Morning journal and courier., 1886-07-26
CONGRESS NEARING THE END.
DEATH STALKING ON THE COAST.

A PitifuI TaIe of Misery and Starvn- ton from the Banks Of NeWfound- land.
 ST. JOHNS, N. F., July 25.-The Canadian government will send a steamer from Quebec to the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to carry such donations charitably dis posed people choose to make to relieve the
 distress among the starving inhabitants. In
 Quebec alone over .$1 ,000 worth of provisions
 have been donated so far and it is believed
 that Ontario will do as much. The New
 foundland government is not in position to
 give the immediate aid which the necessity
 of the case demands. The sorrows of these
 starving ill-clad fishermen have been known
 for over Q month, but nothing has been done
 to relieve their distress. Depusation after
 after deputation has appealed for aid, but in
 vain.
 An Indian guide and government interpre-
 ter who has just returned from Cape Chedley,
 the extreme northwestern point of Labrador,
 by sledge gives a hsartrending ac-
 count of the terrible destitution
 which the Esq1imaux and Indian families
 are enduring along the Labrador coast. In
 Cape Chedley two hundred and fifty souls
 are distributed over area of several miles.
 The food supply gave out in March. The
 seal catch was very small. As the season
 wore on the seal failed to come enough to be
 caught. The cold was intense and many of
 the older people died of exposure and lack of nourishment. On June 12, when the guide left the mercury stood at eighteen be- low zero and had been lower. The ice for several hundred miles solid for depth of from ten to one hundred feet and snow was piled mountain high. At least oirr6& how had aJn March i between. Cape Chedley and Cape Mugford and only four survivors were found in the rude shanties along the coast. These accompanied the guide to Cape Mugford. The bodies of eighteen victims were found frozen stiff. The clothes had been taken from the dead evidently to keep life in the bodies of the miserable survivors, who in turn had died while out fishing. Sev eral bodies were found along shore in the fishing stations, and twenty -four persons in- l cluding six women and three small children | are known to have perished at Cape Mugford, 1 where on June s9 there were only twenty l barrels of wheat and forty of corn flour. The potatoes have been gone since ] early in May. There were less than one hun l dred quintals of fish and no clothing in store. | The residents, numbering about three hun I dred people, were worn and plnched from 1 famine and cold. in the outlying districts | at least one-half the population had sue | cumbed to the grim destroyer. There was no sign of the ice breaking up and the l natives had nothing to exchange for food or | Seventy-fve Esquinaaux from As toria made attack on the stores at Mug ford. The men were desperate by their suf- | fering and that of their wives.
 After demand for food which could not | be given them owing to needs of the Mug | fordites and the small supply a rush was Il made for the harbor storehouse where the | four and fish were kept. The men gathered to defend their only hope of exist | ence and desperate fight ensued in which | killed and two of the store de- lenders were seriously injured. The | Indians finding they could not obtain | food by force retreated and sent in several of | their number to ask for food, which they | said was absolutely necessary. Two hundred l pounds of flour and fifty pounds of frozen | cod were given. It was reported that in As l toria alone out of from thirty five to fifty fam flies over one hundred people had died, most l ly women. In Main the catch of fish has not | been sufficient to afford food to the l The season which opened on | May 1 was backward and had it not been for l the seal industry, which was tolerably good, | not single soul would now be living. Along l Hamilton inlet snd Sandwich bay there is | not so much suffering, although many have | died in Wibeck and Indian harbors. Fish is | the only food besides small quantity of corn |
 
 March and the people are almost entirely | without clothing. At Hopedale not over | twety five families remain of the entire pop | ulation. There were some deaths in April l and May, but these, were principally from | exposure. In June eighty deaths occurred, | of which forty were squaws, thirty five chill l dren and five men. These deaths were from | starvation. The Okkah Indians are suffer- | ing greatly but there were not as many | deaths there as at first reported. ! Only twelve occurred there this spring. | In the country lying back from l Okkah, Hopedale, Main and Cape Mugford | there are not only small settlements without | families but large number of families, l mostly Indians or Esquimaux, among whom | the suffering is greater than in the other set 1 dement's. The deaths here from starvation l cannot be estimated. Not less than fifteen | hundred persons must have perished, but | the exact figures can never be known owing | to the isolated region in which the suffering | exists.