The Labrador parson
Subtitle: journal of the reverend Henry Gordon, 1915-1925
By: F. Burnham Gill, revising editor.
Contributors: Gill, F. Burnham
Publisher: s.n.
Published: 1972
Place of publication: [St. John's
Language: eng
Number of pages: 254
Subjects: Anglican Church of Canada -- Clergy -- Correspondence, reminiscences, etc.
First sentence: It was on August 17th, 1915, that the Newfoundland mailboat “Sagona” rounded a long low-lying point and gave me my first view of Cartwright.
Description: PREFACE

The following account of life in Labrador, nearly half a century ago, is based on the periodical reports which I sent to friends at home, during the years of my residence in that country.

This will, I hope, explain and excuse its rather personal character, for it never occurred to me that these records might one day be given wider publicity.

I have, however, received so many requests for their reproduction, that I am making an attempt to put them together in a more composite form.  Such interest as they may possess will, of course, primarily be for those who are acquainted with the country, but it is quite possible that they may also have some historical value:  for very great changes have taken place in the conditions of life in that part of the world, since the times of which I write.

No one can think of Labrador without instinctively coupling it with the name of that great pioneer, Sir Wilfred Grenfell. I was privileged to be very closely associated with him and to be numbered among his most intimate friends.  It was, in fact, at his invitation that I went out to Labrador.  I must make it clear, however, that I had no official connection with his admirable organisation, but served my time as an outpost Missionary under the auspices of the Diocese of Newfoundland.

If, at times, my experience savour somewhat of hardship and even privation, I hope no one will waste any sympathy on me, for I loved the life and found great happiness in it.  It gave me a special opportunity of getting on very intimate terms with my “parishioners”, for I not only lived with them, but, often on them!

For the enlightenment of those who are not acquainted with the country, I would like to conclude this Preface with a few words about the origins and characteristics of the Labrador people.  The foundation stock of the population is, of course, the Eskimo, but even in my time their numbers were very small and must be considerably smaller today.  At certain times of the year a few families of Montagni Indians might be found at one or another of the Trading posts, but their nomadic mode of life hardly qualifies them for inclusion in the stable population of the coast.  The same applies to the very large number of Newfoundland fishermen and their families who came down for the summer season and returned home in the fall.  By far the greater part of the permanent population are the descendants of early British settlers, brought out by the various trading companies, which established themselves on the coast in the nineteenth century.  To some extent there was inter-marriage between these and the Eskimo, but many of them are proud to be able to trace back their pure British ancestry.  This, in my opinion, gives them their own peculiar charm for they have preserved to a most marked degree, the accents, manners and customs of the old-world Devon and Dorset, from which many of their forebears sprang.

The total population, from all sources, would probably not exceed four thousand and, of these, very few congregated in any-sized community.  Most of them were strung out 
over a vast area, in little groups of two or three families, or even in lonely single homesteads, miles away from any neighbour.  This was due, not so much to choice, as 
from the nature of their livelihood, which depended entirely on hunting and trapping in the winter, and fishing in the summer.

Time has brought great change to Labrador.  The old barriers of isolation have been broken down, and life become more comfortable.  This is all to the good, but perhaps some of us may, at times, look back longingly to the more primitive yet (I venture to think) more romantic days.

Henry Gordon
Notes: Printed as a project of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador.
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