implicitly the prescriptions of the brethren. They were very cautious,
however, lest it should reach the missionaries' ears; nor do the
latter seem to have been aware of it, till one of the communicants at
Okkak, constrained by uneasiness of mind, confessed the whole with
many tears, saving that he had grievously sinned against the Lord. The
hypocrisy and equivocation which many, of whom they had hoped better
things, evinced, added greatly to the anguish of the missionaries; but
they had great consolation in the death of others, who departed happy
in the faith to their Saviour. Among these was Daniel, a communicant;
he said in his last illness, "All the things I had confidence in are
now in the depths of the sea, my only refuge is the Saviour; all my
thoughts rest on him." The widow Esther, however, deserves particular
notice; she was bred at Kilanok north from Okkak, and when a child
came on a visit to Nain in 1773, where she and her countrymen heard
for the first time the missionaries speak of the Creator and Redeemer
of men; this made a great impression upon her, and though a child, and
surrounded only by the heathen, it constantly occurred to her mind,
"It is he who made all things and knows all things; he, therefore,
knows me and can help me." Often she told the missionaries, that when
she was at Kilanok, she would go out to a mountain and weep and pray
to Jesus, particularly when any thing painful happened to her. After
her father's death a man took her for his third wife, which placed her
in the most painful circumstances, as he was a rude wicked wretch, a
sorcerer, and a murderer. In the year 1787 he died, and she was left
with two children completely destitute, for every one hated them on
his account. Her children were so dreadfully beaten that they both
died in consequence; but though they were thus cruelly treated in her
presence she durst not interfere, as the savages in ridicule
pretended it was the Torngak that bid them, and threatened her also
with death. At last Rebecca, one of the baptized, had compassion on