THE LABRADOR HORROR.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 28 August 1886, Page 3

THE LABRADOR HORROR.

St.' John* (Wewfottadlatfd), July 25.'— The Canadian Government will send a steamer from, Quebec to the, coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to carry such donations as charitably i •'disposed pefsonß may desire to send tb the'atarving people there. • ' ' An .Indian guide and, Government interpreter who has just returned from Capo Chidley, the extreme northwestern' point -' of .Labrador reached by, sledge, gives a r heart-rending account ,of the terriblei dea- 1 titution and suffering which the ;Esqm : ' maux and Indian farmers are enduring all ' along the Labrador Coast. On Cape, Chidley 250 souls are distributed over an area of several miles. ,■■ The entire food supply : gave out early in March. The seal catch' was very small, and as, the season wore on ■ the seals failed to come near , enough to shore to be caught. The cold was intense, and many of» the older people died of ex- - posure and lack of nourishment. On June 12th, when the guide left, the mercury stood at 18 degrees below zero and had - been lower. The ice for several hundred miles was solid for a depth of from ten to 100 feet, and the snow was piled mountains ligh. At least eighty persons have perished since March between Cape Chidley and Cape Mugford, and only four survivors were found in rude shanties along the coast. These accompanied the guide to Cape Mugford. The bodieß of eighteen 5 victims were found frozen stiff. The clothes had been taken from them, evidently to help keep life in the bodies of. the miserable survivors, who, in turn, had died while out fishing . ox after seal. Twenty -two persons are known to have oerished at Capa Mugford, where, on June 29th, there were only twenty barrels of meat and forty barrels of corn-flour. The potatoes had been gone since early in May. There were less than 100 quintals of fish and no clothing in store at all. The residents, numbering about 300 persons, were worn and pinched from famine and cold. In the outlying districts at leapt one half of the population had died. There was no sign of the ice breaidng up, and the natives had nothing to exchange for food or clothing. Seventy -five^Esquimaux from Asteria, six miles from the Cape, made an attack on the stores at Mugford, the men being rendered desperate by their sufferisgß. Over 500 families are starving in Northern Newfoundland, while in Labrador 1,000 families are in tho first state of destitution. One hundred and twenty persons have died so far. The thermometer on the Ist of July stood at zero. From Cape Bauld, N F., to Cape Mugford on the Labrador coast there is a solid barrier of ice and no fishing has been possible. The schooner Barrett put into St. John?, N. F., on July 27th, bringing the latest news from the Labrador coast. For nearly two weeks she was blockaded in York harbour, forty miles east of Northeast River,, by a field Of ice. She brings five families who had reached that point from Sand* wich bay, over 100 miles inland, in sledges drawn by ponies, on which they subsisted after their arrival. York harbour is crowded with fugitives, but these came from the Southern coast, and know nothing of their northern neighbours. On July 19th a snowstorm buried Eastern Labrador, cutting off all communications with its population of 15,000 persons. The snow has closed all the trails. Relief vessels will now go direct to New York bay to relieve the sufferers there. A White bay despatch states that whalers report that Hudson bay straits is again frozen over, which is an unprecedented occurrence at this season. The report) that the temperature is ten degrees below zero is, however, denied. The cold results from immense' masses of Arctic ice along the coast, andj it does not extend beyond 900 miles from the sea. Up to date 620 survivors have arrived here. The number that have died is estimated at 2,500 Since Saturday an east wind has blown off the banks, increasing the firmness of the co^et ice.