THE LITTLE CARPENTER 33 



brought. Erhard, the man who had seen Green- 

 land, and whose thought for the Eskimos had 

 brought about this expedition ; Erhard, whose one 

 thought was to bring the Gospel to this forsaken 

 land, and who had said, " This is a good work, no 

 one can be the loser by it " ; Erhard had lost his 

 life, and with him the captain and four sailors had 

 been treacherously slain. 



Imagine the consternation of those four young 

 men at Hopedale. "Six of us," said the mate, 

 " are murdered by the Eskimos. I have not enough 

 men to work the vessel home. You must return with 

 me or the ship will be lost." 



Sad at heart, the four young missionaries talked 

 it over ; they prayed it over. They chose the 

 greater duty ; theirs was the sacrifice of hopes and 

 longings ; their duty was to man the ship and see 

 her safely home to London. 



They went on board, and with the autumn gales 

 beginning and the autumn sea all coated with frost, 

 they took their turn at the sails and the steering 

 and all the rough work of the schooner, and at last 

 the little Hope came into London Docks again. Six 

 lives had been lost, and the first missionary journey 

 to Labrador had proved, it seemed, a failure. 



News soon spreads, and even in 1752 there were 

 missionary meetings ; and it came about, I know 

 not exactly in what manner, that the story of this 

 great adventure reached the ears of a squarely built 

 little carpenter in a village in Saxony. 



The story fired his soul ; it filled him with en- 



3 



