudson Bay, and vaguely +defined towards the S.W. by Rupert’s River, Mistassini River, and +Bersiamits River. Its greatest length is 1,100 miles, its greatest +breadth 700 miles. The area is approximately 420,000 square miles, that +is, as large as the British Isles, France, and Austria. The coast from +Blanc Sablon, a spot 85 miles up the Straits of Belle Isle, to Cape +Chidley at the entrance to Hudson Bay straits, and all the off-lying +islands, with the country inland about 70 miles, are under the +government of Newfoundland. The rest is part of the province of Quebec, +under Canadian rule.” + +Sterile and forbidding it lies among fogs and icebergs, famous only +besides for dogs and cod. “God made this country last,” says an old +navigator. “He had no other view in end than to throw together here the +refuse of His materials as of no use to mankind.” + +“As a permanent abode of civilized man,” says the _Encyclopædia +Britannica_, “Labrador is, on the whole, one of the most uninviting +spots on the face of the earth. A vast tableland occupies much of the +interior. This plateau, says Professor Hind, is pre-eminently sterile, +and where the country is not burned, caribou moss covers the rocks, +with stunted spruce, birch, and aspens in the hollows and deep ravines. +The whole is strewed with an infinite number of boulders often three +and four deep. Language fails to paint the awful desolation of the +tableland of the Labrador peninsula. The Atlantic coast is the edge of +a vast solitude of rocky hills, split and blasted by frosts, and beaten +by waves. Headlands, grim and naked, tower over the waters—often +fantastic and picturesque in shape—while miles and miles of rocky +precipices or tame monotonous slopes alternate with stony valleys, +winding away among the blue hills of the interior.” + +The cliffs rise from the ocean to a height of from 500 to 1,000 feet. +The watershed of the interior plateau is on an average 150 miles from +the coast, and rises considerably over 5,000 feet. Near Cape Chidley +the hills are close to the sea, rising to the height of 6,000 feet, +and the view from the sea is magnificent. A powerful current coming +from Hudson Bay, combined with the great rise and fall of tide, renders +navigation here very dangerous. A high, bare peak of syenite, inland +from Cape Harrison, and known as Mount Misery, is visible seventy-five +miles. + +We are accustomed to think of Columbus as discovering America, but it +seems certain that about the year 1000, while Northman and Saxon were +struggling for pre-eminence in this England of ours, bold Vikings from +Iceland visited Labrador. In the Sagas of Erik the Red and of Thorfinn +Karlsefne, we read of a strange land they visited and called Vinland[1] +or Wineland, which most probably was Labrador. + +[Footnote 1: See Hon. L. G. Power’s paper on “Vinland,” read before the +Nova Scotia Historical Society in 1887.] + +Now, it is needless to say grapes do not abound in Labrador, and we +southerners should not describe it now as the “Land of Wine.” But +we must remember that Erik came from Iceland, and was also possibly +addicted to the proverbial fault of travellers. Moreover, when Erik +returned from one of his voyages he called the land he had visited +“Greenland,” not with reference to its nature, because Biarni, a +contemporary voyager, describes it as a land of “mountains and high +ice hills,” but “he called it Greenland because, quoth he, people +will be attracted thither if the land has a good name.” An amusing +incident, which I quote from Mr. Power’s paper, arose out of this. When +Thorfinn Karlsefne and Snorri were making an endeavour to colonize the +“Vinland” they most inappropriately ran short of provisions. Now it +so happened they had with them Thorhall, the hunter. “He was a large +man and strong, black and like a giant, silent and foul-mouthed in his +speech, and always egged on Erik to the worst; he was a bad Christian; +he was well acquainted with uninhabited parts. Thorhall now suddenly +disappeared. They had previously made prayers to God for food, but +it did not come so quick as they thought their necessities required. +They searched after Thorhall three days, and found him on the top +of a rock; there he lay, and looked up in the sky and gaped with both +nose and mouth, and murmured something. They asked him why he had gone +there. He said it was no business of theirs. They bade him come home +with them, and he did so. Soon after, came there a whale, and they +went thither and cut it up, and no one knew what sort of whale it +was; and when the cook dressed it, they ate it, and all became ill in +consequence. Then said Thorhall: “The red bearded was more helpful than +your Christ; this have I got now for my verses that I sung to Thor, my +protector. Seldom has he deserted me. But when they came to know this +they cast the whole whale into the sea, and resigned their case to God. +Then the weather improved, and it was possible to row out fishing, and +they were not then in want of food, for wild beasts were caught on the +land, and fish in the sea, and eggs collected on the island.” Now, when +Thorhall bore water to the ship, and drank, then sang he this song:— + + “People told me when I came + Hither, all would be so fine; + The good Wineland, known to fame, + Rich in fruits and choicest wine; + Now the water pail they send + To the fountain I must bend, + Nor from out this land divine + Have I quaffed _one drop_ of wine.” + +[Illustration: Entrance to St. Johns Harbour.] + +And when they were ready, and hoisted sail, then chanted Thorhall— + + + “Let our trusty band + Haste to Fatherland; + Let our vessel brave + Plough the angry wave; + While those few who love + Wineland, here may rove, + Or, with idle toil + Fetid whales may boil, + Here on Furderstrand + Far from Fatherland.” + +So that Vinland, in the year 1000, to which this voyage had been made +because “the people of Brattahliel began to talk much about it,” +saying, “a voyage thither ought to be particularly profitable by +reason of the fertility of the soil,” appears to have turned out no +better than we found Labrador in 1891. The famous log-books of George +Cartwright,[2] written about 1790, give a more reliable account of +the country, and he appears at first to have found it profitable to +make voyages thither. The animals, and not the vegetables, engaged his +attention, and he would have made a remunerative business of it had +not first pirates and then privateers despoiled him of his ships, and +outfits, and wares. + +[Footnote 2: _Journals of George Cartwright._] + +In Labrador now, work as he may, one man cannot keep the wolf from the +door—the Eskimo and natives of the coast, the mountaineer and hunter +Indians of the interior, and the white settlers, are alike often face +to face with starvation. The two former are rapidly dying out, while +among the latter it is only where a settler has grown-up sons to work +with him, and a good supply of stock in boats, nets, traps and guns to +help him, that he can make anything approaching to what we in England +should consider a respectable living. Even with these helps, and with +steady, hard work, and with sound health, he seldom can hope to lay up +store against times of misfortune. True in England the poor often see +hard times, and have to face occasionally poverty and hunger. Moreover, +as Richard Whitbourne, that plucky British sea-dog, says,[3] “It hath +beene in some winters so hard frozen, aboue London bridge near the +court, that the tenderest faire ladies and gentlewomen that are in any +part of the world, who have beheld it, and great numbers of people, +have there sported on the ice many dayes, and have felt it colder +there, than men doe here, that live in Newfoundland.” Yet we must take +into consideration that here absolute want is the exception, there the +rule. + +[Footnote 3: Richard Whitbourne.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_NATURAL FEATURES_ + + +Labrador rocks are of the oldest formation (Laurentian gneiss), and +destitute of remains of animal or plant life; so that they, too, +maintain the general harmony of desolation. On the south shore, lower +Silurian sandstones, red syenite, and one splendid mass of basalt, +known as the “Devil’s Table,” crop out. + +[Illustration: A shoal of caplin jumping out on to the beach.] + +The action of ice and fire are shown in marvellous manners on this +weird coast. Not only is every rock, mountain, and pinnacle crowned +with countless boulders, which seem but to need a shake to set myriads +tumbling down every incline, but the whole coast is carved and +chiselled in a wondrous manner by a glacial period that lasted much +longer than in Europe; while the fierce frost of winter has blasted +mighty rocks, and left, wherever a resting-place could be found, huge +fragments, jagged and rough, “hurled aloft, as they appear, by the +hands of Titans.”[4] + +[Footnote 4: Packard’s _The Labrador Coast_.] + +That long before the ice period volcanic fires helped to mould the +hills, is well shown by the out-crop here and again of trap rocks. +Especially near the hospital at Indian Harbour is this the case, where +the light and polished quartzite rocks are capped with black trap rocks +which have overflowed them. These rocks are marked with deep half-moon +shaped cuts, running east and west—done by ice—and “showing that +Hamilton Inlet, which at the mouth is forty miles wide, was once filled +with an enormous glacier.”[5] + +[Footnote 5: _Ibid._] + +Near Hopedale a beautiful blue and bronze iridescent felspar is found. +It is called labradorite,[6] and when polished glistens in the sunlight +like a peacock’s feather. It is used for brooches, and occasionally +for ornamenting buildings. We dropped anchor one night near an island +almost entirely composed of this. + +[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, gives fuller information.] + +Copper pyrites, mica, asbestos, with salts of some of the rarer metals, +such as yttrium and rubidium, have been found on the coast. One mining +company works for labradorite during the summer. + +In the inlets and along the rivers some trees and arctic plants are +found. These are more especially spruces, larches, mosses, and lichens. +Birches, aspen, silver fir, willow, cherry, and mountain ash, however, +exist in favourable spots. I have seen good 60 ft. spars from the +end of Sandwich Bay. The trees get more and more dwarfed as one goes +north, and beyond the 59th parallel the merest scrub exists. The +botanical aspect, however, which chiefly interests the settlers, is +the number of edible berries, which form a valuable addition to their +articles of diet. These are bakeapples or cloudberries, cranberries, +whortleberries, bilberries, tea-berries, gooseberries, raspberries, +and currants. They are preserved in water, or in molasses when it is +obtainable, against the winter. + +Very few vegetables can be grown, though with care, up the inlets a +few potatoes, cabbages, and turnip tops have been raised. The Moravian +missionaries have to cover their vegetables up at night to keep them +warm. This lack of vegetables is tritely expressed in the diary of a +gentleman wintering on the north coast; the entry describing his diet +runs as follows— + + —— ditto. + —— ditto. + —— ditto. + —— ditto. + —— found a blade of grass. Eat the whole of it. + +Cartwright (1786) adds a list of his own of indigenous vegetable +delicacies— + + 1. Young osier leaves. + 2. Red dock leaves. + 3. Scurvy grass. + 4. Alexander, or wild celery. + 5. Indian salad. + 6. Alpine plant. + 7. Fathen. + +There is a charming catholicity about this old sea-dog and trapper. + +The tips of the young spruce branches are used for making a +non-intoxicating beer, being boiled with molasses. When other tea gives +out, the leaves of _uva ursi_ are used. These are known as Labrador +tea.[7] + +[Footnote 7: _Ledum latifolium_ is also called Labrador tea.] + +The Saga of Lief Erikson thus describes a conversation between the +Viking and his old henchman Tyrker, who, for two or three days, had +wandered from the party: “Why wert thou so late, my fosterer, and +separated from the party?” “I have not been much further off, but still +I have something new to tell of: I found grapes and vines.” “But is +that true, my fosterer?” quoth Lief. “Surely is it true,” replied he; +“for I was bred up where there is no want of either vines or grapes.” +They said that next day they _filled their long boat_ with grapes. But +we must, I fear, consider this a “traveller’s licence,” as we must also +when old Richard Whitbourne describes the wild berries of Newfoundland. +“There the summer naturally produceth out of the fruitful woombe of +the earthe, without the labour of man’s hand, great plenty of greene +pease and fitches faire, round, full and wholesome ... great store +of hay also.... Then have you here strauberries red and white, and +as faire rasberries and gooseberries as there be in England; as also +multitudes of bilberries, which are called by some whortes, and many +other delicate berries, which I cannot name, in great abundance. + + Peares, + Sowre cherries, + Filberds, + +of which divers times eating their fill, I never heard of any man whose +health was thereby any way impaired.” + +The rivers contain salmon for about one month in the summer. These +seem, however, to be very susceptible to cold, and are seldom taken +north of Hopedale. In seasons when the drift ice remains long on the +coast the number of salmon caught is always largely diminished. They +seldom take a fly. On the other hand the trout are very voracious, very +large and numerous, and will rise at any bait.[8] They remain all the +year, and are easily caught in winter by cutting a hole in the ice and +letting down a hook with a bit of raw meat. The women largely replenish +their larder in this way. Cod are far and away the most important of +all Labrador products at present—they are called “fish,” and even in +legal terms are the only denizens of the sea recognised as “fish.” In +summer they come into shallow water, first in pursuit of a small fish +known as “caplin,” and then remain probably to spawn before seeking the +deeper water in winter. It is unlikely that in their migrations they +cross any large portion of the Atlantic. + +[Footnote 8: There is a large salmon-trout fishery at Ungava.] + +The caplin come to the shallow water in countless myriads to spawn. +They are somewhat like a sardine, only a little larger. At times they +blacken the water, and so crowd one another as they swim along the +very edge of the water in calm weather that every ripple of the sea +leaves numbers struggling on the strand, till at times the whole beach +is hidden by dead and dying fish. Further north these caplin visit the +shore later in the year. They are followed always by immense numbers of +cod. I have seen cod also so thick that even in deep water there seemed +no room for them, their backs being constantly out of water. This is +called the “caplin school,” and on the catch of cod during their visit +the success of a whole fishery will depend. + +While the “caplin school” lasts the most intense excitement exists. The +men will work day and night, with scarcely an hour in twenty-four for +sleep, even eating their meals in their boats. The cod at this time +will not take bait, and are caught in traps in the way described in a +subsequent chapter, or are hauled in a huge seine, by which a “school” +is surrounded. Alas, sometimes so many icebergs are driven inshore, +that the precious time slips by without any opportunity of fishing, +though all the men, with boats and gear, are waiting on shore in the +greatest anxiety to be “up and at the fish.” The caplin are sometimes +smoked and kept for food, but usually are dried on the rocks for dog +food in winter. Messrs. Munn, of Harbour Grace, have tinned them like +sardines, and they are then excellent eating. The sea also affords +“hair” seals; these are caught in nets in the fall of the year, or are +shot swimming in the bays in summer time. Whales are common on the +coast, but the people now have no means of taking them. I saw two small +right-whales which had been washed up on the beach, and also one very +large sperm whale. Fourteen hundred gallons of oil was taken from his +head. So long ago as the 15th century, before the discovery of America, +Basque whalers are said to have fished these waters. In the far north, +at Ungava, the Hudson’s Bay people make a regular attempt to intercept +the large schools of porpoises. At times they will get as many as 150, +some individuals weighing a ton each. They are used for their skin +and fat, and their flesh for dog food. This is put raw into old flour +barrels, and then buried in the ground, usually in June, and in October +it will be dug up again. Decomposition will have made the flesh swell +up, and the barrels will have burst. As, however, the whole is now +frozen, the wood can be removed, and the barrel-shaped masses of frozen +and unsavoury flesh are stored away for the dogs’ repasts. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_OF THE BIRDS AND LARGER FISHES_ + + +[Illustration: Iceberg in August off Tub Harbour.] + +Herrings were once in great numbers on the coast, and were so much +larger and fatter than our English herring, that at times knaves have +found it worth while to imitate the “Labrador Herring” brand. Of late +years they have failed almost entirely to visit the coast, and fishery +stations have had to be abandoned where once the sea was “dry with fat +herring.” As many as 4,000 barrels have been surrounded with the seine +at one shoot of the net. The only other common fish is the sculpin, +pig-fish, or grubby. He is a voracious scavenger, and, in foul +companionship with his friend the flounder, may be seen sweltering on +the rotting heaps of offal which surround every Labrador fish-stage. He +appears to have no feelings, but one all-absorbing idea—“to swallow” +with his stupendous mouth. I have caught on the sharp-pronged jigger, +when fishing for “tom-cod” for breakfast, the same sculpin three times +in succession, until for self-protection it was necessary to club him +with a rowing pin. + +The sleeper shark also infests the coast, and in hundreds gather to +devour the dead bodies of the baby seals left by the sealers in the +spring. It has a callous nature, and Scoresby tells us, on one occasion +while one was feeding on a dead whale, and scooping out at each bite +pieces as large as a man’s head, a sailor pierced it through with a +scythe knife. It took little notice, however, and went on feeding in +exactly the same spot. Mackerel appear in the straits of Belle Isle +only. + +Two series of submarine banks lie off the Labrador shores, over which +it is shallow enough to fish with small boats and hand lines. These +have been estimated to cover an area of over 7,000 square miles. Over +these the northern current spreads countless animalculæ, in the form +of a vast ocean of living slime. This food attracts the bait fishes +especially, and they, in turn, attract the cod. No doubt also, this is +the attraction to the numerous whales, whose loud “blowing,” as they +laze along in the sunshine or hunt fish for their livelihood, alone +breaks at times the death-like silence in the lonely bays and inlets. +A large sperm whale, 70 feet long, was towed into Battle Harbour our +first year. This variety has large teeth, which are used by ivory +cutters. A Captain Clarke, writing in 1766, narrates how a sperm whale +charged one of his boats; it struck the bow with such violence that +it threw his son, who was harpooning, some feet into the air. The +whale turned and caught him in her devouring jaws as he came down. He +was heard to scream, and part of his body was seen hanging out of its +mouth, when it “sounded.” A small but beautiful whale, “as white as a +sheet,” is common on the coast. I have seen it caught in cod-traps. +Its skin makes excellent leather. The hump-back whale, and more rarely +the right-whale are also to be seen. The ferocious “thresher” whale +also visits us. It has terrible teeth, and one variety has also a huge +back-fin, six feet high, with which the fishermen say they have seen it +beating its prey to death.[9] Captain Scammon tells us of an attack by +three threshers on a huge cow-whale and her baby in a bay. “Like wolves +they flew at her throat, dragging her under water, the others charging +at her and leaping right over her. At last they killed the baby, and +when it sank kept diving down and coming up with large pieces of its +flesh. Meanwhile, the poor mother made her escape, leaving a long +track of blood behind her.” I have fired from my boat at the grampus, +but without success. Mr. Mackenzie, of the Hudson Bay Company, however, +told me he was once standing up in his small boat, waiting for a seal, +when he saw a grampus rising to the surface alongside. As its head +emerged from the water, he fired straight at the blow-hole, with the +result that the single explosive ball penetrated the animal’s brain, +and he rolled over dead without a struggle. Not an unfortunate issue as +far as the small boat was concerned. + +[Footnote 9: Goode’s _United States Fisheries_.] + +Pliny speaks of a whale 960 feet long! Another traveller’s license +I fear. A hundred feet is, as far as I know, an outside limit. The +whale-bone hangs from the roof of the mouth, is short in front and +behind, and is at best some six feet long. It is scythe-shaped, and +edged with long coarse fibres, which sweep over the huge soft tongue, +filtering off the slime on which these whales live. Three hundred and +fifty pieces are found on each side. + +The narwhale, with his long tusk, eight feet long, with which he pokes +up the sea grass on which he feeds, was once common on this coast. Some +say he uses the tusk to bore holes through the ice, and so get air to +breathe. The tusk is really an incisor tooth, or two incisor teeth +enormously prolonged, and twisted round one another. Where no wood is +found the Eskimo hang their tents on these ivory rafters. + +[Illustration: My first Caribou, and Guide.] + +The sword-fish is a doubtful visitor, though he is taken off Greenland +and on the American coast. Many are the authentic accounts of ships +he has attacked and even sunk.[10] He will weigh as much as 600 lbs., +and Professor Owen says, “he strikes with the accumulated force of +fifteen double-handed hammers, and its velocity is equal to that of +swivel shot.” In 1864 one, for which a sailor was angling, stove a hole +through the bottom of the ship _Dreadnought_, and so “the insurance +company had to pay £600 because an ill-tempered fish objected to be +hooked, and took revenge by running full tilt against copper sheathing +and wood planking.” Also in 1864 Captain Atwood took from the stomach +of a large shark a full-sized sword-fish, but the shark’s skin was +pierced with a dozen holes, showing how much the dainty morsel had +objected to being swallowed. Hanging with the armour of Christopher +Columbus at Siena, in Spain, is a sword of this fish, said to be “taken +from a _warrior_ they slew on nearing America.” + +[Footnote 10: Goode’s _United States Fisheries_.] + +The fowl of the air are a most important factor in Labrador life. Among +many land birds that do occur, far the most important are the willow +grouse and the spruce partridge. The former are large birds, tawny red +in summer, and white as driven snow in winter.[11] At that season many +depend on these birds to keep them from starvation, and even when a +settler’s ammunition has all run out, he can sometimes noose them with +string on the end of a long stick as they roost in the trees, so tame +are they. Like Alexander Selkirk’s animals— + +[Footnote 11: The willow grouse very rarely take to the trees, the +spruce partridge almost always.] + + “They are so unacquainted with man + Their tameness is shocking to me.” + +A covey in a tree can be killed right out, if shot from the bottom +upwards, so that the falling bird does not disturb the rest. A common +entry of Cartwright’s[12] is, “Saw a covey of six grouse. Knocked off +all their heads with my rifle.”[13] + +[Footnote 12: Cartwright’s _Journals_.] + +[Footnote 13: To economize powder, the settlers frequently shoot these +birds with bows and arrows. The arrows are club-headed.] + +The willow grouse in heavy weather bury themselves in the snow, only +the cock bird, who acts as sentry, keeping his head above ground +to watch for an enemy. Besides these “spruce” grouse, thrushes, +American robins, warblers, redpoles, snow buntings, sparrows, larks, +woodpeckers, crows, hawks, and owls occur. The snowy owl is an +exquisite white in winter, brown in summer, and a large bird. The jay, +also, is very common, filling the woods with its cries. Now and again +the beautiful gyrfalcon is seen, whilst the osprey, or sea eagle, also +breeds on the coast. All these birds are American varieties, and differ +slightly from our British species. + +There is a great wealth of sea-birds, and until the last two years +the arctic curlew ranked first among these. I fear in Labrador we +class all our animals in a descending order, with the flesh-pot as +the basis. These curlew came north, in flocks which nearly darkened +the air, in September, feeding on the numerous berries, and returned +south in October. The last three years they have almost disappeared. +The settlers say that, owing to their depredations on the American +cornfields, poisoned wheat was laid out for them, and this led to their +wholesale destruction. Their annual visit can be ill spared indeed. + +Perhaps one should mention next the Canada goose. Great numbers +of these breed near the great lakes or ponds. They are largely +graminivorous, and therefore do not combine the flavours of fish and +flesh, which we find so unpleasant in the gulls and divers. It is +usual, however, to catch these when young, and confine them in bounds, +for in this way not only is the flesh rendered much sweeter to the +palate, but since they grow very tame, they are used as decoys for +other geese. One man last year anchored out by one leg his tame decoy +goose, and so shot no less than thirty other geese. But, in his anxiety +for more, unwittingly left his pet too long in the water, with the +result that it died of cold; and so the goose with the golden—or in +this case “feathered”—eggs was lost. It shows these birds do feel the +cold. It is not waste to shoot a hundred geese the same day, for it is +only necessary to hang them up in rows outside the house on nails, and +they will remain frozen and fresh all winter. + +Both eider ducks and the king eiders abound on the coast. In huge +flocks early in November they come to the south’ard, generally with +a north-east wind, and then in quick succession flock after flock, +taking almost all exactly the same line. Near Battle hospital is a +barren, rocky point known as “Gunning” Point. Here, under the above +circumstances, you can always find some half-dozen “Livyeres,” with +long guns and dogs, waiting for the flocks. It is difficult to say +whether the dogs or the guns are most remarkable. I measured one gun, +six feet two inches long, and when it was discharged it was always an +open question which end of it would do most damage, for the adventurous +hunter always loaded it “ten fingers” deep. When a flock pass, all +the guns are discharged simultaneously, and the ducks, which at times +respond in showers, are nominally divided equally. + +But now comes the excitement. As a rule a huge Atlantic surf, with +these north-east winds, breaks over the point, and the splendid pluck +and endurance of the dogs is taxed to the uttermost. Dashing into the +waves, I have seen them repeatedly hurled back, bruised and winded, +high on to the ledges of rock, only to be dragged off by the return +wave and once more pounded on to the rocks. To avoid this, the brave +beasts hold on with the energy of despair, and many times have I noted +their bleeding paws, and nails torn off in the unequal struggle. Yet +they would at once return to the charge, and, waiting their chance, +leap right over the breaking crest, and so get clear of the surf. Once +they have seized a duck they never let it go, and I have often felt +sorely tempted even to jump in and give the brave creatures a hand, +when it seemed impossible for them to keep up the struggle any longer. +Yet, after being lost to view, engulfed by a huge breaker, one would +see soon a duck appear, and after it a dog’s head, still true to its +hazardous duty. Sometimes, however, they are really lost. + +Petrels, loons, divers, gulls, guillemots, widgeon, teal, scoters, +puffins, shanks, sandpipers and other waders abound. These are shot in +the fall, and salted down for future consumption. Their eggs are also +collected for eating; and though we found even the eggs of the domestic +hen, when allowed to feed on fish remains, too highly flavoured to be +appetizing, yet I have seen healthy babies flourishing on gulls’ eggs. +Whitbourne, writing in 1612, speaks of the utility of the penguin—the +great auk was common then. He says, “These penguins are bigge as geese, +and flye not, for they haue but a short wing, and they multiply so +infinitely upon a certain flat Iland, that men drive them from thence +upon a boord into their boats by hundreds at a time; as if God had +made the innocency of so poore a creature to become such an admirable +instrument for the sustentation of man.” Then, as now, he says the +“fishermen doe bait their hookes with the flesh,” and also that they +were so fat that the men drew threads through under the skin and used +them as candles. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_OF THE FUR-BEARING ANIMALS_ + + +[Illustration: Eskimo Boys.] + +For food purposes among land animals the caribou, which closely +resembles the reindeer, ranks first. These roam over the interior in +great quantities, feeding on the very plentiful Iceland moss. In winter +they scrape away the snow with their large cow-like hoofs to get at +it. In Newfoundland they are very plentiful in the interior, and Mr. +W. Tyrrell of Winnipeg told me, that on the west side of Hudson Bay +he found thousands, so tame they would eat out of his hands. They +migrate north in summer, and south in winter, due, says Rae, to their +“sense of polarity,” but I should presume in search of food. They are +difficult to find in the woods, for the colour of their skins varies +with the seasons, and always closely resembles their surroundings. +Unfortunately they are too far inland for the majority of settlers to +reach. + +The stags have magnificent antlers, which are especially fine about +October, the rutting season. With these they fight fiercely, going down +on their knees, and striking with the powerful brow-antlers. I have +seen several pairs of “locked horns” that have been picked up, the poor +creatures having got these fixed and died side by side of starvation. + +A hunter this fall, having skinned a young stag he had killed, put the +skin over him so that the horns, which were attached, came on his head. +He then walked out towards a herd of does, over which a fine stag was +keeping zealous watch as they grazed on the open marsh. They allowed +him to come within range, and then the stag, mistaking him for a rival, +actually charged down upon him. + +Polar bears are not uncommon, and five were killed this season near +Cape Chidley. Captain Blandford, of the S.S. _Neptune_, told me that, +having sent some men ashore for water in a strange harbour near Cape +Chidley, they returned in great haste, calling for their guns, and +shouting, “Bears!” They were soon perceived from the ship to be firing, +shot after shot being heard in rapid succession, and great expectations +were raised of bear steak for dinner. At last the hunters returned +with downcast countenances. The bears proved to be only inflated heads, +which some Eskimo were using as buoys for their lines. + +In one boat going out to their fish trap were seven men, six rowing, +and the skipper standing on the stern seat, steering with an oar. + +Suddenly a large white bear was sighted swimming close to the boat. +There was no gun on board, and yet the men were loath to lose so rich a +prize. Chase was therefore given, and the skipper kept hurling at the +bear the large two-pronged lead “jigger,” with a stout line attached. +Each time he threw it the bear warded it off, striking it a smart blow +with his fore-paw. At last one jigger came fast, and then another, till +the bear, who seemed only bent on escape, and was now wearied with +repeated diving, was hauled near the boat, and first clubbed with an +oar, and then despatched with an axe. + +Black bears are very common. They are, as a rule, herbivorous, eating +the wild berries, and insectivorous; but one night a settler I was +staying with showed me the skin of a large bear he had just trapped. +He was living at the mouth of a trout and salmon river, the entrance +to which he barred with nets. Two bears happening to observe some fish +struggling in the net on the surface of the water near the land were, +I suppose, tempted to feloniously sample the unexpected windfall, and +having once erred, continued their wild career. For the settler told +me they learnt regularly to come down and haul his nets, dragging them +to the land, and not only eating out the fish, but severely damaging +the nets. But punishment had been meted out to one in the form of a +charge of buckshot, to the other by a steel trap. + +Cartwright thus illustrates the power of this bear: “We discovered +this morning the damage done by a polar bear to a cask of oil. It was +of strong oak staves, well secured by thick, broad hoops of birch. Yet +with one blow of his tremendous paw he had snapped off the four chime +hoops and broken the staves short off.” + +The most valuable fur animals are the fox, otter, beaver, mink, +marten, and lynx. Musk-rats, squirrel, and hares are also plentiful. +The porcupine is not uncommon. One specimen I shot was larger than +a sucking pig. The long black hair, which almost obscures the short +quills, made it resemble a bear as it sat asleep on a bough at the top +of a fir tree. A bullet through the head brought it down at once, but +even when mortally wounded they will cling to the boughs, and you may +have to fell the tree. I saw a dog one day worrying one. The porcupine, +with its head well down, waited for the dog to come near, and then +switched round his tail end, on which are most spikes, with lightning +speed, hoping to leave some in his enemy’s nose. The quills are all +barbed, so that they “work in.” In this way they will kill dogs, +wolves, and foxes. A fox was found dead near Hopedale, its skin ruined +by festering sores, which, on examination, showed the ends of the black +and white quills. It is very amusing to see how easily it wards off an +enemy by always turning its back to him! When the dog was tired out, +the porcupine went up the nearest tree, had a good meal, and went to +sleep on a bough. + +Black or “silver” fox skins are very valuable. For one good black skin +I have known £170 given by a Russian nobleman. The average retail +value of silver fox skins is nearly £50. Now the cunning of foxes is +proverbial, but Cartwright tells us a story of vulpine ingenuity in a +marten. One day he was going to travel a long distance, and desired +to leave a deposit of food for his return journey. He feared to bury +it, because foxes would be sure to find it, so climbing a tree he hung +it by a string from one of the branches. Shortly after a marten came +along, and espied the dainty morsel high over his head. Whether he had +watched old Cartwright climbing, or whether it was an inspiration, the +tale does not say, but in any case it climbed the tree also, gnawed +through the string, and then, with an appetite whetted by the exercise, +had a square meal at its leisure. + +[Illustration: A Beaver.] + +Walking one day through thick wood we came across a regular “pathway,” +the trees having been felled to make travelling easy. A glance at the +stumps showed that it was a road cut by beavers, to enable them to drag +their boughs of birch along more easily. The pathway led to a large +house on the edge of a lake, and, fortunately for us, the beaver was at +home. There were other houses on an island in the lake, and below them +all a large, strong dam, some thirty yards long, built the shape of a +half-moon, and below this two more complete dams across the river that +flowed out. The dams were made of large tree-trunks, with quantities +of lesser boughs, and were many feet thick, and very difficult to +break down. The houses were built half on land, half in the water. The +sitting-room is upstairs on the bank, and so is the “crew’s” bedroom, +and the front door made at least three feet below the surface to +prevent being “frozen out” in winter, or, worse still, “frozen in.” + +The whole house was neatly rounded off, and so plastered with mud as to +be warm and weather-proof. This is done by means of their trowel-like +tails, which are also of great use in swimming. The house was so strong +that even with an axe we could not get in without very considerable +delay. In the deep pond they had dammed up, we found a quantity of +birch poles pegged out. The bark of these forms their winter food, and +is called “browse.” The beaver cuts off enough for dinner, and takes +it into his house. Sitting up, he takes the stem in his fore paws, +and rolls it round and round against his chisel-shaped incisor teeth, +swallowing the long ribands of bark thus stripped off. While entering +the house the stick often sets off a trap set for them. The trappers +say they do this purposely. When surprised they retreat to holes in the +bank, of which the entrances are hidden under water. These are called +“hovels.” + +Beavers always work up wind when felling trees, and cut them on the +water side, so that they fall into the pond if possible, and the +wind helps to blow them home. This beaver we caught proved to be a +hermit—at least he was living alone. He may have been a widower of +unusual constancy. They do not destroy fish, their food in summer being +preferably the stem of the water-lilies. Otters occasionally kill and +eat beavers. When they call the beaver has to try and be “not at home.” +Of the other animals I have not space to say much. The blue-grey hare +is a large animal, and like all the others turns white in winter—so +wonderfully does God remember all His creatures. + +The pretty little squirrel is very tame. Like a good sensible fellow +he makes round holes in the ground, and hides enough berries for his +“winter diet.” + +The climate of Labrador is rigorous in the extreme, in spite of +the fact that in summer, especially in the inlets, the thermometer +sometimes registers 75° and even 80° F. Icefields from Baffin’s +Bay and Davis Strait block the coast from October to June, the sea +freezing entirely over all along the shore. Over this all the winter +travelling is done, but sometimes the commotion below so moves the +ice up and down that a team of dogs with their sledge will only move +backwards when a swell arises. The average temperature all the year +round is at Hopedale 27° F., at Nain 22·5° F., that is a mean average +temperature of 5° and 9·5° respectively of frost. During the months +the sea is open, countless islands of ice are driven all along the +coast, while snowslips often make the land dangerous. A settler, his +two sons, and son-in-law were ascending the slope of an island near +Sandwich Bay to witness the first break-up of the ice in spring, when +an avalanche of snow buried all but one son, who was a few yards behind +the rest. Rushing to where he saw his father last, and tearing away +the hard-frozen snow with hand and foot, he came eventually on his +father’s head, four feet below the surface. Though his father heard the +son searching, he could neither stir nor shout to guide him, from the +weight of snow over him. This man told me the sad story. The other two +lads were lost. + +Storms of exceptional violence and of sudden onset occasionally visit +the coast. The wind seems to blow from all quarters at once, hurling +clouds of sea-water as dust, often mixed with icy spicules, far over +the land. A few years ago a vessel in Black Tickle, lying at anchor +near Gready, was carried up and left on the rocks twenty feet above +high-water line; at the same time £4,000 of damage was done, in that +one harbour alone, by all the stages with the summer’s voyage of fish +and all the boats being suddenly washed away. It was then October, and +snow was on the ground. All the survivors left as soon as possible. On +returning next year an old man of this vessel was found dead beneath +the snow, his hands crossed, his eyes bandaged. Evidently he had laid +himself out for burial. On October 9, 1867, in one of these sudden +gales, forty vessels were hurled on the rocks. Forty poor souls lost +their lives, and fifteen hundred people were cast ashore. + +Again on October 26, 1885, in a similar hurricane 80 vessels were lost, +70 lives, and 2,000 men, women, and children left on the coast. The +Newfoundland Government had to send up special steamers to bring these +people home. + +Easterly gales especially, as the water is deep, heave in a most +wonderful ground-swell. Close to the land, I have in our little steamer +been so low down in these great watery valleys, that, standing on deck, +we could not see even the tops of the hills over the crest of the next +wave. Admiral Bayfield says, “It bursts with fury right over islands +thirty feet in height, sending sheets of foam and spray, sparkling in +the sunbeams fifty feet up the sides of precipices.” + +One feature, however, of rare beauty is peculiar to these Arctic +regions. I mean the Aurora Borealis. At times one radiant crown circles +the zenith; at others, vast columns of light advancing across the +heavens keep changing shape like battalions of men attacking, the +varying uniforms of these flying squadrons resplendent with every +shade of violet, red and gold; at others deadly pale phantoms creep +ghost-like upwards from the northern horizon, till the whole space +overhead is filled with quivering rays. Icebergs, till now invisible, +reveal their baneful presence; but almost before the sailor has time to +note their bearings, these transient glories are suddenly extinguished, +and the sea and sky are once more plunged into darkness, all the more +death-like for the contrast, so that men call it, “The dead at play.” +The weird mirage also serves to add mystery to these regions. Often +have we seen huge icebergs as if capsized, and hovering in the waves +of ether over the stern realities below, as though kissing them and +rejoicing in their power for evil. + + + + +[Illustration: Mountaineer Indians on the _Sir Donald_.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_WE GO TO LABRADOR AND START WORK_ + + +ON June 15, 1892, the good ship _Albert_, 97 tons register, and 151 +displacement, was towed out of Great Yarmouth Harbour, and amidst many +farewells from wharves, quays and piers, spread her canvas for her +first transatlantic voyage. Trimmer ship never left port bound on such +a journey. Stout timbers, teakwood decks, iron hatches, new running +gear—nothing had been forgotten—and in light airs of summer or whole +gales in winter, I want no snugger vessel. The four voyages made by her +at present, under the care of Captain Trezise and his crew of eight +men, certainly deserve notice here. + +1892. Bound out. From Fastnet Rock to St. Johns, Nineteen days. + +Bound home. From St. Johns to Start Lighthouse. Twelve days. + +1893. Bound out. From Fastnet Rock to St. Johns. Seventeen days. + +Bound home. From St. Johns to Great Yarmouth. Twelve and a half days. + +Our best twenty-four hours’ work was 240 miles, registered on two +harpoon logs. The fact that we registered under 100 tons, allowed us +to carry an uncertificated mate—Skipper Joe White, so well known +in the North Sea. It also made my certificate as a competent master +of some practical use. After visiting the mission vessel _Edward +Birkbeck_, at work among Manx and Irish fishermen off the south-west +coast of Ireland, we followed the course taken by Cabot in his caravel, +the _Matthew_, nearly 400 years ago, and made a landfall directly +opposite St. Johns Harbour. Here a scene of the wildest confusion +greeted us. The prosperous city we expected to see had been almost +blotted out by fire; and still amidst the ruins of churches, public +buildings and private dwellings, smoke and flames arose in all parts +of the city exultant and unsubdued, looking at night-time like glutted +vultures over their helpless prey. Warehouses, wharves, and even +vessels at anchor, had shared the same fate, so that landing at all +was a difficult matter at first. In the streets, here and there, were +disconsolate groups of men, excavating from tons of fallen masonry, +safes which had proved none too safe, and which, lying burnt, +battered, and discarded at intervals, served to enhance the sense of +general desolation. + +From the harbour the first appearance suggested the ruins of Pompeii, +for the wooden houses of 12,000 people had gone up in smoke, leaving +only rows of blackened and scorched pillars rising from the charred +debris. On closer inspection, however, the illusion was dispelled, for +the pillars proved to be tottering brick chimneys, with two or three +half-destroyed fire-grates above one another, the whole being topped +by most prosaic cracked chimney-pots. Queer things had happened in +the general panic. Patients who had lain in bed for years “arose and +walked.” Barrels of dry goods were rolled pell-mell into the harbour, +whence they were subsequently fished out. Merchants gave general leave +to bystanders to save what they liked from their shops. Church pews +were packed with heterogeneous goods and chattels, which only served +to add to the conflagration when the sanctuary itself fell a victim to +the all-devouring flames. Title deeds, recent enactments of parliament, +ledgers, valuable manuscripts, were destroyed in scores; while, as +the fire occurred just before tea-time, thousands found themselves +houseless, hungry, dusty and “smoke-dried” by morning. To meet these +sudden needs every available building was thrown open for shelter, +while weak tea and light refreshments were served out, in every variety +of pot, kettle, and cauldron available, by cabinet ministers from the +steps of the Government buildings. The respected premier was to have +been seen at an early hour of the morning with a background of blazing +houses, in a most precarious position astride an angular roof, putting +out burning embers as they fell. Nor did the flames cry “Quarter” to +the episcopal apron, even his lordship escaping coatless. It was said +that a jeweller, who had at the last moment sent his assistant to put +valuables in the safe, found on opening it afterward a dust brush and +an old matchbox only. One man was noticed skurrying up the hill with a +feather mattress on his back, all unconscious it was brightly burning; +while one, like another Nero over another Rome, was seen playing a +piano in the open street, that had been hastily deposited there by its +flying owner. The musical tastes of the community were impressively +brought out by the fact that some dozen “borrowed” pianos were rescued +from houses in neighbouring villages, when authority was once more able +to cope with disorder. + +Forest fires continued to rage in every direction for days and weeks +after, till the greater part of the peninsula of Avalon was treeless, +many country homesteads sharing the same fate as the city. In some +planter cottages I visited, I found men who had been fighting for their +lives, homes, and possessions for days with these forest fires. In some +cases the women, children, and goods had been carried out and deposited +for safety for two or three days on the edges of the great “ponds,” as +the huge lakes all over the country are called. + +Most wise enactments on the part of the authorities prevented what +might have led to serious riots. All public-houses and liquor shops +were promptly closed, and several attempts at incendiarism were nipped +in the bud. Yet, amidst all their own troubles, the Newfoundlanders +found time to show us the greatest of kindnesses. So much so that it +would be invidious here to particularize one more than another. While +in St. Johns we visited every ship in harbour, giving away “readin’,” +and finding out all we could about the fishermen and fisheries. The +Hospital Mission ship, with her cargo of warm clothing, some of which +was at once in demand, her medicines, and her stores of healthy +literature, spoke practically of warm hearts in the old country, +still dear to all her distant children, and served to prove to this, +her oldest colony, that England is still a mother in more than name. +Hundreds of all classes and denominations poured down to see the +_Albert_ when once her mission was understood, for it took time to +realize that the lovely ship, with such admirable equipment, was +really free for the poor and sick of bleak Labrador. A pilot having +been provided for us in the person of Captain Nicholas Fitzgerald, the +_Albert_ sailed for Labrador. + +[Illustration: The _Albert_ in Bateaux Harbour.—Flags up for Service.] + +Dense fog prevailed for four days, so that the end even of our own +bowsprit was scarcely visible, the _Albert_ standing accordingly well +out to sea, “Brother Foghorn” having it all his own way. On the +fourth day we caught a glimpse of Cape Bauld, the north-east corner +of Newfoundland, and then the impenetrable veil dropped again. Our +only occupation had been our deep sea thermometer, which registered +generally from 28-30° Fahren. in two to three hundred fathoms. On +Sunday we once more sighted land. The foe had gone, and was replaced +by a bright clear day—not a cloud in the sky, not a ripple on the +dark blue water. Innumerable rocky islands and lofty headlands were +visible away on the port bow—some showing a bright yellow from the +mosses and lichens on them. Around us we could count thirty magnificent +icebergs—chips from the eternal Arctic ice. A school of whales were +sporting under our lee, every now and again throwing jets of glistening +water high into the air. The scene to our eager eyes was one indeed of +surpassing interest and beauty. + +Our pilot’s experience was at once on trial, for only a very imperfect +survey exists of the coast. And not one single landmark, lightship, +buoy, or distinguishing mark exists to aid the mariner anywhere along +this dreary coast, a lack not remedied by the luxuriance of fogs and +icebergs. It stood the test well. He pronounced the spot “Roundhill +Island.” + +After passing through a precipitous rocky entrance, half closed by a +stranded mountain of ice, on which the long swell of the Atlantic was +thundering, we dropped anchor off a long narrow creek, round which +our glasses revealed rude fishing stages and mud huts. The name of the +harbour was Domino. + +Five minutes was long enough to bring several small boats alongside, +with eager inquiries as to who this strange vessel might be! Where +was it bound? what was its errand? while a few more minutes saw us +being swiftly rowed ashore to come and see G—— who had been “bad all +summer.” + +Soon I was sitting in a tiny, dark mud hut, with neither glass in the +hole that served for light and air, nor a chimney to carry up the +smoke from the fire on the floor, through the large hole in the roof +intended for its escape. A groaning man sat doubled up on a rude bench +in a dark corner of the room, while his wife endeavoured to restrain +the super-abundant energy of a crowd of children. “Been ill long?” +I asked, after the usual greetings had been exchanged. “About three +weeks. Wish I could get home. There’s no chance for a sick man up +here.” Evidently he did not yet grasp the idea of our hospital ship. +“Well, we’ll see what can be done,” and the case was inquired into, and +found to my joy to be one for which relief could, by care, be obtained. +After some further talk, in which one or two fishermen joined, who +had entered during the examination, we had a few words of prayer for +God’s blessing on the means used, and left for the ship, leaving behind +us, for the _Albert’s_ first evening in Labrador, at least one poor +heart grateful—and thoughtful. A hearty service aboard and many minor +cases of sickness closed the day. Daylight again saw boats alongside +the _Albert_, and we were called to visit a poor Eskimo dying from +consumption. He had been brought from an island four days before, and +was lying in a lonely hut, hoping some day that he would be well enough +to get aboard the mail steamer for advice. + +The poor house was indeed ill-calculated for a dying +man—ill-ventilated, ill-lighted, and dirty—with little clothing, and +still less food, semi-starvation was rapidly hastening on the end. Oh, +for a clean bed, a nurse, a hospital, to put such cases in, was the +whole talk over tea that evening. All was done that could be. Food, +medicine, and some warm clothing were taken him; but ere the _Albert_ +came south again, death had claimed the poor fellow for its victim, and +closed the sad scene of human suffering; and the valley of shadows had +been crossed without the knowledge of a Saviour, who takes away all its +sting. At whose door will this fault be laid? Not more than once a year +does the sound of the glad tidings of God’s grace reach Spotted Island, +the home still of some fifty persons. + +To avoid repetition, I must now content myself by giving a general +description of the people of this coast and their methods of earning a +living. + + + + +[Illustration: Hudson Bay Company’s Post, Rigolette.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_DO PEOPLE LIVE IN LABRADOR?_ + + +Do people live in Labrador? There is a resident white population of +some 5,000 at least, scattered along the south and east coasts. They +call themselves “Livyeres.” North of these are Eskimos, and in the +interior Indians, known locally as “Mountaineers,” but actually they +are different branches of the old Algonquin race. The last returns were +as follows:— + + White population of St. Lawrence coast 4,411 + White population of Atlantic coast 2,416 + Eskimo on the coast 1,700 + Indians of the interior 4,000 + —————— + Total 12,527 + —————— + +These Indians, who once held North America from the “Rockies” to the +sea, have steadily decreased in numbers. As they live by hunting only, +the extensive forest fires, and depletion of fur-bearing animals, +have driven them further and further west. Whole encampments have +been reported “found dead from starvation.” Only occasionally do they +visit the coast, bringing furs with them to trade with the Hudson Bay +Company. They never take to sea fishing. + +The Eskimo, of Mongolian origin, at one time were as far south as +Newfoundland. In 1780 a tribe 500 strong still dwelt along the Straits +of Belle Isle. Now almost all are north of Hamilton inlet; of these I +shall speak later. + +Whence do the whites come? Some are said to be descendants of those +who fled the old country in press-gang days. In 1780 we hear of a crew +of convicts sent out there. Some are descendants of sailors wrecked +on the coast, or of Newfoundland and other fishermen who have been +left there. More come from those who have gone out in the service of +the Hudson Bay Company, while some few have emigrated directly there. +The largest settlement consists of about 100 persons, and with the +people of neighbouring coves numbers about 350. It is here where the +mission has built the first hospital ever known in Labrador. In May or +June every year the coast is visited by from 20 to 25,000 fishermen, +women and children. These arrive as soon as the ice is blown off the +coast by westerly winds. Most are from Newfoundland, some from Canada, +with occasional Americans buying fish. They come in every variety of +vessel—small and large, good, bad and indifferent—mostly of the +schooner type. They number about 1,000. Besides the crew, which varies +from five to ten men, with one or two women, most Newfoundland vessels +bring a number of people called “freighters.” These are landed at +various harbours, where they have left mud huts and boats the previous +year, and where they will fish all summer. The fish is “made” or cured +in Labrador, and sent in large vessels to the Mediterranean, Brazilian, +or English markets. Meanwhile, the schooner has gone further north in +search of a “fare” of fish. If successful, the fish will be salted, +and brought home “wet,” so that these vessels are called “green-fish +catchers.” As they come south they call for their “freighters,” with +their goods and chattels, who pay 25 cents per head per cwt. of fish +caught in return for their passage. The overcrowding on some of these +vessels returning is very great, and is made worse by the fact that +every year more vessels go than return. Besides the cargo of fish, +casks of oil, nets, boats, and general goods, perhaps thirty, forty, +or fifty men and women will be crowded into these small vessels, at +times with only room to lie down in the hold between the deck and the +cargo. On one small schooner of nineteen tons we counted fifty people, +thirty-four men and sixteen women. The women, many of whom have +children with them, are often very bad sailors. As a rule, they are +not allowed on deck except in port, and this voyage is a nightmare all +summer to numbers. They are pillars of pluck, many of these women. They +can handle an oar and sail a small boat with the best, and among them +are “Grace Darlings” only wanting an opportunity. They work chiefly at +cleaning fish and keeping the huts for the men, though some, I think +very wrongly, form part of the crews of the green fish catchers. The +Canadian schooners are larger—carry about eighteen men and no women. +The people consider Labrador very healthy, which I attribute to their +comparative immunity there from epidemic diseases. The damp mud huts, +often filled with snow till the very day they go in, the entire absence +of any sanitary provisions, combined always with either cold draughts +or too little ventilation, have, without any doubt, an ill effect on +the people, but more especially on the women, who occupy them. + +[Illustration: Fields of Fish Drying—Emily Harbour.] + +The fishermen are tall men, and broad to match, born to the sea, +and are accustomed, from their training at the seal fishery on the +ice, to be quick and active. No lighthouse, no buoy, no landmark aid +navigation on the Labrador coast. The charts are old, bad, incorrect, +incomplete and unreliable, while north of Hamilton inlet, _where +nearly all the schooners go for green fish_, there is practically no +chart at all, most of the surveying having been done by the keels and +bilges of devoted fishing schooners. Streams of icebergs, floating +all the summer to the southward before the polar current, render it +always unwise to stay at sea at night. With sudden calms and baffling +winds from high perpendicular cliffs, making a harbour without a tug +is always hard enough; but here, in addition, the constant and dense +fogs make it often impossible, without any kind of guide, even to +find a harbour at all; for in places shoals and ledges run out twenty +miles to seaward. Yet for all this shameful neglect on the part of the +Newfoundland Government, the weak defence is constantly made, “Not +many lives are lost.” That I know to be due solely to the consummate +seamanship and daring perseverance of the fishermen. Among many good +vessels, many are bad, and, worse still, are provided with but bad +tackle and holding-gear. The latter is an absolute essential, with the +liability that exists to sudden hurricanes, and I believe more vessels +are lost in Labrador from this one cause than all others put together. +Moreover many, as I have already pointed out, are greatly overcrowded. +More than once we saw vessels drifting to destruction, and once, when +holding on ourselves for all we were worth, we had the pleasure of +saving a comrade by running him a coir hawser, and so holding him on +the verge of the rocks after his own tackle had given out and the crew +had received brief notice to quit through the boiling surf. + +It must be remembered that Newfoundland, our oldest colony, exists +solely by its fishery; that one-third of its entire revenue is now +derived from this very Labrador fishery, that is some one-and-a-half +million dollars, and that in no other way could this harvest be reaped. +Moreover almost every man in Labrador may be called a fisherman, and +yet nothing is done for all their returns. Here is another method of +interpreting the value of the industry. It is said seventeen tons of +fish contain the nutritive value of 50 head of cattle, or 300 sheep. +Now the average yield for fifty years from the French and English +Fisheries is 2,300,000 cwt., that is 338,235 cattle, or 2,029,410 sheep. + +The summer Labrador settlements are on islands or outside headlands, +and here both Newfoundlanders and “Livyeres” dwell, the latter retiring +up the bays and inlets, to be nearer wood and game, when the former +return to Newfoundland. There are about a dozen well recognised central +stations in Labrador, where agents representing the various merchants’ +firms are stationed to collect the fish from the fishermen dealing with +their firm, and to ship it thence to market. These men have far better +houses than the rest, generally also a store from which the general +wants of their men are supplied. As a rule, advances are made of all +needful appliances and food to some better known fishermen. + +These men are known as “Planters,” and employ under them so many men +and women on “share” or wages. Occasionally, also, the agent has some +men of his own, working for settled wages, who may be made to fish for +cod, to pack salmon, to load vessels, or do any work they are told. +When seven men fish one trap or seine net, the total catch is divided +into fourteen shares—seven for the planter and seven for the men. +That is one share each; a few dollars on the hundred quintals being +allowed the skipper of the “crew.” Or when a man fishes his own net +with four men, I saw the value divided into twelve shares—four for +the master, four for the trap, and one each for the men, so that each +man gets every twelfth fish. When hand-lining begins, and two men have +charge of each boat, every other fish belongs to the men, the owner +taking two out of four. A girl’s wages are £6 to £7 currency for the +season, and her keep. Each planter has his own hut, but his men often +live together. The huts are of logs with the chinks filled with moss +and covered with sods. Entrance is by a low doorway, and there is a +small window placed low down to prevent escape of heat. Warmth and +ventilation cannot co-exist in so small a space. A man a little over +a fathom long once visited Sir Donald Smith, when an agent on that +coast. To accommodate his legs at night a hole had to be cut in the +wall, and a box lined with dogskin fixed up outside. I saw one day a +fisherman moving house. The house was first wedged up on piles, then a +rope was put round it, and, with the help of a few neighbours, it was +dragged higher up the hill. Another house I saw had been dragged over +the harbour on the ice “to be nearer the fishing ground.” An American +stove, or more often an open fireplace (the smoke going out of a huge +chimney like in an Irishman’s cabin), serves for warmth and cooking. +The stove, anyhow, is a movable chattel, and accompanies its master to +his winter hut in the fall. Clothes are so expensive and so scanty that +every man is his own wardrobe, and he who puts his clothes in a drawer +must himself go naked. Thus a block of furniture is obviated. Bunks are +put up for the men or a partition boarded off, while the girls sleep in +a “lean-to,” called a “bunk-house,” or have a part partitioned off, or +hang an old curtain in front of their bunk in the smaller huts. + +Some Newfoundland planters and agents provide boarded huts for their +“crowd,” but in all the arrangements are much the same. The Livyeres’ +families have all their separate huts. Each “crew” has a fish stage, +alongside which the fish are brought in the boats. These stages +are built out on piles driven into the mud. Long poles, known as +“rounders,” are laid side by side across the tops of these, and form a +kind of flooring. The whole is then roofed in with poles and sods, in +order that fish-curing may proceed at night by costers’ lamps, or in +bad weather. Up the middle of the stage runs a table for splitting the +fish on. The green fish are hove up on to the stage with pitchforks, +seized by a woman who cuts off the head—“the header,” and passed +on to one who opens the throat—“the throater.” She passes it to a +man—“the splitter.” He, with great dexterity, cuts out the backbone +and flings the flesh into a tub of water for the “washer.” I have timed +a man split thirteen fish in one minute. It takes the tyro nearer +thirteen minutes to split one well. The offal is thrown through a hole +in the floor into the sea below, where every variety of scavenger fish +congregates. In Norway, and by Messrs. Munn of Newfoundland, the skins +and bones are made into a splendid glue, while the rest of the offal +is preserved for fish manure. The washed fish is next laid in pile +and salted. The “salter” is also a skilled mechanic. It is easy to +undersalt and easy to “saltburn,” or oversalt, whereby much valuable +salt is wasted. This salt comes all the way from Cadiz by the same +vessels that take the fish away. Next the fish is spread in the sun. +A fine day is waited for, and all hands turn to. Many a slip exists +between the cup and the lip, however. If the fish has lain too long, +it will be sodden, and go grey or dun. If the sun is too hot, it will +be sun-burnt. If rain comes, and it is wet and dry again, too often it +will be injured. It must be turned and returned. At last it is gathered +up into circular “piles,” back up, and tail to the centre. These piles +are covered over with birch rinds, and a few stones placed on the top +to keep the whole together till it is time to ship them away. They +are weighed into the ship, two quintals at a time, a “culler” looking +over them as they pass in and classifying them; and according to this +classification they are paid for. The receipt handed to the fishermen +runs thus:— + + Received from.............. + + Large } + Medium} Merchantable fish + Small } + Madeira Merchantable fish + West India Merchantable fish + Talqual Merchantable fish + Inferior Merchantable fish + Damp Merchantable fish + Dun Merchantable fish + Slimy Merchantable fish + Labrador Merchantable fish + And also ...... casks of ...... gallons of oil. + +There is always a great race to get first to market, for the first +cargo always fetches a higher price. One fish planter ships his own +fish to England, and thus is able to get at times a better price than +that offered in St. Johns. On the other hand, he runs the risks of the +freight, insurance, etc. + +No railway, public building, roads, drains, or such like things +exist in Labrador, and every man is a fisherman first, a handy man +after—boat or house-builder, blacksmith, cooper, curer, as the case +may be. Only three harbours do I know where liquor is sold: in one of +these two poor fellows were drowned through its influence last year. +No jail or police exist on the coast. A small revenue schooner, with a +justice of the peace on board, is responsible for maintaining the law +and preventing smuggling. The people are, as a rule, law-abiding; but +crimes, especially among the half-breeds and Eskimo, go unpunished. +In one settlement a lay reader and school teacher are established; in +another an aspirant to the Methodist ministry, while settlements up two +long inlets enjoy similar privileges. These men are all doing excellent +work, as is a Presbyterian student from Dalhousie University in the +Straits of Belle Isle. + +Most school work can be done in winter, for in summer only those too +young to work can be spared; and if they are old enough to journey +alone to and from the school, they are old enough to do something at +the fishery. Only a small percentage of Livyeres can read or write. +Every summer it is usual for a Roman Catholic priest, a Methodist +minister, and an Anglican clergyman to visit as many stations as they +can on the first 400 miles of coast. They are passed along in boats +from place to place by the too willing people, who, irrespective of +creed, extend their kindly hospitality to all alike. In places wood +buildings have been put up voluntarily by the men in their spare time, +for Sunday services, conducted usually by one of themselves. Our own +gatherings, at times too large for the _Albert’s_ hold or these little +buildings, were held in fish stores ashore, cleared for the purpose, or +in the open air, one of the countless boulders serving for a natural +rostrum. I have seen the same place serve in the morning for Church of +England, in the afternoon for Wesleyan, in the evening for Salvation +Army, and pretty much the same congregation attending each. I have +known a Methodist meeting house on Sunday reconsecrated for Mass on +Monday. This absence of conventionality, this socialism on a basis of +kindly generosity, is most congenial to one from the old world. + +Fresh meat and vegetables are alike hard to procure. No cow or horse +exists. The domestic animal world is represented only by the inevitable +dog; the vegetable by the stringy cabbage or struggling turnip, whose +leaves alone attain to economic value. To prevent scurvy in winter, +when fresh fish is not attainable, salt meat must be avoided, even +if they can afford to buy it. The following recipe is invented with +that end: “Dry the cod in the sun till it is so hard none can go +bad. In winter powder this, rub it up with fresh seal oil, and add +cranberries if you have any.” This dainty is known as “Pipsey.” These +people neither need nor expect luxuries; sugar and milk are very rarely +used—tinned milk being too expensive, molasses being cheaper than +sugar, and also margarine than butter. White rabbits, white grouse and +sea-birds help to eke out the winter’s diet. + +But to be accurate, in two harbours I saw a pig, brought by the +Newfoundlanders. When they arrived the dogs were banished to a desert +island near. In one harbor we listened to much wailing. Two pigs +had been isolated on an island near, the fishermen enjoying daily +the bliss of anticipation. But alas! here the dogs proved equal to +the occasion. An on-shore wind had brought them the joyful news, and +that very morning the pigs disappeared, only a few blood-stained +bristles remaining to tell the story of the crime. In one harbour a +planter had brought a sheep, but its isolation had so developed its +affection for its owner that it followed him everywhere, and he could +not make up his mind to kill it. Goats fare a little better: they have +horns. Yet in one place three nights in succession a goat had been +missed. A team of runaway dogs was roaming near, but only approached +the houses under cover of night. All these animals are, however, the +perquisites of affluence, and belong almost entirely to the planters +from Newfoundland. Some few bring fowls, which eke out a perilous +existence on suffrance of the dogs. At the Hudson Bay Company’s station +of Rigolette, Mr. Wilson, the chief factor, told me that two of his +dogs got into his well-enclosed yard, and in four minutes killed eight +hens and tore four goats to pieces. Among all these people no resident +doctor exists, nor is skilled aid of any kind to be obtained in case +of need; for the few minutes in the summer that the mail steamer +stays in any harbour, and the irregular times of her calls, gives the +doctor on board no opportunity to render effective aid. When sickness +falls on the people no one knows what it is, or how to treat it. Not +knowing they are ill, men work on till a trifling ailment becomes a +matter of life and death. A slight accident with no “first aid” at +hand, permanently cripples a limb or destroys a valuable function, +such as sight. Bleeding unchecked from a simple wound deprives a +dependent family of the father and breadwinner. Many are the piteous +stories I have learnt of such cases since first, in 1892, the Gospel +Hospital-ship _Albert_ was sent out by warm hearts in Old England to +their brothers and sisters in this “region beyond.” + +After all this description of Labrador, do you ask, as I do, why do +people stay here, when the fair farm lands of Canada are offered free +to all? There is a story that a solitary old woman in the wilds of +North America was one day visited by a gentleman from that “hub of +the universe,” Boston city. She asked him, “Where do you live?” “Oh, +hundreds of miles away—in Boston.” “How do you manage to live so far +away?” was the reply. To begin with, every one has a lingering belief +in his “ain countree.” The wild life to which these people are born has +a certain charm to others besides themselves. Sailors they are born +and bred. What else can they do? Some have been taken by the Canadian +Government to the southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence—the Arcady +of Longfellow—and yet have found eventually their way back. The fact +remains—here is an increasing English-speaking colony. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_JUST HOW THE FISH ARE CAUGHT_ + + +[Illustration: Boat returning from the Trap full of Fish.] + +Cod (Gadus) = goad or rod fish—called in Norway stick or stock fish, +or in Spanish “baccalhao,” in Italian “mazza,” a club or rod—all of +which synonyms imply that a rod or stick is used in preserving the +fish. In Norway two are tied tail to tail, and then slung over a stick, +being then exposed to sun and air so many days—prescribed by law. The +Eskimo largely hang them from a rod by the gills after splitting and +salting them, but Newfoundlanders spread them out on poles, called +“flakes,” or on the natural rocks, called “bournes.” But “you must +first catch your hare, then cook him,” and seasons suitable being +very brief in these Arctic climates, the most rapid methods must be +adopted; and in cod-catching Newfoundland has eclipsed all her rivals. + +In spring, nets only are used, for the fish are in shoals, feeding on +the myriads of caplin, a fish the size of a sardine, which are inshore +then to spawn. The most successful net is the cod-trap. Practically it +is a submerged parlour of net without a roof, but with a large door, +into which the cod are invited to walk by a long net leading to the +nearest headland of rock, and ending at the centre of the door. It is +all kept in position by heavy anchors. The distance from the rock is +from a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards. Cod are gregarious fish, +and, like sheep, follow a leader. When, therefore, one comes up against +the net as he swims near the rocks, he turns out into deeper water to +circumvent it, and so leads his confiding following directly into the +net. Here, being a platonic fish, he remains, indolently browsing on +the infusoria and ocean slime which collect about the twiny walls of +his prison. Suddenly a boat appears overhead, and a long telescope, +with a plain glass bottom—the fish glass—is pushed down into the +room, through which the trap-master is peering to see how many finny +prisoners there are. Now the door is pulled up, and now the floor is +rising—rising—rising, being passed along under the boat, until all +the frightened captives are huddled together in one seething mass near +the surface. Now a dipper is put in, and the jumping, struggling fish +are heaved into the boat. Soon the boat is full to the gunwale, and +still there are more prisoners. Large bags of net are produced and +filled with the rest of the fish. These, after being buoyed, are thrown +overboard to wait till they are “wanted.” + +I have seen fifty to sixty hundredweight of fish taken in the same +trap time after time. Sometimes more are caught than the curers can +keep pace with. Then the fortunate trap-master allows his neighbours +to “haul the trap,” receiving in return a small proportion of cured +fish. Now certain positions are thought better than others for setting +these traps, with the result that there is every spring a race from +Newfoundland to get them, like our members of parliament race for +seats. The law does not allow traps to be set till a certain day, and +the leading net must be put out to secure the berth—a top hat on a +bench is not sufficient—and unless within four days the whole trap +is set, the claim becomes void. Thus, while the ice was still on the +shores of Labrador, a steamer was sent ahead with numbers of men, each +armed with “a trap leader,” to get ahead of the sailing schooners which +were working their perilous way along inside the floe ice. In one case, +after the best berths had thus been taken, the nets to complete the +traps did not turn up till after the prescribed four days. Meanwhile +another crew had pulled up their nets and pounced on the coveted +prizes. Again, some men were landed with “leaders” on one station late +at night. “No sail in sight. We’ll secure our berths to-morrow +morning.” During the night, however, a southerly wind brought in two +schooners, and during the hours of darkness these secured the prize +while the others slept. + +[Illustration: Snug Harbour.] + +The “cod-seine” ranks second in importance among nets in Labrador. It +is of prodigious size, up to 60 feet deep, requiring seven men to work +it, and is used either to bar an inlet, or to shoot round a shoal of +cod in deep water. The seine master stands, fish-glass in hand, high on +the bow of the seine skiff, as his stalwart crew, with eight huge pine +oars, drive the boat along, perhaps hour after hour. The vast net is +piled up on the stern, while one man stands on the thwarts, steering +with his oar like an Italian gondolier. Suddenly “Easy all!” is cried; +“Hold her up!” and the seine master peers down into the water with +his glass. A school of fish is on the bottom. Swiftly the net anchor +is dropped, and the net is paid out astern as the willing backs bend +to the oars and force the skiff round and home to the starting place, +marked by a gaily-painted buoy. Thus the whole school are enclosed. Now +the weighted foot rope is “gathered” together, the net has become one +vast bag, and the prisoners are dealt with as before, _i.e._ dipped out +and bagged off. + +The gill net is rarely used in Labrador now. In Norway it is still a +favourite method. Twenty to twenty-four nets, eighty feet long and +about fifty feet deep, are “shot” in water of from twenty to sixty +fathoms, or even in ninety fathoms, as many as three to four thousand +cod being meshed at one time. Under certain circumstances nets are no +use, _e.g._, on the great banks, or late in the season in Labrador. +Lines must then be used, and it is advisable to use bait on the hook. +To us accustomed to row out and catch a few codling with a mussel, the +subject of “baits” has apparently little interest. But out here it has +become a subject of international importance. The fact is, mussels +are too soft, coming off the hook too readily, and also cod are a +fastidious fish, and will only condescend to swallow that “poisson” +which is in season. True, it is not essential to bait the hooks at +all. Instead you may take two large hooks, fix them back to back with +a piece of lead, which will act at once as bait and sinker. Lower this +to the bottom, and then keep jerking it up and down. Often you will +strike fish as fast as you can work, using one line in each hand. This +method, called “jigging,” eventually injures the fishery, probably +because numbers of fish escape after being wounded, and others follow +them, possibly to devour them, more than five being injured for one +caught. The fishermen say the injured warn their friends, but a fish’s +appreciation of pain is somewhat doubtful. + +Sailors have told me of sharks which, after being caught and having +had their livers cut out, will continue to pursue and swallow the same +piece of pork as long as sufficient vitality remains in them to keep +pace with the vessel; nay, even that, after being cut in half, the “bow +end” will still wriggle after the bait, when the ship is becalmed in +the doldrums. But Jack is prejudiced against sharks. + +Bait is necessary, however, in deep water, a fact that led the +Newfoundland Government to pass the famous “Bait Act,” rendering it +illegal to supply the French with bait in the hope of destroying their +banking industry. Alas! laws are easier to make than enforce, and the +worst sufferers were those who formerly made out of this supply an +honest livelihood. + +Octopus and Squid is _facile princeps_ among baits for cod. Yet the +cod must be circumspect in indulging this weakness, and confine his +attention to those of tender years, for these cephalopods attain to +enormous size at times in these waters. Thus the Rev. Dr. Harvey +(F.R.S., Canada), of St. Johns, narrates how, while recently two +Newfoundlanders were out fishing in their little rowing boat, two +enormous arms rose out of the water, seized the boat, and endeavoured +to drag it below the surface. Fortunately a chopper lay at hand in the +boat, and the great beast, after losing two of his arms, sank amidst +volumes of black ink. The parts of arms cut off were nineteen feet +long, and are now preserved in St. Johns Museum. Shortly after another +was secured by Dr. Harvey, which had been found floating, dead. Its +grasp embraced forty feet. Again, in 1772 Cartwright caught one seven +feet long without head or tentacles. The beaks of these fish resemble +a parrot’s, and in large specimens are far more solid than human teeth. + +Catching octopus is exciting work. A number of row-boats are anchored +close together outside some point of land, and the fishermen are lazily +jigging up and down a little bright red leaden weight, bristling with +wire spikes. Suddenly a stir—all are working with might and main. A +company of squids are passing and flying on the jiggers like vampires; +the red weights are being grabbed voraciously. Beware as you get him +on board. Suddenly he relaxes his grasp, and shoots out a jet of ink, +which smarts considerably in one’s eyes, and leaves weird patterns on +white linen. They swim backwards and at great pace after their prey. +Salted down, these squid fetch fifteen to fifty cents per hundred. +“Bankers” pay ten to twenty cents per hundred. + +Caplin I have mentioned. They are taken in fine meshed seine nets or in +cast nets thrown from the shoulder like the “retiarius” of old threw +his. + +Herrings form a very excellent bait. They are caught in gill nets +anchored out in likely spots, and these are emptied every day. Our +English drift nets are rendered impossible by the icebergs and sudden +storms, with no harbour lights in case of emergency at night, and +herring see the net in daytime. Herrings have been kept frozen, and +then found to serve as excellent bait. A new way to freeze these is to +half fill a barrel with broken ice, salt and herrings, and then roll +it well over and over. Thus a constant supply of bait at known places +might be maintained in fixed ice houses; a much needed arrangement, for +much time and money is lost by the uncertain supply of bait. Launce +or sand eels have often to be used, but can only be taken on sandy +bottoms, perhaps miles from a fishing station. Then several crews +club together, and lend men in turns to row the bait skiff as many as +twenty-four miles, sharing up the bait when it arrives. Occasionally +they pay shares for a small launch to keep up a regular supply. White +fish, a small fish taken in surface seines, are occasionally used, and +also sometimes whelks. + + + + +[Illustration: Cartwright Staff.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_THE TRUCK SYSTEM_ + + +Cod alone is fish in Labrador diction. Cod is the coin of the realm. +Money is scarcely known, and no other medium of exchange is used by the +people, whose _raison d’être_ almost is cod. All live on goods advanced +on credit, to be paid for by their catch of cod. This truck system, is +the next of kin to the old feudal system, and has long been extinct in +most civilized countries. It seems the early treatment of Newfoundland +by England is partly responsible for the rise of this baneful system, +which it is now difficult to remove. The struggling fisherman knows it +is a state of bondage, but cannot get out of it; the merchant knows its +disadvantages outweigh its profits; while the colony must recognise +that it is alone the cause of so many of its younger and more energetic +men leaving the country as soon as they can see their way to do so—for +no race loves its country with more patriotic affection than do +Newfoundlanders. + +Up to the end of the eighteenth century no one was allowed to remain +in Newfoundland after the fishing season, each captain of a fishing +vessel being held responsible, under heavy penalty, to bring back all +his crew to England; while if any one did desert and remain behind to +be near the fishing grounds, and to reap the harvest of the sea for his +own benefit, his stage, and even house and goods, might be appropriated +by the first fishing captain out next year. This made it only possible +for fishermen to go out when some merchant capitalist would finance the +voyage, who, in return, repaid himself out of the fish caught. + +Now many vessels were sent out, and though the catch of fish by any +individual vessel was uncertain—for fish set into one place one +year and another the next—the whole catch would generally repay the +merchant amply. But as in some cases all vessels of one merchant might +do badly, a large price was charged on goods advanced as a further +security for the merchant, that in any case he might be quite sure +to recoup himself for his outlay. And lastly, though there might be +no immediate return in fish or cash, yet the fishermen at once began +to accumulate a large nominal debt; and though possibly, and even +probably, they would never be able to liquidate this, yet the fact of +their being indebted to any particular merchant insured their fishing +for him year after year. Thus, perhaps, the best issue for the merchant +at settling time seemed in every case to be a debt by each man, but +not large enough to make the fisherman despair and so fish badly. Thus +the successful fisherman had to pay for his unsuccessful brother’s +deficits. The fishermen soon found this out, and were not only soured +against their suppliers, but lost the incentive to make any effort +to discharge their whole debts. The merchant now found it difficult +to make ends meet through bad debts, and was led to buy in the fish +himself, insisting on the fishermen not paying in cash, but fish. +Each year the commercial body fixed its own price for fish, punished +those of their men who sold the fish for cash if they could do so, and +themselves resold the fish in foreign markets, gaining a second profit +when possible. Thus large nominal debts arose, which in hundreds of +cases the men could never hope to liquidate. The spirit of pauperism +was directly fostered, the men becoming absolutely dependent on the +charity of their merchants, and in many cases from year to year never +knowing how much they really owed. + +This system persists to-day, as an evil heirloom, dragging down both +merchant and fisherman. To-morrow’s labour is ever mortgaged ahead for +food to-day. At last a time comes when no longer any hope of return +from certain men can be expected. The advances are suddenly cut off, +and these men, deprived of their usual source of supply, fall back on +government relief, till to-day over one-third and nearly half of the +whole revenue of the country is spent in pauper relief. The recipients +are frequently able-bodied men, and yet they have no shame in accepting +it, looking on the government as an independent source of wealth, +and calling their annual six to twenty-four dollars “a government +appointment.” + +Thus the system has played into the hands of idleness and dishonesty +also; for though all a man’s catch is nominally his merchant’s, he +is tempted to keep some part back and sell it elsewhere, that he may +have some ready money to spend when he returns. Thus one man who has +already more fish than would pay his own debt, will accept fish from +another heavily in debt, and turn it in to his merchant as his own, +handing over afterwards the money or goods he obtained in return to +his friend, and perhaps deducting a shilling a quintal for the risk +involved. A far more common way is to take and sell your fish right +away to another firm. All are generally glad to get fish anyhow; for +not only is it a loss to send away a ship without a full freight, but +also there is a great race to get vessels away first each year, as +the first in the market will realize a higher price for their cargo +throughout. To prevent this the various firms agreed at one time not +to buy fish from another merchant’s planters. But this fell through, +and now only a careful watch is kept on how much fish each man has as +the season progresses, and the amount compared with what he delivers +to his merchant. Any man caught alienating much fish would not receive +any advance in future, though most firms are anxious to get all the men +they can. + +The advances are made in May or early June. When the fish has been put +on board the vessels for market in October, notes of credit are sent to +the merchants thus:— + + Received from......., .... qlts. ... qrs. ... lbs. of Labrador fish. + + To Messrs. ........., qlts. ... qrs. ... lbs. of Merchantable fish. + + Per Agent....... + +Then, as soon as the total catch can be roughly estimated, the Chamber +of Commerce meet in St. Johns and decide what price they will give for +fish. The credit notes are at once cashable at that price, cargoes +being all insured. Each firm then credits its planters and men with +their catch at that price, and a balance is struck between the total +and the amount of each one’s advance in May. If a surplus remains, it +goes to provide the fisherman with his winter’s diet. Now a good catch +for a fisherman is 100 quintals of dry fish, or 300 quintals of green. +On an average 100 fish go to the quintal, that is, each man must +catch 30,000 fish. Each quintal is worth in St. Johns from 2-1/2 to 3 +dollars, so that 275 dollars is a good season, less 30 dollars for salt +245 dollars, or about £50. It must be remembered many will only average +20 quintals some years, or 50 dollars, not £50. The average catch per +head for “bank” fishermen last year was 47-1/2 quintals. How often a +man will be dependent, therefore, on charity for a supply of food for +himself and his family during the winter becomes apparent. + +Often the winter’s diet that can be laid in is all too small for +the needs of the family; and before the breaking up of the ice once +more allows cod-fishing to commence, and the planters to return +from Newfoundland, the poor Livyeres are reduced to living on “the +landwash.” “A short feast and a long famine” is a coast epigram. + +Clothing is perhaps most difficult to find money for, and is apt to +become so scanty that the settler, for lack of proper protection from +the weather, cannot prosecute his fishing or hunting, especially where +the temperature falls to 50°, or even more, below zero. I met one +poor fellow who years before had missed his way home at night and had +had to sleep out in the open. He had lost both feet from frost-bite. +One can realize the need for woollen clothing. When near Winnipeg, in +North Manitoba, I saw a young Englishman, who had been caught out in +a blizzard, and had lost both hands and both feet at the wrists and +ankles from frost-bite. But a still more vicious circle is established +when, to procure food for this winter, a settler has to part with his +means of “killing a voyage” next summer. The following is a case in +point as related to me on the spot:— + +Some three years ago, at Big Bight, a Mr. Olliver, with his wife and +five children, had fallen into great poverty. At last in spring, when +all his food was exhausted, he set out, taking his last possessions, +an old Jack plane and a trout net, with him. Having no dogs, he had +to travel afoot over the ice and snow. At last he came to the house +of the best-off settler about, Mr. Tosten Anderson, a Norwegian, and +a splendid fellow. When asked for food, Mr. Anderson, showing all the +flour he had, said, “To part with any more than I have done, means we +must all starve together.” This was thirty to forty miles from his own +home. He then went on twelve miles to a Mr. James Thomas, whose reply +was just the same. Two days later he reached Richard Blomfield’s house +on his way back. Here he met the same reply again. No more was heard +till three days later, when Blomfield was summoned to the Ollivers’ +house. On the middle of the floor, his coat off and his gun by his +side, lay Mr. Olliver, shot through the head. In a heap in one corner +lay the three youngest children, scarcely dead from blows from an +axe lying near them. Apparently determined to spare those who might +provide for themselves, he had sent out first his wife and eldest +daughter to search for food, and his eldest boy to search for birds. +Mr. Blomfield told me he supposed that the cries of the hungry children +proved too much for the poor father. Truly Virginius of old acted in +much the same way. + +This, of course, is an extreme case, and in order to arrive at +a fair conclusion, we took, as far as possible, a census of the +Livyeres—noting the numbers and ages of children—the proportion that +could read and write, and the number each had of gallons of molasses, +barrels of flour or pork, pounds of tea, and tobacco, which, alas, +nearly all use, however poor and unable to afford luxuries. That +a very large proportion had a quite insufficient quantity of food +became beyond question. It must be remembered it is not a question of +how much they can buy, but how much a supplier is willing to give to +people already heavily indebted to him, only a few being independent +enough to pay down for what they take. Government aid, sea birds, +seals, trout, willow grouse, and rabbits, _i.e._ arctic hares, are the +supplemental sources available. The Newfoundlanders are too often only +little better off than Labradormen, and I have many piteous accounts +of parents themselves suffering chronic starvation in order to supply +their little ones with the necessities of life. Soon, it is sincerely +to be hoped, the interior of Newfoundland will be opened up. All look +to the new railway to turn the attention of many to the cultivation of +the land, which will at least help to render existence more easy. It +is reasonable to hope also that the new sealing laws, the new fishery +restrictions, and Mr. Adolph Neilsen’s magnificent work at the fish +hatchery and lobster incubation, are the presages of happier times. But +the people can never be free, industrious, and contented, until the +truck system is dead and buried.[14] + +[Footnote 14: December, 1894. And now the long impending crash has +come—both the banks of Newfoundland have failed, and ten out of twelve +merchants’ firms have had to suspend payment, while the masses of the +population are face to face with absolute starvation. The Truck System +has entailed ruin on all concerned in it, and has brought the country +to the verge of bankruptcy. There are not few, however, who see in +these terrible events the promise of better things. A better system +of trade must arise, a better relation between labour and capital, a +better era for this oldest of England’s colonies. “Whom the Lord loveth +He chasteneth.” God grant it may be so in this case.] + + + + +[Illustration: A visit from Eskimo.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_RESULTS OF THE FIRST VISIT_ + + +November, 1892, saw the _Albert_ once more in St. Johns Harbour, +after having spent seventy-eight days on the coast. She had visited +many harbours, treated 900 patients, distributed much clothing and +literature, and collected much valuable information; while Mr. Adolph +Neilsen, superintendent of Newfoundland fisheries, who had joined the +_Albert_ during the greater part of her cruise, had been carrying on +scientific observations calculated to directly benefit the fishing +industry. Daily services had been held, at which thousands in all +had been present, and not a few had confessed openly aboard their +intention, by God’s help, to live new lives. + +On arriving in a new harbour, our large blue flag, now known along +the whole coast as the herald of good things, had always proved +a sufficient call to prayers. We found no need for adventitious +attractions; where opportunities are so few, we found men and women +only too glad to come and join in simple praise to God for mercies +past, and prayer for the unknown future before them. Here the +uncertainty of things seen, renders things unseen more real, while +the impotence of man being so evident, makes the power of his Maker +more intensely felt, and the anxiety to be ever ready to meet Him more +deeply earnest. Even the sceptic has acknowledged it means something, +this “coming to Christ” of the fisherman. His faith, unburdened by +“higher criticisms,” or convenient interpretations, sees in his +Master’s words a call to follow Him, on earth as well as in heaven. +Often I have watched men tremble and hesitate, time after time, when +God’s Spirit seems striving with them, before the final step is taken. +For they count well the cost beforehand, and realize fully the weakness +of their own natures. But once “over the line” means _following_ Christ +to them—means coming out, being separate, marked men. The world sets +for them no higher standard than they set for themselves, and their +self-sacrificing fidelity to their ideal has stirred the heart of more +than one Christian worker. There is little half-and-half following, +little “coasting” for fear of “launching out,” such as saps to-day the +joy and rejoicing of thousands of professed Christians. A fisherman +knows if he has “tacked ship,” and is on the Lord’s side, or on the +other side. Often they say, “I should like to be”; almost never, “I +hope I am.” + +For visiting places inaccessible to the ship, from the fact that they +lay among dangerous rocks, or up narrow creeks, or because they only +offered shelter to small boats, we had taken with us a twenty-five +foot whale-boat, the _Alfred_, which we rigged with two lug-sails +and a jib. In this we made many journeys. Once we capsized her; once +lost our way in the fog, and had a nasty half-hour, with wind rising, +and fearing we were making out to sea as we ran before it, till the +thunder of the surf warned us of the land, and the bottom of towering +cliffs, white with Atlantic breakers, broke suddenly into view. We +had to abandon the boat that night, and walk home over the hills; but +we managed to fetch her home, close-reefed under shelter of the back +of the islands, next day. It so happened that where we landed two +or three couples wanted marrying. No chance had offered for several +years, so one couple determined at once to return to the ship with us +for that ceremony, as we had at the time a visiting minister on board. +It was late at night before we got there, but we decided (1) any hour +was better than none, and (2) that in a lonely harbour, on a solitary +ship (and as they already had three children), “pronouncing the banns +might be dispensed with.” So we adjourned to the cabin, and proceeded +to business at once. The skipper was best man and I was witness, +while the steward and crew, who had previously decorated the cabin +with bunting, together with one or two Livyeres from the creek, were +congregation. After all was over, hard biscuits and tea were served, +in lieu of a wedding breakfast, while the occasion was honoured from +a few old fowling-pieces and by a couple of dynamite distress rockets +on the _Albert’s_ deck. Altogether, we visited in the _Alfred_ and the +_Albert_ some thirty-five harbours, exertions which so told on the +_Alfred’s_ constitution that now she is taking her last rest at Great +Yarmouth. + +Our dingey also upset in Domino Run, when endeavouring to get ashore; +an accident which proved nearly fatal to the ship’s carpenter, for he +happened to come up under the sail, and was unable to swim. Happily it +only ended in an undignified rescue. A more serious accident happened +to the _Albert’s_ winch, for in Winsor Harbour, while letting go +the anchor, a catch got wrong and stripped off all the teeth of the +cog-wheels. After this we were unable to get our anchor in, except with +the help of a great many men, for it was impossible to replace the +cog-wheel on the Labrador. It was quite a sight on leaving harbours to +see often fifty men, who had come off voluntarily, “walking in” the +anchor by means of a system of pulleys, each as he came to the stern of +the ship trotting back to catch hold of the rope again near the bow, +a continuous chain of men being thus maintained, and all singing, +as they pulled, one of the old shanty songs to assist them to pull +together. The names of the harbours we entered were, if old Eskimo +names, long and unpronounceable, such as Nukasasuktok; if French, often +almost unrecognisable, thus Cape d’Espoir has become Cape Despair; if +English, often descriptive of some incident, such as Run-by-Guess, +Seldom-Come-By, Ice Tickle, Cutthroat Island, Split-Knife Harbour, +Bakeapple Bight, Tumbledown Dick Island, and so on. + +[Illustration: Moravian Station, Hopedale.] + +When visiting up the bays our chief enemies were always the mosquitos. +These are a very real scourge, for, like the black fly and sand fly, +which also exist in myriads, they bite very severely, and we found them +at times so thick that it was difficult to breathe without inhaling +them. Even the “Livyeres” seldom, if ever, get accustomed to them, +while it is at times impossible to send Newfoundland crews up inlets +for firewood. + +Our medical cases had included many and various ailments, especially of +the eye, the lungs, and the skin. Many teeth, of course, had called for +attention; and the forceps had on more occasions than one been the way +to a man’s heart. If you do not believe this, try a week’s toothache at +sea without remedies. + +Among many interesting cases was that of one poor fellow, who fourteen +days previously had accidentally shot off both his arms below the +elbows. Since that time he had lain on his back, with nothing but +an oily rag over the wounds. As we went into his hut he held up the +raw stumps piteously, from which, in each case, some inches of bare +bone protruded. What could be done was done to relieve his agony, but +the poor fellow died of exhaustion after an operation on the stumps. +The night we were leaving that harbour it was dark and blowing as I +clambered out over the rocks, to signal for the ship’s boat about +10 p.m. There I found waiting for me the poor man’s wife, who, in a +flood of tears, gratefully wrung my hands, till I too felt a choking +sensation about the throat. There was something so real in her sorrow, +now left still more lonely on that lonely coast. + +One day a silver-haired old fisherman came aboard for advice. “All +my three sons died this summer from diphtheria, sir,” he told me. “I +buried them all the same week. My eldest was nineteen, and he lasted +out the fever; but he couldn’t swallow, and I did not know how to +feed him.” “What did you do?” “Well, I tied a split herring round his +throat—some say that is good—but he starved to death before my eyes. +It is hard for us now to get along, with no one to help me tend the +nets. You see I’m not so young now as I was.” + +One poor woman, with a tumour of the leg, one day sent for “the mission +doctor.” She couldn’t walk for it, she said, and life had become a +burden. We told her, “An operation will make you quite well, and we can +put you to sleep while it is done.” She would not take chloroform, +however, and so we thought all was over. Next morning another message +summoned me to the cottage, where I found five strong men waiting. +“These men have promised to hold me, doctor, while you take that away. +But I may bawl, mayn’t I?” In quarter of an hour all was completed, and +my plucky patient was laughing loudest at the queer scene; for bawl +she had, indeed, “to keep me from thinking of it,” she said. But the +men held on well, and in ten days she was all healed, and was up and +walking. + +Among our most interesting visits had been that to Hopedale, the most +southern station of the Moravian missionaries; but I must leave to a +later chapter a description of the Eskimo, of whom we saw a good deal. +There were three Moravians and their wives here, the oldest having +lived in Labrador twenty-seven years. Once a year they communicate with +England by the good ship _Harmony_, which, with its predecessors, has +been visiting the coast for one hundred and twenty years. These men are +true followers of the Saviour in the self-sacrificing spirit, which +draws them to live their lives out on so barren and deserted a coast. +At seven years old their children leave them for ever, to be educated +in Germany, and then find an occupation in life. In one harbour, Zoar, +was a lonely missionary and his wife, who had just sent home their +eighth and last child, a little girl of seven years. “Can you not bring +me a baby from England? we are so lonely now,” said the good man’s +wife to me. Even to get a wife they must write home, and one is chosen +by lot for them. After our visit, they wrote as follows:— + + HOPEDALE, LABRADOR, + _September 7th_. + + _To the Council of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen._ + + GENTLEMEN,—On behalf of the Moravian Mission here I would ask you + to accept our warmest thanks for sending your ship, the _Albert_, to + visit us and our people, cut off as we are for so many months in the + year from the rest of the world. We feel by its visit that we are + within your thoughts. For the comfort we have found in having our + hands spiritually strengthened by the presence of other Christian + men; for what benefit we have received from medical attendance in our + Mission house and in our congregation; for the kind gift of books for + our library, and for the blessing we had in joining these meetings + kept, and for the pleasure we have had in meeting all those we met + from the _Albert_, we beg you to accept our most hearty thanks. May + our Lord and Saviour bless your work everywhere, as He has done it + here among the fishermen and at our Station. + + With kind and brotherly love, we remain your brethren in Christ, + + P. M. HANSEN, + _Moravian Missionary_. + +In Hopedale Harbour we stayed many days, for hundreds of vessels kept +calling in on their way south; for winter was then approaching, and +already cod-trap boats going to their nets had had to cut through two +inches of new ice. + +On our arrival in St. Johns it was thought advisable to report the +results and deductions from this experimental voyage. Accordingly his +Excellency the Governor, Sir Terence O’Brien, invited the leading +citizens acquainted with the fishery to meet at Government House. The +report showed that (1) much needless suffering, limbs and special +functions, besides life itself, were to be saved by the possibility +of obtaining skilled assistance in the first instance; the famous +sealing master, Captain Sam Blandford, who was present, stating that +while he had charge of the mail steamer plying on the coast, seventeen +unfortunate people had died aboard without possibility of proper +treatment. (2) That even that year twenty-nine persons had died at one +harbour in Labrador of diphtheria without being able to get a doctor’s +help—nay, more, no one would take their fish or visit them to trade a +winter’s supply. (3) That the doctor on the small mail steamer was so +short a time in each harbour, and the time of his arrival so uncertain, +that the people had little confidence in the few moments possible to +devote to each case, even if they were fortunate enough to see the +doctor at all, while it was impossible to undertake any serious case +with success. (4) That poverty and starvation directly result from +sickness or accident to the breadwinner being left untreated. After +the report the following proposition was moved by the Hon. A. Harvey, +and supported by Sir Wm. Whiteway, premier, and Sir Robert Thorborne, +ex-premier, which was carried unanimously:— + + “_Resolved_—That this meeting, representing the principal merchants + and traders carrying on the fisheries, especially on the coast of + Labrador, and others interested in the welfare of this colony, desires + to tender its warmest thanks to the directors of the Deep Sea Mission + for their philanthropic generosity in sending their Hospital ship + _Albert_ to visit the fishing settlements on the Labrador coast.... + + “Much of our fishing industry is carried on in regions beyond the + ordinary reach of medical aid or of charity, and it is with the + deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting learns of the amount of + medical and surgical work done, besides all the other relief and help + so liberally distributed. This meeting also desires to express the + hope that the directors of the Mission may see their way to continuing + the work thus begun, and should they do so they may be assured of the + earnest co-operation of all classes of this community.” + +His Excellency the Governor then nominated a committee to help to +perpetuate and extend the operations of the Mission in Labrador. One +merchant present, Mr. W. Baine Grieve, presented to the Mission a house +at Battle Harbour for the first hospital. + +The _Albert_ soon after left for England. She reached Yarmouth on +December 1st, where she received a hearty reception from the many +friends of the work. + +In the report of the Chamber of Commerce of Newfoundland the following +reference to the work was included:— + +“A new feature worthy of mention in this report, affecting as it does, +more or less, the comfort of 20,000 or 30,000 of our people, was the +appearance on the Labrador coast of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen +ship _Albert_, outfitted by a philanthropic society in England, +non-sectarian in its lines, and intended to afford skilled medical +aid to, and provide to some extent for the mental and material wants +of our fishermen. This essay has been an unqualified success, and has +evoked from the recipients of its bounty expressions of deep gratitude, +while at the same time it has engendered in the breasts of all who +are interested in the welfare and prosperity of the Colony feelings +that must strengthen the bonds which bind this comparatively neglected +dependency to the Mother Country. The vivid portraiture, by the doctor +in charge, of his own personal experiences on the coast is likely to +result in well-organized co-operation by the Colony next season upon +the lines on which the Mission ship is being worked.” + +And in February, 1893, the following resolution was received from the +St. Johns Committee:— + + “That this representative Committee will undertake to provide two + suitable buildings which may be used as hospitals by the Mission to + Deep Sea Fishermen, should the Council of the Mission signify their + intention to continue their operations on the coast of Labrador, and + the Committee will heartily co-operate in any other way that the + Council of the Society may suggest. + + “That a copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded to Dr. Grenfell + for the information of the Society. + + “(Signed) {T. O’BRIEN, Governor, _Chairman_. + {M. MONROE, _Secretary_.” + +The council of the Mission replied that they were prepared to fit out a +second expedition, and to undertake the working of the two hospitals. + +During the rest of February, March, and April the captain of the +_Albert_ and myself held meetings in various towns, in the endeavour +to raise money to carry on the work. Meanwhile we sent out directions +for the fitting up of the house given by Mr. Baine Grieve at Battle +Harbour, and also plans for a wooden hospital, to be built in sections +in St. Johns, for transference to Indian Harbour, at the entrance to +Eskimo Bay, one hundred and eighty miles further north. + +In April an earnest appeal was made for money to obtain a steam launch, +to assist the _Albert_, by visiting otherwise inaccessible places, +and by towing her in and out of narrow harbours. At the same time +preparations were being pushed ahead at Yarmouth. The _Albert_ was once +more recalled from her work in the North Sea. She was victualled for +six months, refitted as far as necessary, and stored with the clothing, +woollens, and literature which had been in the process of collection +all winter. A crew was shipped, and by the 1st of May she was all ready +to sail. Our whaler had been knocked to pieces last year, and we had to +get a new boat to replace it, or trust still to the money coming in for +a steam launch. + +Arrangements had been made for the _Albert_ to visit one or two English +seaports on her journey out, in order to solicit further help, amongst +others Exeter, Swansea, and Bristol, whence she was to sail direct to +St. Johns. Still the money had not come in. While, however, we were at +Bristol, our boat still unbought, the joyful news reached us, “Money +necessary for a launch has now come in.” The _Albert_ touched last of +all at Swansea, where a suitable rowing boat, the _Mary Grenfell_, was +presented to her. In Chester we found the most suitable launch for the +money we had—an oak-built, copper-fastened boat, with simple 9-inch +engine, six years of age, though only little work had been done in her. +She was forty-five feet long. Her great defect was her width, which +was only eight feet, so that, being carvel-built, she would roll most +dreadfully. However, while the _Albert_ sailed across to Queenstown we +fitted out the launch at a total cost of £325, and arranged to ship +it direct by Allan line steamer _Corean_ to St. Johns. On June 1st I +joined the _Albert_ at Queenstown, and next morning we set sail for +Newfoundland. + +The hospital committee had meanwhile appointed A. O. Bobardt, M.B., +M.R.C.S., of Melbourne, Australia, and King’s Hospital, and Eliot +Curwen, M.B., B.A., of Cambridge and the London Hospital, as medical +missionaries for the two hospitals. These sailed with us in the +_Albert_. They had also appointed Miss Cecilia Williams and Miss Ada +Carwardine to act as matrons and nurses under the doctors, and had +arranged for them to sail by the same steamer as the launch. We had +three dirty days on the way out, and once were at close quarters with a +large iceberg, but the _Albert_ again quitted herself well, and on our +arrival in St. Johns we again experienced the greatest of kindness. Our +committee had collected some fifteen hundred dollars. A meeting was at +once called, and a small executive of two members were appointed for +each hospital, the Hon. M. Monroe acting for Battle Harbour and Mr. W. +C. Job for Indian Harbour. + +On the arrival of the launch she was at once put into order for +starting, while the nurses joined the _Albert_, as the best way to +reach their respective stations. Meanwhile the Indian Harbour hospital +was sent on by steamer to Labrador. But a pleasing function yet +remained to be done—the christening of the new launch. A telegram had +reached us that the Princess May, who had long been interested in the +Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, had consented to allow it to be named +after her. Accordingly on May 6th, amidst much rejoicing and display +of bunting, Her Excellency Lady O’Brien christened our launch the +_Princess May_. + + + + +[Illustration: The _Princess May_ in Hamilton Inlet.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_OUR SECOND SEASON_ + + +On Friday, July 7th, with a steward, an engineer, and Dr. Bobardt as my +companion, the _Princess May_ left St. Johns for Labrador, the _Albert_ +having left the previous day. It was not without some feelings of +misdoubt that we first encountered the swell of the Atlantic, knowing +we should not make harbour till night; and as we had two large bays +to cross, none of us being familiar with the coast, we had hoped for +a clear day to enable us to keep the land in sight; but here again we +were disappointed, for the rebound from the cliffs forced us to stand +out half a mile to sea, and a dense fog shut everything from view. +Not having yet given the launch a trial ourselves, and she being six +years of age, we were not surprised after the first five miles, when +the engineer sang out, “Sprung a leak, sir; shall we put back?” An +examination revealed the fact that we could stop the leak with a wood +plug; and so to disappoint some few “croakers,” who had “told us so,” +we settled to stand on. Our compass having only a card disc, and not +being filled with spirit to steady it, proved very unsteady, our narrow +width, of only eight feet, making us roll very rapidly. We adopted the +method of endeavouring to steer midway between the extreme points the +needle swung to, and then to keep one point inside our course so that +we should not run out to sea. Very shortly this resulted in bringing +us up straight before a perpendicular cliff. Evidently our compass was +incorrect. An examination revealed that its box had been screwed on +to the cabin with large iron screws, the proper binnacle having been +broken on the voyage out, and being still at the optician’s in St. +Johns. These we soon extracted, and making a fresh start to the nor’ard +sighted Bacalhao Island, about forty miles from St. Johns, at mid-day. + +Not having sighted any more land by 5 p.m., we began to think it was +time to turn inshore, and after some time found ourselves suddenly +amidst numbers of ragged rocks and small islands. Our chart book +described on the north side of Trinity Bay some “Ragged Islands”; and +we guessed we had struck among these, so once more we stood out into +the fog. Shortly a weird noise attracted our attention. We stopped and +listened. Yes, it was a fog-horn. This confirmed our recent diagnosis +of “Ragged Islands,” and once more we knew where we were. Night saw +us safely berthed in Catalina Harbour, where we managed to coal ship +before going to rest. With no small feelings of satisfaction we went +below that night. True the locker was hard to lie on, but the anxiety +and subsequent success of that first day was a sure soporific, combined +with the fact that the previous night had been none too restful, for +we had then no confidence in the powers of the _Princess May_. Here we +found our compass was still incorrect, so we unshipped it altogether +and carried it forward, to be further from the magnetic influence of +certain iron handles. Right gaily we left harbour next morning, but +outside found a new experience. The wind had veered round and was +blowing on shore, with a chilling drizzly rain to enhance the effect of +the nasty lop of the sea. Our loose deck gear began to go overboard, +and among it our boat-hook took leave of us. Being heavy at one end it +disappeared from sight at once. It was gaily painted black and white, +and we were sorry to lose it, being our only one. As I looked back it +suddenly rose again, lifting its painted handle high out of water, as +if to ask for help. We couldn’t well desert it after that, and so went +round to pick it up. Our log has no record of the number of circles +we completed; but if the reader has ever pursued a stick with one +heavy end in a choppy sea, he will find it usually disappears just +as the vessel has completed the tedious manœuvres necessary to come +up to it. The next question was, should we venture further? The mail +steamer was just coming out behind us, and it wouldn’t look well to +give up. We would try for Cape Bonavista. By ten o’clock the Cape was +safely rounded, and the wind increasing we determined to lay into the +Bay, which is twenty-eight miles across. We should not have reached +Greenspond, north of the bay, that night, had we steamed the course we +intended; but after some hours steaming and seeing no land, we spied a +fishing boat, and went alongside for information as to our locality. +We found we were already across the bay to our great surprise and joy. +It appeared that Dr. Bobardt, who had steered all day, had headed two +points to the westward of his course. + +[Illustration: Interior of Male Ward, Indian Harbour.] + +We were loath to steam on Sunday, but our next run round Cape Freels +was a most difficult one, from the numberless off-lying rocks and +shoals. So when three a.m. showed a clear horizon and a calm sea, we +started off. Alas, fog fell on us shortly, and left us threading our +way through the labyrinth. Now and again we could see bottom, and at +times some rock near the surface, over which at intervals the swell +would break with a noise like thunder. The _Princess May_ did well +this day—covering eighty miles—and the mail steamer, which had only +just reached and was anchored for the night in Toulinguet Harbour, +was surprised to see us come in and tie up alongside. The fourth day +saw us on the French shore, as we rounded Cape John at mid-day. Here, +however, we met a strong head wind, against which we had no alternative +but to steam. Now, to provide some kind of cabin, a little house had +been built into the fore-part of the launch, with a square glass front, +being inside just about the size and shape of the ordinary ’bus. As we +steamed into the head sea, it was just up to this part of the cabin, +which projected a couple of feet above deck, that the launch dived, +with the result that a sort of water spout was thrown up and then +dropped on deck. Yet, as everything was closed up, no water got below, +and we managed to make a harbour to the north side of the headland. The +water, however, got everywhere but below, and we were glad of a change +after dropping anchor. + +At almost all the places we called at along the French shore, we +found the people very poor and but little educated. Unfortunately +in Newfoundland the Sectarian School system prevails, with a most +disastrous result among these poor and scattered communities. In all +we found some who were anxious to avail themselves of the visit of a +doctor. In many no qualified medical man ever goes; and on the part +known to us, that is the east coast, there are none at all resident. In +the lonely harbour we were now in, called Pacquet, a man soon emerged +from the woods and came off to us in a boat. He was ill-clad and looked +equally ill-fed, and his boy, who was with him, was suffering from a +pustular disease of the skin, for which we prescribed. Though it was +warm where we were anchored the inlet was still partially choked by two +large icebergs, and our friend told us that want of a net, and indeed +any proper fishing gear, as yet prevented their getting any fish. The +mosquitos were here very numerous and very busy. It was impossible +almost to go ashore even for fresh water from the river at the head +of the inlet, and indeed when the dingey came back, a cloud of these +bloodthirsty pests followed her to the launch, and invited themselves +to spend the night in our already sufficiently crowded cabin. Professor +Hind narrates an Indian tradition that mosquitos were created for the +benefit of a saint, who, for disobedience, had been banished from +heaven to a desert part of the earth. In her solitude she prayed for +even flies as companions, whereupon mosquitos and black flies were +created. This gave her plenty of employment till it was time for her +to return, but the flies remained in order to teach men the folly of +trying to divert their attention from the consequences of their sins +by seeking amusement. Captain Whitbourne says they are of great use to +make the idle work. + +We were early astir next morning, and took a course for the St. Barbe +Islands. But a breeze rising towards the land, we made a detour in +order to cross White Bay, which is eighteen miles at its narrowest +point, and so lay across till we were seven or eight miles only from +land. Then we again headed north, and by nine o’clock, with a good +breeze behind us, crossed Hare Bay and ran into St. Anthony Harbour. +During the day a curious mirage had for some time kept us under the +impression that we were hedged in by floe ice. We could see the +vertical edge, the gleaming white top, and what appeared to be even +cracks, fissures, and hummocks. It turned out to be only an optical +illusion, and we found that it kept retreating before us all the +afternoon like a will-of-the-wisp. At St. Anthony we were among friends +of last year, so were soon ashore, and the day closed with a hearty +service in the kitchen of the largest house. + +The breeze increasing, delayed us a day in this port, but before +daylight on the 13th we left for an attempt to cross the Straits +of Belle Isle. As we rounded Cape Bauld a most magnificent crimson +light lit up the whole horizon. Against it stood out many stately +icebergs, rising weird and ghostly from the deep purple of the sea. +One of immense height looked just like some gigantic cathedral, its +gabled roof in the red glow shining like burnished gold, while ever +and anon the stillness preceding dawn was broken by the deep boom of +the Atlantic swell reverberating from some hollow chasm at its base, +suggesting a mighty organ played in its vast recesses. No sooner had +we passed it in silence than the engineer touched me on the arm and +pointed back at its lordly summit. “Look, sir! isn’t that some one on +the berg?” And there, sure enough, plain and sharp against the sky, on +the crest, stood the figure of a man. But our glasses soon dispelled +the illusion. It was but a pinnacle with a thin base, which, when thus +seen edgeways, so closely resembled a human figure. + +From here we headed for the Sacred Islands, and a breeze making up the +straits, we ran in behind Cape Onion to see what sort of a day it was +going to be, before we ventured to cross the straits. I was surprised, +on landing, at the quantity and variety of wild flowers here. +There were represented among many others, saxifrages, umbellifers, +composites, ranunculi, primulas, and gentians. The insectivorous +“Drosera” is common on the heights, and the beautiful “Linnæus +borealis” nestles in among the scrub. + +The country, viewed from the head, is very peculiar, being, as far as +the eye could range, one immense flat plain, with quite as much water +as dry land, from the innumerable winding ponds or lakes of fresh water. + +By mid-day we ventured to make a start, and headed direct for Cape +Charles, close inside the island of Belle Isle. As we brought the +hills and steep cliffs of Labrador into view, we found there was still +much snow in the gulfs and crevices; while it was necessary carefully +to thread our way among the numbers of icebergs, which up to this +very week had been blocking the straits. By sundown we sighted the +flag-staff on Battle Island, and at 7.30 were once more alongside the +_Albert_. A crowded gathering below decks closed the day, all being +full of joy and hope at the prospect of another season’s work. + +Next day the house given by Mr. Baine Grieve was inspected, and we +found that Mr. Hall, the agent for the fishery, had already placed it +almost in a condition for occupation. The _Albert’s_ crew also had +been at work—carpentering, painting, and landing heavy goods, such as +bedsteads, bedding, food, drugs, and furniture. + +Meanwhile, the hospital for Indian Harbour, at the mouth of Hamilton +inlet, had been sent north, ready cut in sections in the coastal +steamer, _Winsor Lake_. Two carpenters had also been sent north to +work at its erection. Next day, therefore, our party divided again, +the _Albert_ going north to help with the second hospital, having on +board Dr. Curwen and Sister Williams, while I, in the _Princess May_, +went south along the straits of Belle Isle, Dr. Bobart and Sister +Carwardine remaining at Battle. This arrangement was rendered possible +by the agent extending his generous hospitality to the nurse and doctor +indefinitely. + +Our first run took us to Red Bay, where we at once were among friends +of last year. Alas, poverty and want had laid their hands heavily on +this place, and some families had been nearly naked and next door to +starving all winter. Not only had 1892 been a poor fishery, but now +the best chance for 1893, viz. the caplin school of cod, had come and +gone, while densely packed ice, held in by persistent easterly winds, +had prevented the men getting their nets out. + + + + +[Illustration: A Newfoundlander’s Hut, Labrador.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_OUR VOYAGE CONTINUED_ + + +On our arrival in a harbour our method was, as last year, to hoist +our blue flag to announce our arrival, to then visit any seriously +sick I could hear of, after which we had evening service in a shed, +stage, or house, and then, last of all, any could come for advice or +assistance. To every family or vessel a good bundle of reading was +given if they wished it, all the literature being selected at home as +healthy and suitable for fishermen. If any wanted God’s Word, that, +too, was to be had for asking for it; while a register was kept of +all the poor, describing as accurately as we could the nature of the +needs and deserts of each case, in order that when, at the end of the +year, we divided up the warm clothing we had brought out, it should +fall into the hands of the most deserving. In this way also we became +possessed of a valuable record for future reference. Thus in one house +when visiting a case, I found my patient to be the mother of a large +family. The poor thing, who, with self-sacrificing courage, had refused +to believe herself ill till she could get about no more, was lying on +one single wood form in a bare and dirty room, her head close to an old +cracked stove, behind which a crowd of shivering urchins were huddled +together. The sickness was acute bronchitis and pleurisy, made worse by +little clothing and less food. A haggard man meanwhile was pacing up +and down, nursing a screaming and hungry baby. I pulled the children +out from behind the stove for inspection; but their rags so failed to +cover them, that each hastened back at once after the ordeal to the +seclusion and warmth behind the old stove. The complete attire of one +bony little mite was an old trouser leg, into which he was packed like +a sack. All were alike barefooted. + +Staying here over Sunday, I was the guest of a Labrador fisherman, +rather better off than the majority, an erect, grey-haired man of +about forty-five, standing some six feet two inches. His cottage, +built with his own hands, was a pattern of neatness and cleanliness, +but the bad seasons were compelling even him to desert the harbour, +and try squatting farther along the coast. He was still the fortunate +possessor, however, of a cod-trap (value about £80), by means of which +he still hoped to end the year out of debt. He was the class leader for +the neighbourhood, and had many years been standing on the Lord’s side, +and, indeed, after the Wesleyan Missionary for the Straits, he was the +backbone of the religious life of the place. Such an one, where every +detail of one’s life is known, must indeed be an “Epistle read of all +men,” of which fact he was well aware, as also, that his neighbours, +while unable or undesirous to read God’s word for themselves, measured +the claims of God on their own life very largely by his actions. This +we found to obtain more or less along the whole coast, especially among +these scattered communities, where little or no provision is made for +their spiritual needs. When therefore Sunday morning broke, and a +large iceberg was noticed drifting towards his cod-trap, threatening +to deprive him of his means of earning his daily bread, he at first +decided to go and spend the day working to save his net. But soon he +came back, saying, “I’ve decided not to go, doctor; there are those in +this harbour that only want a pretext for working on the Lord’s Day, +and I’ll not be the one to give it them.” As we climbed the hill to the +little wooden chapel I noticed him standing and greeting the people as +they came along, according to his custom, as if forgetful of the fact +that the mass of ice was at that moment probably robbing him of his +all. We had three _such_ services that day; the Wesleyan missionary, +the Rev. John Sidey, was present, and more than one of our hearts +were full at the evidence of the reality of God’s Spirit among this +out-of-the-way, isolated people. Long before sunrise on Monday, indeed +immediately after midnight, my good host was away in his boat after the +wreck of his cod-trap, and by breakfast had returned, his face radiant +with the same happy smile he always has, saying, “I _knew_ it would be +all right, doctor. The worst of the ice passed outside it; a few hours’ +work, and we shall get it all right again.” + +[Illustration: Interior of Indian Harbour Hospital.] + +In the Straits of Belle Isle we visited all the stations to Old Ford +Island, about 100 miles from the entrance. At L’Anse au Loup, Blanc +Sablon (the boundary between Canada and Newfoundland), and at Bonne +Esperance, we found large stations for fishing, with numbers of men +hard at work at the caplin school. We had quite a number of surgical +and medical cases, including two of true (sailor’s) scurvy from want +of proper food. At one place we were called to operate on the back +of a French settler, at another on the arm of a poor Newfoundland +schooner-man. In this last case I had the assistance of a Roman +Catholic priest who was journeying along the coast. + +While visiting in Forteau Bay we passed close to the wreck of H.M.S. +_Lily_. We found here that a Beaver line steamer, the S.S. _Lake +Nepigon_, had recently run ashore. While journeying down the straits +she had struck on a whale-back iceberg, and was sinking head foremost, +like the _Victoria_, when her captain succeeded in grounding her +on one of the few bits of sand for miles. Her screw and rudder were +practically out of water when she took the bottom, with her bows in 27 +feet. The doctor aboard had spent three days on shore near, and had +operated on one cancer of the lip and on an old compound dislocation +of the wrist in a young girl. These came to us to have the stitches +removed. + +While returning from visiting a patient at Greenly Island in thick +fog, we were unfortunate enough to run the _Princess May_ ashore. It +was as dark as pitch at the time, and we had burnt all our flares out +while threading our way through a quantity of schooners at anchor. Two +men on the bows of the boat, after a long pause to search for some +guidance, had just given the word “all right ahead,” when we ran up on +a flat-topped rock, and found that high, almost perpendicular, cliffs +were only a few yards ahead. Throwing out our dingey, and removing +all superfluous weight from the bows, we succeeded shortly in getting +off; and guided by the stentorian shouts of some men from a schooner, +alternating with their fog-horn, we found our way alongside and made +fast to her. As we were too many even to lie down on the launch I went +aboard the schooner, the hospitable skipper of which insisted on my +turning into his bunk. He was only just back, apparently, with a load +of fish from his traps, and hearing the echo of our voices from the +cliffs had guessed something was wrong. He added, “there is fish to be +had now, and so I don’t turn in at all myself”; and sure enough, after +a shake down and some supper he and his crew disappeared into the foggy +darkness for a fresh load from the trap, while sleep reigned supreme on +board. He turned out to be a green-fish catcher, who was “making” his +fish on his vessel. + +Further along the straits, at Bonne Esperance, we met with a more +serious mishap, for while returning from a visit up Salmon River our +propeller refused to rotate, and we had to depend on our sail. The +kindness of the first engineer of a sealing steamer (Mr. William +Crossman) anchored in the harbour set us all right again, however, for +he made us a complete set of new steel screws for our piston-top—our +own had given out, and we neither had means of making new ones, or +replacing them, in Labrador. After one or two other similar mishaps, +but having treated some one hundred and fifty patients, and having +received much kindness and a warm welcome wherever we had been, we +reached Battle Hospital again on the 29th of July. We brought a dying +fisherman the last 80 miles with us, which necessitated his sleeping +three nights in my cabin. He was still in the prime of life, but +pneumonia developed into gangrene of the lungs, and he subsequently +died in Battle Harbour Hospital. + +The Sunday passed pleasantly and rapidly among the people here. After +evening service, held by the schoolmaster in the little church, we had +a good “fishermen’s meeting.” Dr. Bobardt was away all day visiting +sick people on a neighbouring island, and holding service among +them. No patients were yet allowed in hospital, though it now only +remained to cover the floors and get the stores in. Sister Carwardine +had therefore arranged for the nursing of one poor woman, on whom an +operation had been necessary, in a room of a cottage near at hand. + +As the mail steamer was shortly expected, and would certainly bring +patients for the hospital, the following day was spent by all hands in +rendering the hospital inhabitable; and by evening our first patient +was comfortably located in a room on the ground floor, while the sister +spent her first night in hospital in an arm-chair. + +Next day, before leaving for the north, Dr. Bobardt again being away +visiting, I was called on to bury a poor fellow, father of a family +of five, who had died from consumption in a neighbouring cove. The +burial-ground is a small plot at the bottom of a deep ravine on the +seaboard side of the island. On each side rose barren rocky crags, +behind was the bleak island top, while in front lay the great Atlantic, +bearing on its heaving bosom, as far as the eye could see, countless +mighty icebergs. As the sad procession wound along the defile, carrying +in its rude wood covering what was so recently a living, hopeful human +being; as they laid it in its last long resting-place amidst these cold +and desolate surroundings, the craving for something beyond the grave +burnt fiercely in every heart; while the joy of knowing of a Heavenly +Father, who has given us victory even over the grave, was realized as a +priceless possession which the world cannot give—no, nor sell either. + +Our next object was to visit the coast up to Indian Harbour, calling +for coal and a few supplies left for us half-way up by the _Albert_, at +a place called Bateau. In making a narrow inlet called Francis Harbour, +we found much difficulty in getting in; for after long searching for +the entrance, it proved to be blocked with ice, and a circuitous method +inside an island was unknown to us. However, once inside the warmth +of our welcome made up for the suspense outside, and after service +in the neat and commodious parlour of the agent’s (Mr. Penny) house, +we had a _levée_ of sick visitors till midnight. We next entered a +deep narrow cleft in a high mountain, running parallel with the sea, +nowhere wider than a stone’s throw. It is very deep, and high hills of +bright red rocks rise abruptly on both hands. On the outer side are +perched houses and fishing stages. This is known as Venison Tickle. The +agent (Mr. Hawker) received us most warmly, and being himself doctor, +parson, planter, and all combined, took me round at once to the various +sick and injured. One poor old fisherman, suffering from apoplectic +paralysis, we sent to hospital at Battle, though we learnt from a +schooner that already it was nearly full. + +Landing on a low island as we passed north, we found the eider-duck +nesting in considerable numbers, while in the little pools among the +rocks were young ducks and young gulls in numbers. Of the latter we +caught several for our stew-pot. We steamed thence fifteen miles to +Boulter’s Rock Harbour by a long narrow channel inside two enormous +islands, the passage being known as Squasho Run. Fog succeeded fog all +along this part of the coast, and it was only by the help of volunteer +local pilots we succeeded in finding many of the harbours. + +One dark night, unable to find our way further, we dropped our anchor +inside some outlying islands called Seal Islands. It seemed to us that +we had hardly got straight and settled down for the night’s rest before +we heard a boat bumping against our side. In such a lonely place, and +in a thick drizzly fog at night, a superstitious person might well +have started. Soon we heard the soft tread of a mocassin over the +half-inch boarding which, covered with painted canvas, served us as a +roof; then a bustling at the hatchway door, and soon the broad face of +a half-breed Eskimo peered into the cabin. It appeared he had a very +sick daughter at his hut on the island, near which no doctor ever went. +He had heard of the _Princess May_ being about; and seeing our cabin +lights shining as he chanced to pass in his boat homewards, he had come +in search of assistance. Soon, swathed in oilskins, I was sitting in +the stern of his boat, while he swiftly rowed away into the darkness. +Landing, and following closely behind him over broken rock for some +quarter mile, brought me to his cottage, which, in true Labrador +fashion, was well filled with inhabitants. Among them I found two +seriously ill, one a young man of eighteen, the other a young married +woman of about thirty. On this poor woman it was necessary to operate +on our way south in order to save life even for the time; but as we +had no hospital open in winter, she had to be left in that crowded hut +to the tender mercies of the most unskilled of nurses, and though any +communication with the island has been impossible since, I fear she +will not have survived the winter.[15] + +[Footnote 15: 1895. She has perfectly recovered, in the most marvellous +manner.—W. T. G.] + +I was one day asked, a little further north, to visit a woman reported +to have been ill in bed for three months, and who was living up a bay +fully ten miles from any fishing station. At length, dropping our +anchor off the spot indicated, which was the mouth of a large salmon +river, we blew our whistle repeatedly to try and attract her husband’s +attention. After some time a small boat put out with one man sculling +in the stern. He seemed to approach warily, and the man piloting me +took in the situation in a moment. As soon as the small boat was +alongside, he greeted the oarsman with “It’s all up; come aboard and +surrender quietly, or you will be shot down.” The condemning reply came +back, “Indeed, sir, the river isn’t barred. It couldn’t be barred. No +nets would hold across it. It never has been barred. I wouldn’t bar +the river. You can come and see for yourself.” We got into his boat, +and he started with us to the shore, when I asked him if the launch +was safe at her anchorage, as darkness was coming on. The prompt reply +was that she would be aground on rocks at low water, and that we had +better steam across the inlet and anchor the other side, where it was +soft and good holding ground, at which our engineer at once proceeded +to get steam again. On landing, I asked for the sick woman, and was +shown into the most miserable dark hovel I ever saw. By a wretched +tin chimneyless lamp I examined my patient. She was lying clad in one +old petticoat on a few sacks spread over a kind of built-up bunk. Her +bodily ailments were fortunately not great, but as she told me, and I +believe truthfully, having no clothes to get up in, she was obliged to +stay where she was. Turning to go out, I stumbled over our boatman, who +at once commenced most profuse apologies. It appears he was just off +to destroy his “bar,” when my pilot had told him I was not an excise +officer, and the _Princess May_ was not a gunboat. So he went off to +tell the engineer the anchorage was good enough, I fear that is not the +only barred salmon river in Labrador. + +Further north we steamed up Sandwich Bay, and visited, among other +places, Cartwright, now a Hudson Bay post, but founded about 1790 by +an English trader of that name. Here again we had a serious case to +deal with. A girl of fourteen had been ill with internal abscess for +between two and three years. She was sent to hospital after a trifling +operation, and remained there a month. When I returned south I found +her well and happy, and she told me she was only sorry she could not +live in hospital. + +I was interested in examining at Cartwright a marble tomb, raised, +as the inscription proclaimed, “to commemorate the piety and zeal of +the founder of this colony.” Some humble lichens had, in the course +of time, grown in between the slabs, and with irresistible power had +forced them open, revealing to the prying eye within not the crumbling +dust of the departed trader, but a mighty demijohn of rum, no doubt +made mellow by long years of waiting. Alas! that there are those to-day +whose memory would be most aptly treasured by such an epigram, whom in +life, for their riches’ sake, a blinded world “delights to honour.” + +We were now only two hands on the launch, the engineer and myself, for +our steward had returned to Battle Hospital. We were therefore anxious +to push ahead, and on August 10th we were glad to run into Indian +Harbour, and again “bring to” alongside the _Albert_. We found to our +sorrow that bad weather had prevented the landing of our hospital +till a month after we had expected; and, though all available hands +had been at work, it was found impossible to occupy it this season. +We therefore decided, as soon as the shell was finished and all done +that could be without cutting the chimneys, to board up the windows, +store the property in it, and leave it for the winter under care of +the nearest “Livyere.” Meanwhile Dr. Curwen and Nurse Williams would +remain on the _Albert_, and use it as their hospital. This place is +the centre of a very large number of stations, and they had already +found ample scope for work. Just before we left in the _Princess May_, +both doctor and sister were summoned over the island to treat a woman +on whom a fish stage had fallen, while they already had in the ship’s +hospital a young girl dying of consumption. The condition in which some +of our patients were when first admitted was horrible; the condition of +the women from the green-fish catchers especially; for with scarcely +any privacy, and scarcely any opportunities for washing, it was not to +be wondered at that vermin often abounded. The experience of both our +nurses tallied in this respect, and a good wash, clean clothes, and a +few days’ nursing always appeared to work marvels, even in apparently +hopeless cases. When it became evident that this poor girl must die, +she expressed her determination to go home by the first opportunity, +that, if possible, she might reach her family in Newfoundland before +the end came. + +It was ten o’clock at night, and a blustering evening in Cape Webeck +Harbour, when we next met the mail steamer going south. With much +difficulty we got our poor patient into the boat, wrapped over and over +in clean blankets; two of us in the stern sheets holding the large +bundle in our arms, while Captain Trezise and his men rowed us down the +harbour. Getting her up the steamer’s side was, however, a still less +easy task, but was at last accomplished, and she was soon ensconced in +a bunk in the saloon. Fortunately we had decided that Nurse Williams +should now return to Battle Harbour to help Nurse Carwardine, for +the hospital there was now overflowing into huts around, and our +in-patients could be kept down to one or two. The nurse therefore was +able to tend to her wants during the journey down. Eventually she +reached St. Johns, where the Rev. Dr. Harvey most kindly met her, +got her to the train and off to her home; so that her last wish was +gratified, and she passed away peacefully among her loved ones. + +At Cape Harrison we had a really hot Sunday, the flat cabin reflecting +the sun so fiercely from the water that our very paint began to +blister. Such a chance was not to be lost, and the fisherfolk gathered +from far and near. One company, who journeyed from their schooner in +King’s Arm, must have travelled some ten miles to us, rowing first to +Sloop Harbour, then walking over the high cape, and then rowing again +to Webeck Island; while even as we went to and fro from the meetings, +which, owing to the numbers, we were obliged to hold on the shore, we +heard sounds of hymns and praying from some of the mud huts we passed. +It was a day indeed to be remembered. Our longest single expedition +during this time had been to the Hudson Bay post of Rigoulette, up +Hamilton inlet, some fifty miles from the entrance. Here we had several +patients; and especially one little lad with a diseased bone in the +leg—part of this it was necessary to remove. At the operation we were +ably helped by the wife of the agent (Mr. Wilson), who proved herself +a most able nurse and assistant. The difference of temperature up this +long inlet is very marked, and we found the children of the house +actually picnicing outside the hut in a canvas tent. [Illustration: +The S.S. _Princess May_ in Merchantman Harbour.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_CONCLUSION OF SECOND VOYAGE_ + + +Our next meeting with the _Albert_ was arranged for Hopedale, the +first station of the Moravian brethren. In the meanwhile we visited +such harbours as Ironbound Island, Ragged Islands, Roger’s Harbour, +Long Island, Ailik, Turnavik, and Winsor Harbour. Again we had one +or two serious cases: one poor fellow with cancer of the gullet; one +from whom it was necessary to amputate two fingers, and from another +one finger. While at Winsor Harbour, we decided to visit an off-lying +island, called “Double Island,” from which the Hopedale Eskimo had +their summer fishery. Unfortunately it is not even indicated on the +charts, and missing our way to it we got entangled among a series of +reefs. At sundown a strong northerly wind arose, making the water boil +in foaming breakers over the shallow patches. This however in reality +assisted us, for we were thus able to avoid the hidden dangers, as any +shallow likely to pick up the _Princess May_ was now a white seething +mass; indeed, I have found places where we saw the water break as deep +as five to fifteen fathoms. We had decided at last to “heave to” under +the lee of an island, keeping steam all night for fear of a shift of +wind, when through our glasses we descried against the horizon a ragged +tent. Steering for this we soon descried figures of some of the little +people skurrying to and fro after their fish as fast as they could go, +for the sky looked threatening, and they did not wish the fish to get +wet again. Our steam whistle at once caught their attention, and soon +two of their little boats came shooting out through the surf. + +With their help we were safely moored fore and aft in a little narrow +creek, and a few minutes later saw us ashore. Amongst them we noticed +many friends of last year, especially a dear old man, a sort of +Christian father among them, named Daniel. A profuse hand-shaking +and welcoming ensued, and then they intimated they wished me to come +up to one of their tents. My Eskimo was exhausted, however, with +Auchenai—How do you do? (or, literally, Be ye strong?), and Aila, +yes, and a few other every-day expressions. When, therefore, I was +set down on a low box in the tent, with a space in front of me for +the patients to squat, and the rest of the ground available densely +packed with Esquimaux, I was confronted with the difficulties of a +veterinary surgeon. Among other things a toe, frost-bitten last winter, +had to be removed; apparently not such a painful operation as one might +have supposed at first, and one in which the patient appeared to take +a personal interest, from the proud fact that she occupied on that +account the position of most importance. + +At Hopedale I left the _Albert_ again, and, joined by one of the +Moravian Brethren—a Dane (Rev. P. Hansen), proceeded at once further +north. Together we visited as far as Okkak, though the entire absence +of charts, and the innumerable islands and labyrinths, made us more +than once end up in a blind tickle. At Zoar we deposited our deck cargo +of coal, piling up wood on our cabin top instead, and lashing a ladder +against our foremast, from the top of which in the clear water it was +possible to see rocks in time to avoid them. We passed on our way +immense flocks of water-fowl. While in places the rocks shine with the +beautiful blue or yellow sheen of the Labrador felspar, the trees get +perceptibly fewer and smaller as Okkak is approached, the shrubs more +stunted, and the berries more scarce, until north of Hebron no trees at +all are found. + +With much perseverance and labour the brethren at each station raise +a few potatoes, cabbages and flowers, but when trees are cut down +for wood they do not replace themselves in a man’s lifetime. It is +impossible in these pages to recount all the incidents of this part of +the trip. At each station I had numerous patients—Eskimo and white. +In the former cases my dear friend and whilom companion, the Rev. P. +Hansen, interpreted. At each station also we gathered daily for prayer +and exhortation, and for me the time passed all too quickly. Now, +however, the approach of winter was making itself felt. Schooners were +flying south before every favourable breeze, and in so small a boat as +the _Princess May_ no unnecessary delay was advisable. On the 8th of +September we again reached Hopedale, and were surprised to find the +_Albert_ still there. + +A terrible tragedy had occurred in a neighbouring inlet. It appeared +some men fishing, from an island called East Turnavik, had gone up to +boil their tea-kettle at a solitary house on a promontory of Kipekok +Bay. On entering they at first found no one at home, but during the +process of tea-making came across two women lying on the floor of the +passage covered over with a counterpane. At first they thought they +were merely enjoying an afternoon sleep, but soon found both were +dead; hereupon they at once beat a hasty retreat to their own island, +and next day came back with half-a-dozen more men and the planter. A +search revealed two more dead women in an inner room, while no trace of +the two men who lived there could be found. + +Next day, however, these returned with wood from the bay, saying they +had been away making coffins for the last four days. The circumstances +were so suspicious, and one of the men bore such an exceedingly +bad character on the coast—having been suspected of deeds as dark +before—that the two neighbouring planters advised an inquiry, and +sent up their steam launch to Hopedale for Dr. Curwen to come and make +an examination. From the evidence taken from the men, and the general +appearances of the case, he was convinced they had died of poisoning. +Eventually the head of the police was sent down from St. Johns, and, +confessing to another crime, the worst of the two men was taken away +and placed in Harbour Grace Jail for the winter. + +Whilst endeavouring one night to navigate a narrow passage known as +“the Rattle,” the _Princess May_ had been suddenly caught by the +current, and at full speed taken a rocky bottom. The tide was falling +at the time, and all hopes of getting off before morning had to be +abandoned. Our ladder and some large blocks of wood lashed together +were therefore placed under her port bilge, and she was listed over on +to them by all the moveable weights we had. After a very uneasy night, +which fortunately held calm, we got safely off. It was necessary now +to inspect the launch’s bottom. We therefore grounded her in Hopedale +Harbour, and at low tide examined her outer casing. She proved to be +nastily dinted in one or two places: a bit of her keel was gone, and a +few inches of copper torn off here and there, but her hull was still +as sound as a drum. Not so her shaft. We found that it had worn very +considerably inside the propeller, and the outer end had so dropped +that another two inches and the screw would be unable to rotate. For +this we had no remedy, and had nothing for it but to “Go ahead.” +Sunday, the 10th of September, we spent in Hopedale, the harbour of +which was now crowded with no less than 100 schooners; and though the +Brethren put at our disposal their large chapel, capable of holding +some 400 people, Captain Trezise found it necessary in the evening to +hold an overflow service on the _Albert_. + +[Illustration: An Eskimo Family, Hopedale.] + +It was with no ordinary feelings of sorrow that we heard at Emily +Harbour that the _Albert_ had been ashore. To think of her splendid +frame and delicate lines the sport of these cruel jagged rocks was +heartrending. The beautiful little ship which had smiled at so many +storms, and carried those entrusted to her so many thousands of miles +so faithfully and safely. It appears she was trying to make West +Turnavik Harbour at night, and the pilot who came off from shore +mistook the blind entrance for the real one. Both anchors were at +the time ready for letting go, and the moment the mistake was noticed +were run out. But as the vessel swung to, her stern came down on the +rocks, and for nearly three hours bumped heavily. By the help of +Captain Bartlett and some sixty men she was eventually warped safely +off; but it was found necessary, in the dry dock at St. Johns, to +replace 35 feet of her keel. + +Rough weather characterized our journey south, and, indeed, often +rendered it very difficult getting round the great capes at all. We +revisited, where possible, all the places we visited going north, +and also others we had been obliged to pass by. Thus we saw again +many of our former patients, distributed to many the clothing we were +able to allot them, and also had the joy of seeing once again, before +winter set in, some of those who were commencing in earnest to live +consecrated lives. When the weather kept us longer than we intended in +a harbour, we brought into use our magic lantern, for which we had some +beautiful slides of the life of Christ, Bible lands, and some simple +stories. This never failed to bring a crowd together, even if sleeping +the night in the building became necessary for those who came from too +far to return; and, indeed, we eventually often preceded our services +with the views through the magic lantern. + +On Thursday, October 19th, we once more steamed into Battle Harbour, +where we found the _Albert_ had preceded us by a couple of days. Dr. +Bobardt and the sisters were still busy and in good health. Hospital +had been full all the time, and thirty-nine in-patients had been +treated. Only one other death had occurred in hospital—a young girl +from a schooner, who had died of cellulitis from neglected sores, which +had assumed the characteristics of erysipelas. We were delighted to +hear that the fishery here had been good. Mr. Hall, the agent, had +again been first away with a steamer loaded for market. After all +the time and attention he had so generously bestowed on our work, by +lending the launch when it could be spared, by loan of men for the +hospital, by entertaining nurses, doctors, and others, we could but +rejoice that his fishery had been a really successful one. Our only +regret now was that no hospital could be kept open during this winter. + +Bad weather prevailed during our journey to St. Johns. The _Albert_, in +a gale, lost her boom, and blew away some canvas, while the delays to +the _Princess May_ on that coast, where no telegraphic communication +exists, gave rise to the impression that she was lost with all hands, +an impression heightened by the fact that the mail steamer, which +had encountered the same gale in the Straits of Belle Isle, had +noticed in the sea a small boat’s flag and flagpole resembling ours. +Unfortunately, therefore, it appeared in the English dailies that +we were missing. Except losing a good spirit compass and loose deck +paraphernalia, we had suffered no inconveniences. Indeed, being forced +to shelter in so many of the small harbours along the French shore, +gave us a valuable insight into the lives of the out-harbour people of +Newfoundland, and also the opportunities of helping many who need it +quite as much as do some on the Labrador. + +At Toulinguet, on November 3rd, we met our old friend Captain Taylor, +of the mail steamer _Virginia Lake_, who showed us a written commission +to search all the islands for us between certain latitudes. Thence we +wired our whereabouts to St. Johns, but we heard subsequently that +that kindly office had been performed for us the day previously by the +captain of a schooner, who had passed us on his way south. The sealing +steamer _Neptune_ gave us a line across Trinity and Conception Bays, +and so, on the 7th, we ended our cruise for 1893 in St. Johns Harbour. + +We found St. Johns in the excitement of a general election, and it +seemed as if there was little likelihood of our getting an audience +to listen to a report of the season’s work. However, Sir William +Whiteway kindly placed at our disposal the “Star-of-the-Sea” Hall, and +His Excellency Sir Terence O’Brien consented to preside at an evening +meeting. By the help of some good friends in St. Johns, some of our +most successful photographic plates were turned into lantern slides; +and not only was the large hall filled with friends and sympathisers, +but one hundred and fifty dollars were realized for the funds. + +The _Albert_ sailed for home, having on board Dr. Curwen and the two +nurses, on Tuesday, December 28th, and after a wonderful passage, +entered Great Yarmouth Harbour on the thirteenth day, having +accomplished the long run at an average pace of nine English miles or +7·5 knots per hour. + + + + +[Illustration: A Team of Dogs in Harness.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_ON DOGS AND DIFFICULTIES_ + + +THE Esquimaux dog, unlike his Newfoundland congener, is by no means a +fiction, being an ubiquitous feature of Esquimaux life. Indeed, being +musical like his master, his propensity for nocturnal chorus keeps +him constantly in evidence; and, though he is never heard to bark, he +manages often to leave a deep impression on an incautious stranger. + +On his dog’s pluck and endurance the master’s safety often depends, and +to his marvellous instinct for finding human habitations many a man, +hopelessly lost in a snowstorm on the icefield, owes his existence. +Yet the Eskimo, finding it ample trouble to satisfy his own needs, +never adds to his trouble by feeding his dogs in summer time, with the +result that the exigencies of existence have considerably sharpened +their faculties. + +To look at, they closely resemble the grey wolf of the prairie, and +wolves mingling with the team would scarcely be recognised by an +untrained eye. Usually the dogs wander in summer around the land-wash, +in troops of say fifty, eating the offal below the fish stages; or when +caplin schools are close inshore, they wade into the water and swallow +the fish alive. Always lean and lank at this time of the year, they +never neglect to lay up against an evil day, a fact that becomes most +ludicrously apparent on these occasions, for they “swells wisibly.” + +Perhaps the most interesting sight is to see them catching flounders. +The fish lie buried in the sand in shallow water, and as the dog’s paw +comes down on one it struggles to get away. He then literally “puts his +foot down,” and after it his head, which disappears under water only to +reappear with a struggling victim. This is carried kicking to the land, +to be devoured at leisure. + +The door of the chapel at the Moravian station of Hopedale was one day +accidentally left ajar. Such a golden opportunity for a meal was not to +be wasted, and a company of dogs soon found its way in. Some tempting +hymn-books and litanies were shortly brought to light, redolent with +blubber from the thumbs of the worshippers. Needless to say they were +sacrificed at the only shrine dogs recognise. + +On another occasion a similar oversight let them into the +tenderly-nurtured kitchen garden of the Brethren. The dogs rased +the cabbages to the ground, and even carried away with them the few +highly-prized wurzels. + +Modesty is a virtue of which the Eskimo dog is seldom guilty. I was +visiting one day a bedridden patient. As the outer door opened, a +fragrant scent as of a dinner preparing was wafted outward. Suddenly +an avalanche swept me off my legs, and a pack of dogs, whisking the +stew-pot off the fire, began to fight savagely over its contents, +the more so as each, having burnt its nose in the boiling liquid, +attributed his affliction to his neighbour. Meanwhile the house filling +with steam and Eskimo imprecations, the latter rendered forcible by +long harpoon handles, made me almost sorry I had called. + +An Eskimo’s financial condition may be gauged by the number of his +dogs, and no one with less than six would rank as “carriage folk.” +Eight to thirteen normally form a team, each being harnessed, by a +single walrus hide trace of a different length, to the komatik. The +leader will be some twenty-six yards away, which enables the team to +clamber over or round hummocky ice. The driver on these occasions jumps +off to help the sleigh over, while, to prevent breaking, the komatik +is made of numbers of short wide cross boards lashed by strong tendons +across two longitudinal pieces, no nails being used. The runners are +shod with ribs of whale, with iron, or with mud. A slot is made in the +snow and filled with soft mud, which at once freezes. This is next +frozen on to the wood, and then planed or chopped smooth with an adze. +As there are no reins, the leading dog is trained to obey the voice. At +the shout “Auk” he goes to the right, and at “Ra” to the left, and so +on, the others all following him. If those behind are not pulling well, +the leader will drop back among them and bite at them. They always +pull in the same place in a team. Thus three dogs, the whole team of +a poor man, were lent to pull with six others. They were first placed +in front, but would not pull, being frightened at so many dogs behind +them. When, however, the leader was left in front and the other two put +last of all, the whole team ran capitally. Mr. Young tells us he once +put a young dog in front of his old leader, a magnificent old fellow on +whom he always could rely in danger. Before he had, however, mounted +the komatik, he found the pup scampering away loose—the leader had +bitten through the traces. He refastened it three times, always with +the same result. At last he gave his old leader a good whipping. The +old dog’s spirit was completely broken by this treatment, and it so +felt its double disgrace, it was never, to the day of its death, the +same brave, trusty dog. + +The dogs greatly enjoy their work, and when harnessed in get +tremendously excited, at times even turning on their own drivers. To +correct them a short whip, with an enormously long lash, all of walrus +hide, is so dexterously used that an expert driver can flick a piece +out of any particular dog’s ear. + +Occasionally, a refractory dog is pulled in by its trace for +punishment. They know the meaning of this, and anticipate the beating +by a lively howling; so that merely to shorten a trace, may exert a +good moral effect on a team. + +The “trail” is usually over the frozen sea, the land being too uneven. +Good dogs will cover from 70 to 100 miles in a day. When starting in +the morning the snow is covered with little icicles, formed by the +mid-day sun melting the frozen surface. As this is apt to make the +feet of the dogs bleed, they are shod with a bag of seal-skin, tied +round the ankle. Three small holes are cut for the claws. A pup shod +for the first time, holds up his paws in the air alternately; but +once he learns to appreciate the fact that shoes save his feet from +being cut, though he will always eat any ordinary piece of skin, such +as on a kayak or a skin boot, he rarely eats his own shoes. They do, +however, bite at, and eat the harness, especially of the dog in front +of them. Mr. Young[16] tells of a big dog which, though apparently +always hard at work, never seemed to get tired like the rest. It always +seemed to strain at its trace, and kept looking round, apparently for +the driver’s approval. His suspicions, however, were aroused, and one +day, cutting loose the trace, he fastened it by a single thread to the +komatik. Sure enough, the dog strained and worked as hard as ever, but +it _never broke the single thread_. + +[Footnote 16: _Stories from Indian Wigwams_, R.T.S., by Rev. Egerton +Young.] + +When the ice is good, dogs will maintain eight miles an hour, at other +times they can only advance at a walk; while, yet again, when the ice +is surging up and down over the sea, and wind and snow are against +them, the weight of the sleigh will even drag them backwards. These +dogs are exceedingly heavy, and their dragging power is enormous. +It takes a full-grown man to hold one in leash. A team of fifteen +dogs took six people on the sleigh “like a house on fire.” They are +very quick to recognise the danger of being cut off from the land, +especially when water comes over the ice, and they will then throw +their whole strength into the work. Many times when a driver, overtaken +by night, perhaps having missed the trail from heavy snow, and quite +exhausted gives up the unequal struggle, the unerring instinct of the +dogs finds full play, and they rarely fail to reach shelter of some +kind. At night the traces are unhitched and stamped down into the snow, +for lack of anything to tie them to. This keeps them from straying. +Their dole of food is then given them, probably rotten caplin and +seal blubber; after which they sleep out on the snow, even when the +temperature is 50° below zero. Yet if other dogs are near, and they can +get at them, most of the night will be spent fighting. It is often the +capacity for carrying food for the dogs that limits the journey. To +prevent this, the Moravians make depôts of dog food along the coast +during summer. + +One day an old Eskimo arrived at Nachvak from Cape Chidley, a distance +of about 100 miles. When asked where his dog food was, he answered, +“Me go home to-morrow, then feed them,” showing the power of endurance +of these dogs. On one occasion during a long journey a traveller (P. +Mackenzie) shot some caribou deer, and taking all the meat he wanted, +pursued his journey. While building his snow hut for the night, a fresh +herd of deer passed within scent of the dogs. All, with the exception +of their leader, a small bitch, managed to free their traces and gave +chase. By chance they came on the dead quarry, and, falling to, at +once gorged themselves on it. As they, returned to the camp, one large +powerful dog was observed carrying a whole haunch in his mouth, and was +seen to go and lay it down in reach of the still captive little leader. + +These dogs can be dangerous at times. Once the team of a settler living +in Seal Islands ran away. They came back savage as wolves, and it +transpired that they had killed and eaten a little girl, of seven years +old, while away. Of course their owner was forced to shoot them. This +tendency to wander was recently put to good use. A solitary settler and +his wife were suddenly struck down with influenza. The man developed +lung symptoms, and the woman also became too ill to feed either herself +or him. She could hardly crawl as far as the cupboard for food; and +they both stood in great danger of being starved, though food was in +the house. In this extremity the woman, who could write, scribbled on a +piece of paper, “Come over quickly,” and tied it round one of the dog’s +necks. The dog carried it to the nearest neighbour, a distance of ten +miles over the ice, and eventually returned with help. Possibly as the +old couple could no longer get about to give the dogs food, that might +account for its setting off for another house. + +In the water the Eskimo dog is quite at home. I have known them swim +home from a desert island a good mile from land, and have watched them +playfully chasing one another’s tails as they swam about in that cold +water. + +Fighting, however, is their chief diversion. Each team always has its +king, who maintains his position solely by his might. I have watched +from a boat a pack banished to an island in summer to keep them out of +mischief. As we rowed round, a fine young dog, with the only female +close alongside, moved by curiosity followed us out to the end of every +little promontory, but the rest all maintained a respectful distance +behind. Next week, when we passed again, we found he had been deposed, +and then woe betide him for some time. The entire pack seem to combine +to pay off their pent-up grudges against him, and at times he is so +harried he takes to the water. I have watched a late leader standing up +to his shoulders in water eyeing his tormentors to see if he could +escape unobserved; but every attempt he made to come ashore a combined +rush was made, and he was forced to retire again. + +[Illustration: Eskimo Family.] + +At night on travel a snow hut is built. Half an hour is long enough for +this. The snow is cut in blocks—nowadays usually with an old cavalry +sabre—from the inside of the circle chosen for the house. Thus the hut +goes down and up at the same time. A hole is left at the top for the +air, while a block is cut to fit into the door from the outside, after +all are in. If a tent is carried, it is of the usual reindeer skins, +sewn together with tendons. The sleeping bag is made of seal-skin with +the hair outside, and lined with reindeer skin with the hair inside. +Almost any cold can be borne in it; and if your family are travelling +with you, and share your bag, they are then said to be positively warm. +The skin boots always worn are so exquisitely sewn, that, like the +kayaks, they are quite watertight. + +However, there is no water in Labrador in winter, for even the +perspiration from the men’s bodies, if they do violent work, freezes +inside the clothing; and, as in cases of Arctic explorers, it may +become necessary to take off one’s clothes at night to hammer out the +ice from the inside. + +To do this sewing it is necessary to chew the edges of the skins soft. +One woman said to me, “Me no good now,” showing me that her teeth were +all too far worn down to be of any use in boot-making. The Eskimo’s +teeth meet one another, and do not overhang like Europeans’. Soft +bread gets so hard frozen that biscuits have to be carried, which, +with lumps of meat, are stowed away under their clothes next the skin, +in order to keep it soft. Spirits even will freeze in the bottle; but +neither whites nor Eskimo carry alcohol, or dare resort to it in cold +weather, if they had it. These people form an excellent apology for +total abstinence, as do the Laps, who drink only coffee. In England and +the United States cold weather is used as an apology for whisky. Drink +soon destroys the Eskimo. Yet they, like white men, willingly become +its slaves. They have even buried in their oil casks, water, molasses, +and old mouldy biscuits, in order to get fermented liquor, when once +habituated to it. + +The Moravians have, however, kept the traffic in check, partly by not +teaching the Eskimo English, and partly by Christian teaching. One +dear old fellow—named Zacharias—had in his early days been expelled +by the Eskimo from Okkak for drunkenness and being a nuisance to the +community. Becoming a Christian under the preaching at Hopedale, he was +now seeking to get back to Okkak to show them what the grace of God can +do in the dark heart of a drunken Eskimo. Very practical are some of +these Eskimo Christians. One Nathaniel last winter, while going to his +sealing ground, was carried off to sea by the ice drifting off. When +eventually he managed to escape, he told the missionaries: “I felt +like Peter. I could not pray, though I thought I must die. I had not +lived a good life.” On another occasion a woman actually went and gave +back all the property she had won from another by gambling, when told +it was displeasing to God. + +The following translation of letters from some much respected leaders +among them, gives an insight into their feelings and ideas. One wrote +to us as follows: “In spirit I am among you, my fellow-servants. Only a +little I want to say to you. Because the Lord, He helps us, you as well +as us—we in Labrador. In one faith and love in that which Jesus has +wrought for us, that we can walk through Him that strengthens us. Once +more we have reason to be thankful, because the physician came; we are +often reminded that our souls also must have medicine, _i.e._ the Word +of God. I salute you all. The Lord may help every one of us. You as +well as me. Zacharias. The one that is in Hopedale.” + +Another wrote, “My wife and I and all the Eskimo wish very sincerely to +thank all the good believers on the other side of the sea, who in their +love have thought of us, and sent a doctor to help and assist us in +our illness. We do not understand the language of those you have sent +here, yet we rejoice that they are preaching the Word of God faithfully +to the many fishermen who work along the Labrador. My prayer and wish +are that the Lord will protect them on their journey, and bless you +and them in the work. My wife and I greet all those who love the Lord +Jesus Christ.” + + “DANIEL AND JOSEPHINA.” + +When the missionaries desire to punish an Eskimo, it is generally done +by (1) refusing to allow him personally in the store; (2) ejecting him +from the choir or band; (3) cutting him off from communion. An Eskimo, +never having severer punishment, feels each of these very acutely. + +Cartwright punished them much more summarily. In his dry way, he +remarks: “July 1. Having reproved an Eskimo in a very angry tone for +stealing a skein of thread, I gave him a few strokes with a stick. He +instantly made resistance; when catching him in my arms, I gave him +a cross buttock (a method of throwing unknown to them), and pitched +him with great force head first out of my tent. The rest applauded my +action as just, and had a high opinion of my lenity.” + +Conveying Bible ideas to the Eskimo has not been easy. It must be +remembered they have never seen sheep or lambs, horse or mule, fruit +tree or corn, sowing or harvest. Nor have they much idea of kindness to +animals at all. Every animal but a dog is to be killed, and even their +dogs are to be kept at a considerable distance. But they are themselves +very grateful for kindness, as the above extracts show. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_ON SEALS AND SEALERS_ + + +[Illustration: The S.S. _Sir Donald_.] + +The hair seal, locally “swile,” affords to the Newfoundland fisherman +almost the only means of work in winter which will help him to eke out +the meagre living provided by his Labrador voyages. True, there is a +home frozen-herring trade, but it is limited to the west coast; and +also the new railway employs a certain number of men as long as the +inclemencies of winter allow work to proceed. But it is to the spring +sealing, or “going to the ice,” as they call it, that most look for +the extra few dollars to help fill the children’s mouths. Not long ago +every one could go to the ice, for then only sailing-boats went, and +the wealth reaped from the voyages passed mostly into the fishermen’s +pockets. Now all is revolutionized, and the sealing is in the hands +of half-a-dozen firms, that send out big steamers, carrying crews +numbering as many as three hundred men. Moreover, the value of seal-oil +has greatly decreased, and the expenses of the steamers eat up much of +the profit. There are not a few whom one hears growling, “Steam has +ruined Newfoundland.” + +The hair seal, “Phoca Greenlandica,” must not be confounded with the +fur seal of the Pacific, for though the former is found in the Pacific, +the latter is never found in the North Atlantic. The fur seal is as a +rule larger, has much longer hands and feet in proportion to his body, +and also a much longer neck. He is apparently a much more powerful +swimmer. There are, however, several kinds of hair seal. The largest +is the hood seal. A truly magnificent animal, and one that shows +much courage in defending himself against his enemies. Sitting up on +his tail and hind legs, he defends himself with teeth and flippers, +protecting his head from injury by blowing out a bladder-shaped and +shot-proof excrescence on it. The usual method to kill a seal is to +hit it upon the nose with a club, called a seal-bat, but when once +fairly roused the bull hood seal is invulnerable there. An old sealer +described to me a battle between one of these fellows and a polar +bear, in which he told us the seal only yielded to be eaten after a +prolonged and bloody struggle. It takes two men at least to kill one, +for one man has to divert the animal’s attention by striking its tail, +while the other endeavours to hit it under the jaw as it turns round. + +The most important hair seal, however, is the harp. It is the variety +which resort to the ice to breed in such countless thousands, and which +the sealing vessels go out in pursuit of. The process of breeding +is most interesting. The following account was given me by Captain +Blandford, of Newfoundland, perhaps the most successful of all the bold +sealing captains:— + +“Soon after we got jammed in the ice there appeared from the water +four or five old seals, which scrambled up on to its surface. Within +five minutes there were 500 seals on it, and in half an hour 200,000 +as nearly as we could guess. Scarcely had they come to rest on the ice +when they commenced throwing their young, and at once, after whelping, +those close to us, being somewhat frightened by the ship, jumped back +into the sea, leaving the little seals whimpering exactly like babies.” + +The young are born about the 1st of March, and are very small, fat, and +snowy white, remaining so up till the 20th to 25th, _i.e._ about three +weeks, between which date and the 1st of April they are big enough to +take to the water. During this period they are known as “whitecoats.” +They grow so rapidly that you can almost see them growing, though on +the above occasion those close to the ship did not grow nearly as +rapidly as those farther away, for the dams were shy about coming to +give them suck. + +The “whitecoats” are not large enough to kill until they are fourteen +days’ old, so that on this occasion the crew had to wait. Now, however, +by law no sailing vessel may leave for the ice until the 8th of March, +and no steamer till the 12th, under a penalty of $2,000, which gives +the seals a chance to get sizeable; nor is a vessel now allowed to make +a second voyage the same year, if she has once come back loaded. This +prevents the extermination of the mother seals. Great excitement always +exists when the sealers are about to start; sometimes it is necessary +to cut their way out of the harbour, in which they have been imprisoned +during the winter months, with dynamite, saws, and crowbars, the way +being cleared beforehand, that not an hour may be lost after the clocks +announce midnight of the 11th. This year, 1894, while blasting a way +out of the ice in Greenspond Harbour, the S.S. _Walrus_ was severely +damaged by the explosion of the dynamite, which shattered her bows, and +killed some of her men. The ice was ten feet thick. + +The vessels may start from any part of the island, north or south, but +no one place is always best, the position of the seals varying every +season. There is much competition to get a place among the crews, and +the men are carefully selected for their pluck, energy, experience, and +physical capacities. These are queer-looking craft to the unaccustomed +eye these steam sealers of about 300 to 400 tons burden, with their +outside thick sheathing of hard wood, called “ice chocks,” and their +huge double stems, filled between with from nine to twelve feet of +solid oak, built for charging through floe ice. For when shut in the +steamer will back far enough to gain good impetus, and then dash full +at the weakest part of the floe. Usually the sloping forepost allows +the vessel to rise up on to the ice, the great weight then breaking +down into clear water. Anything loose on deck is of course upset, as +are any of the crew who happen not to be holding some support. All +are rigged with three masts, and can sail as well as steam; and the +screw being fixed in a slot can easily be pulled up out of the water +at these times. Each masthead is fitted with a barrel or crow’s nest, +from which a careful look-out for seals is constantly maintained. When +once discovered, the next thing is to keep them to yourself, and, if +possible, mislead any other vessels near, who might be apt to join in +and so lessen your prize. A captain, well known for his success, was +lately dogged in this way by a fresh hand. To mislead his rival the +captain steamed into one of the large bays, where, it so happened, he +got frozen in while the raw hand, turning out, caught a full voyage. + +Once alongside the floe, the men jump off on to the ice, and at once +the work begins. Sometimes they work in pairs, one man shooting the +seals, and his chum, who is called “the dog,” following up, cutting +off the tail from the dead seal to “mark it,” and then gathering them +in heaps, and putting up a pole with a flag or a piece of liver as a +claim. These are then said to be “panned.” This is technically called +“swatching.” When shooting, 1,400 seals in a day is good work for a +crew, though they have killed 3,000; but when it is only necessary to +“club” them with the seal-bat, 25,000 have been killed in a day, and +47,000 in two days. Sculping (scalping?) is the next process—that is +taking off the skin and fat. This scarcely takes a minute. The seal is +thrown on its back, ripped up from chin to tail, and the fat and skin, +known as the “pelt,” are torn off. The body is no use, and is left on +the ice, except that occasionally the hearts are cut out and strung on +the hunter’s belts, as a reserve of food in case of necessity. + +The mother seals show great sagacity in finding the particular hole, +through which she comes and goes for food, among so many thousand +others, and at once she finds her own little white pup. They will +evince much self-sacrifice in trying to rescue their offspring from +danger, at times carrying them in their fore flippers to escape being +nipped by ice, or drawing them into the water to teach them to swim. +Alas, after a sealer’s visit she will only find a quivering red corpse +when she returns. Let us hope she does not recognise it. + +When another crew is also at work on the same patch of seals the +greatest expedition is naturally used, and under these circumstances +the seals will often only be “batted” and stunned, not stabbed to the +heart as well, before being skinned. It is this that has given rise to +the charges of cruelty, for the naked body has been seen to move around +after the operation. Otherwise there is no more cruelty in killing +seals than in killing cattle or poultry, and any man who is humane in +one will naturally be humane in the other; nor do I think you will find +anywhere a more humane set of men than you will among Newfoundland +fishermen. + +Captain X. was once just forcing his way through ice towards a pack of +seals when he sighted a rival vessel coming up under his lee. Backing +out, he at once altered his course away from the seals to mislead the +other, but was too late to prevent them sighting his seals. The second +vessel, being much faster, now ran in between my friend and the ice, +and passing him on the starboard side gave the order “hard a starboard” +to force him out from his own cutting. Incensed at this, Captain X. +from the barrel shouted “hard a port,” and went straight for his +rival’s stem. Fortunately an intervening pan of ice prevented a fatal +accident, but he ran his bowsprit well over the other’s counter. All +hands from the foremost vessel were overboard and hard at work killing +and panning seals before Captain X. could land his men; so he shouted, +as his final order, “Hand aboard the dead seals; never mind killing +live ones,” and then, calmly descending, went and had refreshments with +the other captain in the other vessel’s cabin, while the crews were +left to fight it out as best they could. They are a brave, generous, +and skilful set of men, these sealing captains, and reck little of +danger or hardship. + +Work proceeds during the night by torchlight, and the scattered fires, +with their ruddy glow on the heaps of dead seals and uncouth-looking +figures at work, must present indeed a weird sight. Now the pelts +have to be brought back to the ship; and in this work the physical +capacities of each hunter are tried to the utmost. Six pelts is a full +“tow” for one man. Often when the ice is hummocky, or perhaps broken up +into pieces, called “slob” ice, and it is necessary to jump from pan to +pan, or again when the distance from the ship is long, and the approach +of night or the fog render travelling almost impossible, are these men +tempted to abandon the hardly-won pelts, and get home themselves to the +ship and safety. + +Sometimes one hunter will be long adrift from the steamer, and all the +rest being back, and all the seals in that patch boarded, the captain +is anxious to get off—how anxious, if the patch was a small one and +other seals are near, perhaps only a sealing captain knows,—for all +ships must be home by April 21st, full or empty. Yet though so much +depends on it a stray hunter has never yet been abandoned. It costs a +large sum to send these vessels to the ice, and a “clean ship” means a +big loss to the merchant, and no money for the men. + +[Illustration: Eskimo on an Island near Okkak.] + +Sharks, even in these latitudes, are not slow to gather at the smell +of slaughter, and can be caught with boathooks between the pans. It is +not a rare thing for men to slip off the pans into the water, and it +requires no little skill to get out again without help; for the water, +naturally, is very cold, and one is apt again and again to slip off +back into the water while trying to climb on to the ice. Acts of great +heroism are performed sometimes in rescuing a man thus endangered; +in one case, the pans being very small, it was not possible to stand +on one in order to pull the man out. The rescuer, therefore, quickly +throwing off his outer garments, came jumping from piece to piece, +making a grab at the struggling man as he passed, trying to push him on +far enough for him to catch hold. The second run he succeeded, but, of +course, himself ran great peril in the attempt. The vessels eventually, +loaded to the gunwales if they have been fortunate, return to St. +Johns, every hole and corner being used for stowing the pelts, so that +at times the crew will have to sleep wherever they can find a dry spot, +even on deck or in the boats. + +Once in harbour, the fat is separated and put into enormous vats, the +oil being squeezed out from the blubber by their own weight, and being +eventually drawn off, clarified, and sold. Now, however, the blubber +is usually “rendered” by means of a steam mincer. The skins are salted +without being stretched, and are then exported “green,” for making +into leather for boot tops, gloves, etc. When the white coat is a year +old, he is dark in colour on the back, lighter on the belly, and is +known as a “bedlamer harp.” When he is three years old, a large black +saddle-shaped mark begins to appear over his back, and he is called a +full “bedlamer.” When he is four years old, the saddle is fully and +clearly marked, and the seal is then known as the “old harp.” + +Seals, as is well known to those who visit Zoological Gardens, are very +easily tamed, and display almost the sagacity of dogs. Tales are told +of seals which have become so thoroughly tame that they will come and +lie before the fire, making friends with the dog and cat; while one, +when it had been found too expensive to keep, and had been taken out to +sea and dropped overboard, followed the boat ashore again and again, +even getting in at the window when the door had been shut against it. +The seal is used by the Eskimo for nearly everything. The stretched +coat of the bowel serves instead of glass. Their boats are entirely +of skin. Their clothing almost all skin. Their winter food almost all +seal meat and blubber. Dog food, dog harness, dog whips, etc., are all +of seal, or of walrus hide. Moreover, to the settlers, their skins for +boots and their fat for oil are invaluable. + +In Labrador the “old harps” are caught either in the fall or spring, +when the sea is first freezing over or the ice first breaking up, and +always along shore, in one of the following ways. Strong twine nets, +with very large meshes, are anchored out on the bottom in about twenty +to thirty fathoms of water, off prominent headlands, or in the mouths +of bays and inlets known to be frequented by seals. These are buoyed +on the surface, and in these the seals mesh and drown themselves. This +industry is attended with much danger and hardship, for it involves +rowing out in all weathers in small boats to clear the nets. Sometimes +the buoys are under the ice, and the process known as “creeping” has to +be undertaken to find the nets at all, for it will not do to lose these +most valuable possessions. + +If the nets are not recovered by New Year’s Day, they are lost; yet +occasionally they may be recovered immediately the ice goes in April, +when, the men tell me, both nets and seals in them are good; but if +much time elapses after the floe drifts off, both rot rapidly and are +destroyed by animalculæ. + +Often hours must be spent “creeping,” and then, perhaps, only some +one else’s nets are taken, while all the while each must be carefully +watching the other to see he is not getting frostbitten. The nose, +ears, or chin will become frozen unknown to the owner and another will +cry out “your ears are dead,” the parts having turned snowy white. +Then begins the painful and tedious process of rubbing the part with +snow—woe betide the sufferer who goes in a heated room, or uses hot +water; for a certainty he will lose his ears or his nose—then the +creeping must be again proceeded with; or when the nets are partly +hauled bad weather will overtake them, perhaps a sudden squall from +the high land sweeps down on the little open boat, and the tragedy of +“the three fishers” is apt to be enacted over again. In one case, a man +described to me how, when out with his brother and another man, while +in the act of hauling into the boat a square flipper seal of larger +size than usual, the little craft capsized, and his brother, getting +cramp from cold, slipped off the bottom of the boat to which all three +were clinging. Fortunately, the other two managed, it being a calm day, +to hold on till a rescue was effected. It is cold work at best, and, +as one stalwart fellow said, “jest a bit hard, that when a man comes +home real hungry it should take him half an hour to get the ice off his +face before he can find his mouth.” “Yes,” chimed in another, “I lost +two toes and this ear,” showing that he had been cropped as if at the +pillory. I have myself seen the frozen breath hanging from men’s beards +and moustaches till, from nose to chest, it was one huge white mass. + +The easier way of catching the “old harps” is with a submerged room +of net, resembling the cod-trap, with the difference that the wall +which is on the side the seals enter from is lowered to the bottom. A +watch is kept from the shore, and as soon as the seals enter the room +a rope attached to this wall is wound up on a capstan on the land, and +the seals are thus imprisoned. They are now given time to entangle +themselves in the net, and so get drowned, or the boat rows off and +the hunter shoots the seal before taking it out of the water; for the +seals would bite badly if given the chance. The net is thirty to forty +fathoms deep, and is set in about six to ten fathoms of water. + +The last variety of hair seal is known as the “bay seal.” It frequents +the shores, bays, and mouths of fresh-water rivers, up which it breeds, +all the summer, and is caught either in mesh nets, or shot from a boat +as it puts up its head to breathe. This feat is rendered more easy by +the natural curiosity of the seal. As soon as it spies the boat it +raises its head and shoulders out of water to get a good view of the +stranger. If you now remain quite still, and especially if you can +imitate the “Hough, hough” of the animal, it will dive down and in a +minute come up nearer the boat. I have been almost ashamed to shoot as +it opened its large, human eyes, so full of inquisitiveness. “Bang!” +If you are a good shot, your seal will be dead, a bullet through his +brain, and you must at once row and pick him up while his few kicks +keep him afloat. I remember seeing one sink after being shot, as we +rowed off to the _Princess May_ from the shore one day. We stopped +over the spot, and peering down into the crystal water, could see him +ten fathoms down. Suddenly, one last kick—only it seemed a slight +movement—and the carcase rose to the surface for the last time. Up, +up! We watched it gyrating round and round, and as it reached the +surface, grabbed hold of one flipper and slung it into the boat. We +had one or two good meals off that fellow, for we hung him up from our +forestay, and the frosty air kept him sweet and fresh as long as we +needed him. Had he not arisen we should have got him up by means of our +“jiggers,” _i.e._, our heavy leaded hooks. + +The Eskimo harpoon their seals from the kayak, occasionally shooting +it first; but shooting accurately from a kayak is no easy matter. The +harpoon is made of light wood, about three feet in length. On the end +of this is fixed a whole walrus tusk, to carry the loose barbed iron +top, and also to weight it and carry it truly home. As soon as the seal +is struck it dives, taking the harpoon with it, but as the harpoon +is attached by about twenty fathoms of walrus hide to an inflated +air-tight seal-skin, the hunter spies it, as soon as it comes up, +even if it ever succeeds in carrying the buoy down. A few strokes of +the paddle brings the kayak once more alongside, and the seal is soon +put _hors de combat_ with a lance, lashed on the back of the little +boat, and the hunter starts for home, or it is towed home alongside +the kayak. When one year old the bay seal is called a “jar seal,” and +its skin is poor; in the second year it is a “doter,” and becoming +speckled, in the third year, it is a “ranger,” and is then very +beautiful, being checkered silver and black all over. + + + + +[Illustration: Eskimo in Reindeer Tent, Okkak.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +_ON THE ESQUIMAUX OR ESKIMO_ + + +It was a still moonlight night, and the _Albert_ lay at anchor in one +of those numberless creeks in which the venturous fishermen hide away +their schooners, while in their small boats they are snatching from the +very edges of the reefs their precious fares of fish. + +We were below decks, dressing the wounds of a fisherman in the +_Albert’s_ little cabin, the only sounds being the moan of my patient +or the lapping of the water against the ship’s side, when the silence +was suddenly broken by the sound as of many voices singing. The air was +very familiar:— + + “There’s a land that is fairer than day, + And by faith we can see it afar, + For our Father dwells over the way + To prepare us a dwelling-place there.” + +Mounting the gangway, I found the deck crowded by a number of the +quaintest little figures. They were dressed in skins, with snow-white +jumpers topped by long pointed cowls standing high up over their heads. +Some sat cross-legged on the bulwarks or hatches, while others, in +their seal-skin boots, were gliding noiselessly about in the moonlight, +till imagination conjured up “the merry elves” of childhood. The early +Norsemen called them skrellings or weaklings. They call themselves +Innuits, “the people,” because they say God went on creating till they +appeared, then He was satisfied, and created no more. Eskimo = raw meat +eater, and is a term of opprobrium conferred on them by the Indians. + +Soon all were down in our main hold, chattering, laughing, and pleased +as children, at the _Albert’s_ fittings and at our attempts to +understand their remarks. The one that acted as leader spoke a little +broken English, and from him we learned that they had come from a group +of islands lying outside us with some boat-loads of dry fish for a +planter; that they had been puzzled by our strange rig, and so had come +aboard to see us. + +When their leader had explained to them that we were a “Gospel ship,” +and had things to heal the sick, their merry, round, flat faces grew +sunnier than ever. All heads were uncovered at once, displaying mops +of long straight black hair, cut fringe-like level with the eyebrows. +Then they all broke out singing again, squatting all round the hold +on their haunches or on the floor, while, to our surprise, one seated +himself at the harmonium and played it excellently, others performing +on two concertinas and two cornets. They sang in parts in their own +language, but hymn tunes well known to us, so our crew all joined in, +and kept it up till the watch called “All hands off board.” Since +then we have seen and learnt much of this simple people; “Uskies” the +fishermen call them, and we all like them greatly. + +Not many heathen Eskimo remain in Labrador, yet between Ungava +and Cape Chidley some are still to be found. They recognise a god +(Tongarsuk), a good spirit, and also lesser spirits (Tongaks), whom +he sends to tell the priests (angekoks) how to heal diseases, and +how to tell the weather. The Devil is a vague kind of female spirit, +apparently unnamed. These angekoks are really delphic oracles, who +make supposititious journeys to the bowels of the earth to consult +Tongarsuk. The journey must be in winter, in the dark at night time, +and the angekok remains alone in his hut with his head tied between his +legs, and his arms behind his back, while his soul is off to heaven or +hell. To become an angekok poglit, _i.e._ fat priest or chief priest, +his wandering spirit must be dragged by one toe to the sea by a white +bear, and there swallowed by a sea lion and the same white bear. Then +it must be spued up and return to his body, which is shut up in a dark +house. A drum and other noises are kept up during the ceremony.[17] + +They have a vague tradition of a flood, saying that the world upset +once, and all but one man were drowned. They prove this by the fact of +shells being found high above the sea, and even the remains of a whale +on a high mountain. They believe in a future life and a happier one +than this, where there is perpetual summer, and they locate it at the +bottom of the sea, whence they get their richest possessions, or in the +bowels of the earth. Reindeer are there quite common, and their beloved +seals are ever ready, swimming in a large boiling kettle.[17] + +[Footnote 17: _The Eskimo_, by Dr. F. Nansen.] + +Nansen tells us they thought that all inanimate objects had spirits, +and that this is the reason that they buried with the warrior his boat +and weapons, and often figures like dolls, possibly to represent his +wives. I found several of these old graves, and two I examined. One, +evidently very ancient, was perched on a high central promontory, +overlooking the entrances to two bays; perhaps in order that as the +harp seals or wild birds passed, the warrior might, even in death, +look down upon those who of yore so oft paid tribute to his skill. The +body in every grave is simply laid on the surface on its back, in its +clothes—in one grave a female skeleton lay alongside a male one. Over +it is built a rude structure roofed with large flat stones, so that +the view should be unobstructed. In a small cache alongside the above +grave were two wooden figures of females, an ivory harpoon head and the +remains of the shaft, the skin-cleaning instruments, and the remains of +a stone lamp. + +In another, further south, I found an iron sword about three feet long, +used for cutting snow blocks for snow houses, a dagger with a curved +blade, a clasp knife, an old pot of iron, a nail or needle case, a lead +buckle silvered over, a whetstone, and a few other simple household +implements, while in each case the remains of the kayak or canoe, the +paddle and the harpoon were lying near. + +The skipper of a Newfoundland vessel told me how one of his men took +some frankincense from one of these graves. That night the crew were +startled by one of the hands shouting out, “There is a man in the +cabin!” though it was all dark at the time. A lamp was lit, and the +same man shouted, “There he goes, up the hatchway!” The others chaffed +him and blew out the light. Very soon shouts were again heard, “There +he is, an Eskimo, searching in Tom’s bunk.” After that the lamp was +kept lighted, and next day the grave was restored. + +The early Moravian missionaries found it very difficult to convey +to the Eskimo the Bible teachings of our Saviour’s love and of God +as our Father. They had no word for love; neither sheep nor lambs, +seed-time nor harvest, silver nor gold were familiar to them, and all +the oriental similes of the sacred book were unintelligible. Yet the +missionaries’ Christ-like lives during 130 years have accomplished what +their words could not express. + +In A.D. 1000 the Eskimo extended as far south as Newfoundland. In 1790 +a tribe five hundred strong dwelt in the Straits of Belle Isle. Now +only a few dwell south of Hopedale, three hundred miles north of the +same straits, and only some two to three thousand north of that place. +Contact with white men has killed them off, at times by small-pox or +diphtheria, but usually by tubercular consumption. The two racial tides +now meet at Hopedale, and here the Eskimo appear least healthy. + +The nomad life in skin tents has been abandoned for wooden and mud +huts. The seal-skin clothes have largely given way to inferior cotton +and European goods. The “blubber” food is largely replaced by “flour +and molasses.” The art of kayaking is nearly lost, and the Eskimo +have become less and less reliant on their own powers of procuring a +livelihood, while guns and powder have largely diminished the supply +of game. This has well been exemplified around the mission station +of Zoar. The Eskimo here had contracted a habit of taking out their +supplies from the Moravians, but secretly traded their fish and fur +with the nearest Hudson Bay station at Davis Inlet. Thus they ran up +large debts, which eventually the Brethren refused to increase. Soon +after, while two missionaries were in the store, some bullets were +fired right through the wooden walls. Fortunately no one was hurt. But +bad feelings had been roused, and at last it was found necessary to +close these stores altogether, with the result that the Eskimo have +been _obliged to leave_, and stay where they could buy provisions at +hand; and now the Eskimo are all gone, and the whole station is closed +for good. But this is only what civilization has done for aboriginal +races all the world over. + +Thank God that in this case the Gospel both preceded and accompanied +commerce. To this alone I attribute the fact that after over 130 +years any of the Eskimo do now remain. The Gospel has been received. +Many have passed from darkness to light, and so are in a position to +correspond to or resist the new environment of white men’s customs +and white men’s whisky. True the Eskimo in Labrador are being slowly +driven to a last stand. Thank God that stand is at Ramah, Hebron, +Okkak, Hopedale and Nain, around the devoted Christian missionaries of +the Moravian brethren, who for Christ’s sake spend their lives among +the hardships of this bleak and barren coast; and while Beothicks and +Red Indians have fallen victims to the God of mammon, remnants of this +gentle and harmless race still persist. Take away these Moravians from +Labrador, and the days of the Eskimo would soon be numbered. + +[Illustration: Taken from an Eskimo Grave at Long Island.] + +In the eleventh century Thorfinn Karlsefne describes the Skraellings +as “black and ill-favoured, with coarse hair on their heads, and large +eyes, with broad cheeks.” Cartwright, writing in 1790, says they were +quarrelsome among one another, and occasionally thievish. Cranz, in +1760, says they were degraded, immoral, and brutish in their heathen +state. Nansen thinks they led an ideal socialistic life, but founded, I +think, rather on a basis of inevitable union against starvation in bad +times than on a basis of Divine and brotherly love. They appear ever to +have been simple and confiding. Karlsefne says they came to visit his +men in Vinland and began to barter. + +“These people would rather have red cloth than anything else; for this +they gave skins and real furs. For an entire fur-skin the Skraellings +took a piece of red cloth a span long, and bound it round their heads. +Thus went on traffic for a time, then the cloth began to fall short +among Karlsefne and his people, and they cut it asunder into small +pieces, which were not wider than the breadth of a finger, and still +the Skraellings gave just as much as before, and more.” + +According to our code they are very immoral, yet seeing the conduct of +white men to one another and to themselves they always say of a good +man, “He is like an Innuit” (Eskimo). They themselves have no words for +cursing, and Nansen says also no words of opprobrium, such as liar, +scoundrel, or rowdy. Recently one in the far north of Labrador, who +already had seven wives, stole his son-in-law’s wife also—that is +his own daughter. The younger man bided his time, and then shot the +older one off his guard. Some twenty years ago a number came south to +the most northern Moravian station. One had cut on his gun-stock many +notches. On being asked what these meant, he explained they indicated +so many men craftily shot. On being told it was wrong, he promised not +to do it again. Polygamy is now done away with, and it is only in their +fishing-tents that different families sleep together. In some tents I +visited the only separations were marks made on the ground. + +Yet they have learnt to repent of wrong-doing, and all their outbreaks +have ended in asking for forgiveness. They confess even murder to +the missionaries. I have met four who have done so. In all spiritual +matters they implicitly accept the Brethren’s teaching; nor do they +ever question the authority of the Bible; _e.g._, one man had a very +refractory boy, who was always annoying his teacher, and wilfully +disturbing the whole school. His father refused to punish him, for he +said he thought that must be wrong for a Christian. Nor would he alter +his decision till Solomon’s maxim on that point was shown him in black +and white. He then at once adopted Solomon’s view of the matter, and +“appealed to his son’s feelings” with a piece of walrus hide. + +Other enemies, besides civilization, have helped to deplete the Eskimo +race. The early Vikings harried them on their visits to the coast. +Thorfinn Karlsefne mentions finding five Skraellings sleeping under +a boat. He adds, his men killed them; and similar incidents occurred +to others of these rovers. The Indians of the interior have always +been hostile to them, and in their battles with these the Eskimo have +generally come off second best. + +We were shown the spot where tradition has it the Eskimo and +Montaignais Indians fought their last fight for mastery. A story to +which the finding of many stone arrow heads and knives lends some +colour. Off the mouth of a long river lies a large island, with a +smooth central plain, rising at each end to high broken rocks. On the +outer end clustered the humble huts of the Eskimos, with their fishing +gear lying around. One night, under cover of darkness, the Mountaineers +crept stealthily down the river in their large, double-ended, birch +war-canoes, and effected a landing, dragging the canoes up after them, +and then hiding themselves among the rocks. Next day, however, the +wary little Eskimo discovered their arrival, and pluckily determined +to attack them at once. It is easy to picture the wild scene that +followed. No doubt the little warriors fought desperately; but, +against their taller and more powerful adversaries, were at a great +disadvantage in a hand to hand conflict. Many having fallen in the +open, the remnant sought cover among the rocks at the outer end of +the island, only to be dislodged and driven back towards the sea. +Here, no doubt, the squaws—who still dress like men and partake in +all the expeditions—helped them to make one last stand for home and +children. Then came the skurry to the beach. Behind are the ruthless, +bloodthirsty “braves,” in front the mighty ocean. Picture the tiny +skin-boats, manned by the few survivors, darting out through Atlantic +surf, with probably wife and child hurriedly lashed on the back, as +they do sometimes at the present day. Think of the tragedies enacted, +as perhaps some obstacle prevented the kayaks getting away—some +refractory child, some accident to the frail craft at the last moment. +With fiendish yells the Indians are hurrying over the beach towards +them, more horrible from their weird war-paint. History only says the +settlement was exterminated. + +Starvation also has lessened their numbers. Near Sir Leopold +McClintock’s winter quarters—where the darkness lasted for three +months—were camped some Eskimo. These people had neither fires nor +lights. Living in snow huts, into which they crawled on their bellies +through long snow tunnels, they lay huddled on one another for the sake +of the warmth. Their clothes were of duck-skins and other feathers +inside, and seal-skin outside. No wood existed anywhere near. Their +food consisted of raw seal meat, buried deep outside. Whenever hungry, +they would crawl out, eat about four pounds of raw meat, and crawl back +and sleep again as long as possible—almost hibernating like the black +bear. What would happen when the polar bear got at their meat supplies, +as he was only too likely to do? + +Only this year (1894) the crew of the whaler _Balaena_ brought to +Dundee the horrible details of what might well be expected. The +_Balaena’s_ crew discovered on the shore, in a place far removed +from all animal life, the dead bodies of three Eskimos, and a number +of bleached human bones. These three—two men and one woman—were +evidently the last survivors of a larger party. Near to the bodies +three human heads were noticed—in each case the throat had been cut +and savagely hacked with a knife, while the brains had been extracted +through a hole in the skull. A smashed rifle and a bow and arrows were +lying near, and all the evidences of a severe struggle between the last +two male survivors. A blood-stained knife was taken from the woman’s +hand. It is probable the party had been waiting here (Elwin Bay) for +the arrival of the whalers in 1893. Alas! ice had prevented their +coming, and at last, among the patiently-expectant little people, an +awful tragedy had been enacted. + +Less dramatic incidents also occur in Eskimo life. Thus, in one case +recently, an old tyrant had appropriated the fine new kayak of a poorer +man; and soon after this poor fellow was drowned while shooting deer +out of his old canoe, of which the skin covering was rotten. His son, +a young fellow under twenty, remained quiet a long time. One day, +however, he was taken out hunting by the old man. Whilst crossing +a wide river on the ice, the son dropped behind a step and blew the +other’s brains out. + +On one or two occasions they have combined to attack the Moravian +Brethren. Thus in Hebron, on one occasion, they shut the missionaries +up in their house, not allowing them even to go and get water, +demanding that all the goods in the store should be handed over to +them. No resistance was made, except that the store was kept locked. +At the end of three days, which the Brethren had spent in prayer, +conviction seized the Eskimo, and they came and said they were very +sorry. + +No stretch of imagination could call them an emotional people; some +are almost fatalists, and all are easily satisfied and careless of +the morrow. One day an Eskimo guide accompanied me out fishing. It +so happened that rain fell in great quantities, and as he had left +his skin “kossack,” or jumper, at home, he might reasonably have been +expected to seek shelter under one of the many rocks while I fished. +Not so. He remained seated all the time out in the rain as if he were a +mushroom. Late at night, after he had gone home, he came off again in +his “kayak” to the ship to see me. “My boy dead,” he said. “Why did you +not tell me he was ill? You knew we had medicine.” “No good; must die,” +he replied. + +I went next morning to see the funeral. The Moravians have taught them +to bury beneath the surface. A hole had been dug in the sandy ground; +the body was put in, and the grave filled up with sand. An hour later +not a sign remained to mark the spot. It would never suggest itself to +them to visit it. + +In 1790, Cartwright, falling in love with an Eskimo girl, asked +her hand from her husband Eketcheak, who had another wife himself. +The reply was, “She is no good to work. Have this one and her two +children.” Cartwright declined, saying he preferred the younger. “Take +them all then,” said the generous husband. Cartwright explained he did +not wish to trespass too much on his kindness. “Oh, you can give them +back at the end of the year if you don’t want to keep them.” + +While we were in Okkak, an elderly squaw came to be treated for shaking +of the knees. It appeared that she had never before seen a steamboat, +and had received a severe fright at the arrival of the _Princess May_; +for she thought it was a man-of-war come to punish her son Rudolph, +who some time previously had shot his wife, being tired of her. Since +that incident Rudolph had become a Christian, but, as his crime was +still unpunished, by Moravian rule he could not be admitted to their +communion. + +Remorse seemed to have seized him, and his one desire now was that his +crime might be expiated by receiving its punishment at the hand of man. +Naturally his mother was anxious. + +This lack of emotion seems to prevent a due appreciation of the +principle of self-sacrifice. Thus, one day, while a heavy storm +was raging, some of those ashore noticed a party in great distress, +endeavouring to reach the mainland in one of their smaller boats. A +heavy surf was rolling in, and it would no doubt have been risky to go +out. So the idea of a rescue seems never to have suggested itself. The +people were drowned, and in telling the story themselves afterwards, +they said, shrugging their shoulders, “Kujana,” meaning, “It must +be,” or “I don’t care for it”—a solution which to them is perfectly +satisfactory. + +Yet they do at times brave deeds. Once last winter Michael and Simeon +(they never have two names) in crossing from an island in their kayaks, +were overtaken by a kind of blizzard. Simeon became unconscious and +capsized. Michael, though himself almost _in extremis_, and having only +his tiny kayak to fight the storm in, managed to get his friend out of +the boat—into which they are usually laced—to put him on the back +of his own canoe, and to carry him safely to land. Needless to say no +Albert medal rewarded his brave deed. Unfortunately, the art of using +the kayak is rapidly becoming lost, largely because the foolish Eskimo +part with the seal-skins, necessary to cover their boats, in exchange +for cheap and useless European goods. At one time, with their skin +kossack or coat, laced over the opening, and fast round their wrists +and face, they could upset with impunity, for with a couple of deft +strokes with their paddles they were soon right way up again. Indeed, +in heavy seas they would purposely upset, and so get the force of the +broken water on the bottom or side of their boat, righting themselves +immediately the danger had passed. In sport one kayak would “leap-frog” +over another; or turning over on one side the “kayak man” would right +himself on the other in their merry dexterity. Alas! that so marvellous +an adaptation to the necessities of their lives should ever be +relegated to a forgotten past. Broken water does them no more harm than +it would to a swimming seagull, so exquisite is their buoyancy. + +Generosity and vanity form a queer combination in many of them. On +one occasion, a family, which had long been struggling for the mere +necessaries of daily life, were fortunate enough to catch in their +large stone trap a black fox. With tears of joy the father took the +skin to the store. God had heard his prayers. He was credited with £9 +worth of goods. When he got home, however, the well-filled cupboard +so filled his heart with vanity that he issued an invitation to all +his acquaintances “to come and eat and stay with him.” In two days the +supplies ran out, and already again the wolf of hunger besieged his +doors. + +In another case a Newfoundland planter had left an Eskimo in charge +of his stores during the winter, giving him for himself a more than +generous winter’s diet. Soon his friends, with their chronic state of +hunger, came to pay him a visit. Without a thought as to consequences, +the visit was prolonged indefinitely, and soon the whole of them +were without provisions. The usual course to adopt next is to drive +on and visit the nearest settlement, till all alike are “commercial +travellers” in the same line of business. No wonder there is an Eskimo +saying, “Do not live near the komatik (or sleigh) track.” + +Loyalty is said to be a marked feature in the Eskimo. They fully +believed at Hopedale that Her Majesty the Queen sits on a rock on the +look-out—as they do—in her anxiety for the arrival of the mission +ship _Harmony_. We were charged with many personal messages by them to +the Queen, expressing their deep sense of gratitude for sending the +_Albert_ out to them. + +When they heard the English were at war in Egypt, they organized an +impromptu regiment, with a captain in a discarded policeman’s coat and +one odd epaulet, with which they proposed to the missionaries they +should proceed to the seat of war. Indeed, they took no denial, and +continued to drill till the opening of the sea turned their attention +once more to cod-fishing. + +I must now close my few remarks about this interesting people. Some of +their habits, which to us are more repellant, I have purposely passed +over—such as their predilection for their meat to be “mikkiak,” or +partly rotten, and their uncleanliness. What we saw of the Eskimo we +liked: their gratitude for kindnesses done; their fortitude under +the knife, or in pain; their merriment and good-nature often under +circumstances most depressing. When talking to a dying Eskimo of +forty-five, who for a fortnight had lain in terrible agony with his +hands blown off, I asked the poor fellow if the pain was unbearable. He +answered simply, “It is nothing to what my Saviour bore in the Garden +for me.” His last words were singing Zinzendorf’s beautiful hymn:— + + “Jesus, day by day, + Guide us on our way.” + +It continues:— + + “Should the path us grieve, + Thee we’ll never leave; + Lord, in days of greatest sadness, + Let us bear our cross with gladness; + Trials mark the road + Leading home to God. + + All our steps attend, + Guide us to the end; + Should the way be rough and dreary, + With Thy strength support the weary; + When our race is o’er, + Open, Lord, Thy door.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_THE DEEDS OF HEROES_ + + +Some 18,000 people cluster around the shores of Trinity Bay, their +scattered villages and fishing hamlets nestling on its creeks and +coves. It was in February. The Ice King had laid his iron hand even +on the giant ocean, and the floe ice of the frozen sea stretched far +beyond the eye’s horizon. Yet these boldest among England’s sea-loving +sons were adding to their scanty stock of this world’s goods by +venturing far out among the treacherous ice in pursuit of seals. + +The morning of the 27th broke bright and beautiful, enhanced by a +clear space of deep blue water between the shore and the inner edge +of the ice. The eager hunters were early astir, and snatching a hasty +breakfast, were soon off in their little boats, being but lightly clad, +to give their limbs freer play in the various vicissitudes of their +calling. + +From Trinity, Green Bay, Ireland’s Eye, boat glided out after boat, +as the crack of the guns of those first afloat told of a prospect of +success, until over 220 men were out. “’Tis a strange and awful thing +to think, how often mortality stands on the brink of its grave without +any misgiving.” + +Suddenly a dark cloud appeared in the north-east, with incredible +rapidity masses piled themselves together, and then in a moment, +from the heart of the black battalions, the tempest leaped in fury, +struck the now darkened waters, and converted the bay into a seething, +hissing cauldron. The temperature fell forty degrees, and the fierce +cold, with the piercing wind, seemed to freeze the very blood in the +veins. Gust followed gust, each more furious than the last, driving the +angry sea in foam-capped mountains on to the doomed fleet of boats. +Now began a desperate struggle for life, enough to appal the stoutest +hearts. Two alternatives only were possible—first to face the teeth +of the gale and row for their homes on the north shore; or, secondly, +run before it, and endeavour to clamber over the ice to the southern +side of the bay. Six boats tried the former. The spray, freezing as +it fell, drenched the men to their skin, covering both boats and men +with casings of solid ice. Slowly and painfully, in terrible danger +each moment of being swamped, they lessened the distance between +themselves and the shore. Suddenly a cry of despair arose from one of +the boats—the oars had snapped, and the boat was drifting to certain +destruction. Without a thought of the peril of the delay, and from the +increased burden they would have to carry, the nearest boat at once +went to their aid, and in that terrible sea took the perishing men on +board. One of the poor fellows, however, was soon dead from cold and +exhaustion. Ice began to form in thick masses on the bow and sides of +the deeply-laden boat, and as each wave struck her she rose more and +more heavily, until all saw the immediate need of lightening the boat. +With sad, mute faces the men looked at each other. The dead man lay at +the bottom of the boat, his white face and unclosed eyes turned towards +the sky. “Come, boys,” said the oldest man, “it can’t be helped; Isaac +must go overboard or we shall all be drowned.” Rapidly they raised the +body, now draped in its icy shroud. “In the name of God we commit this +body to the deep in sure, and certain hope of resurrection. Amen.” A +dull plash and the reverent funeral service was over. The boat seemed +now to float more buoyantly; but after another hour’s struggle for +life, the brother of him whose remains had already been given to the +sea, breathed his last. No doubt the horror of the scene had hastened +his end. The sad ceremonial had to be repeated at once, for the ice was +fast gaining and sinking the boat. + +Benumbed and exhausted in this death battle, all hope was nearly over +when from the foremost boat a cry was raised which put fresh courage +in their hearts—Land, ho! It was the well known “Horse Chop” rocks. +Another desperate effort, and at last their keels touched the strand. +But, alas! for the poor fellows even then. Some, unable even to leave +the boats till helped by their companions, staggered feebly ashore, +and tried to crawl up the steep gulch from their landing place; but +strength failed them, and four more died after landing. It was a sad +ending to so brave a fight. + +Deeds worthy of the highest praise were enacted in that gulch that +day, the stronger helping the weaker, and endeavouring to restore and +encourage those who were abandoning themselves to death. One tells +how “I saw Robert Bannister manage to crawl partly up the cliff on +his hands and knees. At last he just stopped, said, ‘God bless us,’ +and died where he was. His son was lying dead near him.” The nearest +house was two miles away, but three men had now spied them. Hastily +making a fire of brushwood, they helped the still living up the cliff, +and putting some of their own garments on them, nursed some back to +life—but here two more poor fellows perished, while their rescuers +carried or helped them over that long two miles. Not one but suffered +terribly from frost-bite, especially one poor fellow who had given his +mittens to a lad without any. + +There were still twenty-four boats missing. What of them? Ice-covered, +frost-bitten, and exhausted, some had reached harbours in the great +bay, situated not so directly in the teeth of the storm; but of those +who made for Bonaventure, Deer Harbour, Thoroughfare, and Ireland’s +Eye, only one had died in the boat. But now deeds of even greater +heroism were called for and performed. The men from Ireland’s Eye +found that far out in the storm were men from English Harbour and +Salmon Cove, who could not possibly reach home, and who might be +sheltering on some off-lying uninhabited island, certain to perish +during the night unless help were forthcoming. Food was partaken of, +a brief rest snatched, God’s protecting care besought, and once more +these heroes of the sea went out silently into that raging storm, from +which they had but just escaped with their lives. “Inasmuch as ye did +unto the least of these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me.” Two boats +were manned, and after fruitless search one returned safely, but empty +handed, to the shelter of the harbour. The other, through the darkness +of the falling night, saw at length a small light on a desolate spot +near Thoroughfare. Fierce joy burnt in those noble hearts, as they +strained every sinew to drive their stubborn craft through the now +almost forgotten dangers. Alas, a sorrowful sight awaited them. There +in their boat on the beach, amidst the roar of the storm, and the +thunder of the surf, lay two poor fellows silent in death—swathed +in their winding sheet of ice, and fast frozen to their boat. By the +fire were three fishermen, half dead themselves, trying to rekindle +the spark of life in two of their fast dying comrades. All were taken +back by the rescue party, and the living nursed back to life at the +nearest cottage. It was enough to move the most cynical to tears—wives +and mothers wildly wringing their hands in agony of heart; and those +strong men, with nerves of iron, wept like children. + +The storm raged all Saturday night, and from many a little home the men +were still missing. During the long hours hope and despair alternated +in many anxious hearts, for all knew they had drifted across the bay, +and none knew what their fate might be. + +At noon on Sunday a woman, at Heart’s Content, on the southern +side, happened to notice, far out in the bay, a small boat drifting +helplessly about. But for this all must have perished. Rescue parties +were at once formed, and soon five boats, with seventeen men, some in +the last stage of exhaustion from the exposure of that awful night, +were brought ashore. These men had spent the night on the ice; they +had broken up and burnt two boats, which, with the fat of two seals +they had killed, had kept off the worst of the cold, while some of the +fresh meat, roasted in the flames, had helped to assuage the pangs +of hunger and maintain the bodily heat. All these were more or less +severely frost-bitten, but, with the loss of fingers, toes, or heels, +all recovered. Later in the day the rest of the boats were seen, and +twenty-seven more men rescued. One of these men, Patrick Hanlan, thus +described his experiences:— + +“The spray was continually going over us, and freezing, and we soon +saw it was impossible to reach land on the north side of the bay +without running the risk of freezing to death. After a time we gave +her a little sheet, and ran her for a pan of ice. Got out on the pan +and made a fire to get something to eat and drink. Just as we were +doing this, a sea broke over the pan, and washed everything off except +ourselves. We had to jump in our boat and run her before the gale +until about four in the afternoon. Just before dusk we caught up four +other boats with twelve men in them. We all hauled up our boats on a +large pan of ice, turned up the largest boats to make a shelter from +the wind, and made a fire. I had two seals in my boat, and we pelted +(_i.e._ skinned) them to burn the fat, breaking up one of the smaller +boats, also, to use as fuel. We were on the ice drifting up the bay +all night. It was bitterly cold, in spite of the big fire, and we had +to keep dancing and jumping to keep up our spirits, and to keep from +freezing. At dawn we were about five miles from Heart’s Delight. We +hauled our boats over some ice, and then rowed for land, which we +reached at nine o’clock. The people treated us with wonderful kindness, +doing all in their power to relieve us. Under Providence they saved our +lives, and we shall never forget their kindness.”[18] + +[Footnote 18: For the above account of this Trinity Bay disaster I am +indebted to the Rev. Dr. Moses Harvey, LL.D., F.R.C.S., one of the +truest friends the fishermen ever had.—W. T. G.] + +Enough has been said to show the stuff these men are made of, and there +is not space here to multiply stories that point to the same traits +of character, and that show the same self-sacrificing courage. Yet +with such the history of these perilous fisheries abounds. With which +statement of fact, gentle reader, I shall say adieu, thanking God if in +any way I may still be of service to these toilers of the sea. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_WE APPEAL FOR CANADIAN SYMPATHY_ + + +[Illustration: A Missionary in Winter Dress.] + +In November, 1893, Dr. Bobardt and myself visited Canada, with the +hope of getting help for our work, seeing that some Canadians would +at least benefit by it. In Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto we +found friendly audiences. St. Paul’s Church (Episcopal), the Brunswick +Street Methodist Church, and the Garison Chapel, all of Halifax, each +paid for the support of one cot for a year, promising to endeavour to +do so annually; while a small committee was organized in each place +to keep alive an interest in the work, and to help by sending clothes +and reading to St. Johns, Newfoundland, for us to carry to Labrador. +Governor Daly, General Montgomery Moore, and Bishop Courtney, of Nova +Scotia, were good enough to assist us in Halifax; while everywhere +the members of that admirable institution, “The Brotherhood of St. +Andrew,” extended their generous friendship to us. In Montreal, Sir +Donald Smith, Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, who himself had spent +thirteen years in charge of one of the Company’s stations, presented +a steamer to the Montreal Committee, to enable the work to be more +efficiently carried out. Dr. Roddick, of Montreal, also presented the +Mission with a sailing boat for Battle Harbour, called the _Urelia +McKinnon_. His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Aberdeen, was +good enough to preside at the meeting at Ottawa, and express his +sympathy with the work. Indeed, for real interest and sympathy in every +philanthropic work, and it is grand to know in every distinctively +missionary work also, Canada is fortunate in possessing in both Lord +and Lady Aberdeen examples of a kind alas far too rare in these +so-called Christian days. A meeting was also held in Winnipeg, whither +we went on a holiday trip, and here the Lieut.-Governor, Sir John +Schultze, presided, and, with Lady Schultze, expressed great interest +in the work. Samuel Blake, Esq., Q.C., so well known in Canada for his +broad-minded Christian sympathies, was our chairman at Toronto. Our +days at Toronto possessed for me an interest never experienced before. +We fell on a great Missionary Convention, and from Mr. Warzawiak, of +New York, Dr. MacKay, of Formosa, Dr. Gordon, of Boston, Dr. Pierson, +of Philadelphia, and many other remarkable men, we heard of such +difficulties overcome, obstacles removed, and successes attained by the +Gospel in other fields in the missionary world, that it made one desire +to be at work in China, Africa, and North America all at once. + +Reaching England in March, while preparations were being made for 1894, +I was enabled to visit the North Sea fleets. The English fishermen +expressed a most lively interest in their brethren over the sea, and +the warm-hearted admiral of the Red Cross fleet sent me a large flag, +that they might be “represented in Labrador.” + +Dr. Curwen having gone to China for the London Missionary Society, and +Dr. Bobardt desiring to remain at home a year, our staff, consisting +of Dr. Willway, Dr. Bennett, and the two sisters, sailed direct for +Labrador in the _Albert_, while a volunteer Christian worker, who came +and acted as chief engineer (Mr. W. B. Wakefield), and myself, left for +Montreal, fitting out and despatching the S.S. _Princess May_, as we +passed through St. Johns, Newfoundland. + +The _Albert_ had a long passage out, and meeting the outside of the +floe ice, had a tough three days working her way through; now charging +into large pans, now laying against masses piled up higher than her +masts. Captain Trezise reported her as at one time in great danger of +being overwhelmed by masses falling on to her decks. She, however, +got through safely, and her magnificent sea qualities and rapid +movements were more than ever before apparent to those in charge of her. + +[Illustration: Eskimo Brass Band at Moravian Mission Station of +Hopedale.] + +Having landed Dr. Bennett and Sister Carwardine at Battle Hospital, +she proceeded to Indian Harbour, where the hospital was rapidly placed +in working order. Here the little wood building almost came to an +inglorious and premature end by fire the first week of its existence; +and we were indebted to the strenuous efforts of a number of fishermen +for saving it from destruction, and to Commodore Curzon-Howe, of H.M.S. +_Cleopatra_, for landing a body of blue jackets to repair the damage, +enabling the work to proceed. The _Albert_ then returned and lay in +Battle Harbour, to await the arrival of our steamer, the _Sir Donald_. +Meanwhile, we had visited many stations from Montreal along the +Labrador coast on the north side the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Everywhere +we had had plenty of work to do: seeing sick people, operating +where necessary, holding services, and distributing literature. We +_everywhere_ found people deeply grateful for our visit, and glad to +gather to hear the Gospel. Many spoke eagerly of the hopes raised that +a third hospital would be erected in the Labrador or lower province of +Quebec, to which the sick could be carried, and were anxious to forward +a petition to Ottawa to that effect. We were everywhere entreated not +to allow this to be our last visit. At La Romaine, a station of the +Hudson Bay Company, we had a severe operation on a young Montaignais +Indian hunter—otherwise doomed to die—and when we left three days +later he was lying in his tent, on a clean bed of spruce boughs, on the +high-road to recovery. At the last places we visited, we took patients +aboard for Battle Hospital—one poor lad with a horrible affection of +the hip, a girl with a useless wrist and arm, a child with hip-joint +disease, and a sick woman for operation. All of these eventually +returned home benefited or cured. + +Just before reaching Battle Harbour, with all our flags flying, our +brass polished, and our spirits wild with expectancy of seeing our +colleagues again, we suddenly struck a submerged rock, and for a few +minutes lay in danger of rolling over and sinking in deep water. All +hands behaved exceedingly well. Our boats were lowered, signals put +up for two schooners which happened to be passing, to “stand by,” +while kedge anchors were run out, in the endeavour to save the ship +by warping her off the rocks. After a time, assisted by a heavy tide +and the big ground swell, she came off and swung to her anchors in +the deep water. Alas, for us, she had almost better have remained a +complete wreck, for her keel and stem were broken, her rudder twisted, +her propeller gone, her engines broken, and her side bulged in. +Fortunately, we were able to travel over land to Battle Harbour; and +Mr. Baine Grieve’s agent sent thence his bait launch and towed the +_Sir Donald_ into harbour. Here we found the _Albert_, very anxious +about our long delayed arrival, but now overjoyed to see us in any +plight. As nothing could be done to repair the steamer in Labrador, +Captain Trezise undertook the exceedingly risky attempt to tow the _Sir +Donald_ to St. Johns, and this, after many exciting incidents and many +close shaves of losing her, he successfully accomplished. There she now +lies, undergoing repairs for another year’s work. + +Meanwhile, I left with the _Urelia McKinnon_ for Indian Harbour +Hospital, and thence visited the Hudson Bay station at Rigolette, and +many other places between Indian Harbour and Battle. + +Dr. Bennett was anxious to leave early for England, as he was appointed +by the London Missionary Society to Tien-Tsin Missionary Hospital in +China; and so, till winter drove the Newfoundland people off the coast, +Battle Hospital came under my charge. On November 1st the sisters and +myself left for Newfoundland, Dr. Willway remaining to hold the fort +alone till we could return in 1895. His arrangements were to visit, if +possible, as far as Blanc Sablon, and then returning to his hospital to +meet our good friend Mr. Wilson, of Rigolette, at Cartwright, to travel +with him north to Hopedale and Davis Inlet, and then to await at Battle +Hospital our return. + +Thus, God willing, much good will be done, many sick and suffering +ones relieved, many cheered and assisted in their struggle for +existence, and, above all, the Gospel proclaimed in many homes where, +but for the “Labrador Mission,” its sound would never reach during the +long and weary winter months.[19] + +[Footnote 19: Dr. Willway left for the North on January 9th, the sea +being then firmly frozen over.] + + + + +APPENDICES + + +APPENDIX A + +_SOME MEDICAL STATISTICS._ + + +There were treated from the _Albert_ in 1892 nine hundred patients, of +which one-third might be called serious cases. An epidemic of influenza +visited the coast, and this led to many cases of lung affections. +Affections of the eyes were also common, while minor surgical cases +were in great abundance. Seven operations were performed under +anæsthetics. + +In 1893 there were treated:— + +In Labrador, the Straits of Belle Isle, and on the French shore of +Newfoundland there were treated by— + + In-Patients. Out-Patients. + + Dr. Bobardt at Battle Hospital 33 647 + Dr. Curwen on the Hospital ship _Albert_ 3 1,052 + Dr. Grenfell on the steam launch _Princess May_ 1 794 + —— ————— + That is a total of 37 2,493 + + +These cases, for the council’s better information and that of the +public, I analysed as follows. [Our case books are preserved in London +for reference.] + + +_Medical Cases._ + + Diseases of— + Digestive system 633 + Respiratory and circulatory system 194 + Nervous system 60 + Excretory system 40 + Women 64 + Diseases of special organs— + Eye (including 34 cases of night blindness) 211 + Ear 40 + Nose and throat 93 + Skin 105 + Minor cases—Headaches, colds, strains 167 + Cases of rheumatism 64 + + +_Surgical Cases._ + + Affections of the upper limbs 306 + Affections of the lower limbs 94 + General surgical cases—Glands, bones, special + agues, rickets, tumour, fistula, etc. 188 + Sundry minor cases 210 + ———— + Total 2,493 + + Operations performed under chloroform 17 + Major operations without chloroform 11 + Minor surgical operations, including teeth 269 + +There were in Battle Harbour Hospital the following named cots or beds: +viz., Exeter, Brighton, Redhill, Hutchinson, Macpherson; also the John +Fountain Elvin and John Charles Harris memorial cots. + +In the male ward were first the “Brighton cot.” This was occupied by a +poor Newfoundland fisherman whom I brought 80 miles in the _Princess +May_. He had consumption, and died after about two months in hospital. +His body alone reached his relatives in Newfoundland. + +The second bed was the “Harris Cot.” There were three patients in this +bed this season. The first was suffering with pleurisy; the second had +to have his middle finger amputated, after a deep abscess of the hand; +the third also had a severely poisoned hand. + +The third, the “Redhill Cot,” was occupied by a fisherman with +paralysis of the right arm and leg, and then by a poor fellow with +consumption. + +The fourth, the “Hutchinson Cot,” was occupied by, first, a man with +a severely crushed hand; then by a poor fellow from far north, sent +back by the _Albert_ (he was suffering from ulcer of the stomach); and, +thirdly, by a French Canadian who was brought in a sealing steamer from +Canadian Labrador, with a deep abscess of the back. + +The fifth, the “Exeter Cot,” was occupied, first, by a fisherman with +rheumatic fever and heart disease; second, by a man with excessive deep +inflammation of the arm and forearm; third, by a man with abscess in +the palm of his hand; fourth, by a young American with an affection +resulting from consumption in the system; fifth, by a very similar case +with a Newfoundlander. + +The sixth, the “Macpherson Cot,” was in the female ward. First of all +it was occupied by a young girl who had to undergo a serious operation; +then by a woman who had come fifty miles down the Straits of Belle +Isle with an internal disease; then by a poor girl brought south in the +mail steamer from the cabin of one of the small fishing vessels. She +died in hospital. The poor thing was engaged to be married this summer. +Had she been able to come earlier for proper assistance there can be +no doubt her life would have been saved. The fourth patient in this +bed was a girl of eighteen. She had been suffering with an internal +abscess for nearly three years when I saw her first in Sandwich Bay +in the _Princess May_. After the operation we sent her by the mail to +Battle Hospital. Here she remained some weeks, and on returning south +in the _Princess May_, and again visiting Sandwich Bay, I found the +girl returned, a new creature altogether. “I should like to have stayed +always,” she told me. + + W. T. G. + + + _The following are a few figures from my report rendered to the St. + Johns Auxiliary Branch of the M.D.S.F._:— + +In 1894, owing to the loss of the S.S. _Sir Donald_, and the fact +of the _Princess May_ being unable to reach the coast, the work of +the mission was much curtailed. Yet out of 1,306 patients treated a +much larger proportion were serious cases, and more patients availed +themselves of the hospitals. This number will no doubt increase. + +There were treated this year by— + + In-Patients. Out-Patients. + Dr. Bennett at Battle Hospital 27 444 + Dr. Willway at Indian Harbour 20 580 + Dr. Grenfell on the _Sir Donald_ and + _Urelia McKinnon_ 4 231 + —— ————— + Total 51 1,255 + +These were— + _Medical Cases._ + + Diseases of— + Digestive system 226 + Respiratory system 130 + Nervous system 55 + Excretory system 45 + Women 33 + Minor cases—Colds, headaches 73 + + _Surgical Cases._ + Diseases of— + + Affections of the upper limbs 73 + Affections of the lower limbs 64 + General surgical affections, including + glands, bones, fistula, etc. 140 + Minor surgery cases 114 + Diseases of special organs— + Eye 90 + Ear 27 + Nose and throat 48 + Skin 74 + Affection 64 + Operations performed under anæsthetics 25 + Minor operations, including teeth 119 + In-patients 51 + ————— + Grand total 1,306 + + +APPENDIX B + +_SPIRITUAL AGENCIES IN LABRADOR_, + +SINCE JULY, 1892, AT WHICH TIME WE ARRIVED ON THE COAST. + + +There is a Wesleyan missionary fifty miles west of Battle, at Red Bay. +To visit all round his circuit and return must involve 250 to 300 +miles’ travelling. It must be remembered all this visiting is done in +a small open boat in summer, at great risk in so dangerous a place as +the Straits of Belle Isle; and in winter over the ice with a komatik +and team of dogs. The Rev. J. Sidey was there three years, and is now +replaced by Rev. J. Antle.[20] + +[Footnote 20: These Wesleyan missionaries are supported by the +Methodist Church of Canada.] + +At Battle Harbour, as is well known to our readers, there is a wooden +church, but it has been in charge of a young teacher and lay reader +since we have been on the coast. + +At Cartwright, thirty miles up Sandwich Bay, is another wooden church +and schoolroom combined. Here also is a lay reader and schoolmaster. +This would be about 150 miles up the coast from Battle Harbour. The +sphere of work does not, I think, extend at all outside Sandwich Bay. + +Fifty miles above Indian Harbour, up Hamilton Inlet, is a young +Wesleyan minister. He has a small school and chapel on the south side +of the inlet. We had the pleasure of taking him in the _Princess May_ +to his new sphere of work. His name is the Rev. G. Hollett, and his +sphere of work is Hamilton Inlet, I think as far in as the North West +river, that is eighty miles further, or 130 from Indian Harbour. + +From Indian Harbour to Hopedale the settlers number from 260 to 300, +and are very poor and very scattered. The distance by sea is 150 miles, +and again consists of a series of long bays and off-lying islands. +There is no missionary or schoolmaster anywhere along this part of +the coast, though once in the winter one of the Moravians travels over +the ice as far south as Cape Harrison with his komatik and dogs, often +at great peril to his life. Northward of Cape Harrison are only a few +scattered European settlers, mixed among not less than 2,000 Eskimos. +These are mostly members of the Moravian Church. The Moravian stations +are from 50 to 100 miles apart. + +To meet the spiritual needs of all these people, scattered as they are, +and of the 25,000 who visit the coast in summer—some 10,000 living +on their vessels all the year—we only heard of one clergyman of the +Church of England and one Wesleyan minister, with one Roman Catholic +priest, visiting during part of the summer. This year, 1893, we did +not hear of any peripatetic Wesleyan minister, and the only clergyman +was rather in pursuit of health; but we met in the Straits of Belle +Isle Bishop MacDonnel and the Rev. Father Lynch, of the Roman Catholic +Church. I must mention also that the Bible Society send a colporteur +every year to sell Bibles and testaments on the coast, though we did +not fall in with him this year, nor do I know how much of the coast he +travels over. Last year a tiny schooner, manned by three Salvation Army +captains, also visited the coast, partly fishing and partly preaching +the gospel. Among the fishermen themselves we met many earnest and +pious Christians, and as on the North Sea, so on this bleak coast we +have felt God’s presence quite as real and as near in the meetings on +board or in the huts as we have in great buildings and comfortable pews +in the old country. + +Among past workers in Labrador I hear of the Rev. J. G. Curling, Rev. +Mr. Hutchinson, and Rev. Mr. Quintain. The last two spent many years in +Labrador, while the Rev. J. Bull spent three years at Battle Harbour. +The Right Rev. Llewellyn Jones, Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, +has also visited the coast, as did Bishop Field, his predecessor. The +Rev. Father Lemoine, labouring among the Montaignais Indians of the +interior, also sometimes comes out on the coast during the summer.[21] + +[Footnote 21: Bishop Jones sent three visiting clergymen to Labrador +this summer 1894.] + + +APPENDIX C + +_A FEW TESTIMONIES TO THE WORK FROM THOSE WHO KNOW LABRADOR_ + + + _From the_ REV. F. S. HOLLETT, _Missionary of the + Canadian Methodist Church at Rigolette_:— + + HAMILTON INLET, + LABRADOR. + + DEAR DR. GRENFELL,— + +... Any way that we can help you, we will be glad to do it. As you know +I can sympathise with you in the difficulties you meet with. D.V., we +hope to have a visit from you next year. May God bless you in your +noble work, and you will always remember, + + I am + Your sincere brother in Christ, + FRANK S. HOLLETT. + + * * * * * + +_From_ DR. ROBERT MURRAY, _Editor of the “Presbyterian Witness”_:— + + HALIFAX, + _December, 1894_. + + DEAR DR. GRENFELL,— + + ... From our Presbyterian teacher from Canadian Labrador we had most + favourable reports of your work. I examined him personally on his + return, as to what he had seen and heard. + + While he had not seen the hospitals and the doctors, he had heard most + appreciative reports from fishermen ... + + Yours very truly, + ROBERT MURRAY. + + * * * * * + +_October 27, 1892._ A representative meeting of the colony of +Newfoundland was held at Government House, St. Johns. There were +present, amongst others, His Excellency the Governor, Sir Frederick +Carter (Judge of Supreme Court), Sir William Whiteway (Premier), +Major-General Dowell, R.A., Sir Robert Thorburn (late Premier), Hon. E. +D. Shea, Hon. Robert Bond (Colonial Secretary), Hon. A. Goodridge (late +Premier), Hon. A. W. Harvey, Hon. M. Munroe, and Messrs. W. Grieve, P. +Tessier, E. Duder, W. Job, E. Outerbridge, representing the merchant +firms, Captains the Hon. S. Blandford, W. Bartlett, N. Fitzgerald, J. +Watson, representing the Labrador planters, and Messrs. Ch. Emerson, +J. Withers,—Cohen, etc. After a discussion, in which several present +took part, it was proposed by Hon. W. A. Harvey, seconded by Sir Wm. +Whiteway, and when put by His Excellency the Governor unanimously +resolved:— + +_Resolved._—“That this meeting, representing the principal merchants +and traders carrying on the fisheries, especially on the coast of +Labrador, and others interested in the welfare of this colony, desires +to tender its warmest thanks to the directors of the Deep Sea Mission +for their philanthropic generosity in sending their hospital ship +_Albert_ to visit the fishing settlements on the Labrador coast. + +“Much of our fishing industry is carried on in regions beyond the +ordinary reach of medical aid or of charity, and it is with the +deepest sense of gratitude that this meeting learns of the amount of +medical and surgical work done, besides all the other relief and help +so liberally distributed. This meeting also desires to express the +hope that the directors of the Mission may see their way to continue +the work thus begun, and should they do so they may be assured of the +earnest support and co-operation of all classes of this community.” + + * * * * * + +Subsequent to this great meeting the following resolution was passed +and forwarded to the Mission:— + + “That this representative committee will undertake to provide two + suitable buildings, which may be used as hospitals by the Mission to + Deep Sea Fishermen, should the Council of the Mission signify their + intention to continue their operations on the coast of Labrador, and + the Committee will heartily co-operate in any other way that the + Council of the Society may suggest. + + “That a copy of the foregoing resolution be forwarded for the + information of the society. + + (Signed) {T. O’BRIEN, Governor, _Chairman_. + {M. MUNROE, _Secretary_.” + + MONTREAL, _December, 1893_. + +A. BOBARDT, Esq., M.B., R.N., writing, says:— + + * * * * * + +Often in Labrador have I been urged on to further work by noting how +much a Mission visit is appreciated, and how the people do enjoy a +meeting; and it seems a thousand pities that they cannot be brought +under regular spiritual influences. + + * * * * * + +The small portable organ I had was most useful, and wherever I went it +was my _Fidus Achates_, tending to infuse more life into my meetings. +I found the people joined heartily in the hymns. Most of this visiting +was done by boat, and it was in this work that one recognised fully the +benefits of being able to handle an oar, and pull oneself wherever one +wished to go. + + * * * * * + +In the hospital I had thirty-three in-patients, and in the nursing of +these I must pay tribute to Nurse Carwardine, who, by her unremitting +zeal and attention, made many of these poor fishermen know for the +first time what it was to be in a comfortable warm bed, and be +skilfully attended to. + + * * * * * + +The comparison between them in hospital and in their own homes or +smacks is too extreme to be drawn, and they were very grateful for what +had been done for them. + +One case for example:—A gunshot wound of the hand came to hospital, +and, though his hand was severely lacerated, he was able to return to +his home with a useful limb, after being five weeks in. If this case +had been left to itself, the young man must have either lost his arm, +or had a stiff and useless hand; and the latter is in the way of a +fisherman, who necessarily uses his hands so much in handling nets, +lines, ropes, oars, etc. + + * * * * * + +Many at Battle and the surrounding coves are now thanking God for +His goodness in inspiring friends in England and elsewhere to send +clothing for them this fall; the look of delight when they received +their bundles was a treat to witness. On Tuesday, October 31st, we left +Battle Harbour, amidst the salutes from many “Brown Sallys” (guns). +We carried with us the pleasantest recollections, and the hope that +the work would grow and increase, bringing health, happiness, and much +comfort to these Labradorites. + + Sincerely yours, + ALBERT BOBARDT. + + * * * * * + +_From_ Rev. JNO. SIDEY, _now three years Wesleyan Missionary at Red +Bay_. + + _November, 1892._ + + At the present time I believe there are but two ministers of the + Gospel between Hopedale, the Moravian settlement, and Blanc Sablon, + in the Straits of Belle Isle, a distance of over four hundred miles. + Around the coast line numerous settlements are scattered along the + route, and here in the best harbours are congregated during the + summer season thousands of fishermen from Newfoundland, Canada, and + the United States. They may, perhaps, the greater part of them, be + attendants at the various churches when at home; but out here, removed + from all religious influences, what wonder that they become dissipated + and lost in the spiritual darkness that abounds on the coast. The + Mission ship has visited these harbours, held services, and, if one + may take as a criterion the work done here, and the interest aroused, + a very favourable aspect is presented as to the spiritual portion of + the work. + + But another and equally important phase of the work of the Mission + on these shores calls for the earnest sympathy and encouragement of + all who have interest in this noble enterprise—THE MEDICAL WORK. A + doctor is provided by the Government for this shore, during the summer + months, but as he is stationed on board the mail-boat, which only + calls just to land the mails and freight at comparatively a few of + the above-mentioned ports, his services are practically _nil_ to the + greater portion of the community. Yet the record of sick and disabled + fishermen is very large. Many have, year by year, to be sent home + in the mail-boats at the expense of the Government, losing also a + summer’s fishery, which in many cases might be avoided by a few days’ + careful attention on board such a ship as the _Albert_. In such cases + it is not only the men themselves that suffer, but their families are + often starving throughout the long cold winters that follow. It may + be a bold suggestion, but perhaps worthy of a little consideration + (in view of the many harbours and extent of the coast), that were the + Society to substitute a small steam vessel for the _Albert_, much + more effective work could be accomplished, as then during the course + of the summer, at least, three trips instead of one might be made + along the whole shore; disabled fishermen could be accommodated on + board for a trip and carried back again without impeding the work of + the Mission; a representation might also be made to the Newfoundland + Government—who, according to repute, are at great expense to keep up + the useless custom of sending a doctor in the mail-boat, and carrying + home sick men—to do away with their arrangement, and grant a subsidy + towards the maintenance of a steam vessel, which could do the same + work far more effectually and, I doubt not, at less expense to them. + + One word more in favour of the support of the Mission on this coast. + The system of trade, which is largely a credit and barter system, + deprives the men of the use of cash, even what they have really + earned; and until settling-up day in the fall, few feel themselves at + liberty to draw upon their little portion for the necessary comforts + of their toil; hence the distribution of the woollens, cuffs, etc., + comes as a great boon to many a poor fisherman whose hands are cut + by the lines, or whose clothing, scant at all times, has become + deplorable by the wear and tear of a seafaring life. The writer has + seen much of this, and well knows how such gifts would be valued. + + I trust that, as one who has lived and worked upon the coast, and + who knows by actual experience something of the need of the Labrador + shore, that I have said enough to evoke the sympathy of all who are + willing to give one thought to the toilers of the deep, to bestow + upon your noble Society the means for extending their work in this + direction. We are far away, but it should be remembered that a large + quantity of fish is exported to England from Newfoundland; besides, we + claim kindred, we are, for the most part, of the old British stock, + and, above all, we are children of the same Heavenly Father who cares + for all alike. + + May the Almighty bless the work already done, and touch the hearts of + His children, so that the means may not be wanting when men are ready + to sacrifice their all to undertake this noble task. + + Yours faithfully, + JNO. C. SIDEY. + + * * * * * + +Far away in that ice-bound, snow-clad country, there are men and women +struggling with poverty, hunger, and disease. Could our kind friends +at home, while sitting around their warm firesides with their dear +children, supplied with every want and comfort, take a peep into the +many miserable hovels, where men, women, and children are ill-fed, +poorly-clad (in some cases nearly naked), suffering from sickness; and +with no prospect of roughing the winter out, as all traders are gone, +their only resource is to apply to the nearest fishing station, perhaps +many miles away, for charity, which, I am thankful to say, is very +rarely refused to them—could our kind friends but get a peep at them, +I feel sure that they would be only too glad to do a little to relieve +their wants. There are many residents scattered far and wide, some in +fairly good circumstances, and there is, without doubt, an immense +field of labour, both spiritually and medically, and I trust that many +friends may be found to assist in this branch.... + +Hoping that I have been successful in showing you that there is, +indeed, a cry from Labrador: “Come over and help us.” + + JOSEPH F. TREZISE (late Master of _Albert_). + +_December 8, 1892._ + + * * * * * + + DEAR DR. GRENFELL,— + + The laudable work in which you are engaged has my warmest sympathy, + and I trust that your endeavour in so good a cause will meet with the + success it deserves. + + I visited the Labrador coast many years ago, as far north as Cape + Harrison, and I then saw the many hardships endured by the hardy + fishermen and their families. Yours is a most deserving charity. + + Trusting that you will have a large audience when you lecture in the + city, + + Believe me, + Yours very truly, + ROBERT PATON MCLEA, + Montreal, Canada. + + * * * * * + + MORAVIAN MISSIONS, SECRETARY’S OFFICE, 7, FURNIVAL’S INN, LONDON, E.C. + + _Nov. 3rd._ + + _To_ F. H. WOOD, Esq., _Secretary Deep Sea Mission_. + + DEAR SIR,— + + I am commissioned by the Committee of our Society for the Furtherance + of the Gospel to convey to your Mission our thanks, and those of our + missionaries at Hopedale, for the visit of the _Albert_. They write + very gratefully of the medical aid, and especially of the spiritual + fellowship and impulse afforded them, and they expressed the hope that + the visit may be repeated. They say there is no lack of work, and the + Divine blessing will crown such faithful endeavours to minister to + the scattered schoonermen and others along the coast.... We beg our + Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel to express hearty thanks in + our name, and that of the Eskimos.... + + Yours faithfully, + B. LA TROBE, + _Secretary_. + + * * * * * + +_From_ Rev. MOSES HARVEY, LL.D., F.R.S., _St. Johns_, + + _July, 1893._ + + The great need of hospital work on Labrador is seen when it is + considered how many cases occur of blindness, deformities, or loss + of certain faculties, affecting the bread-winners of families, most + of which might have been prevented if treated in time, and thus much + personal suffering spared, and also a great loss to the community. + During the season the medical men were able to render such aid that + several who had been compelled to give up work found themselves + capable of resuming their duties. When sick persons are thus saved + from losing their season’s work, or saved the time and expense + involved in returning to Newfoundland for advice, in cases of minor + importance; or when, as happened in several instances during the + season, the lives or limbs were saved, or, in some hopeless cases, + life was prolonged so as to allow them to reach home and end their + days in the bosom of their families, the value of this hospital work + becomes more apparent. + + To the sick of Labrador these hospitals will be an inestimable boon. + Only those who have known what it is to toss on a bed of pain, perhaps + unable even at night to find rest, their tongue parched with thirst, + and fever raging in their system, can properly appreciate the meaning + of the skilful help of the physician, the delicate attention of the + trained nurse, the hushed house, the subdued voices and the gentle + light of the half-darkened room. When this is contrasted with the sad + sight so often witnessed on Labrador, of delicate women, and even + children, undergoing sufferings, which are hard to bear even amid + the comforts and gentle attentions of home, on the dreary coast of + Labrador, far from every helping hand, or in the dark hold of some + small fishing vessel, where the atmosphere is poisonous, and the + noises to the sick distressing and almost maddening, it is then we + realize the value of the noble humane work in the hospitals erected on + storm-beaten Labrador for the relief of suffering humanity. Who would + not aid in such a good work! + + +DISTRIBUTION OF CLOTHING. + +The _Albert_ brought from England a very large stock of clothing, +both new and cast-off, the gift of kind charitable friends. This was +distributed with the greatest care and discrimination, every precaution +being used to guard against imposition. The cases of utter or partial +destitution of clothing among families who reside permanently on +the Labrador coast, were numerous, and much timely aid was given, +especially to women and children. Food was also given in cases of +extreme destitution. Many families were thus helped to provide for the +long, cold winter of this region. There is no doubt that every spring +some families are driven to subsist on mussels and seaweed they can +gather along the land-wash. With ice on the coast no help can reach +them. + + +DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS, PERIODICALS, AND TRACTS. + +A very large supply of wholesome literature was carried on board the +Mission ship, and, wherever she went, was freely distributed among the +fishermen. Wherever it was found in any family that any one could read, +a gift was made either of illustrated or plain literature, or both. + + +RELIGIOUS SERVICES. + +Wherever the _Albert_ or _Princess May_ called, when opportunity +offered, especially on Sundays, religious services were held, which +all were invited to attend. Hymns were sung, prayers offered, and +simple addresses given on Scriptural subjects. These services were much +appreciated among these lonely sea-toilers; and thus something was done +to make known that Gospel which has brought such blessings to mankind, +but without any reference to creed or sect being made. + +The steam launch, _Princess May_, proved to be of great service in +the Mission work. Dr. Grenfell was enabled to go up uncharted bays +in her, so as to visit a large number of the small settlements which +would otherwise not have been within reach. He was thus able to make +a thorough examination into the condition of the residents, and to +collect accurate statistical information regarding them to an extent +never before attempted. In all, he visited eighty-seven different +settlements on the Labrador coast, as far north as Okkak. Dr. Curwen, +in the _Albert_, visited thirty-five more settlements; and Dr. Bobardt +visited all the places in the vicinity of Battle Harbour. + + +APPENDIX D + +_POVERTY OF THE PEOPLE_ + + +To gauge as accurately as possible the condition of the people, we +prepared as full a census of them—of their belongings, their families, +and their accomplishments—as we could. In this, during three years, +I have had the assistance of four medical men besides myself, of the +resident missionaries on the coast, and of the Moravian brethren +further north. + +We find the people, as a rule, very poor, often reduced to the verge +of starvation. The causes we believe to be (1) depletion of fisheries +and fur-bearing animals, and bad seasons. (2) Inability to replenish +traps, guns, nets, boats, etc., when worn out. (3) Inability to secure +proper clothing and supplies of food when once they become overwhelmed +in debt. These causes have led to (4) loss of energy, apathy, and even +despair. + +There are some families still comfortably off, but these are +impoverished by their own generosity, which impels them continually +to assist their poorer brethren. Where they are still well off, it is +generally because they have a number of grown-up unmarried sons, or +are in some harbour well separated from other settlers. This last +fact is more patent as one travels north. The census papers are in my +possession now. I will quote here some bad cases. + + Two families here quite destitute. R—— R—— and L—— R——. There + was neither tea, molasses, nor flour in either house, and their + clothing was literally dropping to pieces, while one boy was barefoot + and the others had boots tied on to their feet by string to keep the + pieces together. If ever hunger wrote its name clearly on people’s + faces it was written on these people’s, the children being pale and + bloodless, the woman haggard and careworn. The mother told me, in most + pathetic way, “Even the berries will be covered deep in snow soon, + and then we have only starvation to look to.” They had _no flour to + face the winter_, and apparently no means of obtaining any. Neither + family had seal nets, salmon nets, or cod nets, or could pay for twine + to braid any, and both men showed me their powder-horns and shot-bags + empty, or nearly so. I found on returning to the launch, the captain + had given his bag of biscuits away to these people. + + W. T. G. + + * * * * * + + A—— P——. Seven children, very poor and ill-clad; very poor supply + of food, miserable hut, no nets. The lay reader[22] found three inches + of snow blow in and remain on the floor of the only room one night + in winter he slept here. He found one counterpane and a pair of man’s + trousers almost all the clothing the children had, including the + eldest, a girl of fourteen. These had to stay indoors, of course, all + winter. + + [Footnote 22: Mr. Dicks, of Cartwright.] + + W. T. G. + + * * * * * + + S—— B——. Seven children. Very poor, very naked, short of food, no + apparatus to kill fish except a few hooks. Miserable one-roomed hut. + + W. T. G. + + * * * * * + + E—— O——. Wife and two undergrown boys; father has consumption. + All very badly clothed; not a single flannel garment among them. No + blankets; bedclothes in rags. One trout net; caught only enough fish + for their consumption. Nine quintals last year, with which cleared + part of his debt, and got one barrel of flour and two pounds of tea + for his “winter diet.” Shot some birds and one seal. Now there is + nothing but three pounds of broken biscuits in the house. + + ELIOT CURWEN. + + +APPENDIX E + +_THE FISHING SCHOONERS_ + + +I have spoken of these in a general way. Here are a few specimens of +notes from our diaries as to numbers of crews and “freighters” carried. + + B——. 34 tons. Crew, 7 men and 2 women. + Passengers, 19 men and 16 women. + + A total of 44 souls. All passengers in one hold—no partitions. 23 + days out from home. + + F——. 19 tons. Crew, 6 men and 1 woman. + Passengers, 28 men and 15 women. + + A total of 50 souls. No name or register on her. + + I——. 50 tons. Crew, 8 men and 2 women. + Passengers, 75 men and 15 women. + + A total of 100 souls. Measured cubic space of one man, his wife, boy, + girl, and two men, 8 ft. by 6 ft. by 3 ft. + + X——. _Brigantine_, 116 tons. 66 men, 24 women. + + Y——. Small schooner-rigged vessel, 5 tons. + 4 men, 1 woman, etc. + +The larger merchants all send their crews down in steamers. This has +the double advantage of securing better accommodation, and immensely +shortening the passage. We are all strongly of the opinion that nothing +can be said in defence of allowing girls to form part of the regular +crews of the green-fish catchers, or of any fishing vessel. It appears +to be necessary that women should go down as passengers; and with +proper provisions there is no reason why they should not do so. + +Here is the result of an accident to such a vessel this year. +Unfortunately I did not ascertain her tonnage. + +On Thursday, the 14th inst., we left Spaniard’s Bay, bound to Horse +Harbour, Labrador, on a fishing voyage, having on board a number of +sixty-two souls, comprising men, women, and children. All went well, +until about eight miles north-east of Partridge Point (White Bay). On +the 17th inst., at 4 p.m., Sunday, while in a dense fog, the vessel +struck a large pan of ice, which crushed her bows in, causing her to +fill and sink in about eight or ten minutes. Five or six men succeeded +in getting on the pan of ice with a line, and secured it as best they +could to the pan. Unfortunately it could not be secured on board, +owing to the dreadful panic which was taking place; so she fell off a +considerable distance from the pan, preventing any one from getting on +the ice. A few boats were then thrown over, but before any one could +be taken on board the boats, the vessel sank, leaving men, women and +children floating among the wreckage in the water. Some of the few +boats filled, and were upset, leaving only two to pick up the men, +women and children, who were then struggling for their lives in the +water. After a very hard fight we managed to save fifty (including who +were in the boats), leaving twelve poor souls to meet a watery grave, +namely, eight men, two boys, and two young women. Some of the women +and children were almost totally naked, having jumped out of bed, and +had not time to even catch their clothes. These would have undoubtedly +died before many hours were over, as they were both wet and naked, had +not the schooner _Irene_, Captain Bursey, of Catalina, arrived at this +opportune moment, and quickly got us on board, and brought us into +Coachman’s Cove. + + I am, respectfully yours, + HENRY GOSSE, + Late Master of Schooner _Rose_. + +SPANIARD’S BAY, _June 28th, 1894_. + + +Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75927 *** |