Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/53

1832.] from the town, and comprises several acres, enclosed with a wall, except on the side next the river. The climate is almost too cold for grapes and cucumbers, but apples, pears, quinces, mulberries, and walnuts, succeed better than in England. Oaks, ashes, and sycamores, raised from English seed, attain to three or four feet the first year. Bees have been lately introduced: the first hive swarmed sixteen times this summer! Many of the little shrubs which ornament English greenhouses are natives of this country, so that the gardens here have the advantage of having them in the open ground; and to these are added several from Africa and New-South-Wales: here also are some fine, young Norfolk Island Pines.

28th. We looked into the King's School, conducted on the National School plan; in which there are upwards of forty boys, who pay from 4d. to 1s. a week, but attend irregularly.—The inefficiency of this school occasioned it to be subsequently remodelled under a more efficient teacher.—In a walk in the evening, on a partially cleared hill, in the environs of the town, we had conversation with several assigned prisoners, who were breaking up plots of ground for their respective masters. On remarking to one of them, that he had perhaps found his way to this country "through the door of a public-house:" he replied with some feeling, "You say right; and if I had known sooner what I know now, perhaps I should not have come here at all." Another said, with an expression of pleasure, that on his way out, he had learned to read the Testament, and that he thought he could read the tracts we had given him. Another, that he had lately become aware of his danger from sin, and was now seeking peace. On the remark being made, that peace was offered to man on the condition of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ; and that when it was obtained, the help of the Holy Spirit must be sought, for ability to walk in the right way, he added, "Yes, and we must not grieve the Holy Spirit." One of these men became pious, and after some years made a profession with the Society of Friends: he subsequently became free, and continued to conduct himself creditably to his religious profession.