CHAPTER VIII 



THE MISSIONS 

 BY W. T. GRENFELL 



The Moravian Mission 



IF a man in Labrador is not a fisherman, that is, a cod- 

 catcher, he traps fur-bearing animals in winter and catches 

 salmon in summer. The trappers form a class apart from 

 the rest of the shore people. They seldom come out "to 

 the coast," their winter industry keeping them far inland 

 and their summer salmon-catching being convenient in not 

 forcing them to transfer their families very far down the 

 bays. There is, however, every gradation, from the moun- 

 taineer Indian, who does nothing all the year but trap and 

 kill deer, through the Eskimo, who once only killed seals, 

 but now even catches furs and " fishes," to the man who 

 lives entirely "out of the water/' i.e. never outfits for the 

 winter furring. 



Until 1905 the trade of all these people was carried on 

 by two great companies, the Hudson's Bay Company and 

 the Moravian Missions. The Hudson's Bay Company 

 originally dealt only with Indians, but the intermarriage 

 and settling of their own imported servants have built up 

 a class which beats the Indians at their own industry, and 

 now does a far larger trade in fur. The Indians are reduced 

 to a mere handful, while the strong Scotch and Norwegian 



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