CHAPTER XVII.

Hobart Town. Meeting Places.-Discontinuance of Reading Meetings.-Weekday Meetings.-Ministers.-Meetings to which the Public were invited.Prayer.-Principles of Friends.-Base-line.-Perjury.-Prisoner Boy.-Grasstree Hill.-Esculent Vegetables.-Silent Meetings.-Flagellation. Monthly Meetings.-Reflections.-Report on Chain-gangs and Road Parties.-Traffic of the Blacks.-"Guide to True Peace."-Colonial Hospital.-J. Johnson.— Orphan School.-Penitentiary.

WE remained in Hobart Town, with little exception, from the 27th of 3rd month, to the 22nd of 8th month. During this period, and for some time afterwards, our meetings for worship were held in the cottage of William Holdship, on the Newtown Road. This individual had had his attention drawn to the principles of Friends, by reading a tract, on the Glory of the True Church, by Francis Howgill,* and another entitled "The Ancient Christian's Principle, &c." by Hugh Turford. Friends being under the necessity of removing their meetings from the house in which they had been held in Macquarie Street, in consequence of another tenant occupying it, they were held a few times in the houses of William Rayner and another individual, but neither of these proving convenient places, W. Holdship offered the use of a room in his cottage, saying he should count it a privilege to have the opportunity of sitting with Friends in their meetings, notwithstanding they were often held in silence.

At one of our Monthly Meetings for Discipline, it was

* A revised edition of this tract, has lately been printed by the York Friends' Tract Association, under the title of, "A Testimony against Ecclesiastical Corruptions."

concluded to discontinue the meeting for reading the Scriptures and the writings of Friends, on First-day afternoons, and to hold meetings for worship instead. The persons who attended our meetings being now in the practice of reading their Bibles and religious biography, &c. diligently at home, meetings for religious instruction by these means, appeared to be no longer necessary. The room in which we now met, being at liberty also on week-days, it was agreed to hold a meeting for worship, at 10 o'clock, on fifth-day forenoons, instead of at half-past six in the evening. This sacrifice of a portion of the best part of a day, to the Lord in the middle of the week, evidently received his blessing, as has very universally been the case in the Society of Friends, where the sacrifice has been made in sincerity. Several fresh members were also added to our little company, and two men, who had for some time spoken in our congregations, to the edification of their brethren, were recorded as approved ministers. The meeting also came to the settled judgment, that the communications of another individual, were not generally to edification, how well soever they might be intended; and in the spirit of love, he was requested to withhold the expression of any mere cogitations of the mind, such, not being accompanied by the baptizing power of the Holy Spirit, without which no ministry can be of any practically good effect.

When we first arrived in Hobart Town, the meetinghouses of the Independents and Wesleyans were freely offered for our use, in case we should wish to invite the inhabitants to assemble with us At that time, it did not appear to be our duty to enter upon such a service; but now, believing it required of us, we held meetings for public worship in both of these places, to which the inhabitants generally, were invited. In one of the meetings in the Independent chapel, some remarks were made upon the evil resulting from the mind being kept in a state of excitement, such as is common in the world, almost from the cradle to the grave, and which is transferred also into performances designed to be religious, often keeping the mind much diverted from that attention to its own condition before

the Lord, which is essential to spiritual worship. The great benefit of retirement of mind from this excitement, and of communion of soul with the Most High in silence, was pointed out, and the people were directed to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, inwardly revealed, as essentially necessary to a saving knowledge of Christ.

After we had remained in silence about an hour, in the meeting, in the Wesleyan Chapel, a young man, originally sent to the colony as a convict, of whose repentance and reformation we had had many proofs, commended the attention of the audience, in a few sentences, to the inspeaking voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd; whose sheep know his voice and follow him, and receive of him eternal life. This opened my way to comment largely on the declaration, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

We had likewise a meeting in the Supreme Court Room, in which silence prevailed for nearly an hour and a half, under a precious feeling of heavenly solemnity. The advantage of having the mind so stayed upon God, as to worship him in spirit and in truth, without being dependent on the stimulus of vocal exercises, was afterwards commented upon, as well as the loss sustained by many, who, after having attained to repentance, and to a sense of justification from past sin, through faith in Christ, instead of walking by faith according to the continued manifestations of the Holy Spirit, depend greatly upon the excitement of such vocal exercises as are popularly styled "means of grace," to enable them to hold on their heavenward course, and thus have their expectation divided between God, and these things; by which means they often fall away, or become weak and dwarfish in religious attainments. The desirableness of that state was shown, in which the mind, reverently bowed before God, is prepared either to be edified in silence, or by words spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and which is nevertheless, not dependent on vocal teaching.

4th mo. 12th. We proceeded to the east side of the Derwent, by a steam-packet that has lately been established, to take passengers, &c. from Hobart Town to Kangaroo

Point, and by which the danger of this ferry is materially reduced, and the fare is lessened one-half. We afterwards walked to Lauderdale on Muddy Plains, making a few calls on the way. The evening was spent pleasantly in the family of a pious settler. After the reading of the Scriptures, a long silence ensued, which was concluded by my stating to the company, that I did not apprehend it was my place, at that time, to express any thing in the way of exhortation or prayer. On my doing this, the master of the house knelt down with his family, and uttered some petitions. We thought it our place, on this occasion, to keep our seats, and thus to bear a testimony against that disposition which determines, on such occasions, to utter something in the way of prayer, and which has, by this means, a strong tendency to draw the mind away from inward prayer, and to cherish a feeling, as if prayer must necessarily be vocal, and might be performed by proxy. We afterwards had some satisfactory conversation, on this subject, and on the advantage of cultivating in silence, an individual, inward exercise, and of not engaging vocally in prayer, except when the mind is brought under the feeling of duty in the matter. My mind was subsequently drawn towards the prisoner-servants, and we had an open opportunity with them, both in testimony and in prayer. A son of our host, who voluntarily accompanied us to visit the prisoners, became awakened to the importance of eternal things at this time: he, and most of the other members of the family, afterwards adopted the principles of Friends, under a conviction of their Scriptural soundness, and a clear perception, of the operation of divine power upon the mind, known in their practical adoption.

13th.

We travelled to the Hollow-tree, where we had a small but satisfactory meeting. Much of the way to this place, lay through a narrow avenue of some miles in length, cut through the bush, for the purpose of measuring a baseline, for a trigonometrical survey, which is going forward in the Island.

14th. We visited a party, of a hundred and fifty prisoners, employed in cutting a road across Grass-tree Hill, by which the distance between Hobart Town and Richmond

will be materially shortened. In this company I recognized a man from York, transported on the charge of perjury. This crime, whether in this instance, well substantiated or not, is exceedingly common among the convict population. Another prisoner was a youth who was the cabin boy on board the Charlotte cutter, in our first voyage, in Bass's Straits: he had been trained in vice from infancy, and had passed from the milder to the severer form of punishment, in consequence of his waywardness, since he was transported. When on board the cutter, the following conversation passed between him and the mate:-Mate: "Tommy! where do you come from?" Boy: "Liverpool, sir." Mate: "What is your father?" Boy: "I have none, sir." Mate: "What was he?" Boy: "Nothing, sir." Mate: "What is your mother?" Boy: "She is dead, sir." Mate: "Who do you live with, at home?" Boy: "My sister, sir." Mate: "What is your sister?" Boy: "Nothing, sir." Mate: "What did you do for a living?" Boy: "They used to put me in at the windows to open doors, sir."-In this way, it is to be feared, that many are trained to crime, and become the pests of society from the influence of an evil education; and that the parties stated to be "nothing," which is a common description in such cases, have lived by vicious means.

The rocks that are cut through, in forming the road over Grass-tree Hill, are argillaceous, embedding shells. Sandstone, with a calcareous admixture, also occurs in some places. The Grass-trees are not so large as those on Flinders Island, nor as some on the north end of Bruny Island, but they are of the same species.

15th. We returned to Hobart Town yesterday, and today, I spent some time in writing an account of the esculent, vegetable productions of this island for Dr. Ross, which was printed in his Annual for 1834. This article, amended by my friend, R. C. Gunn, is presented to the reader in APPENDIX D. In the evening we had a long conversation with a person of religious character, who admits that silent retirement in private, is a state most favourable to devotion, but he does not seem to be able to enter into the views of