Lestra Branch Camden County N.S. Wales July 27 1857 Dear Brother There was a company of 69 of the Saints left Sydney on the 27 of June last since that time there has been a little more spirit of inquiring about the doctrine, I left Sydney on the 14 & again to visit the different Branches of the Church through the country to get up another company to start from here on the first of December most the Saints appear to be revived to a Spirit of their duty and to geather to Zion, This is a hard country to travel in as this is an uncommon wet season. The country is subject to (?) from extreme wet weather and thiss day I have traveled over twelve hundred miles through the interior fo the county in the wet seasons the country is flooded so it is almost imposible to travel the soil is of a sandy Clay that on the roads the Drays will mire down on the highest ground so that it stops the travel most entirely the country is very rough and Covered with scanty timber most generally not fit for sawing nor building purposes. The soil is generally vary thin and poor and vary hard to clear off in the dry seasons the water is vary scarce and Crackish the Cattle dies off for want of water and grass. There has been great fires destroying Large portions of timber & farms and a great many Cattle Sheep and Horses burnd Sometimes men that could not get out of the way of the fire The country gets so dry and the weather so hot that the ground becomes hot the heat arising in the air that the wind becomes hot that man and beast cannot scarcely live and a great many becomes over hot and struck with the sun till they parrish There is but vary few Rivers in the country and the water is generally bad There is but vary little Natural fruit in the country is not of good quality The animals are of any inferiar kind not valuable for any kinds of use neither for their skins nor for food The natives eat the Oposum & Kangaroo The snakes are of a vary poisenous the bite most always fatal Flies are vary numerous and the bite or sting vary poisenous and some times causes deaths The native Birds are of an inferior kind to eat although vary fine plumage The native Blacks are of a vary low and degraded race of people they have no regular form of Government nor religious worship their tradition is tumble down black and get up white man they are a Canibal race eating one another and white people when they have the oportunity no prospect of civelizing them as yet. Since this country was discovered it was first settled by convicts from the English provinces there has been a great deal of Labor performed here by the prisioners under took whatever on public roads and on public Buildings and some few men has made themselves rich by the Labor of prisioners The cruelty that has been heaped on them by the tyrany of their masters by whipping them on the roads and other places unto death and sometimes killing them most no notice taken of it till it appears that the country was under a curse and still remains so as every species of living things are of the most savage and poisonous nature even to the native Blacks and it appears as though the present settlers partook of the same nature till hundreds of men have been destroyed by the oppression of the Government. The Government does not yet hold out any inducement to the poor settlers as they have given out the Land in the settled portions of the Country to the favored few and they lease it out to settlers to clear and improve farms for the use of the land for 5 or 6 years then to pay high rents fro 8 to 20 shillings per acre people that are raised in america has not any knowledge of hard times nor tyrany and oppression. The Slaves in America are not in any worse Slavery and bondage than poor in this country. The majority of the country people live in bark Houses about the same as the Potawatome Indians and it is all they can do to raise a neaff to pay rents and to live on and poorly. So then the Saints in Utah does not know how to apprise the blessings of Freedom that they are enjoying There is but very few enterprising men in the country They all do their work in the hardest day. I have never seen a saw mill nor but one Thresoring Mill that was moved by water and that was a poor one The people generally thrash theirs & beat with (?) Flails with the exceptions of a few small thrashers The working class are generally opposed to have machinery introduced into the country They don’t want any thing but what they have been raised to. It is the same in regards to their religion. Talk to them in regards to their religion one will say ‘I have been raised a Roman Catholic and an others will say I have been raised a Protestant and so on in the different religions ask what is their doctrine ‘I don’t know I have to pay so much a year to help support our Preacher and have to abstain from meats on certain days which is not vary hard to do. Another will they have pray so often and take their children and have them Christened and so on. Ask if they believe in the Bible ‘yes of course but read a Chapter to them ‘is that mormonism in that looks reasonable. I will ask our minister a bout it he must know for my Father put his trust in the church and our Preacher ought to know. He will tell them these men are a Preaching a strange doctrine and there is to be false Prophets and false teachers and will deceive the vary elect if it were possible The Mormons understands the scriptures and you must not talk to them nor go to hear them preach for you are in capable of investigating their doctrine We know they Preach the scriptures and they prove their doctrine by the Bible but it is a dangerous doctrine to believe the Bible as it reads but we must follow the established practice of our preachers and spiritueling the Bible and pay no attention to Mormainism not Bible doctrine For our Fathers died in the faith of the old way and our Grand Fathers and our Great Grand Fathers and mothers and they was good meaning folks and we have been raised in the in the same Church and it is a sin to go and hear any thing else or at least under any other name consequently their strong ground against to keep no mormonisim is to keep the people from comeing meeting to hear us Preach although some will take our tracts and Books and Read them and some will Burn them. we intend to do our duty in Preaching The gospel wheather the people serves the Lord or not We are generally treated well amongsst all classes exept the very religious Clergy we have been blest with means so that we have always been suplied It appears like a long time to stay away from the Land where the rightious rules for where the wicked rule the people mourn There is a great Flood in this part of the country at the present time. Fruit grapes peaches pairs Apricots Oranges Lemon in this part of the Country Apels also in the colder parts further N. Pine Aples and the different Tropical Fruits grow but in no part is a sure crop the wet season spoiled the most of the grapes this season. The Country is not surveyd in any register form The streets in some of the Towns look like they were built on a cow trail being in no regular Form Times are harder here now then what they was when we first come here as what they was a year or two ago when the galor fiels were flourishing and they still are a getting worse wages are a getting vary low we understand from a letter from Br Parrish, Chesley & Johnson that they and Tanner Phelps are cawled home also that Br Kelley an Crandal of started home some time in April last Br Kelting wrote that he was a going to start home in August Br Thadus Fleming was at Victoria the Last account but we have not herd from him for a long time Br Z Snow is at S. Australia in his last letter to us he wrote that Br Whitlock was a going to start home in a Few days Br Wall and Br Dawdle went home in the Last company Br was released from the miss- ion on account of bad healgth Br Clark and Said are now in the mainland District Br Chaffin is in Sydney Br Petter is now traveling with me in the Camdan and Penerith District The Brethren are generally in good Spirits and are a living their Religion I want you to remember me to my family and Friends Your Brother in the Gospel of Christ Andrew J. Stewart July 27 1857 A. J. Stewart to Geo. A. Smith