that I was a subject of, and personally acquainted with, their brother Moravian, Mr. La Trobe, our Superintendent.  I found other La Trobes there, his relatives or namesakes.  Several of the body spoke good English, and so I got fairly on with the peasantry, explaining as to the class entitled to the assistance in emigrating, and that to vinedressers only would the aid apply, so as to enable the Messrs. Godeffroy to give them a free passage.  I left them with the understanding that they would make up a party and communicate with Delius.

About six months later I went again to Hamburg, this time to see the first party away.  They were in a good deal of trouble, for most of them, in spite of all advice, had clung to old family lumber, things mostly quite unsuited to Australia, and the carriage-cost of which drained their narrow means at every stage.  But, worst of all, the cholera was then raging in Hamburg, and it attacked several of the party during some few days, while they waited, under such shelter as they could improvise, until the ship could take them.  Delius and I visited them, to cheer them with the near prospect of the sunshine and plenty of Australia.

A rather motley crew was this first German party landed at Melbourne.  I fear they were not all vinedressers.  But the difficulty was to get them to describe themselves as such, even when they were so.  This was almost as hard upon them as for an Indian Brahmin to write himself down a low-caste Hindoo.  Upon any pretence they would class themselves as of some trade, and one, who doubtless expected great things from it, entered himself, to the serious damage of our case, as “Doctor of Philosophy.”  There was considerable difficulty and delay in getting the grant.  Mr. La Trobe helped us as much as he conscientiously could.  Of course, the said doctor had to be excluded, and others with him.  But eventually a substantial sum was handed to the shippers, sufficient to encourage them to continue the business.

Several expeditions, larger or smaller, followed.  I have no record of their total.  One of their great delights was the superabundance of fresh beef and mutton.  Our ever-active colonist, Dr. Thomson, of Geelong, who took great interest in Germans, invited a party of them, just arrived, to Geelong, where he gave them a supper upon the grass around his pretty residence, killing and roasting a large fat sheep, and serving out chops, and all the rest of it, ad libitum.  One man was noticed to have eaten a couple of pounds’ weight right off, and no doubt he felt, in consequence, like the boy in “Punch”, just as though his jacket were buttoned.  My late esteemed friend, Mr. Otto Neuhauss, himself one of the emigrating throng, although not of the very first party, gave me, from his complete mastery of English, most material help in managing their affairs.  I had afterwards the pleasant duty of recommending him to our first Colonial Secretary, Captain Lonsdale, for a Justiceship of the Peace, to the great satisfaction and convenience of his co-emigrant countrymen.  I am under much like obligation also to Mr. Brahe, who long acted, and I hope still acts, as a solicitor amongst the Germans.