Parramatta New Sth Wales July 5th 1819 Rev & dear Sir Through the tender mercy of our God and Saviour I have to announce to you, our safe arrival in New South Wales, on Saturday June 26th, all in good health. We can in the fullest sense, take up the language of Holy Scripture, and say, surely goodness & mercy hath followed us all the days of our life. But more especially at this present time; we are led to contemplate the loving kindness of the Lord; His great goodness; His merciful protection of us, His unworthy servants, throughout a long Voyage. Through many dangers, perils, toils, storms, & tempests, we have already come, but the Lord of Hosts, who holdeth the waters in the hollow of his hand, & the winds in his fist, hath ever been with us, the God of Jacob hath been our refuge. To Him we made our supplications, He heard our prayers, He sent his mercy and truth, to be our comfort and support in the hour of danger, and in the time of distress, and in his own good time, he hath brought us in safety to our desired Port, and to the house of our beloved and sincere friend Mr Marsden, under whose roof we enjoy every temporal, and spiritual comfort, and consolation. Our bodily strength hath been greatly renewed and invigorated. [f] And, by his timely counsel, his warm and animated advise, his tender and sympathetic exhortations, our spiritual strength hath been renewed, and our souls comforted. May the Lord return into his own bosom, and that of his family an hundred fold, may the Lord be unto him and His family as the dew unto Israel, and pour upon them the continual dew of His blessing. During our Voyage we had much to bear, and forbear. Things which called forth al the faith and patience we could muster, but I trust they had this good effect upon our hearts, that they drove us to a Throne of grace, to seek wisdom and strength from above, to guide and support us under every trial and temptation, against the artifices of man and the malice and wiles of the devil. But we were made to know and feel that the offence of the Cross of Xt hath not ceased and that whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution in one way or other. Wicked and unreasonable men are ever endeavouring to supplant the feet of God’s children, and continually watching for their fall. It is their delight, to sew discord among brethren, saying Ah! So would we have it. But blessed be His Holy Name, those who have endeavoured to trouble and purplex [sic] us have not been able to obtain their desires. The weapons which they have used to sever; have been the very means of strengthening the cords of our love one toward another and uniting us in stronger bonds of affection. I am persuaded it will be a matter of great comfort and joy to you, to know, that whatever troubles we may have endured [f] from outward things; we have had peace and harmony within, among ourselves, the Lord has been with us and blessed us. We have had Divine Service on Sundays regularly in Mr Halls Cabin throughout the whole of our Voyage; we have had also a regular family worship & reading the Holy Scriptures morning and evening. These means of grace have been a source of the greatest comfort and consolation to us. Our blessed Lord has indeed manifested Himself to us, in a peculiar manner; and made us to rejoice in His mercy & goodness, when we have called upon His Hoy Name in one corner of the ship. In the School we established among the Convict, the Lord was among us there also and we have good reason to believe that our labours were not in vain in the Lord, many were brought to attend regularly on the reading of God’s word and we have good hope that the precious seed of divine truth hath been sown in the hearts of several of them: and we earnestly pray, it may be watered and nourished, by the Holy Spirit of Grace, until it bear fruit an hundred fold. We all had some little illness in the course of our passage, some more, some less than the others, but in bodily infirmity sister Kemp suffered the most, being poorly nearly the whole way, but I bless God she is much better at this time. But afflictions (like other things) have been made to work together for our good. [f] It is with great pleasure I state to you that our Stores we received and landed safe and with as little damage as could be expected. We are at this time busily employed in getting them into order, ready for reembarkation for New Zealand. There is an American Brigg lying in the Harbour at Sydney. Mr Marsden purposes to take her up for our passage to N. Zealand, as the Active is at Sea. If this is done we shall leave Parramatta in a fortnight for the place of our final destination. Since writing this letter, an order has been received for Mr Marsden to accompany us to N. Zealand Mr Marsden has also written to the Governor for permission to accompany us to New Zealand, I humbly hope this favour will be granted, as his presence and instruction, will be of the utmost importance to our Mission. We rejoice to hear that all our friends and their families are well in New Zealand, we long to be with them, and join in the great work of our Lord & our God. Dear Sir ever affectionately yours Jno Butler