One of Johnson's stoutest opponents, along with John Ash, was Thomas Nairne of St. Helena. According to his own account, Nairne drew up and introduced into the assembly the addresses of thanks to the Queen and the House of Lords for the repeal of the obnoxious Conformity and Church Acts, and so laid himself open 'to the hatred of the Governor.'34 Nairne had already aligned himself with Dr. Edward Marston, whom Johnson denounced as 'the pest of the country,' in an attack, in 1705, upon a clerical protege of the governor, the Reverend Samuel Thomas. This clergyman had been sent out to Carolina in 1702 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in response to the appeal of Nairne and Robert Stevens for a missionary to the Yamasee. Thomas reported on his arrival that those Indians, at war with Florida, were 'not at leasure to attend to instruction, nor is it safe,' he added, 'to venture among them.' His prudence was rewarded by the governor, who appointed him to the pleasant cure of Goose Creek, where he convinced himself that efforts to convert the negro slaves were as laudable as hazardous missionary labors in the 'Indian Land.' But Nairne and Stevens excoriated him for abandoning his charge. For over a century, Nairne recalled, the Spanish Indians now in Carolina had had Christian churches among them. 'Now if we take not care equal of their Salvation as the Spaniards always have done, what a good fight have wee been fighting to bring so many people from something of Christianity to downright Barbarity and heathenism.' But Nairne's interest in Indian missions was not altogether the product of piety. He also saw the usefulness of having among the Indians persons not interested in trade to protect them from injustice and to send the government intelligence of Indian affairs.