Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/63

1832.] the clear evidence I had had of its being my religious duty to visit this part of the world, for many years before the right time seemed to be come for me to set out, and querying within myself as to how we should proceed, so as to be found acting in accordance with the divine will, the words "Go through the breadth of the land," were impressed on my mind with such authority as left no doubt but this was the counsel of the Lord, mercifully granted for our direction. For the Lord still condescends to lead about and instruct those who put their trust in him; notwithstanding it may seldom be by impressions exactly of this kind; but more frequently by a constraining sense of his will independent of any distinct form of words, or by the overruling of his providence.

3rd mo. 19th, we visited a little agricultural settlement called the Hollow Tree, and a place named Cockatoo Valley, celebrated for the fineness of its timber, which is chiefly of the kinds called Stringy-bark and Peppermint. Some sawyers were at work here. Their hut was entirely built of large slabs of bark, which are obtained from several species of Eucalyptus, and serve many useful purposes. At the Woolpack Inn, in returning toward Hobart Town, we obtained beds made up on wooden sofas, for the use of each of which two shillings a night was charged, this also was the price of each of our meals.

20th. The mornings are cold at this autumnal season, but mid-day is as warm as an English summer. Numbers of Piping Crows called also White Magpies, were hopping about near the inn, and raising their whistling notes to each other at an early hour, and the chattering of Miners, Wattle birds, Black Magpies, and Paroquets was very enlivening to us on our journey. On the way to New Norfolk, which we reached in time for the coach to Hobart Town, we had interviews with he Deep-gulley-road-gang, in three detachments; whose attention we called to the end of their being, the incapacity of persons whose affections are estranged from God, and set on carnal things, to enjoy heaven, and the consequent necessity of being born again of the Spirit, by yielding to its convictions, which produce repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus Christ.