Although the Aleuts willingly embraced the Christian religion, and prayed to God as they were taught, it must be confessed that, until a priest was settled amongst them they worshiped one who was almost an unknown God. For Father Macarius, from the shortness of time that he was with them, and from the lack of competent interpreters, was able to give them but very general ideas about religion, such as of God’s omnipotence, His goodness, etc. Notwithstanding all of which the Aleutines remained Christians, and after baptism completely renounced Shamanism, and not only destroyed all the masks which they used in their heathen worship, but also allowed the songs which might in any way remind them of their heathen worship to fall into disuse, so that when, on my arrival amongst them, I through curiosity made inquiry after these songs, I could not hear of one. But of all good qualities of the Aleutines, nothing so pleased and delighted my heart as their desire, or to speak more justly, _thirst_, for the Word of God, so that sooner would an indefatigable missionary tire of _preaching_ than they of _hearing_ the Word. But Veniamínoff, true missionary that he was, was not content with his quiet, peaceful labors among the Aleuts. There was a fierce tribe that hunted the Russians like wild beasts in the neighborhood of Sitka, and to them he determined to carry the gospel. He began to get ready for his mission to these Koloshes in 1834, but was detained a year, and at last, ashamed of himself for his cowardice, he resolved that immediately upon the close of the Christmas holidays he would take his life in his hand and go. “Four days before I came to these Koloshes,” he says, “the small-pox broke out among them. Had I begun my instruction before the appearance of the small-pox they would certainly have blamed me for all the evil which came upon them, as if I were a Russian Shaman or sorcerer, who sent such plagues amongst them. But glory be to God, who orders all things for good.” (Think of thanking God for opening such _a door of entrance_, a door from whose opening in such a place any one but a man of iron nerves and complete self-surrender would have fled away and thanked God for his escape!) “The Koloshes were not what they were two years previously” (when he _meant_ to come among them). “Few were baptized then, for, while I proclaimed the truth to them, I never urged upon them, or wished to urge upon them, the immediate reception of holy baptism, but, seeking to convince their judgment, I awaited a request from them. Those who expressed a desire to be baptised I received with full satisfaction.” After sixteen years of missionary toil in such a field Veniamínoff was sent to St. Petersburg to plead for help for the mission. The Czar proposed to the Synod to send him back as a bishop, but that body objected, because, though he was an excellent man, he had “no