sant. This year, Ephraim, a
communicant, went with five others to catch seals at the edge of the
ice, about sixty miles from Nain. Being at some distance from his
party, the ice broke under him, and he had only time to grasp the rim
of the hole made in the ice to prevent his sinking under it. In this
situation, hanging over the sea, the cold being intense, his fingers
froze fast to the ice, which helped to support him; for his immediate
cries for assistance were not heard, and he remained for a quarter of
an hour in dreadful suspense. At length, just when his voice failed
him, he was perceived by his companions and his life saved. Though his
fright and anxiety were in the beginning very great, he said, that he
committed himself to our Saviour, and felt resigned to his will; and
when the danger seemed most imminent, help was afforded, for which he
gave thanks to Him who alone could deliver in such distress.

But an interposition of providence, which rescued two Christian
Esquimaux, belonging to the congregation at Hopedale, who were carried
out to sea on a field of ice, and were nine days driven about at the
mercy of the waves, is not the least extraordinary among the many
which occurred. A party of three, Conrad, Peter, and Titus, being
engaged in fishing on the ice, that part on which they were standing
broke loose from the shore, and was driven by a strong south-west wind
out to sea. Conrad having a sledge with him, fastened some seal-skins
and bladders to it to keep him buoyant, and turning it upside down
used it as a raft; in this he paddled a full English mile back to the
firm ice, being commissioned by his companions to procure a boat, and
send it to their assistance. The sea, by God's mercy, being calm, he
reached the shore in safety, but before he could procure the boat, the
field of ice with his two companions on it had drifted nearly out of
sight, and there was no possibility of overtaking it. The size and
strength of the ice was such that it afforded them the means of
building a snow-house upon it, in which they took shelter during the
night, and in rainy weather. They had caught eight seals on the day of
their departure, which afforded them nourishment, though for want of
fuel they could make no fire, but ate the meat raw and drank the
blood. Of their feelings during nine dreadful days of anxiety and
suspense, they wrote the following affecting account. Peter for
himself says, "When on the 4th of June (1824,