hand he greatly improved the comfort of the captured, and secured the approval of his chief. In a despatch home on April 6th, 1833, Colonel Arthur thus acknowledges the work:—
"The benevolent exertions of Ensign Darling of the 63d Regiment have accomplished more than I could have anticipated, in happily conciliating the poor creatures entrusted to his charge, and in developing many excellent qualities in their character, for which few persons are willing to give them credit. He has engaged in the duties which his appointment as Commandant rendered incumbent upon him, with an ardour bordering on enthusiasm, but tempered with much judgment and discretion."
It was during the period of his excellent government that the two Quaker missionaries, Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, paid their interesting visit to the island. We have in their narrative no exhibition of Rousseau sentimentality for savages, or Quixotic, whining philanthropy, but the genuine display of simple, fervid, Christian feeling, and matter-of-fact, practical benevolence. They were certainly disposed to look upon the aboriginal side of the picture; but, by the very expression of their sympathy, they got a readier access to the hearts of the Natives, and a clearer conception of their habits and condition.
They found the settlement removed from the Lagoons, a dozen miles farther, to a spot called Civilization Point, or Wybalenna, the Black Man's House, and formerly known to the sealers as Pea Jacket Point. There were twenty cottages for the Blacks; but eleven were tenantless. They were of wattle and plastered clay, well whitewashed, with roofs of coarse grass thatch. They were extended in the form of a crescent, and placed about a quarter of a mile from the encampment of the Whites. There were there forty-seven male adults, forty-eight female adults, seven boys, four girls, one male little one, and four female children under five years. They were not only protected from sealers, but from a worse foe—Strong Drink.
In their published narrative of their religious visit to the Cape Colony, Mauritius, and the Australian colonies, the excellent "Friends" give us a humorous account of a tea-party on the island, which affords us an insight into the moral and elevating designs of the officer. The surveyor, Mr, Woodward, assured me that every Sunday Mr. Darling and the doctor would invite some of the Natives to dine with them. On this particular
