paddled by natives. Their interpreter was a Mr. Lind, an 

 agent of the Alaska Commercial Co. The natives they 

 found approachable, very superstitious, very filthy, very 

 loose in their estimate of the marriage relation, but kindly 

 disposed, and on the whole honest, having very few posses- 

 sions to tempt cupidity or prompt to theft, and living in 

 utter disregard of the most ordinary laws of health, so that 

 lung diseases and scrofulous affections appeared to be very 

 common. The land seemed to be flat, sandy soil on either 

 side of the river, and was covered with tundra, a sort of 

 mossy peaty bog, though wooded mountains appeared in 

 the distance. 



Retracing their way overland with the frequent use of 

 bidarkas to Nushagak, the return voyage to San Francisco 

 was made by the explorers in a sailing vessel, the Sadie F. 

 Caller, without special event ; and on September 25 they 

 reached Bethlehem in safety, recommending that a mission 

 station be founded on the Kuskokwim, about 75 miles from 

 its mouth. 



The Spring of 1885 sees a company of missionary pio- 

 neers in San Francisco, en route for Bethel, as this projected 

 station is to be named. They are the Revs. Wm. H. 

 Weinland and John Henry Kilbuck,^ recent graduates of 

 the Moravian Theological Seminary, with their wives, and 

 Brother Hans Torgersen, a practical carpenter, who goes 

 with them as a lay -missionary for one year or longer to as- 

 sist in establishing the Mission. He has left his wife at the 

 Canada Indian Mission, where he has hitherto been engaged. 

 They charter a schooner, the Lizzie Merrill, to convey them- 

 selves and their building material and supplies to the mouth 

 of the Kuskokwim, taking with them a small sail-boat, the 

 Bethel Star, with which to navigate that river. Weighing 

 anchor on May 18, they leave the schooner on June 19. 



And now let the narative of Brother Kilbuck tell of the 



'^ Great-grandson of the Delaware chief, Gelelemend, born 

 1737 near Lehigh Gap, Northampton County, Penna., baptized 

 in 1788 with the name WilHam Henry, after Judge Henry, the 

 Congressman, from whom he had once received a great favor; 

 died a devoted Christian at Goshen, Ohio, in 1811. 



