Many, however, are dissatisfied with this type of worship, partly because they cannot hear and understand everyone, and partly because they consider it unsuitable to the present circumstances. Of course, the dissenters
(6) who are so judgmental, and we have enough of the most colorful colors on board, are Presbytherians
(7), Methodists
(8), Baptists
(9), Herrnhuthers
(10), and so on.
Among the Methodists, right at the beginning, some men wanted to prove to me sans façon [informally] that the doctrine of the Trinity was completely false, that the Son and the Holy One Spirit are lower than the Father, and so only the Father is the true God. A reference to several passages in the Gospel of John and in particular to the last verse in the first letter of John did not satisfy him, but nevertheless appeased him, along with my explanation that I could not argue with someone who claimed to be a Christian about such a completely un-Christian subject; Since then he has left me quite content.
June 4th, 1838.
As already mentioned, we arrived in Plymouth today; We hadn't seen land for several days, so it was all the more surprising today to be greeted by the green, steep banks of Plymouth as soon as we got out of bed. Because of the unfavorable wind we had difficulty [getting] into the harbor, but after one or a few unsuccessful attempts we succeeded. As soon as the anchor
( 007 ) was dropped, some came on board, one of them bringing us letters from [George Fife] Angas
(11), one for us, and a letter of receipt to a gentleman in Adelaide. After he apologizes in our letter for not saying goodbye to us in London, he gives us the following six hints
1) For the time being, he had opened an account for us in the Adelheid bank; for future support he wanted to wait for instructions from Dresden, [and] recommended that we be thrifty, which was unnecessary.
2) The governor, who welcomed us so kindly, would certainly be happy to give us his advice when we arrived, and Messrs. McLaren(12) and Howe(13) would do the same.
3) In his opinion, our first work should be to familiarize ourselves with the natives of Adelheid, their language, their customs, etc. to make known, to establish a school, to make excuses with such natives as deserved our trust; in this way we would make our way to a settlement at the confluence of the Murray and Darling as the most suitable place. This advice regarding the branch office does not appear to be free from commercial speculation. The Germans would provide us with essential assistance; Praise of Williams' work.
4) Support for our work from the government official called protector of the indigenous people.