avages, they would listen attentively to the first
instructions, but when it was often repeated, they would say, as both
ancient and modern Athenians, "we know all that already, tell us
something new," or like the Greenlanders, sometimes profess to believe
it, and the next moment declare they neither understood nor cared
about it. With those who had patience, and were so disposed, the
missionary went over every doctrine about which they spoke in a
catechetical way, and endeavoured by short questions, to see if they
comprehended it, and tried to allure them to make further inquiry.

During their whole intercourse, the Esquimaux showed themselves very
friendly, and were particularly glad when they saw Jans Haven again;
some of them recollected many things he had told them the year before,
and praised him for keeping his promise of returning, and others
boasted of the good they had heard of him from their countrymen. The
brethren could go any where among them with the utmost security; but
they were under the necessity of submitting to their curiosity, and
allowing them to handle every thing they saw, even when they perceived
this liberty to be attended with danger; yet even now, such was the
influence of their friendly behaviour, that very little damage was
incurred. In one tent, they searched Drachart's box, and carried every
thing off, taking also his hat along with them. Without uttering any
reproachful complaint, the missionary went to some of the older
people, and said, "Now I have got no hat to skreen me from the sun."
They instantly called to the young men, and desired them to give him
back every thing, which they did with the utmost coolness, and only
requested a knife as a keepsake.

At another time, when they had secretly emptied his box, no sooner did
the chief elders of the tribe perceive the circumstance, than they
called every person belonging to the tent to come before them, and
desired that what had been taken away should be restored; the thief
immediately came forward, and without betraying any consciousness of
having done wrong, threw down what he had taken, saying, "Thou needest
it thyself!"

Though at a great distance, and scattered over a considerable extent
of country, Haven and Drachart were especially anxious to visit them
in their own houses: this they seized every opportunity of doing,
searching them out, and under every difficulty wandering after them.
But they were gratified by the reception