mission, they had been repeatedly tried both by pestilence and famine,
but they now found their heavenly Father a ready help in every time of
need. In one season, when the seal-catching had entirely failed, and
the Esquimaux were deprived of the means of subsistence for the
winter, the brethren joined with them in crying aloud to God for help,
and he so directed it, that in a short time two dead whales were
found, which preserved them from starving. The missionary families
depended chiefly upon the supplies from Europe for their healthful
subsistence, and it is an instance of the superintending providence of
a gracious God which these missionaries acknowledged with humble
thankfulness, that the voyages of the vessels which carried their
stores, were never interrupted by storms or enemies. The Amity was
preserved so long as employed in the service, but the very year when
about to quit it on her return home, she was taken by the French, yet
was restored without much detriment. And the Harmony, which had been
purchased to supply her place, had now for more than twenty-six years
traversed the wild and icy ocean, amid sunken rocks and in the sight
of enemies, without accident.[G] The missionary settlements during
this period, had been threatened with an attack from the French. Two
of their ships of war arrived on the coast in 1796, but having landed
at Chateau Bay, after plundering and burning that town and blowing up
the fort, they were mercifully restrained from harming the more
peaceful habitations of the brethren.

In concluding the account of this past century, it is impossible not
to notice the extraordinary spirit of love and of Christian affection
which pervaded the missionaries in Labrador and their brethren in
Europe; they loved each other with pure hearts fervently; and it is
remarkable, and worthy of peculiar observation, that before these
servants of God were honoured to carry the tidings of the gospel to