604 



MILL — .SHUNGHl"'s GRAVE. 



Dec. 



much difficulty could the missionaries induce them to resume 

 their employment. When at last the mill was finished and in 

 full operation, nothing could exceed the surprise and delight of 

 the natives, especially those who had assisted in the work. 

 They called it a ' ship of the land.' " Wonderful white men 

 said they ; " fire, water, earth, and air are made to work for 

 them by their wisdom ; while we can only command the labour 

 of our own bodies ! " 



Many natives have visited Sydney ; some have been round 

 the world ; and, of course, their ideas and descriptions have 

 been imparted to their countrymen ; but nothing, not even 

 that, to a savage, awfully-mysterious object, a steam-vessel, has 

 yet effaced their early-formed opinion, that a large ship of war 

 is the greatest wonder of the world. 



Returning from the mill, Mr. Davis showed me where 

 Shunghi was buried. No monumental mark indicates the 

 tabooed place in which the remains of the slaughter-loving 

 cannibal were deposited; a few dark-leaved trees and some 

 thickly-growing fern alone point out the spot. 



While looking about, highly gratified by all we saw, we met 

 Mr. W. Williams, who had just returned from his attendance 

 upon the young Wesleyan before-mentioned. The sufferer had 

 been released from painful illness by death. 



A thriving young English oak, near Mr. Davis's house, 

 augured well ; for where English oaks succeed, many other 

 useful trees will certainly grow. Several younger saplings, 

 just fit for transplanting, occupied a part of Mr. Williams's 

 well-stocked garden ; and these interested me more than all the 

 other plants and trees in the garden taken together. English- 

 men one now meets every where ; but a living, healthy, English 

 oak was a sight too rare, near the Antipodes, to fail in exciting 

 emotion. 



I was much struck by the harmony and apparent happiness 

 of those families whose cheerful hospitality I was enjoying. 

 An air of honesty, and that evident tranquillity of mind which 

 can only be the result of a clear conscience, offered a forcible 

 contrast to the alleged gloom and selfishness of which some 



