The Moravians in Labrador

by Anonymous

They accordingly set out, under the guidance of an Esquimaux, Mannmoima, whose house they reached February 17th about mid-day, where, on account of the stormy weather, they were forced to remain. "If," says Jans Haven, in his diary, "our European sisters had only seen us here they would certainly have pitied us. We were forced to creep on all fours through a low passage several fathoms long to get into the house, and were glad if we escaped being bitten by the hungry dogs, who take refuge there in bad weather, and who, as they lie in the dark, are often trodden upon by the entrant; who, if he escapes this misfortune, is compelled to undergo the more disgusting salutation of being licked in the face by these animals, and of crawling through the filth in which they all mingle. Yet this house, notwithstanding our senses of seeing and smelling were most woefully offended, in such frightful weather, was of equal welcome to us as the greatest palace."

When Haven here began to speak of the Saviour, the Angekoks began to exercise their enchantments. One man laid himself on his back, and allowed his left leg to be fastened to his neck by a string like a bow, while a woman who sat by his side, performed upon it with his right as if playing on some musical instrument. The lady was then asked if they might hope for good weather, and if the whale would be driven away? but the company appeared to be divided; and while some thought these operations were under the influence of Torngak, others thought they might be directed by Jesus Christ, and asked the brethren to pray that there might be good weather, and that the whale might not be driven away. Haven answered, "We only pray, Lord be gracious to us, and open the eyes of poor ignorant people, that they may know how necessary it is for them to be washed in thy blood—but we are assured that he will do nothing but what is good to us, because he loves us."

Next day, the missionaries, accompanied by eleven Esquimaux, attempted to reach the whale; but when they were about an hour's distance from the house, they perceived from a mountain near where the whale lay, that the ice was broken, and encountered such a violent storm of wind and snow that they were forced to return; while the frost was so intense, that often their mouth and nose were frozen to their skin coats, so that they had to break the ice before they could breathe, and their eyes were so closed that they had to force them open with their fingers.

As hunger now began to torment the party, the brethren were exposed to great anxiety, suffering, and danger, from the perpetual importunity of the Esquimaux for provisions, which they had no means of supplying, but which they supposed they were the means of their being deprived of obtaining. An old man began to cry, "Torngak moves me to say that he will tell us the cause of this storm, and the breaking of the ice, and the loss of the whale." "Let us hear," said they. "O! the sinews! O! the sinews!" replied he.

Rein-deer sinews are what, according to the superstition of the country, dare not be brought near a whale. But the brethren that morning had plaited some whale sinew, and fastened the haft of the ax with which they intended to cut up the whale; and he, supposing that they had been the sinews of the rein-deer, raised the cry. Being informed of his mistake, he changed his tone and exclaimed, "O! the rotten wood! O! the rotten wood!" Rotten wood is expressly forbid to be burnt in the preparation of food, but Jans Haven had brought some pieces in a sledge along with the rest of the fuel; the Esquimaux, to whom the sledge belonged, had carefully picked it out and thrown it away, and the conjurer was informed that in this also he was mistaken. He was then called upon to say, as he affirmed that Torngak was there, how he could be mistaken. With an ingenuity that would have done credit to a Jesuit, he answered, "There is one present that keeps us back, he cannot go with us." Every person in the company being mentioned, he pointed out Jans Haven. Haven immediately rose, and looking the sorcerer full in the face, prayed to the Saviour to stop the mouth of that wicked one. Struck with the unexpected intrepidity of the missionary, and the appeal to a name of which they all had some knowledge, the Angekok was utterly confounded; he grumbled and foamed, but could not utter a word. Providentially at this very moment two persons arrived with intelligence that the whale was lying safe, and had not been driven away; and Haven, charging the fellow with his imposture and lies, commanded him not to attempt accompanying them, or removing from the place where he was. The astonished sorcerer made no attempt to disobey.

The weather increasing in severity, the Esquimaux, who were confined to their huts, came to their favourite Jans Haven, saying, "Tell us about the Saviour." Jans answered and said—"What shall I say? I know not what to say; I am grieved because I am constrained to hear and see that the wicked spirit yet dwells within you and robs you of your senses. He will hold your ears that you may not hear the love the Saviour has for you, that after death you may dwell with him in utter darkness. Yet listen to our words and follow us to the Saviour, who will wash you from your sins in his own blood, that you may live eternally happy with him, after you have left a world where sorrow and pleasure are mingled together; where we must suffer hunger, and thirst, and cold, and wretchedness, and misery, unless we believe in Jesus, who will preserve us, and keep us, and bring us to be for ever with himself, where there is no pain, but fulness of joy for evermore." Still, on the succeeding day, the weather not abating, the party were detained at the station, which the increasing scarcity of food rendered now doubly uncomfortable; the brethren were obliged to be on the watch whenever they eat, lest the Esquimaux should snatch the scanty morsel from them, which now consisted of only one meal a day. "One can hardly conceive," say they in their journal, "what we endured: we had no rest neither night nor day; when we lay down to sleep and gat warm, we were almost devoured with vermin; when we sat up during the day, we were almost suffocated with stench and smoke."

At length a sledge, which had been sent off to the whale, returned laden with fat and flesh, which afforded relief from the pressure of hunger, "and made," say the missionaries, "all our hearts leap for joy;" and on the succeeding day, the whole party set off for the whale. When they reached it they found it of the middling size, about sixty-four feet long, but covered with ice and snow almost a fathom deep. The Esquimaux, however, crept into the mouth and cut off what they wanted from the interior to supply themselves; but the wants of the brethren were only increased, they could make little use of such flesh, and they were without wood to dress it, had it been even more palatable. They had no shelter but a snow-house, which they constructed with the help of the Esquimaux. The women, however, had forgotten their lamps, and the brethren had no resource for rendering their habitation comfortable, but to construct a kind of temporary lamp from a piece of whale's flesh, into which they cut a hole and put a piece of moss, and then to kindle it, but the smoke and disagreeable smell were insupportable; they also suffered greatly from the want of water, as they could get nothing to drink but ice or snow melted, which was done in a manner that in other circumstances would have proved an absolute prohibition against tasting it—the Esquimaux filled their gloves with snow, or put it in the intestines of the seals which they had wrapped round them, and the natural heat of the body reduced into a state of liquifaction—yet even this they were happy to procure.

Amid these hardships Haven was seized with a violent pain in his side, which the Esquimaux, who greatly loved him, much lamented, as they said it was the disease that carried off so many of their countrymen. Peaceful, however, in the hour of his suffering, the missionary was enabled to testify to the heathen that death for him had no terrors; nor was it to be dreaded by those who believed in the Saviour. They showed their affection by procuring, with much difficulty, a lamp and some skins on which they placed the invalid, and by the blessing of God, the heat effected his cure. The brethren now began to try to hew down the frozen whale, but the want of food had so enfeebled them that they found themselves wholly unequal to the task, and were forced to give it up and return home, worn out with the fatigue they had endured, and without effecting their object.

In the same year, 1773, Paul Eugenus Laritz, from the Elders' Conference of the Unity, visited the missions. He was accompanied by John Ludwig Beck, who had spent some years in Greenland with his father, and learned the language. They came in the ship Amity to Newfoundland, which they left there for the purpose of fishing, and proceeded to the coast of Labrador in a shallop or sloop with one mast, which had been purchased for the use of the mission. On the 20th of July they arrived at Nain, where the missionaries welcomed them with tears of joy—the Esquimaux received them with shouting and other rude expressions of pleasure. Of these, some hundreds, this summer, had set up their tents around the settlements—many of them strangers from a distance. In the evening they had a short discourse in the mission-house, after which the brethren visited them in their tents, and conversed further with them on what they had heard. The same evening Laritz gave a short address to the assembled baptized Esquimaux, and delivered the salutations of the European congregations to them, Drachart being his interpreter. Then one of the Esquimaux answered in name of the rest—"We, our wives and children, were wonderfully glad when we saw the little ship come in; and we thank the brethren that they have come to us, and brought us so many good words that we have never heard before. We love all the brethren, and will be ever their good friends. We will constantly visit them to hear the good word of Jesus' sufferings. We think on the Saviour; we love him, and will give up our hearts to him, and renounce all our old heathenish customs. We agree with the Innuit who live on the east coast opposite us. We, and our wives and our children, in our houses and our tents, speak of the Saviour becoming man, of his sufferings and death. We cannot deny that we are sinners, but we think the Saviour will be gracious to us." As there was not room in the mission-house to contain all the Esquimaux, wood was cut down to build a large meeting-hall. Some appeared deeply impressed by the word of God, particularly Manamina, his sister Alingana, and Akaplack, who were received as catechumens.

Soon after Laritz's arrival at Nain, a sloop of war unexpectedly made its appearance, dispatched by Commodore Shuldam from Newfoundland, commanded by Lieutenant Cartes, to explore the coast, and to see if the poor people who had settled there were all still in life. The Lieutenant stopped some days with the brethren, and expressed his astonishment and happiness to find them so well accommodated, and on such good terms with the Esquimaux. He had expected to find dark, sour, starving fanatics, living in huts of earth, and his disappointment was therefore the more agreeable. Through Drachart he told the Esquimaux, that they should go no more to the English settlements in the south, nor rob and murder. They answered, We have never either robbed or murdered, since the time we heard of the Saviour. Robbers and murderers shall be punished as they deserve; and when we come to the south to get fir-timber, we will bring with us a letter from the brethren to the gentlemen of Cheteau Bay. The officer assured them of his love, and said to Drachart, that the great change in the behaviour of these people appeared to him a miracle of God, who had begun his work among them.