bark trees, and charred them to the top. The fire had also burnt into the butts of some of them, and had loosened them, and in some instances, brought them down. The young man repeatedly pointed to these trees, which were a hundred and fifty feet high, and some of them nearly thirty feet in circumference, and said, "You see, sir, we cannot tell but at any hour of the day or night, one of these great trees may fall upon us, and crush us; but we are prisoners, sent here to work, and cannot help it:" he did not complain of this as an undue hardship, but spoke of it as giving a sense of the necessity of being prepared for death. He told me that he had slighted the counsel of his father, but said "Now I begin to think of what my father used to say to me." Sometimes his emotion almost choked his utterance. I encouraged him to cherish these feelings, and to be willing to understand his errors; to attend to the convictions of the Holy Spirit, by which he was given to see his unfitness to die, assuring him, that if he kept under this holy influence, he would be led to repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus, by which he would know his sin to be blotted out, and ability to be given, to walk in holiness before the Lord.
Our meetings for worship at Hobart Town, were often favoured with a solemn sense of divine influence, bowing our hearts before the Lord; and sometimes raising a vocal testimony to his goodness, both from ourselves and from pious persons who were casually present. The number who regularly met, became a little augmented. Among these were two persons from England, members of the Society of Friends; one of whom had been several years in the Colony. A man also became one of our congregation, who had had his education among Friends, but had committed a crime for which he was transported when young, and who in his old age had been stirred up to seek the Lord in earnest. With these we had a conference, on the subject of continuing to assemble regularly for worship when we were absent from the town; and they being desirous to do so, a room in a private house was hired for the purpose, as they united with us in the judgment, that they were not in a state to open a
