Polding, was absent in Rome with the object of impressing the needs of his vast diocese upon the Holy See, and it was not until the following year, 1843, on his return to Australia, that three Roman Catholic priests were dispatched to Perth. Subsequently, in 1845, the congregation of the "Propaganda" sent out a party of missionaries under Dr. Brady, an Irish bishop, for the purpose of converting the savages of Western Australia.
In addition to seven priests, who accompanied Dr. Brady, there sailed with him also a sub-deacon who was an English Benedictine, a French novice, one Italian, eight catechists, two laymen belonging to a religious order, and seven Irish Sisters of Mercy. Two of the priests, namely Rudesindo Salvado, the present episcopal resident in the bush, and his friend Giuseppe Serra, were Spanish Benedictine monks, who had, with some little difficulty, obtained permission to leave their monastery of La Cava, (situated in what was then called the kingdom of Naples,) in order to follow out the long-cherished wish of their hearts by becoming teachers of the heathen.
The party sailed from London in a ship called the 'Isabella,' and in the month of January, 1846, cast anchor off Fremantle in Gage's Roads. Here two landing-boats received the missionaries, which they had no sooner entered than the crew of the 'Isabella' shouted after them a hearty hip hip hurrah; and "we," says our historian, "replied in the same manner, for this hip ('questo hip') is, under such circumstances, a far more expressive and joyous manner of wishing good luck than the Italian viva." These farewells over, litanies were intoned until the shore was reached, when the whole party knelt upon
