PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE.

21

fishing implements, habitations, manners and customs; and the only word of their language which he noted down, exactly corresponding with the term used by the Greenlanders to denote the same object, was considered as some confirmation of the supposition, that the two people used a common tongue.

Those who know that the minutest events are ordered by the providence of God, and that every wheel in that complicated machine is designed to serve some purpose in reference to the church, will not be wearied by a detail of events, which opened the way for the establishment of the Gospel among a heathen people. There seemed but little connexion between a voyage to Hudson's Bay, undertaken for a secular object, and the sending of Missionaries to preach the Gospel to the savages on the coast of Labrador, yet it was so ordered in providence, that the information derived from Ellis concerning the Esquimaux, should stimulate the Moravian Missionaries in Greenland to make some exertion for sending the gospel to that people. Their Greenland congregation was in a pros

perous condition, and the signal blessing which had been bestowed upon their labours in that country, encouraged them in their desire to plant the Gospel among other and distant tribes of the same race. The information which they had received concerning the Esquimaux, opened a large field of labour to their view, for which they were peculiarly fitted by their knowledge of the language, their acquaintance with the superstitions and prejudices of the savages, by their being inured to the climate of the polar regions, and habituated to the hardships which a Missionary in such a country, and among such a people, must necessarily encounter. In the efforts made for promoting a Mission to the Esquimaux, we find Matthew Stach, who had been the principal instrument of planting the gospel in Greenland, taking an active part. In 1752, this devoted servant of Christ, solicited permission of the Hudson's Bay company to preach the Gospel to the Indians belonging to their factories. This permission was not granted, but we are not informed upon what grounds. It would be difficult,

A MISSIONARY EXPEDITION.

23

however, to allege any reason in justification of the awful offence of raising a hinderance in the way of a herald of the King of kings, acting under that plain warrant, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

Although Matthew Stach was disappointed in his attempt to find access to the Esquimaux through this channel, he was not cast down, and he at length saw his exertions so far successful, that some of the Brethren in London, joined by several well disposed merchants, fitted out a vessel for a trading voyage on the coast of Labrador. This ship was destined to carry out Christian Erhard, a Dutchman, and four Missionaries, to whom the former should act as interpreter, having acquired some knowledge of the Greenlandic when engaged in the whale fishery in Disko Bay.

This little expedition set sail in May, 1752, and in July cast anchor in a large bay on the coast of Labrador, to which they gave the name of Nisbet's Haven, in honour of one of the owners of the ship. The Missionaries determined to fix their residence on this part

of the coast, and lost no time in erecting a house, made of timber, which they had taken with them from England ready framed. In the mean time, Erhard proceeded with the ship farther north, for the purpose of trafficing with the natives. He found that he could make himself tolerably well understood by the Esquimaux, but as they were afraid to come on board the ship, on account of the guns, he suffered them to persuade him to land in a bay between the islands in an unarmed boat, with five of the crew. The captain of the ship became greatly alarmed as the shades of evening closed in, and Erhard and the seamen had not returned, in vain did he patrol the deck, looking through the dim twilight of a polar night for his returning companions, in vain did his ear, sharpened by anxiety, endeavour to catch the distant paddling of their oars. Nothing could be seen but the wide expanse of waters, or the icy mountains of the wild and barren coast; and nothing heard but the plunging of seals and porpoises, or the dismal screamings of sea fowl. In this painful state of suspense the captain remained

several days, for, not being provided with another boat, he was unable to go in search of his comrades, at length, when he despaired of gaining any information concerning their fate, he sailed back to Nisbet's Haven, and calling the Missionaries on board, represented to them, that after the loss of such a number of his crew, he could not possibly perform the voyage home without their assistance.

Under such circumstances, the Missionaries could not refuse to supply the place of the seamen, but they left with regret, the place in which they had hoped to labour in the gospel, consoling themselves with the prospect of returning in the following year. On their arrival in England, it was not deemed advisable to renew the attempt, until intelligence should be received of the safety of Erhard and his companions, and as on the return of the ship, several of their dead bodies were discovered, and the deserted house was burnt to the ground, both the trade and the Mission were for that time abandoned. How natural is it for us, at first to lament over this spectacle, of a servant of the Lord thus made the

C