The wakefulness of the missionaries proved the deliverance of the whole party from sudden destruction.  About two o’clock in the morning, brother Liebisch perceived some salt water to drop from the roof of the snow-house upon his lips.  Though rather alarmed on tasting the salt, which could not proceed from a common spray, he kept quiet till the same dropping became more frequently repeated.  Just as he was about to give the alarm, on a sudden a tremendous surf broke close to the house, discharging a quantity of water into it; a second soon followed, and earned away the slab of snow placed as a door before the entrance.  The missionaries immediately called aloud to the sleeping Esquimaux to rise and quit the place.  They jumped up in an instant.  One of them with a large knife cut a passage through the side of the house; and each seizing some part of the baggage, it was thrown out upon a higher part of the beach, brother Turner assisting the Esquimaux.  Brother Liebisch, and the woman and child, fled to a neighbouring eminence.  The latter was wrapped up by the Esquimaux in a large skin, and the former took shelter behind a rock, for it was impossible to stand against the wind, snow and sleet.  Scarcely had the company retreated to the eminence, when an enormous wave carried away the whole house, but nothing of consequence was lost.

They now found themselves a second time delivered from the most imminent danger of death; but the remaining part of the night, before the Esquimaux could seek and find another more safe place for a snow house, were hours of great trial to mind and body, and filled every one with painful reflections.  Before the day dawned, the Esquimaux cut a hole into a large drift of snow, to screen the woman and child, and the two missionaries.  Brother Liebisch, however, could not bear the closeness of the air, and was obliged to sit down at the entrance, when the Esquimaux covered him with skins to keep him warm, as the pain in his throat was very great.

As soon as it was light, they built another snow house; and miserable as such an accommodation is at all times, they were glad and thankful to creep into it.  It was about eight feet square, and six or seven feet high.  They now congratulated each other on their deliverance, but found themselves in very bad plight.  The missionaries had taken but a small stock of provisions with them, merely sufficient for the short journey to Okkak.  Joel, his wife and child, and Kassigiak the sorcerer, had nothing at all.  They were therefore obliged to divide the small stock into daily portions, especially as there appeared no hopes of soon quitting this place, and reaching any dwellings.  Only two ways were left for this purpose—­either to attempt the land passage across the wild and unfrequented mountain Kiglapeit, or to wait for a new ice-track over the sea, which it might require much time to form.  They therefore resolved to serve out no more than a biscuit and a half per man per day.