THE MISSIONS 233 



wright in 1800 they were still numerous. Contact with 

 white men has blotted them out like chalk from a black- 

 board. 



I was intensely surprised to find by reference to their 

 carefully kept registers from 1840 to 1890 that the con- 

 gregations around all the stations had actually increased 

 in numbers. It is not fair to estimate the numbers that 

 should now exist on the coast by the average increase of 

 Europeans, as some have done. In the wild state, untram- 

 melled by civilization and unmodernized by missionaries, 

 Eskimo can only exist in small numbers and scattered com- 

 munities, anyhow. The casual reporter visiting Labrador 

 has more than once severely criticised the trade methods 

 of the Brethren, which involve comparative high prices on 

 their goods. They have stigmatized them as robbers and 

 oppressors. Indeed, they have been so misunderstood that 

 their Conference has seriously considered abandoning their 

 trading altogether. Were they to do so, there would, in 

 a very brief time, be no need for their spiritual minis- 

 trations. 



I do not believe any master of labour could possibly carry 

 on industrial work like fishing and furring, for which the 

 masters have to supply all gear, outfit, and provisions at 

 their own risk, if they employed only Eskimo workmen. 



The fact is, they are not able to persevere, and though 

 they are, man for man, far better educated than the men 

 who come from hundreds of miles south and make a good 

 living by fishing right at the Eskimo's own door, yet they 

 cannot compare with the Newfoundland and white fisher- 

 men for perseverance and what is known on this coast as 

 "snap." An Eskimo does not get one fish for the other's 



