state; chairs, tables, bedsteads, and the like, have still to be made.
Our fellow traveller, brother Freytag has his bed at present upon a
heap of shavings. The reading table in the temporary church, is a box
set on end, upon which a flat board has been nailed, and the whole is
covered with a piece of coarse cloth, but in due time we hope all will
be in order."
In the course of the winter, nine persons came to reside at the
settlement, professing to enquire for rest to their souls; the
missionaries gladly received them, and directed their attention to our
Saviour's invitation to the weary and heavy laden. Among them an
Esquimaux woman came from Saeglak, and requested leave to reside at
the station; the missionaries informed her that she was welcome to do
so, but that she must give up all heathenish practices. She replied
that for some time past, both her husband and herself had discontinued
these things, and had been long thinking about their conversion, and
therefore they had come to them. About a week after, the husband
himself came, and confirmed what his wife had said. On the 12th of
July three boats' companies arrived from the north, and several of the
Esquimaux paid the brethren a visit, but seemed little disposed to
listen to the gospel. Only one young man remained with his mother.
Many Esquimaux arrived in the following year [1832] for the sake of
trade; but when the brethren advised them to make the salvation of
their soul their chief concern, they all began to offer excuses, yet
on being spoken to about the consequences of death, they did not, as
formerly, treat it with levity; some even appeared thoughtful after
such conversations, and five persons removed from the heathen to the
settlement. Of those who had resided with them for some time, they had
the pleasure, on Easter Sunday, to baptize four adults and one child,
being the first accession to the church at Hebron from among the
heathen. The number of their congregation in August, the date of their
latest accounts, amounted in all, to 162 persons, of whom 72 had
joined from Okkak, and 10 from Nain.
Printed by J. Ritchie, 3. East Adam Street.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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