Ere they arrived, news was brought that the Esquimaux in the island of Kerniteksut, two hours distant from Nain, had been so fortunate as to find a dead whale.  On hearing this, the whole inhabitants of the country hastened to the place to satisfy their hunger; an immense number of foxes came for the same purpose; these they killed, and thus the starving natives were supplied both with food and riches, the skins of these animals forming a principal article of exchange with the Europeans.  But this last occurrence proved that wealth among savages, as well as in more civilized countries, is not always a blessing; it renewed anew the desire to go to the south, as the greater part were now in circumstances to carry merchandize thither, to barter with the good and kind Europeans.  Nothing then was spoken of but trade in the south, and they could hardly wait for the season to undertake the journey.  When the brethren visited them in the spring, they treated them with the greatest indifference and even insolence; the gospel of Jesus found no access to them; and though, through a certain dread of the missionaries, which they could not cast off, they were not so outrageously brutal as formerly; yet in secret they returned to the indulgence of many of their vile practices.

Early in the approaching summer, more than eighty Esquimaux went from the country round Nain to the south, among whom were nineteen of the baptized, and even Peter, the first fruits of the mission, accompanied them.  The majority had determined to spend the winter there, and get plenty to eat, and tobacco, and guns, and powder, and ball, and other articles which they could not purchase so advantageously from the brethren.  From the country round Okkak too, above an hundred of the natives went south in four boats, among whom were Luke and his family, who were baptized.

When the brethren saw that the baptized would not be prevented from going to the south, though sorely grieved, yet anxious for their welfare in their ill advised expedition, they gave them a written certificate, stating that they, the missionaries, had been sent there by an agreement with the governor of Newfoundland, in the years 1771 and —­2; that they had lived in love and concord with the Esquimaux, and had no cause of complaint against them; that there was no other reason for their present journey than the invitation of Europeans in the south; then recommended them to the care and friendly treatment of the colonists, and concluded by giving a short account of the progress of the mission since its commencement.

At the new mission station, Hopedale, some beginnings of a stirring among the heathen were perceived, but the same giddy infatuation which had seized their countrymen laid hold on them also, and blasted this pleasing prospect.  A boatful of them undertook the voyage to the south, while the others who remained, had their minds wholly dissipated.

From this propensity of the Esquimaux to go to the colony, the outward circumstances of the mission appeared to be in great danger.  For as the wanderers carried considerable quantities of merchandize to the southern settlements, the home freight of the Society’s ship, the Amity, which consisted of the same articles, was much less this, than it had been in any former year.