More than a hundred Esquimaux, during the summer, planted their tents round Nain, to whom the missionaries preached the gospel.  Of the manner in which they did this, Drachart tells us in his journal, “My method,” says he, “is first to give a short discourse, and then to ask a few plain questions which only require a denial or assent; but they do not always content themselves with this—­for instance, if I ask if they, as poor sinners, would wish to come to the Saviour, some would say, Yes! we cannot deny that we are poor sinners, and we begin to reflect upon what we have heard from you about this, and to converse with one another on the subject.  Others will boldly reply, No! we will not think of it; and a third sort will confess they do not understand any thing about the matter, but would be glad to know if I had any knives to sell, for they had whale fins.  I then pray to the Saviour:—­Thou hast in Greenland made many stupid minds to understand, and many cold hearts warm; O do the same here, and bless my weak discourse that I may not be put to shame, for it is indeed thine own cause.”

During the winter the natives retired to other places, the nearest of which was many miles distant from Nain; individuals, however, came from time to time to visit the brethren; among these were Mikak, Tuglavina, and Segulliak, and the brethren returned their visits, as far as the deep snow and excessive cold would permit.  The friendly reception they met with upon these occasions, and the willingness with which the heathen heard the word, reconciled the missionaries to the filth and inconvenience they had to encounter.  Of these the following specimen will enable the reader to form some idea.

About the end of January 1773, the brethren Schneider and Turner visited Mikak in the island Nintok, at the distance of five and a half hours from Nain.  They found here two houses, each of which contained twenty persons, the families only separated from each other by skins stretched out between them.  Mikak directed the brethren to an apartment in one of these houses, to which, when they retired, they were followed by great numbers of the Esquimaux, who gathered round them, and heard in silence Schneider preach to them the death of the Lord, and sing some verses on the same subjects.  They here met with a circumstance which greatly tended to comfort them amid other scenes which weighed heavily on their spirits.  In a division of the house where they lodged, they found three widows dwelling together, and one of them informed them that her husband, Anauke, who had died the year before, had said to her, when she was mourning over him in his last illness, “Be not grieved for me,—­I am going to heaven, to Jesus who has loved his people so much!” He was one of those who had remained during the summer near Nain, and whose countenance bore strong marks of the thief and the murderer, and had appeared at first to have more than usual savage ferocity in his whole deportment; but it was remarked that, before he left that vicinity, his very countenance had changed, and his behaviour had become gentle; but the missionaries had no decisive proof of his conversion to the Saviour, till they heard, to their joy, this his dying profession of the faith.  His countrymen called him the man whom the Saviour had taken to himself.  This man, there is every reason to believe, was the first fruits of the mission.