Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/70

36 and other necessary arrangements having been made for our passage on board the Government brig Tamar, we embarked, after dining with the senior colonial chaplain, William Bedford, and his family, from whom we received much kind attention during our sojourn in V. D. Land. The vessel not sailing till the 10th, we spent the evening at the house of Nathaniel Turner, the Wesleyan Minister stationed at Hobart Town, in company with John Allen Manton, a Wesleyan Missionary, also proceeding to Macquarie Harbour. At N. Turner's we also met the teachers of four sabbath schools, containing together about 200 children. Two of these schools are in Hobart Town, and the others at Sandy Bay and O'Briens Bridge. After the teachers had transacted the business of their monthly meeting, we had a solemn and highly favoured religious opportunity; in which, in the fresh feeling of heavenly love, I endeavoured to encourage them to live under a sense of the divine presence, and to seek to the Lord for counsel and direction, in order that their well-intended labours might be blessed.

There were in the cabin of the Tamar, John Burn, the captain for the voyage, Henry Herberg, the mate, David Hoy, a ship's carpenter, Jno. A. Manton, George W. Walker, and myself. Ten private soldiers and a sergeant, as guard, occupied a portion of the hold, in which there were also provisions for the Penal Settlement, and a flock of sheep. Two soldiers' wives and five children were in the midships. Twelve seamen, several of whom were convicts, formed the crew; and 18 prisoners under sentence to the Penal Settlement completed the ship's company. The last occupied a jail, separated from the hold by wooden bars, filled with nails, and accessible only from the deck by a small hatchway. One of the soldiers on guard stood constantly by this hatchway, which was secured by three bolts across the opening, two walked the deck, the one on one side returning with his face toward the prison, at the time the other was going in the opposite direction, and two were in the hold, seated in view of the jail. The prisoners wore chains, and only two of them were allowed to come on deck at a time