Extracts from a Journal of a Voyage of Visitation in the Hawk, 1859 | Page 4

until, about eleven
o'clock, a breeze sprang up in our favour, and we regained the entrance
of the Little Arm, and came to anchor just at midnight, whereby I learnt
a lesson of patience and perseverance.
Third Sunday after Trinity, July 10th. Little Coney Arm.--Four families
reside in this harbour, two of which are returned in the census as
Methodists, the other two Church of England. All the men, however,
were absent, except the old man who was brought off to us the previous

night; besides him were four women, and some seven or eight children,
and a sick man (a Roman Catholic), who had been left by a trader. All,
however, in the harbour (except the sick Roman) came on board to both
our services, and the women (all) expressed a great desire to have their
children admitted into the Church. The Gospel for the Sunday gave me
occasion to preach to them and myself on the "Parable of the Lost
Sheep;" to myself, to make me ashamed of thinking much of serving or
ministering to these two or three in the wilderness; and to them, to
make them, and each of them, I trust, more grateful to the good
Shepherd who came himself on the same errand on which He sends his
ministers to seek for every one that is lost and gone astray, and who
assures us there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. The day
was as bright and the scene as lovely as could be desired for any
Sabbath on earth, and I greatly enjoyed the rest and peace. After tea, we
went on shore and visited all the families, and gave medicine to the
poor Irishman, and books to the children. I examined the children in the
Lord's Prayer and Creed, and found that the child of the Church of
England parents (neither of whom could read) was much more perfect
than the children of the others, who boasted of their learning and
reading; some (ten or twelve years of age) could not say the Lord's
prayer. At family prayer, in the evening, I addressed my crew, and
explained to them the object of my voyage, and entreated them to
co-operate by their example in every place, and warned them against
the faults to which I knew them most liable.
Monday, July 11th. Little Coney Arm, at sea, and Bear Cove.--Sailed
from Little Coney Arm at four o'clock A.M., wind light, but fair for
crossing the bay, and we accordingly passed over to Bear Cove. We
found that all the inhabitants (four families) were at home, or on their
fishing-grounds, and all professed members of the Church of England,
and greatly desirous to be admitted, by baptism or reception as the case
might require; and two couples, who had been united by a fisherman,
expressed a wish to be duly married. One couple made some difficulty
about the fee (having no money), but promised to send the amount
(20s.) in money, or fish, to the nearest clergyman, in the fall. The
service was to have commenced at five o'clock, but it was with
difficulty all were got together and duly arranged at 6.15. We said the

Evening Prayers, which I fear must have been parables to these poor
people, several of whom had lived here and in the neighbouring coves
all their life, and had never before seen a clergyman, or heard the
service. After the second lesson, the baptisms had to be performed, and
sad and strange were the discoveries made by the question, whether the
child or person (for some were fifteen, sixteen, and eighteen years of
age) had been baptized or no? Of all it was answered they had been
baptized; but some, it appeared, could not tell by whom, some by
fishermen, several by a woman,--the only person in the settlement (and
she a native) who could read correctly. One woman (married) was
baptized, hypothetically, with her infant. Twenty-one in all were
admitted, the majority with hypothetical baptism. Both of the women
who came to be married had infants in their arms; one of them had
three children. Not one person in the whole settlement could read
correctly, except the woman before mentioned; her husband (a native of
Bay of Islands), a little. He had, however, been employed to marry one
of our present couples, which he confessed to me with some shame and
confusion of face, saying, "he had picked the words out of the book as
well as he could make them out," but he did not baptise, because "that
reading was too hard;" in fact, he could scarcely read at all, he left the
baptisms therefore to his wife. I addressed the people after the baptisms,
trying to make them understand the meaning and purpose of