ARRIVAL OF THE HAWKESBURY. 75 
great degree, by the uncertainty and anxiety of 
remaining, at that remote distance from home, 
five years , without even once hearing by letter 
from their native country, or their friends. From 
this distressing state of feeling, they were in a great 
measure relieved by the arrival of the Hawkesbury, 
a colonial vessel, which anchored in Matavai bay 
on the 25th of November, 1806. 
Since the year 1804, the Society in England 
had authorized Mr. Marsden to expend annually, 
for the support of the Missionaries, two hundred 
pounds, and had also sent out supplies. Unable 
to meet, in Port Jackson, with any vessel proceed¬ 
ing to Tahiti, Mr. Marsden had at length engaged 
the Hawkesbury, a small sloop of about twenty 
tons burden, to take out the letters and articles 
that had been so long delayed. The communica¬ 
tions from England conveyed to the Missionaries 
the welcome and the needed assurance that they 
were not forgotten by their friends at home; but 
most of the articles, especially those of clothing, 
from the length of time they had been lying at 
Port Jackson, and the wretched state of the vessel 
in which they were sent, were so injured as to be 
almost useless; the packages were wet with the 
sea-water, and their contents consequently spoiled. 
The repeated trials with which the Missionaries 
were exercised, the privations they endured, and 
the painful and protracted discouragements by 
which, at this period, they were depressed, were of 
no ordinary character. Few among modern Mis¬ 
sionaries have been called to endure such afflic¬ 
tions ; and it is matter of devout acknowledgment, 
that, notwithstanding the darkness of their pros¬ 
pects and the destitution of their circumstances, 
they were still enabled to persevere, and leave 
