The Innuit 



229 



Straits. From this centre by the Reverend 

 A. L. Fleming, and others, the Gospel has been 

 preached to the natives living along the south 

 shore of Baffin Land. 



The Rev. H. A. Cody s life of Bishop Bompas, Bishop Bom- 

 furnishes us with the major part of our material * 

 concerning that great missionary s visit to the 

 Eskimo, of the Arctic Coasts of the Mackenzie 

 River Basin. 



The motives, which carried him to such distant 

 and difficult people, he described as follows: 



&quot;At the funeral of the great Duke of Welling 

 ton, it was considered to be a mark of solemn 

 respect that the obsequies should be attended by 

 one soldier from every part and regiment of the 

 British army; and it is a part of the Saviour s 

 glory that one jewel be gathered to His crown from 

 every tribe of the lost human race. It is an 

 honour to seek to secure for our Lord one such 

 jewel from even the remotest tribe.&quot; 



Fort MacPherson on Peel River is the real visit to Eski- 

 base for all the work along the western half of JJt h A| JjJ 

 the Arctic shores. From there Mr. Bompas set 

 out with an Eskimo lad for a guide, and continued 

 his journey in the face of a message from the 

 Eskimo chief that the natives &quot;were starving and 

 quarreling, and one had just been stabbed and 

 killed in a dispute about some tobacco.&quot; 



Hard on the heels of this message, sufficient snow Blind- 

 to discourage and turn back any ordinary man, ne88 

 came an attack of the terror of the North : snow- 

 blindness. His Eskimo boy leading him by the 



