Extracts from a Journal of a Voyage of Visitation in the "Hawk," 1859Feild, Edward
History
Extracts from a Journal of a Voyage of Visitation in the "Hawk," 1859
Feild, Edward
Church of England -- Missions; Church of England. Diocese of Newfoundland; Newfoundland and Labrador -- Description and travel
"In my late visitation, however, I have been enabled to reach a
portion of the island, in which, though several hundred members of our
Church have long resided, no clergyman had ever before been seen. I
refer to White Bay, a remote district on the so-called French Shore of
Newfoundland. A large portion, nearly one-half of the coast of
Newfoundland (from Cape St. John on the N.E. to Cape Ray on the S.W.),
is called and known in the island by that name (the French Shore); in
consequence of the permission, granted by treaty, to the French to
fish for cod on, or round that portion. The natives and inhabitants of
Newfoundland, and the British generally, have not considered it worth
their while to prosecute the fishery to any extent in these parts, or
to settle in them; the operations of the French fishermen, being
assisted and systematized by their Government, are on such an
extensive scale as to exclude competition, and to render their
privilege practically an exclusive one. Nevertheless, as the parts of
the island so assigned, or given up, are among the most productive,
not only in fish, but in game, and occasionally in seals (which are
there taken in nets with comparatively little trouble or expense),
families have from time to time migrated to and settled in these
remote districts, scattering themselves widely, with the view of
obtaining the means of subsistence in larger abundance and with
greater ease. Now, as there are no roads to, or on, this shore, and
each settlement therefore can only be approached by sea, and by sea
only for four or five months in the year, in any vessel larger than a
boat, it is exceedingly difficult to minister to, or visit the
inhabitants. Nevertheless, I have been enabled, by the aid of my
Church-ship, to visit, _at intervals of four years_, since 1848, most
of the settlements on this shore. In St. George's Bay, indeed, the
most thickly or largely inhabited part, a Church has been built, and
one of our Society's missionaries stationed for several years; and
great, in consequence, is the change, great the improvement in the
residents. Here, I have been enabled, as in other parts of the island,
to celebrate the services of consecration and confirmation, and to
provide for the administration of the Holy Communion. But until the
census of 1857, I was not aware of the large number of our people in
White Bay and the neighbourhood, or of the large proportion they bear
to the whole population. When, at the close of that year, I discovered
that more than three-fourths registered themselves members of the
Church of England, I resolved, should it please God to permit me, to
make another voyage in my Church-ship, that I would myself visit, and
minister to, as I might be able, these scattered sheep of my flock. A
statement of their condition, and of my services, assisted by the
clergy who accompanied me, cannot fail, I think, to interest and
affect all those who can feel for the sheep or the shepherd. It is
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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