ON THE ESQUIMAUX 179 



were familiar to them, and all the oriental similes 

 of the sacred book were unintelligible. Yet the 

 missionaries' Christ-like lives during 130 years have 

 accomplished what their words could not express. 



In A.D. 1000 the Eskimo extended as far south as 

 Newfoundland. In 1790 a tribe five hundred strong 

 dwelt in the Straits of Belle Isle. Now only a few 

 dwell south of Hopedale, three hundred miles north 

 of the same straits, and only some two to three 

 thousand north of that place. Contact with white 

 men has killed them off, at times by small-pox or 

 diphtheria, but usually by tubercular consumption. 

 The two racial tides now meet at Hopedale, and 

 here the Eskimo appear least healthy. 



The nomad life in skin tents has been abandoned 

 for wooden and mud huts. The seal-skin clothes 

 have largely given way to inferior cotton and Euro- 

 pean goods. The "blubber" food is largely replaced 

 by "flour and molasses." The art of kayaking is 

 nearly lost, and the Eskimo have become less and 

 less reliant on their own powers of procuring a 

 livelihood, while guns and powder have largely di- 

 minished the supply of game. This has well been 

 exemplified around the mission station of Zoar. The 

 Eskimo here had contracted a habit of taking out 

 their supplies from the Moravians, but secretly 

 traded their fish and fur with the nearest Hudson 

 Bay station at Davis Inlet. Thus they ran up large 

 debts, which eventually the Brethren refused to in- 

 crease. Soon after, while two missionaries were in 



