76 HUNTING CAMPS. 



the degradation, but almost to the extinction, of the 

 Eskimo upon other littorals has invariably taken the 

 shape of strong drink. Against such traffic the mis- 

 sionaries resolutely set their faces. Had they not done 

 so, the Eskimo would beyond all doubt long since have 

 become the victims of the itinerant trader, and instead 

 of being to-day a healthy and self-supporting community, 

 the race would a generation ago have vanished from the 

 Labrador. 



Thus it is not too much to say that the Moravians 

 are responsible for the survival of the people to whom 

 they devote their lives. While holding the finest 

 record in the missionary field of any Church in the 

 world, a Moravian settlement brings with it immense 

 boons of a material nature. Each individual missionary 

 has learned and is expert in the medical profession, or in 

 some trade likely to be useful to his converts. Dr. 

 Jannasch built the church and mission-house at 

 Makkovik, and the Eskimo workmen who assisted him 

 have since turned their attention to their own dwellings. 

 Other missionaries build boats ; others, again, understand 

 the theory and practice of gaining their living from the 

 sea ; and so the work goes on. All are practical men, 

 who labour shoulder to shoulder with their people, and 

 who in this manner establish a mental leadership which 

 is bracing and effective. On the spiritual side of the 

 question, I believe that a large proportion of the children 

 of missionaries return to the mission-field to follow in 

 their fathers' steps. Certainly no financial inducements 

 are offered, for in Labrador, at any rate, the salaries of 

 these devoted men range from 9 to 23 a year. Often 

 they pass ten or even twenty years without returning to 

 Europe, and when they do come it is but for a short 



