[Footnote G:  The Brethren’s Society in London, now undertook to supply the missions, and relieved the merchants from a losing concern; they built the brig Harmony of 133 tons, which made her first voyage, 1787, under Captain James Fraser, and continued to sail in safety till 1802, when she was laid aside, and the Resolution was employed.]

CHAPTER V.

 Variable appearances of the mission at Nain and Okkak—­more
   favourable at Hopedale.—­Death of Benjamin.—­Spirit of love
   among the converted.—­Happy communion and close of the
   year.—­Providential escape of the Resolution.—­New epoch in
   Labrador.—­A remarkable awakening commences at
   Hopedale—­meetings—­schools.—­Letter from a converted Esquimaux
   to his teacher.—­Industry of the awakened.—­Declension of
   religion at Nain, and Okkak.—­State of the children at
   Hopedale.—­Progress of the adults in knowledge, love, and
   zeal—­instances.—­Striking conversion of two young Esquimaux,
   its effects upon their countrymen.—­Awakening spreads to Nain
   and to Okkak.—­Zeal of the converts towards the heathen—­rouses
   backsliders.—­Behaviour of the awakened in sickness, and the
   prospect of death.—­Remarkable accessions from the heathen.—­The
   son of a sorcerer.

Chequered as life is with joy and grief, there is perhaps no section of it so much so as that of the missionary.  Those in Labrador had, for thirty years, been going forth weeping and bearing the precious seed; they were now to perceive it beginning to spring, and to rejoice in the prospect of bringing back their sheaves.  The concern about eternal things which had been observed the former year at Hopedale, continued to increase, and appeared evidently a work of Divine grace.  At first only a few individuals found their minds stirred up to seek their salvation; but in the beginning of the year 1801, a fresh and general awakening took place.  Those who had shewn the greatest enmity to the gospel now began to form the serious resolution of being converted to Jesus.  In February 1802, a noted sorcerer, Siksigak, and two women, were admitted candidates for baptism at Nain; and on March 4th, a man was baptized, and named Isaac.—­“This transaction,” say the missionaries, “was distinguished by a most encouraging perception of the presence of God among us.”  At Okkak they believed that the Saviour had granted a particular blessing to their feeble testimony of his love to sinners, in preaching the word of his cross.

They had at these two last stations, however, much cause for mingling grief with their joy; for several of those of whom they hoped well drew back, and some of the baptized even forsook them and returned to the heathen.  “We compare,” say they in one of their letters, “our Esquimaux congregations to an infirmary, in which patients of all descriptions are to be met with.  However, we can plainly discover