phenomenon.--Avocations of the missionaries--their
trials--preservation of their vessels--of their
settlements--their brotherly love.


Eleven years had the brethren now laboured for the conversion of the
Esquimaux amidst many difficulties and dangers, when circumstances
occurred which threatened to blast these fair hopes of success. In the
summer of 1782, the Esquimaux, for the first time since missionaries
had settled in the country, visited the English settlements in the
south. Tuglavina had persuaded Abraham, one of the baptized of Nain,
to go with him to Chateau Bay; and when they returned in October, they
reported that the Commander-in-chief had been quite overjoyed to see
baptized Esquimaux, and wished that more of them might come to visit
him, for he also had been baptized, and hoped that his soul after
death would go to heaven. He had reproved Mikak for not being
baptized, and warned then all against murders and adultery. Abraham
had bought a boat and still owed half of the price, yet he and
Tuglavina had each received a present of a musket and powder and ball,
nor had the women been sent empty away; also, while they were there,
they had had plenty to eat, a gratification of no minor importance.

By these splendid accounts of their kind reception, a general desire
was excited among their countrymen to go likewise to the south; and
the next consequence was, insolence and opposition to the missionaries
and teachers. If they were reminded to be sparing of their winter
provisions, they sarcastically replied, by reminding the brethren of
the manner in which Tuglavina and Abraham had been treated by the
"good" Europeans in the south; or if they came into the mission-house
and got nothing to eat, they immediately exclaimed, with the