The Moravian Missions. 49 



pretty gates. They are detached, located here and there as places 

 of suitable soil and shelter were found. The chief esculent grown 

 — potatoes — looked well, but had to be covered, to protect the tops 

 from the frost every night, with strips of canvas. They are planted 

 in narrow beds, over which hoops are bent in such a way as to 

 prevent the covering from coming in contact with the tops. Turnips 

 and beets are grown plentifully with less trouble. So also are 

 rhubarb and winter onions. The cabbages, and lettuce, and spinach 

 were looking well, and the peas in the hot-beds were almost ready 

 for the table. But the most beautiful phase of the gardens was a 

 large variety of flowering plants. Of these the Moravians are 

 passionately fond. 



Nain is abundantly supplied with pure spring water, which is 

 conducted from a flowing spring on an elevation about three 

 hundred yards distant, to the Mission House, in wooden pipes. 



Observing such fine buildings and such an extent of tidy board 

 fences, I enquired where the lumber came from, and received a 

 curious answer : " The logs," said Brother Jannasch, " are cut some 

 five or six miles inland, where there is a plenty of moderate size, 

 say from eight to ten inches in diameter, and are hauled to the 

 town in the winter season by the dogs ; here they are sawn into 

 boards or dimension stuff, as required, by whip-saws by the men." 

 This was the whole story, simple but astonishing. 



You will have observed that the Moravians have a double 

 mission on the Labrador. First, that of Christianizing the Eskimo ; 

 secondly, that of carrying on a good trade with their converts. If 

 I have placed the second where the first ought to be, I know the 

 Moravians will overlook the error, because they did their best to 

 persuade me that the income or profits from the trade which they 

 maintain with the natives does not more than pay one-half the 

 expenses of maintaining the missions. Now I would not disbelieve 

 a good, pious Moravian ; they are about the most upright people in 

 the world, and certainly on the Labrador ; but I was forced to the 

 conclusion that they were making a slight miscalculation. The 

 Chief Superintendent of them all, Rev. Mr. Bourguin, was the very 

 picture of a sharp trader. A thin, spare, cold, calculating, selfish- 



