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CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS OF THE LABRADOR 

 PENINSULA. 



Results of Missionaiy Labour among the Indians — The Experience 

 and Evidence of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec, in 1843 — 

 Inefficiency of the Early Jesuit Missionaries — Efforts in 1638 to civi- 

 lise the Hurons of Lorette — Experience of 200 Years — Something 

 beyond an exclusive Religious Education required by Indians — 

 Proofs of the Fitness of certain Indian Tribes to acquire a con- 

 siderable degi-ee of Civilisation and Stability — Influence of 

 Scenery and Country over the Montagnais Tribes and over the Sandy 

 Hill Indians of Lake Huron (Ojibways) — Influence of the 'Wild 

 Goose Clang ' on the Montagnais — Evidence of Charles Tache in 

 1824 — Origin of the Jesuit Missions in Lower Canada — Results of the 

 Missions — An Indian Saint — Character of the Roman Catholic 

 Missions on the Coast — Pere Babel's Description — Pere Ai-naud's 

 Description — Catholic Families on the North Shore. 



A VIEW of the labours of the missionaries in the 

 Labrador Peninsula, as far as the Indians are con- 

 cerned, only tends to confirm impressions arising from a 

 study of the results obtained elsewhere among particular 

 tribes, when permitted to remain half civilised and very 

 superficially educated. It is the same tale over again. 

 The Indians become christianised in a greater or less 

 degree, according to the meaning which is attached to that 

 term by members of different denominations. But they 

 make no improvement ; and, with few exceptions, they 

 turn to their rivers and forests with instinctive love. . 



