called the
mate, not without some displeasure at both for neglecting to get under
way. We got away at 5.30, and had a very pleasant sail to Purbeck
Cove, which we reached at nine o'clock. It is a fine harbour, but like
most in this bay with very deep water. We found here a Mr. C----, with
a vessel and crew from Greenspond for the summer fishery. He reported
favourably of his catch, and speaks of the bay as generally very
prolific. Besides cod-fish, salmon, and trout in abundance, later in
the fall he expects to catch mackerel; and this is the only bay in
which, at present, they are found in Newfoundland. Deer also abound in
the neighbourhood; some have been killed lately, and more might be
found if the people cared to look after them; but they are not yet in
season, and the fishing is not neglected for any thing or all things.
This is the great harvest; the seals are the first, but more uncertain
and less lucrative; late in the fall the deer are slaughtered; and in
the winter other game, with foxes, martens, &c., afford sport and
means of subsistence. Seeing several boats fishing outside, I
despatched my friends to inform the men who and what we were, and to
request them, if possible, to bring their families on board in the
afternoon. Fortunately they were able to communicate with parties
living above and below. All, though the fishery was at its height,
accepted the invitation, and Mr. C---- came also with his crew, so
that the cabin could not contain them, and several of the men stood
round the skylight on the deck, from which they looked down upon us as
from a gallery. The day was very fine and warm, and I suffered no
inconvenience from open skylight or sky, except when a piece of
tobacco descended on my head. Twenty-one children were received into
the Church, and one couple married. Very few, if any, except some men
of Mr. C----'s crew (who, thanks to their good pastor at Greenspond,
had their Prayer-books, and were attentive and well behaved) could
read, but most of the children could say the Lord's Prayer and Creed.
One woman brought forward her daughter as "a terrible girl" to, say
her Creed and Lord's Prayer, and some of the Commandments; and "that
hymn you sung below (Evening Hymn), she knows _he_, but she _lips_
(lisps), so she's ashamed before strangers." Another woman, after
surveying with, much admiration a large alphabet-sheet (as I should
Egyptian hieroglyphics), said, "I suppose, sir, that's the A B C." I