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.
His principles are settled, not so much because that is required
for the happiness of a good conscience, but because the old serpent
has crammed the ways of man with so many deceits in this world of vanity
and vexation of spirit, that a heart of the honesty of George Black,
cannot possibly have any sympathy with the crooked ways of rogues
and vagabonds; and so he is afflicted at their number and audacity,
especially in this Colony. His disposition of mind makes him enthusiastic
for the virtuous, his benevolent heart prevents him from proceeding
to extremities with the vicious. Hence the Diggers' Advocate, of which
he was the editor, though conducted with ability, failed, because he thought
that gold-diggers interested themselves with true religion, as laid down
in Saint James' Catholic Epistle; but he made a greater mistake in not taking
into consideration that men, though digging for gold, do still pretend