Extracts from a Journal of a Voyage of Visitation in the Hawk, 1859 | Page 7

with parties living above and below. All, though the fishery was at its height, accepted the invitation, and Mr. C---- came also with his crew, so that the cabin could not contain them, and several of the men stood round the skylight on the deck, from which they looked down upon us as from a gallery. The day was very fine and warm, and I suffered no inconvenience from open skylight or sky, except when a piece of tobacco descended on my head. Twenty-one children were received into the Church, and one couple married. Very few, if any, except some men of Mr. C----'s crew (who, thanks to their good pastor at Greenspond, had their Prayer-books, and were attentive and well behaved) could read, but most of the children could say the Lord's Prayer and Creed. One woman brought forward her daughter as "a terrible girl" to, say her Creed and Lord's Prayer, and some of the Commandments; and "that hymn you sung below (Evening Hymn), she knows he, but she lips (lisps), so she's ashamed before strangers." Another woman, after surveying with, much admiration a large alphabet-sheet (as I should Egyptian hieroglyphics), said, "I suppose, sir, that's the A B C." I gave little books to all who desired them. Though most of them had a considerable distance to return, they seemed unwilling to leave me and the vessel, and I was in no hurry to dismiss them. It was very sad indeed to think that the meeting and intercourse, after so long delay, and with so little prospect of being renewed, should be so short, when so many important things had to be done, and alas! so many left undone!
Saturday, July 16th. Purbeck Cove, at sea, and Seal Cove.--At five o'clock sent letters on board Mr. C----'s vessel, to be forwarded via Greenspond to St. John's. Sailed for Seal Cove (fourteen or fifteen miles); for three hours no wind, and then wind ahead, so that we did not reach our harbour till eight o'clock P.M., happy and thankful to reach it then, having in remembrance the difficulties and anxieties of last Saturday night. In this Cove, which, at this season, and all seasons when the wind is not strong from N.W., is a splendid harbour, are only two families; but one boat's load had preceded us from Purbeck Cove to profit by the Sunday services. We found the people on shore (a family of Osmonds), very thankful for our coming, though a Roman Catholic family had just arrived to spend the Sunday with them. How so many people are lodged and accommodated (there must be twenty-five now here) in one small hut is difficult to understand. I know not how to be thankful enough for the mercies and comforts of the past week. This is the eighth harbour I have been anchored in, this week, and in six I have held services; and except in entering Little Coney Arm, have encountered neither difficulty nor delay. The winds have been generally fair, the weather always fine; the people, without exception, grateful for our visits and services. Ninety-two persons of various ages have been formally received into the Church; eight couples married; one person admitted to the Lord's Supper; nearly one hundred and eighty of all ages have been present at the services. The bread has been cast upon the waters, may it be found.
Fourth Sunday after Trinity, July 17th. Seal Cove.--I was pleased to find that two families had followed in their boats, from a harbour we have already visited, to attend the services on board. The head of the family resident here (in Seal Cove) is Joseph Osmond, a younger brother of Basil; he had lost his wife last fall in giving birth to her twelfth child, and he could not speak of her without tears. He pointed out to me the spot, where he had himself committed her body to the ground (the first and only one buried in the place), which he had carefully fenced, and was anxious to have consecrated. The babe had been nursed and kept alive by her sisters, but appeared very sickly and not likely to continue. Nine of his twelve children he had carried to Twillingate to be christened (i.e. received into the church after private baptism), but three remained whom he desired now to be received. All of these had been baptized by lay hands; two of them, he said, "had been very well baptized," i.e. by a man who could read well, the third case did not satisfy him. This was told us before the service, and when, in the service, he was asked, as the Prayer-book directs, "By whom was this child baptized?" he answered, "By one Joseph Bird, and a fine reader he was." This Bird, who