natives in manners and in mode of life.  While the European inhabitants adopt from necessity some of the native customs, the natives have adopted so much of the European customs that their primitive characteristics are no longer distinguishable; they cook their victuals, drink rum, smoke and chew tobacco, and generally dress after the European manner, especially the females, who always wear gowns.  They have also a smattering of French and English, and are great proficients in swearing in both languages; nor do they seem ignorant of the more refined arts of cheating, lying, and deceiving.  Taking everything into account, however, we may be surprised that their manners are not more corrupt than they are.

A number of small trading vessels from the United States hover about the coast during summer; the accursed “fire-water” constitutes a primary article in their outfit, and is bartered freely for such commodities as the natives may possess.  These adventurers are generally men of loose principles, and are ever ready to take the advantage of their customers.  The natives, however, are now so well instructed that they are more likely to cheat than be cheated.

The Esquimaux inhabiting the northern parts of the coast differ in every respect from their neighbours of the south.  They have acquired a knowledge of the Christian religion, together with some of the more useful arts of civilized life, without losing much of their primitive simplicity.  The Moravian Brethren, those faithful “successors of the Apostles,” after enduring inconceivable hardships and privations for many years, without the least prospect of success, at length succeeded in converting the heathens, collecting them in villages around them, and at the same time not only instructing them in things pertaining to their eternal salvation, but in everything else that could contribute to their comfort and happiness in the present life.  There are four different stations of the Brethren; Hopedale, Nain, O’Kok, and Hebron.  At each station there is a church, store, dwelling-house for the Missionaries, and workshops for native tradesmen.  The natives are lodged in houses built after the model of their igloes, being the best adapted to the climate and circumstances of the country, where scarcely any fuel is to be had:  the Missionaries warm their houses by means of stoves.

The Brethren have much the same influence with their flocks as a father among his children.  Whatever provisions the natives collect are placed at their disposal, and by them afterwards distributed in such a manner as to be of the most general benefit; by thus taking the management of this important matter into their own hands, the consequences of waste and improvidence are guarded against, and the means of subsistence secured.