instructor. The Rev. Mr. Fulton, a protestant
clergyman of Waterford, transported for sedition, was stationed at
Norfolk Island, and Father Harold, an exile, a catholic priest, had
returned home. "There was," says Holt, "no clergyman to visit the sick,
baptise the infant, or church the women. So we were reduced to the same
state as the heathen natives who had none of these ceremonies." At this
period, however, many missionaries, driven from Tahiti, took refuge at
Port Jackson. Some were employed as preachers, and others as
schoolmasters, and several rose to considerable station and wealth,
while others resumed their mission under more favorable auspices.

Mr. Marsden succeeded in arousing the attention of the ministry:
additional clergymen were procured, and schools were established. The
country-born children displayed an aptitude for instruction which
kindled the most pleasing hopes. They exhibited a feeling, approaching
to contempt, for the vices of the convicts, even when manifested in the
persons of their parents.[124] "These feelings," said Sidney Smith,
"convey to the mother country the first proof that the foundations of a
mighty empire are laid."[125]

It is scarcely possible to imagine a condition more unfavorable to the
rising race; and yet the aptitude for instruction, and the self-respect
observable in the Australian youth, have been remarked by every visitor
from the earliest times, not without astonishment. It is not uncommon to
see children of the most elegant form, and with an open countenance,
attended by parents of a different aspect, as if a new region restored
the physical and mental vigour of the race.

A pleasing instance of the love of knowledge occurred during the early
ministry of the Rev. Mr. Cartwright, which he related to Governor
Macquarie. The river which separated them from his dwelling was swollen,
and knowing the ford was impassable, he saw with great amazement his
young pupils approach his Sunday school: they had tied their clothing on
their heads, and swam across the stream.[126] It is asserted, that
without any other instruction than a casual lesson, some learned both to
read and write.

The Rev. Robert Knopwood, who arrived with the first settlers, was long
the sole chaplain of Van Diemen's Land. In addition to his clerical
functions he regularly sat as a magistrate. He had not much time to care
for the spiritual interests of his flock, and of his success in their
reformation not