On the 5th of October five families of Arcktok came from Chateau Bay back to Nain; they now spoke in a very different tone respecting the “good and kind” Europeans; they had quarrelled with their friends, who had seized their wives, and afterwards maltreated and threatened to shoot themselves; while they, probably, had not altogether refrained from their old thievish practices.  The year before, they said, the people in the south are better than you, they give us plenty to eat;—­now they said, “You are the Innuit, our true friends, we will never leave you more.”

The following year, 1784, Tuglavina arrived at Nain on the 6th of September with three boats, on his return from Chateau Bay—­the accounts which he and others gave of their residence there pierced the missionaries to their inmost souls.  Of the nineteen baptized who went south five had perished, David, Abraham, Moses, Timothy, and Deborah; the latter, there was ground to hope, had a blessed departure.  David was drowned in a kaiak on the sea, and on this account, by the counsel of old Nerkingoak, his sister Killatsiak was ordered to be burnt to death.  Abraham, while striking fire for this purpose, slightly wounded his finger; but trifling as the hurt appeared, it brought him to his miserable end.  Moses was shot by Tuglavina.  Timothy was likewise assassinated.  When Tuglavina touched at Hopedale, being asked, “Where is Moses?” he coolly answered, “He is lost.”  “Where is he lost? is he gone over the sea?” was next asked.  “No!  I have killed him,” answered the savage.  “And wherefore did you kill him?” said they.  “Because he was good for nothing,” was the careless reply.  It was apparent, however, that they had been murdered for the sake of their women.  Moses had three baptized wives, who were given or sold to three northern men; Kathmina was purchased by her brother, Kekluana of Pitteklaluk, for a great coat, a hatchet, a folding knife, and a spoon.  These conjugal bargains Tuglavina related to brother Lister, quite unasked and without emotion; indeed his whole appearance was as if he had been possessed by an evil spirit.  The brethren slept none that night for grief.

By such horrible occurrences the desire of the baptized to travel to the south was somewhat checked, and the following year only a single boat went thither.  But the colony possessed particular attractions for the natives; as there they could be supplied with muskets, powder, and ball, which having learned the use of, had now become absolutely necessary for them in hunting.  The missionaries had, hitherto, doubted the propriety of arming them with such dangerous weapons; but as they could no longer be kept from them, they got themselves supplied with them from England as articles of trade, to prevent, if possible, the Esquimaux from making this a pretext for emigrating.