Before Mr. Johnson's removal, the Rev. Samuel Marsden arrived: a man of great intellectual and physical energy, who while he accomplished much for his family, effected more as a clergyman. Mr. Marsden was a graduate of St. John's, when he received his appointment, which was pressed upon him. His mission excited great interest. He was about to address a large assembly at Hull, when the vessel fired a signal to weigh anchor: the service was suddenly stopped, and Mr. Marsden proceeded with his bride to the boat, followed by the whole congregation, who covered the young adventurers with benedictions. Mr. Marsden resided at Parramatta, where his agricultural success was conspicuous. Peron exclaimed--"The whole of this spot was covered with immense and useless forests. With what interest have I trodden over these new meadows, through the midst of which this respectable pastor conducted me himself with the most affectionate kindness. Who could have believed it! This residence is seven or eight miles from Parramatta, in the midst of woods; and it was over a very excellent road in a very elegant chaise that Mr. Marsden drove me. What exertions must have been taken to open such communications: these pastures, these fields, these harvests, these orchards, these flocks, are the work of eight years!" In his spiritual husbandry Mr. Marsden was not at first equally successful. He returned to England in 1808, and the colony was left for some time without any clerical instructor. The Rev. Mr. Fulton, a protestant clergyman of Waterford, transported for sedition, was stationed at Norfolk Island, and Father Harold, an exile, a catholic priest, had returned home. "There was," says Holt, "no clergyman to visit the sick, baptise the infant, or church the women. So we were reduced to the same state as the heathen natives who had none of these ceremonies." At this period, however, many missionaries, driven from Tahiti, took refuge at Port Jackson. Some were employed as preachers, and others as schoolmasters, and several rose to considerable station and wealth, while others resumed their mission under more favorable auspices. Mr. Marsden succeeded in arousing the attention of the ministry: additional clergymen were procured, and schools were established. The country-born children displayed an aptitude for instruction which kindled the most pleasing hopes. They exhibited a feeling, approaching to contempt, for the vices of the convicts, even when manifested in the persons of their parents.[124] "These feelings," said Sidney Smith, "convey to the mother country the first proof that the foundations of a mighty empire are laid."[125]