MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 



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they observed their modest and gentle carriage, 

 so different from that of other Europeans, they 

 paid them more attention, pressed them to come 

 to their huts, and promised to return the visit 

 themselves. A more frequent intercourse gra- 

 dually commenced, and the Greenlanders would 

 sometimes spend a night with the Brethren. 

 The motives of their visits were, indeed, glar- 

 ingly selfish. They wanted either food and 

 shelter, or presents of needles and other things. 

 They even blun tly declared, that if the Mission- 

 aries would give them no stock-fish, they would 

 no longer listen to what they had to say : and 

 during the winter, which was intensely cold, the 

 Brethren could not refuse their request for pro- 

 visions. They did not altogether discontinue 

 their visits in summer, but they generally came 

 after spending the night in feasting and revell- 

 ing, too drowsy to support a conversation, or 

 intent only upon hearing some news, or on 

 begging or purloining whatever might strike 

 their fancy. Their pilfering habits made their 

 visits not a little troublesome to the Brethren, 

 but the latter did not wish to frighten them 

 away ; and were content for the present, that 

 they came at all, especially as a few of them 

 discovered a satisfaction in being 8 present at the 

 evening meetings, though held in German, and 



