Watson's Instructions
Class Mark C. N/L2 (1829-36), pp. 147-152
Instructions of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society to the Revered Wm Watson and Mrs Watson, on their proceeding to New South Wales on a Mission to the Aborigines of New Holland, delivered October the 7th 1831
The Committee addresses you Mr and Mrs Watson, with a paternal solicitude, excited by the circumstances of the Mission on which you are about to enter. His Majesty’s Government, desiring it may be presumed, in some degree to reprieve the wrongs inflicted by the Settlers on the Aborigines of New Holland, as well as impressed with the duty of a Christian nation to promote the spiritual welfare of its subject and to confer on them the temporal blessings which have ever followed in the train of Christianity, has invited the co-operation of the Society in this benevolent work. The peculiar difficulties with which it is surrounded arising from the wrongs and injuries inflicted on the Natives by the Settlers, and from the depth of degradation into which the Aborigines are sunk, have been already brought under your notice They will never, we conceive, be fully realised by you in all their extent till you have been an eye-witness of them. As a debtor to preach the Gospel among these barbarians, we would not have you shrink from the contemplation of the difficulties which beset your path. Though confessedly great - probably beyond theses encountered by Missionaries in almost any other part of the world - they are not insurmountable; and it is your high office to carry with you those weapons of heavenly temper which are “mighty through God to the pulling down these strong holds.” Nor will you overlook the fact that
whatever obstacles to the exercise of divine truth have been raised among the Aborigines of New Holland by the circumstances to which we have adverted, the greatest of all barriers is not peculiar to the people, however degraded, but is common to the Inhabitants of every country - that man, civilized or savage, wherever he may be, or under whatever circumstances he may be found, is universally a fallen, sinful being, under the dominion of the “carnal mind” which is “enmity against God.”
It is, however, our privilege to know that the Gospel which you are commissioned to preach is the appointed remedy for all the sin and misery in which man is involved. “Preach” said the Mahihandon Indian, who had experience the power of the Gospel.” Preach to the heathen Christ and his blood, His sufferings, and His death, if you would have you words to gain entrance among them.” We cannot doubt, dear Brother, that you will thus preach - that you will proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorious Person, in the completeness of His work, in the fullness of His grace; not can we doubt that, thus preaching, your labour shall not be in vain. It may be given to you only to sow the seed, and reserved to another to gather in the harvest; God will, however, be glorifies thereby, and in the great day of Christ “he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together”.
The Committee would also affectionately entreat you to take heed to yourself as well as to your doctrine, and to make it our habitual aim to exhibit the Gospel not only in word, but in deed and in truth; not only to preach “Jesus Christ & Him crucified”
but “to adore the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” It is a subject of unfeigned thanksgiving to God when the Minister can appeal to those among whom he has laboured: “ye are informed [?] and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblamedly we behaved ourselves among you”: let the kindness, and love, and gentleness of Christ appear in your deportment, and they will speak powerfully and affectionately to the hearts and consciousness of all men. Your acquaintance with the art of Medicine, Mr Watson, will furnish you with a ready means of access to the affections of the Native, and you will gladly use this attainment for the advancement of their spiritual welfare and for the glory of your Lord and Saviour.
In the execution of the Solemn trust committed to you, you will probably find it advisable to itinerate among the Natives, and after having for a time resided at one place to remove to another. This, however, will be left to your own discretion, the Committee trusting that in all things you will look up to our Great Master and Head for that wisdom which is profitable to direct.
Among the subordinate means of attaining the object of your Mission, you will lose no opportunity of acquainting yourself with the language of the New Hollanders, of reducing it to writing, and of forming a Grammar, Vocabularies, and other Elementary Books, keeping in mind at the same time , the translation of the Word of God into their tongue, as an object of paramount importance.
In connection with the preaching of the Gospel you will
not overlook its intimate bearing on the moral habits of a people. one effect arising from its introduction into a country is the “beating of the sword into a plough-share and the spear into a pruning hook.” Seek then to apply it to the common occupations of life: conduct the Natives in husbandry; in the erection of houses and in the useful arts of life; and, instead of waiting to civilize before you instruct them in the truths of the Gospel, or to convert them before you aim at the improvement of their temporal condition, let the two objects be pursued simultaneously.
The Committee are unable, from the peculiar circumstances in which you will be placed, to assign you a fixed Salary. Till they are furnished with such data as will enable them to ascertain what will be requisite for the support of yourself and those dependent on you, they confidently rely on your exercising a judicious economy in the whole of your expenses.
The Outfit with which you have been supplied included such articles as appeared necessary for you on entering on a Mission of the peculiar nature of that in which you are about to be engaged. Should any thing additional be found requisite when you arrive in N.S. Wales, you will have the kindness to communicate with the Corrg Committee of the Society in that Colony, on the subject, who will be requested to provide any thing further that may be found necessary for the advantageous carrying on of the Mission.
From want of exact local information the committee can not point out the spot where it may be desirable for you to com-
mence your labours. They are of opinion, however, that it will be advisable to look forward to fixing your Station beyond the boundaries of the Colony, in order to place yourselves at a distance from those evils which have been generated by the Settlers, and to which a reference has been already made.
It is possible that in the first instance you may find it best to fix your homes in one of the frontier settlements, and in company with y our fellow-labourer the Revd John Christian Simon Handt, to make a journey into the interior in order to acquaint yourselves with the situation and number of the different Tribes of the Aborigines, and acquire that accurate information on various points which will be found absolutely necessary to enable you to locate yourselves among the Natives and to prosecute your mission in the most advantageous manner.
In respect to the final decision on the future scene of your labours, and to the amount of your stipend, the Committee refer you to the judgment of the Corrg Comee in New South Wales whom you are to regard as the representatives of the Home Committee, and to whose instruction you will consider it your duty to conform.
The Committee will close their Instructions by briefly reminding you of the temptations peculiarly incident to the work in which you are about to engage. At a distance from the restraints of civilized life; far off from Christian ordinances and without Christian society, excepting that off your
fellow labourer Mr Handt, you will probably find yourselves tried in a way which you have never before experienced. to support you and carry you through these trials, you will need strong faith, and the continual supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. But though far off from comfort [?], He who has sent you forth has given you the encouraging declaration “I am with you”. May the absence of the streams lead you to the fountain-head; may you realise your blessed Master’s presence, be cheered by the manifestations of His love, and be strengthened for His service!
It is the wish of the Committee that Mr Handt should consider these Instructions to be adduced to him equally as to yourself.
And now dear Brother and Sister we commend you to the care of our convenant God. May He be your keeper and your shade on your right hand. May he fill you with His Holy Ghost; and having employed you as the instrument of proclaiming His salvation to perishing sinners, may He at length receive you into the enjoyment of His presence in eternal glory!
By order of the Committee,
Church Missy House
Salisbury Sqr October 7/31