HUDSON'S BAY 81 



had to be faced, the patient industry of the mission- 

 ary overcame them all. About a month after his 

 arrival, November 6, 1876, he wrote : " My plan is 

 to write down over night some simple words and 

 sentences. I then get the corresponding Eskimo 

 words from Adam Lucy or Molucto ; the Indian 

 words are gathered from one of the Company's 

 men, David Loutett. I find all very willing to 

 help me, for which I am indeed thankful. My 

 daily collection averages from eighty to a hundred 

 words. These are learned the following day and 

 brought into actual use as soon as possible, thus 

 impressing the same on my memory, as well as 

 making me familiar with the peculiar sound. I have 

 now got some thousands of words, mostly Eskimo, 

 which I gathered by study of the Testament and 

 from my different friends." At first it was mere 

 gathering, massing little by little a great quantity 

 of material. Then came both conscious and un- 

 conscious sorting of the heap, nouns separated 

 from adjectives, verbs from adverbs ; gender from 

 gender, tense from tense ; until at last, after seven 

 years of six hard, studious hours every day, not 

 only is he master of the situation, but is able to 

 produce a grammar of 200 pages, thus making 

 the rough smooth and the crooked straight for 

 those who come after and enter into his labours. 



But the missionary cannot rest satisfied with 

 merely mastering for preaching purposes and con- 



6 



