s from our archives; and the continuation of
Crantz's History, in which a concise report of the progress of the
mission is inserted, is not translated into English. I was glad
therefore unexpectedly to meet with an opportunity of conversing with
John Gottfried Haensel, a missionary from St. Thomas in the West
Indies, who was formerly employed in the Nicobar mission, and resided
for seven years in the island of Nancauwery. This worthy veteran has
spent eighteen years in the East, and seventeen in the West Indies, and
altogether thirty-eight years in the service of the Brethren's
missions; yet by God's blessing, after suffering numberless hardships
and dangerous illnesses, at the age of sixty-three he remains a most
active, cheerful, and zealous labourer in the Lord's vineyard.

In the course of our frequent conversations on various subjects,
relating to the occurrences of his past life, he interspersed so many
curious and interesting particulars concerning his residence in the
Nicobar Islands; that I could not help requesting him to commit them to
writing, as they might occur to his recollection. This he very
obligingly consented to do; and though, by my particular desire, he did
not study to make out a complete history, the labour and formality of
which might have suppressed, in a great degree, the liveliness of his
manner, but left the arrangement of the subjects to me; yet I am of
opinion, that you will read what he has written with pleasure, and
esteem these fragments worthy of preservation. Many of your questions
will be pretty satisfactorily answered by them, and I have therefore
translated them for your perusal. They exhibit a degree of patience and
perseverance in the prosecution of missionary labours, in hope against
hope, such as has hardly been exceeded in our Greenland and North
American missions, with the history of which you are acquainted.

The mission of the United Brethren in the Nicobar Islands, was
undertaken in the year 1758. A person of high rank at the court of
Denmark, having intimated to the directors of the Brethren's missions,
that it would give particular pleasure to the King, if some of their
missionaries would settle on the Nicobar Islands, and endeavour to
instruct the inhabitants in the principles of the Christian religion;
they resolved to comply with his Majesty's wishes.

A commercial establishment had been formed on these islands in 1756,
when the name of Frederic's Islands was given