FL14365807

[Page 6]

[envelope]

To
The Missionary Brethren
at Otaheite or any Island
of the South Seas at which
Capt Blyth touches

[Bottom of ebvelope]

Dr Haweis to the [indecipherable  ]
Oct 31st 1797

[Letter]

London 3rd September 1799

Dear Brethren

A few days past we received the intelligence of your
removal from Otaheite to Port Jackson, and a deeper wound to our feelings could
scarcely be inflicted by any event whatever, it would not be easy to convey to you
a proper idea of the sorrow which it has excited in the breasts of the Religious
public throughout the Kingdom; and altho' the griefs of the Mind may in time
be healed by the aid of reflection and the principle, of submission to the holy and
Sovereign appointments of God, yet the extensive injury which the Missionary
Cause has Sustained, and the formidable impediments which this event  has placed
in the way of the Conversion of the heathen, are Circumstances which  will never
Cease to make a lively and painfull impression on the Minds of those to whom
the enlargement of our Redeemers Kingdom, is an object of transcendant
importance. Doubtless, Brethren, you feel with peculiar pungency the weight
of this calamity, and have frequently revolved, in your own Minds whether
you are entirely free from responsibility on this occasion, and whether you have
a witness within as well a Lord on high to bear testimony to your
faithfulness.  We have received no Letters or dispatches of any kind from your
own body - our only information comes from the Owner of the Ship Nautilus
to whom Capt. Bishop communicated the intelligence, but we stand in need
of a much more particular account of occurrences before we come to a decision.