ON THE LABRADOR. 77 



val I saw something of life at the mission station. It is 

 impossible here to do any justice to the magnificent work 

 of the Moravian Brethren. Quite apart from their efforts 

 in the cause of Christianity, it is my belief that but for 

 their restraining influence and aid the Eskimo population 

 of the southern Labrador would have vanished almost com- 

 pletely. It is well known that no race is more liable to 

 suffer disastrous consequences from unchecked contact 

 with civilisation than are the Eskimo. Dr. Nansen has 

 put it on record that even so mild a luxury as coffee has 

 very traceable effects upon the constitutions of this people, 

 and it is certain that the Moravian missionaries have 

 stood between the Eskimo and indulgence in stimulants far 

 more deleterious than coffee. 



The mission stations of Okak, Nain, Hebron, Hope- 

 dale and Makkovik, extending as they do along many 

 degrees of latitude, form sanctuaries for the converts, where 

 under the wise and benign rule of the house-father (as the 

 head of each station is called) they are encouraged to live 

 an existence which preserves as far as possible all that is 

 manly and 'wholesome in their characters. The influence 

 which has led not only to the degradation, but almost to the 

 extinction, of the Eskimo upon other littorals has invari- 

 ably taken the shape of strong drink. Against such traffic 

 the missionaries 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 in- 

 stead of being to-day a healthy and self-supporting com- 

 munity, 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. 



