1 62 A rctic and A nt arctic Exploration [part i 
three Moravian missionaries arrived who formed a station 
which they called " New Herrnhuth/' a few miles from 
Godthaab, and worked in harmony with the Danish 
missionaries \ But progress was still further delayed by 
an appalling calamity. An Eskimo boy who had been 
at Copenhagen brought back the smallpox. It spread 
like wildfire, and threatened to wipe out the whole 
Eskimo race. The sufferings were terrible and several 
thousands died. 
Hans Egede's eldest son Paul had returned, and gave 
lessons in the Eskimo language, of which he was a master, 
having learnt it from childhood, to the Moravian mission- 
aries. He afterwards had charge of the mission station 
of Christianshaab in Disco Bay until 1740. The devoted 
wife of Hans Egede died in December 1735, a true 
Christian heroine, full of zeal for the conversion of the 
natives and of helpful care for their welfare. With the 
loss of his brave wife Hans Egede felt that his work was 
at an end and sailed with his daughters and his youngest 
son on the 9th August, arriving at Copenhagen on the 
24th September, 1736. His wife's remains were taken 
with him, and interred in St Nicholas churchyard. 
Hans Egede had made a beginning. He had sown 
the good seed. He left four missionaries and two cate- 
chists in Greenland, twenty or thirty adult converts, and 
about a hundred baptized children. He had formed 
rather a high opinion of the Eskimo character after an 
experience extending over 15 years. He looked upon the 
Greenlanders as even-tempered and good-natured, of 
orderly behaviour and hating every kind of strife. There 
was no thieving among themselves, though foreigners 
were considered fair game. They were hospitable, and 
every one was content with his own state and condition. 
On the arrival of Hans Egede at Copenhagen he had 
an audience of the King, who appointed him Super- 
intendent of the Greenland Mission, with a salary of 
£100 a year. He passed the last years of his life in 
1 Count Zinzendorf was the founder of the congregation from Moravia, 
formed to promote the conversion of the heathen. He built a station 
on one of his estates in 1728, which was called Herrnhut. From hence 
missionaries went forth — chiefly to the West Indies, Greenland, and 
Labrador — known as Moravian missionaries. "Herrnhut" means "the 
Lord's keeping." 
