In the foregoing observations it has been my wish to avoid deep or abstracted argument, and I have urged no doctrine that is not supported by gospel authority or moral deduction. I thought myself bound, before we part, to give you such wholesome counsel as the promises of God hold out to repentant sinners, and my knowledge of the world enables me to lay before you. From the hour you came under my care, I have considered it as much my duty to protect your morals as to preserve your health; and I do not think that any of you are now sorry for the restraints that I deemed it necessary to impose on your actions. In the 3d chapter of Ezekiel, 18th and 19th verses, you will find the following solemn declaration: “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
On every man to whom the charge of many souls is confided, the above declaration imposes an awful responsibility, which if faithfully discharged gives him a claim to their gratitude. If any of you think yourselves benefited by my humble services, you can in no way show your gratitude so well, nor oblige me so much, as by making the substance of this discourse the rule of your future lives. Believe me, it will be of more intrinsic value to you than all this world’s riches.
It only remains for me to speak of the promise I made to you at the commencement of the voyage, that an impartial account of your conduct, while under my direction, would be given to the proper authorities under which you are to be placed.
A few there are who have, in some instances, transgressed against my directions; but by their unaffected sorrow, and subsequent good behaviour, I think atonement has been made. I have therefore the pleasure to say, that not one of you will be sent out of the ship at this place with an incorrigibly bad character. In making this report, favourable to you all generally, it is gratifying to myself particularly, since neither the feelings of my own conscience, nor the strictest truth, will be violated in the slightest degree. Some of you will be particularly recommended as meritorious characters: and if, during my stay in the colony, it may be in my power to be further useful to you, I desire every one of you to come to me, and make known your wishes; you will always find me most willing and anxious to contribute to your welfare to the utmost of my power.
I have trespassed a great deal too long upon your patience, and yet, I feel a painful reluctance to bid you farewell. In all human probability, this is the last time I shall have an opportunity of offering you, collectively, advice. I hope in God you will not stand in need of it.—That you may set an example worthy to be imitated by those who are to come after you, is, believe me, the most anxious wish of my heart.
And now, my dear friends, I must bid you farewell. May the Almighty God bless and defend you from every evil: and, although it is likely that I shall soon be far removed from you, I beg you to believe that I shall often think of you, and offer my humble but sincere prayer to Heaven for your prosperity here, and your happiness hereafter.
After the reading of the address, I waited on the Lieutenant Governor with a number of the women whom he had selected as servants for his own family, and at my particular recommendation also for his friends: this gave me the gratification of seeing thirty-six of them comfortably provided with situations, and the remainder, making in all the number of fifty, in a fair way of being soon disposed of to their advantage. On this as well as on every other occasion I was deeply impressed with the urbanity of the Lieutenant Governor, and his uncommon attention to the most minute circumstance connected with the comforts of the prisoners, reconciling them to their situation, and urging them to honest and industrious pursuits. In the several interviews I had with His Honour, I could not but observe that quickness of intelligence, and soundness of understanding, which contribute so much to the happiness and prosperity of the infant colony over which he so advantageously presides, and to whose interests he appears so deeply devoted.
About 2 P. M. Mr. Humphrey came on board and examined Mrs. Josephson, a free passenger to Sydney, who had heard the denunciation of the sailors to take away my life; when her deposition was taken accordingly.
2nd.—The last night, like the former, passed in tranquillity, the sailors having made no further attempt:—this my constant watching in the prison every night affords me personally the best opportunity of knowing. The early hours this forenoon were given to necessary preparations for the removal of the women ashore, agreeably to an arrangement previously made: in order to prevent the prisoners from meeting any interruption, or conversing with improper characters, on the way, they were removed in small parties under proper guard of His Honour’s confidential officers: by this careful proceeding they were all safely landed about three in the afternoon.