the ice, so obstructed our path, that we were nine hours longer on the
way than we were before, but we reached Okkak on the 26th, at three in
the morning, full of gratitude to the Saviour, whose presence had so
comforted us on this visit, and filled us with the joyful conviction,
that he also had left a blessed impression on the Esquimaux.
Preparations were now commenced at the different stations for
forwarding the erection of the new settlement, and early in the year
1829, rafters, boards, and shingles, were transported to
Kangertluksoak from Okkak by sledges, which performed no less than one
hundred and five journies, and seldom spent more than a day upon the
road, the tract having been extraordinarily fine, beyond what the
oldest inhabitant remembered to have seen, and which the brethren
considered as the mark of a kind providence smiling on their new
undertaking. When the frame work of the mission-house was finished, on
the 13th of April brother Mentzel and Beck, with six young Esquimaux,
set out for the spot. On the 8th of July the frame was set up, and on
the 21st it was covered with weather boarding on three sides.
The Society in London in the meantime had not been idle; they had, in
addition to the ordinary vessel, hired a consort, the Oliver, which
they sent out with materials, to enable the missionaries to go on with
their new settlement, named _Hebron_, and which opportunely arrived,
just when the house was made ready to receive, and place the stores
under cover. Another missionary, Ferdinand, arrived with the Harmony
to assist brother Beck. Immediately they commenced unloading the
Oliver, in which they were stoutly assisted by about thirty Esquimaux,
with their wives and children. In less than a week, the whole was
landed, and after consulting with the brethren at Okkak, the resident
missionaries proceeded with their labour: notwithstanding several
interruptions, first by the loss of their assistants for a time, who
went to the rein-deer hunt, and afterwards by a violent storm, which
carried away the scaffolding, and part of their materials, they got so
far finished, that on the 18th of September, one room was habitable,
and they could quit the small and uncomfortable hut, in which they had
hitherto lived. During the winter months their work was suspended, but
in spring, 1831, they recommenced with fresh diligence, and on the 7th
of May, the second story of their house was floored, and likewise
habitable. They had constructed besides some outhouses as cellars and
store houses; and when the vessels from Europe again visited the
settlement in July, bringing a further supply of building materials,
brother Mentzel, who had gone to England and returned in her, was much
surprised to see the premises so far advanced, and thus reported: "Our
dear brethren," says he, "must have laboured diligently to effect what
they have done. It is true every thing is in a rude and unfinished
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