And now, in his twenty-ninth year, after all the unconscious preparation of his education, and the conscious preparation of two years, Coleridge Patteson began the definite work of his life.  Bishop Selwyn was to sail with him in the “Southern Cross,” making the voyage that had been intermitted during the expedition to England, introducing him to the Islands, and testing his adaptation to the work there.  The first point was, however, to be Sydney, with the hope of obtaining leave to use Norfolk Island as the headquarters of the Mission.  They meant to touch there, weather permitting, on their way northward.

Ascension Day was always Bishop Selwyn’s favourite time for starting, so that the charge might be ringing freshly in his ears and those of his companions, ’Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’

There was morning service and Holy Communion at the little College chapel on the 1st of May, Ascension Day of 1856; then the party went on board, but their first start was only to Coromandel Bay, in order that the Bishop might arrange a dispute with the Maoris, and they then returned to Auckland to take up Mrs. Selwyn.  The crew were five in number, and Mr. Leonard Harper, son of the future Bishop of Lyttelton, likewise accompanied them, and relieved Patteson of his onerous duties as steward.

The first adventure was such a storm as the little vessel had never yet encountered.  The journal-letter thus describes it:—­’On Saturday morning it began to blow from the north-east, and for the first time I experienced a circular gale or hurricane.  Mrs. Somerville, I think, somewhere describes the nature of them in her “Physical Geography.”  The wind veered and hauled about a point or two, but blew from the north-east with great force, till about seven P.M. we could do no more with it and had to lie to.  Ask old D. what that means, if you can’t understand my description of it.  The principle of it is to set two small sails, one fore and one aft, lash the rudder (wheel) amidships, make all snug, put on hatches, batten everything down, and trust to ride out the storm.  As the vessel falls away from the wind by the action of one sail, it is brought up to it again by the other-sail.  Thus her head is always kept to the wind, and she meets the seas, which if they caught her on the beam or the quarter would very likely send her down at once.  About midnight on Saturday the wind suddenly chopped round to W.S.W., so that we were near the focus of the gale; it blew harder and harder till we took down the one sail forward, as the ropes and spars were enough for the wind to act upon.  From 1 P.M. to 7 P.M. on Sunday it blew furiously.  The whole sea was one drift of foam, and the surface of the water beaten down almost flat by the excessive violence of the wind, which cut off the head of every wave as it strove to raise itself, and carried it in clouds