Samuel Ironside Diaries- 15 December 1840 - 21 December 1840

Last Modified: 27-9-2023 19:35

Part Two Mission in South Island

15 (December 1840) Praised be the name of the Lord we have been delivered from all our fears. I have crossed the bar in safety & am now on our voyage. Lord still bee with us!

21 (December 1840) "Bless the Lord O my soul & all that is within me bless his holy name. I am permitted once more to set foot on dry land. We came into CLOUDY BAY against a stiff breeze yesterday but well & safe.

NOTE By Eddis LINTON: In his articles written in his old age, Samuel Ironside wrote: "After about a week's fine weather we entered port Underwood and anchored off KAKAPO, GUARDS BAY, on December 20th 1840. We were expeditiously & unceremoniously landed on the beach & the Margaret pursued her voyage to port Nicholson. "The only shelter my dear wife & I could obtain on landing from the Margaret was an old disused native cooking place, built of rough slabs of timber, & roofed in with the same material. The slabs were not joined together, but were put up in Maori fashion, anyhow. You could thrust your hand between the slabs & see the stars here & there through the roof. There was neither chimney nor window in the building, nor flooring save that nature had provided. We remained in these NOTE: (continued)Undesirable quarters for two or three weeks, surrounded by some scores of whalers of nearby nearly all nations, English, French, Americans, Colonials - Some of them escapees from Botany Bay & Van Deigns Land, and some hundreds of Maoris. Of the two races the Maoris were on the whole, more desirable neighbours than the others.

Diary continues for 21 Dec. 1840:-

Oh may my coming be attended with great good to the people! There are more Europeans than I expected to find - some of them are respectable, all very desirous of religious instruction apparently. They talk already of subscribing for a chapel.

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Samuel Ironside Diaries- 15 December 1840 - 21 December 1840. (2023) Retrieved April, 18, 2024, from https://www.marlboroughonline.co.nz/marlborough/information/history/samuel-ironside-diaries-mission-in-the-south-island/samuel-ironside-i