rs. He
pointed out to me the spot, where he had himself committed her body to
the ground (the first and only one buried in the place), which he had
carefully fenced, and was anxious to have consecrated. The babe had
been nursed and kept alive by her sisters, but appeared very sickly
and not likely to continue. Nine of his twelve children he had carried
to Twillingate to be christened (_i.e._ received into the church after
private baptism), but three remained whom he desired now to be
received. All of these had been baptized by lay hands; two of them, he
said, "_had been very well baptized_," _i.e._ by a man who could read
well, the third case did not satisfy him. This was told us before the
service, and when, in the service, he was asked, as the Prayer-book
directs, "By whom was this child baptized?" he answered, "By one
Joseph Bird, and a fine reader he was." This Bird, who on account of
his fine readings, had been employed to baptise many children in the
bay, was a servant in a fisherman's family.

We had two services, as usual, on board; four children were received
into the Church, and one couple married. This couple had followed us
from Bear Cove; they had before been united by a fisherman, had six
children, and were expecting shortly a seventh. The man was he who, at
Bear Cove, as before mentioned, had himself married a couple; and his
wife was the person who had baptized the children. Whether the couple
for whom he had officiated were "very well married," as to the
service, must be "very doubtful." Either he wished to be more perfect,
or he was doubtful about his own case; whatever was his reason, he
very cheerfully paid the fee, twenty shillings. He inquired also
whether he ought to be christened, having been baptized only by a
fisherman, though, as he said, with godfathers and a godmother. Here
was confusion worse confounded; and shame covered my face, while I
endeavoured to satisfy him and myself on these complicated points. The
poor man was evidently in earnest, and I gladly did all in my power to
relieve his mind, and place him and his in a more satisfactory state.
But how sad that one who had baptized and married others, should
himself apply to be baptized and married, being now the father of six
children! The wife appeared to be the general chronicler of all events
in the neighbourhood, and was looked up to as a kind of prophetess.
After the Evening Service, I went on shore to visit the house which
the man