NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 205 



some friends, when I received a message saying 

 that one of my parishioners was dead and required 

 to be buried. As the necessities of the case were 

 pressing, I took my passage in the coasting steamer 

 that left the following morning, and ought to have 

 arrived at my destination the same night. Un- 

 fortunately, however, a strong off-shore breeze 

 sprang up, and the steamer being unable to call 

 in carried me some distance up the coast to the 

 next stopping- place. Then I was delayed some 

 days till I got a lift in a fishing schooner, but she 

 was driven by stress of weather into some little 

 harbour where no steamers called, and eventually 

 went off in a direction that did not suit me at all. 

 The same bad luck has pursued me all along, and 

 I have been wandering about ever since, taking 

 every opportunity offered me by passing coasting 

 craft or fishing-boats ; sometimes being carried 

 miles away, sometimes getting pretty near, but 

 never succeeding in actually reaching my journey's 

 end. As the season is getting late and winter 

 will soon be upon us, I made up my mind to 

 abandon the attempt for the present, and go 

 round with you to Halifax, if you would take me, 

 and so back to St. John's to finish my visit ; for as 

 it is now a couple of months or so since my services 



