TUCKER'S 
 
 fOYACf 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 Glass Pn22. 
 
TUCKER'S VOYAGE 
 
FIVE MONTHS 
 
 LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND, 
 
 During the Summer of 18:38. 
 
 By EPHRAIM W. TUCKER. 
 
 CONCORD: 
 
 ISRAEL S. BOYD and WILLIAM WHITE. 
 
 1889. 
 

 Entered according to Act of CongresS; in the year 1839, 
 
 By Ephraim W. Tucker, 
 [n the Clerk's Office of the District of New-Hampshire. 
 
 //y 
 
 6^^M 
 
PREFACE 
 
 When a new publication is offered to the 
 reading community, the inquiry naturally arises, 
 who is the author ? and, what are his motives in 
 writing? Both these inquiries I will endeavor 
 to answer as briefly as possible. 
 
 In the spring of 1834, agreeably to previous 
 impressions of duty, I entered upon a course of 
 study, preparatory to the work of the gospel 
 ministry. Having no friends, whose worldly cir- 
 cumstances enabled them to afford me the 
 means of pursuing an education, I was thrown 
 entirely upon my own resources. In the au- 
 tumn of that year, my parents, who had been re- 
 siding at Ogden, in New-York, attracted by the 
 hopes of better advantages in the west, removed 
 to Toledo, in Ohio, and I was left, at the age of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 sixteen, to pursue my own way in the world, ex- 
 posed to its dangers and temptations. My pur- 
 pose, however, remaining unshaken, I devoted 
 myself assiduously to study, and having become 
 prepared for admission to the Hamilton Institute 
 in New-York, I engaged in a district school du- 
 ring the winter of 1836, in order to provide the 
 means of attending that seminary, in the follow- 
 ing season. Before I had remained one month, 
 however, in this occupation, my health became 
 so precarious, that I had to abandon my school 
 and studies, and was confined to my room dur- 
 ing most of the winter. In the spring of 1835, 
 in the hope of regaining my health, I visited my 
 friends at Toledo : and during the summer so far 
 recovered as to be able to renew my studies. In 
 the autumn, having been approved to preach, I 
 entered upon the calling so dear to my heart ; 
 but in November following, I was again prostra- 
 ted by disease, and confined to my room for the 
 ten months following. 
 
 In the spring of 1838, at the urgent advice of 
 physicians, who considered it as my only remain- 
 ing means of regaining health, I was induced to 
 undertake a voyage at sea. On repairing to Bos- 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 ton, I met with captain S. R., who was to sail 
 in a staunch schooner as early as the 20th of 
 May, and engaged passage with him to the fish- 
 ing grounds of Newfoundland and Labrador. 
 The experiment has proved a successful one, and 
 my health is greatly improved. 
 
 The result of my observations, during five 
 months absence, is given in the following pages. 
 Passing amid scenes entirely new to me, in a cli- 
 mate rigid but healthy, and among a race of 
 men, of whose characters, persons, and pursuits, 
 I had never formed any adequate conception, I 
 determined to note down such facts and incidents 
 as might be of service to me on my return. 
 Notwithstanding the great number of men from 
 New-England engaged-in one way or another in 
 the fisheries, very few in the interior of the coun- 
 try are well informed on the particulars of that 
 vast and lucrative business. Nor are they gen- 
 erally better informed as to the manners and cus- 
 toms of the people of Newfoundland and Lab- 
 rador, or the general features and appearance of 
 those cold and sterile regions. I have endeav- 
 ored to present in the following pages, a faithful 
 description of the inhabifants, both natives and 
 
^111 PREFACE. 
 
 whites, and of their condition as respects gener- 
 al character, information, and morals. It will 
 be found to be low in the scale of civilization. 
 It will be seen that a great field is there open for 
 the labors of the apostles of temperance, the 
 missionaries of the Cross, and the pioneers of 
 education and morals. And if the humble nar- 
 rative which the author now presents to the pub- 
 lic, shall be the means of drawing the attention 
 of christians and philanthropists to a dark, cold, 
 and benighted region of the earth, so that any 
 substantial good may be done to the humblest 
 individual of our race, the warmest hopes of the 
 author, in this little volume, will be realized. 
 E. W. TUCKER. 
 March, 1839. 
 
CONTENT S 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Departure from the harbor of Boston.— Ludicrous blunder 
 of a :■ iaadsman.— Accommodations of a schooner.— Sick- 
 ness at sea.— Dismal fogs of New-Britain.— Dangerous 
 situation, and fortunate escape. — Stories of shipwreck. — 
 Cause of departure from our course. — First sight of New- 
 foundland. — A Sparrow, — Gambols of porpoises.— Scenery 
 at Boone-Bay.— Disembarkation. 13 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Welcome reception. — Character of theshore inhabitants, and 
 the nature of their business. — Trade and pursuits. — Great 
 importance of the fisheries.— Soil and productions of New- 
 foundland. — Effects of the climate. — Severity of the win- 
 ters. — St. Johns, the capital. — Low state of education, re- 
 ligion and morals. — Strife between differing sects-^ — Pun- 
 ishment of a newspaper editor, — Prevalence of intemper. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ance. — ^Trade with the natives of the interior. — The Mic- 
 macs and Mountaineers : their habits, dispositions and 
 amusements. — Indian dances and revelry. 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Hunting expeditions. — Animals of the chase.— Frauds of the 
 fur-traders. — Englishman's standard of avoirdupois.— En- 
 thusiasm of the hunters. — Excursion to the mountains. — 
 Adventure. — Marriage ceremonies. — Mode of redressing 
 grievances. — Disposition of the inhabitants 5 their kindness 
 towards one another j their attachment to the Newfound- 
 land dog. 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 iii'xtent of the fisheries. — Rights of the Americans.— Tribute 
 to the character of New-England fishermen. — Herring 
 fishery, — Cod fishery upon the banks. — Coast and shore 
 fisheries. — Statistics.— Graves of fishermen. 72 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 departure from' Boone bay. — Mound near Shallow bay.— 
 Little settlement at Cowhead. — Sails set for Labrador.— 
 Straits of Bellisle. — Islands of icej their appearance and vast 
 extent. — First view of the Labrador coast. — Sterility of the 
 soil.— -Vegetable Productions.-^Esquimaux burial place.- — 
 Ancient custom towards the sick. 89 
 
CTONTENTS. Xl 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 White inhabitaiits of Labrador 5 their character and pursuits, 
 —.Tenure of property. — Animals and birds of the penin- 
 sula. — Eggs on Mecatina isles. — Disputes of the Nova- 
 Scotia and Yankee fishermen.— Manner of taking seals j 
 and extent of the fishery. — Mode of constructing habita- 
 tions. — Character and occupation of females.— Prevalence 
 of intemperance.— Sagacity and value of the Esquimaux 
 dog. 106 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Health of Labrador. — Account of the natives.- — Northern 
 Indians 5 their manners and customs ; their doctors or con- 
 jurors J neglect of the sick and the dead 5 singular tra- 
 ditions. — ^Description of the dress,manners and customs of 
 the Esquimaux Indians} their habitations ; general improv- 
 idence 3 superstitious belief, and universal ignorance. 125 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 Preparation for return to Yankee land. — Gale at sea. — An- 
 chorage at Boone Bay.' — St. John's islands : natural curi- 
 osity, knovrn as "Jacob's Well."— Departure. — Storm.—- 
 Arrival at Gabarus bay in Breton island. — Sydney. — De- 
 scription of the ancient fortress of Louisbourg j its present 
 desolation. — Departure from the bay.— Arrival at the''home 
 of the Pilgrims."— -Conclusion. 143 
 
FIVE MONTHS 
 
 LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Departure from the harbor of Boston. — Ludicrous blunder 
 of a landsman.— Accommodations of a schooner. — Sick- 
 ness at sea. — Dismal fogs of New-Britain.— Dangerous 
 situation^ and fortunate escape. — Stories of shipwreck.' — ■ 
 Cause of departure from our course. — First sight of New- 
 foundland. — A Sparrow. — Gambols of porpoises. — Scenery 
 at Boone-Bay.— .Disembarkation. 
 
 On the nineteenth of May, 1838, 1 embark- 
 ed in the schooner Alfred, of Duxbury, S. R. 
 master, on a voyage to the coast of Labrador. 
 The balmy breezes of the opening spring, 
 laden with their vernal perfumes, so exhilara- 
 ting to all, seemed peculiarly so to me, as I 
 was now, for the first time, trusting myself to 
 the voyage, always arduous, and often peril- 
 ous, upon the bosom of the deep. Our crew 
 consisted of eleven persons, including myself, 
 a young man from Indiana, and another from 
 a1 
 
14 FIVE MoSfTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 New- York — the two latter, like myself, labor- 
 ing under ill health, having resolved apon the 
 voyage, in the hope of deriving benefit from 
 a change of climate, scene and occupation. 
 As we sailed out of the harbor of Boston, the 
 sea being scarcely ruffled by the gentle breezes 
 that swelled the sails of the Alfred, I climb- 
 ed to her mast head, to cast a lingering look 
 at the delightful city, perched upon its triple 
 hills, so famed in New-England annals ; and 
 there I gazed upon her receding domes and 
 spires, until the lofty cupola of the state- 
 house itself faded from the sight. The scen- 
 ery about Boston and among the islands in the 
 harbor, at this season, so strikingly beautiful, 
 I need not attempt to portray, as most oi 
 those who will spend a brief hour over my un- 
 pretending narrative, have probably seen and 
 Admired the rich landscapes, which render 
 Boston, with its charming villages adjacent, 
 one -of the most beautiful places in the world, 
 A voyage at sea, to a landsman, is some- 
 thing like taking a leap in the dark — so new 
 and strange are all things around him. — 
 When the vessel first begins to feel the great 
 swells ot the ever-heaving ocean, and the 
 last glimpse of " native land," is seen, in spite 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 15 
 
 of all his philosophy, the adventurer will feel 
 a throbbing at the heart, and the images of 
 home and of friends, from whom he is sailing 
 far away, will throng before him. By de- 
 grees, however, this mood of the mind is 
 changed. The novelty of his new situation, 
 and the cares and bustle of the httle bark, 
 careering over the billows, gradually recon- 
 cile him to his new situation. 
 
 The inexperienced landsman, on board a 
 fisherman, on hearing the odd and awkward 
 sea phrases of the captain and crew, is apt to 
 look upon them as an ignorant set of fellows ; 
 but he soon finds his mistake. My own blun- 
 ders in this particular Avere sometimes ludi- 
 crous, and procured me not unfrequently the 
 laugh of the crew. When I first heard them 
 using the most uncouth phrases, accompan- 
 ied by some rude and unmeaning jest, or 
 irreverent oath, I pitied their folly, and attrib- 
 uted it to their gross ignorance. I imme- 
 diately set about correcting what I supposed 
 to be their erroneous nautical phrases, and 
 trying to persuade them to abandon terms, 
 which I considered foolish and vulgar in the 
 extreme. But I soon found that I was labor- 
 ing to very little purpose. Indeed I was giv- 
 
16 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 en pretty significantly to understand, that 
 this kind of advice and remonstrance would 
 not answer. They would have me to know, 
 they did not want a landsman to instruct 
 them, contrary to the practices of their whole 
 lives. They " knew a thing or two," and 
 did'nt want the palaver of a land-lubber ! So 
 I found it safe to wink at practices I could 
 not approve, and affect to join at times in 
 rude merriment, for which I had little relish. 
 When called upon to perform some act of 
 duty, the blunders I committed were some- 
 times quite ludicrous. When I thought I 
 had mastered sufficiently the lingo of the 
 quarter-deck, to know the jib from the fore- 
 sail, I determined one day to try my skill. — 
 The captain gave the order, " down haul the 
 flying jib J' Prompt to obey, I caught hold 
 of the fore-sail halyards, loosed it, and down 
 came the fore-sail, instead of the jib, to my 
 utter amazement. The captain, observing 
 my confusion, forbore to censure me, as it 
 was my first experiment, but I earned of 
 course the hearty ridicule of the whole crew. 
 The captain good humoredly reminded me, 
 that I must always remember to pull the 
 right rope, if I expected to make an active 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 17 
 
 tar — a piece of advice, containing a moral, 
 applicable to very many situations in life. 
 
 For the benefit of such as are unacquainted 
 with a sea-faring life, I vt^ill give a description 
 of the domestic accommodations of our little 
 floating castle, which is a fair sample of others 
 belonging to the class. Our sofas and settles, 
 consisted of two small wooden chests, nailed 
 fast to the cabin floor. Chairs we had none. 
 Our table furniture was very economically 
 arranged, so as not to interfere with the room 
 of the vessel, or the profits of the voyage. — 
 At the commencement, each one of us had 
 allotted to him such implements as seemed to 
 be indispensable. These implements, it is 
 customary for each to mark with the initials 
 of his name, or otherwise, and to him they 
 belong during the voyage, and he must take 
 care of them — for if he chance to lose them, 
 he must inevitably go without. A tin cup 
 and basin, a knife, fork and spoon, fell to my 
 share in the equipment ; and being so few in 
 number, I soon learned to use them with 
 promptitude and despatch. Madame Trol- 
 lape, or some other English trollop, has giv- 
 en an account of the customary rush made 
 by the yankees on board of steam-boats, or 
 a2 
 
18 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 in hotels, when the bell strikes for dinner. — 
 It is very much the same on board a fishing 
 schooner. Sometimes a choice dish of soup, 
 or a prime chowder would give rise to unu- 
 sual dexterity in reaching the table of the 
 Alfred. Perhaps a little delay in seeking his 
 apparatus, would bring some one in the rear 
 at the '^ crowning dish," and this would gen- 
 erally give rise to sour looks on his part ; and 
 
 the disappointed sailor's ejaculation, " O ■ 
 
 I'm dished," — or '' I'm sewed up I" — usu- 
 ally set the rest into a roar of laughter. Such 
 practical jokes very often cost some one of 
 the crew a good dinner, and angry looks for 
 a whole day. But the hungry sailor, thus 
 cheated out of his dinner, becomes perhaps the 
 aggressor in his turn, and enjoys the fun and 
 frolic as heartily as any of his comrades. In 
 reference to a cook at sea, it is an old saying 
 among sailors, that the Lord provides us meat, 
 but the devil sends the cooks. No one will 
 deny the former part of the sentiment, how- 
 ever great the perversion of Providence in 
 the latter clause of the sailor's logic ; yet all 
 hands during the voyage of the Alfred, would 
 at times have been glad of a cookj from any 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 19 
 
 source I Each of us, for the want of one, 
 took his turn at cooking in rotation. 
 
 Our sleeping accommodations were not the 
 least among the beauties and conveniences 
 of a well organized cabin at sea. Around 
 the sides of the vessel were small divisions, 
 where such of the crew as could sleep con- 
 trived to stow themselves away. Our beds of 
 down were fresh from the farmer's stubble, 
 and our sheets and blankets were of corres- 
 ponding texture. I have often thought, whilst 
 trying to dose away in sleep in such a berth? 
 that I could almost count the number of 
 threads in my coarse blankets, by the ridges 
 on my back. Our embroidery and curtains 
 were readily prepared from a side cut of coarse 
 canvass, the remains of an old sail, delicately 
 strung upon an ancient fish line at the close 
 of day. But even in lodgings thus homely, 
 I could at times obtain the sweetest rest, as the 
 feeblest body may by degrees become accus- 
 tomed to the severest hardships and difficul- 
 ties of the mariner's life. 
 
 The twentieth of May, the day following 
 
 our departure, was the Sabbath — and most 
 
 miserably was it spent to me ; mine having 
 
 become a severe case of sea-sickness. The 
 
 a3 
 
20 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 winds were high, and tlie sea exceedingly 
 rough, so that the captain shared a similar 
 fate with me. I did not feel great sympathy 
 for him ; but it was probably owing to the 
 plight in which the rest of the crew saw the 
 captain, that I was spared their usual rough 
 jokes, and probably from being forced to take 
 the customary infallible dose, in such cases, 
 of raw pork and molasses. 
 
 On the following day, having made good 
 progress with a fair vt^ind, we encountered a 
 fog, which continued to increase in density, 
 until we were completely shrouded, as it were, 
 in darkness even at noon day. Those who 
 are acquainted with the dismal fogs of New- 
 Britain, need not be informed, that in the 
 midst of them there is truly little difference 
 between night and day. In such a situation, 
 afloat upon the wide and trackless ocean, the 
 compass, " that little thing under the bin- 
 nacle," as the landsmen say, was our all in 
 all. A smacking breeze springing up in our 
 favor, hurried us on with great rapidity, and 
 " giving the land a good birth," we appre- 
 hended no danger whatever, except being run 
 down by some trader, and sharing the sad 
 fate of many a poor fisherman. It is an in- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 21 
 
 cident of no rare occurrence, for the inmates 
 of small craft to be suddenly aroused from 
 their dremay repose in quiet hammocks, to 
 face the horrors of the midnight tempest, the 
 fierce tornado, and perchance the more dread- 
 ful 'Contact of ships rushing together amid the 
 darkness. In such scenes, the tempest-tost 
 mariner, heedless as he generally is, is made to 
 realize the truth of the sentiment, " in the 
 midst of life we are in death." The crew 
 of our schooner were now divided into two 
 watches, of four each ; for the fog did not 
 seem to diminish, and we were unable to out- 
 ride it. The first watch had retired to rest ; 
 the second was divided, one being placed at 
 the helm, and the others at the bow, to keep 
 a good look out ahead, for any thing that ap- 
 peared unfriendly or suspicious. The re- 
 maining two were below, endeavoring to kin- 
 dle an unwilling morning fire. It was a gen- 
 eral time of slumber, and thoughtless securi- 
 ty. The first watch were in sound sleep — 
 the captain rechned upon his hammock, and 
 " got fast by the eye-lids," probably suppos- 
 ing himself wide from the land, and directly 
 upon his course. Our worthy helmsman, 
 however, was wide awake. An experienced 
 
^ FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 seaman, and used to danger, he knew that 
 there mightbe peril lurking near, while run- 
 ning down the coast of Nova Scotia in the 
 night, amid the fogs. At an unexpected mo- 
 ment, a loud shout from the bows, of'' break- 
 crs ahead r^ roused every soul on board, and 
 the men rushed half naked upon deck. The 
 captain, palsied almostby the shock, still gave 
 his orders with great presence of mind. — 
 " Keep her away — keep her away — hard to 
 the lee — down with the main peak" — shout- 
 ed the captain. But at this critical moment, 
 the helmsman, struggling at the tiller, replied, 
 " I can't weather it ! — get the small boat 
 ready!" "We've no pins, and the oars are 
 barred in the main hold," replied the aston- 
 ished crew. "Lose no time!" shouted the 
 captain — " sway up the fore sheet !" All was 
 now silence — the vessel had run in the space 
 of a few minutes from thirty fathoms of water 
 into five — the most intense anxiety was felt 
 by every soul on board — when the helmsman 
 exclaimed, "She'll clear it! she'll clear it!" — 
 and presently we were past the seeming dan- 
 ger. The breakers we had neared (vere the 
 St. Mary's ledges, off the coast of Nova 
 Scotia. The captain now changed his course, 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 23 
 
 and put further out to sea. The dismissed 
 watch retired to the cabin to talk over the 
 fortunate escape of the vessel — but this calm 
 was of short duration. The words of exul- 
 tation, " we are safely out from among the 
 rocks," were scarcely uttered, when from 
 aloft we heard again the same ominous cry of 
 " breakers ahead !" Thrice in succession 
 was the alarm thus given, as the roar of the 
 waters among the rocks, gave warning of our 
 imminent peril. The fog continuing, and 
 the increase of the gale, gave us reason to fear 
 that we had missed our course, and should be 
 finally lost ; but it was our happy fortune to 
 pass through all these dangers unharmed. — 
 The protection of a kind and beneficent Prov- 
 idence was extended to us in an especial man- 
 ner in this instance, for which I would praise 
 and adore His holy name. 
 
 These circumstances, as usual among the 
 sailors, gave rise to many dismal anecdotes of 
 shipwreck, disasters and death. Every one 
 had his tale of danger, and as we sat together 
 upon the quarter-deck, listening and recoun- 
 ting these adventures of the mariner, the nar- 
 rative 10 me was exceedingly interesting. — 
 The account of one of these ocean disasters^ 
 
24 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 having some analogy to our own case while 
 amid the breakers, I here present, as I 
 had it from the mouth of the narrator. An 
 EngUsh trader, with a stout and staunch ship, 
 was some years since saihng across the grand 
 banks of Newfoundland, when he was over- 
 taken by one of those dense fogs, which ren- 
 der it difficult to see far ahead even during 
 the day, and impossible in the night to dis- 
 tinguish objects distant twice the length of 
 the ship. The captain placed a light at the 
 mast-head, and a watch forward, to look out 
 for the fishing smacks that are accustomed to 
 lay at anchor on the banks. The wind was 
 blowing a stiff breeze, and the vessel going 
 ahead at a great rate, when suddenly the cry 
 from the watch of ''a sail ahead!" alarmed 
 the trader ; but the words were scarcely ut- 
 tered, before he was upon her. She was a 
 small schooner at anchor with her broadside 
 towards him. Her crew were all asleep, and 
 had neglected to hoist a light, the usual and 
 necessary precaution in such cases. The 
 bows of the trader struck the fisherman amid 
 ship, and the force and weight of the supe- 
 rior vessel bore her down. As the crushed 
 wieck was sinking beneath the waves, the 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 25 
 
 captain of the trader had a glimpse of two or 
 three half naked beings rushing from their 
 cabin, to be overwhelmed by the waters, and 
 heard their last piercing shrieks, as his vessel 
 glided onward, while the poor mariners sunk 
 in their watery graves. 
 
 The inquisitive reader has doubtless pon- 
 dered in his own mind, the cause of our de- 
 parture from the course we intended to run. 
 Our skipper, as was natural, when the mis- 
 take became obvious, looked over his log and 
 reckoning, to see if he could discover any er- 
 ror ; but after a careful revision, he found all 
 things right, and not the slightest error could 
 he discover. Was the compass at fault ? — 
 We happened to have two on board, and to 
 test them, we took that from the binnacle and 
 placed it with the other, side by side, on the 
 quarter-deck. They traversed correctly. — • 
 What then could be the cause of our danger- 
 ous departure from the true course ? Our 
 fears were awakened — many ingenious inter- 
 rogatories were put — every one had his rea- 
 son — and a general debate ensued among the 
 crew* At length some one suggested the 
 propriety of searching the binnacle. This 
 was no sooner done, than the whole mystery 
 
26 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 was at once solved — and the blundering sai- 
 lor was shocked to perceive, that it was not 
 for want of a navigator that we had failed to 
 go to pieces upon the rocks ! The careless 
 old rogue, during some leisure moment, had 
 placed an old rusty iron candle-stick hard 
 by the side of our magnetic pilot, and as he 
 was paid for his labor, did not care a farthing 
 which way he led us — having very little to 
 gain, and nothing to lose except his worthless 
 life, and that he seemed to care very little 
 about ! Thus, in the various situations of 
 life — in pohtics, in morals, and religion. The 
 unskilful, or careless pilot will lead individu- 
 als, and communities into error, and often- 
 times upon the breakers ! Young reader, see 
 to it, while you are in the harbor of youth, 
 before you set sail upon the tempestuous 
 ocean of life. Be wise in the choice of your 
 compass — choose truth, and keep it as pure 
 as the sunbeam from all attractions of selfish- 
 ness and deception — encase it in equity and 
 righteousness — place it in the binnacle of sin- 
 cerity — hoist the sail of perseverance, and 
 trust no one at the helm, but steer yourself — 
 and success will attend you ! 
 
 But I hasten to subjects more immediately 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 27 
 
 connected with this narrative. The dense 
 fog, of which I have spoken, continued to 
 hover around us for four days, when the sun 
 broke forth in all his glory, giving joy and an- 
 imation to our hearts. According to our 
 reckoning, we were now, on the morning of 
 the 23d of May, nearly abreast the Bay of 
 Islands, which it would be impracticable to 
 enter in a fog. About eight o'clock in the 
 morning, the thrilhng cry of " land !" was 
 heard from the main-top; and I question 
 whether Columbus himself felt more joy than 
 I experienced, when first the rugged coast of 
 Newfoundland hove in sight. The idea of 
 soon again treading on terra firma was exhil- 
 arating to us all. I was much delighted with 
 an incident that took place, as we neared the 
 coast. A little sparrow which had winged 
 its way out into the gulf, approached us, and 
 for some time fluttered about the vessel, as 
 if to welcome us to the land. Its tameness 
 was to me remarkable ; for after circling for 
 some time around the spars, the Httle songs- 
 ter at length perched upon the fore boom. — 
 Thither I gently moved, stretched out my arm 
 towards it, and took it in my hand. It made 
 no attempt to escape. I provided for its en- 
 
28 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 tertainment a little rice, and a cup of water, 
 which seemed to increase its confidence, for it 
 afterwards sat upon my finger, and sung 
 one of its sweetest songs. During most of 
 the day, our little stranger kept about the ves- 
 sel ; but as we made slow progress, and night 
 began to approach, she sped to the shore be- 
 fore us. The day was calm, and the bosom of 
 the ocean tranquil. The scenery before us — 
 the high promontories of the Bay of Islands 
 extending into the gulf, with the Newfound- 
 land mountains in the distance towering up- 
 wards to the clouds — were objects of great in- 
 terest. Climbing up to the main-top, I spent 
 some time in gazing landward upon the 
 variegated landscape, as well as upon the 
 wide ocean below. During the calm of the 
 latter portion of this day, we saw a school of 
 porpoises, gambolling about the prow of the 
 vessel. At a little distance we saw a grampus, 
 heaving his huge form above the surface — and 
 attempting his unwieldy sports among his 
 finny neighbors of the deep. 
 
 Being unable to enter the Bay of Islands, 
 the captain resolved to pass down the coast 
 about twenty miles to Boone bay. After 
 laying off in sight of land for three days, we 
 
AND nl:wfouxdland. 29 
 
 improved a favorable wind, and entered the 
 harbor. As we sailed up the channel, I re- 
 connoitred the shore with a glass. Towards 
 nightfall we floated with the tide between 
 those gigantic cliffs which are reared upon the 
 right and left of Boone bay. So calm had 
 the atmosphere become, that the turning of 
 a plank, or the accidental falling of an oar 
 upon deck produced a sound, which echo re- 
 peated from the mountain shores. And when 
 the captain, now and then, gave the shout of 
 command, there seemed to be airy tongues 
 that mocked him from every cliff. The scene- 
 ry here is strikingly grand and beautiful. — 
 Rock above rock, and cliff succeeding cliff, 
 stretched upwards and far away, while the 
 sprinkling of green foliage, among the gray 
 rocks, and stinted firs that crowned the edges 
 of the precipices, with here and there a snow- 
 capped summit glistening in the rays of the 
 declining sun, all together rendered the scene 
 exceedingly grand and beautiful. At some 
 distance from the harbor, I perceived a few 
 small huts, the inhabitants of which, as soon 
 as they saw we were from " the States," sal- 
 uted us by the firing of guns, a comphment 
 
 Bl 
 
30 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 which we of course returned. After mooring 
 the vessel, we lowered the yawl, and all hands 
 went on shore. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 31 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Welcome reception. — Character of the shore inhabitants, and 
 the nature of their business. — Trade and pursuits. — Great 
 importance of the fisheries.- — Soil and productions of IVew- 
 foundland. — Effects of the climate. — Severity of the win- 
 ters. — St. Johns, the capital. — Low state of education, re- 
 ligion and morals.— -Strife between differing sects —Pun- 
 ishment of a newspaper editor. — Prevalence of intemper- 
 ance. — Trade with the natives of the interior. — The Mic- 
 macs and Mountaineers : their habits, dispositions and 
 amusements. — Indian dances and revelry. 
 
 We had no sooner reached the shore, than 
 4he inhabitants came huddling down to see 
 their unfrequent visitants. After making 
 numerous inquiries, and ascertaining the par- 
 ticulars of our voyage, they welcomed us to 
 their fire-sides. We accompanied them up 
 to one of their huts, surrounded by the tall 
 grass upon the strand, and near the water's 
 edge. A green plat of several acres extended 
 back toward the hills, on which was a profus- 
 ion of shrubbery, intermixed with the spruce, 
 fir and yew trees. The owner of the hut 
 politely threw open his door, on entering 
 
32 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 which, we made an involuntary obeisance, 
 rather than receive the salutation which peo- 
 ple are apt to get, who carry their heads too 
 high. We found the inhabitants full of ani- 
 mation, boastful of their hunting and fishing 
 exploits, and extremely inquisitive about every 
 thing relating to the United States. They 
 expressed a strong desire to leave their bleak, 
 inhospitable climate, and barren mountains, 
 to seek a better country — but wanted the 
 means. They Vv^ould gladly exchange their 
 hunting and fishing, for the cultivation of a 
 fertile soil, the advantages of which to the 
 American husbandman they seemed to com- 
 prehend. And when I explained to them the 
 rapid advance and improvement of agriculture 
 in our country, and told them that it was the 
 practice of the governors of the different 
 states, to set apart at the close of each year, 
 a day of public thanksgiving lo God for the 
 blessings of a bountiful harvest — they coolly 
 replied, that they were not under such an ob- 
 ligation ; for it was evident to them that the 
 all wise Disposer of events had more highly 
 favored the Americans, by giving them a rich 
 and fertile soil, adapted to cultivation, while 
 lie had allotted to the islanders scarcely the 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 33 
 
 means of raising a patch of good potatoes. 
 The poor man's ideas of the benevolence of 
 Deity seemed to be sadly circumscribed by 
 his situation. 
 
 There is a far trading establishment situa- 
 ted in the harbor, owned by a wealthy Eng- 
 lishman, from whose little shop three hundred 
 families of the inhabitants in Newfoundland 
 are annually supplied with articles of clothing, 
 salt, &c., in exchange for the furs which they 
 bring in during the spring and fall. The 
 fisheries, also 5 furnish the inhabitants with oth- 
 er means of supplying their wants ; and the ex- 
 ports of Newfoundland find their way into re- 
 mote corners of the earth. Their furs go to 
 England, their cod-fish to the West-Indies 
 and South America, their herring and salmon 
 are sent to Grand Cairo and Jerusalem. Boone 
 bay is one of the most commodious harbors in 
 Newfoundland, and extends upwards into the 
 country about twenty miles, between high and 
 precipitous shores, on either side. A vessel 
 can here lie safely at anchor within a cable's 
 length of the land, so bold is the ascent of the 
 rocks that line the shore. There are only forty 
 inhabitants living at this place, and at Rocky 
 harbor, which is situated down near the mouth 
 cl 
 
34 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 of the bay, and much exposed to the winds 
 and seas. 
 
 The westerly coast of Newfoundland, 
 from Cape Ray to Cape Carpone, is in pos- 
 session of the French, so far as the fishing is 
 concerned, under the treaty of 1759. Their 
 line of possession, however, extends only sev- 
 enty feet back from the mark of high tide. — 
 This right, I believe, unless further extended 
 by treaty, will expire in 1 840. Difficulties 
 have frequently arisen between the French 
 and English fishermen, and residents, and the 
 former have in some instances compelled the 
 removal of the latter, in cases where they had 
 attempted to establish trading houses on this 
 coast. An armed French vessel lay in Rocky 
 harbor during the past summer, for the 
 protection of their fishermen. In one in- 
 stance, a fishing schooner was seized, and 
 three or four hundred quintals of fish thrown 
 overboard, for some real or supposed infrac- 
 tion of the Frenchmen's rights, of which they 
 are very tenacious. But it is a fact that ought 
 not to escape notice, that they most grossly 
 intrude upon the rights both of American 
 and English fishermen in those seas. 
 
 The large island that is called by the Eng- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 35 
 
 lish Newfoundland, and by the French Ter- 
 re Neuve, shuts up the northern entrance in- 
 to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The perpet- 
 ual fogs which cover it, are probably produc- 
 ed by the currents that flow from the Antil- 
 les, and remain for a time between the great 
 bank and the coast, before they escape into 
 the Atlantic ocean. As these streams retain 
 a great portion of the heat which was imbibed 
 in the tropical regions, they are from fifteen 
 to twenty degrees of Fahrenheit warmer than 
 the surrounding water at the banks of New- 
 foundland. Whenever, therefore, the tem- 
 perature of the atmosphere is colder than that 
 of the currents, a vapour must necessarily 
 arise from them, which obscures those places 
 with a moist and dense air.* 
 
 Within twenty years after the supposed 
 discovery of Newfoundland, by the Cabots,f 
 the abundance of fish on its banks attracted the 
 attention of European nations. As early as 
 
 *Malte Bmn, vol. iii, 198. 
 
 t Under the name of New-found-land, were originally 
 comprehended all the islands that lie westerly of it in the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence. They were discovered by John and 
 Sebastian Cabot in 1497, who gave them the name of Prima 
 Vista; but John Verazzan, who noticed them more particu- 
 larly afterwards, gave them the name of Terre Neuve, or 
 New found-land. Verazzan was afterwards taken and eaten 
 by the savages of one of the islands. 
 
36 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 1519, we are told of 50 ships being seen 
 there at one time. The earliest adventurers 
 in that fishery, were the Biscayans of Spain, 
 and the Basques of France. In 1577, the 
 French had 150 vessels there, the Spaniards 
 100, the Portuguese 50, while the English had 
 only 15. The Spaniards and Portuguese 
 finally relinquished these fisheries, and they 
 were engrossed by the English and French, 
 until the United States, from their superior 
 advantages of neighborhood and facihties, as 
 well as skill and enterprise, came in for a large 
 share. There are at present about 3000 ves- 
 sels annually engaged in these fisheries, from 
 the United States, France and Great Britain, 
 employing more than ten thousand seamen. 
 This great nursery of seamen, and source of 
 profit to the country, has received the foster- 
 ing care of our government, and constitutes 
 now one of its most important interests. 
 
 The soil of Newfoundland is exceedingly 
 light and porous, and full of fibrous roots, ren- 
 dering it difficult to pierce without a spade. 
 There are some situations, where the soil more 
 nearly approaches a loam and alluvion ; but 
 at no place which I noticed is it suflftciently 
 rich and moist for profitable culture. Patches 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 37 
 
 of ground, rendered tolerably productive by 
 the scraping together of turf, and working it 
 from year to year, and manuring it richly with 
 the offals of the fishery, may here and there 
 be seen — but generally under the supervision 
 of those who can afford such expensive kinds 
 of husbandry. The ridges and rocky eleva- 
 tions are generally covered from four to twen- 
 ty inches by a sort of earthy moss, unfit to 
 sustain any other vegetable substance. In 
 walking over this covering of the primitive 
 rock, the foot sinks into it up to the ancle, and 
 as you proceed from rock to rock, whole yards 
 of the moss will sometimes be dislodged and 
 slide down at once. The general face of the 
 country is such that cultivation to any great 
 extent is wholly impracticable. Travelling, 
 to any great extent, over such a surface, is ex- 
 tremely fatiguing. 
 
 The winters in Newfoundland are, of course? 
 very severe. Snow falls at the beginning of 
 November, and covers the ground until May. 
 During this long period, it is almost Hterally 
 a continued storm of snow and sleet. When 
 summer comes, it comes on so suddenly, that 
 spring is scarcely known. In the valleys, and 
 on the southerly sides of the mountains, the 
 
38 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 herbage springs up rapidly , while the mountains 
 around are covered with deep beds of perpetual 
 snow and ice. During a considerable portion 
 of the summer months, the island is covered 
 by fogs, sometimes heavy and wet. These are 
 not deemed unhealthy — but on the contrary, 
 being produced by the evaporation of salt wa- 
 ter, are considered beneficial in many chronic 
 complaints. A residence upon Newfound- 
 land during the summer season, is often found 
 a curative in cases where other remedies have 
 totally failed. The natives are generally very 
 healthy. Epidemic diseases are scarcely ever 
 known. There are occasionally cases of in- 
 fluenza and consumption noticed, but the 
 health of the population is in general remark- 
 able. Of those who are cut off in youth or 
 middle age, it is supposed that one third are 
 caused by the terrible scourge of intemper- 
 ance. 
 
 Of the forest trees in Newfoundland, the 
 pine, spruce, hemlock, mountain ash, and 
 white birch (to use the vernacular phrases^ are 
 those only which attain to any considerable 
 size. Near the coast, no trees of large growth 
 are observed ; but twenty or thirty miles in 
 the interior, in the valleys among the moun- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 39 
 
 tains, there are found trees of great size, and 
 suitable for ship building or exportation, could 
 they be conveniently transported to the sea. 
 I saw a white birch tree at Boone bay, brought 
 from a neighboring valley, which measured 
 nine feet in circumference and sixty feet in 
 length. At the head of St. George's bay, is a 
 commodious place for ship building, where a 
 few small vessels have been built for the fish- 
 ing business. 
 
 My limited residence in Newfoundland, 
 rendered it impracticable to go into any in- 
 vestigation of its botanical or mineral produc- 
 tions ; and of the white inhabitants who live 
 along the coast, I could learn but very little 
 on these subjects, and of the natives, nothing. 
 The island may be said to be fenced in, as it 
 were, by white inhabitants, who settle in the 
 coves, bays, and harbours, and upon the small 
 streams, for the purpose of salmon fishing, 
 and their dwellings are not unfrequently five 
 or six leagues apart. These mostly consist 
 of miserable huts, constructed out of spruce 
 poles and birch bark, and some covered with 
 turf. Most of these people go poorly clad, 
 and are extremely dirty, and negligent of all 
 proper regard for cleanliness. They are gross- 
 
 c3 
 
40 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 ly ignorant in respect to every thing but the 
 visible horizon around them — ^and their prin- 
 cipal delight is the almost universal occupa- 
 tion of fishing. This indeed is their princi- 
 pal source of living. A lamentable degree 
 of ignorance prevails among these shore in- 
 habitants generally, with the exception of the 
 few large trading places, such as St. Johns,. 
 Bona Vista, Cape Carbonier, Placentia, &c. 
 which are towns of considerable importance, 
 where enterprising foreigners have settled, and 
 carry on ship building, and various branches 
 of trade and business. St. Johns, the capi- 
 tal, is a place of considerable importance, 
 contains a population of nearly fifteen thou- 
 sand, embracing some wealthy and intelligent 
 merchants and professional men. A large pro- 
 portion, however, are engaged in the fisheries, 
 in one way or another. The houses of wor- 
 ship are principally for the Episcopalians, and 
 Roman Catholics — these two classes of chris- 
 tians embracing nearly all who profess to be 
 religious, among the inhabitants. Between 
 these denominations, a great degree of un- 
 charitable feeling exists, which has on some 
 occasions broken out into acts of open hos- 
 tility and violence between individuals. A 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 41 
 
 disgraceful instance was mentioned to me. 
 The editor of an episcopal periodical at Carbo- 
 nier, owing to some severity in his comments 
 either upon the superstitions of the catholics, 
 or the misconduct of some of the father con- 
 fessors — became peculiarly obnoxious to the 
 members of that sect. They admonished, 
 and finally threatened him with revenge, if 
 he continued his attacks upon the morality 
 of their priests ; but he still continued to as- 
 sail them, and exposed many cases of gross 
 imposture, fraud and immorality. Instead 
 of resorting to the civil tribunals for redress, 
 (if indeed they did not apprehend further ex- 
 posure when once drawn into court,) they 
 determined on a different kind of punishment; 
 and the obnoxious editor, having occasion not 
 long after, to pass through an unfrequented 
 wood some miles distant from Harbor Grace, 
 was there way-laid by a gang dressed in the 
 disguise of Indians, and cropped of both his 
 ears ! Attempts were made to detect the au- 
 thors of this outrage, but without success : and 
 the offending editor having got enough of 
 martyrdom to satisfy^ his ambition, became 
 quite circumspect on the question of the im- 
 piety of the catholics — and they, abundantly 
 
42 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 satisfied with what they deemed a judgment 
 upon the heresy of their assailant, retrained 
 from all further controversy. And so the 
 matter, after reigning as a nine days wonder, 
 was quietly suffered to rest. Thus much for 
 the freedom of the press in Newfoundland I 
 
 There are probably not more than one tenth 
 of the population, who make any pretension 
 to religious faith and worship ; the great mass 
 of the population regarding the Sabbath as a 
 day for sports and pastimes, and usually 
 spending it in drunken frolicksand carousals. 
 Early on the morning of the Sabbath, boats 
 may be seen putting off from the neighboring 
 harbors and coves, laden with men, tvomen 
 and children, who meet together at someplace 
 agreed upon, to spend the day in recreation. 
 One of their principal means of excitement 
 is a free use of stimulating drinks. The men, 
 women and children partake of it freely. On 
 such occasions, a grand feast of cod's head 
 chowder is usually served up ; after which, 
 sports, and sometimes bloody affrays upon 
 the adjacent green ensue, according as the ef- 
 fects of the intoxicating cup are developed ; 
 and the evening closes in boisterous songs 
 and uncouth dances, and all the wild uproar 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 43 
 
 of bacchanalian revelry. The scene closes 
 with a promiscuous prostration upon the floor 
 in drunken stupor. Such is not an unfaith- 
 ful picture of the manners of the great ma- 
 jority of the lower classes of the inhabitants 
 of Newfoundland. And how is it with the 
 wealthier and more intelligent portions of the 
 same community ? There are many individ- 
 uals here, as there are in allcommunities,who 
 are patterns of sobriety and morality in their 
 habits and conduct ; but candor obliges me 
 to say, that the marks of intemperance are 
 seen in almost every family — and that the 
 principal diiFerence between the high and the 
 low, in respect to habits, is, that while the 
 poor and the unlettered drink their miserable 
 new rum and gin, and lay prostrate in drunk- 
 enness, covered with filthy rags, in their dirty 
 houses — the better sort of people get fash- 
 ionably^corned on madeira and champaigne, 
 and hide the outward exhibition of shame in 
 their richly decorated saloons ! Their wealth 
 gives them the means to get drunk in style, 
 while their rank in fashionable society serves 
 to screen their folly from public observation. 
 Should the apostles of temperance in our fa- 
 vored country get out of employment,through 
 
44 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 the great reforms which they propose, and 
 have done so much toward accomplishing, 
 they may find labor for a quarter of a centu- 
 ry at least, on the rum-cursed and sterile soil 
 of Newfoundland. 
 
 The means of education upon the island 
 are scarcely worth the name. Of schools 
 there are but few, and those are chiefly main- 
 tained in questionable existence by individual 
 exertion. A great portion of the population 
 are consequently brought up without knowing 
 even the alphabet,and are grossly ignorant and 
 vicious. There are one or more printing es- 
 tablishments on the island ; but the light they 
 scatter is altogether inadequate to pierce the 
 gloom of the barbarism that shrouds the island. 
 
 The inhabitants of the interior, are a de- 
 generate race of Indians — corrupted, as the 
 natives always are by their intercourse with the 
 whites. They are composed of the remnants 
 and descendants of two tribes, called Mic- 
 macs and Mountaineers — the Micmacs resid- 
 ing in their groups of cabins on plats of table 
 land in rear of the European settlements, 
 and the Mountaineers, as their name indi- 
 cates, living farther north among the moun- 
 tains. They are a hardy and athletic race of 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 45 
 
 savages, resembling the northern and north- 
 western tribes in the United States and Can- 
 ada. They are extremely jealous and quar- 
 relsome, especially where the fire-water has 
 been among them. But their feuds are gen- 
 erally appeased with blows, and bruises, with- 
 out the shedding of much blood. Revenge, 
 however, is as sweet to them, and as uner- 
 ringly follows any real injury, as among the 
 rudest savages of the American wilds. These 
 aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland, it is 
 said, were formerly subjected to the Mo- 
 hawks, one of the most powerful and war- 
 like tribes of the West, and there is a tradi- 
 tion, that until the power of that tribe became 
 extinct, it was a custom with the Indians of 
 Newfoundland to send, at stated periods, a 
 canoe and several men up the St. Lawrence ^ 
 to pay homage to the chiefs of the Mohawks 
 in Canada. These natives were savage war- 
 riors in ihe time of the French possession of 
 Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and unmer- 
 cifully massacred and scalped whole crews of 
 English vessels wrecked on those dreary and 
 inhospitable coasts. 
 
 In the second edition of " The Great His- 
 torical, Geographicalj Genealogical and 
 
46 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 Political Dictionary,'^ by Collier, publish- 
 ed in 1701, I find the following account of 
 the Indians of Newfoundland, given by voy- 
 agers who visited the island in 1612. 
 
 *'The Natives habitations were nothing 
 but poles set round and meeting on the top, 
 about ten feet broad, covered with Deer skins, 
 and the fire in the midst. The people are of 
 a middling stature, beardless, broad faced, 
 and delight to paint with Oaker. Some of 
 them went naked, having only their privities 
 covered with a skin. They believed in one 
 God, who created all things, and alledged, 
 that God took a number of arrows and stuck 
 in the ground, from whence men and women 
 first sprung up. One of their Sagamores or 
 Governors being asked concerning the Trin- 
 ity, answered. There was one God, one Son, 
 one Mother, and the Sun, which were four^ 
 yet God was above all. And being question- 
 ed whether they or their ancestors had heard, 
 that^God was come into the world, they said, 
 they had not seen him. Some of them con- 
 verse visibly with the Devil, who tells them 
 what they^raust do in war and other matters. 
 Samuel Chaplain, gives an account of a feast 
 made by one of their great Lords in his cabin 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 47 
 
 in 1603, eight or ten kettles of meat, bein§ 
 set on several fires some yards assunder ; the 
 men sat on both sides the room with dishes 
 of bark. Before the meat was boiled, one 
 took his dog and danced about the kettles, 
 and when he came before the Sagamore, 
 threw the dog down; a second did the like, 
 and after the feast, they danced with the 
 heads of their enemies in their hands, singing 
 all the while. They have many fires in their 
 cabins, ten families sometimes living together, 
 lying upon skins one by another, and their 
 dogs, which resemble our foxes, with them. 
 At another feast the women and maids sat in 
 ranks, the men standing behind singing, and 
 of a sudden the women stript themselves 
 stark naked, without any shame, and their 
 song being ended, cryed with one voice, ho 
 ho, ho, then covered themselves with their 
 mantles of skins. At 14 or 15 years old their 
 maids have many lovers, and live in impurity 
 with as many of them as they please, for 5 or 
 6 years, and then takes one of them, whom 
 she likes best, for her husband, provided he 
 be a good hunter, and lives chastely with him, 
 except he forsake her on account of barren- 
 ness. They put their dead in a pit with all 
 
48 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 their goods, setting many pieces of wood and 
 a red stake over it ; they believe the immor- 
 tality of the soul, and that the dead go into a 
 far country to make merry with their friends. 
 When sick, they send to one Sagamore Mem- 
 herton a conjurer, who prays to the Devils, 
 blows upon the party, cuts him and sucks the 
 blood ; he heals wounds in the same manner? 
 applying a round slice of beaver stones, for 
 which they present him with venison or skins. 
 They consult the devil for news, who always 
 answers doubtfully, and sometimes false. He 
 also directs them where to find game when 
 hungry, and if they miss, he excuses it by say- 
 ing, that the beast changed place ; but most 
 times they speed, which makes them believe 
 the devil to be God. The conjurers when 
 they consult, fix a staff in a pit, to which they 
 tie a cord, put their head into the pit, and in- 
 voke satan in an unknown language, with so 
 much pain till they sweat again : Then the 
 wizzard persuades the people, that he holds 
 the devil fast with his cord, forcing him 
 to answer; then he sings to his praise for 
 his discovery, which is answered by the sava- 
 ges dancing and singing in a strange tongue ; 
 after which they leap over a fire, and put a 
 
AND N£WFOUNDLAIfD. 49 
 
 pole out of the top of the cabin with some- 
 thing on it which the devil carries away* 
 Memberton wore a triangular purse about his 
 neck, with something in it like a nut that he 
 called his spirit." 
 
 These Indians of Newfoundland carry on 
 a traffic with the shore inhabitants in furs and 
 peltries, for which they take in exchange ar- 
 ticles of food and clothing, necessary for their 
 families. They are very punctual to their 
 engagements. In the spring and fall they 
 bring in their furs, and take a new supply for 
 the ensuing season. The trader extends to 
 them a credit, which they are careful not to 
 lose, as a failure to obtain the accustomed 
 supply, would expose them to suffering, if 
 not starvation. The " credit system" is there- 
 fore in full vogue between the English factors 
 and savages of the island, and if the advan- 
 tage happen there, as elsewhere, to be prin- 
 cipally on the side of the creditor, it also 
 serves to save the poor debtor from extreme 
 want and deprivation. There are instances 
 of great wealth accumulated in a few years, 
 by this kind of traffic with the Indians of 
 Newfoundland. There, as every where else, 
 it seems to be the lot of the red man to fal^ 
 Dl 
 
j^9 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 a prey to the cupidity and avarice of the 
 whites. 
 
 Twice a year the merchant ships arrive 
 from England with cargoes of dry goods, 
 groceries, &c. And on the arrival of one of 
 these vessels, the Indians, who are looking 
 for their expected supplies, flock down to the 
 shore, and have a grand holiday. Dances, 
 games, frolic and fun are the order of the day, 
 until the goods are unpacked, and each pur- 
 chaser receives his half-yearly supply. Hap- 
 pening to be on shore during one of these ga- 
 la days, a sagamore informed me that there 
 was to be a dance in the evening, and press- 
 ed me to join the ring. I declined his invita- 
 tion, being not over anxious to expose myself 
 to the rude ceremonies of such an occasion. 
 The old fellow was not to be put off", and 
 grasping me round the waist, with rather a 
 herculean squeeze, he carried me into the 
 midst of his company, nolens volens. See- 
 ing that he was already under the influence 
 of liquor, and probably not to be trifled with, 
 I thought it the " better part of valor" not to 
 attempt an escape. I did not, I confess, ex- 
 actly like the company into which I was so 
 unceremoniously thrust, but contrived to put 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 51 
 
 on as much swagger and sang froid as was 
 necessary to enact my part in my new posi- 
 tion. I took a seat in one corner of the room 
 to observe the ceremonies of the dance. An 
 old Indian soon took his stand in the middle 
 of the floor. His stature was small, but with 
 a body disproportionably stout and thick. A 
 white blanket hung loosely upon his shoul- 
 ders — under which a long hempen frock ex- 
 tended down to his knees. He had on a sort 
 of loose trousers of half dressed leather, and 
 buskins of undressed seal-skin. He had a 
 sort of hat upon his head, made of the skin 
 of some sea fowl dressed with the feathers 
 on. In each hand he held a stick some ten 
 or twelve inches in length. Thus accoutred 
 he commenced the evening ceremony by a 
 monotonous song, the words of which were 
 totally unintelligible to my ear, keeping time 
 with his feet, and striking his sticks rapidly 
 together, and producing a prodigious clatter. 
 Ever and anon a loud yell was uttered by the 
 performer, whereupon the whole circle joined 
 in the chorus. The noise and the merriment 
 increased until all were heartily engaged with 
 shuffling feet, and voices strained to the ut- 
 most. An hour of these rousrh and tumultu- 
 
52 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 ous sports, was sufficient to satisfy my curi- 
 osity, and I left them at their merry making, 
 which was continued far into the night, end- 
 ing, as usual, in riotous and beastly intoxica- 
 tion. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 53 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Hunting expeditions. — Animals of the chase.' — Frauds of the 
 fur-traders. — Englishman's standard of avoirdupois .-^En- 
 thusiasm of the hunters. — Excursion to the mountains. — 
 Adventure. — Marriage ceremonies. — Mode of redressing 
 grievances. — Disposition of the inhabitants 5 their kindness 
 towards one another 3 their attachment to the Newfound- 
 land dog. 
 
 As soon as the fishing season terminates, 
 in the month of October, the inhabitants make 
 preparations for their hunting excursions dur- 
 ing the long winter that is to succeed. The 
 forests among the mountains afford shelter 
 for numerous bears, wolves, caribou and fox- 
 es. To these retreats the hunters repair in 
 companies of from four to twenty, carrying 
 along with them the provisions necessary to 
 satisfy their hunger, and blankets wherewith 
 to shelter themselves during the long winter 
 nights among the mountains. They hunt 
 during the day, separating at short distances 
 one from another, so as to be within hail in 
 case of emergency. As night approaches, 
 they assemble together, scarcely ever failing 
 to bring in some trophy of the chase. Their 
 
 v2 
 
54 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 temporary tent is constructed out of the limbs 
 of trees, and bushes bent together, and cov- 
 ered with boughs, and sometimes with banks 
 of snoWj scraped out from the flooring of the 
 hut, and thrown up around the rude habita- 
 tion. A blazing fire is kept in the interior, 
 the smoke of which passes through an aper- 
 ture left in the top, and the weary hunters, 
 after partaking of refreshment, and thawing 
 off the icicles from their buskins, roll them- 
 selves up in their blankets, and lie down|to 
 rest upon the pine boughs surrounding their 
 blazing j^fire. Within four or five days, usu- 
 ally, the party of hunters will have gathered 
 together as many skins of the animals slain 
 as they can well carry, and they then take up 
 their trail homeward. The carcasses of the 
 slain, with the exception of the caribou and 
 bear, are left to be devoured by other ani- 
 mals, that are always prompt to scent the car- 
 nage, themselves perhaps to be subjected to 
 a similar fate on the encampment of the next 
 party of hunters in the neighborhood. 
 
 It is not necessary, perhaps, for me to give 
 a description of the forest animals of New- 
 foundland, as they are not dissimilar to those 
 of the northern parts of the United States 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLANP. 55 
 
 and Canada. The black and brown bears of 
 Newfoundland grow to a large size, not un- 
 frequently weighing three or four hundred 
 pounds. The moose and deer, formerly very 
 plenty, are gradually thinning off, and should 
 the industry and zeal of the inhabitants keep 
 pace with the demands of the traders for skins 
 and furs, half a century may not elapse be- 
 fore the wild animals will become as scarce 
 in Newfoundland, as they now are in the 
 middle states of the Union. 
 
 In the early settlement of all countries, the 
 fishery and the chase are naturally the chief 
 objects of attraction. The natives being un- 
 acquainted with the value of furs, immense 
 quantities are procured from them for articles 
 of little or no value. The exchange which 
 they make of their rude botvs and traps for 
 fire arms, also contributed in the early settle- 
 ments to establish a regular commerce be- 
 tween the Europeans and natives ; and grad- 
 ually those hordes which nature intended for 
 the subsistence of the red man, have perished, 
 race after race, until many of the most noble 
 and majestic animals have become entirely 
 extinct. 
 
 Princely fortunes have been amassed by 
 d3 
 
56 FIVE MONTHS IJ? LABRADOR 
 
 residents on the shores of Newfoundland, 
 who practised towards the Indians of that 
 island the same frauds and chicanery, which 
 lie at the foundation of the overgrown wealth 
 of some of the fur-trading millionaries in the 
 United States. Many anecdotes illustrating 
 the oppression of the traders towards the na- 
 tives, were related to me. But the narrative, 
 to those acquainted with the history of our 
 own country, and the wrongs we have syste- 
 matically inflicted upon the aborigines, need 
 not be recited. — When quite a lad, and hv- 
 ing on the borders of one of the most beau- 
 tiful of American rivers, I used to hear sto- 
 ries told of the traffick of our fathers with 
 the red men, the morality of which I could 
 scarcely comprehend. The untutored sav- 
 age, eager to possess some trifling bauble, a 
 gun, or perchance a jug of rum, would en- 
 gage to pay the price in furs, the weight of 
 which was to be ascertained by the English- 
 man's standard of avoirdupois — in which the 
 hand of the trader weighs one pound, and 
 his ybo^ two ! In this species of fur-trading 
 sagacity, the European residents at Newfound- 
 land are not a whit behind their brethren of 
 Yankee land. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 57 
 
 Hunters are proverbially fond of recount- 
 ing their exploits. Like old sailors, who have 
 encountered perils without number, they have 
 long yarns to spin out, whenever they get 
 comfortably seated by a warm fire, with a 
 stiff mug of whiskey, or the never-forgotten 
 pipe of tobacco, to warm them into loquacity. 
 They love to tell children and young people 
 of their hair-breadth-escapes from the claws 
 of the panther or catamount, and from the 
 uncomfortable hug of the huge black bear. 
 I recollect how I used to sit upon the knee 
 and listen to the tales of an old hunter, who 
 settled in the interior of New-Hampshire 
 some seventy years since, and who then had 
 literally no neighbor for many miles, while 
 the territory he had pitched upon, was in the 
 hitherto undisputed possession of catamounts^ 
 wild-cats, bears and wolves. His tales are 
 still fresh in my recollection, and they ena- 
 bled me to tell my share of the stories of 
 hunting adventures, while spending a few 
 hours in the hunter's cabin at Newfoundland. 
 
 The enthusiasm of these hunters, and their 
 descriptions of the wild and wooded regions 
 in which they caught their game, excited my 
 curiosity to visit the interior. I prevailed on 
 
58 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOft 
 
 one of my companions in the voyage to ac- 
 company me in the proposed excursion ; and 
 we started off in high glee towards the rug- 
 ged hills that lie back some miles from Boone 
 bay. We soon got among the mountain de- 
 files, and taking certain points as land-marks 
 for our return, we plunged into the forest. 
 We passed now and then a jungle of matted 
 firs, where the ravines wound round the base 
 of the hills. Once or twice we got plump 
 into a quagmire at the base of a cliff, where 
 the earth was kept soft and moist by springs 
 issuing from fissures in the rock. But being 
 resolved to ascend so that we could overlook 
 the harbour of Boone bay, we scrambled on- 
 wardj " over brake and over briar," climbing 
 cliff after cliff, until I grew weary, and threw 
 myself down upon a green spot by the side 
 of a gigantic old trunk of a fir, which per- 
 haps had withstood the blasts of centuries, 
 before it decayed in its branches, and fell like 
 an aged man to mingle with the dust. I 
 know not that I ever saw in this country a 
 specimen of the fir tree at all to be compared 
 with the decaying trunk, on which I was at 
 this time resting and recruiting my strength. 
 Could I have got at them, I would have count- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 59 
 
 ed the grains, and marked the exact age of 
 this old settler in the forests of Newfoundland. 
 But while I was thus musing, my compan- 
 ion, more agile, or less fatigued than myself^ 
 pushed onward, and had gone entirely beyond 
 the reach of my voice. I followed with as 
 good grace as I could for a laggard ; but could 
 hear no sound in answer to my oft repeated 
 calls, except the reverberation of tha echoes 
 — and these, amid the solitudes of a forest, 
 only serve to make the traveller feel more 
 sensibly his loneliness. I began to fear that 
 my companion, or myself, were out of the 
 course of the trail we had agreed to follow, 
 but at lensjth, on emerojinDj from the skirt of 
 the forest surroundincj the heiojht which we 
 had marked out for our ascent, I discovered 
 my comrade quietly resting on the summit of 
 the mountain, which he had reached an hour 
 before me. Beyond this height, which was 
 perhaps five or six hundred feet above the 
 level of the bay, we had not the courage to 
 venture. The scenery about us, was exceed- 
 ingly wild. The mountains are piled together 
 in apparent disorder, overlapping and abut- 
 ting upon each other. In front of us, we had 
 the harbor in full view, and the houses of the 
 
60 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 inhabitants. Here and there was to be seen 
 a patch of beautiful green pasturage — and 
 abroad through the gorges of the mountains 
 were seen the dark foliage of the evergreens, 
 through which the lofty birch reared upward 
 its white trunk, overtopping the dense mass 
 of green beneath. A sort of stinted or scrag- 
 gy mountain alders bristled upon the edges 
 of the precipices — all the trees lessening in 
 size, the higher upward they were noticed 
 among the mountains. For miles in the in- 
 terior, these mountains lay one above anoth- 
 er, and on the summits of those most distant, 
 snow and ice continue from year to year, per- 
 haps from age to age. 
 
 From the time of our departure, we had 
 not noticed a wild animal of any description, 
 although we were directly in the usual trail of 
 the hunters ; and we began to think there 
 could not be much sport in the neighborhood 
 after all, and were glad that we had not en- 
 cumbered ourselves with fire-arms. Good 
 and trusty knives, each of us had, and we 
 were as valiant as most men usually are out 
 of the reach of danger. The day now began 
 to wane, and we started homeward ; but had 
 proceeded a few hundred yards only, when 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 61 
 
 we heard a rushing among the bushes, and 
 cracking of sticks, as of some wild animal, 
 hovering on our path, to take advantage of 
 our want of deadly preparation. We now 
 began to fear foul play — and to concert plans 
 of operation — for there was evidently some 
 enemy near, whom it was our duty to circum- 
 vent if possible. Take him, we could not, 
 if he should happen to prove one of the brown 
 bears of the island, for they are good fight- 
 ers, having an instinctive dislike to the biped 
 race ; and unless better skilled than we then 
 were in the use of the knife, he would prob- 
 ably have mastered a couple such as we were. 
 My comrade grew pale with aflfright, and step- 
 ping close up to me, and asking in a low 
 voice, '' if we had not better scratch gravel?^ 
 he actually took to his heels, like one bereft 
 of his wits, before I had time to reply to his 
 ludicrous question. Over the rocks, dow^n 
 precipices, and through the bushes, my friend 
 sped as fast as his legs would carry him, look- 
 ing neither to the right nor left, until some 
 half mile onward, his foot tripping, he pitch- 
 ed headlong into a quagmire ! — I was so di- 
 verted with his consternation and flight that I 
 had no leisure to be frightened myself, and 
 
 p3 
 
62 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 by the time I overtook him, all danger w^as 
 past, if indeed there had been any. My 
 friend's dress was a light gray, and at a dis- 
 tance so very nearly resembled the color of 
 the bushes, that I could distinguish nothing 
 but his broad-brimmed tarpauhn as he dashed 
 away through the thickets. When I cam6 
 up with him, I found he had crawled out 
 from his miry bed, a good deal more fright- 
 ened than hurt. After cleansing himself as 
 well as he could from the mud and filth, and 
 poking out his tarpaulin from the mire, we 
 jogged on towards the harbour, and soon had 
 about us a company of jovial fellows, making 
 themselves merry at our expense. 
 
 The reader of these pages will perceive, 
 that I do not attempt any thing like a regular 
 journal of travels and adventures. This at 
 best would be dry and uninteresting. Nei- 
 ther can it be expected, that during a resi- 
 dence of a few weeks on such an island as 
 Newfoundland, I should be able to add ma- 
 terially to the mass of information already 
 before the world. My object is to give my 
 impressions of scenes that passed under my 
 observation, and convey to the reader a faith- 
 ful delineation of the general appearance of 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 63 
 
 the island, and the manners and customs of 
 the inhabitants. I am encouraged to do this, 
 in the hope that it may prove of some trifling 
 benefit to the pubhc, inasmuch as there are 
 in all the published accounts which I have 
 seen respecting Newfoundland, great inaccu- 
 racy and imperfection. 
 
 Among all nations, savage or civilized, 
 some sort of ceremony has usually attended 
 ing their marriage contracts. None are so 
 debased but they deem some formality and 
 publicity necessary ; and in proportion as the 
 parties are civilized and enlightened, has the 
 rite become sacred, and been solemnized by 
 the sanctions of religion. The shore inhab- 
 itants of this island, as has already been seen, 
 are far from being enlightened ; yet they con- 
 sider that no marriage would be binding,|un- 
 less the customary formality attended it, al- 
 though the presence of a magistrate or eccle- 
 siastic is by no means deemed essential. 
 When the young couple have agreed upon 
 the nuptial ceremony, the prevailing custom 
 here is to give an entertainment, at which all 
 who hear of the preparations, consider them- 
 selves invited. At the time appointed, some 
 one of the number, who has a goodly pres- 
 
64 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 encG) and suitable voice, is selected to per- 
 form the office of clergyman. He is decked 
 out with clothes resembling those of an En- 
 glish curate in full dress, and puts on a mock 
 gravity for the occasion. The parties and 
 witnesses being all arranged about the room, 
 the officiating parson enters with a stately 
 step, and enjoining strict silence and atten- 
 tion upon the company, proceeds to join the 
 young candidates in matrimonial bond». This 
 is generally done in words similar to those in 
 use amongst us. The mock parson concludes 
 the ceremony by a long extempore address, 
 touching the various duties of the marriage 
 state, usually delivered in a vein of broad hu- 
 mor, that very often ends in loud and boister- 
 ous merriment. Should the parson prove 
 dull and uninteresting in this part of the cer- 
 emony, he becomes the subject of the rude 
 jests of the company ; and, on the contrary, 
 should he carry his coarse jokes too far, so as 
 to offisnd the not over-scrupulous delicacy of 
 the females present, they fall upon him, and 
 strip him of his clerical robes, which is look- 
 ed upon as a sort of signal for all sorts of fun 
 and revelry. As was the fashion in the by- 
 gone days of New-England, the guests par- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 65 
 
 take freely of intoxicating liquors ; and a feast 
 is served up at t he conclusion, composed of 
 such delicacies as the ability of the parties 
 enables them to provide — generally a cod's- 
 head chowder, or boiled salmon, roasted ven- 
 ison, or raccoon. The concluding part of 
 the ceremony would be considered highly im- 
 proper amongst a better educated people — 
 but is nevertheless a common custom on the 
 island. As soon as the married pair have re- 
 tired to rest, as many of the guests as are 
 fond of the sport, prepare themselves with 
 -small bags, ten or fifteen inches in length, in- 
 4o which they pour a quantity of peas or 
 beans, and with these in their hands, they 
 burst into the room, and dance round the 
 bridal bed, shaking their bags of peas, and 
 sometimes beating them with sticks, and sing- 
 ing coarse and vulgar songs. The ordeal is 
 one which the young married folks would 
 gladly avoid — but custom among such a rude 
 people is stronger than law. They must bear 
 the infliction patiently ; and the night often 
 wears away before their tormentors get tired 
 of the revelry, and wend their way homeward. 
 Rude as are these ceremonies, the inhabit- 
 ants look upon them as binding — and as sa- 
 e1 
 
66 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 credly regard their covenants made under 
 such sanctions, as though made under the 
 forms of civil or ecclesiastical law. The read- 
 er will understand, that the customs I have 
 been describing are those of the shore inhab- 
 itants of Newfoundland — a mixed population 
 of all nations, generally very ignorant, but 
 living together in comparative peace and reg- 
 ularity, without the ordinances or observances 
 of religion or of law. A great portion of 
 their time is spent either upon the water, or 
 in the forests ; and the instinct of self-preser- 
 vation, and certain regulations as to hunting 
 and fishing, which all savages as well as en- 
 lightened people tacitly submit to, keep 
 them in a state of general quiet and good 
 neighborhood. They are naturally kind and 
 hospitable towards one another — are by no 
 means deficient in natural sagacity — and need 
 only the steady and sure aids of cultivation 
 and of religious instruction, to make them as 
 useful and respectable as the wealthy traders 
 and factors, who come from Europe to spend 
 a few years on the island, and grow rich upon 
 the labors and industry of these poor people. 
 The reader should not be led to suppose, 
 from the facts here stated, that Newfoundland 
 
AND NEWFOUx\DLAND. 67 
 
 is without law. On the contrary, the moth- 
 er country, here as elsewhere in all her pos- 
 sessions, maintains her power. But the na- 
 tives of the interior, and the shore inhabitants 
 of whom we have been speaking, are called 
 upon neither to pay taxes nor tithes ; and so 
 long as they refrain from public violence and 
 interference with the wealthier and aristocrat- 
 ic classes — so long as they are content to be 
 peaceable hewers of wood and drawers of wa- 
 ter to the '^ upper ranks in society" — and sub- 
 mit to the exactions of the traders — they are 
 let alone by the authorities both in church and 
 state ! It is a rare thing to see a civil magis- 
 trate leaving his stately dwelling in St. Johns, 
 or Placentia, to go among these rude people, 
 to protect the innocent, or punish the guilty. 
 It might soil the ermine of these dignitaries 
 to come in contact with these poor fishermen, 
 and skin-clad hunters ! They are consequent- 
 ly left to settle their own disputes in their own 
 way, without interference or oversight on the 
 part of the magistracy. An armed sloop is, 
 however, annually sent round to the different 
 ports of the island, having admiralty officers 
 and acting magistrates on board, who make 
 inquiries into the state of public affairs — and 
 
68 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 this show of governmental supervision is the 
 extent in most cases of their pubUc superin- 
 tendance. Whenever disputes arise among 
 the inhabitants, that are not otherwise settled, 
 or explained, to the satisfaction of the parties 
 and iheir friends, a regular knock-down en- 
 sues, in which he who is stoutest wins the 
 cause — but the conquerer is sometimes oblig- 
 ed to " foot the bill of costs," by giving the 
 vanquished party and the witnesses attending, 
 as much liquor as they choose to drink 1 
 Black eyes, and broken heads, are consequent- 
 ly matters of no very rare occurrence. 
 
 In their families and intercourse with one 
 another, these people are kind, companiona- 
 ble, and benevolent. In cases of sickness, 
 or difficulty of any kind, they will go miles to 
 watch by the bedside of a suffering friend, or 
 to aid him in any time of want or peril. The 
 stranger approaching their habitations, is aU 
 ways Vv^elcomed with kindness, and if his de- 
 portment among them is exemplary, they urge 
 him to prolong his stay, and kindly offer to 
 instruct him in all the mysteries of fishing and 
 the chase. 
 
 They are extravagantly fond of the canine 
 race — and the noble animal known as the 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 69 
 
 Newfoundland dog, may be said to be almost 
 necessary to their existerlCe. Every family 
 h^s One or more of them. He is an inmate 
 of the hut, and fares almost as well as the 
 children of the family. Whenever the little 
 ones go lo their sports, the dog accompanies 
 them, watches them while at play, and escorts 
 them safely home. Should one of thelittle 
 urchins fall into the water, the dog will rescue 
 him from drowning ; and the habits and ser- 
 vices of the faithful animal endear him to ev- 
 ery inhabitant of the island. This dog, of 
 the genuine Newfoundland breed, has a re- 
 markably pleasing countenance, is exceeding- 
 ly docile, and of great size and sagacity. 
 They are so strong, that th-e inhabitj^nts often 
 yoke them in pairs to a light sledge^ and in 
 the winter haul their wood from the forests 
 three or four miles in th€ interior. In the 
 performance of this task^j^ they are so expert 
 as to need no drivers. After having deliver- 
 ed their load, they will return to the woods 
 if their masters remain, and are then reward- 
 ed with something to eat. The feet of this 
 dog are more palmated than those of other 
 species, which structure enables it to swim 
 very fast, to dive easily, and bring up any 
 
 rl 
 
70 FIV^E MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 thing from the bottom of the water. It isj 
 indeed, almost as fond of the water as if it 
 were an amphibious animal. So sagacious is 
 it, and so prompt in lending assistance, that 
 it has saved the lives of numberless persons, 
 who were on the point of drowning ; and this 
 circumstance, together with its uniform good 
 temper, has justly rendered it a universal fa- 
 vorite^ 
 
 Innumerable anecdotes are related of the 
 sagacity of the Newfoundland dog, one of 
 which I will mention. A short time before 
 I visited the island, a little child belonging to 
 a family living but a few rods distant from the 
 shore, strayed away and climbed up on one 
 of the fish stages, that are built to overhang 
 the water, so that in dressing the fish the of- 
 fals may be swept off into the sea. The lit- 
 tle fellow in running about on the stage, ac- 
 cidentally fell off into the water, where it was 
 twelve feet deep. The old dog, who had 
 been snoozing away upon the shore, the in- 
 stant he heard the splash in the water, jump- 
 ed in after the child, and seizing it by its 
 clothes, dragged the little suffer out of the 
 water, and leaving it, ran to the door of the 
 house, and setting up a dismal howl, at once 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 71 
 
 alarmed the mother of the child. Following 
 the dog, who bounded back to the object of 
 its care, she found that her child was saved, 
 and clasped him to her bosom. 
 
73 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Extent of the fisheries. — ^Rights of the Americans. — .Tribute 
 to the cJiaracter of New-England fisfeermen. — Herring 
 fishery. — Cod fishery upon the banks. — Coast and shore 
 fisheries. — Statistics. — Graves of fishermen. 
 
 The fishery, covering the banks which sur- 
 round the island of Newfoundland, the coasts 
 of New-England, Nova Scotia, the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, and Labrador, furnishes the 
 richest treasure, and the most beneficent trib^ 
 ute that the ocean pays to earth. By the 
 pleasure of the Creator, it has been constitu- 
 ted one fishery, extending in the open seas 
 that surround that island to little less than five 
 degrees of latitude from the coast, spreading 
 along the whole northern coast of this conti- 
 nent, and insinuating itself into all the bays, 
 creeks and harbors, to the very borders of the 
 shores. For the full enjoyment of an equal 
 share in the fishery, it is necessary to have a 
 nearly general access to every part of it. 
 The habits of the game which it pursues be- 
 ing so far migratory, that they are found at 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 73 
 
 different periods most abundant at different 
 places, sometimes populating the banks, and 
 at others swarming close upon the shores. 
 The latter portion of the fishery, however, 
 has always been considered as the most val- 
 uable, inasmuch as it affords the means of 
 drying and curing the fish immediately after 
 they are caught, which cannot be effected up* 
 on the banks. 
 
 By the law. of nature, this fishery belonged 
 to the inhabitants of the regions in the neigh- 
 borhood of which it was situated. By the 
 conventional law of Europe, it belonged to 
 the European nations which had formed set- 
 tlements in these regions. France,as the first 
 principal settler in them, long claimed the ex- 
 clusive right to it. Great-Britain, at lengthy 
 moved in no small degree by the value of the 
 fishery itself, made conquest of all those re- 
 gions from France, and Hmited by treaty with- 
 in a narrow compass the right of France to 
 any share in the fishery. Spain, under some 
 claim of prior discovery, for some time enjoy- 
 ed a share of the fishery upon the banks, but 
 renounced it prior to the American revolution. 
 
 The right of the Americans to a participa- 
 tion in these fisheries is as sacred as that of 
 
74 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 the subjects of Great Britain. By an act of 
 parliament, passed during the reign of Ed- 
 ward VI. in 1547, the Newfoundland fishery 
 was declared an unlicensed fishery, free to all 
 the inhabitants of the realm. The war of 
 our revolution did not abrogate the right; or 
 if it did, the treaty of 1783 expressly recog- 
 nized and acknowledged it. It is a right of 
 inestimable value to the people of the United 
 States. According to Seybert's Statistics, in 
 1807, there were more than seventy thousand 
 tons of American shipping employed in the 
 cod-fishery alone. In that and the four pre- 
 ceding years, according to the same writer, 
 the exports from the United States of the pro- 
 ceeds of the fisheries, averaged three millions 
 of dollars a year. In 1816, soon after the 
 war, there were upwards of sixty-eight thou- 
 sand tons employed, and in 1836, more than 
 a hundred thousand. These fishing vessels 
 are navigated by the hardiest, most skilful and 
 best mariners in the world. Every person, 
 (says Dr. Seybert) on board our fishing ves- 
 sels, has an interest in common with his asso- 
 ciates ; their reward depends upon their in- 
 dustry and enterprise. 
 
 To the immense number of men engaged 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 75 
 
 in these employments, and to their wives and 
 children, the cod-fishery is their daily bread, 
 their property, their subsistence. To how 
 many thousands more are the dangers and la- 
 bors of their lives subservient ? Their game 
 is not only food and raiment to themselves, 
 but to millions of other human beings. 
 
 One of the most distinguished of Ameri- 
 can statesmen pays the following glowing 
 tribute to the fishermen of America. "There 
 is something in the very occupation of fisher- 
 men, not only beneficent in itself, but noble 
 and exalted in the qualities of which it re- 
 quires the habitual exercise. In common 
 with the cultivators of the soil, their labors 
 contribute to the subsistence of mankind, and 
 they have the merit of continual exposure to 
 danger, superadded to that of unceasing toil. 
 Industry, frugality, patience, perseverance, 
 fortitude, intrepidity, souls inured to perpet- 
 ual conflict with the elements, and bodies 
 steeled with unremitting action, ever grap- 
 pling with danger, and familiar with death — 
 these are the properties to which the fisher- 
 man of the ocean is formed by the daily labors 
 of his life. These are the properties for 
 which He who knew what was in man, the 
 
 i.'3 
 
76 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 Saviour of mankind, sought his first, and 
 found his most faithful, ardent, and undaunt- 
 ed disciples, among the fishermen of his coun- 
 try. In the deadliest rancours of national 
 wars, the examples of later ages have been 
 frequent of exempting, by the common con- 
 sent of the most exasperated enemies, fish- 
 ermen from the operation of hostilities. Nor 
 is their devotion to their country less conspic- 
 uous than their usefulness to their kind. 
 While the huntsman of the ocean, far from 
 his native land, from his family, and his fire- 
 side, pursues, at the constant hazard of his 
 life, his game upon the bosom of the deep, 
 the desire of his heart is, by the nature of his 
 situation, ever intently turned towards his 
 home, his children, and his country. To be 
 lost to them, gives their keenest edge to his 
 fears ; to return with the fruits of his labors 
 to them, is the object of all his hopes. 
 
 " By no men upon earth have these quali- 
 ties and dispositions been more constantly 
 exemplified than by the fishermen of New- 
 England. From the proceeds of their peril- 
 ous and hardy industry, millions have been 
 added to the exports of the United States. 
 This is in fact, so much national wealth ere- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 77 
 
 ated by the fishery. With what branch of 
 our commerce is it unconnected ? Into what 
 artery or vein of our political body does it 
 not circulate wholesome blood? To what 
 sinew of our national arm has it not impart- 
 ed firmness and energy? The fishermen du- 
 ing our late war were upon the ocean, and 
 upon the lakes, fighting the battles of their 
 country. Turn back to the records of the 
 revolution — ask Samuel Tucker, himself one 
 of the number, a living example of the char- 
 acter common to them all, what were the 
 fishermen of New-England, in the tug of war 
 for independence ? Appeal to the heroes ot 
 all our naval wars — ask the vanquishers of 
 Algiers and Tripoli — ask the redeemers of 
 our citizens from the chains of servitude, 
 and of our nation from the humiliation of 
 annual tribute to the barbarians of Africa — 
 call on the champions of our last struggle 
 with Britain — ask Hull, and Bainbridge — ask 
 Stewart, Porter and Macdonough, what pro- 
 portion of New-England fishermen were the 
 companions of their victories, and sealed the 
 proudest of our triumphs with their blood !" 
 It has been justly observed, that he v^lio 
 draws a cod fish from the sea, gives a piece 
 
78 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 of silver to his country. The effect of the 
 fisheries upon the trade and wealth of the 
 country, and the influence it has upon its des- 
 tinies, are not generally understood or real- 
 ized. As a nursery for seamen, its influence 
 has already been seen in the character of our 
 navy — and an inspection of the annual ton- 
 nage statements of the treasury, will show 
 what a mine of wealth these fisheries are to 
 the Union. 
 
 The shores, the creeks, the inlets of the Bay 
 of Fundy, the Bay of Chaleurs, and the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence, the Straits of Bellisle, and 
 the Coast of Labrador, appear to have been 
 designed by the God of Nature as the great 
 ovarium of fish : — the inexhaustible reposi- 
 tory of this species of food, not only for the 
 supply of the American, but of the Europe- 
 an continent. At the proper season, to catch 
 them in endless abundance, httle more of ef- 
 fort is needed, than to bait the hook and pull 
 the line, and occasionally even this is not 
 necessary. In clear weather, near the shores, 
 myriads are visible, and the strand is at times 
 almost literally paved with them. 
 
 The herring fishery is one of the different 
 branches of business on the coasts of New- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. "^y 
 
 foundland and Labrador, subsidiary, however, 
 to the other and more productive employ- 
 ments of the fishermen. Of all migrating 
 fish, the herring take the most adventurous 
 voyages. They are found in the greatest 
 abundance in the high northern latitudes. 
 The quantity of insect food which the north- 
 ern seas provide is very great, whence, in that 
 remote situation, and defended by the rigour 
 of the climate, they hve and multiply beyond 
 expression. They annually appear about the 
 bays and harbours of Newfoundland by the 
 middle of May, usually in myriads. The wa- 
 ter seems alive with them, and their phalanx, 
 in extent, depth, and closeness, sometimes 
 covers an extent of shore as broad as the 
 island itself. Sometimes they sink for the 
 space of five or ten minutes, then rise again 
 to the surface, and in bright weather, reflect 
 a variety of splendid colors, like a field be- 
 spangled with purple, gold and azure. The 
 herring are pursued by hordes of enemies, 
 that tliin off their squadrons. The fin fish 
 and the cacholet swallow barrels at a yawn ; 
 the porpoise, the grampus, the shark, and the 
 whole numerous tribe of dog-fish, when the 
 shoals of herring appear, cease their war up- 
 
so FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 on each other, and make them an easy prey. 
 Flocks of sea-fowl are also seen to hover 
 over them, and destroy great numbers. The 
 herring thus pursued, crowd close together, 
 like sheep when frightened, and endeavor to 
 save themselves by approaching the shores, 
 and sometimes filling the bays, inlets and har- 
 bours. The fishermen, watching their pro- 
 gress, are prepared to give them a proper re- 
 ception, and by nets made for the purpose, 
 take hundreds of barrels at a draught. These 
 shoals of herring appear in the spring and 
 fall ; those taken in the latter season, in Au- 
 gust and September, being usually barrelled 
 and preserved. The spring herring are prin- 
 cipally taken to be used for bait in the cod- 
 fishery. 
 
 The Bank Fishery is carried on in vessels 
 generally from 60 to 100 tons burthen and 
 manned with eight or ten men each. They 
 commence their voyages early in March, 
 and continue in this employment until the 
 last of October, in which time they make two 
 and sometimes three fares to the United States, 
 bringing their fish home to be cured. The 
 produce of their trips,|if successful, after 
 paying the shoresmen the expense of making 
 
AND X^EWPOUNDLAND. 81 
 
 or curing, generally furnishes a sufficient 
 quantity of dried fish to load the vessel for 
 Europe. Those vessels employed in the cod 
 fishery require cables of from 160 to 180 
 fathoms in length. They must always keep 
 their sails bent to the yards, so as to be ready 
 in case of accident to the cable, or any of 
 those adverse occurrences to which tempests 
 or the casualities incident to anchoring nearly 
 in mid ocean, must expose them. They pur- 
 chase salted clams for bait, which they pro- 
 cure at considerable expense, and take with 
 them from the port whence they sail. They 
 fish night and day, when they find the fish 
 to bite well, which is not always the case, 
 and haul their cod in a depth of water of 40 
 to 60 fathoms. The length of the cod seldom 
 exceeds three feet, and the conformity of its 
 organs is such as to render it nearly indiffer- 
 to the choice of its food. The voracity of its 
 appetite prompts it to swallow indiscrimi- 
 nately almost every substance which it is ca- 
 pable of gorging ; glass and even iron have 
 been found in its stomach ; and by inverting 
 itself it has the power of discharging those 
 indigestible contents. During our fishing on 
 the coast, we often noticed hard substances 
 
82 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 found in the stomach of the cod. Oar 
 supply of fresh bait being nearly exhausted 
 on one occasion, an Irishman on board ex- 
 pressed great concern, as our success had not 
 been very encouraging; "for, said he, "the fish 
 of the straits, be a very different animal from 
 those of the ovvld counthry, for they vi^ill bite 
 the hook." "Ah, Pat; but will they bite with- 
 out bait?" said the captain. " Ah, indade ye 
 wasn't after thinking the Irish cod fools 
 enough for that, was ye !" replied Patrick, and 
 proceeded to explain his apparent blunder,^ 
 concluding it was best after all to "put on the 
 shiners." 
 
 The business of fishing is reduced to a regu- 
 lar system. The fishermen range themselves 
 along the sides of the vessel, each person 
 being provided with lines and hooks. On my 
 first essay at fishing,I proceeded to tie on my 
 hooks. An old fisherman perceiving the awk- 
 ward manner in which I was proceeding, told 
 me the "cod would laugh at such a craft as I 
 was fixing." I threw itaside,a little vexed,and 
 told him I would not be the laughing stock of 
 the fish and fishermen, too; and that if they 
 wanted me to work, they must fix me out 
 with a craft. I was told, however, that it was 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 83 
 
 the duty of each one to provide his own 
 fishing gear. After some httle delay, the old 
 fisherman kindly initiated me into the myste- 
 ries of the " hook and line," and by this time 
 I found out that there was something more to 
 do than "just to tie it on." 
 After catching fish upon the banks, they are 
 headed and opened by the fishermen, who 
 place them in the hold of the vessel in an 
 uncured,and consequently in some degree in a 
 partially perishing state ; and after having 
 obtained a fare, they return with it to the 
 United States, to be cured or dried, and pre- 
 pared for exportation. Before this can be done 
 or they can be landed, the fish is generally 
 more or less deteriorated, becomes softer, and 
 part of it makes an inferior quality of fish, 
 called Jamaica fish. The proportion of this is 
 much greater than it would be, were the fish 
 dried and cured shortly after being taken, as 
 is the case with the Coast and Bay fisheries. 
 
 The Coast and Labrador Fisheries are 
 prosecuted in vessels of from 40 to 120 tons 
 burthen, carrying a number of men, according 
 to their respective sizes, in about the same 
 proportion as the vessels on the Banks. They 
 commence their voyages in May, and get on 
 
84 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 the fishing ground about the first of June, 
 before which time bait cannot be obtained. 
 This bait is furnished by a small species offish 
 called capling, which strike in shore at that 
 season of the year, and are usually followed 
 by immense shoals of cod fish, which feed up- 
 on them. Each vessel selects its own fishing 
 ground, along the coast of the Bay of Ghal- 
 eurs, the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Straits of 
 Bellisle, the coast of Labrador, even as far as^ 
 Cumberland Island, and the entrance of Hud- 
 son's Bay, thus improving a fishing ground 
 reaching in extent over twenty three degrees 
 of latitude. 
 
 In choosing their situation, the fishernn^en 
 generally seek some sheltered and safe harbor 
 or cove, where they anchor in about six or 
 eight fathoms water, unbend their sails, stow- 
 ing them away below, and literally making 
 themselves at home. They dismantle their 
 vessels, and convert them into habitations, at 
 least as durable, and perhaps as comfortable, 
 as those of the ancient Scythians. They then 
 cast a net over the stern of the vessel, in 
 which, from day to day, a sufficient number of 
 capling are caught to supply them with bait. 
 Each vessel is supplied with boats, in number 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 85 
 
 tarying according to the size of the vessel and 
 number of men, each boat manned by two 
 men. They leave the vessel early in the 
 morning, and seek the best ar a sufficiently 
 good spot for fishing, which is frequently 
 found within a few yards of the vessel, and 
 very rarely rnore than one or two miles dis- 
 tant. Here they usually haul the fish, as 
 fast as they can pull their lines ; and some- 
 times the fish have been found so abundant 
 that they could be scooped into the boat 
 without even hook or line. There is no prey 
 of which the cod seems to be so fond as the 
 capling. It is a beautiful little fish, from four 
 to six inches in length, of bright silver color 
 and weighing from one to three ounces. 
 According to the plenty or scarcity of those 
 capling do the fishermen prognosticate the 
 result of their labors. Wherever they appear 
 in schools, the cod is sure to follow in vast 
 numbers — and they have been known to pur- 
 sue the capling in such quantities and with 
 such voracity, as to run in large numbers 
 quite out of the water on to the shores. The 
 boats return to the vessel about nine o'clock 
 in the morning to breakfast, put their fish 
 on board, salt and split them, and after having 
 gI 
 
86 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 fished for several days, in which time the 
 salt has struck sufficiently into the fish first 
 caught, they carry them on shore and spread 
 and dry them on the rocks or temporary 
 flakes. This routine is followed every day, 
 with the addition of attending to such as have . 
 been spread, and carrying on board and stor- 
 ing away those that have become sufficiently 
 cured, until the vessel is filled with dried fish 
 fit for an immediate market,which is generally 
 the case by the middle or last of August. 
 The vessel is then put in trim for the home- 
 ward voyage, and proceeds directly to her 
 destined port. The fish thus caught and 
 cured are esteemed the best in the markets. 
 
 Some of the fishermen cure a part of their 
 fish as they catch them, on the beach, rocks, 
 &,c. and the rest after they return home. 
 And there are many cargoes of dry fish 
 shipped yearly from the coast of Labrador 
 direct for Europe. The usual markets for 
 these fish are in the Mediterranean, where they 
 prefer small fish, and the greater part of all 
 the fish taken up the bay and near Labrador 
 are very small. 
 
 Besides the vessels of larger tonnage which 
 I have already mentioned as engaged in the 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 87 
 
 fisherieSjthere is also a description of vessels 
 called jiggers, or small schooners, of from 30 
 to 45 tons, and carrying four or five hands, 
 that fish in the south channel, on the shoals 
 and Cape Sables. There is still another de- 
 cription of fishing vessels, commonly called 
 Chebacco Boats, or Pink Sterns, of from 10 
 to 28 tons, carrying two men and a boy each. 
 Both these classes fish for the home market 
 and the West Indies, except the very first 
 they take early in the spring, which being of 
 very superior quality are usually sent to the 
 markets in Spain, where they always bring a 
 great price. 
 
 There are also great numbers of vessels 
 employed in the mackerel, shad and salmon 
 fishing. And a late writer estimating the 
 number of American vessels of all descriptions 
 employed in these fisheries and their annual 
 produce, gives the following result : 
 
 Whole number of vessels, 2,332 
 
 Measuring tons, 115,940 
 
 Number of men employed 15,059 
 
 Salt consumed hhds. 265,370 
 
 Quantity of fish taken and cured, 
 
 quintals, 1,353,700 
 
 Barrels of oil made 50,520 
 
OO FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 Barrels of mackerel taken, 50,000 
 
 The facts which I have here taken some 
 pains to embody in relation to the fishing 
 interests of New-England, will serve to give 
 the reader an idea of their great value and im- 
 portance to the country. I trust the account 
 has not proved uninteresting to the reader. 
 
 Great numbers of fishermen have lost their 
 lives in their perilous occupation on these coasts 
 by being overtaken by sudden squalls while 
 out in their boats, or driven by gales far out 
 to sea beyond the reach of succor. At a little 
 distance back from Boone harbor, is a 
 burial ground appropriated to the sepulture 
 of those foreigners who have perished on the 
 coast, and whose bodies were recovered from 
 the ocean. An old weather-beaten board, 
 nailed to the trunk of a fir tree, marks the 
 place of burial ; and I noticed there were 
 inscriptions upon it, nearly defaced, repre^ 
 senting the names and ages of some of the 
 poor fishermen whose remains reposed near 
 the spot. One or more graves were marked 
 by a rude cross, erected by some relative or 
 friend, designating the catholic faith of the 
 individual v/hose death it commemorated, 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 89 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Departure from Boone bay. — Mound near Shallow bay.— 
 Little settlement at Cowhead. — Sails set for Labrador. — 
 Straits of Bellisle. — Islands of ice; their appearance and vast 
 extent. — First view of the Labrador coast. — Sterility of the 
 soil.— Vegetable Productions. — Esquimaux burial place. — 
 Ancient custom towards the sick. 
 
 After two weeks successful operation in 
 fishing in the neighborhood of Boone bay, the 
 capUng becoming less plenty, we found it 
 necessary to leave. Accordingly we took a 
 tug at the '^ crooked iron," and made out to 
 sea. In about eight hours we reached Shallow 
 bay, thirty miles distant and came again to 
 anchor. Our stay here was to be brief, and 
 I hurried off to the shore to make observations. 
 At Cowhead, a little distance from the bay, 
 are a few small huts, inhabited by fishermen. 
 Beyond these and southerly facing the shore, 
 are a few acres of low land, covered with rank 
 grass. Pursuing my way and passing a point 
 of rocks jutting out from the shore, I noticed 
 a sort of mound or embankment, a short dis- 
 tance inland, very much resembling some of 
 2g 
 
90 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 those Indians mounds which are found near 
 the banks of the Ohio river. The embank- 
 ment is about fifteen feet above the level of 
 the water, nearly level upon the top, and thir- 
 ty or forty feet in width ; in length it stretch- 
 es away several hundred feet, and connects 
 with a narrow isthmus that forms a commu- 
 nication between Cowhead and the main 
 land. It thus forms two bays, or harbors, 
 one of which we were moored in, Shallow 
 bay, and the other St Paul's bay. 
 
 On Cowhead there were at the time of my 
 visit, eighteen inhabitants. One family has 
 resided on this spot for forty years. An aged 
 couple, patriarchs of their little flock, reared 
 a large family, who have settled around them, 
 and live by fishing and hunting. They have 
 this little world entirely to themselves. No 
 one molests them — nobody intrudes upon 
 their society ; and they know neither the dis- 
 tinctions which others of their race are striv- 
 ing for, nor care for the wealth which is so 
 eagerly coveted by the mass of mankind. 
 The forests and the deep furnish them with 
 food and raiment ; and, with plenty always 
 before them, they have few wants, and are 
 blessed with almost uninterrupted health, and 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 91 
 
 long life. They are uncultivated and entire- 
 ly uneducated. Not one of them can read 
 or write, and their language is consequently 
 rude. But they are ingenious in every thing 
 concerning the chase and the fishery, and in 
 the dressing of the skins of wild animals, 
 which they use for purposes of dress. 
 
 On the 27th of June, we set sail again, di- 
 recting our course across the Straits of Bel- 
 isle towards Labrador. The wind being fair, 
 and the weather pleasant, our passage proved 
 delightful. The prevailing winds having for 
 some weeks been northerly, the straits were 
 full of masses of ice, some of immense size, 
 and towering up like mountains, rendering 
 our passage at times quite dangerous. These 
 floating islands of ice, called icebergs, are ob- 
 jects of great interest to the beholder. Of 
 the most fantastic forms, and splendid colors 
 as seen from the refraction of the sun's light, 
 the voyager gazes upon them as they wheel 
 slowly by his little vessel, with intense interest. 
 
 The ice which obstructs the navigation of 
 the arctic seas (says a late writer) consists of 
 two very different kinds ; the one produced 
 by the congelation of fresh, and the other by 
 that of salt water. In those inhospitable. 
 
 g3 
 
92 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 tracts, the snow which annually falls on the 
 islands or continents, being again dissolved 
 by the progress of the summer's heat, pours 
 forth nume-rous rills and limped streams, 
 which collect along the indented shores, and 
 in the deep bays enclosed by precipitous rocks. 
 There, this clear and gelid water soon freezes, 
 and every successive year supplies an addi- 
 tional investing crust, till, after the lapse, per- 
 haps, of several centuries, the icy mass rises 
 at last to the size and aspect of a mountain, 
 commensurate with the elevation of the sur- 
 rounding cliffs. The melting of the snow, 
 which is afterwards deposited on such enor- 
 mous blocks, likewise contributes to their 
 growth ; and, by filling up the accidental 
 holes or crevices, it renders the whole struc- 
 ture compact and uniform. Meanwhile the 
 principle of destruction has already begun 
 its operations. The ceaseless agitation of the 
 sea gradually wears and undermines the base 
 of the icy mountain, till at length, by the 
 action of its own accumulated weight, when 
 it has perhaps attained an altitude of a thou- 
 sand, or even two thousand feet, it is torn 
 from its frozen chains, and precipitated, with 
 B. tremendous plunge, into the abyss below. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 93 
 
 This mighty launch now floats like a lofty is- 
 land on the ocean ; till; driven southwards by 
 winds and currents, it insensibly wastes and 
 dissolves away in the wide Atlantic. 
 
 Such I conceive to be the real origin of the 
 icy mountains, or icebergs, entirely similar in 
 their formation to the glaciers which occur 
 on the flanks of the Alps and the Pyrennees. 
 They consist of a clear, compact and solid 
 ice, which has the fine green tint verging to 
 blue, which ice or water, when very pure, and 
 of a sufficient depth, always assumes. From 
 the cavities of these icebergs, the crews of 
 the northern whalers are accustomed, by 
 means of a hose, or flexible tube of canvass, 
 to fill their casks easily with the purest and 
 softest water. Of the same species of ice, 
 the fragments which are picked up as they 
 float upon the surface of the ocean, yield the 
 adventurous navigator the most refreshing 
 beverage. 
 
 It was long disputed among the learned, 
 whether the waters of the ocean are capable 
 of being congealed, and many frivolous and 
 absurd arguments, of course, were advanced 
 to prove the impossibility of the fact. But 
 the freezing of sea water is established both 
 
94 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 by observation and experiment. The prod- 
 uct, however, is an imperfect sort of ice, ea- 
 sily distinguished from the result of a regular 
 crystallization : it is porous, and incompact. 
 It consists of spicular shoots, or thin flakes, 
 which detain within their interstices the 
 stronger brine ; and its granular spongy tex- 
 ture has, in fact, the appearance of congealed 
 syrup, or what the confectioners call water- 
 ice. This saline ice can, therefore, never 
 yield pure water; yet if the strong brine im- 
 prisoned in it be first suffered to drain off 
 slowly, the loose mass that remains will melt 
 into a brackish liquid, which in some cases 
 may be deemed fit for use. 
 
 The fields and other collections of floating 
 ice are often discovered at a great distance, 
 by that singular appearance on the verge of 
 the horizon, which the Dutch seamen term 
 ice-blink. 
 
 It is a stratum of liquid whiteness evident- 
 ly occasioned by the glare of light reflected ob- 
 liquely from the surface of the ice against the 
 opposite atmosphere. This shining streak, 
 which looks always brightest in clear weath- 
 er, indicates, to the experienced navigator, 
 twenty or thirty miles beyond the limit of 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 95 
 
 direct vision, not only the extent and figure, 
 but even the quahty of the ice. The bUnk 
 from packs of ice, appears of a pure vt^hite, 
 vv^hile that which is occasioned by snow fields 
 has some tinge of yellow. 
 
 The mountains of hard and perfect ice are 
 the gradual production, perhaps, of many 
 centuries. Along the western coast of Green- 
 land, they form an immense rampart, which 
 presents to the mariner a subhme spectacle, 
 resembling a^ a distance, whole groups of 
 churches, mantling castles, or fleets under 
 full sail. Every year, especially in hot sea- 
 sons, they are partially detached from their 
 seats, and whelmed into the deep sea. In 
 Davis' Strait, those icebergs appear the most 
 frequent ; and about Disco bay, where the 
 soundings exceed 300 fathoms,masses of such 
 enormous dimensions are met with, that the 
 Dutch seamen compare them to cities, and 
 often bestow on them the familiar names of 
 Amsterdam and Haerlem. They are carried 
 towards the Atlantic by the current which 
 generally flows from the northeast, and after 
 they reach the warmer water of the lower lat- 
 itudes they rapidly dissolve, and finally dis- 
 appear, probably in the space of a few months. 
 
96 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 The blocks of fresh water ice appear black 
 as they float ; but show a fine emerald or 
 beryl hue when brought upon the deck. 
 Though perfectly transparent, like crystal, 
 they sometimes enclose threads or streamlets 
 of air-bubbles, extricated in the act of con- 
 gelation. This pure ice, being only a fif- 
 teenth part lighter than fresh water, must 
 consequently project about one tenth as it 
 swims on the sea. An iceberg of 2000 feet 
 in height would therefore, afteyt floated, still 
 rise 200 feet above the surface of the water. 
 Such perhaps may be considered as nearly 
 the extreme dimensions. Those mountains 
 of ice may even require more elevation at a 
 distance from land, both from the snow which 
 falls on them, and from the copious vapors 
 which precipitate and congeal on their sur- 
 face. But in general they are carried for- 
 ward by the current which sets from the 
 northeast into the Atlantic, where, bathed in 
 a warmer fluid, they rapidly waste and dis- 
 solve. Though large bodies of ice are often 
 found near the banks of Newfoundland, they 
 seldom advance much farther, or pass beyond 
 the 48th degree of latitude. 
 
 Bellisle island is situated opposite the north 
 
AND NEWFOUrsDLAND. 97 
 
 east end of Newfoundland, about equidistant 
 from that and Labrador. It is about twenty 
 miles in circuit, naked and barren, and desti- 
 tute of inhabitants. The shores are bold and 
 rocky, and in some places precipitous, 
 having an appearance of basaltic formation. 
 Shipwrecks have frequently occurred on this 
 island during the dense fogs that at times en- 
 shroud it. About five years since an Ameri- 
 can schooner, benighted in the fog, struck on 
 the rocks, and went down in less than thirty 
 minutes, the crew having barely time to 
 escape with their lives, which they did by 
 clinging to the rocks, and ultimately reaching 
 the shore above. Here they wandered about 
 several days, unable to procure food, except 
 a few roots and herbs with which they con- 
 trived to appease their hunger. The season 
 was rigorous, and they had no clothing sav^ 
 the dresses they had on when shipwrecked^ 
 and those were miserably torn in their Strugs 
 gle to ascend the rocks. Afier remaining 
 some days at this island, and almost despair- 
 ing of rescue, they succeeded in attracting 
 the notice of a fishing vessel, passing through 
 the straits, and were saved from a miserable 
 4eath. 
 
98 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 At the distance of two or three leagues, 
 the coast of Labrador has an appearance of 
 much regularity and evenness, and the 
 dwarfish shrubbery gives it at such a distance 
 some resemblance to a productive and fertile 
 region. But, on nearing the coast, all im- 
 pressions of this sort vanish, and we behold 
 a dreary and barren coast, unmarked by any 
 thing that looks like fertility in any direc- 
 tion. The peninsula of Labrador is between 
 eight and nine hundred miles square, and 
 lies between the 50th and 60th degrees of 
 north latitude. It is bounded southerly by 
 Canada and the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; on 
 the east by the Atlantic ocean ; on the north 
 by Hudson's straits, and on the west by 
 Hudson's Bay. It was discovered in 1496, 
 by some Portuguese navigators, who named 
 it TeiTa de Labrador, or " Ploughman's 
 land," a designation to which it seems to 
 have very little title. 
 
 The whole of this extensive country, as far 
 as it has been explored, is found to be ex- 
 tremely barren and dreary, the surface every 
 where uneven, and covered with large stones ; 
 the mountains devoid of herbage, and pro- 
 ducing at best but a little moss,or a few blight- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 99 
 
 ed shrubs : and the valleys, in some places, 
 full of low crooked trees of the pine and 
 birch species. The southern parts present 
 some appearance of soil that might be im- 
 proved for cultivation, and near some of the 
 deep bays a little timber may be found ; but 
 the prevailing aspect of the v^^hole region is 
 a heap of bare and frightful rocks. The 
 highest mountains extend along the eastern 
 coast, but their elevation is not very great — 
 no where exceeding 3000 feet. There are 
 vast chains of lakes and ponds throughout 
 the country ; but they are not deserving the 
 name of rivers, and are nothing more than 
 the drains from the lakes and ponds of the 
 interior, running on a bed of solid rock,some- 
 times broad, but rarely of any depth. The 
 chmate is extremely rigorous, the winter last- 
 ing about nine months, or from the middle of 
 September to the middle of June. 
 
 The coast of Labrador is remarkable for 
 its bold and precipitous shores. At a place 
 called Lancellen, so named from its natural 
 position, the shore is a bold and precipitous 
 rock formation, two hundred feet or more in 
 height above the water, and extending for 
 some miles on the coast. This bold height is 
 
100 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 surmounted by a wide extent of table land, 
 covered in some places with a peat moss, 
 having resemblance at a distance to green 
 clover, but is worthless, and only covers a cold, 
 barren and thin soil. An arm of the sea puts 
 up between two cliffs on the southerly coastjOn 
 the right of which stands a signal house, oc- 
 cupied by the British during the last war. 
 Near this are the crumbhng remains of an 
 old fort, forming nearly a semi-circle, near 
 which a rude monument pointed out the 
 graves of twelve persons there buried. 
 
 Noticing the very superficial covering of 
 earth beneath which the mouldering bones of 
 these dead men were deposited, I was led 
 to inquire into the reason for such a seeming 
 neglect of suitable burial. The cause Was ex- 
 plained to me, when I was told that the soil, 
 on that part of the coast, was scarcely in any 
 place found to be more than eighteen to twen- 
 ty-four inches deep. The whole peninsula 
 seems to be composed of a solid mass of 
 stone, with only a thin stratum of earth, gath- 
 ered upon its surface during the lapse of ages. 
 I was told that in some instances the dead 
 have been carried miles, in order to find some 
 little hollow, in which the earth was deeper^ 
 
a.ND NEWFOUNDLAND. 101 
 
 or where a thicker covering could be scraped 
 together to form the resting place of the de- 
 parted. This may have led to the custom 
 ■of the natives in that country in burying 
 their dead. I visited an Esquimaux tomb 
 in one of the bays of Labrador. It was lo- 
 <iated upon a little island in the bay, formed 
 by the flood tide. At the ebb, I could reach 
 it without wetting my feet. The sepulchre 
 was composed of a rude pile of stones placed 
 together so as to have a large cavity beneath, 
 and the top being covered by a tall rank grass 
 or sea weed. After removing two tiers of the 
 stone,I could see the bleached and mouldering 
 remains of many of the islanders,in all the va- 
 rious stages of decay. Whole families, one 
 after another answering the final summons, 
 may have been thrown into this rude burial 
 place. 
 
 Among the Esquimaux I was told of anoth- 
 er custom that formerly prevailed, though, 
 since the intercourse of Europeans with them, 
 it has in a measure been overcome. This 
 was, whenever one of the aged of a family 
 had become sick, apparently beyond the hope 
 of recovery, to bury him. He was wrapped 
 up in his rude blankets, and taken to the 
 
102 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 place appointed, usually at some distance from 
 his dwelling. Here the earth would be clear- 
 ed of rubbish, and excavated one or two feet, 
 according to the depth of the soil. The 
 sick man was then stretched upon his earthy 
 bed. Beside him was placed his favorite 
 hunting weapons, or whatever article he was, 
 while in health, in the habit of using, togeth- 
 er with an empty cup, which they supposed 
 he would need in the long pilgrimage before 
 him. A rude arch of stone was then erected 
 over him, carefully laid up so as not to press 
 upon his body, and the whole was covered 
 with a thin coat of earth. Nothing would 
 exasperate them more than to tear open one 
 of these burial places, or rob its inmates of 
 the weapons w^hich were deposited with their 
 remains. Should any one of the tribe be de- 
 tected in such a sacrilege, he would be pun- 
 ished with death, and his whole family shun- 
 ned, as accursed of the whole race. 
 
 Respecting the vegetable productions of 
 Labrador, I can give merely the results of my 
 limited observation. I cannot dwell upon 
 their variety, beauty, or quality, for the whole 
 may be comprised in a meagre list of shrubs 
 and trees of a dwarfish size, and a kind of 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. ~ 103 
 
 moss, and lichen, before mentioned, together 
 with here and there a running vine resem- 
 bling the ivy of New-England. The larg- 
 est in growth are the spruce, and fir, and 
 white birch, which are found in the valleys 
 among the mountains. I noticed a number 
 which were of scores of years standing, yet 
 their trunks had not grown above four ieet 
 from the earth. The body of the tree was 
 from four to twelve inches in diameter, and 
 the top a perfect knot of twigs growing to- 
 gether so as to form a web almost impene- 
 trable to the snow or rain. The tops of some 
 of these firs branch out so as to form a com- 
 fortable shelter beneath, for the hunter when 
 overtaken by a storm, or for wild animals du- 
 ring the winter. These trees are used for 
 fuel, and are cut up root and branch — they 
 burn rapidly, being full of a resinous sub- 
 stance, much harder than the pitch of our 
 common pines. There is another kind of 
 dwarf shrubbery, growing together, and al- 
 most impenetrable, without the use of the 
 hatchet — generally about two feet high. This 
 is also used for fuel in the summer season. 
 The larger trees are found ten or twelve miles 
 in the interior, whence they are drawn on 
 
104 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 sledges upon the snow and ice by teams of 
 the Esquimaux dogs. 
 
 A species of long coarse grass, the wild 
 parsnip, and a variety of other vegetables are 
 found in the deep valleys, where they are shel- 
 tered from the northern blasts^ and nourish- 
 ed by the sun's rays. Another species of 
 grass adapted for the support of the feather- 
 ed tribes, is abundant on the marshes and 
 banks of the lakes and rivers. An herb call- 
 ed Wee-suck-a-pucka, grows in most parts of 
 the country, of which the leaves, and espe- 
 cially the flowers, make a very agreeable kind 
 of tea, much used by the Indians and Euro- 
 peans, not only for its pleasant flavor, but 
 its salutary effects. It has a shght aromatic 
 taste, is considered serviceable in rheumatism, 
 for strengthening the stomach, and promo- 
 ting perspiration. Another herb, named by 
 the natives jack-ashey-puck, resembling the 
 creeping box- wood, is used with tobacco, 
 making it milder and pleasanter in smoking. 
 Several small shrubs are found in the country 
 which bear fruit, the principal of v/hich is 
 called the baked apple berry, so named by 
 the fishermen from its kindred taste to the 
 common baked apple of the states. In com- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 105 
 
 ♦ 
 
 mon seasons, it blossoms about the first of Ju- 
 ly, and is ripe by the latter days of August ; 
 the fruit is of a pale yellow color, soft and 
 juicy. On the 28th of August, I accom- 
 panied the captain of our schooner, and sev- 
 eral others to a large field of this wild fruit 
 in the neighborhood of Red bay, where we 
 had a good feast of this very agreeable sub- 
 stitute for the genuine baked apple. The 
 white inhabitants of Labrador have attempt- 
 ed to cultivate some of the European plants, 
 but succeed in raising only some varieties of 
 turnips and cabbage, on patches of ground 
 manured by the offals ot the fishery, and 
 these productions are esteemed as great deli- 
 cacies. 
 
 Hi 
 
lUO riVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ^ \ nite inhabitants of Labrador ; their character and pursuits, 
 —.Tenure of property. — Animals and birds of the penin- 
 sula. — Eggs on Mecatina isles. — Disputes of the JNova- 
 Scotia and Yankee fishermen. — Manner of taking seals ; 
 and extent of the fishery. — Mode of constructing habita- 
 tions. — Character and occupation of females. — Prevalence 
 of intemperance. — Sagacity and value of the Esquimaux 
 dog. 
 
 As on the shores of Newfoundland, so up- 
 on the coast of Labrador, the Europeans 
 have estabhshed settlements at every point 
 favorable to the great pursuits of fishing and 
 hunting. These settlers, so far as I had op- 
 portunities of forming an estimate of their 
 character, are in general inferior to those of 
 Newfoundland, in capacity, information, and 
 morals. The reader will see at once that I 
 am not placing them very high in the scale 
 of civilization. There are none among them 
 who can read, or write, save the few traders 
 on the coast, and these are in general sadly 
 deficient in mercantile knowledge and honor. 
 The shore inhabitants, in some instances, 
 amass a small property, by fortunately obtain- 
 ing possession of some good sealing post, or 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 107 
 
 fishing stand, and by superior improvements 
 in the accommodations of their cabins, or lit- 
 tle patches of cultivated ground. The ten- 
 ure of soil here is that of the squatters — he 
 who pitches upon a tract, holds it by virtue 
 of possession, and no subsequent interference 
 disturbs his right thus acquired. There be- 
 ing land enough, and all of nearly equal qual- 
 ity, there is little difficulty as to boundaries, 
 and he who wishes to claim a thousand acres 
 as his own, can be as easily gratified as the 
 more humble individual who is content with 
 half a score. 
 
 A good sealing post is ranked as of the 
 most valuable species of property, and is 
 transmitted from one family to another ; and 
 sold, sometimes for a round price. Trespass 
 upon one of these posts, would be severely 
 punished. The more common mode of seal- 
 ing of late years, however, is to fit out ves- 
 sels, and search for these amphibia in the 
 straits and along the Gulf. 
 
 The great employment of these people 
 during the summer months is the seal, whale, 
 cod, and salmon fishery, which they most as- 
 siduously pursue. Indeed th^ir principal 
 means of subsistence are derived from these 
 
108 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 pursuits. Nature has so determined the in- 
 stinct of these various tribes, that they ap- 
 pear in regular succession, «nd consequently 
 the pursuit of one does not necessarily inter- 
 fere with that of another. Immediately after 
 the ice begins to break up in the spring, the 
 shore inhabitants prepare themselves for the 
 pursuit of the seal, usually the most ardu- 
 ous as well as profitable of their annual em- 
 ployments. This lasts about four or five 
 weeks. After this commences the best 
 season for the cod-fishery. The salmon 
 and trout catching next engages attention, 
 and of these there are myriads in all the 
 streams and brooks of Labrador. The fe- 
 males are expert in this business, and as soon 
 as the proper time arrives, they are as active- 
 ly engaged as the males with their hooks and 
 nets. The dog fish is a species taken in large 
 quantities in the latter part of the season, 
 principally for their oil, although the flesh 
 is used in the winter as food for their dogs.' 
 The flesh of the seal is also preserved for sim- 
 ilar purposes. The skin of the dog fish is 
 rough, and when stretched and dried is used 
 as a substitute for sand paper. Some of the 
 finer descriptions are used for the purpose of 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 109 
 
 polishing metal substances, and sharpening 
 edge tools. Portions of the skin of this fish 
 are selected which even give a fine edge to 
 the razor. 
 
 It is not necessary to go into any labored de- 
 scription o/ the animals that are found in the 
 interior of Labrador. They are neither very 
 numerous nor various. Reindeer,whose venison 
 is excellent,are tolerably abundant. Black and 
 white bears are sometimes seen in considerable 
 numbers,especially where the fish.being retard- 
 ed in their progress by the cataracts, are found 
 collected in one place. Wolves, foxes, moun- 
 tain cats, martins, beavers, otters, hares,afew 
 ermines, and a plenty of porcupines, are the 
 principal quadrupeds met with in this dreary 
 region. The seal is an animal too well known 
 to all readers of natural history to need de- 
 scription here. The arctic species are dis- 
 tinguished by their great numbers, and the 
 various or rather universal purposes to which 
 they are applied by the natives. They fur- 
 nish the inhabitant with food for his table,oil 
 for his lampy clothing for his person ; even 
 their bones and skins supply materials for his 
 light portable boats and his summer tents. 
 
 The more permanent feathered inhabitants 
 h2 
 
110 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 X 
 
 <ff Labrador are eagles, hawks, horned owls, 
 and the partridge. Many migratory birds 
 frequent the woods and lakes during the sum- 
 mer and autumn, some of which are remark- 
 able for their beautiful plumage ; but, as soon 
 as the breeding season is past, they seek a 
 happier climate before the approach of win- 
 ter. The curlews are extremely abundant, 
 and when well grown, are excellent food. 
 They appear on the coast in the beginning of 
 autumn in vast flocks, when great numbers 
 are taken by the sportsmen. 
 
 On the Mecatina isles, situate in the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence, and near the Labrador 
 coast, immense flocks of sea-fowl throng, 
 during the warm season, to deposit their eggs. 
 The fishermen not unfrequently gather these 
 eggs by hogsheads, and they have become an 
 article of traffic. The fishermen from Nova 
 Scotia have long claimed these birds nests as 
 their own, and until Yankee enterprise cut 
 in for a share, they enjoyed the whole of the 
 plunder. Disputes often arise between the 
 Yankee and Nova Scotia fishermen as to the 
 possession of these treasures, and on one oc- 
 casion the dispute rose so high, that the 
 " blue noses," as the Nova Scotians are call- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. Ill 
 
 led by Yankee fishermen, fortified themselves 
 with " king's arguments," fire arms, deter- 
 mined to prevent the Yankees from carrying 
 off the eggs. But Yankee cunning is some- 
 times a match for any argument. They knew 
 that these egg islands were usually covered 
 in a dense fog in the morning. They accor- 
 dingly waited off shore in their vessels, until 
 the "blue noses" had gathered together large 
 quantities of eggs upon the shore, ready for 
 packing, and dismissed their hands for the 
 night, as was their custom, intending on the 
 following day to pack their eggs in casks al- 
 ready provided, and take them aboard their 
 vessels. When the morning came, and the 
 fogs had begun to clear up, the " blue noses" 
 found the Yankees had been there before 
 them, and packed and carried off all their 
 eggs. The affair gave rise to some belliger- 
 ent operationSjbut finally resulted in an agree- 
 ment of the parties not to deny to each oth- 
 er a reciprocity in the matter of eggs. And 
 thus this storm blew over, without involving 
 two great countries in war. 
 
 I have spoken of the seal fishery as one 
 of the great employments of these people of 
 the north. Thev are taken for the sake of 
 h3 
 
112 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 their skins and the oil their fat yields. They 
 are said to be capable of being tamed, and 
 to be very fond of music. It is remarked of 
 them, that instead of being terrified at thun- 
 der and lightning, they are rather delighted, 
 generally come on shore in tempests and 
 storms, and even quit their icy abodes to 
 avoid the shock of the tempestuous waves. 
 At such times they sport in great numbers 
 alonor the shore — the elemental conflict se^^ms 
 to divert them, and the heavy rains that fall 
 seem to enliven them. The Icelanders have 
 a curious tradition respectmgthe seals. They 
 believe them to be the oflspring of Pharaoh 
 and his host, who were converted into seals 
 on their being overwhelmed in the Red Sea. 
 Were the race of this creature to cease to ex- 
 ist, the Greenlander would be rendered almost 
 unable to inhabit his rigid clime, as it is par- 
 ticularly from them that he derives the neces- 
 saries of life. 
 
 The manner in which the seal is taken 
 is usually as follows. When the hunter 
 perceives one, he passes the word along in 
 low tones to his nearest companion, who tel- 
 egraphs the signal, till all in the boats are en- 
 gaged in the chase ; and it is seldom possible 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 115 
 
 for their prey to escape. The seal is impetu- 
 ous in disposition, and having once discover- 
 ed his pursuers, he dives repeatedly, and in 
 different directions, to confound them; but 
 becomes at length so short breathed by his 
 hurry, that he cannot remain long out of sight 
 — and as the pursuers are around at various 
 points, watching the favorable moment, one 
 of them paddles along silently in his rear, 
 using the paddle with one hand, while with 
 the other he is getting his tackle in order. 
 Advancing near enough, for he is sure to 
 measure his distance with accuracy, he flings 
 the dart, and scarcely ever fails to strike. The 
 seal, terrified and wounded, dives in the great- 
 est terror ; but a float being attached to the 
 dart by a leathern line, he is soon forced up 
 again, and despatched. 
 
 Another mode of kilhng the seal is to go 
 to the caves on shore, into which hordes of 
 seals occasionally enter. When the sealers 
 are properly stationed, they raise a simulta- 
 neous shout, at which the affrighted animals 
 rush out in great confusion, and are despatch- 
 ed with wonderful quickness by a single blow 
 on the nose struck with a club. They are 
 very tenacious of life, when struck or woun- 
 
114 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 ded on any other part of the body. — The 
 best season for sealing is said to be in the 
 months of March and April. When the 
 boats arrive at the ice, the sealers immedi- 
 ately attack the animals with clubs, and stun 
 them by a single blow over the nose, which 
 mode sometimes enables a single person to 
 destroy a great number. When they are 
 seen on pieces of floating ice, they are hunt- 
 ed by means of boats, each boat pursuing a 
 different herd. Should the seals attempt to 
 leave the ice before the arrival of the boat, 
 the sealers shout as loudly as possible, and 
 produce such amazement in the seals by this 
 uproar as to delay their flight until the boat 
 arrives, and the work of destruction is begun. 
 Where the seals are very numerons, the seal- 
 ers stop not to flay those they have killed, 
 but set off to another ice field to kill more, 
 merely leaving one man behind to take off 
 the skins and fat. When the condition of 
 the ice forbids the use of boats, the hunter 
 is obliged to pursue the seals over it, jumping 
 from piece to piece, until he succeeds in tak- 
 ing one. This is sometimes a horrible busi- 
 ness, since many of the seals are merely stun- 
 ned, and occasionally recover after they have 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 115 
 
 been actually flayed. In this condition, too 
 shockingly mangled for description, they 
 have been seen to make battle, and even to 
 swim off. 
 
 The number of seals destroyed in an ordi- 
 nary season, by the regular sealers, is im- 
 mense. A single ship will sometimes obtain 
 three or four thousand skins, and a hundred 
 tons of oil. Whale ships have accidentally 
 fallen in with and secured two or three thou- 
 sand of these animals in the month of April. 
 The sealing business, however, is extremely 
 hazardous; and many ships with all their 
 crews have been lost by the sudden and tre- 
 mendous storms occurring in the arctic seas, 
 where the dangers are vastly multiplied by 
 the driving of immense bodies of ice. In 
 one storm that occurred in the year 1774, no 
 less than five seal ships were destroyed in a 
 few hours, and six hundred seamen perished. 
 
 As soon as the first snows appear in au- 
 tumn, the inhabitants of Labrador are accus- 
 tomed to leave their fishing grounds, and re- 
 pair to the forests of the interior, in search 
 of game. They are expert sportsmen and 
 trappers, and scarcely ever fail of success, 
 unless when overtaken by one of those sud- 
 
116 nVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 den, and often violent snow-storms which 
 render the pursuits of the hunter perilous in 
 the extreme. 
 
 The vice of intemperance prevails every 
 where among the European settlers of Lab- 
 rador. Scarcely a family can be found among 
 them who do not habitually use intoxicating 
 hquors. Men, women and children alike fall 
 under the curse. It is a prolific source of 
 diseases to the inhabitants, and more or less 
 are cut off every season in the prime of life 
 from its fatal influences. And beside the 
 numbers thus destroyed, there are many in- 
 stances of fishermen lost through intoxica- 
 tion, by being unable to manage their craft, 
 or tumbling overboard in drunken stupor. 
 The following fact was related to me by an 
 inhabitant of Newfoundland, in speaking of 
 the gross intemperance of the shoje inhabit- 
 ants of Labrador. As he was coasting one day 
 up the Gulf, during a rough sea and high 
 wind, he discovered at a considerable distance 
 ahead an object that appeared to be floating 
 without helm or guidance upon the waves. 
 He hove to, in order to ascertain its nature, 
 and soon perceived that it was a large boat, 
 having a man, woman and three children on 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 117 
 
 board. The man, who was afterwards found 
 to be the father of the children, was dead 
 drunk, and the mother so far gone under the 
 influence of liquor that she had no more ap- 
 parent regard for her children tiian for the 
 fish in the depths of the ocean. The eldest 
 of the children was twelve years of age, and 
 the^vii practices of the parents had been fol- 
 lowed by their unhappy offspring, who were 
 evidently unconscious of any danger. The 
 captain of the Newfoundland fishermen kind- 
 ly took them on board, and when they had 
 roused from their stupor, informed them of 
 the peril to which their intemperance had ex- 
 posed tkhem, and admonished them to beware 
 for the future. But for his timely succor, 
 they would inevitably have perished. It ap- 
 peared on inquiry that the party had that 
 morning been out in their boat to purchase a 
 few articles in a neighboring harbor, and that 
 there the trader had plied them well with 
 rum, and fitted them out with their articles 
 in the midst of a gale, heedless whether they 
 perished or not. 
 
 The inhabitants along the shore usually 
 have two dwellings, one for the summer sea- 
 son, and another for the winter ; the former 
 
il8 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 is usually situated on some open and elevated 
 spot, where a free circulation of the air can 
 be had, and the latter is built generally be- 
 neath some shelving rock or precipice, or high 
 hill, exposed as much as possible to the south, 
 and sheltered as far as practicable from the 
 wintry blasts of the north. Most of these 
 are immediately along the shore, and near 
 the water's edge — such situations being less 
 exposed to the violent storms of the arctic 
 winters. The body of the habitation is con- 
 structed of spruce poles placed in the ground 
 about two feet asunder, leaving them about 
 four or five feet in height. These poles are 
 then thatched, or interwoven, basket-fashion, 
 with spruce twigs and saphngs, so compactly 
 as almost to exclude the rain and air. Raft- 
 ers are then extended from each of these 
 body posts or poles, and meeting at the top, 
 form a conical roof, which is thatched in a 
 similar manner, and is then covered with 
 peat moss, which renders the roof perfectly 
 tight and warm. A small aperture is left in 
 the top, for the smoke to escape — ail the rest 
 of the building is made close and tight. 
 Within, the turf and gravel is scraped off, 
 leaving the rocky floor entirely bare and gen- 
 
..ixD NEWFOUNDLAND. 119 
 
 eraliy smooth. This is usually sprinkled with 
 a white sand from the sea shore, and the in- 
 terior thus presents an air of neatness, while 
 the warm fire kept up within renders the cab- 
 in comfortable even in the coldest weather 
 of this inhospitable climate. 
 
 Were the females of Labrador accustomed 
 to no other labor than the mere cooking of 
 food for their families,they would have a large 
 portion of their time to spend in idle employ- 
 ments. But they engage in the hard and la- 
 borious toils of fishing with as much zeal and 
 activity as the males. When the salmon and 
 trout fishing commences, the women and 
 children employ themselves assiduously in the 
 sport, and are often out night and day while 
 the season of this fishery lasts. At the fish 
 stands, while the cod fishery is in the full tide 
 of operation, the women are seen among the 
 most constant and dextrous in dressing the 
 fish, thrown up by the fishermen. Some of 
 these females will dress two or three thousand 
 fish in a single day. In their general appear- 
 ance, form, and features, the females of Lab- 
 rador are inferior to those of New-Foundland 
 — and utterly ignorant as they are of every 
 thing beyond the narrow circle of their hum- 
 
120 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 ble employments, the standard of morals is 
 exceedingly low. Intemperance is a vice al- 
 most as common among the females as males, 
 and where such is the case, no very high 
 value is placed upon the virtues of chastity 
 or morality. The young women are very fond 
 of ornaments, and ingenious in the manufac- 
 ture of work cases and other trinkets from the 
 skins of birds of bright and beautiful plum- 
 age. I saw several of these ingenious speci- 
 mens, and the young ladies who wrought 
 them seemed to be proud of their eflforts, and 
 were highly pleased with the compliments we 
 bestowed upon their ingenuity. 
 
 One mode of travelling during winter pre- 
 vails throughout this country, both amongst 
 the white population and the Esquimaux In- 
 dians. Every family keeps a kennel of dogs. 
 This animal, much valued the world over, 
 is the most important quadruped of the arctic 
 regions, and the most valuable possession of 
 its people, who have succeeded in taming and 
 rendering it equally valuable for draught and 
 for hunting. He assists them to hunt the 
 bear, the rein-deer, and the seal. In winter 
 he is yoked to a sledge, and conveys his mas- 
 ter over the trackless snoW; or hauls home 
 
AND NEWFOTJNDLANDv 121 
 
 the fuel that is to feed the fires of his cabin. 
 The Esquimaux dog does not bark. His ears 
 are short and erect, and his bushy tail curves 
 over his back. His average stature is one 
 foot ten inches, and the length of his body, 
 from the back of the head to the commence- 
 ment of the tail, is two feet three inches. 
 His coat is long and furry, and is sometimes 
 brindled, sometimes of a dingy red, black and 
 white, or wholly black. Some naturahsts 
 consider this race of dogs as descended from 
 the wolf and fox. 
 
 The manner in which these animals draw 
 the sledge, is as follows. The dogs have a 
 simple harness of deer or seal skin, going 
 round the neck by one bight, and another for 
 each of the fore legs, with a single thong lead- 
 ing over the back, and attached to the sledge 
 as a trace. Though they appear at first sight 
 to be huddled together without regard to 
 regularity, there is in fact considerable atten- 
 tion paid to their arrangement, particularly in 
 the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and 
 sagacity, who is allowed by a longer trace, to 
 precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in 
 turning to the left or right, the driver usually 
 addresses himself. This choice is made with- 
 il 
 
122 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 out regard to age or sex, and the rest of the 
 dogs take precedency, according to their train- 
 ing or sagacity, the least effective being put 
 nearest the sledge. The leader is usually from 
 eighteen to twenty feet from the fore part of 
 the sledge, and the hindmost dog about half 
 that distance ; so that when ten or twelve are 
 running together, several are nearly abreast of 
 each other. The driver sits quite low^ on the 
 fore part of the sledge, with his feet over- 
 hanging the snow on one side, and having in 
 his hand a whip,of which the handle is plaited 
 a little way down to stiffen it, and give it a 
 spring, on which much of its use depends; 
 and that which composes the lash is chewed 
 by the women, to make it flexible in frosty 
 weather. The men acquire from their youth 
 considerable expertness in the use of this 
 whip, the lash of which is left to trail along 
 the ground by the side of the sledge, and 
 with which they can inflict a very severe blow 
 on any dog at pleasure. Though the dogs 
 are kept in training entirely by fear of the 
 whip, and indeed, without it, would soon 
 have their own way, its immediate effect is 
 always detrimental to the draught of the 
 sledge ; for not only does the individual that is 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 123 
 
 struck draw back, and skcken his trace, but 
 generally turns upon his next neighbor, and 
 this passing on to the next, occasions a gener- 
 al divergency, accompanied by the usual yelp- 
 ing and showing of the teeth. The dogs 
 then come together again by degrees, and 
 the draught of the sledge is accelerated ; but 
 even at the best of times, by this rude mode 
 of draught, the traces of one third of the 
 dogs form an angle of thirty or forty degrees 
 on each side of the direction in which the 
 sledge is advancing. Another great inconve- 
 nience attending this mode of putting the dogs 
 tOjbeside that of not employing their strength 
 to the best advantage, is the constant entan- 
 glement of the traces, by the dogs repeatedly 
 doubling under from side to side, to avoid the 
 whip ; so that after running a few miles, the 
 traces always require to be taken off and 
 cleared. 
 
 With heavy loads, : the dogs draw best 
 with one of their own people, especially a wo- 
 man, walking a little way ahead ; and in this 
 case they are sometimes enticed to mend 
 their pace by holding a mitten to the mouth, 
 and then making the motion of cutting it 
 with a knife and throwing it on the snow, 
 
124 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten 
 forward to pick it up. The women also entice 
 them from the huts in a similar manner. The 
 rate at which they travel depends of course up- 
 on the weight they have to draw,and the road 
 on which their journey is performed. When 
 the latter is level, and very hard and smooth, 
 constituting what in other parts of the world 
 is called good sleighing, six or seven dogs 
 will draw from eight to ten hundred weight, 
 Bt the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, for 
 several hours together ; and will easily, under 
 these circumstances, perform a journey of 
 fifty or sixty miles a day. On untrodden snow, 
 five and twenty or thirty miles would be a 
 good day's journey. The same number of 
 well fed dogs, with a weight of five or six hun- 
 dred that of the sledge included, are almost 
 unmanageable, and will on a smooth road, 
 sometimes run any way they please, at the 
 rate of ten miles an hour. Their steady em- 
 ployment, however, gradually accustoms these 
 animals to the harness,and they become docile, 
 obedient, and beyond all other animals in such 
 a climate as that of Labrador, useful to the in- 
 habitants. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 125 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Health of Labrador. — Account of the natives.^^Northern 
 Indians ; their manners and customs ; their doctors or con- 
 jurors 5 neglect of the sick and the dead 3 singular tra- 
 ditions. — Description of the dress^manners and customs of 
 the Esquimaux Indians; their habitations ; general improv- 
 idence j superstitious belief; and universal ignorance. 
 
 The inhabitants of Labrador possess one 
 great blessing, of which regions more highly 
 favored in all other respects, are often de- 
 prived. A general and almost universal 
 health naturally pervades the settlements. 
 Were it not for the prevalent vice of intem- 
 perance, few, comparatively speaking, of this 
 hardy race would be cut off in youth or man- 
 hood, but might probably live to a good old 
 age. Many instances were pointed out to 
 me of great longevity, and I frequently urged 
 upon those young men whom I casually met 
 on the shores, the importance of temperance 
 to health and long hfe, and happiness here 
 and hereafter ; but was usually met with some 
 rude jest in reply, or fiat denial of the bad 
 effects of intoxicating liquors. It will be a 
 long time before this destroying and consum- 
 i2 
 
126 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 ing evil will be eradicated from among the 
 inhabitants of Labrador. 
 
 Having more than once alluded to the na- 
 tives of this country, it may be proper that I 
 should give some particulars concerning their 
 habits, manners and customs. Beside the 
 Esquimaux, who are generally a diminutive 
 race, and of peaceful habits, there is another 
 tribe who inhabit the more northerly portions 
 of the continent, and are often at war with 
 the Esquimaux. They are called the moun- 
 taineers, or northern Indians. 
 
 The northern Indians are rather above the 
 middle stature, and well proportioned. Their 
 foreheads are low, eyes small, noses aquihne, 
 high cheek bones, their cheeks fleshy, and 
 chins long and broad. Their complexion is 
 of brown, inclining to a dingy copper color. 
 They subsist chiefly on venison, and gener- 
 ally spend the whole summer in hunting the 
 deer, or catching fish in the rivers or lakes. 
 As they have no dogs like the Esquimaux, 
 and seldom any powder and ball, they make 
 use of their bows and arrows in killing the 
 deer while passing through the narrow defiles 
 of the mountains. The women and chil- 
 dren not unfrequently unite with them in 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 127 
 
 their hunting expeditions. In fishing, which 
 is a favorite employment, they use hooks and 
 nets at all seasons of the year. Their nets 
 are made of thongs cut from raw deer skins, 
 and are furnished with various appendages, 
 such as the bills and feet of birds, the toes and 
 jaws of otters, &c. which are esteemed es- 
 sential to their success. These nets are al- 
 ways used separately, and at a great distance 
 from each other, and on no account would 
 they unite for the purpose of stretching across 
 the channel of a narrow river, because they 
 say one net would become jealous of anoth- 
 er, and would not catch a single fish. In 
 fishing with baits, they are equally supersti- 
 tious, and all the baits which they use are 
 compositions of charms, enclosed within a 
 piece of fish skin, so as to resemble a small 
 fish. These charms are bits of beaver's tails, 
 otter's teeth, muskrat's entrails, curdled milk, 
 human hair, &c. ; and almost every lake and 
 river is supposed to require a peculiar combi- 
 nation of different articles. They often eat 
 their food in a raw state, and frequently from 
 choice, especially in the case of fish, which 
 they seldom dress so far as to warm it thor- 
 oughly. They often pull out the kidneys of 
 i3 
 
128 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 newly slaughtered deer or buffalo, and eat 
 them warm without dressing. They drink 
 the blood as it flows from the wound in the 
 carcase, and account it a most nourishing de- 
 scription of food. 
 
 The clothing of these Indians consists 
 chiefly of the skins of deer, with the hair in- 
 wards ; but for summer months, they use a 
 fine soft leather, prepared from the skins of 
 these animals. The women of this tribe are 
 more the slaves than companions of the men. 
 They possess little beauty even in youth, and 
 become old and wrinkled before they reach 
 the age of thirty. But they are generally 
 chaste, mild and obliging creatures, making 
 even in their degraded condition, the most 
 faithful servants, affectionate wives, and in- 
 dulgent mothers. Among these Indians a 
 plurality of wives is common. Every man 
 takes as many as he is able to maintain : and 
 there are often six or eight in one family. 
 These are changed, or increased in number, 
 at the pleasure of the husband. No cere- 
 monies attend their marriages or divorces. 
 When the husband suspects any one of his 
 wives of incontinency, or is not pleased with 
 her accomplishments, he gives her a sound 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 129 
 
 beating and turns her out of doors, telling 
 her to go to her lover, or relations, as the 
 case may be. It is also a daily occurrence 
 among them to take by force the wives of 
 others vi^hom they may happen to fancy ; and 
 all that is necessary to decide the claim, is to 
 vanquish the former husband in wrestling. 
 On these occasions, the by-standers never at- 
 tempt to interfere ; nor will one brother even 
 offer to assist another, except by giving his 
 advice aloud, which being equally heard,may 
 be equally followed by both the parties en- 
 gaged. When one of them falls, or yields, 
 the other is entitled to carry off the woman, 
 who was the cause of the contention. It is 
 a common custom among them to exchange 
 wives for a time, as one of the strongest ties 
 of friendship between two families ; and in 
 case of the death of either husband, the oth- 
 er considers himself bound to support the 
 children of the deceased. 
 
 Their doctors are a class of conjurers, who 
 impose upon the credulity of their patients; 
 while they really seem to believe in the effi- 
 cacy of their own operations. These con- 
 jurers profess to accomphsh their cures by 
 the aid of certain spirits or fairies,with whom 
 
130 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 they pretend to converse, and whom they of- 
 ten describe as appearing to them under the 
 shapes of beasts, birds, clouds, &-c. They 
 are supposed to be equally able, by means of 
 these supernatural allies, to take away as well 
 as to prolong any one's life ; and when they 
 choose to threaten such a malign influence, 
 to any individual, or family, the imaginations 
 of their victims are so possessed by the con- 
 viction of their power,that the consequence is 
 affirmed to have often proved fatal. Indeed, 
 when any of their principal people die, their 
 death, in whatever way it has taken place, is 
 usually ascribed to some conjuring influence, 
 either of their own countrymen, or of the Es- 
 quimaux. 
 
 They never bury their dead, but leave the 
 bodies on the spot where they expire. They 
 are understood to be generally devoured by 
 wild beasts and birds of prey ; and probably 
 for this reason, the natives will never eat the 
 flesh of foxes, wolves, ravens, &c. unless 
 pressed by necessity. The greatest calamity 
 that can befal one of these Indians, is old age 
 or helplessness. When any one is incapable 
 to labor, he is treated with the greatest neg- 
 lect, and when he becomes too feeble to move 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 131 
 
 from place to place, is abandoned to perish 
 of want. This custom is so general that it 
 is said one half of the aged people of both 
 sexes die in this miserable manner. 
 
 The notions which these Indians entertain 
 in religion are so extremely vague and limit- 
 ed, that they may almost be said to have no 
 ideas at all on that subject. With regard to 
 the origin of the world, they have a tradition, 
 that the first person on earth was a woman, 
 who, after wandering sometime alone, found 
 an animal like a dog, which followed her to 
 the cave where she lived, and transforming 
 itself in the night time into the shape of a 
 handsome youth, rendered her the mother of 
 a family. Some time afterwards, a person of 
 such gigantic stature as to reach the clouds 
 with his head, came to level the land, which 
 had been hitherto a confused heap, and this 
 he effected merely with the help of his walk- 
 ing stick, marking out, at the same time, the 
 lakes, ponds and rivers. He then took the 
 dog, and tearing it in pieces, threw its intes- 
 tines into the waters, commanding them to 
 become fishes; dispersed its flesh over the 
 land, with a similar charge to form the dif- 
 ferent kinds of beasts ; threw pieces of its 
 
132 FIVB MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 skin in the air, to give origin to the feathered 
 tribes ; commanded the woman and her off- 
 spring to kill, eat, and never spare, as he had 
 charged these creatures to multiply for her 
 use ; and then returning to the place whence 
 he came, has never been heard of since. 
 They beheve in the existence of several kinds 
 of spirits, whom they suppose to inhabit the 
 different elements, and to whose influence 
 they attribute every change in their lot,wheth- 
 er favorable or adverse. They have no fix- 
 ed creed, however, in these matters ; but are 
 continually receiving new fables from their 
 conjurers, who profess to receive intimations 
 in dreams from these invisible beings. They 
 have no practical religious observances what- 
 ever, except perhaps the speaking with rev- 
 erence of certain beasts and birds, in which 
 they suppose these spirits reside. 
 
 These Indians are not a warlike people, 
 and notwithstanding their total want of hu- 
 manity towards their aged and suffering rel- 
 atives, they are scarcely ever known to en- 
 gage in any deadly quarrels amongst them- 
 selves, and are not incUned to acts of cruelty 
 except towards the Esquimaux, whom they 
 seem to regard as a common enemy. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 133 
 
 The Esquimaux Indians of Labrador, re- 
 semble the Lapps and Samoides of Europe, 
 as well as the Greenlanders. It is not only 
 in Labrador that this race is found, but they 
 are thinly scattered along the coast, from the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence to the shores of the 
 Arctic Sea, and thence westward to Behring's 
 Strait. These people are distinguished from 
 the American Indians, by their sallow com- 
 plexions, thick bushy beards, low stature and 
 feeble constitution. Their name is said to 
 imply eaters of raw flesh. They have flat 
 countenances, short noses, black coarse hair, 
 and remarkably small hands and feet. They 
 differ from the more inland natives, in having 
 beards, whereas those other tribes have no 
 hair on any part of their bodies except the 
 head. They are very dextrous in hunting 
 ^nd fishing, particularly in catching and kill- 
 ing seals, which are of the utmost importance 
 to them : the flesh supplies them with food ; 
 the fat furnishes oil for lamp light and kitch- 
 en fire, and is also used as sauce for their 
 fish. The oil is also bartered with the fac- 
 tors for all kinds of necessaries. With the 
 fibres and sinews of the seal, they can sew 
 better than with thread or silk. Of the en- 
 
134 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 trails they make their windows, shirts, and 
 the bladders which they use with their har- 
 poons. Even the blood, boiled with other 
 ingredients, is eaten as soup. Formerly, for 
 want of iron, the bones of the seal were man- 
 ufactured into all kinds of instruments and 
 working tools ; and the skin is still used for 
 clothing, and for covering their boats and 
 tents, as well as for many other purposes. 
 
 The clothing of the Esquimaux is compos- 
 ed of the skins of rein-deer, seal, and some 
 kinds of birds, sewed together with the sin- 
 ews of the rein-deer, seal or whale, split so 
 thin as to be adapted to the finest steel nee- 
 dles ; and with these they execute their work 
 with great neatness and ingenuity. The un- 
 der garment, or shirt, is made of the skins of 
 fowls, with the feathers inwards, or some- 
 times of the skin of the rein-deer. Over 
 this shirt, the more wealthy among them 
 wear another garment of fine haired deer 
 skin; but as this article is now extremely 
 scarce, the common people substitute seal 
 skins, with the rough side outwards, the bor- 
 ders and seams being ornamented with nar- 
 row strips of red leather and white dog-skin. 
 Seal-skins are likewise manufactured into 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 135 
 
 drawers, stockings and shoes ; generally rath- 
 er clumsily made, but answering the purpose 
 of protecting the feet from the cold. The 
 outer garment usually reaches about half-way 
 down the thigh, and is sewed round like a 
 wagoner's frock, though neither so long nor 
 so loose. On the top of this is fastened a 
 cap, or hood, to be drawn over the head as a 
 defence against wet and cold. When they 
 travel by sea, a great coat, made of a black 
 smooth seal's hide, rendered water-proof , cov- 
 ers the rest of the dress. 
 
 The only difference of the women's dress 
 from that of the men, is that the jacket of 
 the former has high shoulders and a hood 
 still higher : it is not cut round at the bottom^ 
 but forms, before and behind, a long flap,the 
 pointed extremity of Which reaches a httle 
 below the knee. The boots and shoes of the 
 women are of dressed skins, with the seams 
 neatly sewed and figured. Mothers and nur- 
 ses put on a garment wide enough in the 
 back to hold a child, which is sometimes 
 placed therein quite naked, and kept from 
 dropping through by means of a girdle fas- 
 tened about the woman's waist. This is the 
 only kind of swaddling clothes, or cradle, 
 
136 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 with which the infant Esquimaux is aecorn- 
 modated. Some of these people contrive to 
 keep their garments neat and clean — but gen- 
 erally their ordinary dress abounds in filth 
 and vermin, and exhales an odor so noxious, 
 that an European is always glad to keep= to 
 the windward of them. 
 
 They are in general a timorous people,and 
 strike their breasts, in token of peace, when 
 they approach strangers. Their dwellings in 
 winter resemble caves, or holes, dug in the 
 earth ; and though generally comprising but 
 one apartment, it is not unfrequently occupi- 
 ed by several relatives^ with their wives and 
 children. In summer, they frequently shift 
 their abodes ; and then live under tents,made 
 of skins stretched upon poles stuck in the 
 earth, and drawn at top into a conical shape. 
 They keep a great number of dogs, which 
 guard their habitations, and draw their sledg- 
 es. Occasionally their dogs are used for food, 
 and their skins converted into clothing. But 
 the greatest luxury of an Esquimaux is seal 
 blubber, which he devours with avidity, and 
 to excess. 
 
 They all practice polygamy, but their fam- 
 ihes are not generally numerous. The wives 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 137 
 
 live together very harmoniously, are continu- 
 ally at work, and sew very neatly with the 
 sinews of the deer. They indeed have all 
 the labor to perform, except procuring food. 
 The husbands are strangers to jealousy, al- 
 though they have frequent occasion to doubt 
 the continency of their wives. They have no 
 government, or laws ; and no other punish- 
 ment for the most detestable crimes than gen- 
 eral censure. No man is held superior to 
 another,except in as far as he excels in strength 
 or courage, or in the number of his family. 
 They are in general a harmless people, not 
 apt^to steal from one another, or to give way 
 to violent anger: but they are sufficiently 
 harsh to the poor women when they happen 
 to give offence. 
 
 The Esquimaux, whom Gapt. Parry found 
 about the Melville Peninsula, to the north of 
 Hudson's Bay, dwelt in dome shaped huts 
 built of frozen snow, the approach to which 
 was through low passages of the same mate- 
 rial. Thus snow, the chief product of the 
 northern tempests, becomes to these people 
 their protection against its own cold. This 
 frozen material is formed into curved slabs of 
 about two feet long and half a foot thick, put 
 
 K 
 
138 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 together so neatly as to present a species of 
 dome, rising six or eight feet from the ground, 
 and fourteen or sixteen feet in diameter. 
 Their mode of inserting the key slab, which 
 binds the whole together, would be satisfac- 
 tory to the eye of the regularly-bred artist^ 
 A plate of ice is placed in the roof as a win- 
 dow, which admits the light as through 
 ground glass. In each room of the habita- 
 tion, suspended from the roof, burns a lamp, 
 with a long wick formed of a peculiar species 
 of moss, fed with the oil of the seal or the 
 walrus, and serving at once for light, heat and 
 cookery. The family sit round the apart- 
 ment, on a bench formed of snow, strewed 
 with slender twigs and covered with skins ; 
 but this part of the dwelling must be careful- 
 ly kept a good deal below the freezing point, 
 since a higher temperature would speedily 
 dissolve the walls of the frail tenement. 
 
 These Indians show very little prudence in 
 the management of their supplies. The in- 
 stant that tidings transpire of the capture of 
 a walrus, or other favorite delicacy, shouts of 
 exultation are raised through the village, as 
 the inhabitants all share the prize in common. 
 On its arrival, slices are instantly cut out, ev- 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 139 
 
 ery lamp is supplied with oil, the houses are 
 in a blaze ; all the pots are filled with flesh, 
 and the women, while cooking, fish out and 
 devour the daintiest morsels. The feast pre- 
 pared, one man takes up a large piece, ap- 
 plies it to his mouth, and severs with his teeth 
 as much as that cavity can possibly admit ; 
 then hands it to his neighbor, and he to the 
 next, till all is consumed. A new piece is 
 then supplied, and thus the process contin- 
 ues, almost without intermission, till the ani- 
 mal is entirely consumed. 
 
 Considered as to their intellectual condi- 
 tion, the Esquimaux have not the least tinc- 
 ture of what goes by the name of learning ; 
 can form no abstract ideas ; and none of them 
 can count above ten, the number of their fin- 
 gers. Yet we have noticed their skill in the 
 construction of their habitations, as well as 
 in the pursuit and destruction of the various 
 tenants of the earth and water, on which their 
 subsistence depends. 
 
 The rehgious ideas of the Esquimaux, 
 though they cannot be 'dignified with any 
 better name than superstition, are not much 
 more absurd than the popular creed of the 
 ancient Greeks and Romans. Their princi- 
 
140 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 pal deity is represented as a female, immense- 
 ly tall, with only the left eye, wearing a pig- 
 tail reaching down to the knee, and so thick 
 that it can scarcely be grasped with both 
 hands. This divinity has for her father a gi- 
 ant having one arm. They also believe in a 
 tutelary spirit, frequently invoked, and in a 
 huge bear, whose dwelling is in the middle 
 of the polar ice, and who frequently holds 
 converse with mankind. The natives also 
 believe in a future world, the employments 
 and pleasures of which, according to the usu- 
 al creed of all savage races, are all sensual. 
 The soul, they say, descends beneath the earth 
 through successive abodes, the first of which 
 lias somewhat the nature of purgatory ; but 
 such spirits as are good, easily find their way 
 through it, and arrive at other mansions more 
 delightful, until they arrive at that of perfect 
 bliss, far beneath, where the sun never sets, 
 and where, by the side of large lakes that 
 never freeze, the deer roam in vast herds,and 
 the seal and the walrus always abound in the 
 waters. 
 
 In Franklin's Account of the Polar Re- 
 gions, it is mentioned, that a very old man 
 among the Esquimaux Indians, on beholding 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 141 
 
 for the first time his face in a mirror, started 
 back with the wildest emotions of surprise 
 and horror. This incident, so characteristic 
 of the general intellect of the race, is thus 
 finely illustrated by one of the most gifted of 
 American writers, Mrs. Sigourney :— 
 
 Thou nameless wanderer, old and gray , 
 Why flees the life blood from thy heart, 
 
 When first that strange, reflected ray, 
 Reveals thy features'wrinkled chart ? 
 
 See'st thou the steps of years gone hy, 
 Dark years of roaming want and care ? 
 
 Their image in thy sunken eyei? 
 
 Their snows amid thy scatter'd hair ? 
 
 Thou see'st, alas, what all must trace, 
 Who linger long on time's cold tide. 
 
 The wreck of vigor, health and grace. 
 Which youth so fondly hopes to hide. 
 
 One glass there is, and one alone. 
 
 Which paints with radiance pure and free, 
 
 Man's victory o'er the latest groan ; 
 But who shall hold that glass to thee ? 
 
 Sayj who shall bid those eyes, that stream 
 To mark thy withering, wasting clay, 
 
 Exult to see its loop-holes beam 
 With lustre of eternal day ? 
 
 To the christian philanthropist, the coast 
 
 of Labrador presents an interesting field of 
 
 labor. Here amid our northern seas, and 
 
 within reach of benevolent enterprise, are 
 
 l1 
 
142 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 hundreds and thousands of souls, perishing 
 for want of religious and moral culture. Tru- 
 ly the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers 
 are few. While our missionaries are carrying 
 the glad tidings of salvation through the Re- 
 deemer,to the farthrest India, and the savage 
 isles of the South,I cannot but hope that the 
 attention of New-England christians will be 
 ere long directed to the coast of Labrador 
 and the islands of the North. Thousands of 
 New-England fishermen yearly frequent these 
 shores, where never the sound of the church 
 going bell is heard, and where few of the in- 
 habitants ever witnessed the keeping of a 
 Sabbath. Once while there I had the satisfac- 
 tion of attending an exercise of reading the 
 scriptures. While we lay in Red bay, an En- 
 glish vessel of war came in, and remained 
 over one sabbath. Glad of the opportunity, I 
 went on board, and attended the usual ser- 
 vices of the established or episcopal church. 
 An interesting discourse was read, and I was 
 struck with the perfect order and attention 
 of officers and crew, and could not help con- 
 trasting their happy lot with that of the in- 
 habitants of the coast. 
 
 But I must hasten to a conclusion. 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 143 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Preparation for return to Yankee land. — Gale at sea. — An- 
 chorage at Boone Bay. — St. John's islands : natural curi- 
 osity, known as ''Jacob's Well." — Departure. — Storm. — 
 
 • Arrival at Gabarus bay in Breton island. — Sydney. — De- 
 scription of the ancient fortress of Louisbourg ; its present 
 desolation. — Departure from the bay.— Arrival at the"home 
 of the Pilgrims." — Conclusion. 
 
 The great object of our voyage having been 
 accomplished, at the beginning of September 
 we set about preparations for the homeward 
 passage. Our Uttle vessel was put in trim, 
 and all things snugly stowed away in their 
 appropriate places, when we hoisted sail, on 
 the 6th September, for " home, sweet home !" 
 It may well be supposed that this was a sea- 
 son of rejoicing and merry hearts to most of 
 us ; particularly so to our cabin-boy, whom I 
 had often heard say, with tears in his eyes, 
 " I wish I could see mother 1" The little fel- 
 low was full of life and animation, seeming 
 almost to realize in anticipation the fond 
 meeting of parent and child, of brothers and 
 sisters, long separated. 
 
144 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 The third day after our departure, having 
 had two days of pleasant saihng with slight 
 breezes, a gale sprung up from the northwest, 
 which increased during the day and night. 
 Our vessel was heavy laden, and at times the 
 main deck would be underwater. It became 
 necessary at length to disencumber the deck of 
 some of the oil butts, and cut a hole through 
 the side just above the scuppers, in order to 
 free the deck of water. The storm con- 
 tinued until the next day at noon. We lost 
 the jib, carried away by the wind, the fore- 
 mast was sprung, and we had to take in the 
 fore-sail, and double reef the main-sail. The 
 wind was now directly aft, and the shores of 
 Newfoundland beginning to heave in sight, 
 we were in hopes of reaching a harbor before 
 another night closed in upon us. Toward 
 sunset the winds abated, but the sea was 
 rough ; however, we succeeded late in the 
 evening in reaching Boone bay, the first har- 
 bor we made at Newfoundland on our pas- 
 sage out. We were heartily glad to find good 
 anchorage, and opportunity for repairs. 
 
 In calm weather, the fishermen sometimes 
 call at St. Johns' islands on the west coast 
 of Newfoundland. They are composed of 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 145 
 
 barren rocks, and are sought as places for 
 curing fish. There is, as the captain of our 
 vessel informed me, a remarkable natural cu- 
 riosity, on one of these rocks, called "Jacob's 
 Well." It is a circular excavation through 
 the rock, from six to eight feet in diameter, 
 and about sixty feet in depth. Its walls are 
 as straight as if cut with an auger, perfectly 
 round, and smooth as if wrought by the hand 
 of an artist. Stooping and placing the ear 
 near the margin of the well, the listener hears 
 sounds which he at first supposes to be of 
 some stringed instrument, varying in tones, 
 and soft as that of the harp. These sounds 
 are produced by drops of water issuing from 
 the sides of the well, and falling into the 
 depths below. Visiters sometimes spend hours 
 in hstening to this strange music, and to the 
 loud rumbling cavernous noises, which are 
 produced by throwing handfulls of pebbles 
 into this singular well. 
 
 After repairing our little craft, we again 
 put out to sea ; and about sunset on the sec- 
 ond day out from our last anchorage, we en- 
 countered another gale more tempestuous 
 than the former. But the captain of the Al- 
 fred was an experienced seaman, and the 
 l2 
 
146 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 crew attentive to their whole duty on board. 
 The gale continued for two days, during which 
 at times, we had fears of being overwhelmed, 
 and some of the older sailors began to ex- 
 press the belief that our little bark would find 
 a hard bottom in the gulf. But Providence 
 ordered otherwise. We were now driving 
 along the gulf of St. Lawrence, and the 
 winds somewhat abated, we next met with 
 the iojys that hover over these waters. An- 
 other source of anxiety now pres&ed upon 
 our minds. We were nearing St. Paul's is- 
 land, situated about midway between Cape 
 Gregory of Newfoundland and the north 
 point of Cape Breton. This island has a 
 rocky and precipitous shore, dangerous to ap- 
 proach, and upon which several vessels have 
 been wrecked during storms, or in the midst 
 of the fogs. We watched, however, and 
 kept a steady look out, until the danger was 
 happily past, and we made safe anchorage in 
 the noble bay of Gabarus, about one mile 
 westerly of the ancient city of Louisbourg.on 
 Cape Breton. It seemed somewhat hke again 
 entering one's own country, to step upon the 
 shores of Cape Breton. The marks of hus- 
 bandry, of cultivation^ of fertile fields, and 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 147 
 
 rich pastures were seen as we approached the 
 shores. Flocks and herds were also noticed 
 in the distance, and served to increase the in- 
 terest we felt in this renowned island depen- 
 dency of Great Britain. 
 
 Cape Breton, from its situation, forming 
 the eastern barrier of the Gulf of St. Law- 
 rence, and commanding the access from the 
 Atlantic, from the earliest date was regarded 
 as the key to the Canadas. Any naval pow- 
 er in possession of it, provided as it is with 
 good harbors, will be arbiter of the commerce 
 of Canada, and the coasts bordering the St. 
 Lawrence Gulf. The whole circuit of the 
 island of Cape Breton is 275 miles. The 
 principal harbors are those of Sydney, Lou- 
 isbourg, St. Anne's, and the Great Bras d'Or. 
 As we sailed along the coast, we noticed the 
 buildings and improvements at Sydney ,which 
 is regarded as one of the finest harbors in the 
 British provinces. The surrounding land is 
 a fine agricultural tract, the advantages for 
 carrying on the fishery excellent, its trade is 
 opened to all parts of the globe, by its late 
 admission to the number of free ports ; and 
 the materials for prosecuting that trade are to 
 e found abundant, in the prime articles of 
 b 3 
 
148 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 coals, fish, timber and agricultural produce. 
 Notwithstanding these natural advantages, 
 the tide of fortune has not yet set towards 
 Sydney, and it appears, like Louisbourg, to 
 be neglected for places that cannot vie with 
 it in natural capabilities. Sydney at present 
 contains seventy or eighty houses, and a pop- 
 ulation of about five hundred souls. The 
 streets are regularly laid out, the private hou- 
 ses in general well built, the grounds in the 
 vicinity are cultivated with some taste, and 
 the whole, being interspersed with gardens, 
 filled with fruit trees, presents a very pleasing 
 appearance. 
 
 The entrance of Louisbourg harbor is 
 pointed out to voyagers arriving from the 
 eastward, by the ruins of the light-house, on 
 the bold rocky wall of the northern shore ; 
 a few minutes after approaching which, the 
 mariner shoots from a fretful sea into a smooth 
 and capacious harbor. On entering, the gen- 
 eral view is that of a spacious but not very 
 sheltered port, the latter appearance being 
 occasioned by the depression of the bar on 
 the western side, which does not show above 
 the water, and produces in the beholder a 
 feehng of insecurity from that quarter. The 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 149 
 
 prospect seen before arriving at the northeast 
 arm of the harbor, may be said to be tame. 
 Here the rugged and perpendicular rocks, 
 proceeding from the north side of the en- 
 trance, are succeeded by irregular hillsjinter- 
 spersed with groves of fir trees, and clothed 
 with a fevv huts on the steep declivities next 
 the harbor, conferring on this retired and 
 sheltered arm a picturesque, but rather gloomy 
 air. The surrounding land is evidently poor, 
 in every part of Louisbourg, and the country 
 seats and gardens of the French colonists, 
 must have been created at great labor and 
 expense. The country rises with a pretty 
 quick ascent towards the interior ; and a mile 
 or two from the water, the quahty of the soil 
 improves greatly, affording timber and vege- 
 tation altogether different from the produc- 
 tions of the shores. 
 
 Upon a neck of land on the south side of 
 the harbor,stood the ancient fortress and town 
 of Louisbourg. It was environed, two miles 
 and a half in circumference, with a rampart 
 of stone from thirty to thirty-six feet high, 
 and a ditch eighty feet wide, with the excep- 
 tion of a space of two hundred yards near 
 the sea, which was enclosed by a dyke and a 
 
150 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 line of pickets. The water in this place was 
 shallow, and numerous reefs rendered it in- 
 accessible to shipping, while it received an 
 additional protection from the side fire of the 
 bastions. There were six bastions and eight 
 batteries, containing embrasures for one hun- 
 dred and forty-eight cannon. On an island, 
 at the entrance of the harbor, was planted a 
 battery of thirty cannon ; and at the bottom 
 of the harbor, was the grand or royal battery 
 of twenty-eight forty-two pounders. On a 
 high cliff opposite to the island battery,stood 
 the light-house ; and within this point, at the 
 northeast part of the harbor, was a careening 
 wharf, secure from all winds, and a magazine 
 of naval stores. 
 
 The town was regularly laid out in squares. 
 The streets were broard, the houses mostly 
 of wood, but some of stone. On the west 
 side, near the rampart, was a spacious cit- 
 adel, and a large parade, on one side of which 
 were the governor's apartments. Under the 
 ramparts were casements to receive the wo- 
 men and children during a siege. The en- 
 trance of the town on the land side was at 
 the west gate, over a draw bridge, near 
 which was a circular battery, mounting sixteen 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 151 
 
 guns. The works had been twenty-five years 
 in building, at the time of their reduction by 
 the English in 1745, and cost the crown of 
 France not less than thirty millions of livres. 
 The place was considered so strong as to have 
 obtained the name of the Dunkirk of America. 
 
 The historian of New-Hampshire, Dr. Bel- 
 knap, has given a very interesting account of 
 the capture of this place by the troops under 
 Sir William Pepperell and Com. Warren in 
 1745. The English however surrendered it to 
 the French, under the treaty of peace in 1749 ; 
 but again took it in 1758, when the fortifica- 
 tions were dismantled, and this large town, 
 then numbering over four thousand inhabi- 
 tants, has since become almost a scene of des- 
 olation. 
 
 The ancient walls display even yet the 
 most attractive object to the eye. The contour 
 of these ruined mounds is boldly marked 
 against the sky on the left, as the stranger 
 proceeds into port,there being no higher land 
 in that direction, and prompts inquiry, and 
 induces a visit to the spot where Louisbourg 
 once existed. The site of the town is formed 
 by|the harbor and the ocean. Both in the 
 harbor and on the sea side, the land is nearlv 
 
152 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 even v^^ith the water, and gently rises to the 
 eminence around by the now ruined bastians 
 stretching from shore to shore, and thus cut- 
 ting off the site of Louisbourg from the ad- 
 jacent country. Immediately in the rear ex- 
 tends a wide spreading bog, intersected by 
 natural ditches, in the summer season over- 
 spread with yellow aquatic lilies. The town 
 being thus situated, the few straggling dwel- 
 lings of the fishermen now resident there, 
 backed by the range of mounds, are the first 
 objects perceived by a voyager from the west- 
 ward, even before entering the harbor. 
 
 Arriving on the area of the French city, it 
 is found to be every where spread with a 
 mantle of turf, and without the assistance of 
 a native, it is not easy to discover the founda- 
 tions even of the public buildings. Two or 
 three casements yet invite inspection, appear- 
 ing like the mouth of huge ovens, surmounted 
 by great masses of earth and sod. These 
 caverns, originally the safe-guards of powder 
 and other com.bustible munitions of war, now 
 serve to shelter the flocks of sheep that feed 
 upon the ruins. The floors are rendered 
 nearly impassable,by the ordure of these ani- 
 mals, but the vaulted ceilings are adorned by 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 153 
 
 dependent stalactites, like icicles in shape, 
 but not in purity of color or of substance, 
 being of a material somewhat resembling 
 oyster shells. The mass of stone and brick 
 that composed the buildings of Louisbourg, 
 and which is now swept so completely from 
 its site, has been carried away to build up 
 other places. 
 
 The remains of the different batteries on 
 the island and round the harbor, are still 
 shown by the inhabitants, as well as of the 
 wharves, stockade, and sunken ships of war. 
 On gaining the walls above the town, they 
 are found to consist of a range of earthern 
 fortifications, with projecting angles, and ex- 
 tending as already mentioned from the har- 
 bor to the sea, interrupted at intervals by 
 large pits, said to have been produced by the 
 efforts of the captors to blow up the walls. 
 From these heights the glacis slopes away to 
 the edge of the bog outside, forming a beau- 
 tiful level walk, though now only enjoyed by 
 the sheep, being, like the walls, carpeted by 
 short turf. 
 
 The prospect from the brow of the dilapi- 
 dated ramparts, is one of the most impressive 
 that the place affords. Looking to the south- 
 
154 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR 
 
 east, over the former city, the eye wanders 
 upon the interminable ocean, its bhie rolling 
 waves occupying three fourths of the scene, 
 and beyond them, on the verge of the hori- 
 zon, a dense bank of fog sweeps along with 
 the prevaihng wind, precluding all hope of 
 discerning any vista beyond that cuitain. 
 Turning landwards, towards the southwest, 
 over the spacious bog that lies at the foot of 
 the walls, the sight is met by a range of low 
 wood in the direction of Gabarus, and can 
 penetrate no farther. The harbor is the only 
 prospect to the northward, and immediately 
 in its /ear the land rises so as to prevent any 
 more distant view, and even the harbor ap- 
 pears dwindled to a miniature of itself, being 
 seen in the same picture with the mighty 
 ocean that nearly surrounds the beholder. 
 The character of the whole scene is melan- 
 choly, presenting the memorials of for- 
 mer Hfe and population, contrasted with its 
 present apparent isolation from the nations 
 of the earth. The impression is not weak- 
 ened by the sight of the few miserable huts 
 scattered along the shores of the port, and the 
 litt^ ^fishing vessels, scarcely perceptible in 
 }>e mountain swell of the ocean. They 
 
AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 155 
 
 serve but to recall the images of the elegant 
 edifices that once graced the foreground, and 
 of the proud flags that once waved upon the 
 face of that heaving deep. Most truly is it 
 remarked by the historian of Nova Scotia, 
 that the fatality that hangs over places of fal- 
 len celebrity, seems to press heavily upon this 
 once valued spot. 
 
 In no spot of the British possessions, in 
 the north, did I feel so great an interest as 
 in the ruins of the once powerful fortress of 
 Louisbourg ; and I trust my readers will not 
 be uninterested in the brief notices which I 
 have here given of its former grandeur, and 
 present desolation. After leaving this place, 
 I had httle opportunity of observing any 
 thing worthy of note. We remained at Cape 
 Breton four days, when we again trimmed 
 our sails for home, and, after encountering 
 and safely weathering the great gale of the 
 seventh of October, during which so many 
 fishermen were wrecked, we made Plymouth 
 light in the evening of the 8th, and on the 
 9th of October, were safely moored in Plym- 
 outh harbor. Those who have been out even 
 " five months" at sea, will well understand 
 the gratification with which we again stepped 
 
156 FIVE MONTHS IN LABRADOR. 
 
 upon the loved shores of free and happy 
 New-England. 
 
 I have thus, in a brief, and, I am aware, 
 imperfect manner, given a summary of the 
 scenes and scenery that passed under my ob- 
 servation during a five months' absence in 
 Newfoundland and Labrador. My object 
 has been to present such facts concerning 
 those bleak and inhospitable regions, and in 
 relation to the manners, customs, and modes 
 of life of the inhabitants, as will enable the 
 reader to understand their true condition. 
 How far I may have succeeded, is of course 
 left to the candid consideration of the read- 
 er ; and if, in addition, I have offered any 
 amusement to those who have devoted a leis- 
 ure hour to my unpretending narrative, my 
 object will be attained. . 
 
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