Missionaries.

These people came mostly from the north, and some of them from a great
distance. They reported, that the body of the Esquimaux nation lived
near and beyond Cape Chudleigh, which they call Killinek, and having
conceived much friendship for the Missionaries, never failed to request,
that some of them would come to their country, and even urged the
formation of a new settlement, considerably to the north of Okkak.

To these repeated and earnest applications the Missionaries were the
more disposed to listen, as it had been discovered, not many years after
the establishment of the Mission in 1771, that that part of the coast on
which, by the encouragement of the British government, the first
settlement was made, was very thinly inhabited, and that the aim of the
Mission, to convert the Esquimaux to Christianity, would be better
obtained, if access could be had to the main body of the Indians, from
which the roving inhabitants appeared to be mere stragglers.
Circumstances, however, prevented more extensive plans from being put in
execution; and the Missionaries, having gained the confidence and esteem
of the Esquimaux in their neighbourhood, remained stationary on that
coast, and, by degrees, formed three settlements, OKKAK, to the north,
and HOPEDALE, to the south of NAIN, their first place of residence.

In consequence of the abovementioned invitation, it became a subject of
serious consideration, by what means a more correct idea of the extent
and dwelling-places of the Esquimaux nation might be obtained, and a
general wish was expressed, that one or more of the Missionaries would
undertake the perilous task of visiting such places as were reported by
the Esquimaux themselves to contain more inhabitants than the southern
coast, but remained unknown to European navigators.