John Newton to Richard Johnson

Posted on May 13, 2010 
Filed under History, Resources

John Newton to Richard Johnson (first Chaplain to New South Wales):

“I have not been disheartened by your apparent want of success. I have been told that skillful gardeners will undertake to sow and raise a salad for dinner in the short time while the meat is roasting. But no gardener can raise oaks with such expedition.

You are sent to New Holland, not to sow salad seeds, but to plant acorns; and your labour will not be lost, though the first appearances may be very small, and the progress very slow. You are, I trust, planting for the next Century.

I have a good hope that your oaks will one day spring up and flourish, and produce other acorns, which, in due time, will take root, and spread among the islands and nations in the Southern Ocean.”

– Craig Schwarze, who is researching Richard Johnson, posted this on his website. There’s another great quote from John Newton here.

(Photo © Marylynn Rouse / The John Newton Project, used with permission.)