Bay of Islands 21st Decr 1818
Revd and Dear Sir
	The Catherine being about to sail from the Bay, I must take my leave of you for this time, with my fervent prayers to Almighty God for his blessing upon the Society, and upon you and yours: and that he will enable you to carry on the duties of your distinguished situation, grant you health of body, peace of mind, and every needful spiritual and temporal blessing.
In contemplating the departure of the Catherine for England, I can with difficulty explain to you the crowd of sensations which pass through my mind. Time passes swift with me. [f] I have been now nearly six years absent from my Native Land. I have had but very few opportunities during the first two years of uniting in the Worship of God with a Christian Congregation and during the last four years my eyes have been constantly fixed on scenes of human depravity and woe, and my ears have listened to, and have partly been infected with the profane and obscene rubbish contained in heathen songs. The latter I am under the necessity of attending to. For it greatly assists me in learning the Language, by writing down the Themes of the Natives, and studying their true meaning. The study is painful, and like the Study of the Metamorphoses of Ovid tends to injure the mind. O how it would refresh me to enjoy a little repose— in a christian Land, to be [f] again united under a pious minister of the Gospel. But I must check these feelings. I trust I am in the Service of the Same Heavenly Master with you: that he will bless me still, as he has already done, and give me patience to wait his pleasure, and to submit to him in all things. It is not my own work I am called to. It is his own. I am a sinful, polluted, worm, but He will carry on his own work by whom and whenever he pleases. If he condescends to make use of my instrumentality I shall have reason to be thankful for ever. I pray that he will pardon what is mine and glorify himself in the Salvation of those whom in infinite compassion he has purposed to select out of a wicked world. The verse which you quoted when I spent the evening at your [f] house in company with my wife, and our departed Brother, the Revd Mr Goode, often occurs to my mind. 1 Sam[ue]l 23 cap 15v also 30 chap 6v.
I am Revd and Dear Sir
Your faithful Servt
Thos Kendall