There the brethren, with the assistance of the sailors, brought their house on shore, and erected it on this pleasant spot—­for it was summer[A]—­which they called Hoffenthal, i.e. Hopevale; they received from the ship all that was necessary for the supply of their present wants, and putting their confidence in the protection of their heavenly Father, they took up their habitation.

Erhardt, in the mean time, carried on a considerable trade with the natives, who seemed very desirous to assemble around him, and showed him particular marks of affection and attachment.  Having remained till the 5th of September, and having seen the brethren, to all appearance, comfortably settled in their dwelling, the vessel left to proceed further to the north, for the purpose of completing her cargo, and Drachart, who had engaged to return to Europe, received in charge the brethren’s letters for their friends, and bade them farewell.

Ten days after, on the 15th, the missionaries, to their astonishment, perceived the Hope again re-enter Nisbet’s Harbour.  Upon boarding her, they learned the painful heart-rending news, that Erhardt, the captain, ship’s clerk, and four sailors, had left the ship in a boat filled with merchandize, and for one day had conducted a friendly and gainful traffic with the Esquimaux; but being enticed by the savages, had consented to repeat their visit, perhaps proceed farther into the country, or along the coast, and were never seen more.  The vessel, with the remains of the crew, had waited in a state of the most anxious distressing expectation two days and three nights, in hopes of their return; but as they never made their appearance, and they had no other boat to send in quest of them, they were constrained to leave the district, under the distressing conviction that the natives, who had been observed lurking behind some of the small islands, had risen on the unsuspecting party, and murdered them for the sake of their property.

This intelligence threw the brethren into the greatest perplexity, as the person on whom the charge of the Hope now devolved pressed them earnestly to give him their boat, and return with him to Europe, because, from the loss of his best seamen, without additional hands, it would be impossible to navigate the ship.  Having come thither at the expense of the merchants, the missionaries could not allow them to suffer in their temporal concerns; and although they would willingly have risked their own lives in the cause, they did not see it equally their duty to risk the lives of others, and the property of the merchants, on an unknown coast and a tempestuous ocean, and therefore agreed to comply with the new captain’s request.  Leaving provisions in the house, from which they departed with sorrowful hearts, in the feeble hope that perhaps some of those missing might yet be alive, and might be able to find their way thither, on the 20th September they bade adieu to the station, reached St John’s, Newfoundland, on the 31st, and about the latter end of November arrived in London.