THE SQUATTERS OF LABRADOR. 157 



intended to return to it. " The country around," said he, " is all my 

 own, much farther than you can see. No fees, no lawyers, no taxes are 

 here. I do pretty much as I choose. My means are ample, through my 

 own industry. These vessels come here for seal-skins, seal-oil, and sal- 

 mon, and give me in return all the necessaries, and indeed comforts, of 

 the life I love to follow ; and what else could the world afford me r I 

 spoke of the education of his children. " My wife and I teach them all 

 that is useful for them to know, and is not that enough .? My girls will 

 marry their countrymen, my sons the daughters of my neighbours, and I 

 hope all of them will live and die in the country !" I said no more, but 

 by way of compensation for the trouble I had given him, purchased from 

 his eldest child a beautiful fox's skin. 



Few birds, he said, came around him in summer, but in winter thou- 

 sands of ptarmigans were killed, as well as great numbers of gulls. He 

 had a great dislike to all fishermen and eggers, and I really believe was 

 always glad to see the departure even of the hardy navigators who an- 

 nually visited him for the sake of his salmon, seal-skins, and oil. He had 

 more than forty Esquimaux dogs ; and, as I was caressing one of them, 

 he said, " Tell my brother-in-law at Bras-d'Or, that we are all well here, 

 and that, after visiting my wife's father, I will give him a call .'" 



Now, reader, his wife's father resided at the distance of seventy miles 

 down the coast, and, like himself, was a recluse. He of Bras d'Or was at 

 double that distance ; but, when the snows of winter have thickly covered 

 the country, the whole family, in sledges drawn by dogs, travel with 

 ease, and pay their visits, or leave their cards. This good gentleman had 

 already resided there more than twenty years. Should he ever read this 

 article, I desire him to believe that I shall always be grateful to him and 

 his wife for their hospitable welcome. 



When our schooner, the Ripley, arrived at Bras d'Or, I paid a visit 

 to Mr , the brother-in-law, who lived in a house imported from Que- 

 bec, which fronted the strait of Belle Isle, and overlooked a small island, 

 over which the eye reached the coast of Newfoundland, whenever it was 

 the wind's pleasure to drive away the fogs that usually lay over both 

 coasts. The gentleman and his wife, we were told, were both out on a 

 walk, but would return in a very short time, which they in fact did, when 

 we followed them into the house, which was yet unfinished. The usual im- 

 mense Dutch stove formed a principal feature of the interior. The lady 

 had once visited the metropolis of Canada, and seemed desirous of acting 



