l Missionaries for the field, and I
was commissioned to return home to Scotland in quest of them. Dr. Inglis
wrote, in vindication of this enterprise, to the friends whom he had
just left, "From first to last, Mr. Paton's mission here has been a
great success; and it has been followed up with such energy and
promptitude in Nova Scotia, both in regard to the Ship and the
Missionaries, that Mr. Paton's pledge to the Australian Churches has
been fully redeemed. The hand of the Lord has been very visible in the
whole movement from beginning to end, and we trust He has yet great
blessing in store for the long and deeply-degraded Islanders."

CHAPTER XLVI.
AUSTRALIAN INCIDENTS.

HERE let me turn aside from the current of Missionary toils, and record
a few wayside incidents that marked some of my wanderings to and fro in
connection with the Floating of the _Dayspring._ Traveling in the
Colonies in 1862-68 was vastly less developed than it is to-day; and a
few of my experiences then will, for many reasons, be not unwelcome to
most readers of this book. Besides, these incidents, one and all, will
be felt to have a vital connection with the main purpose of writing this
Autobiography, namely, to show that the Finger of God is as visible
still, to those who have eyes to see, as when the fire-cloud Pillar led
His People through the wilderness.

Twenty-six years ago, the roads of Australia, except those in and around
the principal towns, were mere tracks over unfenced plains and hills,
and on many of them packhorses only could be used in slushy weather.
During long journeys through the bush the traveler could find his road
only by following the deep notches, gashed by friendly precursors into
the larger trees, and all pointing in one direction. If he lost his way,
he had to struggle back to the last indented tree, and try to interpret
more correctly its pilgrim notch. Experienced bush-travelers seldom miss
the path; yet many others, losing the track, have wandered round and
round till they sank and died. For then it was easy to walk thirty to
forty miles, and see neither a person nor a house. The more intelligent
do sometimes guide their steps by sun, moon, and stars, or by glimpses
of mountain peaks or natural features on the far and high horizon, or by
the needle of the compass; but the perils are not illusory, and
occasionally the most experienced have miscalculated and perished.

An intelligent gentleman, a sheep farmer,