lf until 1838, when, for the benefit of her husband's
health, and that of her infant family, she left India for Australia,
the climate of which seemed likely to prove beneficial. At the end of
the year, she arrived in Sydney, where, besides attending to family
matters, there was plenty of scope for philanthropic exertion. Drawing
our information from a small work purporting to present a memoir of
Mrs Chisholm,[1] it appears that 'the first objects that came under
her notice, and were benefited by her benevolence, were a party of
Highland emigrants, who had been sent to the shores of a country where
the language spoken was to them strange and unknown, and without a
friend to assist or guide them in that path of honourable labour which
they desired. As a temporary means of relief, Mrs Chisholm lent them
money to purchase tools and wheelbarrows, whereby they might cut and
sell firewood to the inhabitants. The success of this experiment was
gratifying both to the bestower and receiver; in the one it revived
drooping hopes, the other it incited to larger enterprises of
humanity.'

In 1840, Captain Chisholm returned to his duties in India, leaving his
wife and family to remain some time longer in Sydney; and from this
period may be dated her extraordinary efforts for meliorating the
condition of poor female emigrants. What fell under her notice in
connection with these luckless individuals was truly appalling.
Huddled into a barrack on arrival; no trouble taken to put girls in
the way of earning an honest livelihood; moral pollution all around;
the government authorities and everybody else too busy to mind whether
emigration was rightly or wrongly conducted--there was evidently much
to be done. In January 1841, Mrs Chisholm wrote to Lady Gipps, the
wife of the governor, on the subject; tried to interest others; and
although with some doubts as to the result, all expressed themselves
interested. Much jealousy and prejudice, however, required to be
overcome. Bigotry was even brought into play. There might be some deep
sectarian scheme in the pretended efforts to serve these young and
unprotected females. We need hardly speak in the language of
detestation of this species of obstructiveness, which prevents
hundreds of valuable schemes of social melioration from being entered
into. Fortunately, Mrs Chisholm treated with scorn or indifference the
various means adopted to retard her benevolent operations. She
persevered until she