CHAPTER XL VII. 



Labrador Episodes : The Squatters of Labrador. 



" GrO where you will, if a shilling can there be procured, you may 

 expect to meet with individuals in search of it. In the course 

 of last summer I met with several persons as well as families 

 whom I could not compare to anything else than what in 

 America we understand by the appellation of squatters. The 

 methods they employed to accumulate property form the subject 

 of the observations which I now lay before you. Our schooner 

 lay at anchor in a beautiful basin on the coast of Labrador, 

 surrounded by uncouth granite rocks, partially covered with 

 stunted vegetation. While searching for birds and other objects 

 I chanced one morning to direct my eye towards the pinnacle 

 of a small island, separated from the mainland by a very 

 narrow channel, and presently commenced inspecting it with 

 my telescope. There I saw a man on his knees, with clasped 

 hands, and face inclined heavenwards. Before him was a small 

 monument of unhewn stones supporting a wooden cross. In a 

 word, reader, the person whom I thus unexpectedly discovered 

 was engaged in prayer. Such an incident in that desolate land 

 was affecting, for there one seldom finds traces of human beings, 

 and the aid of the Almighty, although necessary everywhere, 

 seems there peculiarly required to enable them to procure the 

 means of subsistence. My curiosity having been raised, I betook 

 myself to my boat, landed on the rock, and scrambled to the 

 place, where I found the man still on his knees. When his 

 devotions were concluded he bowed to me and addressed me in 

 very indifferent French. I asked why he had chosen so dreary 



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