CHAPTER XVI.

Kelvedon. Meetings.-Soldier Injured.-Papal Penance.-Animals Poisoned. Instinct. Use of Spirits in Whaling, &c.-Toad-fish.-The Saddle.-Eastern Marshes.-Dead Trees.-Farm.-Settler and his Flock.-Sheep Lands.Opossums.-Meetings at Oatlands and Jericho.-Sheep and Wool.-Native Cat.-Dairy Farm.-Vale of the Jordan.-Platypus.-Black Brush.-The Carlton.-Visitors.-Inns.-Temperance Reformation.-Richmond.-Jerusalem.-Drought.-Parrots.-Green Ponds.-Settlers.-Invalid Road Party.Mill.-New Norfolk.-Meetings.-Forlorn Prisoner.-Pious Settler.-Prisoners at Bridgewater.-Return to Hobart Town.-Indisposition.

WE remained a few weeks with our friends at Kelvedon. In the course of this time, my strength, which had been much reduced by the previous exertion, excitement, and sea-sickness, was considerably restored. In this neighbourhood we had several religious meetings, in some of which we were comforted by the exhortations of Dr. Story, who had yielded to the convictions of the Holy Spirit, and had seen it his place to adopt and advocate the principles of Friends.

While we were in Great Swan Port, a soldier at Waterloo Point received a serious injury, by swimming upon a log of wood, which is an accident that may easily occur in this country, where most of the timber is so heavy as to sink in water. When accompanying Dr. Story, in a visit to this man, I saw an Irish soldier doing penance, by kneeling with his bare knees on some rough gravel. It is lamentable to behold practices so repugnant to the spirit of the Gospel, imposed by any church upon those convinced of sin, and by which their attention is diverted from that "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," which the Apostle preached as the way of salvation.

At Kelvedon, my attention was called to the circumstance, of the flesh of cattle that had died in the bush, having become poisonous. Several pigs, geese, and fowls died, from having eaten of the flesh of a dead bullock, or pecked about the carcase. A person in this neighbourhood had boiled some of the flesh of a cow, found dead in the bush, and had given it to his dogs and pigs, which were made so sick that he thought they also would have died. It is possible that these cattle might have died from the bite of serpents, and that the poison might have become propagated in their carcases; but from whatever cause they may become poisonous, the instinct of wild animals protects them from suffering by it; for the carcases of such cattle often remain untouched either by birds or beasts of prey.

2nd mo. 17th. Accompanied by Francis Cotton, we set out to visit the central part of the Island, on our way back to Hobart Town, and proceeded to the mouth of the Little Swan Port River. Here a person was making an attempt to dry fish for distant markets. This we were satisfied could not succeed, because of the quantity of rum allowed to the men employed, and it was soon given up. The use of spirituous liquors, is equally injurious in whale-fishing, notwithstanding much is sometimes said in its favour. I once asked a seaman, a native of Sydney, who had been brought up in this occupation, what was his opinion on the subject: he replied, "I will tell you, sir, how we used to do when we went to catch sperm-whales. We always left Sydney with a good stock of spirits on board; and as soon as we got clear of the Heads of Port Jackson, we fell to work, the captain and all hands, to drink: we kept it up till the grog was done, and then we were ill two or three weeks, after which we began to catch whales! Once, we came upon a shoal of sperm-whales, when we were all so drunk that we could hardly see, and we manned the boats and ran upon them in such a way, that it was a wonder we were not all lost. Now, sir, you may form your own judgment of the use of spirits in whaling."

18th. We crossed the Little Swan Port River, in which were a considerable number of poisonous, smooth-skinned

fish, the Toad-fish of this country. Three persons in a family near Hobart Town, in 1831, lost their lives, by eating fish of this kind. The evening was spent with a settler, who has exercised a considerable degree of moral and religious care over his assigned servants, with very satisfactory results.

19th. Taking a westerly course, we travelled through several miles of trackless forest, and over some lofty hills. In one place, a deep, woody ravine is crossed by a remarkable natural causeway; which, being a little depressed in the middle, is called The Saddle: its breadth is scarcely more than would admit a good road, and its sides are almost perpendicular. It is the only known pass out of the central part of Oyster Bay. Beyond the Saddle, the land joins the side of a remarkable peak, called The Sugar Loaf, the further side of which descends steeply to the Eastern Marshes. The southern entrance to Oyster Bay is equally impassable for carriages, and the northern one is exceedingly rugged, but carts are dragged over it. The district is only accessible for goods, by sea. On the Eastern Marshes, nearly all the Gum-trees are dead. We were hospitably entertained by a settler, who was disposing of his cattle, and endeavouring to let his farm, of 2,000 acres, 400 of which are enclosed, and 50 in cultivation, for £150 a-year. There are upon it a plain, stone house, and a few out-buildings. Kangaroos are numerous in this part of the country.

20th. The country toward Oatlands, where we arrived in the evening, is of hills, of small elevation, thinly wooded with Black and Weeping Gum-trees, and interspersed with level grounds, marshy in winter, but very dry in summer.— We called upon a respectable settler, who, in consequence of the dishonesty of his assigned servants, had been induced to act as his own shepherd. Though this is a great inconvenience to a person having all his other affairs to superintend, yet it has preserved his flocks from depredations, such as have greatly reduced many others.-From Oatlands we proceeded to Ansty Barton, the hospitable mansion of Thomas and Mary Ansty, from whom, on a former visit, as well as at the present time, we received great kindness.

The domain of Thomas Ansty, consists of upwards of

20,000 acres, much of which is of thinly wooded, grassy hills, adapted for sheep; but in the dry climate of this part of V. D. Land, it will not, on an average, maintain one sheep to two acres during the year.-Opossums are exceedingly numerous in this neighbourhood: they are to be seen in almost every gum-tree, by moonlight.

We remained at Ansty Barton till the 25th, and in the mean time, held religious meetings, and meetings for the promotion of temperance, at Oatlands and Jericho. At the latter place, William Pike, the Episcopal Chaplain, and his family, were kindly helpful to us. From their house, Francis Cotton returned to Swanport.

26th. We proceeded over some fine sheep-hills, to the house of John Bisdee, a prosperous settler, located in a pleasant vale, surrounded by fine, thinly-wooded sheep-hills: his estate which has the benefit of a few springs that supply water during this dry season, includes 5,000 acres, that, on an average, will maintain about two sheep to three acres: it extends to the Black Marsh, upon the Jordan, which is now a chain of large, deep pools. The Common Pheasant has been introduced upon this estate; and in order to preserve it, his men have been encouraged to destroy the Native Cats, by receiving eight-pence for each of their skins. These animals are so numerous, that at one time the people brought in six hundred skins.

3rd mo. 2nd. In the course of the last three days, we visited the settlers at the Lovely Banks, the Cross Marsh, the Hunting Ground, and Green Ponds, and held some meetings among them. At Green Ponds we called upon a respectable family, in which an aged woman, who had been remarkable for steady piety was declining under paralytic disease. On being enquired of, as to how she was, she replied, "Very happy in body and mind." How encouraging is the calm sunshine of the close of the day, in such persons!

3rd. Accompanied by George Gorringe, a medical man, filling also the office of Catechist, we proceeded to the Broad Marsh, and had a meeting with the neighbouring families, at the house of Peter Murdoch. This person has the

finest dairy-farm, in V. D. Land. It is situated on a fertile level, on the Jordan, and is advantageously stocked with Alderney cows.

4th. We proceeded along the course of the Jordan, to the Black Brush, passing the houses and enclosures of several settlers. The vale of the Jordan, with its boundary of hills, reminded me of Bilsdale, in Yorkshire; but the climate is much milder than that of England, though liable to occasional summer frosts. Platypuses are not uncommon in the pools of the Jordan, in which, as well as in the other rivers of Tasmania, and on the sea-coast, Black Shaggs are often seen fishing.

At the Black Brush several young men, who emigrated from Birmingham, have opened a store, which has paid them well. They erected a house, in which they are residing, though it has yet only shutters to close the places intended for windows. In the evening, we collected the establishment, and some of their neighbours, and had a religious opportunity with them. An adjacent settler, who appeared to be a very decent man, was one of the congregation. He was formerly a prisoner, having been transported for seven years, for a very trifling offence.

5th. We passed round the end of a lofty tier of hills, into the vale of Bagdad, and went by the Tea-tree Brush, to Richmond. On the 6th we continued our journey to Sorell Town or Pitt Water, and on the 7th, proceeded to the Carlton, a small settlement on a creek opening into Frederick Henry Bay. Here the Government has placed a schoolmaster, a native of Scarborough, who has been most of his life a seafaring man, and who seems to be a man of much simple, religious feeling: he reads the prayers, &c. of the Episcopal Church every First day; but this sort of mechanical religious service does not seem to be very attractive to the people, either here or in other places. The old man was much pleased with our visit. We had a meeting with some of his neighbours and scholars; at the close of which, in the true spirit of a village school-master, he requested his pupils to repeat the Evening Hymn, and then pronounced the "Apostolic benediction." He appears to try