78 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



be of such service as I studied its pages on the 

 trackless deep or even when Adam assisted me to 

 read it." 



The Testament, as has been stated already, was 

 written in the Labrador dialect, and Adam, the 

 interpreter, was also a native of Labrador. Conse 

 quently there were grave doubts as to how far it 

 would be intelligible among the Eskimos of Hud 

 son's Bay. But it was found that the chief differ 

 ence lay in the pronunciation of certain letters 

 rather than in words or idioms. And thus one 

 difficulty which might have been a mountain was 

 removed by the faith which caused Christ's servant 

 to study the Testament though written for the 

 Labrador Eskimos. But a great deal is necessary 

 for the missionary beyond reading. An intimate 

 knowledge of language is everything. It is pro 

 bable that a man can never be regarded as pro 

 ficient in a language until he is conscious of not 

 translating his thoughts from his native tongue 

 into the foreign one or, in other words, until he 

 thinks in the language of the people among whom 

 he is living. For this result to be obtained daily 

 practice in speaking, side by side with reading, is 

 indispensable. 



This, by the arrangement of his domestic estab 

 lishment, Mr. Peck secured. For after a time he 

 was so much oppressed by the utter loneliness of 

 his life at which we have glanced, that he invited 



