After the landing of the few free settlers already mentioned, which took place while Captain Hunter was governor, the next arrival deserving of notice appears to have been about a dozen families of Scotch Presbyterians, who established themselves under similar conditions with the first emigrants, and whose place of abode was near Portland Head, on the banks of the Hawkesbury. These men seem to have been a quiet and orderly, as well as a prudent, set of people; and their industry was rewarded by success. The zeal and devotion which were exhibited by them in religious matters were also very praiseworthy, and not less so because, according to Captain Bligh, it was the only case of the kind he had ever heard of, during his government of the colony. A building for public worship was erected by them,[118] at a cost of upwards of 400_l._, and altogether the conduct of these Scotch emigrants reflected credit upon the country and religious body to which they belonged. But, while we award to these persons the praise which is their due, we are by no means entitled to place to the account of their being Presbyterians the good order and right feeling which they exhibited. Scotchmen are proverbially more fond of colonization than Englishmen, and hence it naturally occurred that almost the first respectable settlers were Scotch farmers; but there is no reason to question,--nay, experience has since proved,--that Englishmen of similar character, and placed in the like circumstances, can conduct themselves not less piously and properly, and will not yield to the disciples of John Calvin or John Knox in their reverence and devotion for a more apostolical Church than that of Scotland. However, it must be owned with sorrow that these instances of religious feeling and zeal were by no means common among the first settlers; nor is this a subject of surprise, when we recollect that, even now, Australia is frequently looked upon as a last refuge for those who can do well nowhere else; and if it be thought so now, much more must this impression have prevailed in the days of its earlier settlers. But, from whatever class, or with whatever failings, they might come, a few fresh settlers continued from year to year to find their way to the shores of New Holland; and, in due time, the tide of emigration was destined to set full into that quarter, carrying with it a portion of the population and wealth of the mother country, together with all its luxuries, its arts, its vices, and its virtues. [118] "The first religious edifice that was ever reared in the great Terra Australis, by _voluntary_ and _private_ exertion." See Lang's Narrative of the Settlement of the Scots' Church in New South Wales, p. 8. The Doctor, in his Presbyterian zeal, had forgotten Mr. Johnson's church.