178 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. cuAr. xxxi. 



living near the saw-mills on rivers wliicli flow into the 

 St. Lawrence ; secondly, those which follow the lumberers 

 to their camp, in the vast pine woods on the same rivers; 

 thirdly, Indian missions at the different stations of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, or King's Posts, where chapels 

 are built, and the Lidians congregate to sell their fui^s 

 and obtain supphes for their hunt.* These several 

 missions extend from the mouth of the Saugenay to 

 the Chapel of the Visitation, over a distance in a direct 

 hne of about 600 miles. 



The Indian missionary remains with his erratic flock, 

 at the different stations where they meet him on the 

 coast of Labrador, for a period varying from eight to 

 twelve days. The religious ceremonies of the Eoman 

 Cathohc Church are strictly practised during that period; 

 confessions are made, marriages celebrated, burial services 

 performed, and baptisms administered, until the missionary 

 starts for the next station, one or two hundred miles away, 

 and the Indians disperse, to meet again, in the same way 

 and at the same time, in the following year. The descrip- 

 tion of a station given by Pere Babel expresses the 

 opinion which the Catholic missionaries have formed of 

 the Montagnais. It differs in no respect from what we 

 saw at Seven Islands, where Pere Arnaud officiated. 

 ' This last spring (1854) I started for these missions in a 

 schooner bound for Labrador, and after fourteen days of 

 monotonous na\^gation, I reached the port of Itamameou 



(east of Natashquan). 



****** 



' I was truly happy to find myself among my Indians 



* Rapport sur les Missions du Diocese de Quebec, 1854. 



