stones, that they might not be devoured by the foxes and ravens: then she and her brothers were to live on a couple of seals and some dried herrings that were left, till they could get to the Missionaries. Mr. Egede sent for them to the Colony, and lodged all the sick that fled to him, as did the Moravian Brethren. They laid as many in their own rooms and chambers as could be accommodated, and attended and nursed them with all possible care; although the insufferable effluvia from the sick and dying greatly affected their own health. This kindness was not without its reward. Many of the Natives were deeply impressed by such evident proofs of love, which were more than they ever expected, even from their own countrymen. One man, who had always derided the Missionaries in the days of his health, said to Mr. Egede before his end-" Thou hast done for us what our own people would not do: for thou hast fed us, when we had nothing to eat-thou hast buried our dead, who would else have been consumed by the dogs, foxes, and ravens -thou hast also instructed us in the knowledge of God, and hast told us of a better life." Mr. Egede had also the happiness of seeing, in some of the Children whom he had baptized, a resigned expectation of death, and a comfortable hope of a resurrection to a better life. This virulent contagion raged from September 1773 to June 1734; and extended itself, as the Missionaries learned, forty leagues to the north, and almost as far to the south of Godthaab. In a district of eight leagues from that Colony, the number of the dead amounted, in January 1734, to 500. Mr. Egede computed the total number of deaths at from two to three thousand; while the whole population on the coast amounted, according to the best calculation which could be made, but to six or seven thousand. Arrival of more Missionaries, both Danish and Moravian. Under such discouraging circumstances did the Missionaries enter on the year 1734. But in the course of that year, both Mr. Egede and his friends received considerable reinforcements. Three ships were sent to Greenland this year: by one of them Mr. Egede was joined, at Godthaab, by Mr. Ohnsorg, a new Missionary: by the second, Mr. Bing, another Danish Missionary, and Mr. Egede's eldest son, who had been studying at Copenhagen, reached Disko Bay, where they were to establish the new Colony of Christianshaab: by the third vessel, loaded with building materials for this Colony, Frederick Boehnish and John Beck, two Missionaries of the United Brethren, took their passage. Mr. Egede determines to return to Denmark. Soon after the arrival of Mr. Paul Egede in Disko Bay, be visited his parents at Godthaab, and stayed there till his father quitted the Mission; when he returned to Christianshaab, and presided over that Mission till the year 1740. His company and assistance were, doubtless, a great comfort to his parents; but various reasons induced his father to wish to return to Denmark. So much has been already related of this exemplary man, whom it pleased God to employ as His signal instrument in first planting the gospel in Greenland, that nothing remains but to mention the reasons of his departure, and the ensuing incidents of his life. He came to Greenland with the intention to offer up his life to the service of the Heathen: and it is manifest how firmly he adhered to his design; for he remained at his post, when no one was left but himself, his family, and a few sailors, without any assurance of future support. His joy was great, when, in 1733, he received the royal promise that the mission should be prosecuted with fresh vigour but the circumstan ces which followed, in connexion with the state of his family and his own infirmities, awakened an earnest desire in him of revisiting his native country. Enfeebled by the cares and toils which he had undergone, he could no longer discharge his office with his wonted alacrity; but had, for some time, waited for the assistance which the concerns of the Mission required. When, therefore, in 1734, only three missionaries were sent, whom he thought insufficient for a field so extensive, he determined to sue for his dismission, and to go to Copenhagen, that he might represent at the fountain-head the state of the Mission, and procure a reinforcement competent to its successful prosecution: in 1735, he accordingly received his discharge, conveyed in the most gracious terms. Death of Mrs. Egede. Of this discharge from his labour Mr. Egede was, for some time, prevented from availing himself, by the illness of his wife; which, at length, terminated in her dissolution, on the 21st of December, 1736. Mr. Egede drew the character of his deceased partner in the following terms: husband, not to some Canaan, but to a strange and uncultivated Heathen Land. And it is well known to many with what patience, nay with what alacrity, she put her shoulder with mine, to bear her part of the labours and adversities which we had to endure; nay, how often she comforted and cheered up my mind, when disheartened and oppressed by reiterated obstacles and repulses." So far Mr. Egede. "I have had occasion," says Crantz, "several times to mention this magnanimous woman, whom I may with propriety call a Christian Heroine. I will only add, that I have never heard her name mentioned by the brethren, but with the most respectful and tender impression; as indeed she treated them on all occasions, as if they had been her children." Mr. Egede's return to Denmark, and Mr. Egede's grief for the loss of his wife gradually wasted his vigour, both of body and mind; and this was aggravated by a painful attack of the scurvy. At length the vessel arrived in which he was to be carried from Greenland, after the hard and seemingly fruitless labour of fifteen years. He preached a farewell sermon from Isaiah xlix. 4. I said, I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nought and in rain. Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. After the sermon he baptized a little Greenland boy. "The highest panegyric with which I can crown her name falls far short of her piety and Christian virtues. I will not expatiate on her excellencies in domestic life; nor describe what a faithful helpmate she was to me, and what a tender mother to her children. Let it suffice to mention, how compliable she was to my will, as soon as she got an insight into the resolution which I had formed of forsaking my native country to repair to Greenland, that I might instruct the ignorant inhabitants in the truths of Christianity: for, though friends and relations vehemently importuned her to withstand, for her own sake, for mine, and for that of our tender offspring, this apparently so frantic project; yet, out of love to God and me, she joined her heart and hand with me in my hazardous enterprize, and, like a faithful Sarah, accompanied her that God would still bring His cause in The parting interview of Mr. Egede with the Moravian Brethren was very affecting. They begged him to forgive all failings on their part; and he assured them of his sincere love, which would make it a pleasure to him to charge himself with their concerns as zealously in Copenhagen as he had done in Greenland. He implored the Divine blessing and assistance in their office; and expressed a lively hope, Greenland, which he has now left with a heavy heart, to a glorious issue. On the 9th of August, 1737, he set sail, with his youngest son and two daughters; and arrived in Copenhagen on the 24th of September. He there interred, in the church yard of St. Nicholas, the remains of his beloved wife, which he had taken with him. Soon after Mr. Egede's arrival in Copenhagen, he had an audience of the King; on which occasion he made known his sentiments on the most ef fectual means of prosecuting the Mission to advantage. He was afterwards appointed Superintendent of the Mission to Greenland, with a stipend of 100l. per annum ; and was commissioned to found a Seminary, in which he taught the students the Greenland tongue, that missionaries and catechists might be furnished from among them for the work which he had himself so laboriously begun. The latter years of this venerable man were spent in retirement, with his daughter, on the island of Falster, where he closed his useful and exemplary life, on the 5th of November, 1758, in the 73d year of his age. To this Life of the Apostle of the Greenlanders, we shall subjoin, in the next number, some account of the Danish Mission since his time. The Reader must distinguish between the Danish Mission to Greenland and that of the United Brethren. The origin of both these Missions is stated in the preceding Narrative; but though they have assisted each other, they have been always distinct Missions, and have proceeded on somewhat different plans. The Danish Mission begun by Egede, first introduced Christianity into Greenland; and this Mission has been continued, under the direction of the Royal Mission College at Copenhagen, to the present time, and embraces in its objects the whole of the coast. The Mission of the United Brethren is limited to three StationsNew Herrnhut, Lichtenfels, and Lichtenau. In a Life of Matthew Stach, one of the Missionaries of the Brethren mentioned in the preceding Narrative, which we shall hereafter lay before our Readers, we shall have an opportunity of tracing the principal features of the Brethren's Mission to this coast Keports of Societies: SEVENTEENTH REPORT OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, DELIVERED AT FREE-MASON'S HALL, LONDON, MAY 2, 1821. Secretaries, Rev. JOHN OWEN, A. M. Rev. J. HUGHES, A. M. Rev. C. F. A. STEINKOPFF, D. D.-Treasurer, JoHN THORNTON. Esq. THIS Report occupies seventy-six octavo pages. Of these, sixty-four are devoted to a survey of the operations of the principal Bible Societies throughout the Christian world. In our abstract, we shall endeavour so to select and arrange the leading facts, as to exhibit the state and progress of the various Institutions, with perspicuity and precision. The Committee, in the introduction, allude to the late tour of one of their secretaries, the Rev. Dr. Steinkopff, through France, Switzerland, and Germany. They remark, that "a compressed account of his observations and labours will be found in the Appendix ;" and to this account they "refer for many interesting particulars, omitted in the body of the Report." A Summary of this statement, we shall endeavour to prepare for a future number. FRANCE. Protestant Bible Society of Paris, and its Auxiliaries. The expectations encouraged in France, by the events of the two preceding years, have been amply justified; and that country exhibits at this moment a spectacle in which the lovers of Biblical truth may find abundant matter for joy and thanksgiving. From the second Report of the Protestant Bible Society of Paris, a document which is entitled to the highest respect and attention, it appears that the Committee of that Society, under the guidance of their indefatigable President and Chairman, the Marquis de Jaucourt, have evinced the greatest activity, prudence, and integrity in dis. charging the duties of their appoint ment. Among the friends and benefactors of the Paris Bible Society, it is pleasing to observe the first authorities in the State associated with persons from the lowest classes in society. The sentiments with which the Duke de Cazes, when President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, accompanied his munificent donation, greatly enhanced the value of the gift. "I have seen with the greatest interest," says the Duke, "in the representation of the labours of the Society, the proof of the good which it has already done, and the pledge of that which it will certainly effect hereafter. Happy to associate myself with its efforts for the attainment of an end towards which all Christian communions ought equally to direct their steps, I beg the Society to accept a subscription of 1,000 francs." And his Excellency concluded, by authorizing the publication of his resolution," because that, in the eyes of all the true friends of morality and religion, it cannot but appear worthy of the Government to contribute to the dissemination of a book, which is the code of the sublimest religion, and of the purest morality." The distribution of the Scriptures has been effected as speedily and extensively as the delays in procuring copies in a condition to be put into circulation would allow. Desirous of facilitating this object, your committee ceded to the Paris Bible Society, at cost price, the 10,000 Bibles and 5000 Testaments, printed on your account at Toulouse, and added 2,500 copies of a pocket Bible, printed on the same account at Paris. The accumulation of demands upon the Paris depository, and the insufficiency of the funds adequately to supply them, induced your committee to assist this active Society with an additional grant of 5001. The Auxiliary Societies of Milhau, Toulouse, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, and Deux Sevres, are described as pursuing their labours with zeal and effect. The Society of Montauban, after existing for a considerable time as an independent institution, and printing a 4to. edition of the Bible, to the amount of 6,000 copies, has united itself, as an Auxiliary, to that of Paris. A new Auxiliary has been formed at Montbeliard, and still more recently one at Saverdun; of the former it should be said, in the language of the Report, that, "after an existence of a few months, it has already united to itself nearly 1,000 members, who enrich it with their gifts, who within and without consecrate to it the most active co-operation, and who have given to it from its infancy the consistency and the vigour of an old instituThe tion confirmed by long success." Societies of Strasburg, Colmar, and Nismes, though not affiliated with that of Paris, are recognized by it with affectionate kindness, and regarded as united in spirit, in principle, and in mutual co-operation. In the distribution of copies of the Scriptures, regard has been had to bulks, prisons, infirmaries, and schools. In relation to the French Catholics, the Committee thus remark To the Catholics of France, as the Paris Bible Society is precluded by its constitution from interfering with them, your committee have been, and continue to be increasingly attentive. From the applications which have reached them through various respectable channels, they have been enabled to distribute, in the course of the last year, 10,000 copies of De Sacy's New Testament, in 12mo. besides several thousand copies of the large 8vo. edition, purchased of Mr. Leo. A beautiful 8vo. Bible of the same version, has just left the press, and is greatly in demand. The New Testament has also been recently stereotyped upon a large letter, and a considerable edition printed. The entire Bible is likewise preparing in stereotype, by means of which your committee will be enabled to procure the Catholic Scriptures, on very reasonable terms. Your committee may add, that the taste for Biblical literature has increased so much among the Catholics of France, that a version of the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek, with the Latin Vulgate at the bottom of the page, is now in the course of publication, and meets with very considerable encouragement. The favourable disposition, in regard to the circulation of the Bible, manifested by the Oct. 1821. 17 leading members of the French Government, and particularly by the Duke de Cazes, is again adverted to, in the following paragraph: Your committee cannot take leave of France, without renewing the expression of the Society's obligations to leading members in the Government of that country. The prohibition against importing books through certain ports, was, on application to the Minister of the Interior, most condescendingly relaxed in favour of a stock of Bibles and Testaments, in various languages, which your committee had occasion to transmit to Cette and Port Vendre ; and his Excellency the Duke de Cazes was also pleased to accommodate the Society, by being himself (on his late return to Paris,) the bearer of the New Testament, in Carshun, from which an edition is to be printed for your Society, at the Royal printing-office, under the direction of Baron de Sacy; and of which, the well known Oriental scholar, Professor Quatremere, has voluntarily offered to become the gratuitous editor. UNITED NETHERLANDS. The United Netherlands' Bible Society, in the Report of its sixth year's pro. ceedings, exhibits very satisfactory evidences of a growing interest in the cause of the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures. The collective contributions from the several Provincial Societies have exceeded those of the former year by the sum of 10,000 gilders. Among the fifty Societies of this description, composing together the National Institution, those of the Hague, Utrecht, and Gauda, have more than doubled their contributions of the preceding year; and those of Amsterdam, Groningen, Schiedam, Hellegondsberg, de Zype, Vianen, and Minden, have Of the been considerably increased. rest, nearly all have kept their ground; and some of them under circumstan |