Church Missionary House April 5/20 Dear Brother Hall— We wrote you on the 3d of August by the Dromedary, and have now received your Letter of July 19th and your Journal from Feb 25th to July 9/19. The favourable termination of your voyage to New South Wales, demands our grateful acknowledgments of the care and goodness of God, so graciously manifested toward you. The conduct of Captain Lamb on the Voyage, was so improper in itself, and such a breach of his engagements with the Society, the Committee having paid him liberally for the passage and accommodation of yourself and companions, that you could not have suppressed the statement of the particulars of it, contained in your Journal, without a breach of duty to the Society. It was the more incumbent on you to give us those details which more particularly relate to Capt Lamb’s behaviour to Mr. Butler, as you might have presumed what proves to be the fact that Mr Butler would, from a commendable feeling on his part, omit the mention of them in his own Journal. We dwell on this point, to shew you the importance of your recording every material circumstance respecting the Mission which comes within your knowledge, so that it be done with fidelity, impartiality, and charity. The kind and paternal manner in which you watched over Tooi and Teeterree, and laboured to promote their best interests, has been peculiarly gratifying to the Committee. May the God of all grace give you, at length, to witness their passion of the salvation of the [f] Gospel, in all its happy effects! A continuance of that patience, forbearance, and kindness, combined with unceasing prayer to God for his blessing on your endeavours for their good is the only method of dealing with them that affords any probability of success. We are glad to have again to express to you the approbation of the Committee of your efforts to instruct the Convicts in the knowledge of God and of Christ. Go forward, acting on the same principles, and in the same spirit, and we do not doubt but that, “through the tender mercy of our God,” you will, “in due season:, see your labours crowned with such a measure of success, as will evidence the faithfulness of Jehovah’s promise, and the efficacy of His grace to subdue the rebellious heart of Man to the obedience of Christ: and, though the scene be now greatly changed around you, the end is the same; and the same, substantially, the means for its attainment— Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Stand fast, then, in the Lord— neither terrified by dangers, nor discouraged by unbelief; but “casting all your care on Him, for He careth for you.” The Committee approves of your having presented your copy of Milner’s Church History to Dr reid, for the kindness of his medical attention to our friends on the Voyage, and will replace it by another for yourself. Though the Committee would have you ever cultivate a spirit of meekness and forbearance toward all men, yet your firmness and faithfulness, in the conversations which you had with Capt. Lamb relative to his conduct, were, they conceive, consistent with this spirit, and called for and justified by the circumstances of the case. The regularity and fulness of your Journal has afforded us much satisfaction; and we trust that it will be continued in the same manner, and transmitted home at every favourable opportunity. Praying that you may be enabled to walk closely with God, and find His blessing resting on your labours, We are ever, Dear Sir, Your affectionate friends (signed) Josiah Pratt Edwd Bickersteth