CHAPTER XXXIV.

Sydney. Tidings of D. and C. Wheeler.-Aborigines in Towns. -Work of the Spirit.-Grant of a Burial Ground.-Reformed Prisoner.-Wills.— Trial of Blacks.-Bibles in Strange Tongues.-Meetings.-Voyage to Maitland.-Drunkenness.-Season.-Ironed-gangs.- Fossils.- Country.- Plants. -Arthurs Vale Management of Prisoners. St. Aubins.-"Prisoners of Australia."-Plants.-Rain.-Sheep.-Snow.-Mount Wingen.-Objects of Curiosity. Return to Maitland.-Compass, &c.-Geology.-Cock-fighters Bridge. -Prisoners.-Bibles and Card-playing.-Small Congregations.-Friends' Principles. Self-delusion.

5th mo. 7th. We had the satisfaction of hearing of our dear friends, D. and C. Wheeler, through the medium of a letter from Charles Barff, to William P. Crook, of this place, dated "Huaine, Jan. 19th, 1836;" he says, "I mentioned in my last, that I accompanied Mr. Daniel Wheeler and Son, to Pora Pora, as interpreter. The Natives listened with profound attention, to their pious, pointed, and Scriptural addresses."

8th. Very wet. Only seven persons were at our meeting in the morning, and eight in the afternoon. Both were silent seasons, except that I gave expression to a few sentences in prayer, in the morning.-Our black guides, M'Gill and Boatman, called to see us. They are in town, in consequence of the trial of some Aborigines, to whom, on behalf of the Government, in conjunction with L. E. Threlkeld, M'Gill acts as interpreter. We gave them some articles of clothing, with which they were much pleased.-These poor creatures called upon us several times afterwards, during their stay in Sydney. They were mostly in a state of excitement, from strong drink; which they are easily persuaded to take. The Blacks are not like the same people,

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when in towns, as they are, when remote from places where they are incited to vice, into which many of the white population take a pleasure in leading them.

12th. The week-day meeting was very small. To me it was a season of comfort, notwithstanding a prevailing sense of my own weakness and poverty. The clear perception of these, is the direct work of the Holy Spirit. If we have any just sense of the state of man before his Maker, it must be of his helplessness, and that, without Christ, the best of men can do nothing for the glory of God, the edification of one another, or the salvation of their own souls. It is by waiting upon God, in the depth of humiliation, that we have the evidence confirmed to us, from season to season, of being reconciled to him, through the death of his Son, and know a union, one with another, and with Christ, and through him, with the Father. It is thus that we experience, the fulfilment of that, for which our holy Redeemer prayed, not for his immediate disciples alone, but for all who should believe on him, through their word: "That they all may be one, as thou Father," said he, "art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us," "that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."-John xvii., 21, 22, 23.

13th. In consequence of the decease of a child belonging to parents, one of whom was brought up among Friends, and has a religious objection to the modes of burial, in common use, and who could not, on that account, attend the interment of her own babe, we made an application to the Governor, for a burial place for Friends, in the land reserved for Burial Grounds, adjacent to Sydney. This request was afterwards granted.

14th. On behalf of a reformed prisoner, who has for some time been associated with us, in religious fellowship, we remitted to the persons who prosecuted him, the sum of £20, toward the expense they incurred in the prosecution.

19th. At the suggestion of my Brother, who has kindly taken care of my temporal concerns during my absence, I made some needful provisions, by a codicil, in my will.

I have often regretted not having brought a copy of this document with me, as I cannot recollect with certainty its contents. When in England, it was my practice to read it once a year, to see that it was according to my mind and conscience; and more than once, I have seen occasion to alter it. Before I had a proper will made, I was a few times unwell, when from home; and though favoured with peace in looking toward eternity, I was nevertheless uncomfortable at not having a satisfactory will. It is well to attend to such subjects in proper season, and to remember, that in the Day of Judgment, account will as surely have to be rendered, for the right use, and the disposal, that has been made of the talent of property, as for that of any other talent.

24th. We received a call from L. E. Threlkeld, who is about to return to Lake Macquarie. The Black who was tried lately, was acquitted, and some others have been discharged. In the course of this trial, one of the barbarous, white evidences, stated in open court, that he considered the Blacks as no more than the beasts of the field. This is a sentiment too prevalent among many of the Whites of the Colony. The presiding Judge expressed his abhorrence of such a sentiment, and his conviction, that they were human beings, responsible before God, in whose sight, killing them was as truly murder as killing human beings of any other description: he stated also, that they were responsible to the laws of the Colony, and must be protected by them; and said he was glad, that through the medium of a respectable Missionary, their causes were capable of being pleaded in that Court.

27th. On visiting the Bible Society's Depot, to obtain an Irish Bible, for an old Hibernian, in the interior, both the Depository and myself were at a loss, among the variety of languages, in strange character, to distinguish the Irish. This difficulty was at length overcome, by reference to the word, New Testament, in forty-eight languages, forming the frontispiece to Bagster's Polymicron New Testament. This circumstance suggested, that the name of the language in which each Bible was printed, might be

advantageously introduced, in English, in the titlepages of foreign Bibles.

6th mo. 12th. Since returning to Sydney, we have been much occupied in sending books, and tracts to persons whom we visited in our late journey. In the prospect of again leaving this place, for a season, we felt a debt of Christian love toward the inhabitants, which it seemed time to endeavour to discharge, by inviting them to a meeting for public worship, which was held this morning. I was much oppressed in it, by a sense of a lamentable want of a true hungering and thirsting after righteousness, in the congregation, among whom there were nevertheless some pious persons. I had to address them on the passage, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." At the conclusion, notice was given of the hours of meeting, on First and Fifth-days. At three o'clock about thirty persons assembled, with whom we sat an hour and a half in silence. My own state was one of great emptiness, and under such circumstances, I dared not to attempt expression, much as the people seemed to need religious instruction. Tracts were distributed at the close of the meetings.

14th. Being furnished with letters of introduction, from our kind friend, the Colonial Secretary, to several settlers on the Hunter River, we sailed by the Ceres steamer, for Maitland, and had a fine passage, the sea being so smooth as scarcely to give motion to the vessel.

15th. About five o'clock in the morning, the steamer anchored at Newcastle. After waiting an hour for daylight, it proceeded up the Hunter, to the Green Hills or Morpeth, the port of the embryo town of Maitland, which is about twenty miles from Newcastle, by land, and forty by water. The Hunter is here of considerable width; its banks are low, alluvial land, but little of which is cleared. A thick scrub, containing a variety of trees and shrubs, extends to the water's edge. Some of the trees are clad with shaggy Lichens, and many of them support the Golden Mistletoe, and a species of Loranthus. The Elkshorn Fern, Acrosticum alcicorne, which in Port Jackson, generally grows on decomposing, sandstone rocks, forms here protuberant girdles,

round the trunks of trees, among the branches of which Ipomoea pendula, and Marsdenia fragrans, are striking climbers. Water-fowl are numerous, near the bushy islands, at the mouth of the river, especially Pelicans. The Williams River and the Paterson, both of which are navigable, join the Hunter from the north. In proceeding up the river, the depression of the waters, before the packet, occasioned by the elevation produced behind, by the action of the paddles, made the reeds of the margin, bow to our approach, with an amusing regularity.-Maitland is about three miles from Green Hills: it consists of a considerable number of houses, scattered by the sides of a soft road, for upwards of two miles, some of which are substantially built of brick. We found good accommodation at an hotel, between Green Hills and Maitland. There are also several decent inns in the town. We had been told, that we should find a large proportion of the inhabitants of this place, drunken with rum and prosperity; and this description was not without ground, in regard to many; for the place has of late, become one of importance, in traffic between the coast and the interior, and at the time of our visit, devotedness to the world, and drunkenness, were awfully prevalent.

16th. We made several calls in the town; in which a considerable number of the native Blacks, were working for the inhabitants, as hewers of wood and drawers of water. We also visited the Jail, a place of temporary confinement, till the prisoners are examined and transferred to Newcastle : it consists of a few cells, enclosed within a high, wooden fence, and is said to be sometimes so crowded, that prisoners have to be brought into the yard to avoid suffocation.

17th. At sunset, several Night Hawks, in flight resembling owls, were soaring in various directions. Plovers were crying, and frogs croaking in the marshes. Large Bats, called Flying Foxes, are common in this neighbourhood. It is now nearly mid-winter, but the frost has scarcely touched the leaves of the Pumpkins and Potatoes, and the second crop of Maize is not yet fully harvested. The springing wheat is beautifully green, and the "brushes," on the sides of the river, scarcely vary from the verdure of summer, except in the