"The schools, which are held, with both children and adults, from
November to April, are a most powerful means of forwarding their
improvement in every thing good and profitable for them. Most of the
people attend them with great diligence, and with an earnest desire to
be soon able to read the New Testament for themselves. There are among
the children some of five, and even of four years of age, who read
well. The severest punishment than can be inflicted on a child is to
keep him from school. The new Hymn Book is a truly valuable present.
The whole number of Christian Esquimaux under the care of the
brethren, at present, is 705, old and young."
Excepting that their numbers continued gradually to increase, the
above report may be considered as a correct view of the state of the
Moravian settlements in Labrador for several succeeding years.
Some Ladies in Scotland, who had admired the exertions of the
Moravians in Labrador, had about this time sent as a token of their
Christian affection a small present to the beloved labourers in that
distant inhospitable clime; they were gratified, nearly under the
above date [at the close of 1831,] by the following letter from two
aged servants of the Lord, the venerable missionary Kmoch and his
wife, who, after nearly half a century of active exertion, reluctantly
retired from the heat of the day--it was addressed to a friend in
Edinburgh, and shortly but sweetly corroborates the account of
Kohlmeister.
"The Saviour continues," say they, "to bless his own work in Labrador.
In Okkak, during the last winter, eight adults and thirteen children
were baptized, and six persons are longing for the enjoyment of the
holy supper for the first time. In the harvest of 1830 a malignant
cold and cough raged in Okkak, of which eighteen persons died, but
last winter the weather was very mild. I have been 34 and my wife 19
years in Labrador. I would willingly have remained among our dear
Esquimaux much longer, but old age and sickness are the cause of our
return. The parting with our Esquimaux, and our dear fellow-labourers,
was very affecting."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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