the Saviour, and now it is his will that I should be the first to go to him. If you remain faithful to the end, we shall meet again before the throne of God and the Lamb, and rejoice for ever at the grace conferred upon us. He will know how to provide food for you and especially for my wife." Contrary to the custom of the Greenlanders, both his wife and his brother shewed much resignation at his death, and requested our brethren to bury his corpse according to the manner of believers. The gentlemen and other persons belonging to the colony of Good-hope attended the funeral. After singing some verses, one of our missionaries delivered a short discourse in the house. Four Greenland youths then carried the coffin to the buryingplace. At the grave one of the Danish missionaries gave a short exhortation; and the whole was concluded with prayer. This solemn scene made a wonderful impression on the natives, who were present. His death was a severe stroke to our brethren: they lost in him a bright example of the efficacy of divine grace in renovating the heart, a lively and active witness of Christ among his countrymen, and a very useful assistant in translating the New Testament.

Our missionaries still proceeded with their usual activity in visiting and instructing the heathen, and were faithfully assisted by their converts. Wherever these went, in quest of food, they diffused the knowldge of the gospel, both by their words and by their conduct, which the pagans themselves acknowledged to be consistent with their profession. Thus, when our brethren followed them to these places, they generally found the way prepared, which greatly facilitated their labours among the savages. Indeed it appeared that a general inquiry about the way of truth had been excited among the natives inhabiting this part of the coast, which brought many visiters to NEW-HERRNHUT, and annually increased the congregation of believing Greenlanders. Our missionaries, however, observed the utmost caution before they admitted any to the sacred rite of baptism, not only because the impressions made on the Greenlanders, by the gospel, often proved transitory and evanescent, but because they were ever ready to grow proud and self-conceited

when they had attained the least knowledge of divine things.

As a proof of the inquiry excited among the savages, respecting the gospel, the following may suffice. In 1744, when the believing Greenlanders returned from the islands, they reported that they found many heathen, who gladly listened to them, when speaking of the Saviour, and desired to hear more; and those who were disposed to mock were generally silenced by the more sober-minded. One of the baptized found a number sitting together and conversing with much earnestness about the concerns of their souls. They constrained him to sit down by them and join in the discourse. The awakening extended to a greater distance, than the missionaries could conveniently visit. Of this they were informed by one of their baptized Greenlanders, who had found the savages, living many leagues to the north, very eager to be instructed. A company of them urged him to sit down and talk with them for a whole night; and when he stole away the second night, to get some rest, they followed and compelled him to gratify their desire of further conversation. Even a noted angekok, or necromancer, in that place, was much impressed. He wept two whole days, and told the people he had dreamed that he was in hell, where he saw and heard things, not possible to utter, adding, that he would no longer deceive them by his diabolical delusions.

In process of time, this general stir among the heathen subsided; but the believing Greenlanders increased both in number and grace. At the close of 1748, no less than two hundred and thirty resided at NEW Herrnhut, thirty-five of whom had been baptized during that year. And though they were not without their imperfections, yet it was evident, that they progressively attained to greater stability, and gave many pleasing proofs of the influence of the gospel on their hearts, both in their intercourse with one another, which became more and more characterised by brotherly love, in their faithful improvement of all the means of grace, and in the composure, and not unfrequently triumphant hope, with which they met death and looked forward to a glorious immortality. Impedi

ments of one kind or other, were indeed thrown in the way by Satan and his emisaries, the angekoks, who fearing entirely to lose their reputation and profits, invented all sorts of stories to deter their countrymen from believing the gospel; but their efforts were feeble and could not withstand the power of divine truth.

In 1747, they erected their first church, a wooden building, the frame and boards of which had been sent from Europe. This proved a very great convenience, as the auditory frequently amounted to three hundred persons. Store-houses were at the same time erected, both for the missionaries and their converts, which to the latter were peculiarly useful, as they could now keep their dried meat, fish, capelins and other articles for winter consumption in a place of safety, where they were neither injured by the cold, nor devoured by beasts of prey. In consequence of this and the good regulations introduced among them, above three hundred persons could be maintained at NEW-HERRNHUT, a place, where it was formerly deemed impossible for two families to subsist. They had it even in their power to assist their poor neighbours in times of scarcity, and they were never deficient in this act of charity.

The year 1752 and the two following were marked by circumstances of a most calamitous nature. The winters of 1752 and 1753 exceeded in severity any in the memory of the natives. The cold was perfectly horrible, and all the inlets were frozen over and blocked up with ice, so that no kajak could stir for many days; and even when any of the Greenlanders went abroad, they were not sure of their lives, and returned with their hands and faces frozen, and mostly without having caught as much as a single bird. Notwithstanding the many perils to which they were exposed, when going out in quest of food, only one of the inhabitants of NEW-HERRNHUT perished at sea. Tempests, resembling hurricanes were not unfrequent. On one occasion the storm nearly threw down the missionhouse and chapel; and the violence of the waves completely shattered their new and largest boat, although drawn on shore. Fanine succeeded this intense cold,

and plunged the savages into the utmost distress, many being starved to death. Great as were the sufferings of the christian Greenlanders, they were considerably mitigated by the solicitude of the missionaries for their welfare, and the more provident habits they had acquired. A dreadful contagion followed in the train of these calamities, which carried off great multitudes, both natives and Europeans; our missionaries, however, escaped. It raged with great fury at NEW-HERRNHUT, for three months. Besides those members of the congregation, who died in other places, thirty five finished their earthly race in the settlement. Many of these evidenced, in the most striking manner, the powerful and elevating influence of religion on the soul, not only leaving this world without regret, but even rejoicing at the bright prospect beyond the grave; which is the more remarkable as the Greenlanders have naturally an excessive horror of death.

During these disasters our brethren had almost daily proofs of the astonishing power of true religion in meliorating the condition of men even in this life, when comparing the situation of the christian Greenlanders with that of their pagan neighbours. In an account of one of their visits to the heathen in 1757, they write, "We passed on to a house, which for want of blubber, the people had long since forsaken *, and sold the timber to us. Near the house we found fifteen persons half starved, lying in such a small and low provision-house, that we could not stand upright, but were forced to creep in on our bellies. They lay one upon another, in order to keep themselves warm. They had no fire, nor the least morsel to eat, and were so emaciated, that they did not even care to raise themselves and speak to us. At length a man brought a couple of fishes. A girl took one, raw as it was, tore it in pieces with her teeth and devoured it with avidity. She looked as pale as death, and her whole countenance was truly ghastly. Four children had already perished with hunger. We distributed among them a portion of our own scanty pittance, and advised them to go

*When the Greenlanders have burnt all their oil, or as their phrase is, when the lamps must go out, they move into a close hole, which requires fewer lamps to warm it.

to our land, which however they seemed rather reluctant to do, as they never showed any inclination to hear the gospel, and carefully avoided all intercourse with our Greenlanders * " Indeed so little did these external distresses lead the heathen to a due sense of their spiritual need, and the benefits arising from religion, that though many of them came to the settlement and were hospitably entertained, and even acknowledged the superior excellency of their way of life; yet they manifested no real desire to become christians, and most of them went away again as soon as the famine subsided.

The great mortality at NEW-HERRNHUT deprived the congregation of some of its best providers, and increased the number of widows and orphans. This rendered it necessary for the missionaries to make proper arrangements for the support of the destitute. In those families where there was still a son left, the maintenance of the survivors was assigned to him. When there was no provider, the children were distributed among the rest of the families, to be trained to such kinds of manual labour as are required in Greenland. Orphans of a still younger age were confided to the care of some of the sisters; and infants at the breast were committed to those mothers who were still nursing. It was pleasing to observe that the christian Greenlanders yielded the most cheerful obedience to these regulations, and that many, who were less able, put to shame their richer neighbours. Our missionaries did not lighten the burden on themselves. They had to clothe several destitute children, and to provide boats and other necessary implements for many of the boys, that they might be able in time to support themselves and their poorer relatives. For it was their constant aim to educate

* Crantz, Vol. ii. p. 258.

There is nothing from which the Greenland women are more averse than to nurse the child of a stranger, lest it should become a rival in their affections to the prejudice of their own children. In this case the Greenlanders are totally devoid of feeling and compassion, and there is no alternative left for the unfortunate father, who cannot bear to witness the lingering death of his motherless infant, but to bury it alive with its mother. It affords, therefore, no small proof of the influence of divine grace, when a Greenland woman, professing Christianity, conquers this savage disposition and becomes a kind foster-parent to an orphan-child.