File 1: Rowland Hassall papers, 1797-1810

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

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Dr Haweis to the [indecipherable  ] Oct 31st 1797

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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.

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as to the propriety of the step you have taken. The solemn manner in which you were consecrated to this peculiar service, the great importance of the work itself , the sacred obligations into which you entered in the presence of the Most High God, and of the Church, would we hope be a pledge for your faithful adherence to your duty, and that nothing but the extremest peril and most imperious necessity would induce you to abandon a Station so solemnly Committed to your Care. Our paternal affection for you, and the favourable sentiments we entertained of your Zeal and devotedness , incline us to indulge every hope in favour of your faithfulness and as you, doubtless, went out in the expectation of meeting with difficulties, hardships and personal dangers, and professed to go with your lives in your hands. We trust it will not appear that your removal, was the effect of a sudden alarm, a feebleness of Mind, or a want of patience and perseverance in your Missionary Work.  But, however, favourably we may be disposed to hope concerning yet as considerable doubt prevails in the Minds of many on this subject. It appears by your having recovered the Boat of the Nautilus that your intercourse with the Natives and influence on them Continued to the last.  What Circumstances led to the ill treatment of the two Brethren, who were deputed to demand the honour we are unacquainted with, but as you well know the passions of the uncivilized heathen are hasty and impetuous

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and soon subside, and as they experienced the efficacious interposition of Pomarré on the occasion, you certainly would not consider this event alone as a justification of your removal.  the religious public, as well as ourselves, are extremely anxious to hear of the Brethren who we suppose were left behind, no intimation being given of their death. We conclude, therefore, they might previously have fixed their residence on some Contiguous island but if your flight from Otaheite was owing to a well grounded apprehension of your lives being endangered, you would no doubt recollect that the Circumstances of your removal would never expose them to increased danger, and we trust it will appear that you called on them wherever they were, informed them of their perilous situation and gave them the opportunity of accompanying you to a place of safety.  We hope, also, from the continuance of your desire to promote the conversion of the Heathen that you would if possible call at the Friendly Islands with a view to aid your Brethren there in their labours and that your fixing on a British Colony was the effect of necessity and not of choice.  We anxiously wait the arrival of your Journals that we may be able to assure the the religious public that you have discharged your duty, that you have been unwearied in your prudent exertions to conciliate the Heathens, that altho' your labour may not have succeeded with respect to the adults among them which could not indeed reasonably be expected

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that you have endeavoured to lead their attention to useful employments, and especially that you have been assiduous in the education and improvement of as many Children as possible as upon this circumstance we greatly depended for your eventual utility.

We hope, also, it will appear that the Missionary Sisters have discharged their duty to the female Natives, as we placed great reliance on their fidelity and formed considerable expectations of advantage from their intercourse with them.

We must, however, wait for satisfactory information hereon till we receive your dispatches and shall now proceed to Consider your present situation.

Capt Bishop's letter is dated the 10 Sept. from Port Jackson at which period we suppose you had been a Considerable time there as it appears the Nautilus sailed from Otaheite the 30 March. what reception you met with, or in what way you have been employed we are unacquainted. with, on these accounts, as well as because of the uncertainty we are in the as to the necessity of your relinquishing your former Stations, we find it difficult to enter upon this subject. Altho, Brethren, there is no legal or Compulsory Connection subsisting betwixt you & us. You being solely responsible for your own Conduct, and the Society in no respect accountable for your transactions. yet as you were so gratuitously and liberally supplied and at an immense expense to

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the religious public, with all the articles of your equipment, and as they have therefore so strong a demand both on your gratitude to them, and devotedness to the Heathen, we have no doubt you will pay a respectfull attention to what we may suggest in regard to your present Circumstances 

As we trust and sincerely hope Brethren that you preserve unabated the desire to be instrumental to promote the glory of God & the interests of his Kingdom. We express to you our ardent wish that you may find means of accomplishing this great duty without returning to your native Country. We have reason to believe that your example, your conversation and your influence in various ways may tend to promote our object in the Colony where we presume you are now placed,  On this subject you will doubtless pay especial regard to the experience and advice of the Revd M Johnson and Mr Marsden, whose Countenance and regard you will respectfully seek, very probably you may have the opportunity of being useful in the education of the Children of the Convicts, and among the Convicts themselves.  Long before this reaches you, the Hillsborough will most likely have delivered at the Colony the Convicts she took out, and we have the great satisfaction to inform you that thro' the blessing of God on the unwearied labours of Dr Van der Kemp  and his associates, sent out by the Missionary Society in this Vessel as far as the Cape, several of them appeared to receive those divine impressions on their Souls which will render your

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intercourse with them peculiarly seasonable and we hope abundant efficacious, thus it is possible divine providence may have provide you with a sphere of  usefulness  which you could in no respect anticipate, and in this or some other way demonstrate that he produces his own wise and gracious purposes by means of those events which in themselves appear to us disastrous.

We have endeavoured to obtain a favourable representation in your behalf from Mr Serle of the Transport Office to Governor Hunter & Governor King who accompanies this - Governor King is going out to Norfolk Island, and we see no reasons why this should not, furnish a station of considerable promise for Missionary work. By his patronage the introduction would be much facilitated the protection and influence of the British settlement may be of singular advantage in such an attempt.  We are therefore not without hopes, that the great Head of the Church in compassion to those benighted heathen who are placed in the vicinity of that Island has designed this your means to carry to them the light of his precious Gospel,  We cannot however at present enter more particularly into this subject, we think is probable that in a few months a vessel will sail with Convicts under the command of Mr Wm Wilson, and as we hope in the meantime to receive your dispatches we shall then be able to write you in a more particular manner. We shall therefore only further observe, that if unhappily you undertook this Missionary warfare without having counted the cost of a wearing of the work a feasibleness of dispositions an imprudent conduct among the Heathens or a pernicious desire to quit the Station appointed you  has induced you to avail yourself of this single occurrence

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to remove to a more favourable situation. We trust you will seek  that sincere repentance which so awful a state of Mind, and so deep and lasting an injury to the cause of Christ requires. Should the failure of this Mission be owing to yourselves, we need   not inform you that the friends of the Gospel here would by no means interfere further in your behalf nor by rendering you any assistance, reward your unfaithful Conduct and thus encourage  others to follow the same course but even in this case the principal responsibility may lay with a few, whose fatal influence over the rest may have succeeded in producing this dereliction of duty, and or embalmed them with subsequent lament. On their behalf we trust the compassionate High Priest will  interpose his powerful intercession the faithful Shepherd will reshareth our Souls or will call back these [indecipherable] into the path of righteousness, and strengthen them for future usefulness indeed.

Brethren we hope better things of you all, though we thus speak, we cherish the expectation that God has in his wise and gracious providence been pleased to change the situation of your labours with the design of your increasing useffulness, and if it appears that you quitted your former station from imperious necessity  and yet persevere in all its ardour the desire  to extend  the Kingdom of Christ among the heathen, we doubt not a great and effectual door will be opened to you, and in the faithful presentation of this work you have every reason to expect that your fellow Christians in this Country will regard you with the most tender sympathy bear you continually on their hearts in devout supplication

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and administer to you thro' our medium the assistance which the prosecution of your labours in this way may require ever therefore commend you to God who is able to keep you from falling, and admonish you that great temptations - difficulties and dangers must necessarily await you in this work. You did not enter into it in search of ease & competance but you embraced it in the contemplation of trials and the probability of Death - the Martyrs Cross as well as crown was placed before you, and you were taught that if you sealed your testimony with your blood, it would be the occasion of your everlasting triumph, which on the other hand unfaithfullness to the Work. accompanied with awkward prosperity which be of all calamity the most to be defended.

By order of the Directors

Thos Hawers Joseph Hardcastle John Eyre

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Society to Missionaries At Port Jackson Sept. 3. 1799

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London Sep. 3 .99.

My dear Madam,

Notwithstanding you will receive a letter from the Msy [Missionary] Society by this conveyance I cannot forbear in a private capacity dropping you a line and by the same means forward you for common use the magazines, by which you will learn what we have been doing since you left England. Before this reaches you the Hillsborough, who carried Dr Van der Kemp & brethren to the Cape, will have informed you of the re equipment of the Duff under Capt Robson,  and of her having sailed in company almost to  Madiera. But on just entering the Harbour of Rio Janiero she was captured by the French. In the Number of these Missionaries was my daughter Mary married & going to reside with her husband Mr. Vardy (at Otaheite) who had been attending to missionaries.

When the news of this disaster reached England it is not easy to conceive the afflictive impulse  it gave to the religious friends who flew to repair

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