latter fact implied a long residence in the colony involving much experience of rough living and hard work, and, as they suppose, giving proof of a want of wealth and personal position,—crude ideas of which a counterpart may be often seen amongst so-called civilized persons, and which justify the correctness of the Benedictines' plan of keeping their pupils, as much as possible, within the recesses of the bush.
The Mission of New Norcia, from a beginning so small and beset with so much hardship, has now assumed the character of one of the most flourishing settlements in the colony of Western Australia, and is respected for its success, even by those who are least friendly to its religion. The village of native Christians which the monks hoped to establish, has now really sprung into existence, and the captain of the ship in which we returned to England, in 1869, told us that of the wool which composed his cargo none was better packed than that which came from New Norcia, which had been cleaned and put into bales by native hands.
According to the census for the year 1870 the native population of New Norcia consisted of eighteen male and sixteen female adults, many of whom are married and established in their own homes; and (of children) sixteen boys and ten girls under instruction at the Mission.
There is yet one story that I must tell, as it is too good to pass, of how Father Salvado drank tea in the bush with Billiagoro on occasion of their going out together to look for a new sheep-run. On the evening of a terribly hot day master and man, before camping for the night, started in different directions in search of water for the teapot,
