266 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



In consequence of the demands made upon them, the directors of 

 the Society became alarmed, and after reproving him severely for his 

 extravagance, finally dishonoured one of his drafts, and refused to 

 pay it until compelled by a lawsuit. This, of course, broke his 

 connexion with the Society, as Mr. Threlkeld was naturally indig- 

 nant at the undeserved disgrace to which they had subjected him. 



The directors offered to pay his passage to England, but this he 

 refused, having determined to carry on the work by his own un- 

 assisted efforts. 



That he might be independent of any funds of the Society, and to 

 prevent its being said that he had derived any profit from them, he 

 removed in 1828 to the opposite side of the lake, a position far less 

 advantageous. 



After struggling for two years to conduct the mission and maintain 

 his large family, he received a stipend of one hundred and fifty 

 pounds from the government, with the assignment of four convicts. 

 With this assistance he has been able to provide for his family, and 

 devote himself to the instruction of the aborigines ; but he has found 

 his means inadequate to keep,, a number employed about his station, 

 in such a manner as to overcome their natural tendency to a wan- 

 dering life. 



The consequence was, that the blacks, from the attraction held out 

 to them of indulging in drunkenness and other vices, left his neigh- 

 bourhood to frequent the towns, where they had been rapidly 

 diminishing in number. 



Mr. Threlkeld did not find the natives deficient in intelligence; 

 but he has not been able to overcome their aversion to a fixed 

 residence. In proof of this, they abandoned comfortable and 

 substantial huts, which he built for them, after a few days' residence, 

 on the plea that they were infested with vermin. 



Frequently, they would all quit him to attend some meeting of 

 their tribe, for war, hunting, or some religious ceremony, and stay 

 away for months. 



He laboured in vain against these disadvantages, and it is not 

 difficult to perceive how impossible, under such circumstances, it 

 would be to meet with success in teaching and converting a set of 

 savages, so wedded to their usages. 



Mr. Threlkeld's labours have, however, been turned to some 

 advantage. He has published a grammar, and translated several of 

 the books of the New Testament. His influence has been productive 



