Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, who paid the exiles a religious visit at Flinders Island, were not indifferent to some exhibition of good feeling among them. Going to see them at their Sunday exercises, they said, "There was something peculiarly moving in seeing nearly all the remaining Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, now a mere handful of people, seated on the ground listening with much attention to the truths of the Gospel." Mr. Walker, many years ago, gave me a narrative of what he, with all the caution of a Quaker, regarded as a genuine conversion there.
Father Clark, as that beloved friend was called by bis aboriginal disciples, often spoke to me of his "dear black fellows," and their heartfelt reception of truths which their intellects failed to comprehend. It is now seven-and-twenty years ago since he related, with freely-flowing tears, some stories of his success, the particulars of which have passed from my remembrance. In talking of the mission, he did not find fault with schemes: he would not say, as the Rev. John Williams did of the Australian efforts, "The means used were not, perhaps, well adapted, and not followed up with sufficient energy:" but he admitted the ordinary want of power in the Native mind to understand the mysteries of religion, and their disinclination to inquire. Yet, while he acknowledged this, he said that whenever he spoke simply, and with undisguised emotion, of the love of God, he found willing auditors, and sometimes tearful sympathisers. When he appealed to the affection of their own natures, he observed no want of interest. "And if," said the worthy man, "so few died joyfully blessing their God, are they singular in that respect? Do we find so many of our own people in the colony departing in lively hope?"
In a letter I received from Oyster Cove just twenty years ago, Mr. Clark again referred to his work, and said:—
"Several have given testimony, in their own simple manner, that they knew for what purpose the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. One of the last persons who died before we left Flinders, and one who for more than two years had been correct and well-behaved, was in the habit of praying regularly; and, when suffering from disease, which kept him awake at night, spent three nights in prayer when dying, and conscious he was so. His last words were, 'Lord Jesus Christ, come, and take me
