Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/496

 470 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The late Rev William LonCTbottom THROUGHOUT her history South Australia has been noted for the freedom given within her confines to reHgious thought and development, and also for the streno-th of her religious institutions. From the inception of local history the people have been liberally provided with religious instruction, and, within a kw years, representatives of most of the principal denomina- tions in Christendom had erected their temples in the Province, in which they might worship in the faith and after the fashion of their fathers. Among the first sects to take deep root in South Australia was the Wesleyan, the founder of which in the Province was prac- tically the late Rev. William Longbottom. There were other followers of that Church here before him ; but he it was who consolidated them and enhanced their interests. From a humble root, planted in 1837, has grown a powerful tree, whose branches now spread over the whole Province. The late Rev. William Longbottom was born at Bingley, Yorkshire, England, on December 10, 1799. He was educated for the Wesleyan Church, and, after being ordained, was dispatched as a missionary to India in 1827. After .some years of zealous labor, his health broke down, and he proceeded to Cape Colony. After returning to India, his health again failed him, and he went, in 1837, to Tasmania, hoping to find in its genial climate surcease from bodily infirmity. A few months' residence seemed to improve him, whereupon he was appointed by the English Conference to take up work in Western Australia, then a few years old. But circumstances decreed another sphere. With his wife and son he took passage in the schooner Fanny, which was wrecked near Lacepede Hay, .South Australia, in 1838. All the passengers got safely to shore, and, remote from settlement, made a tedious journey to Encounter Bay. They walked in company along the desolate coastline by the Coorong. With a small boat they crossed