The return of the Sabbath was unattended in the country with a religious welcome. Many employed their time in hunting: the more scrupulous in visits, and the profane in labor or intemperance. A gentleman, now distinguished among the wesleyans, was found by his neighbour ploughing by the road side on Sunday morning: both himself and his men had forgotten the day. Yet at the houses of all, a minister of religion, of any name, met a cheerful entertainment and a willing audience. Whether that the presence of an intelligent stranger is itself a grateful interruption to rural solitude, or that the miseries resulting from sin were too apparent for dispute, the utility of religion was never openly questioned; and it is certain, that few people were less inclined to reject the instructions, or to affront the ministers of religion. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 121: _Collins_, vol. i. p. 498.] [Footnote 122: _Life of John Mason Good._] [Footnote 123: _Holt_, vol. ii. p. 97.] [Footnote 124: _Bigge's Report_, p. 104.] [Footnote 125: _Works_, vol. ii. p. 44.] [Footnote 126: _Reid's Voyages_, p. 312.] [Footnote 127: He is thus described by a companion, in the _Hermit in Van Diemen's Land_: "The good old gentleman at length warmed with the subject, and said in an under tone--'You must come and see Bob at the cottage. Yeoix, yeoix: tantivy, tantivy;' to which friendly invitation I immediately assented."] [Footnote 128: The following is a discourse delivered by Captain Nairn, and by its constant repetition was impressed upon the memory of the relator. Captain Nairn would stand and thus address the prisoners on a Sunday morning:--"Now, my men, listen to me. I want you all to get on. I was once a poor man like you; but I used to work perseveringly, and do things diligently and as such got taken notice of, until I became a captain of the 46th. Now, I want you to work perseveringly; do things diligently, and that will make you comfortable; and I will assist you, that you may have houses for yourselves, and rise up to be equal to me." It may be questioned if many sermons of greater pretensions, have not been less humane and effectual; and this was often the sole substitute for public worship.] [Footnote 129: These statements are taken from the official papers of the mission.] [Footnote 130: The Rev. Mr. Mansfield continued until 1825. Under his care the institutions peculiar to the wesleyans were fully established: their _love feasts_, in which they relate the rise and progress of their religious experience; their _watch nights_, when they wait in silent prayer for the first moment of the new year; their _covenant_, in which standing up together they pledge themselves to the service of the Almighty.] [Footnote 131: _Godwin's Guide to Van Diemen's Land._] [Footnote 132: _Bigge's Report._] [Footnote 133: Ibid.] [Footnote 134: _Gazette_, February, 1819.] [Footnote 135: Eye-witness.]