George Brown: In his own words
The Early Years
and The Call
Ticket for the Prince Alfred, c. 1850.
Photo courtesy of XYZ.
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We left Auckland in the steamer Prince Alfred, on Tuesday, September 4, 1860, and had a quick (for those days) though stormy run to Sydney of five days and five hours. I had been reading the beautiful memoir of Richard Williams, one of the missionary heroes of Captain Allan GardinerŐs unfortunate mission to Tierra del Fuego, and had laid the book on one of the skylights. I saw a gentleman, Captain Cellum, take it up, and read a little, and then begin to speak about it to his wife. On my offering to lend him the book, he told me that he was chief officer of the Ocean Queen, the vessel which conveyed the party to Tierra del Fuego. He gave us a very interesting account of the mission band, and was specially loud in his praise of Dr. Williams. It will be remembered by those who have read the pathetic story of the death from starvation of every member of the party, how they went to those inhospitable regions with an utterly inadequate supply of provisions, depending for their subsistence on fish which they were not able to catch, and on birds which they had no ammunition to shoot. Captain Cellum asked me if there was any mention in the book of the loss of their powder, and was much distressed when I told him how fatal that loss had proved. He told me that when the Vessel arrived at San Francisco he was breaking out stores in one of the stern lockers, and to his surprise and dismay he discovered the powder which ought to have been sent ashore at Tierra del Fuego. I have always regarded the memoir of Richard Williams as one of the best books I have ever read, and have wondered how we, as Methodists, know so little of one of the holiest and most devoted missionaries that ever went to preach to the heathen. Dr. Williams was a medical man, who had established a most lucrative practice in England. He was local preacher and class-leader, and though he joined the Mission which was organised by a member of the Church of England, he remained an earnest and devoted member of our Church to the time of his death. His memoir ought to be in every Sunday School library.
