At the end of the month of June, 1838, the brig Fanny, from Hobart Town, bound to Western Australia, was wrecked on the sandy beach to the east of the mouth of the River Murray.

At that time the number of inhabitants of South Australia did not much exceed six thousand, and to supply the spiritual wants of such a population we had two ministers of religion, viz., the Rev. C. B. Howard (Episcopalian) and the Rev. T. Q. Stow (Congregational), who were, as I have shown in a previous chapter, eminently qualified to fulfil the sacred duties they had undertaken, and highly valued by their congregations. These two good men did not confine themselves to narrow sectional action in the performance of their vocations.

At that time the Wesleyan Methodists had only a small staff of class-leaders and local preachers, appointed at a small meeting of members, so that with the rapid increase of population from the frequent arrivals of shiploads of passengers, assisted emigrants, and well-to-do settlers, there was ample room for additional authorised clerical workers.

One more worker in God's vine-yard was, however, unexpectedly provided. The Rev. Mr. Longbottom and his family being dispatched by the authorities of the Wesleyan body in Tasmania to fill a post in Western Australia, on his way there, on board the Fanny, was landed on our southern coast by the wreck of that vessel, and so placed by an act of Providence, over-riding man's designs, to work in a field of usefulness in our province. He and his family, with the crew, were most mercifully saved from the raging billows, and on the wild beach were kindly received and succoured by the untamed blacks, on or within a short distance of the spot where, as I have described in the previous chapter, the passengers and captain of the Maria were subsequently slaughtered. As no whites survived from the Maria to give any account which might explain the cause of the different conduct of the natives towards them, it must remain a mystery to all time.

It has been communicated to me that in the case of the Fanny the Rev. Mr. Longbottom and the captain exercised to the last a sufficient influence — not only on the natives, but also on the sailors — to restrain them in their conduct. But in the other case, as the body of the captain of the Maria was found far away from the larger number of the remains of the slaughtered passengers, and the crew were neither found alive or dead, and so evidently had separated themselves, I think it may be fairly conjectured that the latter had come into collision with some section of the tribe, and that these natives had afterwards followed, and in their rage wreaked their vengeance on the larger and helpless party, and on the captain. At any rate it is manifest that a special Providence was extended to shield and protect Mr. L. and family, and with them the captain and crew of the Fanny.

I will now give Captain Gill's statement, as published in the Register of September 8th, 1838, in which he gives a report of the accident, and a pleasing description of the means by which he safely conveyed his saved passengers and crew across the outer channel of the Murray, and delivered them at the whaling station at Encounter Bay, and his flattering opinion of the natives, as he found them and their actions so marvellously different to their subsequent conduct. Captain Gill-relates : —

" The Fanny left Van Dieman's Land on the 9th June, 1838, and when off Kangaroo Island, on the 16th, encountered a succession of heavy gales from W.S.W., which drove her to leeward. On the 21st the gale increased and the squalls with rain became more violent. About half-past 1 a.m. the sea broke on board in all directions. We had now shoaled in about four hours from 30 to 7 fathoms water, and all attempts to sail were ineffectual. Every sea threw the vessel's head round off; sometimes she was above water, and at other times it may be said she was below water. When the soundings decreased to 3½ fathoms the lead was laid in.

" Now a heavy breaker hove her into the trough of the sea, and we were up to our waists in water. She now struck the ground forward, the following sea made a passage over her fore and aft, and we were up to our necks in water. I ascended the forerigging, and for the first time saw land, which appeared a low dark ridge. As soon as the vessel was broadside on, which was shortly after striking, I endeavored to swim ashore with the end of the lead line but it being too short, I was obliged to slip and swim ashore clear, though not until the line had drawn me two or three times under water.

" In a few minutes two of the men came on shore with a line, when by that I returned to the ship, and conveyed through the surf the little boy, son of our passenger. Mrs. Longbottom was unfortunately put over the side the very moment I told the people to hold on, and so was some time under water, from which we were able to recover her, but not until she was greatly exhausted. [And she had in that state to be conveyed through the surf.] In about half-an-hour all hands were on shore.

" This would he about sundown, and the only shelter which the shipwrecked people had was such as the sandhills afforded, and there they had to pass their miserable first night on shore, at this the coldest part of the year, in their saturated garments, without fire or food."

Captain Gill's narrative continues:—

" On the following morning, at daybreak, we returned to the vessel, and got on shore such of our clothing and provisions as were at hand. Shortly afterwards the gale freshened, and the surf beat over the vessel with increased violence. In surveying the coast around us I was much surprised to observe an expanse of water inland; a series of lagoons extended east and west as far as the eye could reach, separated from the sea by a sort of peninsula about three-quarters of a mile in breadth, the lagoons appearing from three to four miles across, and, as far as I could judge, about six feet deep.

" In the course of the morning we were visited by nine natives, who brought us a firestick, and showed us their fresh water holes, and were every way well disposed during our stay amongst them, which was about seven weeks, and showed us the greatest friendship. They were decidedly the most inoffensive race I ever met with."

After the failure of several attempts to reach the whaling station at Encounter Bay, they were joined by Captain Tyndal, master of the Elizabeth, who had been wrecked in Rivoli Bay, over 50 miles to the eastward, and who walked overland with part of his crew to Adelaide and reported the two wrecks as having occurred. The dingy which Capt. Gill had recovered, after being repaired and lengthened about six feet, was launched upon the lagoons (i.e., the Coorong). In this boat, with two men, Captain Gill sailed westward to the sea entrance of Lake Alexandrina (or the Murray Mouth). Here they were joined by four men who had walked along the sea beach. They all crossed the estuary in the boat, and arrived at the fishery. Capt. Gill's account goes on to say:—

" My object was now to procure a whale-boat to bring up from the wreck Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom and child, whom we had left behind, with three men. I did not wish to risk them in the small boat, which was leaky, and then the passage was unknown to me. On these accounts I deemed it desirable that they should remain behind until a better boat could be procured, and the nature of the passage could be ascertained. After considerable trouble I succeeded in getting a whaleboat, and prepared to start with three men, including a native, whom I found very useful.

" In the meantime I dispatched the small boat back with two men to inform Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom of our success, and to instruct them to be in readiness for their departure. I must now remark that the passage we had crossed was the same where Sir John Jeffcott and Captain Blenkinsop, with part of their boat's crew, were lost from the swamping of their boat in attempting to go out last year. The information I received about this estuary was that there was a long succession of long rollers that never failed to roll heavily, even after a continuance of easterly weather ; that they had a perpendicular fall of five or six feet; that several sealers and whalers, all good boatmen, had made several ineffectual attempts to get in; that one gentleman had waited three weeks off the entrance with a cutter of about 20 tons endeavoring to effect an entrance, but failed; that the current was always running out, and other reports equally absurd and vague.

" In our most recent and best charts we are informed that the passage from Lake Alexandrina to Encounter Bay is impracticable even for boats. I now give the result of my own observation and experience.' [When this report was published Mr. Pullen had not passed in and out. He entered in a whale boat on the 26th of September, 1840.]

" The first time I crossed this passage was during a fresh gale from the eastward, and the flood tide was running in strong, perhaps at the rate of three knots an hour. After leaving our luggage I returned to the eastern side, and brought over the remainder of our small party of men, the boat being too small to venture with all in one trip. On this second trip in the small boat we experienced a squall, with hail and rain, which so darkened the air that although the distance is only half a mile, for about 20 minutes we could not see the land, and those on shore could not . see the boat."

Captain Gill having procured a whale-boat determined to proceed along the coast to be nearer the sea mouth, and then by the use of a pair of bullocks, which he procured from Mr. Harper at the Bay, proceeded to drag the boat over the sandhills, and launch it into the western outlet (i.e., into the Goolwa). After encountering many difficulties in attempting to track the boat he at last succeeded.

The party now proceeded along miles east of the estuary he met the little boat, with Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom and son, and two of the crew. Captain Gill continues:—

" The little dingy was dispatched back to the camping place, and I returned with the passengers across the estuary, and put up for a day or two at the native huts, where we had spent the preceding night. In the morning sailed to the estuary, and found the wind and tide both strong out, and it was therefore necessary to wait until low water slack, which enabled me to survey the harbor's mouth from the high eastern head.

" About mid-day, being low water, we sailed out under a close-reefed sail, the wind being N.N.W., and there was not a single breaker in the channel, nor did I perceive any bar. The lead I had made for the purpose of sounding proved to be too light to be depended on with the boat's rapid sailing. Although our boat was considerably lumbered, she did not ship a spoonful of water. It would have been to me wonderful if I had not succeeded in getting out with ease and safety."

Yes, it may be added, under such favorable and providential circumstances as have been seldom experienced in the same passage. To Captain Gill belongs the credit of being the first man who either sailed or rowed safely through the Murray Mouth in any kind of craft.

It is hardly necessary to record that the shipwrecked passengers and crew were kindly and hospitably received by the small number of settlers then resident at Encounter Bay or in the neighborhood, the larger part being whalers. A vessel from Sydney, (the Lady Wellington, Captain Tyndal, which had met with adverse weather, and after much knocking about did not reach her destination, Port Adelaide, until she had expended eight weeks and two days on the passage) had called in at the Bay after visiting sundry ports of refuge on her way.

In this ship the Rev. Mr. Longbottom and his family obtained a passage to Adelaide, and on this short sea trip further accidents might not have been anticipated, but they were again called on to suffer inconvenience, as Captain Tyndal on endeavoring to cross the outer bar at Port Adelaide entrance stuck fast, and there had to discharge his passengers and goods, as the ship's back was broken.

Amongst the passengers was Mr. Emanuel Solomon and members of his family, to whom the greater part of the cargo belonged. Mr. Solomon had arrived to establish a house of business in connection with his brother, Mr. V. Solomon, of Sydney. Of this, one of our first mercantile establishments, and of Mr. Emanuel Solomon, I shall in a future number have matters to relate, as forming part of our public experiences. Mr. E. Solomon remained to the last a determined supporter of the young colony he had joined, and lived long enough among us to witness the high position we have attained by the untiring energy exercised by him and other old colonists sticking to their adopted land through good and evil report, adversity and prosperity, as thorough colonists.

The broken-backed Lady Wellington was got off the bar and floated up the stream and anchored below the old Port. The Rev. Mr. Longbottom was received in Adelaide with enthusiasm by the inhabitants; he was, with his family, hospitably accommodated by Mr. E. Stephens, the manager of the South Australian Bank, in his small wooden residence on the first camping ground, now occupied by the Railway Station, until a temporary residence could be provided. Subscriptions were raised to replace some of Mr. L.'s losses, but his library and papers could not be restored to him.

The small number of the Church to which he belonged gladly availed themselves of his services, and looked upon his arrival as a godsend. He arrived among them about the 1st September, 1838. On the 25th May, the previous year, a meeting had been held in the house of Mr. S. Stephens, as per minute-book, at which a society was formed called the Wesleyan Methodist Society. Fifteen persons gave in their names (a small beginning this); two class leaders were appointed, and two local preachers received on trial for three months. On September 31st a local preacher was appointed — not one of those who had officiated on trial, but still one of the original 15, of whom eight were men. Out of these, including the Secretary, six officers were appointed. Services were first performed in a small reed hut on the banks of the Torrens ; afterwards the kitchen of Mr. E. Stephens was used. In March, 1838, the foundation-stone of a substantial chapel was laid in Hindley-street.

"Since May, 1837, the church had increased to 6 local preachers, 7 class-leaders, 50 members, and about 100 school children." [Officers still out of proportion to members.] "They did not cease to pray that God would send them a good shepherd ; of this, however, there seemed little or no likelihood.

" The history of churches, as well as of individuals, will often furnish illustrations of the truth that God accomplishes His designs by unlikely means. While the infant Church in Adelaide was praying that a minister might be sent to them, and when they saw no likelihood of their desires being granted, a series of circumstances were transpiring which resulted in the settlement of a minister among them, and that, too, in a manner remarkable and unexpected."

I continue to make extracts from the life of the Rev. D. F. Draper : —

" No one will be surprised to learn that the Wesleyan Methodists of Adelaide regarded the accident which landed the Rev. Mr. Longbottom as a special providence, as it has been before pronounced in this chapter - saved as they were from the raging sea, the hearts of savage blacks softened to receive and succour the distressed people, on or within a short distance of the ensanguined spot where at a subsequent period the most shocking murders took place, as it must have been by part of the same tribe, if not by some of the same wild and benighted natives."

Such was the beginning of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in this colony, and from such a small start, and the difficulties through which the members have struggled, and with zeal worked to a time when they can with commendable pride point to their imposing buildings, not only in the city, but through-out the whole colony ; which buildings, churches, schools, and College are fully attended, and should form a great power to aid to dispel ignorance and vice, and to exhibit to the Christian world a population where peace and harmony prevail amongst all those who call themselves Christians, under whatever denomination, and it is to be hoped to help greatly to bring about the promised day, when will be forgotten all those distinctive names which in fact have arisen and are kept up by the present weakness and selfishness of human nature. I hope in future numbers to give our happy experiences of the doings of other denominations in the order in which they came to the front. (To be continued.)

[See also : https://www.campbelltown.sa.gov.au/library/collections-and-resources/local-history-room/localhistoryarticles/local-history-articles-stories-and-events/its-an-ill-wind ]