File 1: Hassall family, correspondence, volume 2, pp. 1-297, 1794-ca. 1823

59 was evidently a great change in his conduct manner & conversation for the better & one night giving out after he had left my room I heard him praying in the [indecipherable] personal manner although I could not get near enough to distinguish the words in how his days were happy = his evenings were profitably spent his slumbers sweet - but also how generally does the Great Enemy of souls endeavour to marr our happiness - how does he seize every opportunity to blast our goodname & ruin our [indecipherable] paper of bliss - A Servant Girl said on the pretention of great friendship to him that His mistress had said if they [indecipherable] could have been transported to think [indecipherable] in the warmth of his tempers he made a reply which eventually was carried by the girl to his mistress who without a calm investigation on both sides actually turned him out of doors - Here he laid about the street for some time

60 until. His master sent him to mind a Vessel that was lying in the harbour. Well do I remember the conversation I had with him on that trying occasion & how much I fell for him as a little outcast in a strange & distant land. He had no relations no kind father no tender Mother - No Brothers or Sister to sooth his sorrow. his friends for he had some could not offer him a [employment?] because he was an apprentice - On board the Vessel however he found more leisure for reading & writing which he had just begun the only thing he now regretted in the change was his being prevented from attending the house of God as usual. His troubles did not however cease with his change of situation So true is it that man is [indecipherable] I one day found him weeping bitterly on the wharf

Parramatta Nov 13th [indecipherable] My dear Madam - It is with pleasure I take up my pen to acknowledge the receipt of your two last letters, & the parcel received by the Atlas; for which, I return you my sincere thanks; the things were exceedingly useful, but consider them as the strongest proof I am not forgot by so good a woman. I rejoice that Mr & Mrs Johnston reached England in safety & had a happy meeting with their friends - am glad to find from Mrs Kent that Mrs Johnson has recovered his health so well, & trust before this, they are settled comfortably & to their wishes. I daily regret the loss of Mrs Johnson's society from this country; so much so, that I have not visited Sydney cut once since she left it; & that was to wean my little girl Elizbaeth. Our society of married ladies increases we have now twenty. There never were so many at a time since the Colony was established. I wish I could say we increased in divine things but we still continue in the same depraved state as ever. You who have in many privileges can have no idea of our situation.

You have no doubt heard what an affliction we have been visited with in the melancholy death of one dear little boy - We were going to the farm - a servant was driving him & me in a single horse chaise. Mr Marsden was on horseback; when a man twenty yards from our own house carelessly run a wheelbarrow directly under the wheel of the chaise, & overturned it; & my dear child never stirred more. (I received no hurt myself tho I was but two months of my time.) I am conscious this was a happy translation, yet dear Madam picture to yourself my feelings: to have him in health & spirits, & the next moment to behold him in the [indecipherable] arms of death - I was wonderfully supported & one consolation which as the world cannot give neither take away. He who is faithful has promised, when thou [indecipherable] thro the waters I will be with thee, & thro the [indecipherable] they shall not overflow thee. God is a refuge & strength, a very present help

62 in time of need. This is the first time I have taken up my pen to write to England since I lost him - tho it is now fifteen months; I am afraid & am very sinful. [indecipherable] think could I know his little thought he would approve one for wishing him back in this troublesome world, but his [indecipherable] has stirred one up to be more earnest in divine things, & tho he cannot come to me I may meet him in that place, where sin & sorrow & sighing are for ever done away. I have still one little girl & boy with me. My youngest John is a little [indecipherable] of a twelvemonth old - & this letter will be delivered by [indecipherable] - the surgeons wife, that left England a little after us, who I believe you [indecipherable] - I was very much disappointed in your letter that you did not mention in wha t part of the world Mr. Edward was - if he is with you beg my kind respects to him. Mrs [indecipherable] arrived safe here. They reside at Sydney & the Governor gave him a superintendants' place soon after their arrival, so that I seldom see her - Mr Marsden joins me with best respects to Mr Stokes & family, let one entreat to be remembered in your prayers, and Believe me yours with respect (signed) Eliza Marsden

63 & upon enquiry learned that his master had beaten him very severely with a Boats rib because he had laughed at the apparent disappointments of a man who spilled some wine & when he asked for a glass the [indecipherable] was told to drink what he had spilled. He had no intention whatever of offending his master & it is a lamentable trait in a man character when he allows the injuries supposed or real of others to cause him to vent his anger upon unoffending servants. This I have too frequently observed with deep regret - but to proceed the little fellow told me that he thought nobody in the [indecipherable] had ever suffered so much & so unjustly - how his mistress heard what he had to say he thought she would never have turned him out of doors & how his master but have known how he strove to do what was right he never would have beaten him so soundly. To comfort him I related how much more Joseph had