d, seeing every attempt to
reach Hopedale vain, to bear away for England. He again experienced a
gale equal to a hurricane, on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of October,
which, during the evening between the 9th and 10th, was so violent
that the captain expected the vessel would have foundered. She was at
one time struck by a sea that twisted her in such a manner that the
seams on her larboard side opened, and the water gushed into the
cabin and into the mate's birth as if it came from a pump, and every
body at first thought her side was stove in; however the Lord was
pleased to protect every one from harm, nor was the ship very
materially damaged, neither was any thing lost.

Winter set in severely on the Labrador coast, but this proved an
advantage to the missions, as those at Nain were enabled to forward
supplies by sledges to their brethren at Hopedale, who, although
curtailed of some of their comforts, acknowledged with cheerful
thankfulness that they had suffered no essential deprivation. The
Esquimaux were also deprived of their usual supply of food by the
early winter, which prevented them from taking many seals, either by
the net or in kaiaks; but, as not unfrequently happened in their times
of extremity, they were successful in killing a whale, which preserved
from suffering much from famine, and for which they joined their
teachers in returning thanks to their heavenly Father. Their number
was reduced by the death of a venerable brother, Sueb Andersen, who
had served the mission forty years, as well as Christensan, who had
been carried to England; but nevertheless, besides their usual daily
labour, they were able to erect for their own use a building
containing rooms for holding provisions and fuel, and a bakehouse.

Easily contented, however, as they were with their stinted fare, and
pleasantly as they could undergo both privation and manual labour;
they could not see, without the most poignant sorrow, those who had
begun to run well, hindered in their progress, and the greatest
affliction they felt, and the only one which extorted from them a
complaint in this trying season, was the seduction of several of their
congregation. Four traders from the south, with an Esquimaux family in
company, spent that winter in their neighbourhood. They sent European
provisions to the native inhabitants, and invited them to come and
traffic, which proved a great snare, and disturbed the peaceful course
of the congregation; for ma