Before this Mikak died. She had resided chiefly in the south since the
year 1783, and thus lost the advantage of hearing the gospel, which
she seemed latterly to view with indifference. But on the approach of
death her impressions revived. The last two days of her life she spent
at Nain. Immediately on her arrival, being very ill, she sent to
Brother Burghardt, to request assistance and advice. He found her
extremely weak, and apparently without hopes of recovery. However,
after giving her some medicine, he took occasion to speak seriously
with her concerning the state of her soul, advising her to return to
Jesus Christ as a repentant sinner, who will surely receive all poor
prodigals, if with their hearts they confess their deviations; and he
also reminded her of the promises she had formerly made to devote her
whole heart to him. She assented to the truth of all he said, and
exclaimed, "Ah! I have behaved very bad, and am grieved on that
account; but what shall I do? I cannot find Jesus again!" Brother
Burghardt exhorted her not to desist from crying to him for mercy,
for he came to seek and save the lost, and would not cast her out. In
the following days she seemed to receive these admonitions with
eagerness, and declared that she had not forgotten what she had heard
of her Saviour in former days, nor what she had promised when she
became a candidate for baptism. She departed this life Oct 1; and was
buried in the brethren's burying ground; and they were willing to
entertain the hope that this straying sheep had found mercy at last.
Ever since the brethren had been in Labrador, they had heard the
Esquimaux speak of Indians in the interior, of whom they seemed
greatly afraid; frequently a sudden terror would be diffused among
their tribes, if they discovered any trace of that formidable people
near them. But in the summer of 1798, they were alarmed with the
certain intelligence that five or six of their families had arrived at
a European settlement, at Kippakak, about five or six miles distant
from Hopedale; and in April 1799, some of them for the first time paid
the mission-station a visit. They were a father and son, who came with
the design of buying tobacco from the brethren. They lived with some
Christians of French extraction in the southern settlements, and had
been baptized by a French priest. All the Esquimaux immediately
gathered round the strangers, and eyed them as objects of jealous
curiosity. The old man appeared exceedingly alarmed at this, and was
extremely glad when the brethren invited him and his son into the
mission-house. The latter understood the Esquimaux language and
English; but the father, when any one wished to speak with him,
pointed to his ears, giving them to understand that he could hear
nothing. When food was placed before them they took off their caps and
crossed themselves; and before they went to bed they kneeled down and
repeated a long prayer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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