C THE HISTORY O F GREENLAN D: CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION O F THE COUNTRY, AND ITS INHABITANTS: AND PARTICULARLY, A RELATION of the MISSION, carried on for above By DAVID CRANT Z. Tranflated from the HIGH-DUTCH, and illustrated with IN TWO VOLUME S. VOL. I. LONDON, Printed for the Brethren's SOCIETY for the Furtherance of the And fold by J. DODSLEY, in Pall-mall; T. BECKET and MDCCLX VIL. FATRIE AUSAN PREFACE. I T is now upwards of thirty years, fince the Lord afforded to the renewed church of the Unitas Fratrum the firft opportunity of being fubfervient to the converfion of the blind Heathen in various parts of the world. He hath been with them herein, and given his benediction to the word of their teftimony; their prayers, tears, fweat and toil, have not been without bleffing; yea, he granted them even a plentiful harvest in this and the other place. We, who then obferved them at a distance, read and heard the accounts they fent us from time to time, indeed often not without pain and compaffion, because of the many and hard trials that befel them; but mostly with tears of joy and gratitude for the glorious victory the Lord helped them to obtain; and were ourselves thereby animated to fhew faithfulness in the fervice of the Lord. Many a foul, that was ready to faint, was by this means put to fhame, and excited to fur render itself anew to our Saviour, in fimplicity believe on and cleave unto him. When the faid accounts were read on the monthly fo called prayer-days, or congregationdays; and when any friends, who lived at a distance from the brethren's places, or others who paffed through, happened to be prefent at fuch a time; they were struck with what they heard, and generally expreffed their furprize at the brethren's not publishing any thing of that kind, which they VOL. I. fuppofed b fuppofed could not fail to redound to the glory of God, and to the fatisfaction of the reader. They added, that even thofe, who thought themselves pretty well informed of all the proceedings of the Brethren, had however, not only a defective, if not falfe notion of them; but were entirely ignorant of that real bleffing their labour among the heathen was attended with. And therefore they defired, yea infifted on it, that the brethren were in duty bound to communicate to the public, part of whom were mis-informed, and the greatest part ignorant and innocent, or at least to after-ages, an authentic relation, whereby to form a true idea of the foundation and labours of the brethren's congregation. To fatisfy the honeft defire of fuch friends and other ferious people, abftracts of diaries of the heathen-miffionaries among the Negroes, the North and South-America Indians, Greenlanders and Hottentots, as alfo letters of converted Negroes and Indians, together with the teftimonies of refpectable perfons concerning the labour and bleffing of the miflionaries among the heathen, and even edicts of different governments relative to the miflions of the brethren, were inferted and printed in the Büdingen-Collections. But, though this may have proved a bleffing to fome few, yet the great benefit, which our good friends hoped would arise from it, not only failed, but there even were fome, who took occafion from thence to judge the brethren uncharitably, and by a fcoffing levity, or more ferious oppofition, to depreciate this work of the Lord. To avoid this evil, they chofe rather to be filent, to adore the hand of the Lord in ftillness, and only to give notice of their labour to fuch perfons, as had a right to demand it. And the confequence confequence was, that many a one fuppofed, and endeavoured to perfuade the public, that there was no truth in all that had been faid of the brethren's labour among the heathen, or that it was now all at an end; and that whatever still occafionally occurred in printed relations, was either fictitious, or greatly magnified beyond what it might in reality be. This opinion did probably gain more ground by the ftile of fome reports from America, wherein the brethren indeed were mentioned, not much to their advantage, but their labour among the heathen was carefully paffed over in filence. They had folid reafons for leaving the injurious ufage they met with in those reports, un-noted till now. They waited for more peaceable times, when they could lay open fome account, containing a true history of the brethren's labour, before fober and fincere minds, who are not fo narrow-fpirited as to defpife and reject every thing that is not done within their own pale. This defireable Halcyon feems to have drawn nearer, even during the general troubles of the late war; for in that otherwife calamitous period, many thousand people of all nations and perfuafions, and especially the chief commanders of almost all the armies, had an opportunity, by close converfation as eye-witneffes, and by frequent and strict enquiries, to get an idea of the brethren's congregations, which proved quite the reverfe of what they had conceived from the numberless writings of their adverfaries, and from the picture drawn of them in notorious libels. The patience, wherewith the brethren had borne all fuch ill ufage in filence, caused furprize and refpect, from whence arose an honeft defire to be made better acquainted with the doctrine b 2 1 |