32 BOWDOIN BOYS IN LABRADOR. 



There are five missionaries now stationed at Hopedale : Mr. 

 Townly, an Englishman, whose work, is among the "planters" 

 and fishermen ; Mr. Hansen, the pastor of the Eskimo church ; 

 and Mr. Kaestner, the head of the mission, and in special charge 

 of the store and trading, by which the mission is made nearly 

 self-supporting; Mrs. Kaestner and Mrs. Hansen complete the 

 number, and the five make up a community almost entirely iso- 

 lated from white people during nine months of every year. 



The fact that the two ladies spoke very little English was 

 somewhat of a drawback, but detracted very slightly from our 

 enjoyment of Mrs. Hanson's delightful singing and none at all 

 from our appreciation of her playing on the piano and organ. 

 To eet such a musical treat in the Labrador wilds was most 

 unexpected and for that reason all the more thoroughly enjoyed. 



The mission house is a yellow, barn-like building, heavily 

 built to prevent its being blown away, snugly stowed beneath a 

 hill, and seeming like a mother round which the huts of the 

 Eskimo cluster. The rooms in whieh we were so pleasantly 

 entertained were very comfortably and tastily furnished, a grand 

 piano in one of them seeming out of place in a village of Lab- 

 rador, but so entirely in harmony with its immediate surround- 

 ings that we hardly thought of the strangeness of it, within a 

 few yards of a village of pure Eskimo, living in all their primi- 

 tive customs and in their own land. 



A few rods behind the mission are the gardens, cut up into 

 small squares by strong board fences to prevent the soil from 

 blowing away, each with a tarpaulin near by to spread over it at 

 night. In this laborious way potatoes, cabbages and turnips are 

 raised. In a large hothouse the missionaries raise tomatoes, 

 lettuce, and also flowers, but for everything else, except fish, 

 game and ice, they have to depend on the yearly visit of the 

 Moravian mission ship. She left for Nain just the day before 

 we reached Hopedale, and after unloading supplies, etc., there, 

 she proceeds north, collecting furs and fish until loaded, and 

 then goes to London. 



About fifty Eskimos were measured and collections made of 

 their clothing, implements of war and chase and household 



