[89] In 1792, a chaplain came out with the New South Wales Corps; and in 1794, Mr. Marsden, a second chaplain, arrived in the colony. If any person is desirous of seeing how easily the faults and failings of individuals may be turned into arguments against a church, he has only to refer to Ullathorne’s Reply to Burton, chap i. “The Dark Age.”
[90] See the authorities quoted by Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, p. 6. According to this author, the chaplain’s name was Johnston, not Johnson, as Collins spells it.
[91] See 2 Kings v. and 1 Kings xix. 18. See likewise, in proof of the good conduct of some convicts, Collins’ Account of New South Wales, p. 42.
[92] See the Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. 2, p. 107.
[93] The signal-colours were stolen within a year afterwards by some of the natives, who divided them among the canoes, and used them as coverings.
[94] According to Captain Tench, who is quoted by the Roman Catholic, Dr. Ullathorne, “Divine service was performed at Sydney only one Sunday in the month,” and “the Rev. Mr. Johnson was the best farmer in the country.” What truth there may be in these insinuations, or in the charge against Judge Burton of enlarging upon a Romish priest’s being a convict, while he disguises the same truth when it applied to an English clergyman, must be left to others better acquainted with the facts to determine. See Ullathorne’s Reply to Burton, p. 5.
[95] Things are now, happily, better ordered. “There are frequent instances of vessels arriving from England without having had a single death during the voyage” to Sydney.—Lang’s New South Wales, vol. i. p. 58.
[96] See [“Bennillong,”] in chap. vi. p. 151.
[97] Another instance of like folly is mentioned in Collins’ Account of New South Wales, p. 129.
[98] Religion, of course, concerns all equally, only the guilty and the wretched seem to be the last persons who can afford to reject its consolations, even in this world. However, the conduct of those in authority was pretty much on a par with that of the convicts, and it was only when one of the earlier governors was told of but five or six persons attending divine service, that “he determined to go to church himself, and stated that he expected his example would be followed by the people.” See Burton on Education and Religion in New South Wales, p. 7.