h the departure of Garretson there was lost to the province a man
who was eminently fitted to lead the forces and unite them, and
William Black mourned greatly that he was bereft of a friend, and a
gentleman of ability and grace.

IV.

THE INTREPID PIONEER.

The mantle of Garretson fell upon Black and he was again compelled to
lead the forces, and take the initiative in opening up new places and
preaching at every opportunity. Aroused by the sad spiritual condition
of the people, he spared not himself in excessive labors, and so
successful were his efforts for the conversion of souls, that John
Wesley became more concerned than ever, in the affairs in the Maritime
Provinces and Newfoundland. Dr. Coke who constituted in his own person
the Methodist Missionary Society, was commissioned by Wesley to visit
Nova Scotia, and he embarked on September 24th, 1786, with three
missionaries for Nova Scotia, but a dangerous storm which cast the
vessel on the ocean for nearly two and a half months, compelled them
to land at Antigua, in the West Indies, and Black was left without the
promised help, as the missionaries remained there, and a new era of
successful missions was begun. His field was large enough surely, for
Wesley had said in a letter to him dated London, Oct. 15, 1784, "Your
present parish is wide enough, namely Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. I
do not advise you to go any further." During the year 1786, there was
a great revival in Liverpool under John Mann, a church had been
erected in Halifax in which William Black preached for the first time
on Easter Sunday, and at Barrington and Horton, there were several
notable conversions, still through lack of missionaries, there could
not be given any assistance to Cumberland, Annapolis, Digby, and the
whole Province of New Brunswick. He was however greatly encouraged by
a visit to Liverpool where the revival was in progress, and by good
news from River Philip, where his eldest brother John had settled as a
farmer, and who had begun to exercise his gifts as a local preacher,
and with so great success, that at one meeting, ten persons rejoiced
in having found Christ.

At the second District meeting held on October 15th, 1787, in Halifax,
there were present, William Black, William Grandine, William Jessop,
and the two brothers, John and James Mann, who had come from the
United States to labor as missionaries in Nova Scotia. After the third
District Meeting which was he