Lovely however, and heart-cheering as this delightful period was, it is not to be imagined that it was a period of unmingled joy; there were several instances in which strong and violent emotions were succeeded by coldness, formality, and hypocrisy, and in some cases by open apostasy, or by unequivocal marks of reprobation. The most remarkable were Kapik and Jacob; the former had been baptized by the name of Thomas, and his declarations breathed, or seemed to breathe, the very essence of a more than ordinary spirituality. "I have no other desire," said he upon one occasion to the missionaries, "but Jesus my Saviour, who has had mercy even upon me, the very worst of men; and I pray, that I may now give him joy, and cleave to him to the end. Alas! alas! that I have known him so late! Formerly I could not believe one word of what your predecessors and yourselves told us of Jesus, and of the necessity of believing on him, and becoming his property. I only laughed, and mocked, and gave pain and trouble to my teachers. But how is this? I now believe it all, and our Saviour has so powerfully drawn my heart towards himself, that I can find no words to describe what I feel." By this and similar speeches he so far imposed upon the brethren, that they believed him a humble follower of the good Shepherd, and a true child of God. But being attacked, autumn 1806, by a malignant disorder somewhat resembling the smallpox and measles, which raged in the settlement, the severe pain he suffered from the virulence of the disorder, as the irruption in his face struck inward, and assuming a cancerous form destroyed his upper jaw bone, he became impatient, forsook his professions of confidence in the Saviour, and sought for help in heathenish practices, and if he had had opportunity would have proceeded to greater lengths in these abominations, than ever before. His behaviour in his family too, had become very oppressive, and all the kind exhortations, as well as the serious remonstrances of the missionaries, produced no effect; even after he recovered, he remained quite hardened. He some years afterwards professed sincere repentance, but his artifice had been so deep before, that the missionaries could only say, that nothing was impossible to God.