This disgraceful occurrence, coupled with the firing of guns and pistols, kept
up the whole of the night, did not give us cheering hopes for the next day.
Chapter XXVI.
The Monster Meeting.
Bakery-hill, Wednesday, November 29th.
(Letter continued.)
"All the diggings round about were deserted, and swelled the meeting,
the greatest I ever witnessed in this Colony. At two o'clock there were
about ten thousand men present! The Report of the Deputation appointed
by the League to wait upon his Excellency, relative to the release
of the three prisoners, M`Intyre, Fletcher, and Yorkie, was listened to
with great anxiety."
George Black was the man of the day, and was received by the people
with three hearty cheers.
From his outward appearance, one would take him for a parson, a Christian one,
I mean; not a prebendary or a bishop. His English is elegant, and conscious
of having received an education, and being born a gentleman, he never
prostitutes his tongue to colonial phraseology. His reading must have been
sober from his youth, for in conversation he indulges in neither cant
nor romance; though, in addressing the people, he may use a touch
of declamation stronger than argument. From the paleness of his cheeks,
and the dryness of his lips, you might see that the spirit was indeed willing,
though the flesh was weak. The clearness of his eyes, the sharpness
of his nose, the liveliness of his forehead, lend to his countenance
a decided expression of his belief in the resurrection of life.
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