The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-19
CATHoLICITY IN LABRADOR.

Fifty years of missionary labors,
travels and priVationS among the low
est and most degraded Indian tribes of
the North American continent, in the
far frozen north of Labrador. have just
been completed by the Rev Father Ar
aud of the Oblate order, whose jubilee
is about to be celebrated here with much
s0lemnity, says a correspondent of the
New York Sun, writing recently from
Quebec. The wonderful career Of the
venerable missionary is intimately con-
nected with some of the most sensa-
tiOnal experiences of the Montagnais
and Nascapee Indians during the last
half century. He knows more of the in
terror Of Labrador and has Travelled
more of it than any other explorer
Scarcely an Indian roams this inhOs-
pitable territory that he does not know
by name. He has lived and journeyed
with them and shared their privations,
which to him were all the more painful,
for his youth was spent in plenty and
comfort
Born in France, in 1927, Father Ar
maud WIS ordained priest at ottawa in
1S49. and Immediately afterWard was
sent by mis- superiors to accompany a
party Of Indians on their journey across
the Labrador peninsula TO Hudson bay.
Ii was a painful journey to the young
Frenchman. for the Indian ideas of
cleanliness and of cookery are very diff
ferent from those of civilized nations,
and his stomach frequently revolted at
the food that was set before him. He
has seldom been heard to complain of
his lot. but the Jesuit Father Crepieul
has graphically described the life of a
Montagnais missionary as prolonged
martyrdOm and a continual practice of
patience and modification. In winter
the missionary lives in an Indian hut,
formed Of sticks covered with skins and
bOughs of trees, and banked around
with snow. He lies upon the frozen
ground with his clothes on. the hut
being usually full of smoke. and if he
perspires by day he is almost frozen
at night. He eats from a dish seldom
or never washed and licked by the dogs
that share his bed. Sometimes he is
forced to 90 without food.
Father Aurnaud has experienced all
these and even greater miseries. After
his return from Hudson bay in 1S49 he
was sent TO labor among the Indians of
Labrador from the Saguenay 10 the At
lantic ocean. He has carried on his
wonderful work until the present time.
and viii probably continue it until the
end Of his life. Nothing can exceed his
a1ectionate regard for his Indian flock.
many members of which he has con-
Verted from paganisn.
Father ATnaudS description of the
sufferings of his poor sheep as he
calls the Indian members of his flock.
often resemble some horrible fiction.
They are cOrroborated. however, from
other sources. He tells. for instance, |
of the disasters that befell the members /
of his mission at Mingan some winters /
ago. when thirty-two of his Indian
converts died Of starvation at the
height of land in which the St. Jean
hiFer has its source. About twenty
Montagnais families left the coast dur I
ing the previous summer for the part
of the interior already described. tax
ing no provisions with them because /
they had counted upon finding plenty of
caribou. In this they were entirely dis 1
appointed, however. while an excep- 4
tiOnally early fan OF snow found many
OF them without their snOWshOes. and I
they could not even find the pOrcupines. /
hareS and white partridges which are 4
usually so abundant in Labrador A (
few families among them contrived TO /
reach Eskimo bay. but most of the |
others miserably persisted in the woods 1
before Christmas. News reached the 4
missionary the same year that two I
families had been abandoned to their /
fate at the headwaters Of the St. Au-
guStine river, and that a number of |
other Indians belonging TO the same
place. who had crossed to Newfound- !
land. had been maSSacred by the Mic
Macs
Father Arnaud testifies with deep
sorrow TO the wonderful influence pos
Sessed over some members of the tribe |
by the Indian jugglers who manipulate
the magnetic fluid, or whatever else it
may be, with greater facility than the
most eminent magician Of civilization.
The remarkable movements Of their
huts, while they are engaged at their
divination is even more surprising than
those Of the tables used in spirit rap
ping There is little doubt that these
Indian Jugglers have experimental and
played with certain occult sciences for
centuries before the study Of NEGRO
NANCY and so-called spirit rappings had
engaged the attention of the modern
civilized world
Many times Father Arnaud has mar
rowly escaped death from starvation,
drowning and exposure to the wild ami
mails that roam the woods of Labrador.