CHAPTER III.

Hostilities between the British and Esquimaux-Karpik taken as a prisoner to Newfoundland-He is sent to England, and entrusted to the care of Mr. Haven-Effect of kindness-Karpik's self-righteousness- -His love of dress-Gradual opening of his mind to the truth-Conviction of sin-He refuses to return to Labrador-Natural amiability-Karpik removed to Fulneck, and placed under the care of Mr. Drachart-His death-Reflections.

THE means which God employs, in his providence, for separating his own people from the mass of human corruption, and bringing them into his spiritual kingdom, are often such as would have appeared, to our wisdom, most unfitted for the production of such a result. God's judgments are indeed unsearchable, and his ways past finding out: his judgments are a great deep. His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known.

We mentioned, in the preceding chapter, that the extremity to which hostilities had been carried between the Esquimaux and the Europeans so embittered the spirit of the former against foreigners, as to raise an insurmountable barrier against the establishment of a Missionary station in Labrador for a considerable period. Yet this event, which seemed to seal up the spiritual destinies of the Esquimaux in hopeless darkness, was made, by the overruling providence of God, the occasion of bringing to God, and to the Lamb, the first-fruits of the redeemed from among this savage people, and ultimately, of opening the way for the settlement of Missionaries in the country, by whose instrumentality a great number of its degraded inhabitants were called to participate in the mercy, the purity, and the peace of the gospel.

In the fray which took place between the Esquimaux and the Europeans, nearly twenty of the former were killed, among whom was a man who had a son named Karpik, a youth about eleven years old. This boy, with some other Esquimaux, was taken by the British,

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and carried as a prisoner to Newfoundland. As this poor youth mourned the loss of his earthly parent, how little did he think that that bereavement was to introduce him to the knowledge of his Father in heaven! As he yielded in sullen submission to his conquerors, how little did he think that the cords with which they bound him should be succeeded by a participation in the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free! And, as the shores of Labrador, the scene of all his early recollections, receded from his view, how little did he think that the floods of tears which dimmed his sight, should be succeeded by tears of holy joy, in the assured prospect of a place in that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away! No doubt, Karpik afterwards thought upon these things; and we may well imagine how the retrospect would excite such devout and admiring thoughts of the wondrous providence of God, as are expressed by the royal Psalmist" How precious, also, are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand!"

Karpik and his fellow-prisoners were carried to Newfoundland: from thence, he and his mother, Mikak, who was also among the number of the captives, were brought to England. There they were treated with great kindness, and received many favours from some of the royal family, and other persons of distinction. But, amidst this apparent amelioration of outward circumstances, Mikak's heart still clung with unabated affection to the recollection of her native land. Meeting with Mr. Haven, who had formerly slept a night in her tent, she recognized in him an old acquaintance, and expressed the most lively joy at meeting with one who understood her language, and to whom she could disclose emotions which had long struggled for utterance among people of a strange tongue. She besought Mr. Haven, with an importunity which would take no denial, to return to Labrador, to the relief of her poor countrymen, whose condition she described as pitiable in the extreme. Applications to the same effect were continually made, by this interesting Heathen, to the persons in

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power by whom she was noticed; and it is worthy of being mentioned, as exhibiting the weakness of the instruments by which God sometimes effects the greatest purposes, that her urgent representations had considerable influence in forwarding the projected Mission. The grant of land which the United Brethren afterwards obtained, by an order of the Privy Council, founded on a report of the Board of Trade, may be traced to the sensation produced by Mikak's pathetic representations of the degraded and miserable condition of her countrymen.

Meanwhile, Karpik was committed, by order of Mr. Palliser, the Governor of Newfoundland, to the care of Mr. Haven, to be trained up for the service of a future Mission to his countrymen; this took place in 1769, at which time our youthful prisoner was about fifteen years old. At first, Karpik seemed very averse to live under Mr. Haven's care, the natural dislike of the human mind to restraint and subordination having been formed into a habit, by the wild lawlessness of savage life; but few hearts can withstand