nquebar, we represented to the governor, that it
was necessary, that the vessel should immediately return for the relief
of the Mission, to which he agreed; and Fleckner being re-called, the
Brethren J. Heinrich, Rudolphi, and Soerensen, were sent thither in May
1785. The latter soon departed this life, as likewise Fleckner, at
Tranquebar. In September, I returned to Nancauwery, being commissioned
to convey the house belonging to the Imperial settlement on Sombrero
(Comarty) to our place, which I accomplished. Our old stone house was
turned into a magazine, and the Missionaries obtained a comfortable
dwelling, and a sufficient supply of provisions, and other necessaries.
But as to any success in making the natives acquainted with the gospel,
all our exertions seemed in vain.

After my return to Tranquebar, in 1786, Brother Rudolphi left Nicobar,
and arrived, after a long and tedious voyage, at Tranquebar, in 1787.
Not long after, Brother J. Heinrich departed this life, and Brother
Kragh remained alone.

The loss of so many valuable men, the total failure of the object of
the Mission, and the want of proper Brethren, willing to devote
themselves to so hopeless a cause, at length prevailed, and it was
resolved to give up the Mission. I was again deputed to go to
Nancauwery, to fetch Brother Kragh, and all effects belonging to the
Mission, and to deliver up the premises to the Governor, who, on our
representation of the impracticability of our supporting the Mission
any longer, had consented to send a lieutenant, a corporal, and six
privates, to take possession. I accompanied these people, and delivered
to them every thing I could not carry away.

Words cannot express the painful sensations which crowded into my mind,
while I was thus executing the task committed to me, and making a final
conclusion of the labours of the Brethren in the Nicobar Islands. I
remembered the numberless prayers, tears, and sighs offered up by so
many servants of Jesus, and by our congregations in Europe, for the
conversion of the poor heathen here; and when I beheld our
burying-ground, where eleven of my Brethren had their resting-place, as
seed sown in a barren land, I burst into tears, and exclaimed: Surely
all this cannot have been done in vain! Often did I visit this place,
and sat down and wept at their graves.

My last farewell with the inhabitants, who had flocked to me from all
the circumjacent islands, was very affecting. They wept